Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said school mask mandates should remain in place even as governors of several Democratic-controlled states announce plans to eliminate mandates for schools.
Governors in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, and Oregon announced this week that indoor mask mandates, including schools, would end in the coming weeks — actions that Walensky said are premature and contrary to CDC guidance.
“We have and continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission — that is essentially everywhere in the country in public indoor settings,” Walensky said in an interview with Reuters.
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The CDC director said the agency’s guidance on indoor masking has not changed and that it will “continue to endorse universal masking in schools.”
Masking students in schools has been a major point of controversy nationwide, as parents have repeatedly pushed back against school districts for mandating students of all ages to wear them.
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Governors in Republican-controlled states have avoided mandating masks in schools and have banned school districts from implementing them in some states. Meanwhile, Democratic-controlled states have mandated them since schools in their states returned to in-person instruction.
