The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its recommendations on wearing masks indoors to protect against COVID-19.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised its recommendations on wearing masks indoors to protect against COVID-19. The new metrics are based on three data points: new COVID-19 hospitalizations, hospital capacity and new COVID-19 cases.
According to the agency’s metrics, approximately 28% of people in the U.S. live in counties that require masking indoors. The CDC website has county-level data on its website. The early guidance called for people who lived in areas with high or substantial transmission levels to wear masks indoors, which by their broad metrics covered about 99% of the population.
At this time, more than 70% of the U.S. is located in areas with low or medium COVID-19 community levels. In those areas, the CDC’s has no masking recommendation unless you are at potential “increased risk” of COVID-19. If you are, you should talk to your doctor about wearing a mask.
In areas that are “high” levels, the agency recommends masking in public indoor settings, including schools.
“This new framework moves beyond just looking at cases and test positivity, to evaluate factors that reflect the severity of disease — including hospitalizations and hospital capacity — and helps to determine whether the level of COVID-19 and severe disease are low, medium or high in a community,” stated Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
During the telebriefing call, Walensky told reporters, “The COVID-19 community level we are releasing today will inform CDC recommendations on prevention measures, like masking, and CDC recommendations for layered prevention measures will depend on the COVID-19 level in the community. This updated approach focuses on directing our prevention efforts towards protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing hospitals and health care systems from being overwhelmed.”
The “low” classification level refers to counties with less than 200 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the past week. These places also much contain fewer than 10 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people or less than 10% of staffed beds with COVID-19 patients on average in the last week.
“Medium” levels refer to 10 to almost 20 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people, or between 10% and 14.9% of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients in the past week, on average.
“High” levels are classified as counties with 20 or more new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people; at least 15% of staffed hospital beds occupied on average in the last week.
The metrics shift if the counties have 200 or more new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the past week.
According to Johns Hopkins University, daily COVID-19 cases in the U.S. have dropped 90% from their peak in January, from more than 802,000 cases per day on January 15 to less than 75,000 today.
Many states had already begun dropping masking requirements in mid-February. States and local governments have the final determination regarding mask mandates, and as a result, they vary significantly across the country. As of February 11, only a handful of states and territories had mask mandates for most people, regardless of vaccination status. These include the District of Columbia, Guam, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington. Two states on that date had mask mandates for the unvaccinated: California and Connecticut. Most of the rest of the country had already abandoned their mask mandates.
With about 70% of the population vaccinated and many having natural immunity caused by infections, the pandemic does appear to be waning in the U.S., at least for the time being. Walensky noted this and warned that the future of the pandemic remains uncertain.
“None of us knows what the future may hold for us and for this virus,” Walenskly said. “We need to be prepared and ready for whatever comes next. We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when levels are low, and then have the ability to reach for them again, should things get worse in the future.”
