The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its COVID-19 guidance last week, putting a greater emphasis on hospitalizations and health care impacts over daily case counts while relaxing mask recommendations for most Americans.
Under the new CDC system, more than 70% of the U.S. population lives in counties where COVID-19 is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those people can stop wearing masks, according to the CDC. However, officials are still advising people, including schoolchildren, wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That's the situation for about 37% of U.S. counties, including several in the Charlotte area.
The CDC is also offering a color-coded map — with counties designated as orange, yellow or green — to help guide local officials and residents. In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious. Orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal.
How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community.
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