As schools reopen in Marin County, health officials are issuing an aggressive masking recommendation for students and teachers.
Just one week after reopening in early August, two Oakland Unified classrooms were closed after students and staff began testing positive.
In an attempt to avoid similar closures, Marin is recommending that students wear a face covering both indoors and out of the classroom.
"We're seeing transmission early on," Marin County Public Health Officer Dr. Matt Willis explained to KCBS Radio. "Some schools, even around the region, are already seeing cases and are considering classroom closures. We want to avoid that scenario."
Marin was among the first to reopen schools last year, and despite success, Willis said they were already seeing the influence of the delta variant towards the end of the year.
For elementary schools, the risk is even more severe as students 12-years-old and under are unable to get vaccinated.
"You can picture an elementary school playground; they're not really able to practice safe physical distancing in their natural behavior," Willis said.
If students do follow the mask recommendation, the chance for outbreaks in the classroom will be much lower and there will be less of a need for other students to quarantine even when cases do arise.
