New CDC Guidelines Suggest 70 Percent of Americans Can Stop Wearing

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday presented a new strategy to help communities across the country live with the coronavirus and return to a version of normal life.

The new guidelines are 70 percent A percentage of Americans can now stop wearing masks and no longer need social distancing or avoiding crowded confined spaces.

Recommendations no longer rely solely on the number of cases in a community to determine the need for restrictions such as wearing masks. Instead, they direct counties to consider three measures to assess virus risk: the percentage of new Covid-related hospital admissions and hospital beds occupied by Covid patients during the previous week, as well as new coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in the previous week.

Based on these three factors, counties can calculate whether the risk to their residents is low, moderate, or high, according to the agency, and only in high-risk areas should everyone wear a mask. But the agency said unvaccinated people should wear masks even in low-risk areas.

The agency has approved universal masking in schools since July regardless of virus levels in the community, but new guidelines recommend masking in schools only in high-risk counties.

New rules are being published as the coronavirus retreats across the country. Case numbers have dropped to levels not seen before the rise of the Omicron variant, and hospitalizations are falling fast. About 58,000 people across the country have been hospitalized with Covid, but those numbers have dropped nearly 44 percent in the past two weeks.

Several experts said the new guidelines are in line with the country’s current situation. Although the number of cases nationwide is still high, “we’re long past the surge,” said Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech. “We don’t need to work in emergency mode anymore.”

But many places have already lifted their pandemic restrictions. Most states have relaxed mask-wearing rules, and some, like New Jersey, have announced plans to remove the authorization even in schools. Others are poised to end their closed mask mandate in the coming weeks. The CDC’s official advice may have some impact in counties that are more cautious.

According to the CDC’s previous criteria, 95 percent of counties Considered high risk in the United States. Using the new criteria, the agency said less than 30 percent of Americans live in high-risk areas.

CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Friday that the new set of guidelines offers people a framework for adapting precautions as virus levels change.

“We want to take a break from things like masking people when our levels are low and then have the ability to reach them again if things get worse in the future,” he said. We have to be prepared and ready for whatever comes next.”

Those who are particularly vulnerable because of their age, health or occupation may choose to take additional precautions, regardless of the level of risk in their community.

Dr. The availability of high-quality masks, such as N95 respirators, allows individuals at high risk to continue to protect themselves even if others around them do not take action, Marr said.

He added that it is good that the agency continues to monitor cases, as hospital rates may be delayed by two to three weeks. “When hospitals are overwhelmed, it’s too late,” he said.

However, Dr. Walensky said CDC scientists are testing models with data from previous fluctuations to confirm that the new risk calculation method will detect fluctuations early.

The Omicron increase made it clear that because many Americans have some immunity to the virus through vaccines or prior infection, counties may see large numbers of cases and relatively few cases involving serious illness. Public health experts said the new guidelines address this reality and allow for a more sustainable approach to living with the virus.

“It seemed wrong for the whole country to have one shade of red,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.

While a growing number of political leaders, public health experts and ordinary citizens are now supporting the easing of restrictions – at least temporarily, others are still cautious. They note that millions of people in the United States – including children under the age of 5 – and billions worldwide are unvaccinated, making the emergence of a dangerous new variant not only possible, but likely.

The CDC and the Biden administration have previously declared early victories, including seeing the Delta variant again increase hospitalizations and deaths, when vaccinated Americans said they could go without masks and celebrate a “summer of freedom” last spring.

The White House is working on a pandemic exit strategy to help Americans live with the virus. But Dr. Walensky said just two weeks ago. it’s not time to remove yet mask powers. Some officials at the CDC and the Department of Health and Human Services are nervous about changing guidance, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Some public health experts also opposed easing restrictions, noting that the country records roughly 1,900 Covid-related deaths every day, children under the age of 5 still have no vaccinations and a significant number of Americans are at high risk. their age, state of health or occupation.

Chairing the Covid-19 Sports and Society Working Group, an organization that oversees the safety of professional sports teams, Dr. Robby Sikka noted that the agency’s new guidelines do not address whether people who test positive for the virus should self-isolate and for how long. .

A study published Friday by the CDC found that nearly half of those who test positive remained contagious after five days — the institution’s currently recommended isolation period. Dr. “If people stay in isolation for five days, or worse, if we let people go, we may have the potential to see cases rise,” Sikka said.

Even people who don’t become seriously ill can suffer the long-term consequences of an infection, said Zoë McLaren, a health policy expert at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “We do pandemic policy under the assumption that mass infection during the Omicron wave has little or no health impact on the population, but there is growing evidence that Covid infection often has lasting health effects,” he said.

In an open letter to elected officials, a group of 400 experts in public health and education against The push to remove indoor masks is premature and threatens to put children, school communities and families at greater risk for illness, disability and death, he said.

“The challenge now is that we definitely need to consider hospital capacity, but we also need to consider it. vaccine intake “Among children among adults,” said Sonali Rajan, an expert in school health programs at Columbia University and one of the authors of the letter.

Ideally, the CDC will continue to refine its models for assessing risk in communities, including including signals from wastewater analysis and other approaches.

Dr. “One thing is clear, there is no clear limit for any of these measurements,” Allen said. “I hope the CDC avoids this trap again.”

Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributing reporting.