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Tumbling COVID-19 case counts have some schools around the U.S. considering relaxing their mask rules, but deaths nationally have been ticking up over the past few weeks, some rural hospitals are showing signs of strain, and cold weather is setting in. The number of new cases nationally has been plummeting since the delta surge peaked in mid-September. The U.S. is averaging about 73,000 new cases per day, dramatically lower than the 173,000 recorded on Sept. 13. And the number of Americans in the hospital with COVID-19 has plummeted by about half to around 47,000 since early September. (Whitehurst, 10/25)

Arizona has caught up to New York when it comes to reported deaths per capita — even though the latter was ravaged by the coronavirus early in the pandemic before treatments or vaccines were developed. Some health experts worry Arizona could be headed for a deepening crisis as winter approaches. Although average daily deaths from covid-19 remain much lower than during the state’s second wave in January, Arizona experienced a 138 percent increase in the seven-day rolling average of daily new deaths per 100,000 people last week, according to data collected by The Washington Post. (Timsit, 10/25)

Each wave of Covid-19 patients that has crashed through the doors of Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens has been more manageable than the last. In the spring of 2020 and the following winter, the hospital needed extra spaces to care for Covid-19 patients in need of oxygen and struggling to breathe. At the height of the Delta surge this summer and fall, Covid-19 patients didn’t fill its ICU. “We’re seeing it more as a chronic problem than as an immediate, huge pandemic problem like we were before,” said Mangala Narasimhan, a critical-care pulmonologist and director of critical-care services at Northwell Health, a large health system in the New York region that includes Long Island Jewish Medical Center. (Abbott, 10/25)

The state health department wants businesses and restaurants to implement mask or vaccine mandates to stem the spread of the coronavirus, but is preparing for the possibility that statewide action will be needed as Colorado’s hospitals continue to fill with COVID-19 patients, Dr. Eric France, chief medical officer for the agency, said Monday. Coronavirus hospitalizations are at their highest point since Christmas and officials with the state Department of Public Health and Environment believe Colorado could hit capacity by the end of November. (Seaman, 10/25)

Three months after Gov. Gavin Newsom required state workers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or undergo weekly testing, his pledge that California government would lead by example has not been fulfilled: Many public agencies face low vaccination rates, and most state-run workplaces have failed to test unvaccinated employees. (Gutierrez, 10/25)

Gov. John Bel Edwards on Tuesday will announce whether he’ll keep Louisiana’s indoor mask mandate for another month or let it expire since the state has emerged from its latest coronavirus spike and is seeing lower rates of COVID-19 infection. The Democratic governor seems poised to let the face covering requirement he reenacted in August fall off the books for most public indoor locations when it’s set to expire Wednesday, letting individual businesses decide whether they want their customers masked up. (Deslatte, 10/26)

New Hampshire’s rejection of federal funding for vaccine outreach and other programs will further strain the state’s hospitals and delay the administration of COVID-19 vaccines to children, health care officials said Monday. The Republican-led Executive Council, a five-member panel that approves state contracts, rejected $27 million in federal vaccination funding this month, although a legislative committee later approved accepting $4.7 million. (Ramer, 10/25)

Florida surgeon general nominee Joseph Ladapo, who has publicly questioned the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines, will not say if he’s been vaccinated against coronavirus after he was booted last week from the office of a cancer-stricken state senator. Gov. Ron DeSantis picked the controversial Ladapo last month because of his reticence toward Covid-19 pandemic safety measures such as wearing face masks and relying on vaccines to slow down spread, which are in line with the Republican governor. Yet when asked on Monday if Ladapo himself was vaccinated, Florida Department of Health spokesperson Weesam Khoury said that information is private. (Sarkissian, 10/25)

First responders' risk for COVID-19 infection is about 60% more than other essential workers, including healthcare workers (HCWs), according to a study published late last week in JAMA Health Forum. In Arizona, 1,766 HCWs, first responders, and other essential workers took weekly COVID-19 tests from July 2020 to March 2021 (23,393 person-weeks). First responder infection incidence was 13.2 per 1,000 person-weeks, versus 6.7 in HCWs and 7.4 in other essential workers. Compared with HCWs, first responders' adjusted incidence rate ratio (IRR) was 1.60 (95% CI, 1.07 to 2.83), with similar results when compared with other essential workers. (10/25)

The deadliest threat facing law enforcement officers in Georgia isn’t being shot, stabbed or run over by assailants — it’s COVID-19. Since the pandemic began, at least 58 Georgia police officers, deputies and jailers have died from the virus, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s review of death certificates and the Officer Down Memorial Page’s database. That vastly outnumbers other law enforcement deaths since 2020. Officers and deputies are essential workers who often interact with the public, so they’re at a higher risk of catching COVID-19 or spreading it. Yet law enforcement agencies in Georgia and across the nation have wrestled with the decision of whether to require officers to be vaccinated, amid pushback from some officers. (Hansen, Peebles and Bruce, 10/25)