FLORIDA — The Biden administration dramatically loosened federal COVID-19 mask guidance Friday as infection rates return to pre-omicron variant levels around the country.
The bottom line: About 70 percent of Americans will be able to shed their masks while indoors.
The new framework categorizes counties by “low,” “medium” or “high” risk. The CDC isn’t recommending mask-wearing in the first two categories, except among people who have underlying health conditions that put them at high risk for COVID-19.
In schools, masking is only recommended in counties with a high risk of infection.
On Thursday, Florida reported 3,401 COVID-19 cases and 598 new deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Miami Herald reported. Of the deaths added, about more than half occurred in the last two weeks.
According to the CDC, Florida reported a little more than 523 hospitalizations over a seven-day period through Feb. 22.
The latest data comes the same day Gov. Ron DeSantis and State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo announced significant changes to Florida’s COVID-19 guidance Thursday.
“People want to live freely in Florida, without corporate masking creating a two-tier society and without overbearing isolation for children,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said. “We are empowering health care practitioners to follow science, not Fauci’s status quo.”
According to the state, public health updates in Florida now include:
“The State of Florida has widespread natural and vaccine-induced immunity,” said State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo. “Evidence suggests that most secondary transmission occurs early on. Our state will continue to make decisions for Floridians rooted in sound science, not fear, whether they are working or in school.”
For more information about Florida’s new COVID guidance, click here.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention previously recommended that people wear masks in areas with substantial or high transmission — roughly about 95 percent of U.S. counties, according to the latest data. The new guidance comes as the virus becomes endemic and the Biden administration focuses on preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19 rather than all instances of infection.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky tweeted Thursday that the agency is shifting its focus to concentrate on preventing the spread of COVID-19 to minimize the strain on the health care system.
In a White House briefing last week, she said hospital capacity is an “important barometer.”
“Our hospitals need to be able to take care of people with heart attacks and strokes,” she said. “Our emergency departments can’t be so overwhelmed that patients with emergent issues have to wait in line.”
In her Thursday night tweets, Walensky said community infection rates will determine when and where extra precautions such as mask wearing and testing should be targeted.
“Moving forward, our approach will advise enhanced prevention efforts in communities with a high volume of severe illness and will also focus on protecting our healthcare systems from being overwhelmed,” she tweeted.
The omicron variant of the coronavirus is highly contagious, but generally causes less severe COVID-19 illnesses than other variants, especially among people who are fully vaccinated and boosted, data shows.
Daily U.S. COVID-19 infection rates are down to about 82,000 cases nationwide, according to a database kept by The New York Times, and hospitalizations are down about 44 percent. However, about 2,000 people a day still are dying of the virus, The Times reported.
According to the CDC, the seven-day community transmission rate in Florida remains high.
The Associated Press contributed reporting.
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