A third of the US should be considering masks, officials say

COVID- 19 cases are on the rise in the United States. They could get worse in the coming months, according to federal health experts. They urged the hardest-hit communities to consider reissuing orders to wear masks indoors.

The rising number of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are forcing the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to produce guidelines requiring masking and other infection measures.

Currently, nearly a third of the population of the US lives in high-risk areas, largely in the Northeast and Midwest. Officials said people in certain locations should consider wearing masks indoors. However, Americans in other parts of the country should also be aware.

“Prior increases of infections, in different waves of infection, have demonstrated that this travels across the country,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, at a White House briefing with reporters.

For an increasing number of areas, “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.

Officials, on the other hand, were hesitant about making specific forecasts. They said that how bad the pandemic develops will be determined by several factors. It includes how well earlier infections will guard against new variations.

Unnecessary loss of life

In an interview with The Associated Press last week, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha cautioned that unless Congress approves more funds for more vaccines and treatments, the United States will become increasingly exposed to the coronavirus this fall and winter.

Jha cautioned that if Congress does not provide further funding for the virus, it will result in “unnecessary loss of life” in the fall and winter when the US runs out of medications.

He went on to say that the United States was already lagging behind other countries in acquiring supplies for the next generation of COVID-19 vaccinations. The local manufacturing base of at-home tests was drying up as demand fell.

Domestic test manufacturers have begun to close lines and lay off workers. It will begin to sell off equipment and prepare to exit the business of producing tests entirely in the coming weeks, according to Jha, unless the US government has money to buy more tests, such as the hundreds of millions it has sent out for free to requesting households this year.

Jha noted that this would leave the US reliant on other countries for testing supplies. Perhaps resulting in shortages during a rush. Since ordering opened on Monday, about 8.5 million families have made orders for the latest batch of eight free tests, according to Jha.

The pandemic has been going on for two and a half years. During that time, the United States has seen five waves of COVID-19. The subsequent surges were driven by modified strains of the coronavirus. The omicron variation triggered a fifth wave that occurred primarily in December and January.

The omicron variety spread faster than previous ones.

Medium or high COVID-19 community levels

Some experts are concerned that the country is currently experiencing indicators of a sixth wave, which is being driven by an omicron subvariant. Walensky said on Wednesday that COVID-19 instances had been steadily rising for the past five weeks. There was a 26 percent increase nationally in the last week.

Hospitalizations are also on the rise, up 19 percent in the last week. Though it is still well below the omicron wave, she said.

The CDC presented a new set of indicators for communities where COVID-19 was weakening its grip in late February. Thereby, focusing less on positive test results and more on what was happening at hospitals.

According to Walensky, more than 32% of Americans reside in areas with medium or high COVID-19 community levels. Over 9% are living in the highest level, where the CDC recommends masks and other mitigation measures.

In the last week, an additional 8% of Americans lived in a county with a COVID-19 community level of medium or high.

CDC community level standards are confusing

Officials are concerned that diminishing immunity and weak mitigation efforts across the country could contribute to a prolonged increase in infections and diseases. They urged everyone to obtain boosters, particularly the elderly.

Some health professionals believe the government should take more decisive and forceful actions.

According to Dr. Lakshmi Ganapathi, an infectious diseases specialist at Harvard University, the CDC community level standards are confusing to the public. They do not provide a clear picture of how much virus transmission is occurring in a place.

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.

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