BSU, NTC Extending Mask Mandate Through End of Fall Semester

Bemidji State University and Northwest Technical College are extending an indoor mask mandate that was set to expire on Thursday, October 1 through the end of the fall semester.

According to a release on the BSU website, the extension of the mandate was due to COVID-19 transmission conditions in Beltrami County. The message says that current trends in the county make it unlikely that conditions that would allow the campuses to lift their mandates (having Beltrami County fall under CDC ratings as a Low- or Moderate-transmission county for 14 consecutive days) would occur this semester.

The release notes that per CDC ratings, Beltrami County was first elevated to High transmission status on Sunday, August 7, where it has remained since. High transmission status is defined as having 100 or more new cases per 100,000 population in the previous seven days, and on Friday, September 24, the county reached a new peak of 635.75 cases per 100,000 people for the previous week.

Projections show that November 17 is the earliest the county may drop to moderate or low spread. The schools would then need 14 days straight at that level, which would make December 1 the soonest the mandate could be lifted. There would be only five class days left in the semester at that point, so the decision was made to require masking for the remainder of the fall semester.

Previously, both colleges required masks on Monday, August 9, before the school year started, with the mandate ending on Tuesday, August 31. This was then extended through Friday, October 1 pending a drop in transmission rates, prior to today’s announcement of an extension to the end of the semester.