(NBC News) — As Covid cases and related hospitalizations fall nationwide, Americans — exhausted by two years of pandemic — are increasingly asking when masks can come off indoors.
“Not yet,” says both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many infectious disease experts.
Last summer, the CDC recommended indoor masking for communities logging either an average of 50 Covid cases per 100,000 residents or a test positivity rate of at least 8 percent.
That guidance has not changed. And as of Thursday, 99.9 percent of U.S. counties met the criteria for indoor masking.