Baltimore City & Surrounding Counties No Longer Need Masks Indoors, According To CDC Guidance
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Everyone in all but six Maryland counties can put their masks away if they want to, according to new COVID-19 metrics by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC's "Covid-19 community level" metrics, announced Friday, are now based on three pieces of data in a community: new Covid-19 hospitalizations, hospital capacity and new Covid-19 cases.
Previously, the agency used levels of coronavirus transmission within communities as a key metric for determining restrictions. Under that metric, about 99 percent of the nation's population needed to wear masks indoors.
Those in parts of the country deemed to have "low" levels of the virus — currently about 29.5% of the population — no longer need to wear masks indoors, according to the CDC's new framework.
Residents of counties at "medium" risk — around 42.2% of the country's population – should wear masks if they are at heightened risk of severe disease, like those who have compromised immune systems. Washington, Worcester, Wicomico, Somerset and Garrett counties are at medium risk.
People in counties at a "high" level — around 28.2% of Americans — should still wear a mask indoors. Allegany County is the only Maryland county with a high COVID-19 community level.
In CDC's COVID-19 Community Levels by County map, green counties are low risk, yellow counties are medium risk and red counties are high risk.
Maryland was already moving to ease mask rules ahead of the new guidance, with Baltimore City announcing it would drop its mask mandate next week and the state voting Friday to revoke a statewide mask mandate in Maryland schools.
Despite exceeding 1 million confirmed cases Friday, Maryland's case rate has fallen significantly since last month's peak, and the state has the country's second-lowest case rate.
The state continues to encourage residents to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, even offering a $2 million lottery as an incentive for boosters.