MASKS ARE BACK: San Diego says kids and staff must comply with school mandate

Students and employees in the San Diego Unified School District were once again required to wear masks indoors as of Monday. Mandatory masking will be required through at least the end of summer school due to the increase in COVID-19 cases in the county.

The district said in a letter sent to staff, parents and students Friday, "As a district, since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been intentional in implementing strategies to keep our community safe and reduce absences due to illness— all in service of our students, staff and community."

The letter added, "If your student is participating in summer school or other summer enrichment program, please send them to school or their program with a mask. If they do not have one, masks will be provided. Students and staff will be required to wear their masks while indoors only."

The district had previously dropped its mask mandate in April, however, in May, the district said the mandate would be reinstated if the county was classified by the CDC as having high transmission levels of COVID and will continue into the fall semester if the county is still in the CDC's "high" tier.

According to the CDC, over the last week, San Diego has recorded 383.01 new cases per 100,000, a 5 percent increase from the previous week. Additionally, the county has seen a hospital admission rate of 11.8 per 100,000 over the last seven days, a 31 percent increase compared to the previous week.

Both Naval Base Coronado and Naval Base San Diego also announced mask mandates beginning Monday. The base posted to Facebook, "Effective TODAY, mask-wearing is required indoors on all Naval Base Coronado Installations and training sites until further notice. Please do your part to reduce the spread by wearing a mask, maintaining social distancing, increased hygiene practices and vaccinations."

On Thursday, Los Angeles County reached the "high" level of COVID-19 infections and as a result, an indoor mask mandate could be imposed on July 29.

In April, Philadelphia tried to reimpose their own mask mandate in April, then reversed it a week later after fierce opposition and even a legal effort to end the mandate.