Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] director, is familiar with St. Louis and returned as the city and St. Louis County experienced significant declines in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations and loosened mask requirements.
The CDC in late February announced that people in places with low numbers of coronavirus cases and hospitalizations can go without masks, no longer recommended a mask order for the region.
Walensky toured the CareSTL Health center on Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in St. Louis on Thursday, March 3 with Dr. Mati Hlatshwayo Davis, St. Louis health director.
She also spoke at Washington University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry with a concentration in biochemistry in 1991. She received her medical degree at Johns Hopkins University.
“Things are better in the country, through the metrics we can give people some relief from mask wearing,” Walensky told KSDK.
“Our guidance says you can remove your mask. Put them aside, but not too far away. If we need them again, we’ll pick them up again.
She spoke with CareSTL staff and addressed the toll of battling the pandemic has taken on health care workers, and the ongoing effort to help underserved communities.
“I’ve heard of worker burnout here, about challenges to reach the populations that have fallen out of care and trying to re-engage with them,” she said.
Davis said the city, “needs days like this. We need hope.”
“Today is a day St. Louis should be proud. We have been as instrumental in fighting through the pandemic as any of the other big cities,” she said.
St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said in a statement that policies including masking, vaccines, and testing requirement for city workers, while unpopular with some, “helped save lives in our city.”
“St. Louisans worked together to move key metrics, like hospitalization rates and new case counts, in the right direction, but we have to keep protecting each other; testing, handwashing, staying home when sick, as well as vaccination and boosting remain critical tools to help to protect our families and communities.”
Davis warned the pandemic and COVID-19 cases are not over.
“I understand that transitions are challenging, especially in a pandemic where they are often sudden. The priority must still be a community harm reduction approach because we are still not out of the woods,” she said.
According to the Health Department, as of March 3, 2022, the seven-day average of new confirmed COVID-19 cases was 18 per day, with a goal of 35. This was down from a peak of 517.
New daily hospitalizations were at 38, down from a peak of 227 hospitalizations per day, with a goal set at 40 or fewer.
The percent positivity rate was at 4.6%, down from a peak of 35.7%, with the goal being 5% or smaller.
Davis said her department is collaborating with schools to put safety plans in place that may require the wearing of masks in certain situations. City Hall and city offices still require employees and visitor locations to wear masks in indoor public areas and spaces.
The CDC will also work with local health departments and agencies to:
-Implement screening testing or other testing strategies for people who are exposed to COVID-19 in workplaces, schools, or other community settings as appropriate
-Implement enhanced prevention measures in high-risk congregate settings, including senior residences, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters.
-Distributing and administering vaccines to achieve high community vaccination coverage and ensure health equity
-Ensuring access to testing, including through point-of-care and at-home tests for all people.
“I encourage St. Louisans to respect the personal choice of those who continue wearing masks in public spaces, and if you have not yet been vaccinated or boosted, make sure you do so as soon as you can,” Jones said.
