Social distancing is so last week

The CDC published new Covid guidelines yesterday loosening many of its recommended restrictions, including 6-foot social distancing. According to the agency, this marks a strategic shift towards treating the virus as an endemic disease – though it also said the pandemic isn’t over yet.

📝 So, what changed?... In addition to removing social distancing recommendations, the new guidance also lifts the requirement for Americans – including K-12 students – to quarantine if exposed to the virus, and deemphasizes screening people with no symptoms.

It also brings the recommendations for unvaccinated people in line with those who are fully vaccinated, acknowledging the high levels of US immunity due to vaccination, past Covid infections, or both.

• "Based on the latest ... data, it's around 95% of the population," Greta Massetti, a senior CDC epidemiologist, told reporters yesterday. "And so it really makes the most sense to not differentiate."

🦠 Zoom out: ​​Average daily Covid cases and hospitalizations (👇) are near their highest point since February – though the most recent data appears to suggest the summer surge has peaked, following months of high transmission fueled by BA.5 and other omicron sub-variants. As of August 3, the 7-day moving average of daily new cases (117,351) decreased 7.3% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (126,537).

+In the know: The number of Americans who say they’ve returned to a “normal, pre-Covid-19 life” has more than doubled over the past six months, from 16% to 41%, per a recent survey from UPenn’s Annenberg Public Policy Center.