A handful of mask mandates in the U.S. from businesses and schools popped up in recent weeks as COVID-19 hospitalizations increased.
Two major hospitals in New York as well as health care company Kaiser Permanente at its Santa Rosa, California, facilities have reintroduced mandatory masking.
Movie studio Lionsgate is also reportedly resuming a mask requirement at its Santa Monica headquarters.
In Georgia, a small liberal arts college is requiring masks for two weeks as COVID-19 spread among students. Morris Brown College also limited events on campus.
"There will be no parties or large student events on campus for the next two weeks," the school said in a statement.
It’s unclear how many more institutions will reimplement mask mandates given how highly politicized the measure has become.
The moves come as COVID-19 hospitalizations increase for the fifth straight week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Most U.S. counties are documenting a “low” level of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, according to CDC data. Less than 3% of counties are seeing a “medium” level. None are experiencing a “high” level of admissions.
The CDC no longer tracks COVID-19 infections, but researchers say the spread is likely significant given the increase in hospitalizations. Deaths, which tend to lag behind hospitalizations, have not yet shown a similar increase.
This week, CDC issued a risk assessment for a new, highly mutated omicron subvariant, BA.2.86. It said that the variant is likely not responsible for the current rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations but that it is too soon to know the new strain’s transmissibility or severity.
Still, researchers believe that the updated COVID-19 shot that is likely rolling out next month will still be effective against BA.2.86.
“CDC’s current assessment is that this updated vaccine will be effective at reducing severe disease and hospitalization,” it said in the risk assessment.
The strain, which has over 30 mutations, is not common enough to make it onto CDC’s variant tracker, but it has been found in very small numbers in the U.S., the U.K., Denmark and Israel. The World Health Organization upgraded it to a “variant under monitoring” last week.
