The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was expected as early as next week to loosen its guidance on indoor masking as COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to drop and the White House considers a new nationwide strategy to move past the pandemic.

California's mask mandate officially lifts Wednesday, and all counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, except Santa Clara, plan to drop indoor face-covering requirements for vaccinated people. Yes, that means if you go to the movies or eat out at a restaurant, you no longer need to sport a mask in Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Solano or Sonoma counties.

The California Department of Public Health on Monday reported the latest daily case rate at 57 per 100,000, down 46% from 106 per 100,000 a week earlier.

Republicans in Congress have asked President Biden to end the designation of COVID-19 as a public health emergency (PHE), citing the accessibility of vaccines and effective treatments as well as the harms of long-term isolation on public health.

The classroom was always going to be the last stand for the mask wars in California. Schools stayed closed longer here than anywhere else in the country as teachers unions made access to vaccines a condition of their return. More recently, teachers have demanded better masks and more testing to guard against the Omicron variant.

Unable to tame inflation that has worsened sharply under his watch, President Joe Biden stressed Thursday that his administration’s policies would cut prescription drug prices and make life more affordable for families. His pitch, which he delivered at a community college in Culpeper, Virginia, came on the heels of a dire inflation report released earlier ...