Indoor Mask Mandate Returns To San Diego Unified School District

SAN DIEGO, CA — Masks are back in San Diego schools amid rising COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

In a letter to staff, parents and students, the San Diego Unified School District said indoor masking is required at all schools and district offices as of Monday, July 18.

"We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 community level according to the CDC and County data and we will communicate if there are any changes in two weeks," the letter said.

The district board approved criteria in May that would bring indoor masking back. The mandate triggered after San Diego County entered into "high" COVID-19 community level.

"If your student is participating in summer school or other summer enrichment program, please send them to school or their program with a mask," the district said. "If they do not have one, masks will be provided."

Students and staff only have to wear masks indoors, the district noted.

The San Diego school district, which serves about 118,000 K-12 students, dropped its outdoor mask mandate in February and then its indoor mandate in April amid falling COVID-19 cases, hospitalization and deaths.

But COVID-19 infections have risen nationwide in recent weeks due primarily to two omicron subvariants. In San Diego County, coronavirus hospitalizations have risen from about an average of about 234 on June 20 to 406 on Thursday.

"Staff had been monitoring what's happening in the community with COVID and, as a result of that, they determined that we reached that magical pointthat the board had said was time to go back and mask up again," Sharon Whitehurst-Payne, president of the district's Board of Education, told ABC News.