Mask Mandates Return Amid COVID-19 Spike

The recent increase in COVID-19 cases in some parts of the U.S. prompted some organizations to reinstate mask mandates.

Healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente began requiring staff, patients, and visitors wear masks this week at its facility in Santa Rosa, California, according to The Hill. In New York, Upstate Medical University announced last week that it's making a similar mandate at two of its hospitals.

Rutgers University in New Jersey and Morris Brown College in Georgia are mandating masks for their campuses, the latter doing so as a two-week precautionary measure.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., railed against the news from the Atlanta-based school, writing on X: "Americans have had enough COVID hysteria. WE WILL NOT COMPLY!"

Hollywood movie studio Lionsgate this week asked its employees in Santa Monica, California, to wear masks on certain office floors in response to a few staff members who tested positive for the coronavirus.

While hospitalizations from COVID-19 have been rising nationally in recent weeks, data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate that hospital admission rates are still low in 97% of the U.S.

Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), told The Hill that publicly available data, as well as personal responsibility, should inform decisions about masking.

"I think the new approach is we want to make that information available to the public and give people some warning that there may be some increases in disease activity," Plescia said. "And then people decide for themselves sort of how they want to react and what kind of precautions they want to take."

Masks became controversial during the pandemic, with opinions largely divided along partisan lines about whether the government, businesses, or schools had the authority to force people to wear them.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration did not have the authority to mandate that companies with 100 or more employees ensure their workers get vaccinated for COVID-19 or wear masks. Individual businesses can enforce their own policies, however.

Doctors and public health experts say that wearing properly-fitting N95 masks can help slow the viral spread through communities.

Whether through prior infection or vaccination, the majority of people possess some level of COVID-19 antibodies. Pending approval by federal regulators, the updated COVID-19 vaccines are expected to become available in September.

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