This email is being sent to COVID-19 vaccinators, stakeholders, and HERCs. Local health officers and tribal health directors will receive a similar email.
Vaccinations Encouraged and Mask Guidance Updates as Case Activity Grows
The Delta variant is highly infectious and is spreading more quickly than any other strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the virus that causes COVID-19. The best way to protect yourself, your family, and your community from COVID-19 and the Delta variant is to get vaccinated. From January 1, 2021 through July 22, 2021, over 98 percent of COVID-19 cases in Wisconsin occurred among people who were not fully vaccinated.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) supports CDC’s recommendations that everyone in areas with substantial and high transmission, including fully vaccinated individuals, wear a mask in public indoor settings. Furthermore, all teachers, staff, students, and visitors of K-12 schools should wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status. In Wisconsin, and nationally, increasing case numbers and growing circulation of the more transmissible Delta variant prompts this updated guidance.
DHS encourages local and tribal leaders to look at CDC’s classifications of community transmission in their county to make decisions on mask guidance for their community. This is a way to look at COVID-19 transmission that is standardized across the country. DHS data, including the COVID-19 Disease Activity dashboard and COVID-19 cases and deaths maps, provide additional context on COVID-19 activity in Wisconsin’s local regions. Together, CDC and DHS data provides important information about COVID-19 transmission in Wisconsin communities. These metrics should be used to make informed decisions on universal mask recommendations for public, indoor settings.
What are the top 5 things I need to know?
The latest science shows that we need to change behavior to respond to the Delta variant. Delta variant is more contagious than previously known variants and that requires us to change our recommendations.
-
Getting vaccinated prevents severe illness, hospitalization, and death; it also helps reduce the spread of the virus in communities.
- We STRONGLY encourage everyone to get vaccinated.
- Unvaccinated people should get vaccinated and continue masking until they are fully vaccinated (two weeks after 1 dose of Johnson and Johnson or two weeks after the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna).
- With the Delta variant, this is more urgent than ever.
-
Data show Delta is different than past versions of the virus: it is much more contagious. The highest spread of cases and severe outcomes is happening in places with low vaccination rates and among unvaccinated people.
- Some vaccinated people can get the Delta variant in a breakthrough infection and may be contagious.
- Even so, vaccinated individuals represent a very small amount of transmission occurring around the country.
- Virtually all hospitalizations and deaths continue to be among the unvaccinated.
-
CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors of K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place.
- In areas with substantial and high transmission (substantial or high: orange or red on the CDC map), CDC recommends that everyone (including fully vaccinated individuals) wear a mask in public indoor settings to help prevent spread of the Delta variant and protect others.
-
CDC recommends that community leaders encourage vaccination and masking to prevent further outbreaks in areas of substantial and high transmission.
Thank you for your continued partnership in responding to our state’s evolving COVID-19 situation.
|
