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CORONAVIRUS

A third of US should be considering masks, officials say

WASHINGTON — COVID-19 cases are increasing in the United States — and could get even worse over the coming months, federal health officials warned Wednesday in urging areas hardest hit to consider reissuing calls for indoor masking. Increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are putting more of the country under guidelines issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that call for masking and other infection precautions. Right now, about a third of the U.S. population lives in areas that are considered at higher risk — mostly in the ...

FDA clears COVID booster shot for healthy kids ages 5 to 11

U.S. regulators on Tuesday authorized a COVID-19 booster shot for healthy 5- to 11-year-olds, hoping an extra vaccine dose will enhance their protection as infections once again creep upward. Everyone 12 and older already was supposed to get one booster dose for the best protection against the newest coronavirus variants -- and some people, including those 50 and older, can choose a second booster. The Food and Drug Administration’s authorization now opens a third shot of Pfizer’s vaccine to elementary-age kids, too — at least five months after their last dose. There is one ...

US deaths from COVID hit 1 million, less than 2-1/2 years in

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 1 million on Monday, a once-unimaginable figure that only hints at the multitudes of loved ones and friends staggered by grief and frustration. The confirmed number of dead is equivalent to a 9/11 attack every day for 336 days. It is roughly equal to how many Americans died in the Civil War and World War II combined. It’s as if Boston and Pittsburgh were wiped out. “It is hard to imagine a million people plucked from this earth,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, who leads a new pandemic center at the Brown University School of Public Health in ...

Creeping COVID-19 cases result in few schools mask mandates

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — U.S. COVID-19 cases are up, leading a smattering of school districts, particularly in the Northeast, to bring back mask mandates and recommendations for the first time since the omicron winter surge ended and as the country approaches 1 million deaths in the pandemic. The return of masking in schools is not nearly as widespread as earlier in the pandemic, particularly as the public’s worries over the virus have ebbed. But districts in Maine, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have brought masks back, with a few in Massachusetts also recommending them even as the school ...

Workers grapple with new stresses as they return to office

NEW YORK — Last summer, Julio Carmona started the process of weaning himself off a fully remote work schedule by showing up to the office once a week. The new hybrid schedule at his job at a state agency in Stratford, Connecticut, still enabled him to spend time cooking dinner for his family and taking his teenage daughter to basketball. But in the next few months, he’s facing the likelihood of more mandatory days in the office. And that’s creating stress for the father of three. Carmona, 37, whose father died from COVD-19 last year, worries about contracting the virus but he ...

COVID coverage for all dries up even as hospital costs rise

WASHINGTON — For the first time, the U.S. came close to providing health care for all during the coronavirus pandemic — but for just one condition, COVID-19. Now, things are reverting to the way they were as federal money for COVID care of the uninsured dries up, creating a potential barrier to timely access. But the virus is not contained, even if it’s better controlled. And safety-net hospitals and clinics are seeing sharply higher costs for salaries and other basic operating expenses. They fear they won’t be prepared if there’s another surge and no backstop. “We ...