COVID-19 outbreaks are more likely to occur in schools that don′t mandate students and staff to wear masks, suggest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Two recent studies support CDC’s recommendation for indoor masking in schools. One study conducted in Arizona demonstrated that schools that had no masking requirement were nearly 3.5-fold more likely to have an outbreak of COVID-19, compared to schools that had a universal masking mandate. Another study showed that counties across the US, where mask use was required in schools, also reported less community transmission of the virus in general.

In early August, the CDC had updated the recommendations for masking in schools and had included everyone, irrespective of their vaccination status, owing to the prevalence of the highly transmissible Delta variant… (CNN, September 24, 2021)