What New CDC Mask Guidance Means For The North Shore

SHOREWOOD, WI — The top public health agency in the country issued new guidance Tuesday for mask wearing. Regardless of vaccination status, people are now recommended to wear masks in all K-12 schools and in areas of high case loads.

The North Shore Health Department announced in a memo that it is aligning with the CDC guidance. In a separate announcement, the department announced it now recommends masks be worn indoors in public places, regardless of vaccine status, whenever community transmission is high or substantial. The department said the north shore has a high transmission level.

The CDC announced the new decision as the delta variant continues to spread across the U.S., and after the Village of Shorewood and the Shorewood School District have begun to lift their mask mandates.

"The North Shore is currently experiencing HIGH community transmission based on the 7-day case rate (data from 7/21 to 7/27), meaning masks are recommended for everyone in indoor public places," the department said in a Facebook post.

The north shore currently has a case burden of 134 cases per 100,000 people (data from July 12-27), a high burden according to the new CDC guidance.

The area is one of the most highly vaccinated in the whole state, and the COVID-19 vaccine works well at protecting against the delta variant.

Regardless, the North Shore Health Department (NSHD), the agency responsible for Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Bayside, Fox Point, Brown Deer, Glendale and River Hills, has measured an uptick in cases as parts of the area remain unvaccinated. Communities beyond the north shore pose an even greater risk with their lower vaccine rates.

Related: Undervaccinated Parts Of Wisconsin Could See COVID-19 Surge

Since last Friday, the department has reported 29 more cases of COVID-19. There are a total of 76 active cases in the north shore. The new cases are an increase from the average reported by the department ever since case counts slowed down in the beginning of June.

Kathleen Platt, the public health nursing supervisor and interim health officer for the North Shore Health Department, told Patch the increased numbers may be due to a more infectious variant of the disease, or it could be related to fewer precautions from the public.

"Continued layered precautions remain as recommendations, as our numbers are rising despite a high level of vaccination in the North Shore," Platt said.

The department does not have a measure of how many cases of the delta variant are in the area. Platt said that the department will monitor the community burden closely, and if necessary, it will issue new guidance to local municipalities based on recommendations from the CDC and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

The department will work with school districts to interpret and make recommendations based on the new guidance, Platt said.

The rise in cases in the north shore comes regardless of the area's almost 70 percent vaccination rate, NSHD data shows.

Platt offered guidance for the residents of the area amid the new recommendations:

"The North Shore Health Department would also like to remind everyone to use continue basic precautions- remain home if you are sick, get tested for COVID and other respiratory illness if you develop symptoms, regardless of known exposure or vaccine status. If you are not vaccinated, please do this, as there is data supporting that, while the vaccine may not prevent COVID infection, it does decrease the severity of symptoms and may reduce the person’s ability to spread the infection, Platt said.

"Wearing a well-fitting mask, especially indoors, and especially in large groups or crowded conditions is a good idea to protect everyone, and is always an option."