The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is planning Tuesday to recommend school children K-12 wear a mask regardless of vaccination status.
“The CDC will also announce today that they are recommending everyone in K-12 schools wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status, a health official tells me,” a CNN reporter tweeted.
The recommendation follows another CDC directive Tuesday asserting vaccinated people should wear masks indoors.
“It’s a dynamic situation. It’s a work in progress, it evolves like in so many other areas of the pandemic,” Dr. Anthony Fauci stated Sunday. “You’ve got to look at the data.”
“As recently as last week, an agency spokesman said that the C.D.C. had no plans to change its guidance, unless there were a significant change in the science,” the New York Times first reported.
“Federal officials met on Sunday night to review new evidence that may have prompted the reversal,” the Times continued. “The new guidance would mark a sharp turnabout from the agency’s position since May that vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most indoor spaces.”
CNBC reported “The updated guidance comes ahead of the fall season, when the highly contagious delta variant is expected to cause another surge in new coronavirus cases and many large employers plan to bring workers back to the office.”
Some locations are already putting the measures in place. For instance, the town of Palm Beach, Florida, mandated masks and social distancing protocols, even though 100 percent of residents aged 16 and older are vaccinated, per the county health department.
“People who are vaccinated can be infected with the coronavirus, particularly with the Delta variant,” Council President Maggie Zeidman stated to the Palm Beach Post. “The viral load with the Delta variant is much higher. That means that everybody is susceptible. People who are vaccinated now need to mask up, so everybody has to wear a mask.”
But according to the Google News coronavirus tracker, there have been no deaths from coronavirus since June 3 in Palm Beach County. Palm Beach County had a seven day average of 569 cases on July 25.