The CDC plans to revise its indoor mask-wearing guidance as soon as next week, potentially relaxing its recommendations as many states loosen their mask restrictions and Covid-19 case counts decline across the country.
According to two anonymous sources, the CDC may prescribe masks on a local level based on the number of hospitalizations and severe Covid-19 cases in a given community.
Despite a recent fall in positive rates, the CDC currently recommends that people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus wear masks in public indoor areas in places with large or high transmission of Covid-19. This still applies to the great majority of the country.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stressed last week that despite dropping case rates, Americans should continue to wear masks inside and in schools. Many Democrat-controlled states, including California, New York, and New Jersey, began eliminating or easing their mask laws for schools or companies last week, despite the agency’s advice. Last Friday, President Joe Biden said that these modifications were undoubtedly premature, albeit many of them would not take effect right away.
When announcing changes in coronavirus regulations, several local officials warned the virus could become endemic, however neither the CDC nor the World Health Organization have stated the virus has reached this level. Even if Covid-19 becomes an endemic disease, according to Dr. Aris Katzourakis, an evolutionary virologist at the University of Oxford, it might still seed new outbreaks and future pandemics, adding that endemicity does not imply an ending.
