CDC orders travelers must wear masks on all forms of public transportation starting Tuesday

ATLANTA, Georgia — As health experts warn that highly contagious coronavirus variants could soon worsen the spread in the U.S., the country is about to require masks on public transportation.

The pending order from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes as the country wraps up its deadliest month of the pandemic.

A CDC announcement says the order will require people to wear a face mask while using any form of public transportation, including buses, trains, taxis, airplanes, boats, subways or ride-share vehicles while traveling into, within and out of the U.S.

The order goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Monday.

Masks must be worn while waiting, boarding, traveling and disembarking, it said. The coverings need to be at least two or more layers of breathable fabric secured to the head with ties, ear loops or elastic bands — and scarves and bandanas do not count, the order says.

The CDC said it reserves the right to enforce the order through criminal penalties, but it “strongly encourages and anticipates widespread voluntary compliance” and expects support from other federal agencies to implement the order.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order last week requiring interstate travelers to wear a mask, and he challenged Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his term.

Experts fear variants will worsen case and death tolls

Although vaccines are making their way to the public, health experts say the nation faces many more months of the pandemic, and the spread of highly contagious variants has raised alarm.

Variants such as those first identified in the UK (B.1.1.7), South Africa (B.1.351) and Brazil (P.1) are believed to be more transmissible than previous strains.

And although current vaccines are believed to be protective against them, some research has suggested they may be somewhat less effective against the B.1.351 strain.

The CDC has said the B.1.1.7 strain could become dominant in the US by March.

“The fact is, when you have a virus that has ability to transmit more efficiently than the wild type in the community, sooner or later by pure viral dynamics itself, it will become more dominant than the wild type,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House news briefing on Friday.

And more-transmissible variants such as this are likely to worsen the spread of coronavirus and add to the death toll, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington forecast Thursday.

The U.S. Covid-19 death toll currently stands at more than 436,800. The model forecasts more than 594,600 total deaths by May 1 as its most likely projection — 25,000 more deaths than its previous projection.

Rapid variant spread could take that number up to 620,000 by May 1, IHME said. In a worst-case scenario, nearly 654,000 Americans could be dead of Covid-19 by May 1, IHME warned.

More than 400 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been reported across the US, according to the CDC. The US has identified at least two cases of the B.1.351 strain, both in South Carolina, and one case of P.1, in Minnesota.

However, experts have said surveillance for these strains has not been robust, and many more cases, especially of the B.1.1.7 variant, could be in the US.

Boosters being developed for new strains

Some vaccine manufacturers say they are working on boosters that would address mutations. That includes Pfizer and Moderna, manufacturers of the two vaccines authorized so far in the US.

Biotechnology company Novavax, which recently reported Phase 3 trial results for its vaccine candidate in the UK and South Africa and is still conducting trials in the U.S. and Mexico, also says it is working on a booster to protect against newly emerging strains.

Novavax started developing boosters for the newer variants this month, and said it expects to select its ideal candidates in “the coming days.”

“The company plans to initiate clinical testing of these new vaccines in the second quarter of this year,” Novavax said.