NPR released an article: “As U.S. COVID hospitalizations rise, some places are bringing mask mandates back.”

The U.S. is seeing a late-summer spike in COVID cases, prompting some schools, hospitals and businesses to encourage — or even require — people to start masking up again.

The most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, from earlier this month, shows nationwide COVID hospitalizations increased by nearly 19% in a single week and deaths by more than 21%.

CDC Director Mandy Cohen said Tuesday that recently up to 10,000 people a week have been hospitalized with COVID. 

The risk is especially high for unvaccinated individuals who haven't gotten the virus before and those who are older or have underlying health conditions. 

About 70% of hospitalizations are among those who are 65 and older….

Public health officials have their eye on two new variants: The Omicron variant EG.5 — nicknamed Eris — has become dominant in the U.S., while BA.2.86 is starting to spread.

Early reports show Eris may be more transmissible than other variants, though it doesn't appear to cause more severe disease. 

And the CDC warned last week that BA.2.86 may be "more capable of causing infection" in people who have previously had the COVID virus or vaccines, though they don't believe it's causing more severe illness either.

All of that has driven some institutions around the country to reinstitute mask mandates, at least temporarily.

• What schools, hospitals and politicians are saying
• Morris Brown College, a historically Black college in Atlanta, announced last weekend that it would restrict gatherings and implement a mask mandate for two weeks due to reports of positive cases among students. Hollywood studio Lionsgate briefly required employees to wear masks on two floors of its five-story office.

• The healthcare company Kaiser Permanente reinstated a mask mandate at its Santa Rosa, Calif., facilities after an uptick in patients testing positive. So did several hospital systems in New York state, including United Health Services, Auburn Community Hospital and Upstate Medical (both its university and community hospitals).

• Upstate Medical University in Syracuse — the largest employer in central New York — announced in mid-August that it will require all staff, visitors and patients to wear masks in clinical areas for at least three weeks.

On the other hand former President Donald Trump — the frontrunner in the 2024 Republican primary race — also weighed in this week.

He released a campaign video on X (formerly Twitter) slamming the "fear mongering" of "COVID tyrants" and pledging "we will not comply" with school shutdowns, lockdowns or mask and vaccine mandates. If reelected, he said, he will cut federal funding to schools, airlines and public transportation systems that impose mask or vaccine mandates.

• What to know if you're on the fence

There's plenty of data to prove masks are effective at reducing COVID transmission when worn correctly. But in the absence of federal and state mask mandates, the question of whether — and when — to wear one is largely a personal decision.

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