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Feb. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it has loosened its mask guidelines for U.S. residents on Friday, allowing most people to leave their coverings behind in public indoor locations. Previously, the CDC recommended wearing masks in public indoor spaces like movie theaters and churches in areas with substantial or high transmission of the coronavirus, defined by case counts.
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The new recommendations use new metrics that place less emphasis on case counts and give more weight to hospitalizations as a key measure of risk, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said during a press briefing Friday afternoon.
The adjustment significantly drops the number of high-risk counties across the country, taking the metric from around 95% of counties to about 37% of counties in which mask-wearing continues to be recommended.
"None of us know what the future may hold for us and for the virus, and we need to be prepared and we need to be ready for whatever comes next," Walensky said.
"We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when our levels are low and have the ability to reach for them again, should things get worse in the future."
CDC officials said that the agency will continue to recommend that high-risk people wear masks for their own health and that people who are sick with COVID-19 symptoms should wear a mask regardless of whether they are in a low-risk area geographically.
"As the virus continues to circulate in our communities, we must focus our metrics beyond just cases in the community and direct our efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing COVID 19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our health care system," Walensky said.
The CDC has also eliminated its nationwide recommendation that all schools require masks and will now only recommend that schools in high-risk areas geographically wear masks.
Hospitalizations due to the coronavirus have dropped by about 44% in the past two weeks and most states already have pulled back on their mask rules.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced earlier this month he will end his mask-wearing order for schools the first week in March. In neighboring New York City, Mayor Eric Adams said he plans on easing requirements there as soon as the CDC makes its changes official.
In other COVID-19 news, the World Health Organization said Thursday that a new vaccination program in Africa will allow those countries to accelerate those countries' efforts to protect their citizens.
The program allows countries to request the vaccines directly from the WHO when they are needed instead of waiting for the organization to send the vaccines whenever they became available.
The program, which has been in place since January, has dramatically improved rates. Officials said they expect to have 70% off the continent vaccinated by early 2023 instead of an earlier prediction of August 2024.
