GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Some local experts are considering the new COVID-19 guidance released by the CDC a step back.
It comes as Wisconsin recorded 983 new COVID cases on Monday.
That’s the highest total since April.
“We wouldn’t have to be here if we had more people vaccinated and had better control over the variant that we are seeing today,” Prevea Health president and CEO Dr. Ashok Rai said.
51.6 percent of Wisconsinites have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Very few still wear a mask.
“We have a lot of people, essentially nobody masking right now and we know about 50% of the community should be in a mask right now because they’re not vaccinated,” Dr. Rai said.
Some communities have had to shift back to other mitigation strategies like masking.
Health experts say there is a solution: getting the vaccine.
“That’s the quickest and surest way out of this pandemic and until that happens, we are going to have to deal with new variants, we’re going to have to resort to old ways of preventing spread and going back to masking and social distancing and things like that,” Bellin Health family physician Dr. Robert Mead said.
Dr. Mead tells FOX 11 he agrees with the CDC recommendation that everyone in school should wear masks.
“Look at history. Last year when schools went in-person they required masking, and I don’t think there were a lot of problems with that and it did definitely reduce spread so we have data and we have prior experience showing that that is an effective way for preventing spread.”
Wisconsin Department of Health Services says it supports and will adopt the CDC’s new guidance. The CDC’s latest recommendation is that vaccinated people wear face masks indoors in areas where there are high levels of infection.
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