EFE.- The rapid expansion of the delta variant on Tuesday led the United States health authorities to recommend that vaccinated people wear face masks indoors in most of the country, as well as in schools.
Two and a half months after advising those who had received the full schedule of Covid-19 vaccines to go without a mask most of the time, including indoors, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed their guidelines.
“Wearing a mask is going to have to be a part of life for people who have already been vaccinated,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a telephone news conference.
AFFECTS 63% OF THE COUNTRY
The new CDC guidelines, which do not imply a mandate but are only recommendations, indicate that fully vaccinated people should wear face masks “in public places and indoors” if they are in areas with “high or notable” rates of Covid infections -19, Walensky explained.
Nearly two-thirds of counties in the United States – 63% – meet those characteristics, including some entire states, such as Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas, according to CDC data.
46% of the country’s counties have a “high” level of infections -with more than 100 cases per 100,000 people in the last week-, while 17% have a “notable” incidence -with between 50 and 100 cases. per 100,000 inhabitants-, according to CDC criteria.
Americans vaccinated with the full schedule can check the state of their county on the CDC website and see if they should start wearing indoor masks.
A DECISION MADE WITH ‘PESAR’
Although CDC guidelines are not mandatory, they tend to set trends and influence action by state and local authorities.
For this reason, and because just a few weeks ago all the messages from the CDC pointed to a gradual return to normality, Walensky assured that he had “been very sad” having to change the recommendations.
However, he found it necessary to do so after reviewing new “worrying” studies, which indicate that “in exceptional cases, some of the people vaccinated and infected with the delta variant can be contagious,” he explained.
The official clarified that, according to CDC estimates, Covid-19 vaccines make it “seven times” less likely to get the delta variant and experience symptoms, and “twenty times” less likely to be hospitalized or die from the disease , compared to the unvaccinated.
US President Joe Biden said the new CDC guidelines, coupled with an increase in vaccinations, will allow the country to “avoid the kind of closures, lockdowns, school closings and other setbacks” experienced in 2020. .
“I hope that all Americans living in the areas covered by the CDC guidelines will follow (the recommendations), I will certainly do so when I travel to those areas,” Biden said in a statement.
It remains to be seen if the president will wear a face mask in his day-to-day life in the White House, although the US Vice President, Kamala Harris, already put it on Tuesday for an event with indigenous leaders.
The District of Columbia – where Washington and the White House are located – reached the “remarkable” rate of infections this Tuesday, with 52 cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last week.
BIDEN EVALUATES REQUIRING VACCINES FOR FEDERAL WORKERS
Biden also said Tuesday, in statements to the press, that he is “considering” the possibility of making vaccines mandatory for the approximately 4 million Americans who work for the federal government, something he could order unilaterally.
“If you are not vaccinated, you are not even half as smart as I thought,” said the president.
Despite the severity of the pandemic, which has left more than 610,000 deaths in the United States, many conservative states last year resisted mandating the mandatory use of face masks.
However, some local authorities, such as those in Los Angeles (California), have begun in recent weeks to again impose mandates for the mandatory use of face masks indoors.
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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR SCHOOLS
With an infection boom of nearly 47% across the United States in the past week, the CDC also wanted to take action Tuesday to enable schools across the country to reopen at full capacity in the fall.
To that end, the federal agency recommended the use of face masks for everyone who attends a school, from preschool to those teaching 18-year-olds, “including teachers, staff, students, and visitors, whatever be their vaccination status ”.
That recommendation will fall on deaf ears in at least nine states in the country, which have passed laws to prohibit the use of face masks in schools: Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah and Vermont .
“I know that putting masks on students is inappropriate, but that will help them learn and be with their classmates with the best protection available,” Biden said in his statement.
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