An informed guide to the pandemic, with the latest developments and expert advice about prevention and treatment. |
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 | | Daily reported coronavirus cases in the United States, seven-day average.The New York Times |
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 | | An elementary school in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, last month.Natalie Keyssar for The New York Times |
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New York City's next chapter |
The move is a step toward restoring a sense of normalcy in the city and boosting its economic recovery, which has been unequal and slower than in other large cities. |
For a look at where the city is headed, I spoke to my colleague Emma Fitzsimmons, the City Hall bureau chief. |
What have the last few months been like in the city? |
We had a really tough few months with the Omicron variant. But the situation has improved over the last month. At the height of Omicron, we were seeing around 43,000 cases a day, and now we are down to about 400 cases a day. At the peak of Omicron, there were about 1,000 hospitalizations a day, and now we are down to roughly 30. |
Which precautions is the mayor targeting? |
The first is masks in schools. The second precaution is proof of vaccination to enter some venues. Everyone has had to show proof of vaccination when you enter indoor dining or gyms or movie theaters, and now you won't have to do that anymore. But businesses can still decide to ask people for proof of vaccination if they want. I'm actually seeing my first Broadway show in two years on Friday — "Six" — and I will be wearing my mask since they're still required. |
Adams is saying he'll end more pandemic restrictions in the future, but for now, he's comfortable relaxing those two mandates. |
What mandates are still in place? |
The big ones are the employer mandates. So city workers — police officers, teachers, sanitation workers — they all must be vaccinated. And then there's the vaccine mandate for private employers. It applies only to people who are working in person, for example, at a grocery store or a tech company. So that's the approach that they're using to try and make sure that all adults in New York City are vaccinated — and it has worked. More than 95 percent of adults in New York City have received at least one dose of the vaccine at this point. |
How are New Yorkers feeling these days? |
Eric Adams has kind of become the city's psychologist. He keeps telling us, it's time to get back out there; New York is open for business; it's time to get out of your pajamas. To be honest with you, I'm wearing my pajamas right now while I'm working from home, and a lot of us still are. Still, New Yorkers are feeling a lot better than they were over the holidays and in January, where everybody knew someone who was sick and it just felt like Covid was everywhere. |
What does New York City's next chapter look like? |
If there isn't another serious variant and if cases remain low, then there's a lot of hope that New York City's recovery is on the horizon. Companies are going back to the office now. There's going to be more activity in Manhattan, and that's really what Eric Adams is pushing for. He's saying this is the time for our recovery. He's saying we can get back to normalcy in a lot of ways. |
I've been going to City Hall more since January when Mayor Adams took office. He has a really crazy schedule. He's up at 6 a.m. doing TV hits and he stays out visiting Broadway shows until late at night so I've been chasing him around the city. But life has not returned to normal for a lot of New Yorkers. There are groups of people who are concerned about the next chapter. Obviously people who are immunocompromised, and I have two kids under five and they can't get vaccinated yet. I still wear my mask at the grocery store and on the train. |
While a lot of people are ready to put the pandemic behind us, New York City was also the epicenter of the pandemic. We've lost so many people, and some people aren't ready to return to life as it was before. |
 | | People waited for trains leaving the main train station in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, shortly after Russia invaded.Lynsey Addario for The New York Times |
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About 500,000 people have fled Ukraine in recent days, according to the U.N., a mass migration to the west that is crowding mass transit centers and jamming roads. Video images show understandably few signs of face coverings among the migrants, even as the country is just getting past a record high point in its infection rate. Just 35 percent of Ukrainians have received at least one vaccine dose. |
 | | Daily coronavirus cases in Ukraine, seven-day average.The New York Times |
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The coronavirus outlook for those fleeing is grim, said Dr. Eric S. Toner, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University's Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
"They're quite vulnerable, and as people huddle together, either sheltering or evacuating in crowded buses, trains and cars, maybe in hotels and refugee camps, it's going to cause a reversal of the progress," he said. |
Dr. Toner said that he expects a rise in Covid case numbers in countries neighboring Ukraine and to see additional stress on their health care systems, but that those problems would be worse inside Ukraine. |
"They're going to be caring for Covid patients, along with war victims," he said. "They're going to be understaffed because of the war, and it's going to harm their chances of keeping patients in isolation or have social distancing. It's going to be a mess." |
How do you feel about lifting school mask mandates? |
School mask mandates are a hot topic. Some public health experts and parent activists say that the mandates can hurt children academically and socially. On the other hand, masks are an effective tool in preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and they can help keep vulnerable students safer. |
If you're a parent, a student or an educator, we'd like to know how you feel about the ending of mask requirements in many schools across the country. If you'd like to share your thoughts, you can fill out this form here. We may use your response in an upcoming newsletter. |
What else we're following |
I am a ball of rage and despair. I live in a high-risk household and am constantly perplexed by those who see continuing to wear masks, socially distance or similar tasks as "giving into fear" and not the acts of compassion that they actually are. So many people are going back to "normal" and leaving so many of us behind. We continue to live a very shuttered life and only visit with vaccinated friends and family and only do indoor gatherings if we're able to test ahead of time. We haven't seen the inside of a restaurant since 2020. We're waiting and growing ever more frustrated. — Brooke, Michigan |
Let us know how you're dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter. |
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