COLUMBUS – As more cities, businesses and sports venues across the U.S. lift pandemic restrictions, city leaders from Columbus and some of its surrounding communities hinted that mask mandates and other health precautions may be lifted in the not-too-distant future.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and his counterparts from Bexley, Whitehall and Worthington met with Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts and Franklin County Health Commissioner Joe Mazzola Wednesday to get an update on the status of the spread of COVID-19 and discuss the future of restrictions.
Each city currently has local orders in place requiring the wearing of face coverings indoors but, if current trends continue, the leaders of the cities expect to consider lifting those mandates in the coming weeks, they said in a joint press release following the meeting.
“Our collective efforts to control the spread of the virus have worked, and we look forward to lifting mask requirements in the very near future,” Ginther said.
“We are eager to be in a position where conditions warrant a relaxing of general public space requirements, and as we have in the past we will continue to turn to our public health departments for their recommendations, guidance, and expertise,” Bexley mayor Ben Kessler said.
The number of new cases of COVID-19 reported in Ohio Wednesday was 80% lower than the number on Jan. 27, though the statewide infection rate was 481 cases per 100,000 residents over the preceding two weeks.
CDC will re-examine guidelines
The nation’s top health official says the U.S. is closer to declaring that COVID-19 is no longer a “constant crisis.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the government is looking to change masking guidelines in coming weeks due to recent declines in COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions and deaths.
She says Americans want to get to the point “where COVID-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives.”
“We want to give people a break from things like mask-wearing when these metrics are better, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things worsen,” she said during a White house briefing.
Omicron immunity
One model that looks at vaccinations, recent infections and other factors estimates that 73% of Americans are, for now, immune to omicron, and that could rise to 80% by mid-March.
Still, while the population is better protected, tens of millions of individuals are not because they are unvaccinated or have never been infected.