TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A growing number of Kansas school districts are imposing mask mandates because of the more contagious COVID-19 delta variant, just before in-person classes resume for the fall.
As of Tuesday, at least nine districts serving more than 92,000 students had imposed a mask requirement at least for students under age 12, who can’t get vaccinated, and most are requiring masks for everyone indoors. The nine districts serve more than 19% of the state’s 476,000 students.
Kansas has seen daily COVID-19 cases increase steadily over the past six weeks, and confirmed delta variant cases have doubled or nearly doubled every two weeks, according to state data. Kansas also averaged 28 new hospitalizations per day for the seven days that ended Monday, bringing the total to more than 11,700.
