Mask mandates return as COVID-19 cases rise across U.S.
CBSN
Columbia University is again requiring its students to mask up in classrooms, with public health experts urging caution as COVID-19 case numbers climb across the U.S.
The university's head of COVID-19 protocols over the weekend announced the change, citing increased infections in the local area. The disease's resurgence in New York City after cases had fallen sharply earlier this year was punctuated on Sunday when Mayor Eric Adams tested positive for the virus.
The virus is also flaring elsewhere around the U.S. More than two dozen states across the country reported a jump in cases over the last eight days, although hospitalizations and deaths have not seen a commensurate rise. Nearly 1 million Americans have died of COVID-19, with an average of 500 people succumbing to the disease every day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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We share our planet with maybe 10 million species of plants, animals, birds, fish, fungi and bugs. And to help identify them, millions of people are using a free phone app. "Currently we have about six million people using the platform every month," said Scott Loarie, the executive director of iNaturalist, a nonprofit.

At ski resorts across the West this winter, viral images showed chairlifts idling over brown terrain in places normally renowned for their frosty appeal. Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City, Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring water shortages and wildfires in the months ahead. In:










