No statewide mask mandate in Connecticut, but schools must use face coverings
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday he has no plans yet to implement a statewide mask mandate, but does plan to keep in place the current requirement that face coverings be worn inside schools.
Lamont said keeping children and teachers safe remains a top priority with the school year set to begin in two weeks.
"I see some of the problems they are having in the southern states, where the kids are not wearing masks, where they're forced to quarantine, where teachers are getting ill and we're not going to let that happen, not in Connecticut," Lamont said during an unrelated news conference in New Haven.
Lamont's executive order requiring masks in schools is set to expire with the rest of his special executive powers Sept. 30.
But Martin Looney, the Democratic president pro tempore of the state Senate from New Haven, said lawmakers will meet next month to decide whether to extend those executive powers further, a move he said he would support.
"It could go, potentially, through the beginning of the session in February," Looney said. "But I think that decision will be made on the state of the pandemic at the time we come in."
Lamont said he's also planning to meet with union leaders who represent nursing home workers to discuss whether to extend the deadline for getting those workers vaccinated.
An executive order prevents nursing homes from employing anyone who has not received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Sept. 7. Nursing home owners found in violation of the order face fines of $20,000 a day.
Lamont said he prefers using incentives to mandates when it comes to convincing people to get vaccinated, but believes the effectiveness of concert ticket or cash giveaways may be waning.
"To get that next 10% vaccinated, I'm not sure incentives will be enough," he said.