In rural Carroll County, Maryland, about 30 miles west of Baltimore, nearly six percent of students in the school district have been quarantined because they either have coronavirus or been exposed to a case, the Baltimore Sun reports.
The Carroll County Public School system’s online dashboard shows 1,221 students absent from school because of coronavirus, some who have tested positive and others with close contact. There are more than 24,500 students in the district.
Carroll County refused to institute a mask mandate even while state education leaders put a mask recommendation in place prior to the start of the school year, the only county in the region to do so. The state’s general assembly enacted a school mask mandate last week.