The American health authorities drop on the mask, which will no longer be advised indoors for a majority of inhabitants of the country, including in many schools.
Le Monde with AFP
These measures were widely expected, sanitary managers for weeks to a new phase of the pandemic, which will “live with” the virus without it affecting the daily life. “We are now in a much better situation as a nation, with more tools to protect us from COVID-19,” said Friday, February 25 at a Rochelle Walensky, the director of the prevention centers and fight against diseases (CDC), one of the country’s leading health agencies.
The CDCs hitherto used only the number of new cases recorded in each county to determine the levels of COVID-19 per locality. According to this previous measure, 95% of the country recorded a high level of transmission of the virus, where the recommendation of the port of the indoor mask for all applied.
But CDCs have now decided to include in their measure the occupancy rate of hospitals, as well as the number of new daily hospitalizations. As a result, more than 60% of counties, representing 70% of the US population, now record a qualified “low” or “medium” level, and can therefore fall the mask. Only counties with a “high” level of Covid-19 are still subject to the recommendation of the port of the indoor mask.
Masks in public transport
Important point: In schools, CDCs have so far recommended masks everywhere in the country, regardless of transmission levels. From now on, the mask will no longer be recommended only in county schools with a level of CVIV-19 qualified “high” according to this new measure.
These new recommendations, however, are not worth public transport, subject to their own guidelines, “said Walensky. These must expire in March and will be revised at that time, she said. The recommendations of CDC remain indicative, with the actual restrictions being taken at the local level in the United States. In practice, many states have already announced dropping the mask indoors.
This change occurs while the United States comes out of their fifth epidemic wave, linked to the Omicron Variant. The country currently has approximately 75,000 new CVIV-19 cases a day, against a record at 800,000 January. In May 2021, CDC had already announced that the Americans vaccinated could withdraw their mask indoors. But they had later had to go back to the arrival of the delta variant.