CoronavirusCovid News: Several Parts of U.S. Ease Mask Rules

Los Angeles County removes its mask mandate for indoor public places.

Image
Fans during a college basketball game between Washington State and U.C.L.A. last week.Credit...Ringo H.W. Chiu/Associated Press

Los Angeles County will no longer require people to wear masks at indoor public places as long as they can show proof of vaccination, county officials said on Wednesday, as the number of new coronavirus cases continued to plunge.

The order, which is set to take effect on Friday, will allow customers to skip wearing masks if they provide proof of vaccination or a negative test taken in the previous two days, the county, which is home to 10 million people, said in a news release.

“As the county continues to experience reduced Covid-19 spread, it is appropriate to consider fewer required safety measures,” county officials said in a statement, adding that “vulnerable individuals should continue to layer in all protections possible.”

Many states and local governments across the United States have eased coronavirus mandates as cases of the Omicron variant have fallen steeply in recent weeks after a devastating spike that began in December.

Connecticut and Massachusetts will lift some mask mandates starting Monday. Washington, D.C., will end a citywide mask mandate and Chicago will end a mask mandate for some public places on that day.

The daily average of new cases in the United States has dropped 66 percent in the past two weeks to 82,000 cases, while daily average hospitalizations have also declined 44 percent, according to a New York Times database. Despite the optimistic data trends, the average daily death toll from the virus is still nearly 2,000.

In addition to the data taking a dramatic turn in a good direction, many recent polls have indicated that the public’s resolve to combat the pandemic is waning.

A recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey found that 46 percent of respondents thought Americans should “learn to live with” the pandemic “and get back to normal,” while just 43 percent thought “we need to do more to vaccinate, wear masks and test.” Fully 70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that “it’s time we accept Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives” in a recent poll by Monmouth University.

Despite the flurry of lifted restrictions and shifting public sentiment, many people remain vulnerable to the virus and worry about the swift changes. More than seven million adults in the United States are considered to have compromised immune systems and tens of millions have other medical conditions that put them at greater risk for severe illness or death.

A correction was made on 
Feb. 24, 2022

An earlier version of this article incorrectly described the mandate ending in Washington, D.C., on Monday. The district is lifting the city-wide mask mandate, not the mask mandate for schools, which remains in place. 

How we handle corrections

A new Covid vaccine shows 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations, its makers say.

Image
A coronavirus vaccine, made by the European-based pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK, was among the candidates that received billions of dollars for development from Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s program to accelerate vaccines.Credit...Eric Piermont/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Two doses of a new Covid vaccine that is based on a conventional approach achieved 100 percent efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations, and it could be an effective booster after other Covid shots, the vaccine’s manufacturers announced on Wednesday.

The vaccine, made by the Europe-based pharmaceutical companies Sanofi and GSK, is one of four candidates that received billions of dollars for development from Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s program to accelerate vaccines.

The new vaccine had an efficacy of 75 percent against moderate-to-severe disease. It showed 58 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease in its Phase 3 clinical trial. Although that number is lower than was observed for the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in their initial trials, it is “in line with expected vaccine effectiveness in today’s environment dominated by variants of concern,” Sanofi and GSK said in a statement. The number of infections observed in the trial was small, however, and the efficacy may have been lower in a bigger trial.

Used as a booster dose after one of the other available coronavirus vaccines, the Sanofi-GSK shot increased antibody levels by 18- to 30-fold. The companies intend to submit the vaccine for authorization to regulatory authorities in the United States and Europe, they said on Wednesday.

Sanofi and GSK were expected to seek authorization for their vaccine last year, but shelved those plans after clinical trials showed disappointing results in older adults. They then developed a stronger version of the vaccine and tested it in new trials.

In laboratory studies, two doses of the Sanofi-GSK vaccine stimulated the production of more neutralizing antibodies than an approved mRNA vaccine, according to the companies. The data have not yet been published. The vaccine was safe and well-tolerated by adults of all ages, the companies said.

The best target for Covid vaccines is a protein called spike that covers the surface of the virus like a crown. While the mRNA vaccines contain the genetic instructions for making the protein, the Sanofi-GSK vaccine uses a slightly modified version of the protein itself to stimulate an immune response.

This is a commonly used approach for vaccines, and so may convince some people who have been hesitant to adopt the newer mRNA technology. Protein-based vaccines are also relatively inexpensive to manufacture and may not require the ultracold storage needed for the mRNA vaccines. Those features make them more likely candidates for rollout in African nations where vaccine coverage is still very low.

The pharmaceutical company Novavax last month applied to the Food and Drug Administration for authorization of a similar protein-based vaccine.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

South Korea expands its immunization efforts as daily cases soar to over 170,000.

Image
A makeshift coronavirus testing site on Wednesday in Seoul.Credit...Ahn Young-Joon/Associated Press

South Korea on Wednesday approved the Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds, as case counts shatter even the most pessimistic government projections issued earlier in the Omicron wave.

The country, which had been a pandemic success from the start, is now grappling with one of the world’s worst outbreaks. South Korea recorded 171,452 new cases on Wednesday — a jump of nearly 72,000 from the day before — its highest figure by far since early 2020.

Omicron became the nation’s dominant variant in late January, and experts originally predicted that daily case counts would reach 30,000 in February. Their projections have risen several times, including last week, when they said daily case counts could reach 170,000. Now, the government is expecting 270,000 cases a day by March.

South Korea has seen a 214 percent increase in daily cases over the past two weeks to a daily average of 110,904, according to Our World in Data. Several other places in Asia have had similar surges over the same period, including Malaysia, with a 234 percent increase, and Hong Kong, with a 3,168 percent increase.

South Korea, a nation of about 50 million people, is now reporting more cases each day than the United States, a once unimaginable development.

Confronting the more contagious but less virulent Omicron variant, South Korea has moved away from its rigorous contact tracing system and has expanded its immunization campaign.

New reported cases by day
Feb. 2020
Sept.
Apr. 2021
Nov.
Jun. 2022
Jan. 2023
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000 cases
7-day average
10,220
Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The daily average is calculated with data that was reported in the last seven days.

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced on Wednesday that it was expanding access to the Pfizer vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 — the first vaccine approved for this age range in the country. In a statement, the ministry said that the shot would be 90.7 percent effective against the virus.

South Korea is also shifting its focus toward testing and treating high-risk groups and severe cases.

“Considering the characteristics of Omicron,” Park Hyang, a senior health official, said at a news briefing on Tuesday, “it is more important to stably manage the medical system’s capacity and minimize severe cases and deaths rather than the number of confirmed cases.”

The country has averaged about 57 deaths per day from Covid over the past week.

Trying to “live with Covid,” the government has shortened quarantine periods to seven days. Vaccine passes are no longer required at malls and major shopping centers, and businesses are now allowed to operate until 10 p.m., an hour later than before.

“If we can overcome this surge, this will be a good opportunity to go back to normal,” Lee Ki-il, a senior health official, said at a news briefing on Friday.

Poland will lift most remaining restrictions on March 1.

Image
Tourists on Dluga Street last summer in Gdansk, Poland.Credit...Maciek Nabrdalik for The New York Times

Poland will lift most of its remaining coronavirus restrictions on March 1, but it will keep in place a mask mandate for public transportation and indoor venues.

“We’re abolishing most of the restrictions and leaving only those that are most necessary,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said to reporters on Wednesday, adding that office workers would no longer be required to work remotely.

Deaths and hospitalizations, mainly fueled by the Omicron variant, have been lower than anticipated, Mr. Morawiecki said. While the pandemic was not over, he added, the encouraging trends made the risk of shifting to an endemic approach to the virus worthwhile.

The move is a turnaround for the Eastern European nation, which was among a handful of countries in the region that were hit especially hard by earlier variants. Last spring, Poland reported some of highest excess death rates in Europe.

To curb the spread of Omicron-driven infections, Poland stepped up its testing efforts and instated remote learning for some students.

On Wednesday, officials said the country reported 20,456 new coronavirus cases, a 30 percent drop from the previous week, and 360 deaths. A majority of those deaths were people who had not been fully vaccinated, Polish health officials said.

According to government figures collated by the Our World in Data project, about 58 percent of the country’s population is fully vaccinated.

Poland is the latest in an increasing lineup of European countries that have announced intentions to scrap coronavirus rules after a long winter that saw Omicron drive new waves of infections across the continent.

England said this week that it planned to remove its remaining legal curbs and end free coronavirus testing. And Germany announced this month that it would abolish most of the country’s remaining restrictions by March 20.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Iceland will lift all Covid-19 restrictions on Friday.

Image
A bar in Reykjavik, Iceland, earlier this month.Credit...Halldor Kolbeins/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Iceland is lifting all public Covid-19 restrictions on Friday, both domestically and at the border.

The government announced on Wednesday that it will remove the remaining regulations on social gatherings, school operations, quarantine and travel, for vaccinated and unvaccinated Icelanders.

“We can truly rejoice at this turning-point, but nonetheless I encourage people to be careful, practice personal infection prevention measures and not to interact with others if they notice symptoms,” the ministry of health said in a news release.

While the average number of daily new cases has risen 76 percent in the past two weeks because of the Omicron variant, the rate of hospitalizations has remained low. Health authorities believe that Iceland is now ready to live with the virus more with more than 80 percent of the Scandinavian nation’s 368,000 people having been vaccinated.

“The way out of this pandemic is a widespread herd immunity against Covid-19,” the government said, adding that 80 percent of the population would have to have been infected to reach that level. Officials said that about 110,000 cases have already been recorded across the country, and that roughly the same number of people could have been infected without being diagnosed.

The policy was based on the recommendations of Iceland’s chief epidemiologist.

Several European countries and states, including Germany, Austria, Slovakia, England, and Poland, have announced their plans to lift Covid-19 regulations over the past weeks.

The C.D.C. advises some people wait longer between the first and second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

Image
Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccines in Gardena, Calif., in January.Credit...Allison Zaucha for The New York Times

Some people getting their initial shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines should consider waiting longer for their second dose, according to guidance the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated on Tuesday. The agency now suggests an eight-week interval between the first and second shots of those vaccines for some people older than 12, especially boys and men between 12 to 39 years.

The new change, which does not affect those who have already been vaccinated, applies to about 33 million unvaccinated people. And the C.D.C. still recommends the original intervals — three weeks for Pfizer-BioNTech and four for Moderna — for certain people including those whose immune systems are moderately to severely immunocompromised, are 65 years or older, or are at risk of severe Covid.

The change comes in light of research showing the longer interval between doses can increase vaccine effectiveness and reduce the risk of a serious but uncommon side effect called myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart. The overall incidence of post-vaccine myocarditis is low. A study conducted in Israel estimated that nearly 11 of every 100,000 males between 16 and 29 developed myocarditis.

Earlier this month, an independent panel of scientific advisers to the C.D.C. reviewed research on myocarditis that supported an extended interval between doses. Research has shown that adolescent boys and young adult men have an increased risk of developing these heart problems after receiving their second dose of a Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine.

Still, the absolute risk of myocarditis is very small, most cases are mild and short-lived, and research shows a coronavirus infection is much more likely to cause heart problems than a Covid-19 vaccine. Patients of all ages infected with the virus had nearly 16 times the risk for myocarditis than uninfected patients, according to a C.D.C. report.

People who waited six to 14 weeks between the first two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines had higher antibody responses than those who waited a standard three or four weeks, according to a C.D.C. report presentation from the meeting. And the vaccines’ effectiveness against infection and hospitalization was also higher with an interval of six to eight weeks between the doses.

When the vaccines first rolled out, the priority was to fully vaccinate people as quickly as possible, according to the presentation. Now, more than a year into the U.S. vaccination campaign, more data has become available to guide vaccination schedules, the presentation noted.

Public health experts say a longer interval between doses means there is a risk of people getting infected after just one shot. But they say this change could sway some unvaccinated people and parents who are concerned about the potential risk of myocarditis.

At the panel’s meeting, Dr. Matthew Daley, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente in Colorado and a member of the advisory committee, said that “If the message is, ‘We already have a highly effective and highly safe vaccine or vaccines, and this is an approach to make them even safer,’ that might convince some folks.”

Benjamin Mueller contributed reporting.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

The U.S. mask mandate for air travel is due to expire, but some flight attendants see reasons to keep it.

Image
Face masks being handed out at John F. Kennedy International Airport in December.Credit...Karsten Moran for The New York Times

With federal in-flight and airport mask mandates scheduled to expire next month, a flight attendants’ union released a statement on Tuesday suggesting that extending the mask requirement made sense for “everyone’s safety.”

The statement, from the Association of Flight Attendants-C.W.A., listed concerns about allowing the mask requirement to lapse, including that passengers under 5 are not yet eligible for a vaccine in the United States.

“We have every expectation that the mask mandate will be extended,” the union said in a statement on Tuesday. “The conditions in aviation are the same. Our youngest passengers do not yet have access to the vaccine. The airplane is a unique, but controlled environment for everyone’s safety. The layered approach to safety and security includes masks. Aviation is a world-wide network that harmonizes safety procedures around the world. It’s also critical that we maintain passenger confidence in the safety of air travel.”

The Biden administration imposed the mask rule for flights a year ago, during a brutal rise in coronavirus cases across the country before vaccines were widely available. People who did not comply were subject to fines. The Transportation Security Administration extended the mandate twice as deadly new waves of infection washed over the nation.

As the most recent wave, driven by the highly contagious Omicron variant, has dwindled in recent weeks, states and local authorities across the United States have been relaxing mask requirements, and so have some major employers. But many forms of public transportation, including air travel, are regulated by the T.S.A.

Patricia Mancha, a T.S.A. spokeswoman, said on Tuesday night that the requirement was still on track to expire on March 18. “If there is a change to halt or extend the mask requirement, we will make an announcement,” she said in an email. “As of now, nothing new to share.”

Many flight crews are anxious about the prospect.

Disagreements over masks and the refusal of some passengers to wear them have often led to shouting matches, fights and other problems with unruly passengers during the pandemic. From Jan. 1 to Feb. 15, the Federal Aviation Administration received nearly 400 reports of unruly passengers, including 255 reports of passengers refusing to comply with the federal mask mandate.

Last month, a man on a Delta Air Lines flight from Dublin to New York who refused to wear a mask pulled down his pants and exposed his buttocks, and an American Airlines flight to London from Miami turned around about an hour into its journey because of a passenger who refused to wear a mask.

Cases like those are why airline executives and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants have been urging the federal authorities to create a federal no-fly list for unruly passengers.

The federal mask mandate for air travel has faced court challenges — the Republican attorney general of Texas filed such a suit last week — but so far, the courts have sustained it.

Some airline executives have questioned the efficacy of masks on planes. At a Senate hearing in December, Gary Kelly, the chief executive of Southwest Airlines, said, “The case is very strong that masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment.”

But Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, urged travelers to wear face masks at airports and during flights. “Even though you have a good filtration system, I still believe that masks are a prudent thing to do, and we should be doing it,” he said a few days after the hearing.

A correction was made on 
Feb. 25, 2022

An earlier version of this article misstated the position outlined in a  statement from the Association of Flight Attendants-C.W.A. While the statement listed a number of considerations that favor retaining the federal mask mandate in airplanes, and said the union expected it to be extended, it did not directly urge an extension of the requirement. 

How we handle corrections

A class-action lawsuit claims CareCube charged New Yorkers for virus tests they thought were free.

Image
A CareCube testing site in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in November 2020.Credit...Dave Sanders for The New York Times

A Brooklyn-based physicians group is facing a class-action lawsuit accusing it of charging hundreds of dollars for coronavirus tests to New Yorkers who thought they were getting them for free.

The lawsuit, filed last week by two Bronx residents, Sabine Schumacher and Linda Cunningham, seeks more than $10 million in damages for the couple and for any New Yorkers who say they were overcharged by the company, CareCube. The complaint claims CareCube illegally charged the couple $450 for two tests taken last June.

“It’s sad that companies like CareCube are exploiting people during a global pandemic just to make a quick buck, especially in a hard-hit area like New York City,” Ms. Cunningham said in a statement.

CareCube, which has 20 testing sites citywide, has faced a growing number of reports that it overcharged customers who believed their tests would be free. Last month, Letitia James, the New York attorney general, announced that she had opened an investigation into CareCube in response to complaints received by her office and by other New York City leaders.

“We cannot create harmful financial barriers that keep our communities from seeking testing,” Ms. James said at the time. “CareCube and all Covid-19 test providers have a responsibility to be accurate and transparent in their billing process.”

From as early as August 2020 until at least January 2021, the lawsuit says, CareCube’s website explicitly stated that costs for the company’s virus tests would be covered by most health insurers. After that, the lawsuit says, the company’s website continued to note that insurers were obligated to cover the cost of virus tests with no cost to the patient, implying that insured customers would not be charged.

Instead, the lawsuit claims, CareCube billed its customers for doctor consultations that the company said were part of its virus testing procedure, but did not actually provide.

In some instances, the lawsuit states, customers were told by their health insurers that their insurer had already paid CareCube for a test, but the customers were billed anyway.

“Carecube adamantly denies the allegations in this complaint and will defend this action vigorously in court,” the company said in an email.

Dozens of customers have reported getting surprise bills from CareCube since last year. New Yorkers told outlets such as The City and New York Magazine that they were charged more than $100 after getting tested at CareCube, and many took to sites such as Reddit and the Better Business Bureau to warn people away from getting tests there.

Former CareCube employees told New York Magazine that the company often relied on complicated loopholes to charge both insurers and customers for tests.

Federal laws passed in March 2020 state that insurers are required to cover virus tests at no cost to the patient, including tests administered out-of-network. But patients nationwide have reported being hit with unexpected bills for virus tests that have ranged from a few dollars to thousands.

Ms. Cunningham said that she and her partner were worried that CareCube’s billing practices would especially hurt low-income New Yorkers who cannot afford to pay hundreds of dollars to get tested.

“I hope that by standing up to CareCube, all of their other customers who got scammed to pay hundreds of dollars for fake doctor consultations for Covid tests get their money back,” she said.

Susan Campbell Beachy contributed research.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Protests outside New Zealand’s Parliament have turned more violent.

Image
Police officers conducting an operation to constrain protesters outside Parliament on Tuesday in Wellington, New Zealand.Credit...Dave Lintott/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The antigovernment protests that jolted Canada have been quashed. But nearly 9,000 miles away, in the capital of another Western democracy largely unaccustomed to violent tears in the social fabric, an occupation on the grounds of Parliament has entrenched itself and turned increasingly ominous.

Hundreds of demonstrators opposed to New Zealand’s coronavirus vaccine mandate are in their third week of encampment in Wellington, building tents, illegally parking vehicles and establishing communal kitchens and toilets in a deliberate echo of the Canadian siege.

Initially, the New Zealand occupation had a carnival-like atmosphere, with a popcorn stand, a doughnut truck and a number of children brought in by their parents. New Zealanders joked that it was the country’s only Omicron-era music festival: Officials blared Barry Manilow and James Blunt to try to drive out the protesters, who responded with some Twisted Sister.

In recent days, however, after the police moved to evict some protesters, the demonstration has grown more violent. On Monday, protesters threw feces at the police. On Tuesday, a driver tried to ram a car into a large group of officers, and three other members of the force required medical attention after protesters sprayed them with what a police statement called a “stinging substance.”

Lagging vaccine campaigns are leaving Caribbean nations imperiled, W.H.O. officials say.

Image
Waiting for a vaccination at the Saint Damien Hospital in Port-au-Prince last year. Haiti has managed to vaccinate only a small share of residents. Credit...Orlando Barria/EPA, via Shutterstock

Though new coronavirus cases and deaths are declining across the Americas, the Caribbean remains particularly vulnerable to the virus, in part because of vaccination struggles, World Health Organization officials warned on Wednesday.

“Out of 13 countries and territories in the Americas that have not yet reached W.H.O.’s goal of 40 percent coverage, 10 are in the Caribbean,” Dr. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said at a news conference, referring to shares of their populations that have been vaccinated. The organization Dr. Etienne heads is a regional arm of the W.H.O.

There are vast differences in vaccination rates within the region. The stable, prosperous Cayman Islands has vaccinated 91 percent of its residents, according to P.A.H.O., while turbulent, low-income Haiti has managed to vaccinate just 1 percent.

Some Caribbean countries are hampered by shortages of health care workers and have set up vaccination sites only in central areas, which may be far from many of the people who need them, Dr. Etienne said.

There can also be a significant segment of the population that is resistant to being vaccinated, she said, noting that some may have questions and fears about the vaccines and others may think the coronavirus is no longer a serious threat to them. “The spread and death toll of Omicron have shown that underestimating this virus only fuels the pandemic and leads to more suffering,” Dr. Etienne said.

A survey of people in the eastern Caribbean, conducted by P.A.H.O. and the United Nations, found that 51 percent of those who did not intend to be vaccinated were open to changing their minds if they received more information.

“Dialogue, trust, and outreach are the tools we must use to get more vaccines into arms and ultimately save lives,” Dr. Etienne said.

P.A.H.O. officials warned against interpreting recent declines in the number of new cases as evidence that the coronavirus was disappearing.

“It is likely that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will continue circulating for the foreseeable future,” said Sylvain Aldighieri, P.A.H.O.’s incident manager for Covid-19.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Chicago will end its mask mandate for many public spaces.

Image
Chicagoans in the Wicker Park neighborhood abiding by the Illinois statewide mask mandate this month.Credit...Jamie Kelter Davis for The New York Times

Chicago will end its mask and coronavirus vaccine mandates for some public places such as restaurants starting on Monday after a recent plunge in cases of the Omicron variant, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday. The move aligns with Illinois’s plan to end a statewide indoor mask mandate that same day in most places, though not in schools.

The announcement by Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not apply to some spaces — notably health care settings and public transit, where masks will still be required.

“It’s important for us to recognize this moment for what it is: a huge step forward in our effort to overcome Covid-19,” Ms. Lightfoot said. “We would not have been in a position even a few weeks ago to be making this kind of announcement today.”

Democratic-led states and cities announced similar moves this month as Omicron cases declined after a devastating wave that began in December. Connecticut and Massachusetts will also lift some mask mandates starting Monday. Washington, D.C., will end a mask mandate for schools that day.

The United States is seeing a daily average of 82,000 cases, a 66 percent decrease over two weeks, while daily average hospitalizations have also declined 44 percent to about 62,000 during that time, according to a New York Times database. Despite the optimistic data trends, the average daily death toll from the virus is still about 2,000.

Chicago officials said the decision to ease the mandates was made as key metrics — including daily cases, test positivity and hospitalizations — were all in a significant reversal from the surge. The city’s number of cases and hospitalizations have been halved over the past two weeks.

“This doesn’t mean Covid is gone,” Dr. Allison Arwady, the city’s public health commissioner, said in a statement. “It simply means transmission levels are lower than they have been during surges. I still encourage people to take precautions and definitely get vaccinated to protect yourself and your loved ones.”

Sam Toia, the president of the Illinois Restaurant Association, said he welcomed the decision by Ms. Lightfoot to lift the mandates, which were put in place in January. “It’s been a tough January and February for restaurant operators,” he told The Chicago Sun-Times on Tuesday.

It was unclear what Ms. Lightfoot’s decision meant for Chicago Public Schools. Debates over pandemic mandates at schools have been among the most acrimonious, as parents opposed to masking have showed up in force to school board meetings.

The district and the Chicago Teachers Union did not immediately respond to messages left by a reporter, and the mayor said she expected an announcement from the district “in a couple days.” As part of an agreement with the teachers union that ended a work stoppage in January, Chicago’s school district has a mandate requiring students to wear masks.

For her part, Ms. Lightfoot, who caught the coronavirus during the Omicron surge, said that she would continue to wear a mask in public places. “That’s my personal choice,” she said.

She said she would be particularly careful in restaurants, now that there was no longer a requirement to show proof of vaccination to enter. “I’ll be wearing a mask,” she said.

Adeel Hassan contributed reporting.

The European Union wants to relax pandemic rules for vaccinated visitors from abroad.

Image
Planes at the Frankfurt International Airport in Germany this month.Credit...Constantn Zinn/EPA, via Shutterstock

The European Council recommended on Tuesday that the 27 member nations of the European Union end testing and quarantine requirements for visitors who have received coronavirus vaccines that are authorized within the union or approved by the World Health Organization.

The guidance from the council, which brings E.U. leaders together to set the bloc’s political agenda, is not binding, but it is in line with a wider trend in Europe toward relaxed regulations, especially those covering travel and tourism. It is meant to apply beginning March 1.

If it is put into effect, the policy would mean that visitors who received a booster dose of a vaccine, or completed an initial full vaccination at least 14 days but no more than 270 days before arrival, could enter a member country without presenting a negative coronavirus test result or spending time in quarantine. The same would be true for visitors who had recovered from a coronavirus infection within the past 180 days. The rules would apply to adults and to children over 6.

The guidance also recommends more relaxed rules for deciding which countries qualified for the European Union’s “safe travel” list. The new requirement for eligibility would be a two-week average of fewer than 100 new cases a day for every 100,000 population; the current ceiling is 75 cases per 100,000. The United States is well under the ceiling, with a current average of 27 per 100,000, according to a New York Times database.

The European Union bars most nonessential travelers from countries that do not qualify for its safe travel list, and those it does admit may be subject to testing and quarantine requirements.

The union’s regulatory agency has authorized five coronavirus vaccines, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Novavax. The W.H.O. has approved some other vaccines as well; travelers who have received those may still be asked to show a negative P.C.R. test result or to quarantine on arrival, the European Council said.

In late January, the union recommended that vaccinated residents should not be required to undergo testing or quarantine when traveling to other member states. On Feb. 1, Denmark lifted all of its domestic pandemic restrictions, the first member nation to do so. Denmark’s move was followed in quick succession by similar announcements in Austria, Germany, Slovakia and several regions of Spain, as well as nonmember countries like Switzerland and Britain.

One of the council’s recommendations on Tuesday — that tourists not be exempt from restrictions if they got their last dose of vaccine more than 270 days before arrival — raised the possibility that people who were vaccinated very early and have not received boosters could be barred from entry.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Italy says it will end its pandemic state of emergency on March 31.

Image
People walked through Milan without masks on Feb. 11, the first day after an outdoor mask mandate was partially lifted.Credit...Daniel Dal Zennaro/EPA, via Shutterstock


Italy will allow its coronavirus-related state of emergency to expire on March 31, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Wednesday, because the success of the vaccine campaign had greatly improved the situation in the country.

The state of emergency, first introduced Jan. 31, 2020, gave national and regional authorities special powers to cut through red tape and act swiftly on public health measures. It was renewed several times as Italy was hit with successive waves of coronavirus cases.

About 78 percent of Italy’s residents are fully vaccinated. Though the most recent surge of coronavirus cases, driven by the Omicron variant, has receded significantly, the country is still averaging roughly 50,000 new cases a day, more than at any time before the surge took hold in December, according to a New York Times database.

Speaking to local authorities and entrepreneurs in Florence on Wednesday, Mr. Draghi said that Italy needed to emerge from the pandemic to prosper. He said his government was “aware of the fact that the soundness of the recovery depends above all on overcoming the emergency of the moment.”

The time had come, he said, for a gradual return to normal conditions, with schools kept open and quarantine rules relaxed. He said Italy’s color-coded system of coronavirus restrictions, which limited access to a wide array of activities, would be dropped when the emergency ends.

Mr. Draghi also said that rules requiring Italy’s national health pass would gradually be phased out, starting with outdoor activities. The pass, which indicates whether the holder has been fully vaccinated and given a booster shot or has recovered from Covid-19, is currently mandatory for people over 50 to be allowed to work, among other things.

“We will continue to monitor the situation of the pandemic,” and to intervene if necessary, Mr. Draghi said. “But our objective is to open everything as soon as possible,” he added, to applause.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’s surgeon general gives his pandemic policies a seal of approval.

Image
Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo responding to questions posed by the Senate Health Policy Committee during a hearing.Credit...Alicia Devine/Tallahassee Democrat, via USA Today Network

Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo has come out strongly against mask mandates and lockdowns, supports vaccination campaigns only if the shots are voluntary and will not say whether he himself has been vaccinated.

But in pushing for State Senate confirmation of Dr. Ladapo as Florida’s next surgeon general, Gov. Ron DeSantis has found a partner in fighting what Dr. Ladapo calls the policies of “fear.”

For a Republican governor whose brash opposition to conventional public health wisdom has helped fuel obvious presidential ambitions, the appointment of Dr. Ladapo signals Mr. DeSantis’s determination to continue powering through a pandemic that has already cost 68,000 lives in Florida — this time, with what the governor can claim is a medical seal of approval.

Florida ranks among the 20 worst states in the country for its pandemic death rate and among the 10 worst for its case rate, but Mr. DeSantis has argued that the state also suffers when its economy and schools are restricted.

The Florida Senate confirmed Dr. Ladapo’s appointment on Wednesday by a 24-15 vote, with all Republicans voting in favor over strong objections from Democrats.

On Thursday, Mr. DeSantis and Dr. Ladapo issued new virus guidelines that they characterized as a way to “buck” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The guidelines urge businesses to no longer require employees to wear masks, give doctors a way to complain to the state about hospitals that do not allow them to prescribe off-label medications to treat Covid-19, and allow children in day care who test positive to return after five days without a negative test.

“We have no need for any theater in Florida,” Mr. DeSantis said in a video announcement.

To like-minded scientists who felt that their dissenting views had been silenced, Dr. Ladapo’s move from researcher to policymaker gave hope for those who hold views outside the mainstream.

To scientists appalled by Florida’s hands-off approach to the virus, Dr. Ladapo’s ascent cemented their belief that public health had become entrenched in the nation’s polarized politics.

Kitty Bennett and Sheelagh McNeill contributed research.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Big tech is betting that offices are still the future.

Image
The Watermark office building at the edge of Tempe Town Lake, Ariz., is home to WeWork, Robinhood and some Amazon employees.Credit...Adam Riding for The New York Times

Big tech companies like Meta and Google were among the first to announce during the pandemic that they would allow some employees to work from home permanently, but they have also been spending billions of dollars expanding their office spaces.

Doubling down on offices may seem counterintuitive to the many tech workers who continue to work remotely. In January, 48 percent of people in computer and math fields and 35 percent of those in architecture or engineering said they had worked from home at some point because of the pandemic, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But companies, real-estate analysts and workplace experts said that several factors were propelling the trend, including a hiring boom, a race to attract and retain top talent and a sense that offices will play a key role in the future of work.

Debates over whether workers should be required to return to the office can be thorny because some employees say they have been happier and more productive at home. One way companies are trying to lure them back is by splurging on prime office space with great amenities.

Big Tech executives say that office expansions are to be expected and that modernized buildings will probably be spaces for people to collaborate rather than stare at screens. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, leased 730,000 square feet in Midtown Manhattan in August 2020, and has added space in Silicon Valley as well as in Austin, Texas; Boston; Chicago; and Bellevue, Wash.

Google said early last year that it would spend $7 billion on new and expanded offices and data centers around the country in 2021, including $2.1 billion to buy a Manhattan office building by the Hudson River, and growth in Atlanta; Silicon Valley; Boulder, Colo.; Durham, N.C.; and Pittsburgh. Google also said in January that it would spend $1 billion on a London office building.

Several common rapid antigen tests work well for Omicron, according to a new study.

Image
The Abbott BinaxNow rapid antigen test for the coronavirus is among the tests effective in detecting the Omicron variant, according to a new real-world study.Credit...Danielle St. Laurent for The New York Times

Several rapid antigen tests that are widely used in the United States — Abbott BinaxNow, BD Veritor At-Home and Quidel QuickVue — are effective in detecting the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to a new real-world study that eases concerns about possible false negative test results.

The tests performed similarly for Omicron and the Delta variant in the study, which was released on Monday but has not yet been published in a peer reviewed journal. Among people who tested positive for the virus on a P.C.R. test, 61 percent of those with Omicron infections also tested positive on a rapid antigen test within 48 hours, compared with 46 percent of those with Delta infections, according to the research, a collaboration between the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and UMass Chan Medical School. The difference between variants was not statistically significant.

The tests performed better among people with the highest viral loads, detecting more than 90 percent of Omicron and Delta infections in this group, the researchers found.

“This study adds to the body of evidence that says that Omicron can be detected with the home tests that we have,” said Nathaniel Hafer, a molecular biologist at the UMass medical school and an author of the study.

Rapid antigen tests, which are less sensitive than P.C.R. tests, are designed to detect proteins on the surface of the virus. If genetic mutations alter these proteins, it could affect the tests’ ability to detect the virus. So each time a new variant emerges, researchers need to re-evaluate the tests.

Early laboratory research suggested that some antigen tests might be less sensitive to detecting Omicron than previous variants, meaning that they might generate more false negatives. The F.D.A. warned about that possibility in late December.

But experts had noted that the tests still needed to be evaluated in large, real-world studies.

The new findings are from an ongoing U.S. study that began in October and was designed to assess the performance of rapid antigen tests in asymptomatic people.

Participants received P.C.R. home-collection kits and one of three randomly assigned brands of rapid antigen tests in the mail. They collected P.C.R. specimens and took rapid antigen tests every 48 hours for 15 days. They shipped their P.C.R. samples to a lab for testing and reported the results of their rapid antigen tests in a research app. (They were also asked to upload photos of their rapid-test results.)

Nearly 6,000 people participated in the study between October and late January. The new analysis focuses on 153 people who tested positive for the virus at least once on a P.C.R. test at some point during that period. Roughly sixty percent had confirmed or likely Omicron infections, the researchers concluded, using a combination of sequencing data and information about when each person first tested positive. The rest were presumed to have Delta.

The P.C.R. results suggested that roughly half of the 153 participants had high viral loads. Among this group, 96 percent of those with Omicron infections and 91 percent of those with Delta infections tested positive on an antigen test within two days of their positive P.C.R. result.

“The study showed that when there’s higher amounts of the virus, these antigen tests are going to do a good job in detecting cases,” said Matthew Binnicker, the director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in the research. “The real concern of false negatives is when there’s lower levels of the virus.”

Experts urge people who have symptoms of or have been exposed to the virus to take multiple antigen tests, over a period of several days, to increase the odds of detecting an infection.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Maryland lifts its statewide mask mandate for schools, effective immediately.

Image
Zia Hellman, a teacher, helps her student, Averie Colvin, 5, at Walter P. Carter Elementary/Middle School in Baltimore.Credit...Rosem Morton for The New York Times

A Maryland legislative committee on Friday approved the State Board of Education’s decision to allow all 24 local school districts to decide whether to require face coverings in schools.

The decision, effective immediately, ends an emergency order mandating the masking in schools that had been in effect since the beginning of the school year. Both Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, and the state superintendent of schools, Mohammed Choudhury, had lobbied for the decision, which came on the same day that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new masking guidance that allows many more areas of the country to ease pandemic restrictions.

Other states also announced the easing of some restrictions on Friday, including California, Colorado and Illinois.

The Maryland State Education Association, the union that represents 76,000 teachers and other support staff, had urged caution, asking for the mask mandate to remain in place longer.

The mandate was updated in December to allow local school systems the option to end the mask requirement if the spread of the coronavirus remains moderate or low for two weeks, or if the vaccination rate is higher than 80 percent in the school or community. A few school districts have passed the threshold, and one, Anne Arundel County, met the standards and decided to make masks optional. Face coverings will remain required on school buses.

Cheryl Bost, a fourth- and fifth-grade teacher who serves as the union’s president, said in an interview that the system was working well and that school districts were reaching safe levels. She had urged waiting a week or two before removing the state mask mandate.

“You must allow districts and families transitional time to make decisions,” she said. “There are students and educators currently able to take part in in-person instruction because of the mask mandate.”

Ms. Bost, who is immunocompromised, said the union wants students and families with higher levels of vulnerability to have increased remote-schooling options. Educators with special medical needs should also have paid sick leave or alternate job placements, she said, and districts should continue to provide masks, testing and contact tracing to keep community transmission rates low.

Fewer than 10 states still require masks in K-12 schools, though federal guidance recommends that people in places with outbreaks, and all students, teachers and school staff members, wear masks regardless of their vaccination status. Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Oregon, among other states, have announced plans to lift statewide mask requirements in schools, citing the easing of the Omicron surge.

“Using the new framework, Maryland is in a great place,” Mr. Choudhury, the school superintendent, said Friday afternoon. “We can’t mask our kids forever. This is a good time to do it.”

More than 5 million children have lost a caregiver to the pandemic, a study says.

Image
Family members at a mass crematorium ground in East Delhi, India, in April 2021.Credit...Atul Loke for The New York Times

A new study estimates that at least 5.2 million children around the world lost a parent or other caregiver to Covid-19 in the first 19 months of the pandemic.

“Children are suffering immensely now and need our help,” said Susan Hillis, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford and a lead author of the study, which was published in the medical journal The Lancet on Thursday.

The study was based on data from 20 countries, including India, the United States and Peru, and was completed by an international research team that included experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization and several colleges and universities.

It warns that a child who loses a parent or a caregiver could suffer negative effects including an increased risk of poverty, sexual abuse, mental health challenges and severe stress.

An earlier study, focused on the first 13 months of the pandemic, arrived at an estimate of 1.5 million affected children. The new figure is much higher not just because it adds data for six more months, researchers say, but also because the first estimate was a significant undercount. Using updated figures on Covid-related deaths, the researchers now calculate that at least 2.7 million children lost a parent or caregiver during the first 13 months.

The new study covers data through October 2021, and does not include the latest surge in cases from the Omicron variant, which have undoubtedly added to the toll.

“It took 10 years for five million children to be orphaned by H.I.V./AIDS, whereas the same number of children have been orphaned by Covid-19 in just two years,” Lorraine Sherr, a professor of psychology at University College London and an author of the study, said in a statement.

Davyon Johnson, 11, from Muskogee, Okla., is one of the millions of children to have lost a parent — in his case, his father, Willie James Logan, who died two days after being hospitalized with Covid in August 2021.

“It’s been a rocky road, I’ll say it like that,” Davyon’s mother, LaToya Johnson, said in an interview.

Davyon has dealt with the grief as best as he can, she said. His grades are still strong. He’s still eager to see friends. Still, there are days when they are both exhausted.

“Up and down — up and down,” Ms. Johnson said of their emotions. “It’s him wanting to call his daddy and not being able to.”

Darcey Merritt, a professor of child welfare at New York University who was not involved in the study, said the deaths of parents and caregivers would have a “long, far-reaching impact” on children, especially those in lower-income households.

Children of color in the United States, she added, are particularly at risk of negative consequences.

A study in the journal Pediatrics last year found that in the United States, one in every 168 American Indian or Alaska Native children, one in every 310 Black children, one in every 412 Hispanic children, and one in every 612 Asian children had lost a caregiver, compared with one in 753 white children.

The study in The Lancet found that two out of three children orphaned are between 10 and 17, and a majority of the children who lost a parent lost their father.

Juliette Unwin, a lead author of the study from Imperial College London, said in a statement that as the researchers receive more data, they expected the figures to grow “10 times higher than what is currently being reported.”

“The pandemic is still raging worldwide,” Dr. Unwin said, “which means Covid-19-related orphanhood will also continue to surge.”

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Maternal deaths in the U.S. rose during the first year of the pandemic.

Image
Charles Johnson testified before a House committee last May about losing his wife, Kira Johnson, during a routine C-section.Credit...Leah Millis/Reuters

The number of women in the United States who died during pregnancy or shortly after giving birth increased sharply during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study, an increase that health officials attribute partly to Covid and pandemic-related disruptions.

The new report, from the National Center for Health Statistics, found that the number of maternal deaths rose 14 percent, to 861 in 2020 from 754 in 2019.

The United States already has a much higher maternal mortality rate than other developed countries, and the increase in deaths pushes the nation’s maternal mortality rate to 23.8 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2020 from 20.1 deaths in 2019. Maternal mortality rates in developed countries have in recent years ranged from fewer than two deaths per 100,000 live births in Norway and New Zealand to just below nine deaths per 100,000 live births in France and Canada.

Black women in America experienced the most deaths: One-third of the pregnant women and new mothers who died in 2020 were Black, though Black Americans make up just over 13 percent of the population. Their mortality rate was nearly three times that of white women.

The mortality rate for Hispanic women, which has historically been lower than for white women, also increased significantly in 2020 and is now almost on par with the rate for white women. Death rates increased among all pregnant women older than 24, but particularly in those 40 and over, whose mortality rate was nearly eight times that of women younger than 25.

Although the new report is sparse on details — no maternal mortality figures were provided for American Indian/Alaska Native women, who have higher pregnancy-related deaths than white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander women — experts said some of the deaths were most likely related to the coronavirus pandemic. Pregnancy puts women at risk for more severe disease if they are infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid, and vaccines were not available for them in 2020.

Turkey, still recovering from pandemic lockdowns, is shocked by soaring electricity bills.

Image
A bar in Istanbul this month. The cost of power has doubled in some parts of Turkey, fueling widespread discontent.Credit...The New York Times

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s economy was already in recession before the pandemic hit, and because it relies heavily on tourism and the hospitality industry, the months of lockdown have badly hurt many businesses and robbed many residents of income. Now the country is grappling with runaway inflation.

The Turkish lira has sunk to record lows. Food and fuel prices have already more than doubled. Now it is electricity.

It began with a few outraged customers posting photographs of their electricity bills to social media, showing how charges had almost doubled at the end of January. But such complaints have quickly snowballed into a full-blown political crisis for the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

When Mr. Erdogan raised the minimum wage last month to help low-income workers, his government warned that there would be an increase in the utilities charges it sets. But few expected such a shock.

Restaurants and cafes trying to recover after two years of losses from the pandemic were reeling this month after electricity and gas bills doubled.

“During the pandemic, we were closed for 19 months,” said Ilker Tiniz, 37, who runs a family-owned restaurant in the southern city of Adana. “We did delivery. My credit cards exploded, and we were taken to the debt enforcement office.”

In January, his rent rose to 15,000 lira (about $1,150 at the time). Then the electricity bill came in even higher at 17,000 lira. Mr. Tiniz went on Twitter to voice his alarm in among the first of what has grown into a storm of complaints from citizens.

Despite the difficulties during the pandemic, there had always been hope that things would get better, Mr. Tiniz said in an interview at his restaurant, but the galloping inflation was shaking everything in the whole food chain, from the farmers to market traders to the customers in his restaurant.

“I wrote that tweet so that the government hears my voice,” he said.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT