College students in Los Angeles Unified College District will now be prohibited from sporting fabric masks, based on an announcement distributed Saturday by the district.
Beginning Monday, college students should put on “well-fitted, non-cloth masks with a nostril wire” always, together with open air. District officers mentioned surgical masks or higher-grade masks have been acceptable, and that such masks can be obtainable to college students upon request.
“Our in-school [coronavirus infection] charges have dropped however we're persevering with to be diligent and agile in creating the most secure studying atmosphere,” mentioned Shannon Haber, a spokesperson for LAUSD.
The shift away from fabric masks was prompted by steerage from L.A. County well being authorities, Haber mentioned.
LAUSD does enable exemptions to masks guidelines for some college students who've a incapacity, medical or psychological well being situation that makes them unable to conform.
“If college students have masks exemptions, this doesn't apply to them. In any other case, it applies to all college students,” mentioned Dr. Smita Malhotra, LAUSD’s medical director, relating to the prohibition on fabric masks.
Well being officers in L.A. and throughout the state have more and more urged the general public to improve masks to surgical-grade or larger, similar to N95 and KN95 masks, citing the necessity for tighter becoming masks with enhanced filtration to guard towards the extremely transmissible Omicron variant.
It’s necessary to “proceed to put on a well-fitted masks” and “perceive that masks that perhaps have been actually useful to start with aren't as useful right now,” mentioned Dr. Mark Ghaly, California’s well being and human companies secretary, earlier this month.
County well being authorities have really helpful fabric masks positioned over surgical or higher-grade masks, a type of double-masking that improves match and filtration.
Well being officers have really helpful masks with the next properties:
■ Two layers of tightly woven cotton with a 3rd layer of nonwoven cloth. The third layer could possibly be an inserted masks filter or an artificial cloth, similar to polypropylene.
■ Nostril wires to scale back gaps across the nostril.
■ Adjustable ear loops or straps that go across the head to scale back gaps across the face.
L.A. County Division of Public Well being mentioned Saturday that the seven-day testing positivity price remained “very excessive” at 16%, with greater than 250,000 constructive instances this week.
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