Indiana officials plan to send more masks to schools, businesses

Indiana officials are preparing to provide businesses and schools with additional supplies to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

On Wednesday, Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box announced that the state would be opening a portal for “critical infrastructure businesses” to request masks and hand sanitizer, and also would be shipping more supplies to schools.

The business portal will be open to the following industries: law enforcement, public safety, first responders, food and agriculture, water and wastewater, energy, transportation and logistics, public workers and infrastructure, communications and IT and community or government operations.

Box said 3 million masks are available for workers in these industries. The portal link can be found under the “public resources” tab at coronavirus.in.gov.

As for schools, the state plans to send more than a million masks for teachers, administrators and staff, plus an additional 600,000 masks for students in grades kindergarten through sixth. Hand sanitizer will also be available.

Box said the state will also send 120 rapid antigen tests to each school so teachers and students can quickly be tested and isolated, if necessary.

If a school doesn’t wish to use the tests, Box said, officials should send them to the local health department.

Also on Wednesday, the state loosened its quarantine guidance to schools. Effective Monday, quarantining and contact tracing is not required if individuals were at least three feet apart and wearing a mask while in the classroom.

The change does not apply outside of the classroom, though, so quarantining and contact tracing rules would still need to be followed in areas such as the cafeteria or during athletic events.

“Our goal throughout this pandemic has been to support our schools and protect our students, teachers and staff as they continue to navigate in-person education,” Box said. “We hope that these steps will help to decrease the distribution that COVID-19 continues to cause in our educational system.”