While most people living in or visiting the US have now been given the greenlight to ditch face coverings, the new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks indoors in airports, train and bus stations, and on public transportation.

The CDC on Friday outlined the new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 is easing its grip with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what’s happening at hospitals.

The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC’s risk map and puts more than 70% of the US population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said.

The agency is still advising people, including schoolchildren, to wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That’s the situation in about 37% of US counties, where about 28% of Americans live.

The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren’t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. And the agency says people with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive shouldn’t stop wearing masks.

But with protection from immunity rising – both from vaccination and infection – the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower, the CDC said.

“Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. “We want to make sure our hospitals are okay and people are not coming in with severe disease… Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.”

Some states, including Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey, are at low to medium risk while others such as West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, and Arizona still have wide areas at high levels of concern.

CDC’s previous transmission-prevention guidance to communities focused on two measures – the rate of new COVID-19 cases and the percentage of positive test results over the previous week.

Based on those measures, agency officials advised people to wear masks indoors in counties where spread of the virus was deemed substantial or high. As of last week, more than 3,000 of the nation’s more than 3,200 counties – greater than 95% – were listed as having substantial or high transmission under those measures.

That guidance has increasingly been ignored, however, with states, cities, counties, and school districts across the US announcing plans to drop mask mandates amid declining COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

With many Americans already taking off their masks, the CDC’s shift won’t make much practical difference for now, said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. But it will help when the next wave of infection – a likelihood in the fall or winter – starts threatening hospital capacity again, he said.

“There will be more waves of COVID. And, so, I think it makes sense to give people a break from masking,” Noymer said. “If we have continual masking orders, they might become a total joke by the time we really need them again.”

Mask requirements already have ended in most of the US in recent weeks. Los Angeles on Friday began allowing people to remove their masks while indoors if they are vaccinated, and indoor mask mandates in Washington state and Oregon will be lifted in late March.

In a sign of the political divisions over masks, Florida’s governor on Thursday announced new recommendations called “Buck the CDC” that actually discourage mask wearing.

US Travel

With the new relaxed guidance measure in place, the US Travel Association, along with the American Hotel and Lodging Association, Airlines for America and the US Chamber of Commerce were quick to further urge the administration to replace pandemic-era travel advisories, requirements and restrictions with “endemic-focused policies that enable travel to resume fully and safely and the American economy to accelerate its recovery.

In a letter to White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeffrey Zients, the groups said, “In light of the improved public health metrics in the US and medical advancements to prevent the worst outcomes of COVID-19, the Biden administration should now take steps to normalize travel conditions…”

To that end they issued a list of “recommendations to restore travel,” including:

• Remove the pre-departure testing requirement for all fully vaccinated inbound international arrivals.
• By March 18, repeal the federal mask mandate for public transportation networks or provide a clear roadmap to remove the mask mandate within 90 days.
• End “Avoid Travel” advisories and the use of travel bans.
• Work with other countries to normalize travel conditions and entry requirements.
• By June 1, develop benchmarks and timelines for a pathway to the new normal that repeals pandemic-focused travel restrictions. And,
• Send a clear message to the American public and the world that it is safe to travel again, particularly for vaccinated individuals.

The group added, “Effective, risk-based policies can be reinstated at any time if new variants of concern emerge, or the public health situation deteriorates. It is now time for the administration to lead the country towards a new normal for travel and on a faster path to a full and even economic recovery.”