Mask Mandates Return For Some Students As Calls For Restrictions Intensify

The administration at Morris Brown College in Atlanta is imposing a two-week mask mandate for all individuals on campus.

But that's not all.

The liberal arts college has unveiled additional restrictions. These include temperature checks, banning parties and mandating CDC isolation and quarantine procedures for people with COVID-19. The school also has a vaccine mandate with medical and religious exemptions.

Health professionals are concerned about emerging COVID variants ahead of winter. The COVID EG.5 variant is currently the dominant strain among new cases in the United States. Although the updated booster shots do not specifically target EG.5, experts are optimistic they will provide additional protection against EG.5. The new vaccines aren't expected to be widely available to everyone until October. (RELATED: Biden Admin To Urge Americans To Get Boosters For Omicron Subvariant)

According to officials, there haven't been any confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Morris Brown students recently. Still, they have received reports of cases from other historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) belonging to the Atlanta University Center.

So far, Morris Brown joins Rutgers and Georgetown in imposing mask mandates on returning students.

The Daily Mail further reports on the precautionary measures out of Atlanta and increasing calls for COVID restrictions nationwide:

Morris Brown College, a private liberal arts school, is requiring students and employees to wear face masks in hallways and lecture halls for two weeks due to ‘reports of positive cases among students.'

…

Meanwhile, in an editorial published by the American College of Physicians (ACP), Government doctors and public health experts in Seattle have called for face coverings to be made compulsory in all healthcare facilities once more.

They argue that hospital patients are at a higher risk of dying from or being seriously ill with Covid and would benefit from the ‘reduce[d] risk for Covid contracted in the hospital among patients and health care workers.'

The 10 experts — from Seattle & King County health department and the University of Washington — said we should ‘find ways to adapt to this new reality' rather than ‘accepting unnecessary risks to patient and provider health.'

The last fully normal year for freshmen at Morris Brown College was eighth grade. Since 2020, every state has at least temporarily closed schools to in-person learning. Many continued imposing stringent guidelines on students years after most adults returned to living normally.

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