Federal health officials sidestepped questions Thursday about whether they’re considering making changes to masking guidance as COVID-19 cases continue to climb once again.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday night that top White House aides and Biden administration officials are discussing whether to urge vaccinated Americans to wear masks in more settings. The report cited as its sources six people familiar with the discussions, who said the talks were in a preliminary phase.

Asked about it during a news briefing Thursday, members of the White House COVID-19 Response Team neither confirmed nor denied the report. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, would only say that her agency continues to monitor data and said there have been no recent changes to the guidance.

In May, the CDC changed its recommendations to say that fully vaccinated Americans no longer needed to wear masks in most settings. While several states had already lifted mask mandates, the move prompted the remaining states to follow suit. 

“Our guidance has been clear since since we put it out several months ago, and that is if you are unvaccinated, you should continue to wear a mask and protect yourself against others around you. And more importantly, you should go and get vaccinated to get better layers of protection,” Walensky said. “ … If you're vaccinated, you have exceptional levels of protection from that vaccine, and you may choose to add an extra layer of protection by putting on your mask.”

Walensky added that local governments can choose to implement their own masking policies if they deem it necessary to curb rising case number. Some municipalities, most notably Los Angeles County in California, have either reimplemented mask mandates or issued mask recommendations. 

According to The Washington Post report, the discussions could result in nothing more than new messaging from top White House officials. The officials the newspaper spoke with stressed that any change in guidance would come from the CDC, as the White House has taken a hands-off approach with the agency.

Driven by the highly contagious delta variant and low vaccination rates in some areas, COVID-19 infections have tripled over the past three weeks. On Wednesday, the U.S. recorded 46,318 new cases — the most since May 1 — and the seven-day average climbed to 37,673. Hospitalizations and deaths are also on the rise.

The delta variant now accounts for 83% of all new COVID-19 cases. Nearly 49% of Americans have been fully vaccinated, and several states have inoculated less than 40% of their residents.

Health officials say the vast majority of infections — and virtually all hospitalizations and deaths — are among the unvaccinated. They again urged Americans on Thursday to get vaccinated.

Walensky encouraged vaccine-hesitant Americans to ask health care providers, pharmacists, or friends or neighbors who have been vaccinated any questions they might have about the shots. 

“We are yet at another pivotal moment in this pandemic, with cases increasing again and some hospitals reaching their capacity in some areas,” the CDC director said. “We need to come together as one nation unified in our resolve to protect the health of ourselves, our children, our community, our country and our future with the tools we have available.”

Meanwhile, Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 coordinator, announced that the Biden administration is sending $100 million to rural health clinics to support vaccine education and outreach efforts, and another $1.6 billion to bolster testing and mitigation measures in high-risk settings such as homeless shelters, mental health and substance abuse treatment centers, domestic violence shelters, and prisons.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, sought to reassure Americans about the effectiveness of vaccines after reports in recent days about high-profile breakthrough cases, including among a White House aide, congressional staffers, Texas lawmakers  and the New York Yankees.

“It’s important to remember ... that infections after vaccination are expected,” Fauci said. “No vaccine is 100% effective.”

He and Walensky, however, noted that fully vaccinated people who are infected tend to have no symptoms or mild symptoms.

“Being fully vaccinated gives you a high degree of protection against infection and an even higher degree of protection against severe illness, hospitalization and death,” Walensky said. “That is what these vaccines were designed for and what the clinical trials studied, and the vaccines generally do their job quite well. These vaccines are some of the most effective that we have in modern medicine. And the good news is that current scientific evidence shows that our current vaccines are working as they did in clinical trials even against the delta variant.”