Shelbyville Central Schools students and staff will continue to wear masks during school hours and at all indoor extracurricular events until Dec. 31, 2021.

Shelby County’s largest school system announced the decision Thursday morning that a mask mandate in place through Oct. 31 will continue until the end of the year.

According to the announcement, prior to the mask mandate being put in place, an average of 576 students were not in school due to COVID-19 or close contact tracing.

Since the mask mandate, that average dropped to 96 students.

Per Major Health Partners’ latest incident command update, Indiana’s COVID positivity rate is 9.3% while Shelby County’s positivity rate is 9.9%.