A number of colleges and universities in the United States have started to reinstate their mask mandates with COVID-19 outbreaks popping up on campuses.
Outbreaks are due to the COVID-19 subvariant BA.2, which is considered highly transmissible and has become the dominant strain among new U.S. cases.
American University is among the colleges to reinstate its mask mandate, as it will require masks in all campus buildings. Others include Columbia, which is specifying the use of non-cloth masks until the end of the semester, and Georgetown, which has announced the return of masks inside campus buildings until further notice.
Other notable colleges to bring back mask mandates in some form include Johns Hopkins University, Rice University, and George Washington University.
Along with colleges, Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to return its indoor masking mandate amid an increase in cases due to the BA.2 subvariant.
Dr. Anthony Fauci shared in an interview on Sunday that we may want to consider bringing back mitigation efforts like masking in areas currently seeing a surge in cases.
However, he did say not everywhere is seeing an increase, as most of the country "is still in that green zone, which means that masking is not recommended in the sense of not required on indoor settings."
As case numbers fell following pandemic level highs due to the Omicron variant throughout the winter, most colleges and cities removed their masking mandates and COVID-19 mitigation protocols. But now, as cases return, mandates may be returning as well.
Not every university has decided to bring masks back, but they are having the discussion in areas seeing an increase in cases.
For some universities like Harvard, the choice is being left to the professors who will decide the rules in their own classrooms.
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