US authorities relax guidelines – often no mask required indoors

Created: 02/27/2022Updated: 02/27/2022, 07:00

USA: Masks will soon no longer be necessary indoors, as in the US capital Washington DC (photo).

© Stefani Reynolds/afp

The US health authority CDC has revised its guidelines for wearing masks in the corona pandemic.

This has consequences for many in the United States.

Washington - More than 70 percent of the population in the United States can do without wearing a mask indoors.

This emerges from the new assessment method of the American health authority CDC.

In its new Corona* guidelines, the CDC also takes into account the number of new corona patients in the hospitals and the capacities in the clinics in addition to the number of infections.

US authority CDC relaxes mask recommendation

Wearing a protective mask indoors is now only recommended in the USA* in regions with a high corona risk.

Here people, especially school children, should continue to wear masks.

The CDC has published a new tool online for this purpose.

Citizens can use the website to decide what measures need to be taken, depending on the municipality.

In public transport, on the other hand, masks are still mandatory.

"We are in a stronger position today as a nation, with more tools to protect ourselves and our communities from Covid-19," said CDC chief Rochelle Walensky.

"The general risk of a serious illness is lower overall." The main thing now is to protect people with special risks and to prevent hospitals from being overloaded.

Corona in the USA: CDC revises corona recommendations

The CDC had previously based its recommendation on wearing protective masks indoors such as schools, shops and supermarkets on the number of infections in the individual counties.

In areas with “significant and high transmission rates”, wearing a mouth and nose protector was strongly advised, both for the unvaccinated and for the vaccinated.

So far, this has applied to almost the entire country.

The metropolis of New York had previously announced on Friday that children in public schools would no longer have to wear masks outside from Monday, for example in the playground.

USA: Survived omicron wave

In the USA, the number of corona infections has recently fallen sharply again after a massive increase in December and January as a result of the spread of the omicron variant.

Many citizens long for a return to normalcy.

The new CDC guidelines for wearing protective masks reflect a willingness to accept the coronavirus as part of everyday life.

In Germany, the incidence drops to 1253.3.

More in the news ticker.

In any case, the guidelines of the CDC are only non-binding recommendations.

Most recently, a number of states with governors from President Joe Biden's Democratic Party had already abolished the requirement to wear masks indoors or named an early date for the end - contrary to previous CDC guidelines.

In conservatively governed states, masks have not been compulsory for a long time.

Some states, like Florida and Texas, have even banned the requirement to wear a protective mask.

The subject of compulsory masks is politically highly charged in the USA.

Conservative politicians reject such a duty as an attack on individual liberties.

The CDC had already relaxed its recommendations for wearing protective masks in May 2021 amid sharply falling infections and rapid progress in the vaccination campaign.

Then, in the summer, the country was overwhelmed by the highly contagious Delta variant, and the CDC did a U-turn.

More than 1,500 corona deaths in the USA every day

In the USA, almost 950,000 people have died as a result of a corona infection since the beginning of the pandemic - by far the highest number in the world.

There are still more than 1,500 corona deaths every day.