As COVID cases rise, so does talk of re-masking up

In the United States, the COVID-19 death rate has not increased significantly. But hospitalizations have doubled since late June as the delta variant speeds up the spread of the coronavirus. On Wednesday, new daily cases topped 56,000 for the first time since April. The increase has fueled speculation that federal health officials could reinstate mask-wearing requirements. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control had not decided to change its mask guidance, which states vaccinated individuals generally do not need to cover their faces in public.

What is changing? Some entities are updating mask and vaccine recommendations. On Thursday, Philadelphia officials said they strongly encouraged everyone to wear masks in public places. As a way to influence its players to get immunized, the NFL said that any team that has to miss a game because of a COVID-19 outbreak among unvaccinated members could have to forfeit that match.

Dig deeper: Read Samantha Gobba’s report in Compassion about how the pandemic exacerbated social isolation in the United States.