CDC could change metrics used for COVID-19 restrictions, including masks, as soon as Friday

ATLANTA — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could soon change the metrics used to determine recommended local COVID-19 restrictions, including mask mandates, according to a scientist involved in the process.

The announcement is expected as soon as Friday. According to experts, “community levels of disease” will no longer be determined by cases alone, but by severe cases leading to hospitalization and death.

The CDC said it’s changing its guidelines because many people nationwide are vaccinated, and the dominant omicron variant has been presenting with comparatively mild symptoms in most vaccinated people.

According to the current CDC transmission map, 97% of US counties are at high or substantial transmission. However, the new guidelines will likely cause that metric to drop.

Forty-nine of 50 states have already announced plans to loosen mask restrictions, and some states have even said they are starting to treat the virus as “endemic.”

Though pediatric cases have been dropping for nearly a month, the American Academy of Pediatrics warns cases in children are still very high–just below the peak level of the summer 2021 surge. More than 27.1 million eligible children over the age of 5 are still unvaccinated.