France orders indoor masking for children six and older

French officials announced Saturday that children ages six and up must wear a mask in public, indoor spaces, as the country reported a record COVID-19 case count on Friday. 

French officials previously only required children ages 11 and up to be masked. The broadened policy comes in an effort to keep schools open as students return to classes from the holiday break, The Associated Press reported.

Mask mandates will also apply outside in cities like Paris and Lyon which have recently reintroduced outdoor masking, according to the AP.

On Jan. 1, France reported 219,126 new COVID-19 infections. The country hit a daily record of 232,200 cases on Dec. 31, the AP noted. 

The uptick in infections comes as highly contagious omicron variant has spread across the world after first being  discovered in South Africa in November. 

The Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University reported that France has seen 2,150,422 cases in the last 28 days — about of fifth of the 10,296,909 cases it has reported throughout the entire pandemic.   

As cases surge, France has also looked to increase pressure on its unvaccinated residents to get their COVID-19 shots with a plan that bars unvaccinated people from going to cinemas and other attractions.

If the plan is approved by Parliament, unvaccinated people in France will no longer have the option of showing a negative COVID-19 test result to access certain indoor venues that require “vaccine passes.”