take off their masks indoors, including inside schools. the bottom line, much of this country will now take off the masks, including school children. here s erielle reshef. reporter: in that long awaited move, the cdc tonight updating its mask guidance. rochelle walensky saying based on metricser more than 70% of americans are living in communities at low risk and can consider removing their masks. we want to give people a break from things like mask wearing when our levels are low, and then have the ability to reach for them again should things get worse in the future. reporter: under the old guidelines the cdc focused primarily on case numbers as shown here, but the new framework highlighted on this map now also factors in covid hospitalizations and hospital capacity to determine areas of low, medium, or high risk. i think it is the right time. we are off the omicron surge, and we have a large proportion of our population now vaccinated and immunized. and that means moving to
president biden has interviewed and when he could announce his decision. and soon we could get new mask guidance from the cdc. chicago being the last city to drop its mask mandate. does the science back this up or are we perhaps letting our guard down too soon? we ll start with tensions in eastern europe. courtney kube is at the pentagon, matt bradley is on the ground about 25 miles from the russian border, and retired four-star general barry mccaffrey is with me, a former mmm of the security council and now an msnbc analyst ken, the governor just confirmed a cyber
whopping 98% were omicron. meanwhile the cdc says it could loosen the guidance on masks next week. as omicron numbers continue to drop in the united states, the cdc director dr. rochelle walensky said yesterday that the agency is working on relevant guidance and will encourage measures to safeguard public health. the new guidance could lead to rolled back covid-19 precautions, including mask mandates, based on factors like hospital capacity. joining us now to talk about this, national health policy reporter for the washington post, great to see you again, let s start there, with what we expect to hear from the cdc, potentially as soon as next week, and do we believe that school mask mandates could be part of this guidance? so it s still a little bit unclear what exactly this mask guidance is going to encompass, if it is in fact going to come next week, but we do know that there has been a lot of pressure on the agency from governors, just wanting to understand what
president biden rejecting trump s attempts to keep the logs secret. and the cdc said it expects to update the mask guidance soon despite pressure to make changes now. with state mandates ending and covid cases falling what, are health officials waiting for. we want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and around the world, i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. tonight the u.s. said vladimir putin could pull the trigger on a ukraine invasion any day as he keeps building up his forces despite his talk of withdrawal. our correspondents and experts are standing by in russia, in ukraine, and here in the united states. first let s go to our chief white house correspondent kaitlan collins. the u.s. said russian forces are moving into what are described as fighting positions. give us the latest. reporter: yeah, wolf and they say they are certainly not pulling back, despite the
against covid. however you describe normal out there. the d.c. mayor, a lot of blue state governors. not just the new republican governor of virginia. and the cdc saying we re getting to new mask guidance. hang on. they seem behind. whether it s mayors, governors, democrats or republicans they seem to be saying we can t wait on washington. we feel some need, whether it s pressure. i think the smart political strategists are saying you re not necessarily responding to where the polling is right at this moment but where it s headed. and the trend is clearly heading in a direction where people are tired. this is not just about masks. it s not about vaccine requirements or what have you. it s also about how people feel about whether normalcy is coming. and they are, for better or worse, taking out their pessimism on democrats. and so that s why you re seeing democratic governors and mayors in places that are deep blue responding to where this trend is moving. parents may not have a who