Pedestrians wearing face masks walk past a store in Washington D.C., the United States, Feb. 16, 2022. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
"We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen," says Rochelle Walensky.
NEW YORK, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is reviewing its mask guidance, shifting its focus to COVID-19 hospitalizations as a key measure of the severity of the outbreak and a future guide for determining whether health safety protocols need to be tightened, according to CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
"We must consider hospital capacity as an additional important barometer," Walensky told the public during a White House COVID-19 update on Wednesday.
"We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen," she said.
The CDC currently recommends that people wear masks in indoor public places regardless of their vaccination status, if they live in an area with high viral transmission. Nearly every U.S. county has high transmission. People are required by federal law to wear masks on planes, buses, trains and other forms of public transportation.
As new infections from the Omicron variant rapidly decline from their peak levels in January, the authorities in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Oregon have announced that they were loosening indoor mask requirements, while some cities and school districts are keeping their mandates in place.
Visitors watch a float during the Lunar New Year celebrations at Disney's California Adventure Park in Anaheim, California, the United States, on Jan. 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Gao Shan)
NO MORE REQUIREMENT
Walt Disney Co. is ditching its mask requirement for fully vaccinated visitors at its Florida and California theme parks, starting Thursday. The shift comes as COVID-19 cases decline in many parts of the country and as major employers including Amazon, Tyson Foods and Walmart drop face-covering mandates for vaccinated workers.
Disney cited "recent trends and regulatory guidance" in easing its pandemic-related rules. It does not require proof of vaccination to get into its parks. People will still need to wear masks on shuttles, buses and other forms of "enclosed" transportation at the parks, said Disney's update.
"We expect guests who are not fully vaccinated to continue wearing face coverings in all indoor locations," the company stated on its Disney World website. Disneyland in California announced similar steps, in line with new California guidance that had the state lifting its mask requirement for the fully vaccinated inside businesses as of Wednesday.
The change in policy comes on the heels of Universal Orlando dispensing with its mask requirement, and as two big outdoor music festivals -- Coachella and Stagecoach -- drop all COVID-19 rules for their April events in Indio, California. "There will be no vaccination, testing or masking requirements at Stagecoach 2022," organizers tweeted on Tuesday.
People line up to receive COVID-19 test in Arlington, Virginia, the United States on Dec. 22, 2021. (Photo by Ting Shen/Xinhua)
LAW AND LAWSUIT
After weeks of back-and-forth, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, signed into law on Wednesday a bill that will effectively bar mask mandates in schools, by giving parents the right to exempt their children from mask-wearing without stating a reason. "Today, we are re-establishing and restoring our power back to parents," he said.
The bill will also take away school districts' freedom to close schools and switch to remote instruction, except in limited circumstances. It requires that every district provide in-person instruction for "the minimum number of required annual instruction hours" in a standard school year, or else face financial penalties.
Also on Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and U.S. House Representative Beth Van Duyne, both Republicans, filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to end mask mandates on planes, arguing that the mandate imposes a "restriction on travelers' liberty interests" and that the CDC does not have the authority to introduce such a blanket preventive measure.
The suit is the latest in a slew of state efforts to challenge COVID-19 safety measures in court. The state is locked in several legal battles with cities, counties and school districts over masks in public schools. Texas also has sued the Biden administration over federal vaccine mandates for health care workers, federal contractors and large businesses. ■
