周一，加州颁布了一项新规定，禁止未蒙面的学生进入校园，但几小时后又撤销了这项规定。
加州卫生部发布了它的新冠肺炎公共健康金州K-12学校2021-2022学年的指导意见，包括一项新的规定，即学生“必须”在室内佩戴口罩，除非他们因健康状况而获得豁免，如果他们拒绝这样做，“学校必须将学生排除在校园之外”。该指导意见最初于周一下午发布，并立即生效。指导意见指出，学校“应该为那些因为不戴口罩而被排除在校园之外的学生提供替代教育机会。”
但后来，官员们放弃了这一规定。加州卫生部开始关注推特周一晚上，为了表明方向的改变，他说，“加州的学校指导将在掩蔽执法方面得到澄清，承认当地学校在确保学生和教育工作者安全的同时确保学校完全重新开放进行面对面教学的经验。"
该指南最终被修改，删除了将未蒙面学生排除在全州范围内的语言，而是允许学校决定如何处理这个问题。
“与2020-21学年的指导意见一致，学校必须制定和实施地方协议来执行口罩要求，”指导意见现在指出。“此外，学校应该为那些因为不戴口罩而被排除在校园之外的学生提供替代教育机会。”
加州卫生部表示，该指南“立即生效，并将定期审查。”该部进一步指出，它是在美国疾病控制和预防中心周五发布的最新建议，继续建议学校推广新冠肺炎疫苗接种，并对未完全接种疫苗的学生实施室内口罩要求和物理隔离。但疾控中心的指导方针也指出，学校“不应将学生排除在面对面学习之外，以保持最低的距离要求。”
疾控中心表示:“学生从面对面学习中受益，在2021年秋季安全回到面对面教学是一个优先事项。
然而，加州的新冠肺炎措施是美国最严格的州之一。教育和卫生官员都关心所谓的δ变体，一部极具感染力的小说版本冠状病毒随着新学年的临近，感染呈上升趋势。
截至7月7日，加州共有1，085例德尔塔变种确诊病例，比前一周增加了71%。与此同时，根据数据，在全州范围内进行的基因测序的新冠肺炎测试中，6月21日德尔塔变异体占43%，而5月21日仅为5.8%来自加州卫生部的数据。
总的来说，加州报告了超过370万例新冠肺炎确诊病例和超过63，000例死亡病例。根据加州卫生部的数据，超过4240万剂新冠肺炎疫苗已经在该州接种，该州约有3950万人口。
California backtracks on banning unmasked students from school campuses
California issued a new rule on Monday banning unmasked students from school campuses but then rescinded it just hours later.
The California Department of Health published itsCOVID-19 publichealthguidance for K-12 schools in the Golden State for the 2021-2022 school year, including a new mandate that said students "are required" to wear face masks indoors, unless they are exempt due to a medical condition, and "schools must exclude students from campus" if they refuse to do so. The guidance, which was initially published on Monday afternoon and took immediate effect, noted that schools "should offer alternative educational opportunities for students who are excluded from campus because they will not wear a face covering."
But later, officials backtracked on that rule. The California Department of Healthtook to Twitteron Monday evening to signal a change of direction, saying, "California’s school guidance will be clarified regarding masking enforcement, recognizing local schools’ experience in keeping students and educators safe while ensuring schools fully reopen for in-person instruction."
The guidance was ultimately revised, dropping the language about excluding unmasked students from classrooms statewide and instead allowing schools to decide how to deal with the issue.
"Consistent with guidance from the 2020-21 school year, schools must develop and implement local protocols to enforce the mask requirements," the guidance now states. "Additionally, schools should offer alternative educational opportunities for students who are excluded from campus because they will not wear a face covering."
The California Department of Health says the guidelines are "effective immediately and will be reviewed regularly." The department further noted that it is operating within theupdated recommendations released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which continues to advise schools to promote COVID-19 vaccination and implement indoor mask requirements and physical distancing for those who are not fully vaccinated. But the CDC's guidelines also state that schools "should not exclude students from in-person learning to keep a minimum distance requirement."
"Students benefit from in-person learning, and safely returning to in-person instruction in the fall 2021 is a priority," the CDC says.
Nevertheless, California's COVID-19 measures are among the strictest of any U.S. state. Education and health officials alike are concerned about the so-calleddelta variant, a highly contagious version of the novelcoronavirus, with infections on the rise as the new academic year draws closer.
As of July 7, there were 1,085 confirmed cases of the delta variant in California -- a 71% rise from the previous week. Meanwhile, among the COVID-19 tests statewide that are genomically sequenced, the delta variant accounted for 43% on June 21 compared with just 5.8% on May 21, according todata from the California Department of Health.
Overall, California has reported more than 3.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 63,000 deaths from the disease. More than 42.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across to the state, which is home to some 39.5 million people, according to data from the California Department of Health.
