District-Level Universal Masking Policies and COVID-19 Incidence During the First 8 Weeks of School in Texas.

Hughes, Amy E; Medford, Richard J; Perl, Trish M; Basit, Mujeeb A; Kapinos, Kandice A · Am J Public Health · 2022

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Abstract

Texas discontinued state-sponsored business restrictions and mask mandates on March 10, 2021, and mandated that no government officials, including public school officials, may implement mask requirements even in areas where COVID-19 hospitalizations comprised more than 15% of hospitalizations. Nonetheless, some public school districts began the 2021-2022 school year with mask mandates in place. We used quasi-experimental methods to analyze the impact of school mask mandates, which appear to have resulted in approximately 40 fewer student cases per week in the first eight weeks of school. (<i>Am J Public Health</i>. 2022;112(6):871-875. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2022.306769).

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