New case rates of COVID-19 are dropping from record highs fueled by the omicron variant, causing some to wonder when pandemic mitigation measures can begin lifting. However, experts from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health warn more time may be needed.
When mask mandates for public spaces indoors and inside schools could be lifted was among topics discussed during a Thursday webinar hosted by the Baltimore school.
“Right now is not the time to do that,” said Dr. Crystal Watson, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and assistant professor for the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the School of Public Health.
“For many communities, we are at or above 100 cases per 100,000 per day, and what we want to get down to is more in the in the range below 10. Below one is really where we want to be,” she said.
As of Thursday, per 100,000 people, Virginia’s 14-day average for new COVID-19 cases is 84; in D.C. it is 37 and in Maryland 31.
Watson believes mask mandates can be lifted safely when levels of transmission subside and the youngest children can get vaccinated.
“Then I think we can have these conversations about masking in schools,” she said.
Maryland’s temporary state of emergency related to the pandemic expired on Thursday, but many public health measures instituted by Gov. Larry Hogan will continue.
“Our surge capacity, our testing and tracing operations, our vaccine clinics — all those things will remain in place as part of the ongoing operations of government,” Hogan said during Wednesday’s State of the State address.
Is testing still that big a deal?
Asked whether that’s still necessary, an expert on the panel said it is.
“It’s great that we’ve reached our peak, and are on the way down but we need to get much, much lower in terms of the case numbers, before we can really seriously think about sort of scaling back some of these interventions and testing procedures,” said Dr. Andy Pekosz, virologist, professor and co-director of Johns Hopkins Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response.
“And we need to keep monitoring and making sure we’re driving these case numbers down as low as possible, as quickly as possible,” he said.
Watson concurred.
“What I want to emphasize is that health care and public health are still very much stressed in many places. And our case numbers are still higher than we’ve seen with any previous peak, so we still have to be careful,” Watson said. “While these cases are ebbing, I think it’s important not to jump into a post-pandemic mindset just yet.”
Also, to track what’s happening within communities, it’s important to report at-home COVID-19 antigen test results to health departments.
“There are lots of programs to do that,” Watson said. “And/or follow up with a PCR test to confirm so we can continue to track what’s happening.”
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