Two studies released Friday support the agency's recommendation for universal indoor masking in schools.
A school was considered to have an outbreak if there were two or more news cases among students or staff within a 14-day period, beginning a week after school started.
From mid-July through the end of August, 191 school-associated outbreaks occurred, according to the CDC.
Schools with universal masking requirements in place at the start of school accounted for about 31% of the set of schools analyzed, but only about 8% of outbreaks.
"I would say that data actually absolutely show that masking decreases outbreaks in schools," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Monday.
"So with the purpose of keeping our kids in school, getting them in school, having them be safe, masks really are the way to go.".
Between the week before school started and the week after school started, pediatric case rates increased more than twice as much in counties with no school mask requirements as they did in counties with school mask requirements. »
