East Liverpool City Schools Superintendent, John Ludwig has announced on Wednesday that it will be requiring all students and faculty to wear masks due to an uptick in COVID-19 cases among school-aged children.

The order is effective on Thursday, Sept. 16 and includes all indoor events during and after school. The district says that this policy will help keep students in school for in-person learning and reduce the number of students who need to quarantine due to exposure.

Ludwig says the district has had over 400 students absent from district buildings earlier in the week, and that they have already experienced nearly half of the total cases they dealt with last school year. 

The district plans to revisit this decision every two weeks and update stakeholders accordingly.