“I think we at the CDC have been very clear that now is not the time to release all restrictions,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing.
Walensky said she “would still encourage individuals to wear masks to do the right thing to protect their health.”
“Every individual … is empowered to do the right thing here, regardless of what the states decide for personal health, for public health, for their health, and their loved ones and communities,” she said.
In Houston, the chief of staff of the United Memorial Medical Center, said he told his staff to prepare for surges in patients because of the vanishing rules.
“If we open the state on the 10th, I’m telling you, before the end of March, we’re going to have problems,” Dr. Joseph Varon told CNN’s “New Day” Wednesday.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he was “dumbfounded” by the governor’s announcement and pleaded with residents to “act like we do have a mask mandate, for people to continue to wear it, for businesses to continue to require it.”
In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said starting Wednesday the state would lift its county mask mandates and allow businesses to operate at full capacity.
Mayors of some cities, including Jackson and Greenville, said they will keep enforcing citywide mask mandates.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine also announced revisions to public health orders Tuesday, including dropping a 300-person limit for events at banquet centers. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer unveiled a series of eased restrictions taking effect Friday, including expanded capacity for restaurants, retail, gyms, stadiums and other facilities.
And in Louisiana, the majority of businesses — including restaurants and salons — will be allowed to operate at 75% capacity starting Wednesday, while religious services will no longer have capacity limits, the governor said.
Testing demand is dropping
Although Covid-19 case levels in the US are well below a January peak, health experts have given a few points of caution about the decline.
The US averaged more than 65,400 new cases a day over the last week, far below a peak average of more than 249,700 day reached on January 8. But the rate of decline has recently slowed — the average was just above 70,000 a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
And the current case average is still high in context — it’s very close to the highest average of last summer, which was around 67,030 on July 20.
Also, fewer people appear to be getting tested, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the week that ended Monday, the US recorded an average of about 1.5 million Covid-19 tests daily, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.
That’s about 26% fewer than the average in mid-January, when the US saw a seven-day average of more than 2 million tests reported.
“Widespread testing must continue in order to defeat the pandemic,” Dr. Greta Massetti, from the CDC, told CNN Tuesday. “It will take many months for all Americans to have the opportunity to receive one of the vaccines available.”
“In the meantime, it’s essential that people continue to take preventive measures.”
Inoculations with Johnson & Johnson vaccine ramp up
Among the locations offering the J&J vaccine Wednesday was a Federal Emergency Management Agency-run site at Miami Dade College.
At that site, people can arrive without registering beforehand and can choose — as supplies allow, on a first-come, first-serve basis — which company’s vaccine to receive. The site intends to offer 500 J&J shots and 2,500 Pfizer shots per day.
Governors across the country have said the introduction of the J&J vaccines to the US market will help ramp up vaccinations, and some have announced expanded eligibility guidelines as a result of the added supply.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced that starting Wednesday, all frontline essential workers in Group 3 are eligible to make vaccine appointments, noting that the state also plans to make residents with comorbidities in Group 4 eligible later this month.
“The third vaccine and improving vaccine supply will help us get more people vaccinated more quickly,” the governor said. “But as we’ve said before, we still don’t have enough vaccines. You may have to wait for an appointment even if today’s action means you are eligible to get vaccinated.”
For Americans who have already received a first dose, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine should not replace second doses of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines except in “exceptional situations,” the CDC warned.
“The Covid-19 vaccines are not interchangeable, and the safety and efficacy of a mixed-product series has not been evaluated,” Dr. Sarah Mbaeyi, CDC medical officer, said Tuesday. “We don’t want people to just start mixing and matching with whatever is easiest to get.”
Vaccine guidance coming soon
For Americans who are already fully vaccinated, recommendations on what they safely can do are on the way. The CDC will release guidance for fully vaccinated people when it is finalized later this week, an agency official told CNN.
The guidance reportedly includes a recommendation that fully vaccinated people limit their social interactions to small home gatherings with other fully vaccinated people.
It reportedly also recommends that fully vaccinated people continue to wear masks in public and practice social distancing. That recommendation has also been made by other health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Additionally, the guidance will reportedly include scenarios for Americans to consider when making plans, including travel.
CNN’s Jen Christensen, John Bonifield, Jason Hoffman, Deidre McPhillips, Alec Snyder, Rebekah Riess, Sara Weisfeldt and Rosa Flores contributed to this report.
