You're listening to shortwave from NPR.

Hey shortwavers, Emily Kwong here with Allison Oprie, and we're here to talk about how cases

of COVID-19 have been creeping up again, as sub variants of Omacron circulate around

the nation.

Good morning, Emily.

Yep, and this comes amid a legal battle over whether the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention have the authority to make people mask on plain strains and buses.

This week, a federal judge in Florida struck down a CDC order that required people to

mask up on public transportation.

Yeah.

And this is all happening while the country is seeing COVID cases rising.

What can you tell us about what's happening?

Well, we're talking on Monday morning, and right now, the U.S. is averaging about 40,000

to 50,000 confirmed cases a day.

That's about a 50% increase this month, which may sound like a lot, but to put it into

perspective, we are nowhere near the winter highs.

And COVID hospitalizations actually remain quite low.

They're 92% lower than the winter highs of January.

So today on the show, some COVID perspective, though cases are slightly up, we're unlikely

to see a big surge.

We'll talk to Allison Oprie about why, and why masking is likely to remain optional as the

transport mandate goes through court, also a look at getting kids 5 to 11 vaccinated.

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