Texas and Other States Reopen as Covid Cases Fall - msnNOW

Texas said Tuesday that it was lifting its mask requirement and would allow businesses to fully reopen, the most expansive step by any state to remove coronavirus restrictions as Americans across the country are eager to emerge after a year of isolation in the pandemic.

In Chicago, tens of thousands of children returned to public school this week, while snow-covered parks and playgrounds around the city that have been shuttered since last March were opened.

But federal health officials have worried that state and local leaders may be moving too fast.

The divergent guidance has left many Americans in a quandary: wondering whether to follow the lure of optimism, as some officials in California, Michigan and North Carolina endorsed widespread reopenings of businesses and schools, or to heed their own lingering concerns about the virus and the warnings of federal health officials who have said it is premature to lift too many limits.

As Kitty Sherry, 36, sent her son, Jude, off to his Chicago elementary school this week for the first time in nearly a year, she felt caught in a middle ground between elation and worry.

But she said she worried about the health risk to teachers, and said her family was still avoiding restaurants and other indoor spaces because of the pandemic.

Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan said on Tuesday that she was easing restrictions on businesses and allowing family members who have tested negative for the coronavirus to visit nursing home residents.

Charlie Baker of Massachusetts said that while residents should continue to wear masks in public, it was time for more limits on businesses to be eased.

In Kentucky, all but a handful of school districts are now offering in-person classes, while the state races to vaccinate teachers as quickly as possible.

And millions of Americans are still waiting to be vaccinated — including workers in restaurants, which are now open in vast numbers across the country.

In states like Florida and South Dakota, schools and businesses have been widely open for months, and many local and state officials across the country have been easing limitations since last summer.

“We’re, hopefully, in between what I hope will be the last big wave, and the beginning of the period where I hope Covid will become very uncommon,” said Robert Horsburgh, an epidemiologist at the Boston University School of Public Health.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said that there are signs that the country may be through the worst of the pandemic.

Most schools across the country are open to students, at least partially in person, and evidence suggests they have done so relatively safely.

“My son is due at the end of the week to attend hybrid learning for the first time,” said Dr.

In South Carolina, officials this week lifted a rule requiring restaurants to close by 11 p.m., and in North Carolina, bars were allowed to open indoors at limited capacity over the past weekend for the first time since last March.

After some counties in Washington State allowed movie theaters to reopen, Nick Butcher, 36, made up for lost time by attending screenings of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy for three straight nights.

Amanda Sewell, a teacher at Tates Creek High School in Lexington, Ky., will welcome students to her classroom next Monday for the first time in a year