The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionmarked a major shift in the ongoing pandemic Feb. 25, announcing that it’s dropping its indoor mask recommendation in communities where hospitals aren’t being strained.
Under their new measures, that accounts for about 70% of the country, including most of Arizona’s counties.
The CDC is also dropping its universal masking recommendation for schools. But even before that change, school districts around Arizona began dropping their mask requirements as cases and hospitalizations from COVID-19 continue to decline.
But as all of this is going on, there is one group of people who still can’t get vaccinated against the virus: children under 5 years old. And though they’re unlikely to get very ill from COVID-19, Joanie Charnow says she’s doing everything she can to keep them safe.
Charnow is the preschool director at Beth El Early Childhood Center in Phoenix. The Show spoke with her to learn about how she’s handling the changing landscape of the pandemic and how her school dealt with it from the beginning.
