CDC relaxes Covid guidance allowing most people to ditch masks if hospitalizations remain low

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention relaxed its mask guidance on Friday so long as Covid-19 hospitalizations in their communities remain low.

People are advised to wear masks in public areas indoors when there is a lot of virus circulation in their community that could overwhelm local hospitals. According to CDC data, more than 70% of Americans live in communities where hospitals are not under threat from Covid. They don't need to wear masks in public places if they want to.

The CDC's use of Covid as a key metric for issuing public health guidance has been changed by the agency's new focus on the impact of severe disease on hospitals.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Friday that the risk of severe disease is now generally lower.

People who live in green counties with low Covid levels don't need to wear masks. People who are at high risk and live in yellow counties should talk to their doctor about wearing a mask. People with high Covid levels should wear masks indoors.

New York and California lifted mask mandates for indoor public places earlier this month as infections fell, prompting questions about whether the CDC would also change its guidance.

The CDC made a change to its mask guidance in July of 2021.

The guidance from the summer remained in place as the more contagious omicron variant displaced delta in December, setting off the largest wave of infections since the Pandemic began. Scientists and public health officials found that omicron doesn't make people sick like delta. hospitalizations and deaths did not rise at the same rate as infections soared.

The number of new cases in the U.S. has fallen by more than half from the peak of more than one million daily cases seen in January.

The number of Covid patients hospitalized in the US has fallen from a high of more than 159,000 on January 20 to about 57,500 as of Thursday. The daily Covid death toll reached its highest level in nearly a year on Feb. 1 at an average of more than 2,600 per day.