CDC Significantly Loosens Mask Guidelines

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will no longer recommend masking indoors, schools included—except in areas with high levels of severe Covid cases—in order to “give people a break from mask-wearing” in lower-risk areas, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced Friday.

The CDC has updated its framework for monitoring communities’ Covid levels, focusing less on overall case numbers and more on numbers of severe cases, in order to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed, Walensky said.

The CDC will continue to recommend wearing masks indoors in public spaces, including in schools, in areas with high Covid levels, now defined as areas with high numbers of severe Covid cases and where healthcare systems are at high risk of being overwhelmed, Walensky said.

About 37.3% of U.S. counties currently have high Covid levels, 39.6% have medium levels and 23% have low levels, CDC officials said.