Major cities such as San Francisco and Chicago are refusing to relinquish school mask orders, although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revised the orders last week to remove recommendations for indoor masks from both cities and other cities. like New York, who choose to remove the guidelines in recent days.
San Francisco, a big blue city that has had some of the toughest pandemic measures in two years, is still not giving up on its school mask mandate. The controversial policy remains in place, although Mayor London Breed, a democratand California Gov. Gavin Newsom, also a Democrat, both said it was time to lift these measures.
San Francisco County has an average of only 300 cases a day at the moment, one of the lowest points for the past two years and far from the record of about 2,400 cases a day recorded during the peak in mid-January of the Omicron variant.
The city will also soon no longer fall under the state-level mandate, as Newsome announced on Monday that its state with masks for lifting in schools on March 11. Neighbors Oregon and Washington have also announced they will make the same move in a joint statement with Newsom. All three states are led by Democrats.
“If I had my way, I would let the kids run for free without masks,” Breed said in an interview with Yahoo News last week.
Newsham has lifted a nationwide mandate for vaccinated residents starting Tuesday, and even outlined plans for Golden State to move out of the “pandemic” in the near future and begin treating Covid as an “endemic.” IN
However, the San Francisco Department of Health is responsible for making the final decision on school masks. The agency is reluctant to lift the restrictions, despite the cessation of cases in the city.
“Masks are still an important tool for prevention now and in the future, and we may have to rely on masks again if we see new leaps in cases or new options,” said Dr. Susan Philip, a health professional in San Francisco. .
“So far, as the number of cases continues to fall, this is a sure step towards fewer restrictions.”
Chicago is emerging as another diversion. As the rest of Illinois dumped school masks and Windy City itself chose to repeal vaccines and adult mask mandates, Chicago public schools issued a statement Monday saying children would still have to wear masks in the classroom.
According to revised CDC guidelines, 70% of Americans no longer live under a mask recommendation
San Francisco Mayor London Breed (left) said, “If I were my way, I would let the kids run for free without masks” last week as health officials in her city continue to hesitate to revoke the mask mask at school. New York Mayor Eric Adams (right) announced on Sunday that the city’s school masks and vaccine requirements will be removed on March 7.
However, there is more pressure on employees in San Francisco and Chicago as major cities such as New York begin to abandon the pandemic.
Eric Adams, mayor of the Big Apple, announced on Sunday that the Key2NYC program – where five-year-old New Yorkers must show proof of vaccination to enter catering, fitness and entertainment – and the city’s mask mask mandate for schools will be canceled on March 7.
The move comes just days after New York Governor Katie Hochul rescinded the remaining mandates at the state level. This means that the only constraint to the pandemic that New Yorkers are still facing is a vaccine mandate for private sector workers.
“At the end of this week, we will evaluate the numbers and make a final announcement on Friday. If we do not see unforeseen jumps and our figures continue to show a low level of risk, New York will remove the mandate for indoor masks for children in public schools, which will take effect next Monday, March 7, “Adams said in a statement.
Federal officials finally backed down from orders for masks on Friday. After weeks of dragging with changing mask orders, the CDC has reviewed the way it calculates Covid’s risk for each county. Instead of just counting the cases, the agency will now seriously weigh the hospitalization rate and hospital capacity in each U.S. county.
Previously, 95 percent of U.S. counties, which have almost every U.S. resident, were thought to live in an area with “high” or “significant” transmission. According to the new changes, now only 37 percent of counties containing 28 percent of Americans are under the mask recommendation. The “substantial” classification has been removed and 40 percent of the counties are considered “medium” risk, and 23 percent are considered “low” risk.
In recent weeks, the CDC has come under pressure to remove mask recommendations due to declining cases across the country. However, the agency was moving slowly, with 49 of the 50 states – Hawaii the most remote – making plans to remove face coatings even before the CDC’s revised guidelines.
The move in recent weeks is now putting pressure back on local officials such as New York, San Francisco and Chicago to revoke orders, as the CDC no longer supports the mask mandate in places where hospitalizations are relatively low. None of the three cities is in a “high” risk area under the new CDC guidelines.
