In a month, March 11, 2022 will mark the two year anniversary that COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Now, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds’s emergency proclamation of the virus expired just this Tuesday– February 15, 2022. 

“After two years, it’s no longer feasible or necessary. The flu and other infectious illnesses are part of our everyday lives and coronavirus can be managed similarly.” Reynolds reports, as quoted by KCCI 8 Des Moines News. 

For Johnston Community School District, many pandemic precautions were lifted much earlier compared to those of other schools. This was on the account of state legislative laws and the school board.  

Reflectively, an example is the religious exemptions of masks some Johnston students got early this school year. 

So with regard to the current circumstance of no mandated precautions, what does the end of the emergency proclamation mean for Johnston? And on a wider scale, the state of Iowa?

School nurse Kristin Sheldahl states dropping the emergency proclamation, “is a result of the numbers going down. And it’s a result of the governor’s feelings and politics, feeling we need to move on as a nation and state and open up. Throughout Polk county and the state our COVID numbers are on the decline, whereas before they were on the incline and very high … It won’t look any different particularly at Johnston High because we’ve been done with our mask mandate for quite some time,” but “… she (Reynolds) is looking at the numbers and has just been waiting to drop this emergency proclamation.”