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On the eve of the Memorial Day weekend, the two main metrics that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uses to track US COVID-19 activity—hospitalizations and deaths—continue to decline, according to the latest data. Hospitalizations for COVID are down 11% compared to a week ago, and deaths from the virus are down 13.3%. (Schnirring, 5/26)

Americans who've long wanted to put COVID in the rearview mirror are actively embracing the idea the pandemic is over. For the first time, the majority of the public agrees the crisis has passed, according to the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. (Bettelheim and David, 5/29)

Most Philadelphia municipal employees are no longer required to be vaccinated for COVID-19, Philadelphia officials said, ending a pandemic policy that went into effect less than a year ago. As of last week, only city workers with jobs that put them in contact with patients, such as doctors or nurses, must be vaccinated, said Sarah Peterson, a spokesperson for the city. Philadelphia changed its policy in response to the end of two national emergency declarations earlier this month and new recommendations from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health. (Laughlin, 5/30)

This fall, millions of Americans might be lining up for yet another kind of COVID vaccine:  their first-ever dose that lacks the strain that ignited the pandemic more than three and a half years ago. Unlike the current, bivalent vaccine, which guards against two variants at once, the next one could, like the first version of the shot, have only one main ingredient—the spike protein of the XBB.1 lineage of the Omicron variant, the globe’s current dominant clade. (Wu, 5/26)

Ever since January, when President Biden announced plans for a springtime end to the coronavirus public health emergency, Frank Ziegler has been wrestling with what that would mean for covid long-haulers like him. “The president was telling the U.S. to just move on. The problem is that for however many million of us, we can’t just move on,” said the Nashville attorney, who has endured cognitive impairments since coming down with covid-19 more than two years ago. (Stead Sellers, 5/29)

The tally of people infected with the coronavirus after attending a high-profile Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conference in April has risen to at least 181, the agency reported Friday. No one was hospitalized. (Sun, 5/26)

In December, China abruptly abandoned its draconian “Zero Covid” policies, battered by a surge of infections and rising public anger against lockdowns. Half a year on, Covid cases again are on the rise, but this time the nation appears to be determined to press on with normal life as the government focuses on reigniting economic growth. (Buckley, 5/27)

The possibility the Covid virus leaked from a laboratory should not be ruled out, a former top Chinese government scientist has told BBC News. As head of China's Centre for Disease Control (CDC), Prof George Gao played a key role in the pandemic response and efforts to trace its origins. China's government dismisses any suggestion the disease may have originated in a Wuhan laboratory. But Prof Gao is less forthright. (Sudworth and Maybin, 5/30)