The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has begun recommending wearing masks indoors once again in at least five New York counties.

From the website:

Wear a mask indoors in public and on public transportation. Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines. Get tested if you have symptoms. If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider taking additional precautions.

Likewise, Los Angeles County health officials are also issuing mask guidelines, claiming that two new COVID variants are threatening to fuel another surge as winter nears.

"Many are predicting these strains, which are highly transmissible, are likely to drive an increase in cases this fall and winter," said LA County health official Barbara Ferrar, suggesting that people should take the "bivalent" COVID booster.

In Canada, advocacy groups like Ontario School Safety and others are calling for mask mandates for children ahead of a predicted winter uptick of COVID cases.

"We get it, we understand why maybe you've stopped masking, we understand the pressures to want to get back to what we call normal," she said. "We want Ontario open for business, open for learning."