"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued long-awaited new guidance Friday on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19. Under the new guidance, roughly 70% of the U.S. population can now contemplate removing their masks.
The guidance lays out a system that designates individual counties as being at either low, medium, or high risk of Covid transmission. Roughly 62.6% of counties — home to 71.7% of Americans — fall into the low- and medium-risk categories.
Most people living in counties where the risk is designated as low or medium are not being urged to wear masks; people who are at high risk from Covid-19 and who live in counties listed as being at medium risk should talk with their health care providers about whether they should wear a mask.
People who live in counties where the risk of transmission is high — currently 28.2% of Americans — should wear masks in indoor public settings, including schools, the guidance states.
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The new system uses several metrics to calculate the risk in individual communities, moving beyond sheer numbers of new cases to look at how well the health care system in each county is holding up. The idea, the CDC said, is to focus on minimizing severe disease and ensuring that hospitals are able to function.
The guidance comes as jurisdictions across the country have lifted mask mandates or have announced plans to lift them.
Though the guidance will give people in much of the country a green light to take off their masks in public settings, the CDC noted that they may choose to continue to wear masks. And it said that people who have tested positive for Covid, who have Covid-like symptoms, or who have been exposed to someone with Covid should wear a mask, regardless of the risk level in their county.
“If you are more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said.
The new guidance also updates CDC recommendations on mask wearing in schools. Up until now, the agency has recommended that masks be worn in schools; with the new guidelines, the CDC is only recommending mask wearing in schools in counties that are designated high risk.
Under the new system, Covid-prevention recommendations for people living in low- and medium-risk counties are effectively that they should be vaccinated and boosted, and should get tested for Covid if they are sick with Covid-like symptoms. In the medium-risk settings, people who are immunocompromised or who have chronic health conditions should discuss the merits of mask wearing with their doctors."
The Centers for Disease Control and Protection issued long-awaited new guidance on when Americans should consider wearing masks to protect themselves against Covid-19.
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). When I got off of ToT and let’s face it I was desperately clinging to the hand bar for the duration of the ride it’s nice to sanitize after. I probably wouldn’t make an extra trip to the restroom at that point unless I was planning to eat something right after.
