Towards the end of February, 2022, American government officials eased up on their guidelines on Covid-19 masking, including in schools. This shift occurred as a result of the decreased Omicron variant risks, and a steep drop in cases nationwide. As a result of this occurrence, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), on Friday, February 25th, made a change in the way it used risk assessment in U.S. counties. Here are the three assessment factors now being used by the CDC:
1. The cases found per 100,000 residents in the past seven days; 2. New Covid-related hospital admissions; and
3. The percentage of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients
This Wall Street Journal article from February states that before the above-mentioned Friday, the agency sorted counties into one of four risk categories. These categories were based on test positivity rates and Covid-19 case numbers. Now, the new groups chosen by the CDC break the counties down into high, medium, or low local viral risk. The agency wants to reflect a strengthened focus on minimizing severe disease and helping, therefore, the pressures on our healthcare system.
The CDC recommends at this time, universal school masking only for communities where the virus level is high. The government health center felt this to be a good recommendation since children are relatively at lower risk of developing a severe form of the disease. They mainly have asymptomatic (displaying no symptoms) or mild infections.
However, CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky, does caution that masking guidance could change in the future.
“We need to be able to relax our layered prevention measures when things are looking up,” the director said. “And we need to be able to dial them again…should we have a new variant or surge.”
The dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, Ashish Jha, is concerned that the new guidelines, while a big step in the right direction, might not identify future surges in time.
“(With the fast-spreading Omicron), Hospitalization and case numbers might not reflect changes in infection rates (quickly enough), which are crucial to determining when to raise or lower mitigation measures,” the professor states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cautions that “people who are symptomatic (showing symptoms), test positive for Covid-19, or are exposed to infected people, should still don face coverings no matter where they are.”
