Free Republic

Alameda County, the San Francisco Bay Area’s second-most populous county, reinstated on Friday a mask mandate in most indoor spaces, which it had dropped in February. Officials cited growing hospitalizations in Alameda, whose county seat is Oakland, which are up about 35 percent over the last two weeks to a daily average of 129, as of Thursday, according to federal data. Nationally, about 28,000 people were currently in hospitals with the coronavirus, an increase of 17 percent over the last two weeks. Alameda is the first county in California, and the largest jurisdiction in the United States, to issue a...

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” that one of the contributing factors to an uptick in COVID cases is “many people are no longer wearing masks in indoor settings.” Fauci said, “We have now, as you mentioned correctly, for a couple of days in a row have been over 100,000 cases. Not as high as it was at the very peak that we had several months ago, but we have to be very careful. One of the things we keep emphasizing, as you know, we have reached a...

Philadelphia's indoor mask mandate is coming to an end. "Due to decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts, the City will move to strongly recommending masks in indoor public spaces as opposed to a mask mandate," a spokesperson with the Philadelphia Health Department told NBC10 Thursday night. "Given the latest data, the BOH voted to rescind the mandate." The spokesperson did not reveal if the decision was effective immediately but said more details will be revealed on Friday.

(CNN)Philadelphia will reinstate its indoor mask mandate as of Monday, April 18, as cases in the city quickly rise, the city's Public Health Commissioner Dr. Cheryl Bettigole announced Monday. Their decision comes after a slew of states and major cities dropped their masking requirements as cases began trending downward in January. On March 25, Hawaii became the last state to drop its mandate. The city will move to its second level of Covid-19 restrictions, which requires Philadelphians to wear masks in indoor public places. The mandate goes into effect on April 18.

The indoor use of face masks is no longer required, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Friday, just before President Biden’s State of the Union Address on Tuesday. Without a change in the science of coronavirus transmission, the CDC lowered the bar and put forth new guidance that places more than half of U.S. counties under low or medium risk of coronavirus, where making up is no longer suggested. “That accounts for roughly 70 percent of Americans,” NBC News reported.

Los Angeles County will retain its indoor mask mandate past the February 15 date set Monday by Gov. Gavin Newsom as the date to end a statewide mandate, according to public health officials in the county.

San Francisco updated its COVID-19 Health Order Thursday to exempt boosted individuals from its indoor mask mandate. Office workers, gym members and individuals in other “stable cohorts” will not be required to wear masks indoors if they are “up to date” on their COVID-19 vaccinations, according to a rule that will be officially adopted Feb. 1.

The city of Chicago announced Tuesday an indoor mask mandate for all individuals 2 years and older, regardless of vaccination status, beginning Friday, Aug. 20. "With the highly transmissible Delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives," said CDPH Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady in a statement. "We continue to track the data closely and are hopeful this will only be temporary and we can bend the COVID curve, as we’ve done in the past." According to Arwady, masks are required in all indoor public settings, "including...

Baltimore, Maryland, is ushering in an indoor mask mandate months after Gov. Larry Hogan (R) lifted the statewide requirement. The order goes into effect Monday and applies to both the vaccinated and unvaccinated. “This pandemic is not over and we must all do our due diligence to protect ourselves and our neighbors,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D) said this week. “While we know that masking is a sure way to slow the spread of COVID-19, we cannot stress enough the importance and urgency of getting vaccinated so that we can beat COVID-19 for good,” he added, explaining that the number...

NEW ORLEANS — When COVID-19 infection rates started dipping nationwide, Tyshauna Collins-Buy started getting lax on mask-wearing. But now that the delta variant is prompting another surge in cases, she's covering her face more these days. "I almost felt like if you hadn't had COVID yet, you're not going to get it," said Collins-Buy, who has been visiting New Orleans from Tampa and heard Cantrell introduce her advisory Wednesday. "But I just learned about the variant, so I'm going to go back to wearing it."

New York City does not “intend” to require masks indoors as the Big Apple sees an uptick in COVID-19 cases amid a highly infectious variant surge, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. “No. Simple answer: no,” de Blasio said Monday morning during his daily press briefing, when asked if the city would reinstitute a face-covering mandate for the unvaccinated and vaccinated in indoor spaces, following a vocal local politician calling for one. “Masks have value, unquestionably. But masks are not going at the root of the problem — vaccination is.” De Blasio vowed that the city will “double down” on...

Americans are less likely to wear a mask indoors at private gatherings with non-household members than they are in public, a Gallup poll released Monday found. Many political figures, particularly Democrats such as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), have advised Americans to remain vigilant, even when gathering in the privacy of one’s home in the era of the Chinese coronavirus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), for example, advised Americans to wear masks at Thanksgiving and has since urged Americans to wear masks at holiday gatherings that feature more than one household.

The NFAA Foundation has made the decision to change the format for the 2021 Vegas Shoot. The NFAA Foundation has been working diligently to explore alternative formats for the 2021 Vegas Shoot. The new format will feature a virtual event for the flight and junior divisions and a smaller in-person event for the Championship divisions....

Kane County Judge Kevin Busch granted a temporary restraining order to prevent the enforcement of an indoor dining ban at FoxFire restaurant in Geneva.. Gov. JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health is asking the Illinois Second District Appellate Court to reverse a decision by Kane County Judge Kevin Busch granting a temporary restraining order to prevent the enforcement of an indoor dining ban at FoxFire restaurant in Geneva. In their appeal, Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Public Health ask for the order to be vacated and for the temporary restraining order to be dissolved. The appeal...

Mayor Bill de Blasio suggested Tuesday he’s reluctant to restart indoor dining because it’s an activity for middle- and upper-income New Yorkers that clashes with his pledge to transform the Big Apple’s “tale of two cities” with progressive policies. At his daily press briefing, De Blasio was asked why public school students who return to classrooms this fall will eat their lunch inside while restaurants can’t reopen indoor dining. “I don’t think there’s a similarity at all,” de Blasio said.