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COVID-19 surge prompting return of mask requirement at UC Santa Barbara

A mandatory indoor mask requirement for everyone regardless of vaccination status goes into effect at 5 p.m. Friday in Santa Barbara County.
Mika Baumeister
/
Unsplash
A mandatory indoor masking requirement returns to UC Santa Barbara as of May 26.

Indoor masking once again mandatory as of May 26.

The latest surge in COVID-19 cases has prompted a South Coast university to reinstate an indoor masking requirement.

UC Santa Barbara is requiring masks in classrooms, and indoor campus group areas as of this morning.

In a statement, the UCSB Chancellor’s office says the action comes because of significantly increasing case numbers in Santa Barbara County, as well as on campus.

The university is making masks available for free on campus. The move comes just weeks before the end of UCSB’s academic year.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral.