15 days to slow the spread…
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans on updating its guidance on masking on Friday.
The CDC has created new metrics to determine when people should mask up, according to a new report by Axios.
The agency will move away from ‘case counts’ and concentrate on hospitalizations and hospital capacity in its new mask guidance.
Axios reported:
The CDC plans to announce as soon as tomorrow that it has created new metrics for determining when people should use masks and take other COVID precautions, according to a source involved in developing the system.
Why it matters: The new metrics would allow less masking for most of the U.S. population, and would suggest universal masking only in places being hit hardest by the virus.
State of play: The CDC has developed the new benchmarks over the last six weeks or so, the source said, as Omicron hit the U.S. and then receded.
- The goal is to move away from using case counts alone to determine when to mask and take other precautions, like distancing or avoiding high-risk settings.
- Currently, the CDC recommends universal indoor masking in areas of substantial or high transmission, which includes the vast majority of U.S. counties.
The new benchmarks will instead tie masking recommendations to a combination of a community’s level of cases, hospitalizations and hospital capacity, the source said.
- The CDC is basing its updated benchmarks on data from previous surges as well as modeling.
