CDC director urges officials against dropping school mask mandates

The director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, is urging officials against dropping their school mask mandates even as officials from a handful of states have already announced such intentions for schools and elsewhere.

Walensky acknowledged in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday that “people are interested in taking masks off,” but added that “Right now our CDC guidance has not changed ... We continue to endorse universal masking in schools.”

She told the news outlet that COVID-19 cases have continued to burden hospitals and said that the country is still seeing tens of thousands of cases each day.