CDC to Urge Vaccinated People to Resume Wearing Masks Indoors in Some Areas

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will recommend on Tuesday that vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in certain circumstances, citing the highly transmissible delta variant of the coronavirus.

The agency is recommending that vaccinated people who live in high-transmission areas wear masks in indoor public spaces to help prevent viral spread, according to three people familiar with the guidance. It is also advising that vaccinated people with vulnerable people in their households, including young children and those who are immunocompromised, wear masks indoors in public spaces.

In addition, the agency is urging universal masking for all teachers, staff members and students in schools, regardless of vaccination status.

The guidance, to be announced at a 3 p.m. news briefing, would substantially alter the CDC’s May 13 recommendation that vaccinated people did not have to wear masks indoors or outside because of the protection afforded by coronavirus vaccines, according to several people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. At the time, cases were dropping sharply and the delta variant, which is thought to be more than twice as transmissible as earlier strains of the virus, had not gained significant traction in the United States. That earlier guidance had angered some people, including parents with young children ineligible for the vaccines, who feared that relaxing mask rules would put them at greater risk.