July 28, 2021 US coronavirus news

By Meg Wagner, Melissa Macaya, Melissa Mahtani, Mike Hayes, Veronica Rocha and Fernando Alfonso III, CNN

Updated 0323 GMT (1123 HKT) July 29, 2021

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9:21 a.m. ET, July 28, 2021

Masking is the safest way to have US children back in schools, CDC director says

From CNN's Naomi Thomas

Students work in a classroom at an elementary school in Louisville, Kentucky, on March 17, 2021. Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Wednesday that masking is the safest way to get children back in schools.

“We’ve seen over the summer that there have been numerous school outbreaks in places that haven’t taken the proper prevention strategies,” she said, adding that the goal is to make sure that children get back to full in-person schooling and have a relatively normal school year.

Children younger than 12 aren’t eligible to be vaccinated yet, and just 30% of 12- to 17-year-olds are vaccinated, Walensky said.

“The majority of people in our schools right now will be unvaccinated, just by virtue of the numbers,” she said. “And we felt it was really important to lean in and try and have our children back to school in the safest way possible, and that would mean masking.”

Walensky also pointed out that although there is no evidence to suggest Delta is making children sicker, “it’s really important for people to understand that this is not a benign disease in kids compared to other diseases that our kids see.”

9:22 a.m. ET, July 28, 2021

House attending physician reinstates mask-wearing in the Capitol

From CNN's Annie Grayer

The US Capitol in Washington, DC, on July 25, 2021. Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images

The House of Representatives' attending physician sent out new guidance requiring “well-fitted, medical grade” masks be warn in all interior spaces in the House in light of yesterday's new US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mask guidance and as the Delta variant is rising.

Here's a portion of a memo:

“For the Congress, representing a collection of individuals traveling weekly from various risk areas (both high and low rates of disease transmission), all individuals should wear a well-fitted, medical-grade filtration mask (for example an ear loop surgical mask or a KN95 mask) when they are in an interior space. This CDC recommended measure further reduces risk of acquiring infection, and potential risk of transmitting disease to an individual’s vulnerable household members (children under age 12, immunocompromised family members, etc.). For all House Office Buildings, the Hall of the House, and House Committee Meetings, wearing of a well-fitted, medical grade, filtration face mask is required when an individual is in an interior space and other individuals are present. To be clear, for meetings in an enclosed US House of Representatives controlled space, masks are REQUIRED”

8:25 a.m. ET, July 28, 2021

CDC mask guidance change was prompted by new science, director says

From CNN's Naomi Thomas

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN’s John Berman on New Day Wednesday that CDC’s mask guidance change was prompted by science only days old that showed vaccinated people with breakthrough Delta infections can pass the virus to others. More information will be published in the coming days, she said.

Walensky first emphasized that the vaccines are working exactly as it was thought that they would with the Delta variant by preventing hospitalization and death, adding that “we should be getting vaccinated to prevent severe disease in ourselves and to protect ourselves from the Delta variant and from getting severe Covid.”

“Here’s the new science that we saw just in the last several days,” she said. “With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others, but with the Delta variant, we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections, that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”

“That was the new science that prompted the guidance,” she said. “And, you know, it weighed heavily. I know this is not a message America wants to hear.”