The new system puts roughly three out of every four individuals across the country in counties where COVID-19 is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. | Pixabay
The new system puts roughly three out of every four individuals across the country in counties where COVID-19 is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. | Pixabay
Updated Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines state many Americans can stop wearing masks as risk levels decrease across the country.
According to a Feb. 25 report by FOX 5 Atlanta, the new measures focus less on positive test results, but rather on hospital admissions and the number of beds being used. Individuals in counties where COVID-19 poses a low to medium threat on hospitals may stop wearing masks moving forward.
"Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask," FOX 5 Atlanta reports CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news briefing. "We want to make sure our hospitals are OK and people are not coming in with severe disease. ... Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision."
The new system puts roughly three out of every four individuals across the country in counties where COVID-19 is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals, the report states. With these changes, the risk of COVID in hospitals is now seen as high in just 37% of U.S. counties.
Despite the change, the new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and while indoors at airports, train stations and bus stations. Even in areas of low risk, the CDC states the guidelines are not binding, meaning cities and institutions may set their own rules.
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