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As coronavirus cases continue to decline across the country, all states but one — Hawaii — have dropped their mask mandates or have made plans to do so in the coming weeks. This week, Target and Apple stores joined other retailers in pulling back their own mandates. In recent days, some cruise lines — including Norwegian and Royal Caribbean International — said they are relaxing mask requirements for vaccinated passengers after putting stricter rules in place during the omicron surge. The industry was hit hard early in the pandemic as horror stories of onboard outbreaks made international headlines. (Cheng and Timsit, 2/23)

Vaccinated Los Angeles County residents may soon be able to go maskless in indoor settings that check for proof that they’ve received their doses, county officials said Tuesday. Details of that forthcoming shift remain scarce, but such a change would be a potentially significant loosening of rules in a region that has been more reluctant to relax such requirements even as the Omicron wave recedes. (Money and Lin II, 2/22)

Chicago will end its mask and vaccine mandate for some public places such as restaurants starting on Monday after a recent plunge in cases of the Omicron variant, the city’s mayor said on Tuesday. The move aligns with Illinois’s plan to end a statewide indoor mask mandate that same day.The announcement by Mayor Lori Lightfoot does not apply to some spaces — notably health care settings and public transit, where masks will still be required. (Patel, 2/23)

While New York State officials have begun lifting certain coronavirus pandemic restrictions, not all residents are happy to see them go, according to a new poll released Tuesday by the Siena College Research Institute. Forty-five percent of registered voters in the survey said the state should have kept in place its rule requiring masks or proof of full vaccination in indoor public places, which was recently rescinded. Some 31 percent said the mandate should have been ended earlier, and 20 percent said it ended at the right time, the poll found. (Fadulu, 2/23)

Schools have once again become a battleground over pandemic masking, with districts facing rising public pressure to drop mandatory mask requirements even as public-health agencies largely advise keeping students and teachers in face coverings. As the latest Covid-19 wave wanes, more states are lifting mask mandates for restaurants and businesses, but many school requirements remain. Disagreements are leading to heated school board meetings and divided communities, just months after similar tensions flared up during the return to in-person learning in the fall. (Randazzo, 2/23)

The Maryland State Board of Education voted Tuesday to allow local school districts to decide whether students must wear face coverings in school, sending the proposal to end an emergency order to a legislative committee to make a final decision. Citing improvements in COVID-19 health metrics, the board voted 12-2 to rescind the order on March 1. Still, the Maryland General Assembly’s Joint Committee on Administrative, Executive, and Legislative Review has the last say on the matter. (Witte, 2/22)

Maine educators are lobbying to be legally recognized as public servants as a protection against harassment as administrators, teachers and school boards have faced backlash over policies from COVID protocols to school curricula. Sen. Cathy Breen, D-Falmouth, introduced a bill, L.D. 1939, that would add school superintendents, principals, teachers and school board members to the definition of “public servants” in Maine’s criminal code. Public servants are currently defined as government officials, officers or employees and any person “participating as juror, advisor or consultant…in performing a government function.” Russell, 2/23)