The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued new mask-wearing mandates, based on healthcare indicates in the various counties – meaning only 30% of the country would currently be recommended to wear a mask.
These metrics are a combination of new hospital admissions, hospital bed use for COVID patients, as well as incidence of cases in a community, combined to indicate either a low risk (green), medium risk (yellow), or high risk (orange) of severe disease in a particular county.
The CDC’s latest grading means that only 28.2% of the population lives in a high-risk county, though 37.3% of US counties would be classified as high-risk.
About 40% of counties are classified as medium risk (containing 42% of the nation’s population), while 23% are classified as low risk (29,5% of the population).
“We wanted to make sure we were focusing on severe disease [to] prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed,” said CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky, “and give people a break from mask-wearing when [COVID] levels are low.” This framework had been “rigorously evaluated” by experts and was shown to predict risk of severe disease in a community, including hospitalisations, ICU stays, and deaths, three to six weeks into the future.
She also clarified that hospitalisations will be counted as those patients “with” COVID, not just those hospitalised “for” COVID, because of the more intensive care that patient requires.
Walensky added that anyone with symptoms, a positive test or exposure to COVID should wear a mask, and people may choose to mask at any time. CDC would keep this metric updated on a county level “for the foreseeable future”.
Masking in schools was only recommended for those in high-risk counties, as “illness in children tended to be milder, and prior multi-layered prevention strategies proved transmission can be stopped in schools if implemented”.
The new guidance does not apply to masking on transportation, like planes. Those mandates are due to expire in mid-March, but Walensky said they would be revisited before then.
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