Indoor Masks May Soon Be Mandatory Again At Sacramento Schools

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Mandatory indoor masking may return to Sacramento schools for the remaining few weeks of class if the rate of COVID-19 transmission within the community continues to rise, the district said Wednesday.

Sacramento City Unified said it is expected that the county will reach medium to high community transmission levels outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as early as Thursday. If that happens, the district said it will reevaluate its masks recommended policy and would require masking for anyone who has been exposed to a COVID-19-positive individual.

Back in April, the district lifted its universal indoor mask mandate approximately one month after California's guidelines did. Sacramento City Unified said its data shows that the COVID-19 case rate per 100,000 people is now almost five times higher — from 36.92 to 189.15 — than it was when the mandate was dropped.

The district said students will be given at-home COVID-19 tests this Thursday and Friday ahead of the Memorial Day Weekend and ask that parents test their children before sending them to school on Tuesday.

The last day of school for the district is June 16.