A state legislative committee voted Wednesday to approve an emergency statewide masking regulation taking effect in Maryland schools immediately.

After a hearing Wednesday morning, the General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive and Legislative Review voted 11-5 to approve a school masking regulation to last for 180 days starting Wednesday.

Last month, the Maryland State Board of Education released the metrics that school districts will have to meet in order to lift face mask mandates. The regulation requires the vaccination rate in a county or the city to be at least 80% in order to remove the mask mandate. That number would also apply to students and staff members in a particular school. It would then allow superintendents to lift face-covering mandates if the county has sustained 14 days of moderate or low transmission rates.