E-Paper
Covid-19: US brings back face masks to control spread of Delta variant
More than two months ago, the US CDC had recommended that people who are fully vaccinated - those who received both shots of the two-dose Covid-19 vaccines - need not wear face masks both indoors and outdoors
The top US health agency has reversed its earlier mask protocol for those who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19, issuing a new guidance issued on Tuesday that recommends the use of face coverings in high-risk areas.
“To maximise protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission,” the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its latest guidance.
More than two months ago, on May 13, the CDC had recommended that people who are fully vaccinated - those who received both shots of the two-dose Covid-19 vaccines such as Moderna and Pfizer - need not wear masks both indoors and outdoors.
The Alpha variant of the coronavirus, which was prevalent at that time, was not as highly transmissible as Delta, which has been spreading rapidly in the United States feeding primarily on the unvaccinated.
The CDC has called an ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.
Daily tallies of new cases have been spiking, going up to 89,418 on Monday, according to the US-based Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus tracker.
Almost all new hospitalisation cases and deaths in the country are of those infected by the Delta variant of the virus.
US President Joe Biden called the new guidance “another step on our journey to defeating this virus” and appealed to Americans who live in the areas covered by the CDC guidance to follow it.
“I certainly will when I travel to these areas,” he said, underscoring his support for it.
Republicans, especially former US president Donald Trump, slammed the new mask guidance as overreach by the government, continuing their opposition to mitigation measures.
Their arguments have included questioning the efficacy and safety of Covid vaccines, which has prevented many of them from getting the shots that are free and easily available.
“We won’t go back. We won’t mask our children,” said Trump, stepping up his attacks on mitigation measures. “Brave Americans learned how to safely and responsibly live and fight back.”
Trump’s reluctance to use masks when he was president contributed to the politicisation of America’s fight against the pandemic, in which Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, has come to be portrayed as a villain by the former president’s allies.
