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U.S. CDC stands by K-12 school masking guidance as states relax rules –Walensky -Breaking

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© Reuters. FILE PHOTO. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing. She was asked about the federal response to coronavirus (COVID-19), and the new emergency measures.

By Julie Steenhuysen, and Carl O’Donnell

(Reuters) – With COVID-19 incidences still high in the United States, it is “not the time” to eliminate mask mandates at schools and public places. This was stated by Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Tuesday.

Following announcements made by Oregon, Connecticut, Delaware and California officials, she said that in the coming weeks they would lift the indoor mask requirements for K-12 public school and other indoor areas. This is in an effort to return to normalcy after infections caused by Omicron variants of coronavirus ebb.

I know that people would be interested in taking off masks. It is something that interests me too. In an interview, Walenksy mentioned that this would indicate the end of most pandemics.

“Right now our CDC guidance has not changed … We continue to endorse universal masking in schools.”

Walensky stated that the CDC acknowledges the responsibility of masking policies by state and local governments, however the agency’s guidelines remain unchanged.

She said, “We recommend masking high- and substantial transmission areas – this is almost everywhere in the nation in public indoor settings.”

When infections stay at an underlying level and do not disrupt society, she sees the health crisis as becoming epidemic.

And while Walensky said she is “cautiously optimistic” COVID-19 cases in the United States will fall below crisis levels, “I don’t think we’re there right now.”

Walensky pointed out that the United States still sees around 290,000. COVID-19 patients each day, and more hospitalizations than during the Delta variant’s peak in 2021.

Hospital capacity is “one of the most important barometers” for whether COVID-19 should be considered a pandemic-level public health crisis, Walensky said. Right now, U.S. hospitals remain “overwhelmed” by COVID-19 cases, she added.

The sign that the virus is endemic is when anyone walks into the hospital for treatment of a heart attack, stroke, motor vehicle accident, or other medical condition. Hospitals are not overwhelmed or overcrowded.

The pandemic is receding, but monitoring of cases will still be vital. So will testing municipal wastewater for viruses, which the CDC recently increased.

She stated that she can detect rises of cases in wastewater signals up to six days prior to ever seeing increasing cases.

She said that case counts and data on wastewater will serve as indicators that there is a potential surge and people need to resume taking COVID precautions such as covering their faces or getting boosted.

COVID is a COVID treatment that allows for an attempt at normalcy. This “requires a lot of work as we strive to overcome this crisis.”

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