PHILADELPHIA—The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is issuing the following statement with regards to the School District of Philadelphia’s announcement that students and staff are required to wear masks while in school buildings and vehicles.

The Philadelphia Department of Public Health strongly supports the decision by the School District of Philadelphia to require all students and staff to mask at this time. Given the rising case counts in Philadelphia and the surrounding area and the high transmissibility of the current variants of COVID-19 circulating in the Philadelphia area, masking will likely keep many children safely in class who otherwise would be out of school because of COVID-19 infection. It reflects the commitment of our city school leaders to keeping schools open and keeping children in school and learning and we are grateful for that commitment. We will continue to monitor COVID-19 trends and work closely with the School District to provide data-based guidance with the best interests of students, staff and the broader Philadelphia community in mind.

The Health Department will continue to monitor the state of the pandemic in Philadelphia and will continue to work with the School District to ensure that the guidance in place is appropriate for the situation. The Health Department will provide a written update and any implications for our guidance to Philadelphia schools on Friday, June 3.

On Monday, May 23, the Health Department announced that an average of 400 new cases of COVID-19 are being identified every day in Philadelphia. This is the third straight week of rising cases, and is more than double the average new cases reported on May 3, 2022 (186 new cases). COVID-19 hospitalizations have rising, albeit slowly, since the end of April and have not yet peaked.