With the presence of the new variant in Kent county, there have been many questions about double masking. When two people are both wearing single masks, and they are worn correctly and consistently, the risk of infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 is reduced by about 84%. If a person is wearing a second cloth mask over a surgical mask that protection increases to about 96%.
Requiring students and staff to wear two masks is impractical and will increase the resistance to wearing a mask at all. However, if a students or staff must be in a situation where they cannot maintain other risk reduction practices such as social distancing, hand washing, avoiding crowds, we highly recommend that a second cloth mask be worn over the surgical mask. Such examples might be when traveling on a plane or being in an airport, or attending a sporting event.
To learn more, click on this CDC link.