In the past week, the number of COVID-19 cases across Michigan have increased 37-percent. Past surges tell us the percentage will increase week after week.
“We could see, especially our unvaccinated young children less than 12 years of age, we could see far more cases of COVID-19.”
Dr. Rosemary Olivero is pediatric infectious disease physician at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital. She explains the benefits of a universal mask mandate in PreK through 6th grade classrooms. The mask serves as a barrier on two fronts; it reduces the likelihood of inhaling COVID-19…
“But really the virtue comes in protecting everybody around you in case you are coming into a room harboring COVID-19.”
Dr. Olivero explains the mask will capture the vast majority of infected respiratory droplets limiting spread throughout the classroom. Factor in the extremely contagious delta variant and it’s an effective tool for protecting an unvaccinated population.
“And if left to individual choice on whether or not to wear a mask in the classroom, you may be able to protect yourself some by wearing your mask yourself, but really the benefit comes if you can have all of these folks who could have asymptomatic shedding of the virus and protect everybody in that indoor setting.”
Masks limiting virus transmission minimizing the interruption of in-person learning.