By Leeann Doerflein and Andy Bell-Baltaci | Daily Journal
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Face masks are again recommended, regardless of a person’s vaccination status, under new guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The guidance was updated due to the highly transmissible Delta variant, which is 100 times more contagious than the original strain of COVID-19, the CDC says.
All strains of the coronavirus have sickened more than 769,800 Hoosiers and claimed more than 13,500 lives in Indiana. In the past month, 91% of the COVID-19 samples tested in Indiana were positive for the Delta variant, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
The CDC says fully vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in areas of substantial or high transmission. Right now, Johnson County is considered an area of substantial transmission based on the CDC’s ratings.
The CDC also says vaccinated people should consider wearing a mask if they are immunocompromised or at high risk for severe disease if infected with COVID-19, or if they live with someone who fits that description.
Unvaccinated people should wear a mask indoors regardless of their health status, the CDC says.
For schools, the CDC recommends indoor masking for all educators, students and visitors, regardless of vaccination status.
Local and state public health officials have not issued any new mask guidance.
Most counties and schools are unlikely to take action without new regulations, said Betsy Swearingen, health department director.
The Johnson County Health Department has not issued new guidance, but encourages residents to not take the new guidance as a reason to remain unvaccinated. As of Thursday 73,358 county residents are fully vaccinated, which is 55% of the eligible population.
“I think it deters people from getting the vaccine because they think it doesn’t work and there’s no benefit to getting it. But it does work, and your health is the benefit you get. You’re less likely to get as sick as you would without the vaccine,” Swearingen said.
No Local governments, nor schools, have announced any changes to their policies. In Johnson County, both Clark-Pleasant and Edinburgh schools, which started the fall semester Wednesday, made masks optional, only requiring them on buses due to a federal transportation mask mandate.
The guidance at schools is subject to change, and school officials meet with members of the county health department on at least a weekly basis, said Patrick Spray, superintendent of Clark-Pleasant schools.
“We are going to lean on guidance from the Johnson County Health Department and monitor the number and frequency of cases in our schools and classrooms to determine if additional steps need to be taken,” Spray said. “They have been readily available to help answer questions and walk us through scenarios as appropriate.”
At Edinburgh schools, Superintendent Ron Ross is also following the guidance of the county health department.
“We have an ongoing dialogue with the Johnson County Health Department. We are monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic collaboratively with them and the other Johnson County school corporations,” Ross said. “We will update our policies and protocols based on their guidance and any state or federal mandates.”
The other four Johnson County school districts start classes next week, and all have made masks optional, according to the school districts’ plans.
Without more people masking up, the spread of the virus is expected to continue to increase among the unvaccinated due to the variant.
Cases and the positivity rate have increased in recent days, with more than 1,000 new cases reported across the state for the past two days, state health department data shows.
While it is lower than the pandemic’s peak, the caseload reached a level not seen for several months, data shows.
Johnson Memorial Hospital is seeing a new increase in patients with COVID-19; five were hospitalized Thursday, said Dr. David Dunkle, president and CEO.
JMH has seen some breakthrough cases, but all five of the infected individuals at the hospital right now are not vaccinated. Breakthrough cases — vaccinated individuals being diagnosed with COVID-19 — are extremely rare locally and across the country, Dunkle said.
Unvaccinated people of all ages should follow the new CDC’s guidance. They are more at risk for a severe outcome if infected, and more likely to end up in the hospital. The vaccines are shown to still be effective at preventing severe infections if the virus does break through, he said.
Since breakthrough infections are still rare, Dunkle says vaccinated people should use their best judgement and consider wearing masks indoors, especially around people with unknown vaccination statuses.
Though parents have the final say, he would recommend kids mask up at school. If his kids were too young to be vaccinated, he would do the same, he said.
Several professional medical societies have also recommended kids wear masks in schools, with an aim to avoid spreading the virus to a point that schools would have to close again, Dunkle said.
