Boulder County Public Health on Monday issued an order mandating masks indoors at schools, child care facilities and all athletic events for everyone old than 2, regardless of vaccination status.

The health department is also recommending masks for everyone older than 2 in all indoor settings. 

The order is being put in place to help maintain in-person learning for students across the county, and will help fight the delta variant, officials said. The health department is also requiring schools to keep up with isolation and quarantine requirements, symptom checks and other mitigation strategies. 

The order is in line with with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations, officials said.

“The delta variant now constitutes 100% of sampled cases in Colorado, and is known to be twice as infectious as prior variants and can cause more severe disease, and it is impacting those in younger age groups,” officials said in a Monday news release. “[County health] data shows recent rises in incidence rates among those under 19 years of age.”

Masking is second only to vaccination in terms of preventing the spread of COVID-19, the release stated.

Health officials say 39,500 young people ages 5-19 are either ineligible for vaccination or unvaccinated.