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The CDC Eases Indoor Mask Rules; Doctors Urge COVID Vaccinations for Kids 12 and Older

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today is easing indoor mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to safely stop wearing masks inside most places.

The new guidance will still call for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but could ease restrictions for reopening workplaces and schools.

Now that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has been authorized to be given to children 12 and older, some Iowa doctors say some parents still have questions. Dr. William Ching is a pediatric hospitalist at Unity Point Health St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids. He says since the vaccine is safe, if more children are vaccinated, it could help get closer to herd immunity. More importantly, he says, kids will get to return to normal activities. He clarifies in the trial, out of children who got the vaccine, zero contracted the virus and there were no serious side effects related to the vaccine. 

The Iowa Department of Public Health today was reporting five additional COVID-19 deaths and an additional 305 confirmed cases. Woodbury County added 3 new cases to the total count today. 

The public will be able to watch the trial of the man charged with killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts — but not in person. Citing COVID-19 protocols, Judge Joel Yates said in an order dated Monday that members of the public and news media will not be allowed to attend the trial of Cristhian Bahena Rivera that starts next week. 

But he said news outlets can operate remote-controlled video cameras to broadcast the proceedings live on the internet or television. Rivera is expected to stand trial beginning Monday in Davenport for first-degree murder in the death of Tibbetts, 20, who disappeared in July 2018 while out for a run in her hometown of Brooklyn, Iowa

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