President Joe Biden is facing increased calls for a return to normalcy from COVID-19 after four Democrat-led states lifted mask mandates in schools as case rates continue to decline.
On Monday, the Democrat governors in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon all announced plans to life mask mandates in schools while Biden's press secretary Jen Psaki said the administration backed face coverings in classrooms.
The move by states rolling back restrictions has put pressure on the White House and other blue states, including New York, to follow suit after more than two years of strict face covering rules.
The administration is also trying to get a more accurate read on coronavirus hospitalizations as Biden's team increasingly relies on these figures rather than case counts to determine its response to the pandemic and the effectiveness of vaccines.
A Health and Human Service (HHS) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) task force of scientists and data specialists are working with hospitals to improve reporting on COVID-19 cases and its impact, according to Politico.
The recalculation of hospitalizations comes after controversy ensued over how the country is counting the continued severity of the nearly two-year pandemic when it comes to hospital counts.
Many have criticized calculations for not distinguishing between those who go to the hospital for COVID-19 treatment and those who go to the hospital for other reasons but test positive for the disease when there.
COVID cases are continuing to fall in the U.S. – down 43 per cent over the past seven days – as the country starts to move past the Omicron surge. The nation is recording 267,765 cases per day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, a far drop from the 469,770 cases a week ago.
The falling cases continue a near-month-long trend of COVID cases plummeting after peaking in mid-January. When Omicron first made its way to the U.S. it caused cases to explode nationwide with daily cases reaching a peak of around 800,000 per day on January 15.
Like it did in other countries, though, the variant quickly ran out of steam. Cases have fallen week-over-week for the past three weeks. The daily case total is now nearing the highs of around 250,000 per day set in last year's surge and is expected to fall even further.
Daily death totals often lag behind cases by a few weeks. The country is averaging 2,529 deaths per day, around even to the 2,452 average last week.
The orders come as case rates for COVID continue to plummet, especially in schools as kids and teenagers remain the least affected demographic
The moves also comes as the administration put together a task force to recalculate the number of hospitalizations after controversy ensued over how the country is counting the continued severity of the nearly two-year pandemic. Many slam calculations for not distinguishing between those who go to the hospital for COVID-19 treatment and those who go to the hospital for other reasons but test positive for the disease when there
Falling cases means that a sharp drop in deaths could occur in the near future, as well.
The White House, according to a recent CNN report, is 'thinking about' a plan for post-pandemic America, but the White House was unwilling on Monday to endorse Democratic governors de-masking plans for schools.
New Jersey's mask rule change has put pressure on neighboring New York City Mayor Eric Adams and New York Governor Kathy Hochul to lift mandates on students and teachers.
New York's Health Commissioner Mary Bassett said Tuesday that 'no decision' has been made on when school mask mandates will end in the state.
Meanwhile, Democratic New York State Senator John Liu said it's getting hard to explain the continuing COVID-related restrictions to constituents when 'neighboring states are starting to lift their mask mandates.'
GOP Conference Chairwoman Representative Elise Stefanik from New York tweeted Monday: 'End the mask mandates – for New York's businesses AND schools. But Governor Hochul still continues to refuse to unmask our kids.'
A Long Island judge ruled last month against Hochul's statewide mask mandate because it amounted to 'a law that was promulgated and enacted unlawfully by an Executive branch state agency, and therefore void and unenforceable as a matter of law.'
Post a Comment