Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will remove mask recommendations for 70 percent of Americans, the agency said Friday afternoon.
The Agency has revised the calculations that determine whether an area has a “high”, “medium” and “low” risk from Covid. Previously, only the infection rate was considered, while now the hospitalization rate and hospital capacity will be the most valuable indicators.
According to currently installed indicators, only five percent of U.S. counties are not recommended for a mask by federal regulators.
As the main goal of pandemic mandates is to avoid overloading health care systems, measuring hospital capacity and the degree of acute Covid are the most important, CDC officials explained.
Dr Rochelle Valensky, the agency’s director, said the move allowed Americans to feel safe in removing masks and other restrictions so far, when Covid is not as much of a threat as it was in the past.
This also leaves the door open for employees to return masks and other restrictions in the future at a time when the pandemic situation is becoming more severe, without overreacting to mild cases.
The revised CDC guidelines moved the number of counties in the United States considered “high” or “significant” risk to 30% (right) from 95% (left). The first map is the nation’s counties, according to initial estimates, while the second is a revised version presented by the CDC on Friday afternoon.
The CDC compiles its recommendations for people to live safely with Covid according to the level of risk in their counties.
“Now that the virus continues to circulate in our community, who should focus our indicators beyond the ordinary in the community and focus on protecting people at high risk of serious illness and preventing COVID-19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our health care system, “Dr. Valenski explained during a briefing on Friday.
Dr Rochelle Valensky (pictured) announced on Friday that the CDC will change its calculations of risk levels in each U.S. county to include – and value – hospitalization levels and hospital capacity.
According to revised estimates, now only 28.2% of the American population – living in 37% of the counties – is still recommended to disguise themselves in closed, public places.
These counties are scattered throughout America, but include the entire state of West Virginia and much of its neighbor Kentucky. Oregon and Montana also have large parts of the state classified as “high risk.”
Just under 30 percent of Americans live in a low-risk area, with 39.6 percent of Americans suffering from a “medium” risk of Covid in their communities.
The “essential” categorization has been removed, as if joining a high one.
While state and county officials still have the power to set mandates and regulations for their own jurisdiction, many, especially in the blue states, usually follow the CDC’s guidelines when making such decisions.
For areas that are considered low risk, the CDC recommends that only people be vaccinated, but otherwise they can live their lives safely as usual.
A person living in a place considered to be at medium risk may also live normally, unless he is immunocompromised or has other serious comorbidities in which he must disguise himself in public and talk to his doctor. for other potential solutions to protect.
People in high-risk areas must disguise themselves in all indoor public places, including schools.
The change comes as Covid cases, deaths and hospitalizations in the country’s crater. Omicron is also the lightest, but the most infectious option so far, which means that the high values of cases during this jump are not as dangerous as in the previous ones.
75,549 people register a Covid infection every day in America. That’s a 35 percent drop last week and a 92 percent drop after Omicron’s jump peaked at 800,000 cases a day in mid-January.
Deaths are also finally starting to decline. An average of 1,742 Americans have died from Covid daily, a 20 percent drop in the past seven days and a 30 percent drop at the peak of Omicrons’ jump, when about 2,500 Americans succumbed to the virus each day.
Hospitalizations are usually an unreliable indicator. Studies have found that somewhere between 25 and 50 percent of registered hospitalizations with COVID-19 are actually people who have been treated for another condition but were positive while present.
However, this is a problem for the new CDC indicators, as one of the main figures for their new indicator is not very reliable.
“We spent a lot of time thinking about it,” Valenski said of the potentially incorrect figures.
“Many jurisdictions cannot be distinguished [between people who are hospitalized for Covid or for another reason]it was important for us to recognize
“Second, whether the patient is admitted with Covid or four Covids, they increase the capacity of the hospital and are resource-intensive. [patients]. They require an insulating bed. They require PPE, they probably require a higher ratio of staff. ”
The updated data comes at a time when many states were planning to “return to normal” anyway.
Every state in America, except Hawaii, has either eased its restrictions on masks or set a future date for it. Even though the CDC refused to move in masks until Friday, state and county officials decided to take matters into their own hands when the case fell through.
Valenski notes that the change also opens the door for masks to return in the future.
The agency, which is making a conscientious effort to remove masks when the virus is not as dangerous as it is now, allows employees “the opportunity to reach out to them again if things get worse in the future,” Valenski said.
Isolation and masking at home when a member of the household is infected with Covid can reduce the risk of transmission by 50%
A CDC study published on February 25 found that Americans should isolate and disguise themselves at home after a household member tested positive for COVID-19.
In a study that included Americans in Chicago, Connecticut, Utah and Wisconsin, they found that the risk of transmitting household diseases was nearly 33% lower when people took precautions.
Reinforced and fully vaccinated people who lived with an infected person were less than 45% more likely to be infected with the virus than 64% of unvaccinated people.
When the infected person in the household was isolated, there was only a 41% chance of transmission, compared with a 68% risk for households that did not isolate the infected person.
Wearing a mask at home was also effective, with those who did not use masks likely to spread the virus 69%, compared to 40% for those who used face masks at home.
Researchers believe that taking precautions even after close contact is contagious, it can still prevent infection. Americans are advised to do everything possible to prevent the transmission of the virus.