As new COVID infections reach another single-day high and hospitalizations continue to mount, many are questioning if a statewide indoor mask mandate will be reinstated. At Thursday’s briefing, Governor John Bel Edwards stopped short of requiring face masks again.
“While I’m not intending as I stand here today to institute any mandates people ought to be very careful about those indoor activities,” said Edwards.
However, Edwards supports the health department’s current guidance for masks in schools for two reasons, because they are indoors for an extended period of time and a large majority of school-aged children are not vaccinated.
“And so, for those reasons masking is important in our schools, which is why the current recommendations from the department of health are that schools for the remainder of this surge at least have in place a mask mandate,” said Edwards.
Research indicates students learn better when they are at school versus remote learning. Edwards said masks in schools will allow them to remain in the classroom as long as possible.
“If we want to have in-person learning with the fewest disruptions then we need to control transmission otherwise you’re going to have teachers, your students are going to be out and you reach a certain tipping point folks are not going to be able to go to class,” said Edwards.
The decision to require face masks in school is currently made by local school systems.
On Thursday the state reported 14,077 new cases, which does not include at-home rapid test results and 1,412 COVID hospitalizations.
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