California’s new mask mandate comes amid growing concerns that a winter surge in COVID-19 cases could once again strain hospitals. About 120,000 coronavirus cases are being identified each day in the U.S. — up from 80,000 a few weeks ago. Federal officials said that omicron accounts for just 3% of new cases nationwide, though that figure is 13% in New York and New Jersey. This week, Princeton, Cornell and New York universities have canceled events or moved final exams from the classroom to online. “You have a sense that this is just destiny, and that there’s nothing we can do about it.”Experts are predicting that the omicron variant could become dominant in the United States as soon as January.

Source: Los Angeles Times December 17, 2021 16:04 UTC