CDC Eases COVID Restrictions: What Remains In Maryland

MARYLAND — Federal health authorities announced scaled-back COVID-19 guidelines Thursday, representing a big change for Maryland residents as key recommendations from the beginning of the pandemic are going away.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is no longer recommending people quarantine when exposed to someone with COVID-19, and is also dropping its guidance for people to stay 6 feet apart.

Instead, the agency is recommending those exposed to someone with COVID-19 wear a mask for 10 days and test for the virus on the fifth day.

The guidelines for those who test positive remain unchanged. They should isolate for five days and may end isolation after that time if they are fever-free for 24 hours without medication and their symptoms are improving. A mask should still be worn through the 10th day after testing positive, according to the guidelines.

Many states and cities already have loosened restrictions and abandoned measures such as social distancing as the country has started moving past the pandemic after two and a half years.

Maryland did not reimplement a statewide mask mandate during the pandemic, but some jurisdictions took precautions. In February 2022, the Maryland State Board of Education lifted its statewide mandate that students and staff wear face coverings in school. Instead, the decision about masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was left to each local jurisdiction and its respective school board.

The Anne Arundel County Board of Education decided to make face coverings and at-home tests for schools with outbreaks optional. The school systems in the city of Baltimore, Harford County, and Howard County also made masks optional by March.

Masking became optional in Montgomery County Public Schools and on buses, the Board of Education decided in a unanimous vote on March 8.

Baltimore County switched to masks as optional on March 14, 2022.

Prince George's County made masks optional rather than required as of July 1, 2022.

Related: MD COVID: Hogan Releases Long-Term Readiness Plan For Future Surges

Masks Still Recommended In Several MD Jurisdictions

Several Maryland counties should still wear a mask for indoor, public spaces, according to the CDC. The agency recommends masking in counties with "high" COVID-19 community levels — a metric based on hospitalizations and case rates that the agency adopted in late February, updating its color-coded COVID maps each Thursday.

This week's map contained five counties in the red for a high rate of virus: Montgomery, Prince, George's, Somerset, Wicomico and Worcester.

The city of Baltimore and 13 counties have medium community levels, including Anne Arundel, Howard, Harford and Baltimore.

According to Maryland's COVID dashboard, the state had 1,940 new cases in the last 24 hours, with a positivity rate of 11.05 percent.

Overall, 14,790 Marylanders have died from the disease; six of those fatalities were in the past 24 hours.

A total of 628 patients are in Maryland hospitals with COVID, an increase of seven people in the last day.

True case totals became more difficult to calculate in recent months because of the prevalence of at-home tests that don't typically get recorded in COVID statistics.

U.S. Better Able To Fight COVID-19

Greta Massetti, a senior epidemiologist with the CDC’s National Center for Injury Prevention and Control and an author of the guidelines, noted the country is better equipped to protect people and communities from severe illness from COVID-19.

An estimated 95 percent of Americans have some level of immunity from COVID-19, either from vaccination or infection, Massetti told reporters.

Schools could see the biggest change in COVID-19 restrictions as students will be able to stay in the classroom if they have been exposed to the virus but not tested positive. The CDC also ended its recommendation for routine daily testing, though it can be reinstated in situations with a surge of infections, the agency said.

The CDC guidelines align with the idea that children should be in the classroom, an objective that “can be done safely with acceptable levels of risk,” Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told NBC News.