Disney World recently changed their face mask guidelines, and now fully vaccinated guests are not required to wear masks at indoor locations (with some exceptions, including on transportation). But is it possible that more updates are on the horizon?
New signage in Disneyland
Several other theme parks have adjusted their face covering policies as well, including Disneyland, Universal Orlando, and Universal Hollywood. Upcoming recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control could prompt these locations and others to change their policies once again.
According to the New York Times, the CDC “is expected to loosen its guidelines for when and where Americans should wear masks” sometime soon. In fact, the new policy is expected to be announced today, February 25th.
Mask Signs in Disney World
These changes would recommend that most people can go without masks while indoors in public spaces. Currently, the CDC recommends that anyone “living in areas with substantial or high transmission” of COVID-19 “should wear masks in public indoor spaces.” Most counties in the United States (around 95%) are in the substantial or high transmission category when that is measured by case counts.
COVID-19 Health and Safety Sign
Under the new recommendations, the CDC will emphasize hospitalizations as a measure of risk rather than case counts. This could affect many counties in America, as the hospitalization numbers in the US “have dropped by 44% in the past two weeks” (New York Times). So it’s likely that many areas that were previously considered high risk (and thus recommended that people there wear face masks indoors) will now be put in a lower risk category.
Face Masks
Masks are still required on US public transportation (including on airplanes and at airports) at least through March 18th, 2022. This deadline could be extended.
Airport
With these changes in place, we could see a further easing of face mask policies in the Disney parks. Disney has not made any announcements about additional changes in the parks as of writing. Currently, face masks are required in Disney World for all guests at some indoor locations (such as First Aid stations) and on transportation. Masks are required at all indoor locations for non-vaccinated guests.
©Disney
We’ll keep an eye out for any updates from the Disney parks. Stay tuned with DFB for all the latest updates.
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Do you think the CDC’s updated recommendations will impact the Disney parks? Let us know in the comments.
The post NEWS: The CDC Could Change Indoor Face Mask Recommendations SOON first appeared on the disney food blog.
