Alabama public health officials are recommending that students and teachers wear masks this school year due to the surge in COVID-19 cases, but a spokesperson stated that Governor Kay Ivey has been “crystal clear” that there will be no state mandates to that effect.

The Alabama Department of Public Health will be recommending universal masking in schools due to the high levels of COVID-19 in the state.  That recommendation will be included in the “school toolkit” suggesting guidelines to mitigate pandemic risk.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention on Tuesday recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors at schools nationwide – regardless of vaccination status.  The recommendation comes during a sharp increase in COVID cases fueled by the highly contagious delta variant of the virus.

Alabama has seen a sharp increase in it’s number of COVID-19 cases.  The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Alabama has more than tripled during the past two weeks from 559.57 new cases per day on July 12th to 1,775.14 new cases per day on July 26th.

The number of people in state hospitals Wednesday rose to 1,181, the most the state has seen since winter, when there were 3,000 people hospitalized at the pandemic’s peak.  Some Alabama school systems have already announced that they will require students and teachers to wear face masks indoors; that, following a brand new set of federal guidelines to curb the spread of COVID-19.

A spokesperson for the Alabama Department of Education stated Tuesday, that mask mandates will be a local decision – that is unless they receive specific guidance from state health officials.