Schools that kept mask mandates saw significantly fewer COVID-19 cases: study – CTV
Nov. 14, 2022
Around 30 per cent of COVID-19 cases among students and staff in schools around Boston could possibly have been prevented if they hadn’t lifted their masking mandates, according to a new U.S. study.
Researchers looked at more than 70 school districts to compare those that had mask mandates with those that didn’t, and found that masking in schools was associated with significantly fewer COVID-19 cases.
School districts in the greater Boston area that lifted mask mandates last February saw an additional 44.9 COVID-19 cases per 1,000 students and staff across 15 weeks compared to schools that kept masking, according to the study.
This comes out to nearly 12,000 cases of COVID-19 connected to the lifting of mask mandates in this region, making up roughly 30 per cent of the cases at that time across all of the school districts.
