A slew of schools across America are reinstating mask mandates amid a surge in positive Covid tests – despite evidence they harm children’s learning.

Kinterbish Junior High School in Alabama has asked all students, staff and visitors to start wearing face masks in classrooms and hallways ‘due to the slow rise of Covid cases in the area’ since late last month.

Alabama’s Talladega City School district which serves more than 1,700 students has also urged children and staff to wear masks, but stressed they are ‘encouraged but not required.’ 

Meanwhile, a Maryland elementary school sparked outrage this week after saying students must don tightly-fitted N95 masks for 10 days, despite only a handful of schoolkids testing positive for Covid.

New York health officials are also providing free masks to schools in the state in response to rising Covid rates and absences, while face coverings are being strongly encouraged in some classrooms in Los Angeles.

The new calls for masks are a throwback to the dark days of the pandemic and come despite the growing body of evidence that masks were not only not effective at preventing the spread of the virus, but also hampered children’s learning, social interactions and natural immunity to other infections.

Kinterbish Junior High School in Alabama last month asked all students, staff and visitors to start wearing face masks on its grounds 'due to the slow raise of Covid cases in the area'

Kinterbish Junior High School in Alabama last month asked all students, staff and visitors to start wearing face masks on its grounds 'due to the slow raise of Covid cases in the area'

Kinterbish Junior High School in Alabama last month asked all students, staff and visitors to start wearing face masks on its grounds ‘due to the slow raise of Covid cases in the area’

Studies suggest N95 masks may expose people to toxic chemicals. Pictured: California Governor Gavin Newsom joins masked schoolkids in a classroom in August 2021

Studies suggest N95 masks may expose people to toxic chemicals. Pictured: California Governor Gavin Newsom joins masked schoolkids in a classroom in August 2021

Studies suggest N95 masks may expose people to toxic chemicals. Pictured: California Governor Gavin Newsom joins masked schoolkids in a classroom in August 2021

Kinterbish Junior High School, in Cuba, Alabama, has around 120 students aged between five and 14, while Talladega City Schools district has 1,792 students aged four to 18.

New York State will also send masks and Covid tests to school districts that need them. 

Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday that an outreach survey will be sent to districts in the state asking if need supplies, which will then be sent out. 

Schools in Los Angeles, which previously had some of the strictest Covid measures in the country, including mask mandates, 10-day illness quarantines and weekly Covid testing, have also opted for an optional masking policy.

But the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has more than 429,000 kindergarteners through 12th grade, has taken an even more relaxed approach to illness.

Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho urged students to come to school even if sick to combat high rates of absence.

He told the LA Times: ‘We’re back at a point — based on high levels of vaccination, therapeutics available and children’s higher resiliency than most — where if a child is mildly sick — no fever, just maybe the sniffles — it is OK for them to go to school. 

‘There are ways of mitigating against that: some good meds, a mask and monitoring.’

Last month, a Kentucky school district canceled classes less than two weeks after reopening after swathes of students were hit by a ‘tripledemic’ of flu, Covid and strep throat outbreaks — meaning nearly a fifth signed off sick.

Meanwhile, there are growing concerns that damaging Covid policies could creep back into American life. 

There is little evidence that face masks actually reduce infection rates, and mounting research shows the mandates stunted children’s social development and education.

Masks were blamed for the surge in flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and bacterial infection Strep A cases last year in minors because wearing face coverings and avoiding exposure to healthy germs prevented them from developing the natural immunity they would have otherwise gained.

The Talladega City School district in Alabama state urged students to wear masks but stressed that 'masks are encouraged but not required' (file photo)

The Talladega City School district in Alabama state urged students to wear masks but stressed that 'masks are encouraged but not required' (file photo)

The Talladega City School district in Alabama state urged students to wear masks but stressed that ‘masks are encouraged but not required’ (file photo)

In Maryland, Rosemary Hills Elementary School principal Rebecca Irwin Kennedy formalized the mask mandate in a letter sent to parents on Tuesday.

It explained she made the move after ‘three or more individuals’ caught the virus in the last ten days.

She demanded students don thick N95 masks to ‘keep our school environment as safe as possible’, despite a recent study finding the mask may expose users to dangerous levels of toxic chemicals.

And while even embattled medical guru Dr Anthony Fauci admits there is a lack of evidence the masks stop the spread of Covid, Kennedy told parents the N95s will only become optional after 10 days.

The letter caused widespread fury among those who see the decision as a slippery slope back to Covid lockdowns, with Donald Trump Jr posting to X: ‘DO NOT COMPLY!!!’ 

While Covid cases are rising in the US, public health officials say most people are experiencing mild symptoms comparable to a cold or flu.

Children are as likely as adults to get Covid, but their risk of becoming severely ill from the virus is much lower. 

The CDC considers the hospitalization rate of Covid patients to be low and the weekly death rate is near a historic low. The vast majority of people who are in hospital or dying from Covid are over 65.

Experts have insisted the recent surge of Covid cases is not worth overreacting to after the US recorded its first uptick in hospitalizations due to the virus this year.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed 8,000 patients admitted to hospitals nationwide in the last week of August, up 12 percent on the previous seven-day spell and the first week-on-week rise since December.

Despite the rise, rates remain at historic lows. For comparison, there were 150,000 Covid admissions per week at the height of the pandemic in January 2021, and hospitalizations reached as high as 44,000 a week earlier this year.

Experts have put the spike down to the natural waning of immunity, which happens around six months after the previous wave of infections.

The decision to return to mask-wearing in Maryland also comes despite experts warning that the highly contagious virus is likely to be a lasting fixture of everyday life, similar to the common cold.

‘One thing that Americans must understand: SARS-CoV-2 and its variants are never going away,’ Dr Brett Osborn, a board-certified neurosurgeon in West Palm Beach, Florida, told Fox News Digital.

‘It is here to stay because its mutation rate is high, just like influenza.’

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