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Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced during a White House briefing on Wednesday, Feb. 16 that the agency will “soon put guidance in place” regarding mask-wearing.
The announcement comes as the country continues to recover from the surge of Omicron cases that mounted over several months around the holiday season.
Walensky said that the CDC will monitor certain metrics such as hospital capacity and the level of severe disease and hospitalizations in certain communities before announcing the updated guidance, which could come as soon as next week.
“We are assessing the most important factors based on where we are in the pandemic, and we'll soon put guidance in place that is relevant and encourages prevention measures when they are most needed to protect public health and our hospitals,” Walensky said during the White House COVID-19 update on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
“We must consider hospital capacity as an additional important barometer,” she added. “We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen.”
In recent weeks, new cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus have been dropping in every state except Maine, according to the CDC. Hospitalizations are also declining nationwide.
According to reports, some administrators are pushing for Walensky and the CDC to provide an update on mask-wearing before President Joe Biden’s planned State of the Union address on Tuesday, March 1.
“Moving from this pandemic will be a process led by science and epidemiologic trends and one that relies on the powerful tools we already have, including vaccines, booster's testing and treatment,” Walensky stated.
The CDC currently recommends universal indoor masking in areas with substantial or high transmission, which is determined by the number of cases per 100,000 and the rolling positivity rate.
However, some states and localities have already started easing certain public health measures as the number of new infections and hospitalizations has dramatically dropped since peaking in early January.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the US reported approximately 136,000 new COVID-19 cases daily in the past week, down more than 80 percent from the record high of more than 800,000 per day that was set last month.
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