ROME TOWNSHIP — Fairland Local Schools announced Tuesday that they will begin requiring masks in school buildings, starting Wednesday, due to high levels of transmission of COVID-19 in the county.

The district was the last in Lawrence County to make the change since the school year began. Ironton City Schools required masks on the first day of school and other districts followed suit as the year progressed.

Like other districts, Fairland said they will be using the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Levels of Community Transmission as the basis for their mask policy, with masks required when the county is listed in the red, as is the case with Lawrence County this week.