One of the great Yogi Berra’s most famous “Yogi-isms” is, “It’s like deja-vu, all over again.” But who knew that he was inadvertently referring to 2021.

Nearly half of Michigan residents live in counties where the federal government is urging everyone ages 2 and over, including the fully vaccinated, to wear masks in public indoor settings because transmission of the coronavirus is “high” or “substantial,” as reported by The Associated Press.

The guidance affected 33 of 83 counties as of Monday — including large ones such as Oakland, Macomb and Ingham — up from 10 mostly small, rural counties when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations were revised nearly a week ago. The counties are home to more than 4.6 million residents, or 46% of the state’s population.

Michigan’s seven-day average of new daily COVID-19 cases was 678 on Saturday, an increase from 241 two weeks before. The case rate, 76.8 per 100,000 people, was lower than in all but four states, based on data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Six counties have “high” transmission rates, which means they had at least 100 new infections per 100,000 residents over the past seven days, a test positivity rate of at least 10% or both. Twenty-seven counties have “substantial” spread — a weekly case rate of between 50 and 99.9 per 100,000 people, a positivity rate between 8% to 9.99% or both.

The CDC guidance has prompted criticism from Republican leaders nationally. But at Beaumont Health, the state’s largest system, a physician said individuals should probably return to universal masking when they are going to stores or gathering indoors in large groups.

When winter broke into spring and vaccines became more readily available, we’re sure a lot of us were expecting that 2021 would feel a lot more “normal” than 2020 did. And, for a time, it definitely did. But with school right around the corner, we are treading into some dangerous territory in Michigan. If this upward trend continues, it will put our local school systems, as well as our already struggling local businesses, in another very difficult position. Our kids cannot afford to have another year spent behind a computer at home, and our small businesses definitely cannot afford another lockdown situation.

The time has come, once again, for all of us to do our part to curb the spread. Please, wear a mask when you’re in public over the next few weeks — even if there are others who aren’t. We need to think about the long game here.