One Third of U.S. Should Consider Wearing Indoor Masks
COVID-19 pandemic cases are on the rise in the United States and could worsen in the coming months, federal health officials warned Wednesday, urging severely affected areas to consider re-issuing calls for indoor masks.
The increasing number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations in many parts of the country under the guidance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls for masks and other infection precautions.
‘Officials expressed concern that declining immunity and lax mitigation measures across the country could contribute to a continuing increase in infections and diseases across the country.’
Today, one-third of the U.S. population lives in areas considered high risk - mostly in the Northeast and Midwest. Those are the areas that people should already consider wearing masks indoors - but Americans elsewhere should also pay attention, officials said.
"Prior increases of infections, in different waves of infection, have demonstrated that this travels across the country," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said at a White House briefing with reporters.
Reasons for the Increase in COVID-19 Cases
For an increasing number of areas and the cases, "we urge local leaders to encourage use of prevention strategies like masks in public indoor settings and increasing access to testing and treatment," she said.
However, officials were cautious in making firm predictions as to how bad the COVID-19 pandemic would be depending on a number of factors, including the extent to which previous infections would protect against new variants.
Last week, the White House COVID-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha, in an interview with The Associated Press, warned that the United States would be more vulnerable to the COVID-19 and its variants this fall and winter if Congress does not quickly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatments.
Jaa warned that the COVID-19 virus could cause "unnecessary loss of life" in the fall and winter without additional funding from Congress, when the United States goes without treatments.
He added that the United States was already lagging behind other countries in securing the supply of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines, and that the domestic production base for home trials was already drying up as demand fell.
Domestic test manufacturers have begun to close taxes and lay off workers, and will begin selling equipment in the coming weeks, and if the U.S. government does not have the money to buy hundreds of additional tests, as told by Jha said he is ready to leave the business of manufacturing tests completely. It has sent millions home for free this year.
This could lead the United States to rely on other countries for test supplies, causing shortages during the uprising, Jha warned. About 8.5 million households have placed orders for the latest installment of 8 free trials since orders began on Monday, Jha added.
COVID-19 Eases its Grip! Or it is Not?
COVID-19 infection is now 2 1/2 years old. And United States saw - depending on how you count them - that time the five waves of COVID-19 were driven by mutated versions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fifth wave was mainly caused by the Omicron variant in December and January.
The Omicron variant spread much more easily than previous versions. Some experts are concerned that the country is now seeing signs of a sixth wave driven by the Omicron subvariant. On Wednesday, Walensky noted a steady increase in COVID-19 cases over the past five weeks, with a 26% increase nationally over the past week.
Hospital admissions are also on the rise, up 19% over the past week, although they are still much lower than they were during the Omicron wave, he said.
In late February, as that wave subsided, CDC released new measures for communities where COVID-19 eases its grip, focuses less on positive test results and focuses more on what is happening in hospitals.
More than 32% of the country currently lives in an area with moderate or high COVID-19 social status, with more than 9% having high levels where the CDC recommends the use of masks and other mitigation efforts.
In the past week, an additional 8% of Americans have been living in a district of middle or upper COVID-19 social status.
Officials expressed concern that declining immunity and lax mitigation measures across the country could contribute to a continuing increase in infections and diseases across the country. They encouraged people - especially the elderly - to get boosters and wear masks.
Some health experts say the government needs to take clear and bold action.
Dr. Lakshmi Ganapathi, an epidemiologist at Harvard University, said that the CDC's social status guidelines are confusing to the public and should not give a clear picture of how much virus is spreading in a community.
When the government officials make recommendations but do not set rules, "it ultimately rests on every single individual picking and choosing the public health that works for them. But that's not what is effective. If you're talking about stemming hospitalizations and even deaths, all of these interventions work better when people do it collectively," she said.
Walensky added a comment that could come in handy if someone mask-shames you at the grocery store: "Anyone can wear a mask at any time."
Source: Medindia