LOS ANGELES, July 9 (Xinhua) -- California Department of Public Health (CDPH) said Friday that the most populous U.S. state will continue to require that masks be worn in school settings in the coming new term.

The CDPH announced this decision hours after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a new guidance that vaccinated teachers and students don't need to wear masks inside school buildings.

At a press conference Friday afternoon, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly indicated that wearing mask is the most promising way to protect the health of the students and getting them back to full in-person learning since most of the schools in the state has no ability to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet as CDC suggested.

"In places where we don't have the ability to have distancing as one of the other mitigating strategies... masking is the superior form of mitigation," he said, "so starting off our school year with kids masked, coming back safely with 100 percent of our students able to come in person, was the key strategy."

The CDPH department also said that it is carefully reviewing the CDC guidance and plans to release the Golden State's K-12 school guidance on next Monday.