Americans should wear “the most protective mask” they can to protect against coronavirus infection, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said as a second Pueblo school district was expected to vote Tuesday on whether to keep or drop mask mandates.
“In addition to being up to date with recommended COVID-19 vaccinations, consistently wearing a face mask or respirator [N95 mask] in indoor public settings reduces the risk of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection,” said a study published Friday by the public health agency.
N95 masks offer the best protection against infection, but “any mask is better than no mask,” the CDC said.
The day before the study was published, board members for Pueblo County School District 70, which covers schools in Pueblo West, Rye, Beulah and on the Mesa, voted to make mask-wearing optional in their schools.
Pueblo School District 60’s board is widely expected to decide at a meeting Tuesday whether to continue to require mask-wearing in its schools. Pueblo D60 covers schools within Pueblo City.
The change in Pueblo D70 came days after the Pueblo County Board of Health revised an order issued last year mandating that masks be worn in all school buildings and child care facilities. The revised order, which took effect on Jan. 27, keeps the mask mandate in place but gives schools “additional flexibility to mitigate COVID in a different way from the mask requirement,” said Randy Evetts, Pueblo’s public health director.
Pueblo D60 said in a letter sent to the board of health last month that it supported the mandate, while Pueblo D70 requested district-level control and decision-making over the issue.
New cases of COVID-19 in Pueblo County have fallen from 350 on Jan. 27 to 159 on Feb. 2, and deaths have dropped from three to zero in the same time period.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: CDC urges Americans to wear ‘most protective masks’ against COVID-19
