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Additional background: CDC eases indoor mask mandate as COVID-19 cases drop

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Most Americans no longer need to wear masks indoors because of COVID-19, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations announced Friday, signaling a shift into the next phase of the pandemic.

The CDC is also recommending that masks be worn in schools only in parts of the country with high transmission. The agency’s new guidelines rely on how much of an impact the pandemic has on the health care system and severity of disease, rather than just the number of COVID-19 cases and amount of virus transmission in a community.

Under previous guidelines, the CDC recommended people in roughly 97 percent of the nation's counties wear a mask indoors, but it now says Americans in just 37.3 percent of counties should wear a face mask in public indoor settings.

The CDC recommends masks only in areas of high transmission.

Under the new guidelines, 29.5 percent of the overall U.S. population is in an area of low community levels of COVID-19, 42.2 percent of the population is in an area with a medium level of community transmission and 28.2 percent of the population is in an area of high community transmission.

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The agency will start to evaluate other metrics besides case counts, such as hospital capacity and disease severity, to determine future COVID-19 mitigation measures.

The United States is now in a much better position to fight off COVID-19 than last year, as more people get vaccinated, new treatment options come to market and the severity of the disease lessens. Nearly 75 percent of the adult population in the U.S. is fully vaccinated, and some scientific models estimate that as much as half of the population has natural immunity against the omicron variant.

The CDC still recommends that Americans wear a face mask after a COVID-19 diagnosis or exposure or if they feel unwell. Walensky also emphasized that there are some individuals who are still at high risk of contracting severe disease, and they may be wise to still wear a mask. ...

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