Last night, January 9, the Church Council voted to align our masking guidelines once again to the recommendation of the CDC. This means, due to the high level of community transmission in Washington County, masks are required at the church regardless of vaccination status.
We realize that this is a shift from the approach the council took just one month ago in our December meeting. At that time, cases were declining and we were getting near a medium level of community transmission for the county.
Since that council meeting, the Omicron Variant of COVID-19 has caused case numbers to rise dramatically and it seemed prudent to err on the side of caution out of respect for those that can’t wear masks or get vaccinated – our youngest children and immunocompromised individuals. We reviewed guidance from the CDC, UMC, The Arkansas Department of Health, and the Arkansas Conference of the UMC. After much discussion, the decision was made to re-align our masking policy to the CDC guidelines.
While the new variant has caused a huge increase in cases around the world, in the US, and in Washington County, Arkansas, projections are showing that the spike in cases may peak as early as mid-January or early February. Once new cases in our county fall to below 50 cases per 100,000 persons in a 7 day window, our masking policy would change automatically. We are currently at 1,258 cases per 100,000 persons.
Hopefully, we will only have to wear the masks for a few more weeks, just to get on the other side of this wave. If you haven’t already, please talk to your doctor about getting vaccinated. The UMC has resources (see here and here) that can help if you or your loved ones are hesitant to get the vaccine.
The church still plans to continue with Sunday School starting this upcoming Sunday, January 16, and with Wednesday Night programming starting on January 19. More details to come on those programs soon. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to the church council via email or our internal Facebook Group.