Patrons Sari and Peter Melendez have lunch at Katz’s Delicatessen, famous delicatessen founded in 1888, on the first day of returning to New York indoor meals, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in New York, February 12, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The easing of mandates for masks and the reopening of restaurants have led to an increase in cases and deaths at Covid-19, according to a new CDC study released at a time when the agency urges states not to aggressively lift health restrictions .
According to the study, which examined county data between March and December last year, masking mandates implemented by local governments managed to slow the spread of the virus from about 20 days after its implementation.
“Allowing on-site restaurant dinners to be associated with an increase in the growth rates of daily COVID-19 cases 41-100 days after implementation and an increase in the growth rates of daily mortality 61-100 days after implementation,” they wrote researchers at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Masking mandates and restricting any on-site meals in restaurants can help limit the transmission of COVID-19 by the community and reduce the growth rates of cases and deaths.”
The study found that mask requirements were associated with a decrease of more than 1 percentage point in the daily growth rate of Covid-19 cases and deaths 20 days after their implementation. Dining in restaurants was associated with an increase of 0.9, 1.2 and 1.1 percentage points in the growth rate of cases 41-60, 61 to 80 and 81 to 100 days, respectively, after restrictions were lifted, from according to the study.
The researchers added that these measures will be important to prevent the uninterrupted spread of highly transmissible coronavirus variants, which could cause more cases, hospitalizations and deaths, medical experts warned.
“This report is a critical reminder that, with current levels of Covid-19 in communities and the continued spread of more variants of communicable viruses, which have now been detected in 48 states, strictly followed prevention measures remain essential to end with that pandemic, “said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky at a Covid-19 press conference at the White House on Friday.
“It also serves as a warning about the premature lifting of these preventive measures,” said Walensky.
Leading US health officials have repeatedly warned in recent weeks that the emergence of new variants, especially the strain first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, could reverse the country’s success in containing its outbreak.
The US is reporting a daily average of about 62,950 new cases in the past week, a significant drop compared to the peak of nearly 250,000 daily cases reported by the US in January, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University .
The reduction in cases has lost strength, however, a worrying trend that has left infections at an alarming level that could recover if variants were allowed, warn key health officials.
“There is a light at the end of this tunnel, but we must be prepared for the fact that the road ahead may not be smooth,” said Walensky.
Some states have moved forward with the reopening of their economies, despite calls from the Biden government, including White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, for local leaders to wait a few more weeks until the cases show signs of declining again. and more vaccines are administered.
“I don’t know why they are doing this, but it certainly is, from a public health point of view, reckless,” Fauci told CNN on Wednesday when asked about states lifting their Covid restrictions. The scene is reminiscent of last summer, when states began to lift restrictions too soon, followed by a wave of cases across America’s Solar Belt.
“What we don’t need now is another increase,” said Fauci.
Texas, Mississippi and Connecticut changed this week to allow companies to resume operations at full capacity in their states. Both Texas and Mississippi also decided to suspend their mask mandates across the state, although state governors said residents should continue to cover their faces.
On Thursday, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced that she would remove her state’s mask mandate from April 9, saying that while it was the right thing to do, she respects those “who oppose and believe that this was a step too far for the government’s exaggeration. “