Most Americans live in places where healthy people, including students in schools, can safely take a break from wearing masks under new U.S. guidelines released Friday.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlined the new set of measures for communities where COVID-19 is easing its grip, with less of a focus on positive test results and more on what바카라 게임 웹사이트�s happening at hospitals.The new system greatly changes the look of the CDC's risk map and puts more than 70% of the U.S. population in counties where the coronavirus is posing a low or medium threat to hospitals. Those are the people who can stop wearing masks, the agency said.The agency is still advising that people, including schoolchildren, wear masks where the risk of COVID-19 is high. That's the situation in about 37% of U.S. counties, where about 28% of Americans reside.The new recommendations do not change the requirement to wear masks on public transportation and indoors in airports, train stations and bus stations. The CDC guidelines for other indoor spaces aren바카라 게임 웹사이트�t binding, meaning cities and institutions even in areas of low risk may set their own rules. And the agency says people with COVID-19 symptoms or who test positive shouldn바카라 게임 웹사이트�t stop wearing masks.But with protection from immunity rising 바카라 게임 웹사이트� both from vaccination and infection 바카라 게임 웹사이트� the overall risk of severe disease is now generally lower, the CDC said.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Anybody is certainly welcome to wear a mask at any time if they feel safer wearing a mask,바카라 게임 웹사이트� CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news briefing. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�We want to make sure our hospitals are OK and people are not coming in with severe disease. ... Anyone can go to the CDC website, find out the volume of disease in their community and make that decision.바카라 게임 웹사이트�Since July, CDC바카라 게임 웹사이트�s transmission-prevention guidance to communities has focused on two measures 바카라 게임 웹사이트� the rate of new COVID-19 cases and the percentage of positive test results over the previous week.Based on those measures, agency officials advised people to wear masks indoors in counties where spread of the virus was deemed substantial or high. This week, more than 3,000 of the nation바카라 게임 웹사이트�s more than 3,200 counties 바카라 게임 웹사이트� greater than 95% 바카라 게임 웹사이트� were listed as having substantial or high transmission.That guidance has increasingly been ignored, however, with states, cities, counties and school districts across the U.S. announcing plans to drop mask mandates amid declining COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.With many Americans already taking off their masks, the CDC's shift won't make much practical difference for now, said Andrew Noymer, a public health professor at the University of California, Irvine. But it will help when the next wave of infection 바카라 게임 웹사이트� a likelihood in the fall or winter 바카라 게임 웹사이트� starts threatening hospital capacity again, he said.바카라 게임 웹사이트�There will be more waves of COVID. And so I think it makes sense to give people a break from masking,바카라 게임 웹사이트� Noymer said. 바카라 게임 웹사이트�If we have continual masking orders, they might become a total joke by the time we really need them again.바카라 게임 웹사이트�The CDC is also offering a color-coded map 바카라 게임 웹사이트� with counties designated as orange, yellow or green 바카라 게임 웹사이트� to help guide local officials and residents. In green counties, local officials can drop any indoor masking rules. Yellow means people at high risk for severe disease should be cautious. Orange designates places where the CDC suggests masking should be universal.How a county comes to be designated green, yellow or orange will depend on its rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, the share of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients and the rate of new cases in the community.Mask requirements already have ended in most of the U.S. in recent weeks. Los Angeles on Friday began allowing people to remove their masks while indoors if they are vaccinated, and indoor mask mandates in Washington state and Oregon will be lifted in March.In a sign of the political divisions over masks, Florida바카라 게임 웹사이트�s governor on Thursday announced new recommendations called 바카라 게임 웹사이트�Buck the CDC바카라 게임 웹사이트� that actually discourage mask wearing.State health officials are generally pleased with the new guidance and 바카라 게임 웹사이트�excited with how this is being rolled out," said Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.바카라 게임 웹사이트�This is the way we need to go. I think this is taking us forward with a new direction going on in the pandemic," Plescia said. "But we바카라 게임 웹사이트�re still focusing on safety. We바카라 게임 웹사이트�re still focusing on preventing death and illness.바카라 게임 웹사이트�The CDC said the new system will be useful in predicting future surges and urged communities with wastewater surveillance systems to use that data too.바카라 게임 웹사이트�If or when new variants emerge or the virus surges, we have more ways to protect ourselves and our communities than ever before,바카라 게임 웹사이트� Walensky said.