From Provincetown to Apple to L.A. County, reversing course on COVID-19 relaxations

Incidences of COVID-19 in fully vaccinated individuals are rising across the U.S., spurring summer resort communities, major corporations and large counties to reverse course on the loosening of pandemic-related restrictions — and press pause on the return to normal. 

So many "breakthrough" infections occurred in vaccinated individuals following July 4 weekend revelry in Provincetown, Massachusetts, that local health officials subsequently issued an advisory urging the public to mask up and practice social distancing again. These and other safety measures were in place early on in the pandemic to slow the spread of the coronavirus before vaccines were available. As of July 16, Provincetown had reported 132 positive cases of COVID-19 to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Of these cases, 89 were amng Massachusetts residents and 43 occurred in visitors to the Cape Cod tourist destination, popular among the LGBTQ+ community. By July 20, there were 256 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, all of them linked to the July 4 Provincetown cluster.