'Steady increase' in vaccines in past month, White House says

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, spoke to “Good Morning America” Wednesday about why the CDC has reversed its guidance on masks for vaccinated people.

She said the agency felt it was important that vaccinated Americans “understand that if they happen to be one of those breakthrough infections, which was more likely in areas with a huge amount of transmission and disease, that those people could potentially pass it on to somebody, a loved one, who is immunosuppressed.”

Walensky said the mask guidance was changed because of the “new science that demonstrated for those who are vaccinated, that they could in fact transmit if they are one of those rare breakthrough infections.”

The Office of the Attending Physician is now requiring all members and staff to wear “medical-grade” masks throughout the House of Representatives unless members are speaking in the hall of the House or individuals are alone.

Members and staff will once again be prohibited from stepping on the floor to vote without a mask, or risk incurring fines. 

The new guidance follows the CDC’s latest recommendations and will not be in effect on the Senate side.

-ABC News' Ben Siegel

President Joe Biden is expected to announce a vaccine mandate for the nation’s 2.1 million federal employees on Thursday, ABC News has learned.

Details around the policy are still being reviewed by the White House, however, sources familiar with the discussion told ABC News that employees who aren't vaccinated will abide by "stringent COVID-19 protocols like mandatory mask wearing – even in communities not with high or substantial spread - and regular testing."

Once enacted, this will be the largest vaccine mandate by a single employer of this pandemic.

New York City and the state of California announced Monday similar rules for their public employees.

White House sources also told ABC News that following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's new recommendations on indoor mask use, the president will wear a mask when he travels to areas where the transmission rates are high and he needs to be indoors.
-ABC News' Cecilia Vega and Sarah Kolinovsky

Just hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its policy on indoor mask use for vaccinated Americans, the agency sent out an alert to doctors, pressing them to step up vaccines.

The Health Alert Network Health Advisory reiterated that vaccine coverage needed to go up "to prevent surges in new infections that could increase COVID-19 related morbidity and mortality, overwhelm healthcare capacity, and widen existing COVID-19-related health disparities."

As of Tuesday, 66.6% of Americans above the age of 12 have received one vaccine dose, however the rates are lower in several southern states including Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi. Those states, the alert noted, have seen a major jump in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

"Unvaccinated persons account for the majority of new COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths," the CDC said in its alert.

-ABC News' Anne Flaherty