Just mere days after issuing mask-free mandates, US universities reversed the decision and are reinstating mask mandates.
The number of colleges and universities reinstating campus mask mandates increased this week, as college administrators were forced to deal with an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases at their campuses.
Following the announcements last week by several prominent universities, including American University, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Columbia, and Rice, that they would reimpose masking requirements as well as other mitigation measures, more institutions, primarily in the eastern United States, have joined them in the last few days.
Included in the list, The University of California, Los Angeles said Thursday it will reinstate an indoor mask.
The mask mandate “will go back into effect beginning Friday, May 27 and will remain in place through Wednesday, June 15,” the email states sent by the University of California, Los Angeles to its students on May 26.
The campus mask mandate applies to all students, employees, and visitors — regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.
Students are still required to fill out their daily symptom screener to obtain a pass to access campus.
Stella Foreman, a freshman at the university said:
“We are already one of the strictest schools with COVID; not only do we have to be vaccinated and boosted, but we also have to be tested weekly and fill out a symptom monitoring survey.”
Mandatory masking was dropped ahead of spring break when Omicron cases started to decline, but students must now return to an all-too-familiar norm once more.
Nina Heller, a junior at American University in Washington D.C., told the outlet:
“I feel like last summer everyone was like, ‘Oh, this is it. We’re nearing the tail end. And then that didn’t quite happen, and now we’re here at summer again, and there’s kind of no end.”
Sources: Thepoliticalinsider, Headlineusa, Thecentersquare
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