UPDATE: As of Thursday, the CDC is recommending masks indoors for vaccinated people in 11 counties, including two in Upstate New York.
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New guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending people who are vaccinated against Covid-19 start wearing masks again in many parts of the nation, including one Upstate New York county.
The CDC said Tuesday that people should return to wearing masks indoors in areas with “substantial” (orange areas on map above) and “high” (red) transmission of Covid-19. That includes places with at least 50 new cases per 100,000 people in the past week, or 60 percent of U.S. counties.
Greene County, located in the Hudson Valley region, is among those with “substantial” transmission of the coronavirus over the past week. The county currently has a 5% positivity rate; 32 people tested positive out of 641 tested this past week, according to New York state data. Less than 50% of the county’s 49,000 residents are fully vaccinated.
No other counties in Upstate New York are currently seeing “substantial” or “high” transmission rates, but New York City and Long Island residents are and being urged by the CDC to return to wearing masks indoors even if they’re vaccinated.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not issued new Covid rules, but said Tuesday that New York state is reviewing the CDC’s new recommendations closely in consultation with federal and state health experts.
“New Yorkers beat back Covid before — going from the highest positivity rate on the globe to one of the lowest — by staying smart, following the science, and having each other’s backs, and that’s exactly what we’ll keep doing in this next phase of the pandemic,” Cuomo said.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the new CDC recommendation is largely due to the more transmissible Delta variant, which accounted for 83% of U.S. Covid cases last week. In New York, 72% of recent Covid cases are from the Delta variant.
CNN notes that when the CDC previously updated its guidance in May to tell vaccinated people to unmask, the Delta variant only represented 1% of infections.
Most new infections in the U.S. continue to be among unvaccinated people. So-called “breakthrough” infections, which generally cause milder illness, can occur in vaccinated people.
Walensky said new unpublished data that emerged in recent days shows vaccinated people infected with the Delta variant can have as much virus as those who are unvaccinated. Though rare, vaccinated people still have the potential to spread Covid and get sick themselves from breakthrough infections.
“This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendations,” Walensky told media on Tuesday. “It is concerning enough that we feel like we have to act.”
The CDC also recommended face coverings indoors for teachers, staff, students and visitors in all schools nationwide, regardless of vaccination status. Children under 12 are still ineligible to get vaccinated, and a large number of kids under 18 are still unvaccinated.
The CDC’s recommendation for unvaccinated people remains the same nationwide: Continue wearing a mask until you get the vaccine. And masks are still recommended for all people in crowded indoor settings, such as buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters.
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