CDC Reportedly Easing Indoor Mask Guidelines That Will Impact ‘70% of Country’

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is set to announce that its guidance regarding masks is changing for “70 percent of [the] country,” per ABC News.

The outlet writes—as does the New York Times and others—that the CDC is set to confirm the easing of mask guidelines going forward. The reported new metrics will consider different areas of the United States as “high, medium, or low risk” areas, of which roughly 30 percent are currently considered high risk. In areas with low or medium risk, individuals will no longer be advised to wear masks, according to sources at the CDC. Those comprise “more than half of U.S. counties, which make up 70 percent of where Americans live,” ABC writes.

Individuals will still be required to wear masks or face coverings on public transportation, but many areas won’t require people to wear masks indoors anymore, including at schools. The guidance utilizes data on current COVID-19 hospitalizations, beds occupied by COVID patients, and new cases to determine the level of risk. Depending on which of the three risk levels a community falls under, indoor mask recommendations could come to an end.

The news comes a week after CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the health agency was reviewing the metrics that dictate its guidelines. “We must consider hospital capacity as an additional important barometer. Our hospitals need to be able to take care of people with heart attacks and strokes,” she said during a recent press conference. “Our emergency departments can’t be so overwhelmed that patients with emergent issues have to wait in line.”

New cases of COVID-19 have been on a sharp decline since last month, when the country reached a peak of over 1.1 million new cases in a single day. By comparison, just over 74,000 new cases were reported on Thursday, Feb. 24. Many governors and state officials had recently expressed the desire for a clearer national roadmap from the CDC, and some already announced they would drop any mask mandates.