In most parts of New Hampshire, people can shed their masks in public indoor spaces, according to new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.
In all but three New Hampshire counties, the CDC suggests that residents no longer need to wear masks or social distance indoors. The federal health agency is still recommending people wear masks indoors in Grafton, Sullivan and Strafford counties, which are considered to have “high” community levels as of Feb. 24, despite state-level advice that masks aren’t needed in public settings anywhere in the state.
The CDC released new mask guidance on Friday, which assigns county risk levels based on three pieces of information: new COVID-related hospitalizations, hospital capacity, and new COVID-19 cases. Based on these metrics, counties are determined to have high, medium or low COVID-19 community levels. Masks are only suggested in areas with “high” levels.
“This new framework moves beyond just looking at cases and test positivity to evaluate factors that reflect the severity of disease,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC at a recent press conference.
The CDC still recommends completing a COVID-19 test if symptomatic and staying up to date with vaccinations in all parts of the country. Walensky said the shift in recommendations comes as millions of Americans have either received COVID-19 vaccines or have contracted the disease, giving the population high levels of immunity.
“As the virus continues to circulate in our communities, we must focus our metrics beyond just cases in the community and direct our efforts toward protecting people at high risk for severe illness and preventing COVID 19 from overwhelming our hospitals and our healthcare systems,” she said.
People who are either immunocompromised or have another condition that would put them at risk for severe disease should talk with their primary care providers about whether they should continue to wear a mask and whether they qualify for treatments like oral antivirals or monoclonal antibodies, regardless of their area’s level of risk.
Most cities and schools in New Hampshire have already lifted their mask requirements. Last Wednesday, Gov. Chris Sununu announced that the state no longer recommends wearing masks in public indoor settings. State epidemiologist Dr. Ben Chan said COVID-19 no longer poses the risk it once did now that a large portion of the population has immunity from vaccination or infection. He said the current iteration of the virus also causes less severe illness than prior variants.
Sununu said schools that maintain mask mandates may be in violation of students’ rights now that public health does not recommend mask use, Sununu said.
“If a school district isn’t providing a fair and equitable education as the law requires them to, I imagine they would face some legal challenges,” he said.
Since the new recommendations were announced, principals in the Concord School District were advised not to enforce the mask policy.
City officials also scrapped Concord’s mask mandate for municipal buildings on Friday, following the CDC’s announcement. The Concord City Council passed the mask mandate in early January, after rejecting a city-wide mask mandate that would have required customers and workers to cover their faces in all Concord businesses.