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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new masking and COVID-19 prevention recommendations on Friday to help you stay safe based on the risk level in your community.
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As of Friday, when the new system was announced, Greta Massetti, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the CDC COVID-19 Response Incident Management Team, estimated that 70% of Americans live in a county with a low or medium risk level. Of the United States' 3,006 counties, 23% of counties are at a low risk level, 39.6% of counties are at a medium risk level, and 37.3% of counties are at a high risk level.
These recommendations apply to the general population as well as students in public schools, who the CDC previously advised should wear masks indoors at all times. Advice from the CDC is not a mandate, and it remains up to local governments and policymakers to determine masking requirements on state and local levels.
Ina media telebriefing, experts from the CDC once again underlined that N95 masks are the best masks available, though KN95 masks have similar filtration. The most important thing is finding a mask with the best fit and filtration for you—after all, the best mask is one you’ll feel comfortable wearing for extended periods.
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CDC officials also clarified that they will use the number of patients with COVID-19 in their calculation for hospital beds regardless of the reason they were admitted to the hospital. In the telebriefing, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., noted that the percentage must include COVID-19 patients admitted to the hospital for any reason because many jurisdictions do not differentiate those cases in their data reports.
“Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time, if they feel safer wearing a mask,“Walensky said. “So we are absolutely endorsing if you feel more comfortable wearing a mask, feel free to do so. And we should encourage people to have that liberty to be able to do so.”
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