Mask Update 3/7/22

Hello Students and parents,

The city of Durham has ended the indoor mask mandate from Monday 3/7/22.  This is the information they sent:

Post Date:02/28/2022

DURHAM, N.C. – The City and County of Durham will remove the indoor mask mandate, effective Monday, March 7, 2022, at 12:01 a.m. Durham Public Health Director Rod Jenkins announced at tonight’s Durham County Commissioners’ Board meeting.

Although the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website still shows Durham as a high transmission area, Durham officials say that the metrics, including the laboratory testing positivity rate, now at 4.8%, and in-patient bed count, currently at 134 across Durham healthcare facilities, are continuing to trend downward, falling within the CDC’s newly issued guideline of fewer than 200 in-patient hospital beds.

Therefore I will be ending the mandatory use of masks in my studio and waiting room for those parents and students who are comfortable not wearing a mask.  If a new variant arises or the local county transmission rate rises I may have to reinstate masks for everyone.

I am probably going to continue to wear my mask for a while and I hope that is OK.  I have a heart condition and I am 76 years old so I need to be cautious.  I will probably always wear my mask in shops and at appointments but after I see how things go for the next two weeks I am take my mask off.  (I have been very fortunate not to ever get covid when many of my colleagues and friends have had breakthrough infections.) 

Now the weather is so nice (mostly) everyone can sit unmasked out on the deck!

I think most of my older students are vaccinated.  If you or your students are not vaccinated can you let me know because in those lessons I would want to wear my mask. I am fully vaccinated including the booster.  

I really hope that covid is going to die down and we can start to live in our new normal.

Be safe, be healthy, and practice piano!