Several US states announce end of indoor mask mandate 4:06
(CNN) --
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defends the agency's mask-wearing guidelines, stressing on Tuesday that now is not the time to change the recommendations. or relax restrictions aimed at preventing covid-19.
The CDC "still recommends that all schools encourage students to wear well-fitting masks consistently and indoors. And that's consistent with our guidance that also recommends people cover up in indoor public settings in transmission areas." high or substantial," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a radio interview with WYPR's Tom Hall on Tuesday's edition of "Midday."
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"Right now, we still have about 290,000 cases every day, and our hospitalization rates are now higher than they were even at the peak of our delta variant surge," Walensky said.
“So at this time, as we look ahead and plan, and we will continue to evaluate and follow the science, our recommendations are consistent with encouraging students to wear well-fitting masks.”
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A growing number of states, from California to Delaware, have this week announced their intentions to remove indoor mask mandates in the coming days.
Some others, like Connecticut and New Jersey, are removing mask mandates in schools.
Walensky stressed that states and municipalities can determine their own policies.
According to the CDC, 99% of US counties still have high levels of coronavirus transmission.
Walensky said he was cautiously optimistic about the drop in the number of cases since the peak of the omicron variant increase, but said that, at the moment, those numbers remain too high for the agency to consider lifting any mitigation measures.
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"We owe it to our children to make sure they can stay in school safely. Right now, that includes wearing masks. We've seen outbreaks that happened in communities where students weren't wearing masks and schools had to close." , He said.
"And a lot of our guidance is based on the amount of community transmission."
Some governors and public health experts have asked the White House to issue guidance on what Covid-19 metrics could help determine the appropriate time to lift measures and move from the pandemic phase to an endemic phase.
But there is no specific number of cases that Walensky considers as a benchmark for changing orientation.
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"I don't necessarily look at a magic number. What I do think is a really important barometer is how well our hospitals are performing," Walensky said.
"Can hospitals, you know, take care of car accidents, heart attacks and strokes that routinely walk in the door because their capacity isn't busy taking care of covid-19 patients? And right now across the country, our hospitals are still in critical mode," he said.
"They still have real challenges with capacity."
Public health experts predict that, over time, Covid-19 could become "endemic," meaning the disease has a constant presence in a population but doesn't overwhelm health systems, overburden hospitals, or affect people. an alarmingly large number of people, as is often seen in a pandemic.
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Some 108,000 people are currently hospitalized with covid-19, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
Masks should be worn indoors for a few more weeks, other experts say.
People should continue to wear masks indoors for a few more weeks, Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Center for Vaccine Education at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia, said Tuesday.
He added that although the COVID-19 situation is improving, cases and deaths remain high.
"Right now, we have about 90% population immunity, which means people have been naturally infected or immunized or both... that's good. We're moving to warmer climates, that's well. This is really basically, at its core, a winter virus. The numbers are way down from where they had been, that's good. But yesterday you still had 150,000 cases and 1,000 deaths. That's still a lot of cases and deaths." Offit told CNN's Bianna Golodryga on CNN Newsroom.
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"So what I would say is that regardless of whether there are mandates or not, I think people should reasonably wear masks when they're indoors for the next few weeks, until we're much further down than where we are now," Offit said.
"We're almost there, if you can hold out a few more weeks."
An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) also urged people to continue wearing masks indoors.
"We recommend continuing to wear masks, particularly when you are around other people, but especially when you are indoors and even if you are vaccinated," Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's technical lead for covid-19, said during a question-and-answer session on social media on Tuesday.
"We are still allowing this virus to circulate in some situations without control, and that is dangerous," he said.
"We shouldn't be doing that in the third year of this pandemic."
CNN's Carma Hassan contributed to this report.
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