A number of colleges and universities in the United States have moved to re-implement campus mask mandates in recent days, despite guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that mask requirements are generally no longer necessary.

In recent weeks, a number of colleges and universities, predominantly in northeastern states, reinstated campus masking requirements, citing a rise in COVID-19 cases.

The changes to campus mask policies have come despite guidelines from the CDC in late February that said wearing a face mask indoors, including in schools, is no longer necessary to curb the spread of COVID-19 in most of the U.S. However, the guidelines do recommend masking in areas of high transmission.

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Among the colleges reinstating masking requirements are the Washington, D.C., schools of Howard University, George Washington University, and Georgetown University. The list also includes the Philadelphia schools of Temple, the University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University.

All of the institutions had previously removed mask requirements following the release of the CDC guidelines on masking.

While the Philadelphia schools cited a city ordinance that re-implemented a mask mandate as the reason for mandating face coverings, the Washington colleges and several other schools in New York, Maine, and Connecticut reinstated mandates without a government requirement.

On Monday, the University of Connecticut reinstated its mask mandate for "all indoor instructional settings, workspaces, and indoor events exceeding 100 individuals."

The university said the mandate would be in place for the duration of the spring semester.

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"The goal of this decision is to protect health on our campuses and to help ensure that the remaining weeks of the semester and UConn’s commencement ceremonies can be conducted in-person," the university said. "A widespread outbreak that overwhelms university health services and available isolation space could potentially disrupt both."

The other universities cited similar concerns and rising COVID-19 cases among students as the justification for reinstating mandates.