| Democratic governors on Wednesday continued to abandon COVID-19 mask requirements, even as the White House admonished Americans to wear high-quality masks indoors and in schools just a little longer as omicron lingers. New York and Massachusetts turned deaf ears to Washington and said they are guided by improved infection and hospitalization rates within their borders as well as vaccination rates, testing options, reopened workplaces and the controversial challenges faced by schools. Democratic governors in New Jersey, Connecticut, Delaware, Oregon and California, with Nevada expected today, are among a growing list of states opting to move forward without declarations of out-and-out victory over COVID-19 and while conceding the U.S. death toll is approaching 1 million people. New York today drops its “mask or proof-of-vaccination” indoor mandate for businesses, while Massachusetts will end its statewide school mask mandate on Feb. 28 (The Washington Post). New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) (pictured below) said the state’s mask requirement for schools will remain in place and be re-examined in early March (The New York Times). In California, San Francisco will lift its indoor mask requirement on Wednesday. Only one Bay Area county, Santa Clara, will not follow suit next week because it believes the community transmission rate with omicron remains too high. The Denver Post: Face coverings will no longer be required in Denver schools beginning Feb. 25. The Providence Journal: Rhode Island will lift its indoor mask-or-proof-of-vaccination requirement on Friday, and possibly its school mask mandate on March 4. Axios: Maryland and Washington, D.C., currently have the lowest COVID-19 case counts in the country, each with fewer than 30 cases per 100,000 people, on average. 
© Associated Press/Alex Brandon Anthony Fauci hinted at the political pressure and community-based exasperation afoot. “As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, there will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” he told the Financial Times. The Associated Press: Under pressure to ease up, President Biden weighs new virus response. As state mask rules end, school leaders are in the middle, caught in one of the most combustible issues of the pandemic (The Associated Press). School superintendents generally prefer flexibility to make their own decisions on mask requirements based on infection numbers and vaccination rates, said Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association. “What we’ve seen in this country is that the pandemic and the level of infections is very much dependent on where you are,” he said. “If you create a blanket situation that says everyone is going to have to do this, wear a mask or not wear a mask, you’re not taking into consideration the differences that exist within your own region.” The complaints, however, come from all sides. “That’s why superintendents are leaving the profession in numbers because they’re caught in the middle. They’re damned if they do, they’re damned if they don’t,” Domenech said. The Hill: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky says there is no specific benchmark of COVID-19 case rates that warrants a change in its guidance. The New York Times: The Biden administration remains cautious about easing masks and other COVID-19 safety measures. The Washington Post: White House press secretary Jen Psaki (pictured below) said the White House respects local governments’ decisions to issue guidance and mandates but backs experts’ advice and encourages Americans to do the same. Behind the scenes, the administration is working on new guidance for the next phase of life amid an ever-evolving, highly transmissible hazard that won’t be gone anytime soon. The Washington Post: Norwegian Cruise Line announced that on March 1, it will drop its mask requirement from COVID-19 protocols. At the outset of the pandemic, state and local officials had to invent coronavirus safety measures and restrictions on the fly while they pleaded with Washington to share expert guidance. It is no surprise that states, now years into a crisis, have antennae finely tuned to what markets will bear. States have long histories of either launching or navigating initially controversial safety requirements imposed on freedom-loving, often skeptical citizens. Federal and state mandates have survived decades of protests and adaptations before finding grudging acceptance. Examples: seatbelts, child safety car seats, inoculation requirements to attend school, motorcycle helmets, smoking bans in public spaces and dog leash laws. Connecticut in 1901 was the first state to impose a motor vehicle speed limit (12 mph in cities and 15 mph on rural roads). By 1930, most states had followed with speed limits of their own. > Vaccines: The Food and Drug Administration this month will make its recommendation on emergency-use authorization of COVID-19 vaccine doses for children younger than 5. If the government approves, an initial 10 million doses are expected to be ready for shipment, with the first batch available on Feb. 21 and the second on Feb. 25 (The Washington Post). … Congressional Democrats are calling for $17 billion in a pending federal funding package for fiscal 2022 specifically for global COVID-19 vaccine assistance, arguing that help now can constrain new variants from emerging worldwide. Congressional Progressive Caucus Chairwoman Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) points to “extensive” conversations with the administration, and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) back additional global vaccine support (The Hill). … North Korea has not accepted any deliveries of COVID-19 vaccine doses through COVAX, so the country’s allotment has been cut (Reuters). The United States has pledged to donate at least 1.1 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine for global use before 2023. Of that total, 396 million doses have been delivered and 19.5 million have been shipped but not yet delivered as of Wednesday, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation tracker. > Global infections: Omicron is so rapidly and slyly infectious that the number of global confirmed cases of COVID-19 exceeded 400 million this week just a month after hitting 300 million. That astonishing surge, likely an undercount, is but one of the challenges faced by world leaders who are contemplating how to “live with” COVID-19 at the same time that public health officials warn of the inevitability of new variants. The race is still on worldwide to hike vaccination and booster rates among adults and children (The New York Times). The New York Times: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday said he will soon present plans for lifting all COVID-19 restrictions in England, possibly weeks before an anticipated March 24 expiration date for restrictions. It was unclear whether or when such changes would apply to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, which make their own coronavirus rules. 
© Associated Press/Patrick Semansky | 
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