LOS ANGELES - More than half of the US 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 US counties, accounting for 54 percent of the population, showed "high COVID-19 community level," the report cited data from the US 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 US counties are seeing increases in infections and related hospital admissions as the highly contagious BA.5 subvariant spreads rapidly in the country.