Concord Ledger

New Hampshire public health officials have released a new tool to help schools determine when mask mandates need to be implemented for students returning from summer break.

According to NBC Boston, New Hampshire does not have a "blanket mask mandate," and there are no plans for one to be implemented. The new mask matrix chart helps schools with the decision of when masks are needed, depending upon various statistics.

“Precautions, including masking, need to be taken, especially in congregate indoor settings like our schools, where most children are not able to receive the COVID-19 vaccination and are unprotected. The COVID-19 virus is airborne and spreads through the air very easily and quickly,” the New Hampshire Science & Public Health Tweeted Aug. 12.

According to WMUR, schools like Rochester's K-5 Maple Street Magnet School and Coe-Brown Northwood Academy are making masks optional for students. At Rochester's K-5 Maple Street Magnet School, students will continue to stay at least 3 feet apart as a precaution. Both schools said they are following the state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan's guidance to use community transmission rates to decide the masking policy, and masks are still required on buses.

Gov. Chris Sununu (R) stated in a press conference, "This can't be a government one-size-fits-all. Washington tried that. They stink at it," according to NBC Boston. The mask matrix is a way of determining the necessity of mask wearing based on the current rate of community transmission of COVID-19.

As of Aug. 30, every county in New Hampshire was "in the red," meaning that transmission of COVID-19 was a high risk nearly everywhere.