Local COVID numbers improving, superintendent hints at revisiting masking policy if trends continue

The Bemidji School Board’s monthly COVID-19 update appears to show slowly improving numbers.

Superintendent Tim Lutz said that student absences due to COVID are down to a third of what they had been a month ago, and minimal staff absences for COVID were reported in the last week.

County-wide, COVID numbers are slowly declining. Lutz said despite these encouraging signs at the moment, plenty of concern remains around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Around 42 percent of Bemidji students 12-18 are fully vaccinated, and about 12 percent of students 5-11 have gotten both shots.

Lutz said that as COVID cases decline and vaccination rates increase, the district may revisit moving the masking policy from a requirement to a recommendation.


Larissa Donovan is the News Director for the stations of Paul Bunyan Broadcasting and has been, almost without interruption, since Election Day 2016. She covers all the beats in north-central Minnesota, such as local government, crime, education, environment and social issues. She studied communications at Bemidji State University. You can follow along with Larissa's live tweets of meetings and events on Twitter!


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