Dear Commons Community,

Several U.S. universities have begun reinstating indoor mask mandates on campuses as COVID-19 cases steadily rise again.

Yesterday, American University announced that masks would be required in campus buildings, except if people are alone, in their rooms with only their roommates, or if they are eating or drinking.

In recent days, a handful of other universities have reimplemented similar measures, including Columbia, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Rice universities.

As the highly contagious omicron BA.2 subvariant of the virus has been spreading in the U.S., coronavirus cases nationwide have ticked up around 10% over the last week, reports Reuters.

Case levels are still currently far lower than during the major winter spike. Vaccination remains the best protection against severe hospitalization and death from the virus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has advised Americans to weigh their individual COVID-19 risks as cases rise again.

Last week, a slew of politicians and officials in Washington, D.C., contracted the virus following the Gridiron Club dinner.

On Monday, Philadelphia became the first major U.S. city to bring back an indoor mask mandate.

One small positive is that people contracting the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, do not seem to be getting as sick as in previous COVID outbreaks.  However, I don’t want to be a little sick.  I got my second booster or fourth vaccine shot last Thursday.

Tony