U.S. President Joe Biden said on March 29 that 90 percent of all adults in the United States will be eligible for the coronavirus vaccination by April 19 as he warned about the potential for an upsurge in infections.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on March 8 that individuals inoculated against Covid-19 can meet in small groups with other vaccinated people without masks, but that they should keep wearing them outside the home.
Alabama’s governor on March 4 extended for another month an order mandating residents to wear face masks to protect against Covid-19, breaking with Mississippi and Texas as the issue again becomes the focus of political debate.
The White House said on March 3 that President Joe Biden hoped Americans would continue to follow coronavirus guidelines such as mask-wearing even as some states, including Texas, lift their restrictions amid the ongoing pandemic.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued the most sweeping rollback of coronavirus restrictions of any U.S. state on March 2, lifting a mask mandate and saying most businesses may open at full capacity by the following week.
The United States reported a 23% drop in new cases of Covid-19 and a 16% fall in the number of people hospitalized with the virus for the week ended Feb. 14, with both figures declining for a fifth week in a row.
Even this far into the COVID-19 pandemic, wearing masks is still a hot-button issue in various areas across the country, according to a study by Embee Mobile and the University of California Berkeley.
The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Feb. 14 it is “absolutely” too soon to lift mask mandates, citing daily Covid-19 case numbers that despite recent declines remain more than double the levels seen the summer of 2020.
As the United States makes efforts to eradicate Covid-19 under a new president’s administration, the Food and Drug Administration is tasked with rebuilding the regulatory agency’s reputation with a new commissioner.
Mask-wearing and social distancing will be paramount at the Super Bowl LV, top U.S. infectious disease specialist Anthony Fauci said ahead of the National Football League’s (NFL) championship game on Feb. 7 in Tampa, Florida.
