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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is expected to loosen its guidelines on when and where Americans should wear masks to prevent the spread of the coronaviruss, which will allow most people to be without them in indoor public spaces, according to two federal officials familiar with the matter.
The Associated Press, which was first to report the change, said that the new policy was expected to be announced on Friday. The two officials who spoke to The New York Times would not confirm when those rules will change.
Under current guidelines, the CDC recommends that anyone who live in areas with substantial or high transmission of Covid, as defined by case counts, must wear masks in indoor public spaces such as gyms, movie theaters, and places of worship.
That means that the people who live in the 95 % of US counties must continue to wear masks indoors even though the country is seeing an average of about 76,000 new cases per day , a decrease of approximately 66 % from two weeks ago.
How will the possible change in mask standards be
I hope was that the upcoming recommendations rely on newly defined metrics to determine whether people in a particular geographic area are at high risk of contracting the coronavirus.
They will put less emphasis on case counts and give more weight to hospitalizations as a key measure of risk, according to a federal official who is familiar with the plans but was not authorized to discuss them.
It is likely that The new guidelines take into account the capacity of hospitals in a local area as an important indicator of the level of risk.
With the decrease in hospitalizations throughout the country, this may allow the great most Americans take off their masks. About 60,000 people are hospitalized with n Covid across the country, but those numbers have dropped by 44% in the last two weeks.
Most states have already relaxed the rules for the use of masks. Others are poised to end indoor mask mandates in the coming weeks. But an official CDC recommendation may have some influence in districts that have been more cautious.
Many companies have started to require only proof of vaccination and not the use of masks in public indoor spaces.
But currently masks are required on all public transport, including airplanes. Those rules are expected to expire on 18 in March, but a union of flight is urging the Biden administration to extend the requirement until more people are vaccinated.
Last year, the CDC was heavily criticized for lifting mask restrictions too soon, only for cases caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus to surge across the country. This time, however, many public health experts support relaxing mask guidelines.
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