CDC study: Schools with mask mandates likely to have fewer outbreaks

As per a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enforcing masks in schools helps reduce the spread of COVID-19.

One study looked at data from schools in Arizona's Maricopa and Pima Counties after they resumed in-person learning in late July.

The two counties account for roughly 75 per cent of the state's population. 

It was concluded that the K-12 schools that did not have mask requirements at the beginning of the school year were 3.5 times more likely to have COVID-19 outbreaks than schools that required all people to wear a mask indoors from the first day of school. 

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As a part of the study, 999 schools were analysed. Out of this, 21 per cent had an early mask requirement, 30.9 per cent enacted a mask requirement between nine and 17 days after the school year began, and 48 per cent had no mask requirement.

Of the 191 COVID-19 outbreaks that occurred in those schools, 113 were in schools that did not enforce masks at all. Schools with early mask requirements had the lowest number of outbreaks. 

Another study from the CDC looked at the impact of school mask mandates across the US. In this, researchers found that counties that had no mask requirements in their schools had a higher rate of pediatric COVID-19 cases after the school year began than those schools that did have requirements.

Schools that required masks had 16.32 cases per 100,000 children in the first week of classes while schools without had 34.85 cases per 100,000 children.