Pali Charter High School reinstates mask mandate due to spike in COVID cases from spring break

Pali Charter High School reinstated its indoor mask mandate this week after seeing a spike in COVID-19 infections among students and staff after spring break.

The Pacific Palisades campus reinstated its indoor mask mandate Wednesday, but face coverings remain optional outdoors. The school said the reinstated mask mandate would be in effect until at least Friday, April 29, when officials will check the positivity rate again.

"… we surpassed the negotiated threshold for our Local-to-PCHS Positivity Rate of 0.5% (0.005) – which triggers PCHS going back to mandatory mask wearing indoors," the school's administrators wrote in an email to parents. "This is a threshold that PCHS's Administration and PCHS-UTLA worked out months ago, and we've unfortunately now exceeded 0.5% and are at 0.7% (0.007)."

Mask mandates have been falling across the region since a federal judge voided a national mandate for planes and public transit, saying the CDC had exceeded its authority. Since then, most domestic airlines and rideshare services have now deemed masks optional. However, LA Metro still requires them to be worn on its trains and buses.

The move to drop masks comes amid an uptick in COVID cases across the country. A Grand Princess cruise ship returned to Los Angeles Tuesday due to an outbreak on board, and California public health officials say the state's test positivity rate has jumped to 2.6%, after hovering under 2% for several weeks.

Pali High officials say that if the local-to-PCHS positivity rate continues to exceed 1.5% in a given week, the campus will return to masks being required at all times, both indoors and outdoors.

"We all hope this never becomes necessary, but wanted to remind you of this possibility," school officials said.