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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently updated its guidance on mask-wearing to concentrate on COVID-19 hospitalizations, hospital capacity, and newly reported infections, permitting most of the state to drop the mandate.
The CDC will also offer a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow, or green — to help guide local officials and residents.
In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious, and orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal.
As of Monday, Feb. 28, these New York counties were in the “orange” zone:
- Broome;
- Tioga;
- Tompkins;
- Seneca;
- Yates;
- Ontario;
- Wayne;
- Oswego;
- St. Lawrence;
- Franklin;
- Clinton.
These counties were in the “yellow” zone:
- Rensselaer;
- Albany;
- Essex;
- Lewis;
- Jefferson;
- Onondaga;
- Cortland;
- Cayuga;
- Schuyler;
- Chemung;
- Steuben;
- Livingston;
- Monroe;
- Orleans;
- Wyoming;
- Genesee;
- Erie;
- Niagara;
- Chautauqua.
All other counties in New York have been listed as “green” and can drop any mask mandate, per state law and CDC guidance.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cited protection from immunity rising both from vaccination and infection as reasons for altering the guidance on masks.
“Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask,” she said during a news briefing on Feb. 25 to announce the changes.
“We want to make sure our hospitals are OK and people are not coming in with severe disease,” she continued. “Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.”
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