COVID-19 mask updates: A week of whiplash as U.S. appeals judges ruling – OregonLive

The Biden administration is appealing a judges order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs. The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.

The CDC says it is its continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.

People in Philadelphia could be excused if they felt a sense of whiplash Friday as the city abandoned its indoor mask mandate just days after becoming the first U.S. metropolis to reimpose compulsory masking in response to an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. City officials who had previously stressed the need to head off a new wave of coronavirus infections by requiring people to mask up indoors abruptly called it off after what they said was an unexpected drop in the number of people in the hospital and a leveling-off of infections.

Meantime, Boston urged people to start wearing masks after the Boston Public Health Commission noted a rise in hospitalizations, as well as a 65% increase in cases and an even larger spike in COVID-19 levels in local wastewater samples. It also stressed that the guidance was merely a recommendation, not an order.

Los Angeles County bucked national trends and said Thursday it will still require masks on public transit including trains, subways, buses, taxis and rideshares. Cases have risen in the past week and hospitalizations have plateaued after falling the previous two months.

The country is wrestling with how to deal with the next phase of the pandemic and find the right balance in enacting health measures at a time when many Americans are ready to move on after two exhausting years.

A federal judge in Florida this week threw out a national mask mandate on mass transportation, and airlines and airports responded swiftly Monday by repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. That put the Biden administration in the position of trying to navigate an appeal that could have sweeping ramifications over the power that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has in regulating future health emergencies.

The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn the judges order.

The CDC said in a statement that it is its continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.

It remained unclear whether the Biden administration would ask the appeals court to grant an emergency stay to immediately reimpose the mask mandate on public transit. An emergency stay of the lower courts ruling would be a whiplash moment for travelers and transit workers. Most airlines and airports, many public transit systems and even ride-sharing company Uber lifted their mask-wearing requirements in the hours following Mondays ruling.

After a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant that prompted record hospitalizations, the U.S. has seen a significant drop in virus spread in recent months, leading most states and cities to drop mask mandates.

In Canada, unvaccinated children aged 5 to 11 traveling with a fully vaccinated adult will no longer need a COVID-19 test to enter Canada beginning Monday. Pre-entry tests will still be needed for partially vaccinated or unvaccinated travelers over the age of 12 who are eligible to travel to Canada. Children under five years of age dont currently require a COVID-19 test to enter Canada. Government officials announced several other small changes to ease restrictions for international travelers taking effect on Monday. Fully vaccinated travelers, and children under 12 accompanying them, will no longer need to provide their quarantine plans when they enter the country.

If you are traveling

What do you do if you are traveling? Dr. John Brooks, the CDCs chief medical officer for the COVID-19 response, has some practical advice:

Arm yourself. Get vaccinated, and if youre fully vaccinated, get boosted. If youve had two or three shots of Pfizers Comirnaty or Modernas SpikeVax vaccine and its been four months since your last shot, another dose is advised. Give yourself a week or so for another jab to refresh your immune systems supply of antibodies.

If you have certain medical conditions, cant be vaccinated, or take medications that weaken your immune systems ability to fight off infections, see if you can get a dose of Evusheld, a form of passive defense that can help protect you.

Patients in active treatment for cancer, or people who received a stem cell transplant for blood cancer in the past two years, may not have mounted a strong response to the vaccine. They need the extra boost of immunity that the monoclonal antibodies in Evusheld provide. Patients who take long courses of high-dose steroids or a range of other medications to treat auto-immune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis may be in the same boat. And anyone who has had a solid organ transplant needs more protection to compensate for the powerful medications they take to prevent rejection.

Slightly more than a million doses of the protective medication have been distributed, mainly to hospitals and health care systems across the country. That wont cover everyone who probably needs it. If you think it could help you, the rheumatologist, oncologist or transplant team that treated you is best positioned to help you get it.

Do wear your mask, and make sure its a good one. In a crowd, the more people are masking, the less virus will be suspended in the air to be breathed in, so more masking is better. But correct and consistent wearing of a mask that molds close to your face can protect you from breathing in those lingering viral particles, or limit how much you take in. That, in turn, could mean the difference between warding off infection and becoming ill.

Youve heard this before, but its worth repeating: A cloth mask wont cut it, given how readily the omicron variant spreads. If you love your cloth mask, put a disposable surgical mask over it: theyre designed to draw in and trap virus on their surface. But your best bet is to wear an N95 respirator, which pinches around your nose and has ear loops or head straps that hold the mask tight to your face.

Before you go on an airplane, practice at home to make sure you can wear it comfortably, correctly and consistently, Brooks said. Theyre itchy and scratchy and the air is hot for some people. But millions of health care providers have learned how to wear them, and you can too.

Mind the transitions, and take a direct flight if you can. The filtration systems of most commercial jets are fully engaged when theyre traveling above 10,000 feet, Brooks said, and they are powerfully effective at cleaning the air under those conditions. But when jet engines are idling on the ground (and passengers are boarding or deplaning), those systems are not doing that job. And the efficiency of those air filtration systems also suffers as the plane ascends or descends.

So be sure to wear your mask during those transitions. And taking direct flights where possible limits the amount of time youre sitting in a crowded metal tube with a filtration system thats going to let more virus slip through than it will at cruising altitude.

Reserve a window seat, board last, and sit near the front so you can deplane quickly. The principle here is to spend the least amount of time possible on a plane thats still on the ground, Brooks explained. You also want to sit where any virus emitted by passengers and staff in the aisles is least likely to reach you.

Seeking special favors from airlines is either costly or difficult. But most will let you choose your seat for an extra charge, and if you can do that, look for one that gives you some distance from passers-by but also lets you make a fast get-away.

Eat or drink with caution. Youll probably be hungry and thirsty if youre taking a long trip. But if other travelers are largely unmasked, your snack or swig of soda is an opportunity for their virus to enter your respiratory tract.

Brooks notes that a straw can be inserted right under a mask, limiting the broken seal. He suggests eating in the airport rather than on the plane, and munching your meal in an unpopulated corner of the gate area. Wash your hands before eating.

Know the community transmission level where youre going, and behave accordingly. Going to a hotspot of new cases, or passing through one on the way to your destination? Find out before you go so you know where masking and social distancing are still a good idea and where you can afford to loosen up. Visit the CDCs community website and click on the counties youll be traveling from, to and through.

Stock up on rapid tests and prepare to spring into action if you have a positive result. It makes sense to test yourself before you travel, to make sure youre good to go. But bring another test and take it four days or so after youve been in a high-exposure situation like an airport, or if you develop COVID-19 symptoms.

Getting the earliest possible indication of infection is all the more important because antiviral medications such as Paxlovid and molnupiravir are now available, and they can shorten the duration and/or lessen the severity of an infection. But they must be taken as soon as symptoms start, and no more than five days after symptom onset.

--The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report

View original post here:

COVID-19 mask updates: A week of whiplash as U.S. appeals judges ruling - OregonLive