PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Montgomery, Delaware, Bucks and Philadelphia counties are all currently listed under the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “substantial” level of community transmission, which means there are additional recommended safety steps.
Due to the high rate of spread of the delta COVID-19 variant, it is suggested that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people wear masks while indoors in public. However, those recommendations do not boil down to a simple equation.
Montgomery County Office of Public Health Medical Director Dr. Richard Lorraine said the recently updated CDC guidance puts a lot of emphasis on the number of new cases. While that is important, he said there’s another facet to it.
“I’d like to try to focus, more than the number of cases, on what the implication is of those cases — whether we’re seeing serious illness or death,” he explained. “And, fortunately, we’re not.”
Lorraine said that proves steps to battle COVID-19 — especially vaccination efforts — are effective.
As for recommending masks, he said Montgomery County will follow CDC guidance, but he noted when the virus is at a low level in the community, there is some room for debate about how effective masking vaccinated people would be.
“The total number of hospitalizations is going up only slightly, and the total number of deaths, fortunately, is not changing much at all,” he added. “There’s no question that [masking vaccinated people] will decrease the number of infections, but the percentages are so low to begin with, I’m not sure how much incremental benefit there is to that.”
It is crucial that anyone who shows COVID-19-related symptoms stay home and away from household members, he advised. They should also get tested.
Moreover, Lorraine said the emphasis needs to be on getting more people vaccinated. He said we need to shift our focus to understand there will continue to be a base level of the virus, and we need to learn to live with it. That doesn’t mean, however, that we should stop paying attention to case numbers or stop trying to slow or limit spread.
While some people who have been vaccinated are getting infected, their symptoms are mild, and the vast majority of people who are hospitalized or dying are not vaccinated.
“I think we’re around 94% of current hospitalizations are in the unvaccinated population and around 99% of mortality, so that also indicates that yes, these vaccines are doing incredible things,” he said.
More than half of the populations in Montgomery, Bucks and Delaware counties are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC’s latest county data, while only 45% are in Philadelphia.
As the number of new infections continues to fluctuate, you can see which areas the CDC considers substantial or high risk. Check the status of your county here.