The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still recommending masks in three Central New York counties due to high Covid-19 levels, even after Onondaga County stopped reporting at-home test results.
The CDC updated its Covid Community Levels map on Thursday, April 7, showing areas where Covid is at a “high” (orange), “medium” (yellow) or “low” (green) risk. Just 19 counties nationwide are at a high risk, up from 17 last week, 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.
Most of New York is still at a low risk, but Thursday’s update shows nine counties are currently at medium risk: Broome County, Cortland County, Delaware County, Essex County, Madison County, Schuyler County, Seneca County, Tompkins County, and Tioga County. A week ago, only four counties — Broome, Cortland, Tompkins and Tioga — were at medium risk.
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.
The New York state Health Department has also recommended masks in five CNY counties, urging people to get vaccinated and boosted against the coronavirus.
Covid community levels were low enough a month 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. At least 25 zip codes, mostly in Onondaga County, increased 30% or more from Feb. 26 to March 26.
Rates of new CNY cases have been as much as three times higher than the state average, with one contributing factor being Onondaga County lumping in at-home test results with lab results for 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 last week it will no longer submit at-home tests to the database.
But total cases in Onondaga County still increased more than 4% over the past seven days, according to the CDC.
Hospitalizations are a bigger factor than positive tests in recommending masks, and hospital admissions have begun a slow rise in Central New York. Onondaga County saw a 4.3% increase in new admissions of confirmed Covid-19 patients from the previous 7 days, the CDC said Thursday.
The CDC updates its Community Levels map every Thursday. Besides Central New York, the largest region with areas of high risk is currently South Dakota, where six counties are in the orange zone. Montana had six counties with high risk last week, but now has none.
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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