The majority of Americans should be wearing masks while indoors in public spaces or considering the measure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Thursday, more than 22% of the population resides in counties where they should be wearing masks in indoor settings and nearly 36% are in counties where they should consider the measure based on their risk for severe COVID-19.

The CDC determines the percentages through its COVID-19 community levels – a measure determined by new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and hospital capacities.

The U.S. is averaging fewer than 100,000 new coronavirus cases per day, which is a slight decrease from last week. But the decline comes as two omicron subvariants appear poised to take over as the dominant strains circulating and COVID-19 transmission levels remain high across most of the country.

BA.4 and BA.5 were responsible for roughly 35% of new infections last week, according to CDC estimates. The highly transmissible subvariants only started showing signs of substantial spread in the U.S. last month.

While the pair of subvariants don’t yet appear to cause more severe disease, COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising in the U.S. Coronavirus-related deaths, however, have not shown a similar increase and remain under 300 on average per day.

Even while cases and hospitalizations increased, there has been no widespread return to masking and much of the country’s attention has shifted to other concerns, like abortion access and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.