CDC: More than 90% of Americans live in areas where masks not needed

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday said 93% of the U.S. population live in locations where COVID-19 levels are low enough that people do not need to wear masks indoors (Source: “More than 90% of U.S. population in areas where masks not needed -CDC,” Reuters, March 3).

Last week, the CDC dramatically eased its COVID-19 guidelines for when Americans should wear masks indoors, saying they could drop them in counties experiencing what it described as low or medium COVID-19 levels.

The latest figures are an increase from just a week ago, a further indication that COVID hospitalizations - a key benchmark for the new masking recommendations - continue to fall. The agency said on Thursday that 85.4% of counties now rank as low or medium risk and 92.9% of the population lives in those counties.