Health officials recommend all Alabama students wear masks

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Associated Press

Alabama public health officials are recommending that all students and teachers wear masks in the classroom because of a surge in COVID-19 cases, a spokesperson said Wednesday.

The Alabama Department of Public Health will recommend universal masking in schools due to the high levels of COVID-19 in the state, department spokesperson Ryan Easterling said. The recommendation will be included in the “school toolkit,” suggesting guidelines to mitigate pandemic risk.

“Schools can choose to follow guidelines or not. However, these guidelines represent the best evidence available to protect students, teachers, and staff by reducing the transmission of COVID-19, along with disease, potential hospitalization, and risk of death from this virus,” Easterling wrote in an email.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors at schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status. The recommendation comes amid a sharp uptick in COVID-19 fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

Some Alabama school systems have announced they will require students and teachers to wear face masks indoors following new federal guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19.

The Birmingham, Huntsville, Bessemer, and Opelika school systems are among those that have said that masks will be required indoors. A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Education said Tuesday that mask mandates will be a local decision unless they get specific new guidance from state officials.

“Due to the upward trend of COVID transmission and the current local positivity rate, this decision is in the best interest of our students and staff at this time,” Opelika City Schools Superintendent Mark Neighbors said in a statement.

However, state education officials so far are not requiring face coverings.

“For the coming school year, face masks are not mandated in Alabama schools. That will remain the case unless there is specific guidance from the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) to suggest otherwise,” spokesperson Michael Sibley said Tuesday.

“However, local superintendents and school boards can determine for themselves if they want to enforce masking. That would be a local decision.”

State Health Officer Scott Harris said earlier this week that the state was waiting for the new CDC guidance before issuing their recommendations to school systems.

“The issue of masks in schools is like everything else — highly controversial. They really shouldn’t be,” Harris said.

A spokesperson for Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey last week told reporters that she was opposed to requiring masks in schools. Her office has not commented on the new CDC guidelines, but in an opinion piece published Tuesday by The Washington Post, Ivey promoted vaccinations over masks and distance learning.

“Here is the truth: Closing businesses will not defeat covid-19. Wearing masks will not defeat covid-19. And keeping our students from in-classroom learning will not defeat covid-19,” Ivey wrote.

Alabama has seen a sharp increase in the number of COVID-19 cases. The number of people in state hospitals has risen to more than 1,000, the most the state has seen since winter when there were 3,000 people hospitalized at the pandemic’s peak.

Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.