At the East Coast, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued recommendations for New Yorkers in at least five counties at the Empire State to mask up indoors.

"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," the public health agency said. (Related: Are Biden and the Democrats gearing up to push more mask mandates following another stolen election?)

At the West Coast, Los Angeles County is also issuing mask mandates as it experiences a rise in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations. L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer pointed to two emerging subvariants that are responsible for this surge. The BQ1 and BQ11 subvariants – both coming from the B11529 omicron variant – now represent about 17 percent of all specimens that undergo genetic sequencing for identification.