The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant

South Korea reported 54,122 new Covid-19 cases for Wednesday, setting another record daily increase of Covid-19 cases and surpassing 50,000 daily cases for the first time since the pandemic began, according to data released Thursday by the country’s health agency.

The health agency warned Monday that the number of cases could rise from a daily average of around 35,000 to between 130,000-170,000 by the end of this month, amid a surge of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.  

The total number of confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic stands at 1,185,361, with 282 considered critically ill. The death toll stands at 6,963, according to the KDCA on Thursday.

As of 12am Thursday, 86.1% of the population has been fully vaccinated with 56% of the population having received a booster shot, according to the KDCA.

Washington’s outdoor mask mandate will be lifted on Feb. 18, Gov. Jay Inslee announced this afternoon at a press conference. 

Inslee said the state is entering a transition period as projections indicate a “very steep decline” in Covid cases and hospitalizations as numbers have already begun ticking downward. 

Inslee said it’s not time to lift all masking requirements yet and he plans to share more information after gathering another week or so of data. 

The governor said the state will make a “safe transition” when it’s time. 

Covid-19 hospitalizations are dropping quickly in the United States, but a heavy burden persists, and the nation’s health care workers are exhausted under the strain.

For the first time in more than a month, there are fewer than 100,000 hospital beds in use for patients with Covid-19 nationwide, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services. 

That’s a 38% drop from a few weeks ago, when Covid-19 hospitalizations reached a peak of more than 160,000 beds in use at one time.

Despite the promising trends, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, says it’s still too soon to change guidance and loosen Covid-19 prevention restrictions.

Hospitalizations are an important barometer, especially at the local level where decisions are made, she said at a White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing on Wednesday. 

“We’re, of course, taking a close look at this in real time, and we’re evaluating rates of transmission as well as rates of severe outcomes as we look at updating and reviewing our guidance.”

But there’s no “magic number,” Walensky said.

Read more here.

Shoppers wear masks while walking through an indoor market in New York, on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

A growing number of states, from New York to California, have announced this week their plans to roll back indoor mask mandates in the coming days. Some others, like Connecticut and New Jersey, are eliminating mask mandates in schools.

Here are the states lifting mask mandates:

The White House has yet to update guidance on mask wearing for the general public, but are urging students, teachers and parents to follow CDC guidelines when making decisions about mask-wearing in schools, regardless of state rules.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday that now is not the time to change the recommendations or loosen restrictions aimed at preventing Covid-19.

See doctor’s reaction to states lifting mask mandates:

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Californians will be granted up to two weeks of sick pay for Covid-19-related absences as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law on Wednesday, just two days after it was passed.

The new law is retroactive to Jan. 1, 2022 and extends grants to businesses that had expired on Dec. 31.

Newsom teased upcoming guidance about the use of masks in schools, anticipating that an announcement will come within days, possibly on Monday. 

The state’s endemic plan is expected to be discussed in detail next week, Newsom said, which will outline the criteria for community surveillance along with rules, regulations, and requirements for residents and businesses.

A customer enters a restaurant past a sign requiring masks on Wednesday, Feb. 9 in Providence, R.I.

Rhode Island’s governor announced the state will be lifting its indoor mask mandates and proof of vaccination protocols.

The new rules go into place on Friday, Gov. Dan McKee said during a briefing Wednesday afternoon. 

The governor said if the state’s general assembly extends his emergency executive authority for another 45 days, as currently proposed, he would extend the executive order requiring masking in schools until March 4. 

“After that time, school masking policies would be decided by individual school districts, not the state,” McKee said. 

McKee said the March 4 date would give school districts time to plan for a transition and allow parents the opportunity to talk to their local leaders.  

“I also want Rhode Islanders to know that none of these decisions were made in a vacuum,” McKee said. “Our team feels we can safely and confidently take this next step based on decreasing Covid numbers and increasing vaccination rates.” 

Students listen to a presentation before receiving KN95 protective masks as a precaution against the spread of the coronavirus at Camden High School in Camden, N.J., on Wednesday, Feb. 9.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki urged students, teachers and parents on Wednesday to follow federal guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when making decisions about mask-wearing in schools, not just local state rules. 

When asked by CNN’s MJ Lee whether students and teachers should follow CDC guidance even if their states do not require masks in those settings, Psaki said “yes.”  

The CDC currently recommends “universal indoor masking by students, staff members, faculty, and visitors” in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status.

Psaki also made a point to note the difference between state leaders who are permitting local school districts to make their own decisions and those are penalizing them for wearing masks.

Earlier today, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said masks are recommended in areas of high and substantial transmission. “That’s much of the public right now,” she said, also adding that the agency is working to update its guidance on mask-wearing.

When asked by CNN why it has been nearly a month since President Biden has addressed Americans in a public speech, Psaki pointed to the President’s recent news conference where he took questions on the pandemic. 

“The American people can expect to continue to hear from the President on it,” Psaki said. 

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (center) at West Lake STEM Junior High School on Feb. 8.

Weeks after signing an order aimed at getting Utah state employees to work in school classrooms as substitute teachers amid a wave of absenteeism due to the Omicron coronavirus variant, Gov. Spencer Cox was seen doing just that Tuesday afternoon.  

“Substitute teaching 3 periods of 8th grade history today. Pray for me…😅” the governor jokingly said in a tweet.   

Cox spent his teaching hours at West Lake STEM Junior High School in the Granite School District, according to a news release from his office.  

Cox isn’t the only governor to help out in the classroom.  

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed up to be a substitute teacher last month too after signing a similar order, CNN previously reported. 

A customer enters a Fitness SF gym on October 15, 2021 in San Francisco, California. 

Nearly a dozen health officers in California’s Bay Area will lift universal mask requirements for most indoor settings, starting next Wednesday, according to a joint news release from the San Mateo County manager’s office.

The city of Berkeley and counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, Santa Cruz, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano and Sonoma will only require masks for anyone who is unvaccinated and over age 2, according to the release. 

State health officials announced Monday that the state indoor mask mandate will expire on Feb. 15. 

Masking is still required for everyone, regardless of vaccination status, on public transportation, congregate settings, long-term care facilities, childcare settings and K-12 schools. 

Local health departments can relax their mask mandates in accordance with the state or keep stricter guidelines.

Similarly, the Golden State’s most populous county, Los Angeles, will change mask requirements for indoor spaces when transmission is under 50 cases per 100,000 people, or when vaccines are available for at least eight weeks for children age under age 5. Either of those two guidelines along with no reports of significant circulation of new variants will prompt a requirement change. The “post-surge” threshold for the county is triggered when daily hospitalizations drop below 2,500 for seven consecutive days. Once that happens, masks will no longer be required at outdoor spaces including mega events, childcare facilities and K-12 schools. 

The state has not yet announced any changes to masking guidance for schools but said adjustments to policies will be shared in the next few weeks.

Truck drivers are finding alternate routes along the US border with Canada as protests against Canada’s Covid-19 regulations continue for a second week. 

“They’re avoiding the interstate and bridges and actually coming through the backroads to get closer to the bridge,” James Freed, city manager for Port Huron, Mich., told CNN.

The Ambassador Bridge, which links Detroit and Windsor, Canada, remains closed to traffic on the US side.

James Lake, Michigan Department of Transportation’s north region communications representative, said that “traffic is not currently moving into Canada,” as the “I-75 exit ramps to Canada are currently closed.” 

The Canada Border Services Agency reported wait times of more than four hours Wednesday morning at the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron.  

“The problem is we’re a smaller Midwestern community,” Freed said. “We were never designed to have thousands of truckers showing up to our city all at once. So it’s significant congestion blocking up our downtown.” 

Freed said the truckers in his community are not protesters. 

“These are truck drivers who are legitimately trying to traverse the border, supply our factories and continue with commerce,” he said.

Watch drone video below:

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Boris Johnson leaving 10 Downing Street to attend the weekly Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament, in London, on Feb. 9.

Scotland Yard said on Wednesday that it is reviewing its assessment that a Christmas quiz at Downing Street on Dec. 15, 2020 did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation after an image surfaced of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson near a bottle of champagne, according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police. 

The news comes after a new photo emerged on Wednesday, published by The Mirror, seemingly showing Johnson gathering with others in an office setting, with a bottle of champagne, while the country was under a strict lockdown. 

The gathering was not included in the list of events published on Jan. 31 as being investigated by the police, but it was mentioned by senior civil servant Sue Gray in her findings to the Downing Street inquiry. 

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement Wednesday: “The MPS previously assessed this event and determined that on the basis of the evidence available at that time, it did not meet the threshold for criminal investigation. That assessment is now being reviewed.” 

On Jan. 25, the police announced it was investigating a “number of events” that took place at Downing Street and Whitehall in the last two years in relation to potential coronavirus regulation breaches. 

A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spokesperson said the US-Canada border at Coutts, Alberta, remains inaccessible after truckers moved additional vehicles to block the highway on Tuesday evening.

The protesters in Coutts are part of a group of truckers across Canada that have successfully blocked major border crossings in protest of Canada’s mandate requiring that trucker drivers be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 or face strict testing and quarantine requirements.

Fraser Logan, spokesperson for the RCMP in Alberta, said that vehicles were moved onto Highway 4, completely blocking access to the border, around 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

In a Tuesday evening press conference, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki had touted the dwindling number of truckers present at the protests as progress towards breaking the blockade. He said that was through successful conversations with the protesters over the almost two-week-long blockade.  

Part of the success, Zablocki said, was convincing truckers to allow a lane of traffic to open in either direction towards the border.

Logan did not have any information as to what may have led the truckers to bring in the additional vehicles and completely shut down roadway access. However, Logan did confirm that the RCMP in Alberta is continuing to talk to towing companies about moving the trucks.

According to Department of Transportation statistics, roughly 150,000 trucks pass through the Sweet Grass-Coutts border crossing each year. The nearest border crossing to the east adds about two hours of travel to a trip; the nearest border crossing to the west adds about an hour travel to a trip. 

Zablocki said the protests started in Coutts 12 days ago with over 250 truckers, but as of Tuesday evening, that number has dwindled to around 50.  

A masked student receives an in-person lesson at Yung Wing School P.S. 124 on January 05, 2022 in New York City. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul acknowledged there is a possibility that mask mandates in school may be lifted in the second week of March.

She was asked at her Covid-19 briefing Wednesday if she envisions schools lifting mask mandates by March 7 if metrics stay basically where they are now — and there is “barely” any uptick by March 4. Hochul said:

The governor added she wants to make sure there is thoughtful guidance on “what could re-trigger the institution of this again,” adding “hopefully, never again but we have to be realistic; this has not been declared over, this pandemic is still with us.”

When asked about the varying decisions on school masks from leaders in the tri-state area — the New Jersey and Connecticut governors — Hochul said “we’re very close” in terms of their various approaches. Hochul maintained the state will continue to make data-driven, metric-driven decisions. 

Students in masks start their first day of in-class learning since the start of the pandemic at Garden Place Elementary School on Monday, Aug. 23, 2021, in north Denver. 

The Denver Department of Public Health & Environment announced Wednesday it will lift its mask mandate in schools and childcare facilities on Feb. 25 at 11:59 p.m. MT. 

The department cited “a significant drop in COVID-19 cases in Denver and the metro area” as well as high vaccination rates among children ages 5 and older.    

The city’s indoor face covering order expired last week, CNN previously reported.

The department said it plans to announce more information on quarantine and isolation guidelines later this week as well.

People should not delay getting a mammogram due to a recent Covid-19 vaccination, according to a new study.

Mammograms picking up swollen lymph nodes, also known as lymphadenopathy, after vaccination is common, according to a study in the journal Radiology published Tuesday. Swollen lymph nodes following a vaccination are a short-term, harmless sign the vaccine is working.

The swollen lymph nodes were noticed after Covid-19 vaccines were rolled out, but they can occur after other vaccinations too, such as a flu shot or shingles vaccine. Some doctors suggested that women who recently got vaccinated and had swollen lymph nodes may want to wait a few weeks before getting a mammogram, while others said it’s important not to skip or delay mammograms or vaccinations.

In the study, 537 of the 1,217 patients that received Covid-19 vaccination and underwent breast imaging had lymphadenopathy. The swollen lymph nodes were found in 46% of the patients that received the Moderna vaccine, 38% of those that took the Pfizer vaccine and 39% of those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.  

The swollen lymph nodes were most commonly seen in the first two weeks after vaccination, but can persist much longer.

“I was surprised by how quickly the lymph nodes became swollen and how long they persisted after being detected on routine screening mammogram and screening ultrasound exams,” Wolfson said. “We found benign reactive lymph nodes were still present despite delaying the screening exams for four to six weeks based on various guidelines. These lymph nodes were unchanged with follow up exams at three months, and some enlarged lymph nodes persisted for over 10 months.” 

Wolfson said follow up imaging in patients with swollen lymph nodes is not recommended unless there are other suspicious mammographic findings.

Recent declines in Covid-19 case numbers and hospitalization rates across the United States has led the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to review guidance on mitigation measures, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said during a virtual White House briefing Wednesday.

“We certainly understand the need and desire to be flexible,” Walensky said Wednesday.

“Cases and hospitalizations are falling. This is, of course, encouraging and that leads us of course to look at all of our guidance,” Walensky said. “At this time, we continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission. That’s much of the public right now.”

Walensky added later in the briefing that the agency is working to update its guidance on mask-wearing.

When pressed in a follow-up question by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if Americans should follow guidance from the CDC or that of governors — like Phil Murphy of New Jersey, John Carney of Delaware, or Kathy Hochul of New York, who’ve announced rollbacks of some indoor mask requirements in their respective states — Walensky said decisions would continue to be made “at the local level.”

“As I understand it, in many of these decisions, are using a phased approach — not all of these decisions are being made to stop things tomorrow, but they’re looking at a phased approach. And so, what I would say is again, they have to be done at the local level,” Walensky said, adding she was “really encouraged” by the decline in cases and hospitalizations and that the CDC was still “working on our guidance,” with respect to masks.

The White House offered some additional details on its efforts to prepare to vaccinate children aged six months to five years, pending the US Food and Drug Administration’s authorization and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation.

Data on Covid-19 vaccine efficacy for this age group has been submitted to the FDA and its advisory committee will meet next Tuesday, Feb. 15. 

Since the vaccine is specially formulated for this age group, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients told reporters Wednesday, the administration is “launching a new program specially for kids under five,” for which the planning process is “well underway.”

The CDC is working with states to help them prepare and the US has procured enough vaccine supply, as well as special needles, syringes, and kits, to vaccinate this young age group.

More context: As CNN reported last week, there is some hesitancy among parents of this age group. A January Kaiser Family Foundation poll of a nationally representative sample of 162 parents released last week found only 3 in 10 parents say they’ll get their child under 5 vaccinated against Covid right away. Zients said the administration will focus on local messengers to combat hesitancy.

“There are parents that do have questions and we need to answer those questions. And we’ve learned through our efforts across the last year that the best messengers are local messengers, local community groups and leaders, doctors and other health practitioners. So we are working closely with HHS (the US Department of Health and Human Services) to line up that group and make sure that they have the materials that they need, training they need to be able to answer the questions that parents have about getting their kids vaccinated,” he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser, added that the FDA’s decision will be “based on the scientific data of both safety and efficacy.”

New York state will make an assessment on mask-wearing in schools after reviewing student Covid-19 test results in the first week of March following the next school break, Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

“After the break, after we’ve had kids tested, we are going to make an assessment that first week in March based on all the metrics I’ve described to you and look at that combined picture,” she said.

Hochul met with various educational leadership in a virtual closed press meeting Tuesday.

The state has amassed more at-home test kits than any state in the nation, Hochul said, and they will be given to families prior to the school break. 

Most students are expected to return to school on or about February 28, she said.

“After this break, parents will have test kits for their children, we want them to test the day after they come back and again three days later and let the school know if your child tests positive, keep them home, but by that Friday, just a few days after the children come back, we’ll be able to look at those numbers,” and other metrics, she said. 

Hochul said the state is also working to make sure the schools know what to do in potential future circumstances wherein the masks come off, and a student tests positive – guidance of which has not yet been developed by other state or federal partners.

The White House continued to suggest that it is looking ahead to a time when Americans can get back to normal after nearly two years of Covid-19 protocols, but offered scant details on what that would look like and when it could be announced. 

With cases and hospitalizations trending downward, White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said Wednesday that fighting the Omicron surge of coronavirus remains “priority number one,” and indicated that there has been some outreach to governors and other public health officials on the next steps. 

In a rare and notable moment, Zients directly named Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra. CNN reported earlier this week that Becerra is seeking to take a more public-facing role.

“For the last several weeks, we’ve been working closely with Secretary Becerra, our team of doctors, and the White House Covid response team, under the President’s leadership, is reaching out to governors and outside public health experts and doctors and local public health officials on steps we should be taking to keep the country moving forward,” Zients said.

Zients acknowledged that some places have experienced cases falling more significantly, and that will lead to “different approaches and different timing.”

But overall, officials at Wednesday’s briefing offered no specific benchmarks or metrics for how or when the administration will shift away from its crisis footing as some governors, including Democrats, have moved toward lifting restrictions. 

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she is lifting the statewide mask-or-vaccine requirement for indoor businesses on Thursday, leaving counties, cities and businesses to “make their own decisions on what they want to do with respect to mask or the vaccination requirement.”

“Given the declining cases, given the declining hospitalizations, that is why we feel comfortable to life this in effect tomorrow,” she said.

The emergency temporary measure was put in place two months ago and was set to expire tomorrow, she reminded. 

“We want to make sure that every business knows, this is your prerogative. And individuals who want to continue wearing masks, continue wearing masks,” the governor said.

The statewide mask requirement is still in effect at state regulated health care settings, state regulated adult care facilities and nursing homes, correctional facilities, schools and childcare centers, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and on transit including busses, trains, subways and their stations as well as on planes and in airports.

These are concentrated areas and areas where people are more vulnerable, she explained.

See her tweet: