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New York on Friday announced it would not enforce the state’s COVID-19 vaccine booster mandate for health care workers amid concerns over possible staffing issues. Last month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced that the state would require all health care workers to get a COVID-19 booster as the state faced a surge of infections. That mandate was set to go into effect on Monday. (Vakil, 2/18)

New York officials said they would try to increase booster uptake among healthcare workers over the next three months and then assess if additional steps, such as requiring the additional shot as a condition of employment, are still needed. “The reality is that not enough healthcare workers will be boosted by next week’s requirement in order to avoid substantial staffing issues in our already overstressed healthcare system,” Dr. Bassett said in a statement. (Vielkind, 2/19)

The Republican leader in the South Carolina Senate is reviving a bill to prevent public employers from requiring the COVID-19 vaccine and adding a proposal to fine private companies requiring the shot $7,500 for each person fired because of that mandate. Senate Majority Leader Shane Massey presented his proposal Thursday to a Senate Finance subcommittee considering an anti-mandate bill passed by the House in December. One big change proposed by Massey is to add a fine to the unemployment insurance taxes paid by a private company requiring the vaccine. (2/21)

State legislators are mobilizing anew to roll back public health measures meant to contain the spread of Covid-19. They are introducing bills in both liberal and conservative states that target measures like vaccine and mask requirements, which have become political lightning rods throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Several state lawmakers are also pushing legislation that would prevent hospitals and nursing homes from restricting visitors during outbreaks. (Florko, 2/22)

Indoor mask mandates in every state but Hawaii have expired, or are scheduled to be lifted, as the United States nears its third year of the pandemic. Puerto Rico, the largest U.S. territory, also has no plans to lift its mask mandate. Several states announced in quick succession this month they would end their mask mandates as the Omicron wave recedes; many expire before the end of the month. Hawaii, which has had among the country’s fewest cases per capita over the course of the pandemic, has seen its daily average of new cases plummet about 70 percent over the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database. Hospitalizations are down about 50 percent over the same time period, and deaths have decreased around 10 percent. (Hassan, 2/21)

The Transportation Security Administration mandate requiring masks to be worn in airplanes, on interstate bus travel and in transportation terminals such as airports expires March 18. (Arnold, 02/21)

Some San Diego County school district leaders are pleading for help as they bear the brunt of families’ discontent over the state’s indoor school mask mandate, which at this point has no expiration date. Scores of San Diego County students, many who are not yet teenagers, are protesting the mandate by refusing to wear masks in class. The protests have garnered more attention in the past few days, ever since state officials announced at a press conference last Monday that they are not lifting the state’s indoor school mask mandate yet. (Taketa, 2/21)

It was a swank Carnival ball inside one of the city’s most elegant buildings. Yet despite the indoor mask mandate that Mayor LaToya Cantrell reimposed last month, images circulating online appear to show that politicians including Cantrell herself failed to follow all the rules during the Mayor’s Mardi Gras Ball at Gallier Hall on Friday night. (Sledge, 02/21)