Several D.C.-area universities are reinstating their indoor mask mandates amid a spike in COVID-19 cases.
American University, George Washington University, Georgetown University and John Hopkins University all updated their mask mandates in April.
As reported by The Hill, American University and George Washington are the most recent to update their guidelines, announcing Tuesday that masks will be re-required in all indoor settings. American University said students must now wear “well-fitting, high-quality masks such as N95s or K95s,” and will revisit the decision on May 9th.
George Washington University said masks will be required in all university buildings and strongly recommends, but does not require, students wear N95 or KN95 masks.
Georgetown University and John Hopkins University issued mask mandates earlier in April.
Georgetown mandated masks indoors starting April 7th, encouraging but not requiring N95 or K95 masks. The university did not say when the policy would be reexamined.
John Hopkins reinstated the mask mandate after 100 undergraduate students tested positive for COVID-19 since April 1st.
As previously reported by Human Events News, Philadelphia is bringing back its indoor mask mandate for public places, schools and daycares on April 18th.
Meanwhile, Biden’s COVID Czar appeared on the Today Show Monday morning saying he’s not overly concerned by the recent rise in COVID-19 cases.
“I’m not overly concerned right now,” Dr. Asish Jha, the newly appointed COVID Czar, said. “Case numbers are rising — BA.2 — we were expecting this because we saw this in Europe a few weeks ago.”
“But the good news is we’re coming off still very low infection numbers. Hospitalizations are the lowest they have been in the entire pandemic. So we’ve got to watch this very carefully, obviously, I never like to see infections rising,” he continued. “I think we’ve got to be careful but I don’t think this is a moment where we have to be excessively concerned.”
