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The White House announced Tuesday that it was reimposing its indoor mask requirement for staff, a White House aide confirmed to Axios.
The latest: Capitol physician Brian Monahan late Tuesday announced that the House would also require masks again "for meetings in an enclosed" space.
Why it matters: The move comes as the contagious Delta variant continues to drive up COVID-19 cases across the country.
The big picture: The reinstatement of the mask requirement comes just two months after the White House lifted its mask mandate for vaccinated staff in May.
- The White House Correspondents Association also followed suit Tuesday, reimposing masking requirements for members in all indoor spaces of the White House.
State of play: Hours earlier, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention announced that vaccinated people would need to resume masking if they live in areas of "substantial" or "high" transmission of the virus.
- Last week, press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed that there have been multiple breakthrough COVID-19 cases among White House staffers.
What they're saying: "For the Congress, representing a collection of individuals traveling weekly from various risk areas (both high and low rates of disease transmission), all individuals should wear a well-fitted, medical-grade filtration mask (for example an ear loop surgical mask or a KN95 mask) when they are in an interior space," Monahan said, per The Hill.