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CDC recommends masks indoors in U.S. where cases surging

NEW YORK -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced new recommendations that vaccinated people return to wearing masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging.

Scientists cited new information about the ability of the delta variant to spread among vaccinated people. The CDC also recommended indoor masks for all teachers, staff, students and visitors to schools, regardless of vaccination status.

The new guidance follows recent decisions in Los Angeles and St. Louis to revert to indoor mask mandates amid a spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that have been especially high in the South.

The country is averaging more than 57,000 cases a day and 24,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations. Most new infections and hospitalizations in the U.S. are among unvaccinated people.

But “breakthrough” infections, which generally cause milder illness, can occur in vaccinated people.

When earlier strains of the virus predominated, infected vaccinated people were found to have low levels of virus and were deemed unlikely to spread the virus much, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said.

But with the more transmissable delta variant, “it is concerning enough that we feel like we have to act,” Walensky said regarding a return to wearing masks.

FILE - In this Friday, March 5, 2021 file photo, a restaurant worker holds his face mask in Biloxi, Miss. On Friday, March 12, 2021. The nation's top health agency is expected to backpedal on its masking guidelines and recommend that even vaccinated people wear masks indoors in parts of the U.S. where the coronavirus is surging, according to a federal official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to release the data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to make an announcement Tuesday, July 27, 2021. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, listens during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing , Tuesday, July 20, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Stefani Reynolds/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly answers questions from reporters following an event at the Statehouse, Thursday, July 22, 2021, in Topeka, Kan. Kelly says getting more Kansas residents vaccinated is the only way to stop the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Annaliese Schroeder, left, a community health advocate, and Kelsey Conner, a public health information specialist, canvass a north Springfield, Mo., neighborhood Thursday, July 15, 2021, for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department in the hopes of boosting COVID-19 vaccinations. With the delta variant causing a surge of new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in southwestern Missouri, health officials have taken to going door-to-door in an effort to encourage vaccinations. (Jill Toyoshiba /The Kansas City Star via AP)
FILE - In this Monday, July 12, 2021 file photo, a medical worker administers a shot of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination center in Gostinny Dvor, a huge exhibition place in Moscow, Russia. Russia's health officials have given a go-ahead to testing a combination of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot and the single-dose version of the domestically developed Sputnik V vaccine. The country's registry of approved clinical trials shows the small study was scheduled to start July 26 and to enroll 150 volunteers. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
A man wearing a face mask to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walks by flags to promote the Olympic Games in Tokyo Monday, July 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
Workers make coffins to be used for victims of the coronavirus in Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Indonesia has been showing sharp increases since late June. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Containers with 200,000 AstraZeneca vaccines are unloaded from an Hungarian government airplane at Lisbon's military airport, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Hungary sold the vaccines to Portugal, which will be sending them to Portuguese-speaking countries and East Timor. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a statement at EU headquarters in Brussels, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. The European Union has achieved a major goal of providing at least one coronavirus shot to 70 percent of adults across the 27-nation bloc but member countries must step up their vaccination rates to combat fast-spreading variants of the disease, the EU's chief executive warned Tuesday. (Stephanie Lecocq, Pool Photo via AP)
A medical worker gives an injection of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to a woman in Tbilisi, Georgia, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. The US has donated half a million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to Georgia, which arrived in the capital on Saturday, July 18, 2021. Georgia has registered more than 395,000 COVID-19 infections with over 5,500 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. (AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)
Lazio Region President Nicola Zingaretti, center, speaks at the inauguration of a vaccination center, Vax & Go, set up at Rome's terminal 3 Leonardo da Vinci airport, where passengers can get a first or second vaccination dose by just showing their boarding card, in Fiumicino, Italy, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. With daily COVID-19 cases sharply rising again, Italy requires people to have received at least one vaccine dose, have recovered from the illness in the last six months or have proof of a negative test performed in the last 48 hours to access venues like gyms, museums and indoor restaurants in a bid to avoid a return to pandemic lockdowns devastating for the economy. (Mauro Scrobogna/LaPresse via AP)
This photograph provided by UNICEF shows monks from Paro's monastic body perform a ritual as 500,000 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine gifted from the United States arrived at Paro International Airport in Bhutan, July 12, 2021. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has fully vaccinated 90% of its eligible adult population within just seven days, its health ministry said Tuesday. (UNICEF via AP)
People fish on Galata Bridge with Yeni Cami in the background in Eminonu district in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Turkey has recorded more than 15,000 new coronavirus cases, as the number of infections continue to surge. (AP Photo/Mucahid Yapici)
A man walks through an underpass in the Eminonu district in Istanbul, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. Turkey has recorded more than 15,000 new coronavirus cases, as the number of infections continue to surge. (AP Photo/Mucahid Yapici)
A statue of Saint Damien wears a mask at Saint Damien Hospital, a vaccination site for COVID-19 in Port au Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. After months of not having any vaccines in the country, the U.S. donated 500,000 doses through the U.N. COVAX system for Haiti in mid-July. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)
A person gets a shot of the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 at Saint Damien Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Tuesday, July 27, 2021. After months of not having any vaccines in the country, the U.S. donated 500,000 doses through the U.N. COVAX system for Haiti in mid-July. (AP Photo/Joseph Odelyn)
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