During the White House’s COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky urged Americans living in areas with high levels of COVID-19 in the community to wear masks. She said Americans in areas with moderate COVID community levels should consider wearing masks based on their risk factors.
Video transcription
ROCHELLE WALENSKY: Our COVID-19 Community Levels Framework looks at a range of metrics, including cases, as well as hospitalizations and health system capacity. This framework is designed to be predictive, anticipating where we will see further increases in cases and hospitalizations and deaths, and they aim to inform communities, local leaders and individuals about when and what prevention measures should be implemented in their local environment. .
Right now, as can be seen from this map, more than 32% of Americans live in an area with a moderate or high COVID-19 community level — counties shown in yellow or orange. As of the week before, an additional 8% of the U.S. population lives in a county with a moderate or high COVID-19 community level. For areas with currently high COVID-19 community levels — the ones in orange — we urge local leaders to encourage the use of prevention strategies, such as masking in indoor public settings and increasing access to testing and treatment.
For individuals, COVID-19 Community Levels can also be used to make personal decisions about how best to protect themselves. In areas where the community level is high, everyone should take preventive measures and wear a mask in indoor public settings. In areas with average COVID-19 community levels in yellow, individuals should consider taking preventive measures at their own risk, such as avoiding crowds, wearing masks, increasing their testing, especially before gathering with others indoors. And across all levels of the COVID-19 community, individuals can always choose to wear a mask to protect themselves from infection.
