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U.S. President Joe Biden said Wednesday the Centers for Disease Control is likely to advise that kids who haven't been vaccinated against COVID-19 should wear masks when they return from summer holidays to school in the fall. The CDC is "going to say that what you should do is everyone under the age of 12 should probably be wearing masks in school. That's probably what's going to happen," Biden said at a town hall in Cincinnati, Ohio, in response to a question about school safety from a concerned parent. (7/21)

Biden suggested that enforcing the guidance would be difficult but that it would be a “community responsibility.” “It’s a matter of community responsibility and I think you’re going to see it work through,” Biden said. Biden made the comments in response to an audience member running for a local school board who expressed concerns about the safety of children as schools return in the fall. States across the country have rescinded mask orders as people have gotten vaccinated. (Chalfant, 7/21)

Virginia is urging all elementary school students, staff and teachers to wear masks indoors this fall — even if they are vaccinated — and asking that students, staff and teachers in middle and high school wear masks indoors if they are not fully vaccinated. The state’s departments of health and education published the highly anticipated fall masking guidelines in a news release Wednesday afternoon. The guidance, although “strongly recommended,” is not binding, according to the release. Schools will have the freedom to “implement local mask policies” as determined by district health officials. (Natanson, 7/21)

A study yesterday in the Journal of School Health finds that while 39 elementary and high school students in a Virginia public school district rode school buses while infected with SARS-CoV-2, investigators found no evidence of viral transmission to other students or adults. A team led by Eastern Virginia Medical School researchers tested all 1,154 in-person students in grades 1 to 12 every 1 or 2 weeks in the first 7 months of the 2020-21 school year, during the period of highest community transmission. (7/21)

Top White House aides and Biden administration officials are debating whether they should urge vaccinated Americans to wear masks in more settings as the delta variant causes spikes in coronavirus infections across the country, according to six people familiar with the discussions. The talks are in a preliminary phase and their result could be as simple as new messaging from top White House officials. But some of the talks include officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who are separately examining whether to update their masking guidance, according to a Biden administration aide and a federal health official. (Linskey, Diamond, Pager and Sun, 7/21)

White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said fully vaccinated people might want to consider wearing masks indoors as a precaution against the rapidly spreading delta variant in the U.S. “If you want to go the extra mile of safety even though you’re vaccinated when you’re indoors, particularly in crowded places, you might want to consider wearing a mask,” Fauci said in an interview Wednesday with CNBC. (Mendez, 7/21)

From Los Angeles to Massachusetts, local officials across the country are pleading with Americans to once again wear masks inside as the delta variant rips through the U.S. Several counties across California and Nevada are now advising all residents to wear masks in public indoor settings — whether they are vaccinated or not. Local leaders in at least three more states have reinstated mask mandates, issued facial covering recommendations or threatened the return of strict public health limits for all residents — in defiance of federal health guidelines that say vaccinated people don’t have to follow those protocols in most settings. (Towey, 7/21)

New Orleans officials issued a public health advisory on Wednesday "strongly recommending" that people wear face masks indoors, the Associated Press reports. COVID-19 cases, driven by the Delta variant, are once again surging across the country. Earlier this week CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cited Louisiana among a handful of states with low vaccination rates that are driving a plurality of new cases. (Saric, 7/21)