The top US health agency on Friday drastically revised its guidelines for wearing masks to curb the transmission of Covid-19, a decision that means most Americans will not be advised to wear them. them indoors, including school-age children.
“We are in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools to protect ourselves and our communities from Covid-19,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told reporters.
The changes cover metrics used to determine whether people should wear masks.
Under current guidelines, use is linked to contagion rates, with 95% of the country considered an area of ​​high risk or substantial risk of transmission and therefore covered by warnings for the use of masks.
The new metrics include Covid-19 hospitalizations and local hospital capacity to create a new measure known as the “Community Covid-19 Level”.
Residents can check the CDC website to see if their area is green, yellow or orange on a national map.
Now, more than 70% of the population live in areas without a recommendation for the use of masks under the new framework, including schools in the green or yellow areas.
Calls to suspend the use of masks have multiplied in recent weeks, as concerns about their impact on children’s social, emotional and educational development grow.
Walenksy explained that the new guidelines are statistically stringent but could be revised “if or when new variants emerge or if the virus advances”.
The revised guidelines will not apply to the transport system. A federal rule on what will be reviewed in this area will be reviewed in mid-March, when the current one is due to expire.
The United States is coming out of its latest wave of Covid, caused by the omicron variant, which, although very transmissible, causes less severe cases among people vaccinated or who had a previous infection.
About 65% of the American population is fully vaccinated and more potent masks, such as PFF2, which provides strong protection to wearers, are now more available to people who need them, such as the immunocompromised.
In recent weeks, the administration of President Joe Biden has ramped up its talk of normalization as the pandemic moves into a new endemic phase.
States ruled by both Republicans and Democrats have taken the lead, either suspending their orders or setting an imminent timetable for doing so.
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