CDC updates Kansas mask recommendations

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Sedgwick County and several other Kansas counties are doing better against the coronavirus and have had mask recommendations lifted. However, other counties have been added to the list of those where masks are recommended.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) puts together the map of counties considered at a high level of community transmission.

This week, five counties increased two levels, from low to high. Those five counties are Comanche, Kiowa, Morris, Pratt and Stanton. Thirty other counties increased one level.

The CDC recommends that people who live in counties designated as high level should wear masks when indoors in public.

Seven counties dropped two levels, from high to low, and 31 counties dropped one level.

The CDC says it looks at the combination of three metrics when deciding which counties are at high risk — new COVID-19 admissions per 100,000 population in the past seven days, the percent of staffed inpatient beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, and total new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population in the last seven days.