The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now recommending masks in three Central New York counties due to a rise in Covid-19 cases.
The CDC updated its Covid Community Levels map on Thursday, showing areas where Covid is at a “high” (orange), “medium” (yellow) or “low” (green) risk. Just 17 counties nationwide are at a high risk, and three of them are in New York state: Onondaga County, Oswego County and Cayuga County.
State and local regulations may not require it, but masks are recommended indoors in areas with high Covid community levels under new CDC guidelines released in February. Masking recommendations are now based on three factors — Covid hospitalizations, hospital capacity and new Covid cases — focusing more on preventing hospitals from getting overwhelmed and less on positive tests, which spiked during the omicron wave in December and January.
Masks are not recommended indoors, including in schools, in areas with medium or low community levels, though immunocompromised people and others at high risk for severe illness may still want to wear face coverings indoors and avoid large crowds. Most of New York is at a low risk as of Thursday, but four counties are currently at medium risk: Broome County, Cortland County, Tompkins County, and Tioga County.
This CDC map published March 31, 2022, shows which New York state counties are at low (green), medium (yellow) or high (orange) community levels of Covid-19. Masks are only recommended indoors in areas with high levels of Covid, including Onondaga County, Oswego County and Cayuga County.
Covid community levels were low enough three weeks ago that masks weren’t recommended in any county in the Empire State, but cases and hospitalizations have increased in Central New York due to the rise of the highly contagious BA.2 variant, the end of widespread mask-wearing, and the waning of vaccines.
Experts have struggled to explain why rates of new CNY cases are three times higher than the state average, but syracuse.com | The Post-Standard confirmed Thursday that one contributing factor is Onondaga County lumping in at-home test results with lab results — and erroneously sending both sets of numbers to a state database intended only for laboratory-confirmed results. Most counties only tally lab results as at-home tests are less reliable, and Onondaga County said it will no longer submit at-home tests to the database.
With at-home tests counted, Central New York’s daily rate over the last seven days would be 48 per 100,000 people. Without those tests, the rate is 36.5.
That’s still more than double the statewide average, but it’s unclear if the CDC would still recommend masks in Onondaga, Oswego and Cayuga counties without at-home tests counted. Hospitalizations are a bigger factor than positive tests, and hospital admissions have begun a slow rise in Central New York; there were 20 patients admitted for Covid in the region on Tuesday, the highest one-day total in nearly six weeks.
The CDC updates its Community Levels map every Thursday. Besides Central New York, the largest region with areas of high risk is currently northern Montana, where six counties are in the orange zone.
The CDC’s map provides recommendations for mask-wearing, but does not indicate where face coverings are required.
Masks are still required in New York state for health care facilities, nursing homes, courts, correctional facilities, homeless shelters, public transportation, and taxis and ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft. Kids also have to wear them in schools in some instances, such as after being exposed to someone with Covid for 10 days.
The CDC also says anyone with Covid-19 symptoms or who test positive should wear masks, regardless of vaccination status or the risk level where they live.
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