For almost a year now, it has been clear to public health experts: Wear masks helps contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, and there is a risk of transmission both indoors and outdoors.
But here’s another study issued by the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on March 5th to add to the growing evidence pile. Examining the district-level data from March 1 to December 31, researchers found that mask mandates were associated with a decrease in daily infections and the growth rates of death within 20 days. The data also showed that restaurants and restaurants reopening for local meals six to 11 weeks later were followed by an increase in infections and deaths, especially when mask mandates were not in place.
The results do not prove cause and effect, but the statistically significant patterns are consistent Previous Studies and expert advice. Masks can reduce the amount of infectious droplets and aerosols that leak from people’s noses and mouths. Even with limited capacity, eating indoors can allow these infectious aerosols to form in restaurants – especially without adequate ventilation – as customers eat, drink and talk for long periods of time without a mask. (Restaurant workers are at greatest risk in these scenarios.) Eating outdoors is generally considered safer, but the lack of social distancing, alfresco dining that basically recovers indoor structure, and more contagious new variants of COVID mean that always There are still risks with eating out.
The National Restaurant Association, an industry lobby group that has been campaigning for restaurants to reopen Fight against raising the minimum wage, questioned the new CDC study, Call up the analysis „An ill-informed attack on the industry hardest hit by the pandemic.” The group’s public statement highlights the reservations the CDC added to its analysis, including the lack of controls related to other shop closings and enforcement of local policies, as well as the lack of distinction between indoor and outdoor restaurants and whether Restaurants either did this or did not have adequate ventilation and physical distancing.
Although the study has some limitations, these general guidelines for „mask = good” and „restaurant food = some risk” remain crucial to use in certain conditions Mississippi and Texas It was recently announced that the end of mask mandates and the reopening of companies at full capacity are still on average despite daily averages for new COVID cases nearly 59,000 in the USA
„You have fewer cases and deaths when you wear masks and you have more cases and deaths when you dine in person,” CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky said in a briefing Friday. by . „And so we would advocate for policy, certainly while we are on this plateau of high numbers of cases listening to this public health science.”
As the number of new infections decreases and more people are vaccinated, the guidelines will change. According to the CDC first set of public health recommendations for vaccinated peopleThose who received the full dose of the vaccine can congregate indoors with other fully vaccinated individuals or with low-risk, unvaccinated individuals from a single household with no masks or physical distancing. Medium and large gatherings are still not recommended, however, and fully vaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks and distance themselves in public when visiting non-vaccinated individuals from multiple households and visiting unvaccinated individuals who are at high risk of severe COVID- 19 there is illness. Until enough people are fully vaccinated, it is still important to exercise caution.
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