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WASHINGTON, DC, United States (AP) - New guidance from the federal government set off a cascade of mask rules across the nation yesterday as cities, states, schools and businesses raced to bring back mandates and others pushed back against the guidelines at a time when Americans are exhausted and confused over constantly shifting pandemic measures.
Nevada and Kansas City, Missouri, were among the locations that moved swiftly to re-impose indoor mask mandates following Tuesday's announcement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But governors in Pennsylvania and South Carolina said they would not revert to stricter mask mandates.
In suburban Atlanta, Jamie Reinhold said she's considering pulling her kids from school if the district maintains a newly reimposed mask requirement. The 52-year-old said the CDC's latest guidance would take the country "backward" and damage confidence in the vaccines.
"If you believe in the masks, go ahead, but don't try to tell me what to do for my child's health and safety and immune system," she said. "It's my child. It's my choice."
School districts were trying to navigate the latest advice, which recommends they require students, teachers and visitors to mask up.
A handful of Republican-led states have already made such orders illegal for schools. Arkansas' GOP leaders were weighing whether to revisit an April law banning mask requirements, at least for schools.
Meanwhile, Ford Motor Company said it would reinstate face mask protocols for all employees and visitors at its Missouri and Florida facilities. The two states are among the hardest-hit by the summer surge in which the US is now averaging more than 60,000 new cases a day, driven by the highly contagious delta variant spreading through unvaccinated populations.
Elsewhere, Google postponed a planned Septemnber 1 return to the office for most of its more than 130,000 employees until mid-October, following a similar move by Apple to delay its return-to-office plans.
The California tech giant said yesterday that it will also eventually require everyone on staff to be vaccinated, a mandate that President Joe Biden said he's also weighing for federal employees.
Other government leaders said they will hold off reinstating mask rules for now.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said he's not considering imposing a mask mandate in schools or statewide, arguing that such orders were necessary before there was a vaccine.
"People have the ability to make the decision to get a vaccine," the Democrat told a Pittsburgh radio station Tuesday. "If they do, that's the protection."
The CDC's new guidance applies to places with at least 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the last week, which is roughly 60 per cent of all US counties, federal officials said. Nearly all of the South and Southwest is subject to the guidance, but most communities in the Northeast - with the exception of major metro areas like New York City and Boston - are exempt for now, according to the CDC's COVID tracker.
The stark partisan divide over mask wearing set up the potential for a patchwork of regulations within states and counties.
In Florida's Miami-Dade County, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava imposed an indoor mask mandate yesterday at county facilities.
The Democrat's announcement, which does not apply to businesses or restaurants, comes after Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new law in May giving the state the power to invalidate local pandemic measures, including mask mandates and limitations on business operations.
"We have all come too far. We have all sacrificed too much in this past almost year-and-a-half. We cannot turn back now," Levine Cava said.