A third of the US should consider wearing masks, officials say

WASHINGTON (AP) — COVID-19 cases are on the rise in the United States and could get even worse in the coming months, federal health officials warned Wednesday as they urged hardest-hit areas to consider resuming calls for use of masks indoors.

growing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are bringing more of the country under guidelines issued by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that require the use of masks and other infection precautions.

Right now, about a third of the US population lives in areas that are considered to be at higher risk, primarily in the Northeast and Midwest. Those are areas where people should already consider wearing masks indoors, but Americans elsewhere should also take note, officials said.

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

For a growing number of areas, “we urge local leaders to encourage the use of prevention strategies such as masks in closed public places and increase access to testing and treatment,” he said.

However, officials were cautious about making any concrete predictions, saying how much worse the pandemic will get will depend on a number of factors, including the degree to which previous infections will protect against new variants.

Last week, the White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha warned in an interview with The Associated Press, the US will be increasingly vulnerable to the coronavirus this fall and winter if Congress doesn’t quickly approve new funding for more vaccines and treatments.

Jha warned that without additional funding from Congress, the virus would cause “unnecessary loss of life” in the fall and winter, when the United States runs out of treatment.

He added that the United States was already falling behind other nations in sourcing supplies of the next generation of COVID-19 vaccines and said the domestic manufacturing base for at-home testing is already running out as demand falls.

Jha said domestic test makers have begun closing lines and laying off workers, and in the coming weeks they will start selling equipment and prepare to get out of the business of producing tests altogether unless the US government has money. to buy more tests, like the hundreds of millions it has sent to applicant households for free this year.

That would leave the US dependent on other countries to test supplies, risking shortages during a surge, Jha warned. About 8.5 million households have placed orders for the latest tranche of 8 free tests since the order opened on Monday, Jha added.

The pandemic is now two and a half years old. And the US has seen, depending on how you count them, five waves of COVID-19 during that time, with subsequent waves fueled by mutated versions of the coronavirus. A fifth wave occurred mainly in December and January, caused by the omicron variant.

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The omicron variant spread much more easily than previous versions.

Some experts are concerned that the country is now seeing signs of a sixth wave, fueled by an omicron subvariant. On Wednesday, Walensky noted a steady increase in COVID-19 cases over the last five weeks, including a 26 percent increase nationally in the last week.

Hospitalizations are also on the rise, up 19 percent in the past week, though still much lower than during the omicron wave, he said.

In late February, while that wave was subsiding, the CDC released a new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 was easing its grip, with less emphasis on positive test results and more on what happens in hospitals.

Walensky said that more than 32 percent of the country currently lives in an area with medium or high community levels of COVID-19, including more than 9 percent at the highest level, where the CDC recommends the use of masks and other prevention efforts. mitigation.

In the past week, an additional 8 percent of Americans lived in a county with medium or high community levels of COVID-19.

Officials said they are concerned that waning immunity and relaxed mitigation measures across the country could contribute to a continued rise in infections and illnesses across the country. They encouraged people, particularly older adults, to get backup.

Some health experts say the government should take clearer and bolder action.

The CDC’s community-level guidelines are confusing to the public and don’t provide a clear picture of how much virus transmission is occurring in a community, said Dr. Lakshmi Ganapathi, an infectious disease specialist at Harvard University.

When government officials make recommendations but don’t set rules, “ultimately it’s up to each individual to pick and choose the public health that works for them. But that is not what is effective. When it comes to stopping hospitalizations and even deaths, all of these interventions work best when people do it collectively,” he said.

By Associated Press writers Zeke Miller and Mike Stobbe, reporting from New York.

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How to get tested

Tampa Bay: The Times can help you find public COVID-19 testing sites in the Bay Area.

Florida: The Department of Health has a website which lists testing sites in the state. Some of the information may be out of date.

The United States: The Department of Health and Human Services has a website that can help you find a test site.

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How to get vaccinated

The COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 and older and booster shots for eligible recipients are administered at doctors’ offices, clinics, pharmacies, supermarkets, and public vaccination sites. Many allow you to book appointments online. Here’s how to find a site near you:

Find a site: To visit vaccines.gov to find vaccination sites in your zip code.

More help: Call the National COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline.

Telephone: 800-232-0233. Help is available in English, Spanish, and other languages.

TTY: 888-720-7489

Information line and access for the disabled: Call 888-677-1199 or email [email protected].

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OMICRON VARIANT: Omicron changed what we know about COVID. Here’s the latest on how the infectious variant of COVID-19 affects masks, vaccinations, boosters, and quarantining.

CHILDREN AND VACCINES: Do you have questions about how to vaccinate your child? Here are some answers.

REINFORCEMENT SHOT: Confused about which COVID booster to get? This guide will help you.

REINFORCEMENT QUESTIONS: Are there side effects? Because I need it? Here are the answers to your questions.

PROTECTING THE ELDERLY: This is how seniors can stay safe from the virus.

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