STROUD TOWNSHIP, PA — Hospitalizations and positive COVID-19 cases at St. Luke's University Health Network Monroe campus have fallen dramatically—a welcome sign, as the CDC says healthy Americans can now take a break from masks.
"The CDC is rather late to the party, that's as most people understand that school districts and municipalities have already made their own decisions based on what they see on the ground is exactly what they should be doing," said Dr. Jeffrey Jahre, an infectious disease specialist at St. Luke's.
The new guidance will consider new COVID hospitalizations, current beds occupied by COVID patients, and hospital capacity, as well as new COVID cases. It's a change from just focusing on the daily spread.
"Institution, business, or municipality has to look at what their own circumstance is and come out with the right kind of conclusion, and we've been saying that all along," Dr. Jahre said. There's no question that case counts have been dropping. The true number of cases is dropping, and I do think it's time in many cases to loosen a lot of the advice that was given previously."
The new CDC metrics will consider an area "high, medium, or low risk." Based on that risk level, a community could opt to remove mask recommendations indoors or reinstall them.
But either way, Dr. Jahre says the loosening of restrictions does not mean you should let your guard down.
"When this kind of scenario occurs, and people say, 'We're over it, we're done with it.' That's when we usually get hit with another wave, and we don't know whether that's going to happen the same way, but we have to be prepared for that possibility," Dr. Jahre said.
The updated guidance drops the recommendation of universal masking in schools, but masks will still need to be worn on public transportation.
Dr. Jahre believes the best form of protection from COVID-19 is getting vaccinated.
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