“Since the beginning of April, there has been an increase in the 7-day moving average in the US. “The CDC recommends (the Transportation Safety Administration) to extend the safety directive to impose mask use on public transport and at transport junctions for 15 days, until May 3, 2022,” the official said.
The official said the extension “will give the CDC extra time to learn more about BA.2 and make a better informed decision”.
According to the latest CDC estimates, BA.2 caused 86% of new Covid-19 cases nationwide last week.
The United States now records an average of 38,345 new cases of Covid-19 per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Outbreaks appear to be exacerbated in more than half of the states – including all but one northeastern state, Delaware. But the daily interest rate is still one of the lowest since mid-July.
According to the latest forecast from the CDC as a whole, there could be just over 11,000 additional deaths in the next four weeks, one of the lowest number of additional deaths projected in 2022.
The number of new global cases and deaths of Covid-19 also continued to decline by 24% and 18%, respectively, during the week of April 4 to April 10 compared to the previous week, the World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological of update. published on Tuesday.
However, the WHO and the International Health Regulatory Commission (IHR) said Wednesday that the Covid-19 pandemic remains a public health emergency of international interest – a name originally made in January 2020.
In many parts of the United States, the widespread use of the mask in public places has been lifted. The transfer order applies to public transport, including airplanes, trains, buses and junctions such as airports.
The order was scheduled to expire on April 18. The White House coordinator for the treatment of Covid-19 Dr. Ashish Jha told CNN on Monday that the CDC was planning to share a scientific framework this week for the federal transfer mask mandate.
Asked by CNN’s John Berman what he personally thinks about the removal of masked orders in transport, Jha said: “I think these decisions should always be guided by science and evidence and by a framework, a scientific framework, that helps us make smart decisions about them.
“We will see what they end up with. And based on that, I think we will want to make a decision based on the type of events on the ground and the science and the scientific context that we have.”
The White House moved last month to extend the mandate of the transfer mask, originally set at the beginning of Biden’s presidency, until April 18. The White House said government agencies would consult with the CDC on the conditions under which the order could be returned.
The flight crews’ unions initially welcomed the move to protect staff who could not avoid close contact with passengers, but some in the airline industry recently called for the order to be terminated.
A group of major airline CEOs have stated that they want to finish. The union, which represents Southwest Airlines flight attendants, called on the Biden government in March to “remove the federal mask order as soon as possible.” A team from 21 states, as well as teams of pilots and flight attendants, called on federal courts in March to end the mandate.
The order also led to incidents of collisions with passengers in the skies.
The Federal Aviation Administration says that since the beginning of 2022, there have been approximately 744 incidents of unruly passengers related to face masks reported to the service by airline crews.
This story has been updated with additional references.
CNN’s Jamie Gumbrecht and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.
