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San Francisco offices and gyms where everyone is fully vaccinated will not need to return to masking, after California on Tuesday granted last-minute exemptions from its new, universal face mask rule to some counties. “This refinement acknowledges the hard work of the people of San Francisco throughout the pandemic, including the ways in which we have maintained reasonable protections heading into the holiday season,” San Francisco’s Department of Public Health said in a statement. (Kost, DeFeliciantonio and Ho, 12/14)

And Amtrak eases its mandate requirement to avert staff shortages —

In other mandate updates —

A number of hospitals are walking away from vaccine requirements for their staffs in the wake of court rulings that have blocked the White House’s vaccine rule for many health care centers. These hospital groups include Farmers Branch-based Tenet Healthcare, Christian medical center AdventHealth, the Cleveland Clinic and Nashville-based HCA Healthcare, which operates the Medical City hospitals in Dallas-Fort Worth. Together, the companies comprise more than 300 hospitals and 500,000 employees. (12/14)

Kroger, the country's biggest traditional grocery chain, is ending some benefits for unvaccinated workers as big employers attempt to compel more of their workforce to become vaccinated with cases of Covid-19 again rising. (12/15)

Google has told its employees that they will lose pay — and will eventually be fired — if they don’t comply with the company’s Covid-19 vaccination policy, according to internal documents viewed by CNBC. A memo circulated by leadership said employees had until Dec. 3 to declare their vaccination status and upload documentation showing proof, or to apply for a medical or religious exemption. The company said after that date it would start contacting employees who hadn’t uploaded their status or were unvaccinated, as well as those whose exemption requests weren’t approved. (Elias, 12/14)

Amid growing calls for a statewide mask mandate to blunt surging COVID-19 cases and rising hospitalizations, more communities are starting to take action. Several, including Georgetown, Lowell, Chelsea, and Salem, have in the past two weeks reimposed mask rules for indoor public spaces. And on Tuesday, the state’s leading medical group, the Massachusetts Medical Society, added its voice, calling for a statewide requirement for masks in indoor public spaces. (Lazar, Freyer and Carlin, 12/14)

Democratic governors were already barreling straight into a perilous midterm election. But a building winter Covid surge is putting many of them in a greater bind. The party’s defeat last month in Virginia — and closer-than-expected victory in New Jersey — has many Democrats searching for an off-ramp to the pandemic that allows them to sell a brighter future to voters next November. (Montellaro, 12/15)