TOLEDO, Ohio — In the fight against COVID, medical professionals are seeing a downward trend in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
If you haven't noticed, signs letting you know you don't have to wear a mask inside if you're fully vaccinated have been popping up at several stores and locations.
This is according to CDC guidelines.
"For those that are fully vaccinated, the risk of them either being infected or spreading an infection is very low. And I think from that standpoint, they can feel safe," said Dr. James Tita, the Chief Medical Officer at Mercy Health St. Vincent.
Dr. Tita says being vaccinated is the best way to suppress the virus.
"Things are definitely getting better. The number of new COVID cases continues to go down. The number of hospital admissions for COVID continue to go down. And the death rate from COVID is also decreasing as well," said Dr. Tita
But it's still not quite the time to let your guard down.
Dr. Tita says people are still getting sick and dying; the other issue is there are several new variants of the coronavirus that are circulating.
"Some of them are more contagious, more infectious than the original strain. And so all of those are issues we that have to deal with. The good news is the vaccines are effective against the variants," said Dr. Tita.
He says that's why there's a push right now to put shots in arms. And until you're fully vaccinated, you shouldn't walk into one of these stores without a mask on.
"40 to 50 percent of people who spread COVID are not symptomatic. So even though they don't feel sick, they can still be spreading the virus," said Dr. Tita.
Mercy Health says the drop in COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths can be a result of several things.
That includes more vaccinations given to the older population, hospitals having more experience with treatments and the younger population having a better chance at fighting the virus.