Walking into school on March 7, 2022, felt vastly different from what it has felt like during the last two years. As multiple people mentioned, they felt as though they were naked, something was missing. And walking into classes that day and the next, students were welcomed by their teachers with a range of greetings from “omg I finally get to see your faces in person” to, “wow, this is weird, I don’t like this”. So while COVID numbers are still climbing on a day-to-day basis, masks have virtually disappeared from the Morristown-Beard community.

On March 7, 2022, Governor Murphy lifted the statewide mask mandate for schools. Our school, which has been closely following the recommendations of the New Jersey Department of Health, the CDC, and the Governors mandates, quickly complied. This adjustment in our school’s COVID protocols also called for masks to be optional on buses and as mentioned in a community newsletter from Mrs. Morrison, “Students and staff who have tested positive and are asymptomatic may return to school during days 6-10 of quarantine but are required to wear a mask in school.” Of course, this is due to the substantially lower number of people infected in the United States, but all policies are subject to change as the situation surrounding COVID changes as well. In the meantime, let’s take a look at what’s going on with COVID in the local community and in the world. 

As of April 10, 2022, the predominant variant of COVID being transmitted throughout communities is the omicron variant. However, there is another variant that is a bit less well known, and a subvariant of omicron, BA.2. The BA.2 has also been called “stealth omicron” as it has caused recent surges, particularly in areas where safety precautions have been relaxed. As mentioned in a past article, omicron and subsequently BA.2 cause less severe disease than the delta variant, but it’s still nothing to scoff at seeing as it is still hospitalizing people, primarily those unvaccinated, every day.