A student walks on the University of Nevada, Reno campus on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020.
Photo: David Calvert / The Nevada Independent
RENO — Hundreds of students and faculty at the University of Nevada, Reno are urging state education officials to reinstate the mask mandate on campus a day after Gov. Steve Sisolak rescinded the statewide requirement that masks be worn in public places to combat the spread of COVID-19.
More than 800 people had signed an online-petition that graduate students began circulating Friday as part of the plea for Nevada's System of Higher Education to restore the mandate on their campus.
KRNV-TV first reported about the petition on Friday.
Sisolak cited a steep decline in in coronavirus cases in Nevada since a statewide peak in mid-January in explaining his decision Thursday to drop the mask mandate. The governor said virus-related hospitalizations also have dropped off, and noted that two-thirds of Nevadans age 5 and older are vaccinated,
Nevertheless, the spread of the virus in Nevada remains far above federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thresholds for positivity and new cases per population of 100,000.
Some UNR professors and students point specifically to high levels of transmission in Reno and Washoe County, where the Truckee Meadows COVID-19 risk meter remains in the "very high" category. The president of the Nevada Faculty Alliance says repealing the mandate was a step backward.
