Rising COVID-19 and Seasonal Influenza Cases in the U.S. Prompt Mask Mandate Restoration in Four States' Hospitals | WPN World People News

Because of the end of the year Christmas and New Year's Eve two consecutive holiday cluster activities, hospitals around the United States recently appeared a large number of patients infected with respiratory diseases, there are now New York, California, Illinois and Massachusetts and other four states have announced that the reinstatement of the mask order, into the medical institutions must wear a mask throughout.

The latest weekly data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show that from December 17-23, 2023, there were more than 29,000 hospitalizations for COVID-19 across the U.S., an increase of more than 16% over the previous week, with more than 40% of those infected with the new variant, JN.1; at the same time, it was reported that more than 14,700 influenza hospitalizations were made in that same time period. Meanwhile, it was reported that more than 14,700 influenza cases were hospitalized during the same period.

In California, Los Angeles County reinstated a mask requirement for all licensed health care facilities on Saturday, according to a Los Angeles County news release to the Los Angeles City News Service.