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- The CDC delayed issuing new, laxer COVID-19 rules for vaccinated people, Politico reported.
- The guidance was due to be updated Thursday, but was slowed without a clear reason.
- It came after President Biden criticized states like Texas and Mississippi for relaxing their COVID-19 rules.
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The US Centers for Disease Control delayed the release of awaited new guidance relaxing public health measures for vaccinated people in the US, which were due to come out Thursday.
A spokesman for the agency told Politico on Wednesday: “CDC’s guidance will not be posted tomorrow because we have not finalized it here at CDC. Once it is final, we will publish and disseminate it.”
According to unnamed agency sources cited by Politico, drafts of the guidelines had been circulating for weeks, and were due to be approved on Wednesday for release the next day.
White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said early last week that the new rules would arrive “pretty soon.”
Politico’s sources did not give a reason for the delay.
It came after several US states defied the CDC and the White House by relaxing their lockdown measures.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reopened the state 100% on Tuesday, the day after the head of the CDC warned that relaxing public health measures could lead to a fourth surge of cases.
—Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) March 2, 2021
Texas is not the only state to have relaxed measures. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Michigan all issued announcements relaxing the rules on Tuesday.
Other states, and some cities including Chicago and San Francisco, also relaxed their public health measures, Insider's Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce reported on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called the Mississippi and Texas decisions a "big mistake," which he attributed to "Neanderthal thinking".
Although cases of COVID-19 in the US have been dropping, the decline slowed in recent days, prompting renewed warnings.