The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has clarified its guidance on wearing face masks to avoid monkeypox, which primarily spreads through direct bodily contact.

Last week the agency updated its travel advisory for monkeypox and advised the public to go from practicing the “usual” precautions to practicing “enhanced” precautions, including regular hand washing and wearing a face mask, to avoid catching monkeypox.

That guidance was removed on Monday because it "caused confusion," a CDC spokesperson said in a statement to Reuters.

On Thursday, the CDC issued a media statement about how monkeypox is spread, though it didn’t mention the changed mask guidance.

Monkeypox, unlike COVID-19 or measles, is does not linger in the air and “is not transmitted during short periods of shared airspace,” the statement said. The CDC said it hasn’t heard of anybody catching monkeypox while sitting on an airplane near somebody with monkeypox, even on a long international flight.