Bexley lifts mask mandate, still required at schools

BEXLEY, Ohio (WCMH) — Bexley City Council voted Tuesday to lift its city-wide mask mandate starting immediately.

However, students and staff at Bexley City Schools are required to wear masks inside district buildings during school hours. Outside of school hours, though, is a different story.

After the city dropped its mandate, the school district released a statement saying masks will not be required during events or activities held on school grounds outside of school hours.

Businesses in the city can still require masks at their discretion. Businesses are also not allowed to force people to remove their masks, the city said in a statement.

“We have now seemingly passed the peak of the omicron variant and as case counts drop precipitously throughout our region, we sit below both hospitalization and case count rates as compared to September, 2021 when the mandate was initiated; children age 5-11 now have access to the vaccine who did not at that time; and the predominant omicron variant is less severe (albeit more infectious) than its delta counterpart,” Bexley Mayor Ben Kessler said in a statement.  “The time has come to release the mask mandate, and this is a thing to celebrate.”

The city will continue to offer KN-95 masks at city hall for any residents who want them.

Click here to read Kessler’s full statement.

The Bexley City School Board is scheduled to hold a special meeting March 1 when the district’s COVID-19 strategies will be discussed.

Bexley was among the Franklin County municipalities that met last week with Columbus Public Health and Franklin County Public Health to discuss the spread of the omicron COVID-19 variant. In addition to Bexley, the meeting included city leaders from Columbus, Whitehall, and Worthington, all of which continue to keep their mask mandates in place.

Cases of COVID-19 have fallen drastically in recent days, with Ohio recording fewer than 1,000 cases both Saturday and Sunday, the first time cases have been below 1,000 for two consecutive days since August 2021. On Tuesday, the state reported 1,369 new cases.