CDC director says COVID cases are still 'too high' to consider dropping mask mandates

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is standing by its mask-wearing guidelines for schools, saying COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are still ‘too high’ to consider dropping restrictions despite daily infections having declined by 47 percent over the past seven days.

‘Right now our CDC guidance has not changed. We continue to endorse universal masking in schools,’ CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a radio interview with WYPR on Tuesday.

‘We owe it to our children to make sure that they can safely stay in school. Right now, that includes masking. We’ve seen outbreaks that have occurred in communities where students were not masked in schools and had to close.’

Walensky’s remarks come as officials in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon announced plans to lift mask mandates for schools and other public places as they seek a return to ‘normalcy.’

Governors in California and New York are lifting indoor masking requirements, but extending the requirement for schools. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker is expected to make a similar announcement Wednesday, sources confirmed to DailyMail.com. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci – chief medical adviser for President Joe Biden – had said Tuesday that America is almost past the ‘full-blown’ pandemic phase and he hoped there would be an ending to all COVID-related restrictions in the coming months, including the mandatory use of face masks. 

The CDC is standing by its mask-wearing guidelines for schools, despite officials in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon having announced plans to lift mask mandates for schools and other public places

The CDC is standing by its mask-wearing guidelines for schools, despite officials in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon having announced plans to lift mask mandates for schools and other public places

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky (pictured) says the health authority's 'guidance has not changed and continue to endorse universal masking in schools'

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky (pictured) says the health authority’s ‘guidance has not changed and continue to endorse universal masking in schools’

Walensky, seemingly disapproving of the governors’ rulings, said masking in schools remains ‘consistent with our guidance that still also recommends that people mask in public indoor settings in areas of high or substantial transmission.’

The public health expert said she is ‘cautiously optimistic’ that COVID-19 cases in the U.S. will fall below ‘crisis levels’ at some point, but notes ‘we are not there right now.’

Despite declines in infections from recent record highs, the CDC director claimed the nation is currently seeing higher hospitalization rates than it did during the peak of cases caused by the Delta variant in 2021.

‘Right now, we still have about 290,000 cases every single day, and our hospitalization rates now are higher than they even were at the peak of our Delta surge,’ Walensky said. 

‘So in this moment – while we are looking ahead and planning ahead, and we’ll continue to evaluate and follow the science – our recommendations are consistent with encouraging students to wear well-fitting masks.’ 

Walensky said COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are still ‘too high’ to consider dropping restrictions despite daily infections having declined by 47 percent over the past seven days

How school mask mandates vary state-by-state

School mask mandates, like other pandemic restrictions, vary by state.

School mask mandates are in effect in California, DC, Hawaii, Illinois, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Washington.  

Last month, Massachusetts extended its mandate through February. It remains unclear if the mandate will be extended again. 

New York Gov. Hochul is expected to extend the school mask mandate on February 9. It was set to expire later in the month.  

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced February 7 that his state’s mandate will be lifted on March 7.

Delaware Gov. John Carney made a similar announcement February 7, saying the state’s school mask mandate will lift March 31. He also said the general statewide indoor masks order will end on February 11.

Connecticut is set to end its statewide mask mandate on February 28.

Oregon will lift its statewide mask mandate on March 31. 

Maryland, which still has a school mask mandate in effect, now allows local districts to remove masks if 80 percent of students and staff at a single school are fully vaccinated or 80 percent of the district’s community population is fully vaccinated. 

If neither of the vaccination thresholds are met, a local district can also choose to lift universal masking when the county or jurisdiction has reached 14 days of moderate or low transmission of COVID-19. 

Louisiana and Pennsylvania have lifted their statewide school mandates.

Seven states – Arizona, Florida, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah – currently has legislation in effect banning school mask mandates. 

Updated: Feb. 9, 2022 

The doctor added that hospital capacity is ‘one of the most important barometers’ for determining whether the U.S. should lift measures and transition from a pandemic phase into an endemic phase, although she did not give a specific number of cases that she believes to be a benchmark for changing the guidance. 

‘I don’t necessarily look at a magic number. What I do think is a really important barometer is how our hospitals are doing,’ Walensky explained.

‘Are hospitals able to, you know, take care of the car accidents, the heart attacks and strokes that routinely walk in the door because they are not at capacity taking care of patients with COVID-19? 

‘And right now across the country, our hospitals are still in crunch mode,’ she said. ‘They still have real challenges with capacity.’  

Fauci said the government’s response to COVID-19 will eventually be handled on a local level rather than a federal one, in his most optimistic comments about the trajectory of the pandemic since the emergence of Omicron.

Fauci told the Financial Times: ‘I hope we are looking at a time when we have enough people vaccinated and enough people with protection from previous infection that the COVID restrictions will soon be a thing of the past.’ 

Asked when restrictions might end, he agreed with the suggestion that it could be this year and said he hoped it would be ‘soon,’ but he failed to give an exact date. 

Despite his optimism, Fauci did warn that local health departments could reintroduce measures temporarily to control outbreaks within the community.

The immunologist said although the virus will not be ‘eradicated,’ he believed it could reach an ‘equilibrium’ when enough people are vaccinated or protected from past COVID infection, meaning the government could end pandemic-related restrictions.

Fauci also predicted that not everybody would need regular vaccine boosters to protect themselves from COVID, saying young and healthy people with ‘no underlying conditions’ might only need a booster ‘every four or five years’.    

New York Governor Kathy Hochul will not be extending the statewide indoor mask mandate, which was set to expire on Thursday. 

The mandate, which sparked heated debate throughout the state, required businesses to ask customers for proof of full vaccination or require mask-wearing indoors at all times.

The mandate was supposed to be under review come its expiration on Thursday, but people briefed on the matter told The New York Times that Hochul will let the mandate lapse as other Democratic-led states such as New Jersey, California, Connecticut, Delaware and Oregon have announced an end to similar mandates.  

Hochul is expected to make a formal announcement about the end of her state’s mask mandate for most indoor public places on Wednesday.

However, the governor gave no indication on whether her administration would renew or drop the separate compulsory masking rule in New York public schools that is due to lapse in two weeks. 

On Monday, she said it was ‘premature’ to say when or how the measure would be lifted, citing low vaccination rates in children aged five to 11. 

‘I am optimistic and we’re trending in that direction, but I still need some time,’ she told reporters. 

source: dailymail.co.uk