The latest Many Americans breathed a sigh of relief last month when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised their mask guidelines to suggest that most of the country no longer had to wear face coverings indoors. But some people worried the changes increased the onus on the vulnerable and left communities unprepared for another potential wave of infections. If the United States sees the same rise in cases now playing out in Europe, the new federal strategy will be put to the test. It remains unclear whether state and local officials will reimpose mask mandates in the face of a divided public. Black adults in the United States were hospitalized at a higher rate during the peak of the omicron variant wave than at any other moment in the pandemic, according to a report published Friday by the CDC. Between mid-December and the end of January, Black adults were four times as likely as White adults to be hospitalized. They were also less likely to be vaccinated, the report found. Social, political, economic and environmental factors in many communities of color erode health and lay the groundwork for a virus to set off someone's underlying illness, said Teresa Y. Smith, an emergency physician at SUNY Downstate in Brooklyn. While many American parents were frustrated by virtual learning, others considered it the safest option for their children as the United States leaped from one wave of infections to another. Now some of those parents are struggling to discern whether to send their children back into classrooms as they continue to worry about the risks of covid-19. The tension underscores the difficult decisions that school districts have faced during the pandemic, where any choice is bound to frustrate some group of people. Working people in the Washington region are increasingly returning to their offices, but with a change from pre-pandemic days: They're driving there more often, experts say. Less traffic congestion and abundant downtown parking, the experts say, has incentivized many commuters to travel by car. It's too soon to know whether the trend will last, especially amid a surge in gas prices — but a prolonged shift toward driving would set back efforts to reduce traffic congestion and fight climate change in the D.C. area. Even as the U.S. labor market approaches a full recovery from the pandemic, food pantries are experiencing another spike in demand. Inflation is rising at a time when pandemic-era assistance programs have ended, causing families to line up for aid. Rates of reported hunger have ticked up from August, when 7.8 percent of people polled by the Census Bureau said they sometimes or often did not have enough food. In February, 10.2 percent of people said their household sometimes did not have enough to eat. "Make no mistake, people are still struggling," Levar Stoney, mayor of Richmond, told my colleague Laura Reiley. Other important news Hong Kong said it would remove bans on flights from nine countries and reduce the mandatory quarantine for returning residents as the city faces increasing pressure to restore international ties that have frayed because of pandemic restrictions. Energized by anti-mask activism, far-right groups are seeking to harness the networks they've built to organize around November's midterm elections. Extremism trackers warm that the coming months bring a heightened risk of political violence as armed groups forge further into the mainstream. Volunteers who watched remote court proceedings during the pandemic as an accountability measure are pushing Maryland lawmakers to maintain the virtual access that they say has increased transparency. A federal judge ruled that the D.C. cannot enforce a law that lets juveniles be vaccinated without their parents' knowledge. Parents argued that the legislation violates their rights. | 
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