After Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly ordered a mask mandate July 3, counties that adhered to the mandate experienced a decrease in the rate of COVID-19 spread, while counties that declined to implement the measure faced an increase, according to the CDC's Nov. 20 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
The report analyzed changes in the rate of infections between June 1 and July 2, before the mandate, and July 3 to Aug. 23, after the mandate was implemented. Researchers then compared virus trends between counties that followed the state mandate or adopted their own, to counties that chose to opt out.
Out of Kansas' 105 counties, 24 had the mask mandate in place as of Aug. 11 or adopted their own, while 81 opted out. Among counties requiring people to wear masks in public, there was a 6 percent net decrease in COVID-19 incidence, compared to a net increase of 100 percent in counties not requiring masks.
"The findings in this report are consistent with declines in COVID-19 cases observed in 15 states and the District of Columbia, which mandated masks, compared with states that did not have mask mandates," the report concludes.
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