Most of U.S. population in areas with high COVID-19 levels: WSJ

Special: Battle Against Novel Coronavirus

More than half of the U.S. population are now living in areas with high COVID-19 levels and people are recommended to wear masks in indoor public settings, said a report of The Wall Street Journal.

Roughly 35 percent of U.S. counties, accounting for 54 percent of the population, showed "high COVID-19 community level," the report cited data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data (CDC).

This marks a 14.8-percent increase from a week before.

When a county hits a high-level risk, the CDC guidance is to mask in indoor public settings and on public transit as a way to try to limit the spread of infection.

A growing proportion of U.S. counties are seeing increases in infections and related hospital admissions as the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant spreads rapidly in the country.