On Feb. 25, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new set of guidelines stating that most people in the United States can relax when it comes to wearing masks.
Going to www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/covid-by-county.html, people can find COVID community levels and prevention steps by county.
The agency is still advising that people, including schoolchildren, wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high, per The Chicago Tribune. That's the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of residents are.
The new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. However, with protection from immunity rising—both from vaccination and infection—the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower, the CDC said.
Mask requirements already have ended in a lot of the country. Los Angeles began allowing people to remove their masks while indoors if they are vaccinated, and indoor mask mandates in Washington state and Oregon will be lifted in March.
