May 14 coronavirus news

Children who are not yet vaccinated against Covid-19 will still need to wear masks in the classroom this fall, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 no longer need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, in most circumstances.

In those situations, children who are not vaccinated ­— and most elementary school students won’t be — should wear a mask, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. Earlier Friday, he said that elementary school children likely won’t be vaccinated until the end of the year.

Fauci added that he can “almost guarantee” that most schools will require unvaccinated people to wear masks on campus.

He noted that this is not a departure from current CDC guidance.

“The unvaccinated group, or the elementary school children – nothing has really changed for them,” Fauci said. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci emphasized Friday that the decision to wear a mask or not is up to each vaccinated individual.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 no longer need to wear masks or practice social distancing indoors or outdoors, in most circumstances.

Wolf asked Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, if he would be comfortable going into a local restaurant for a beer and hamburger without a mask.

“The answer is yes. If I had the time to do it, I would do it,” Fauci said. “I would feel comfortable now in indoor settings, going in without a mask.”

Delaware Gov. John Carney announced Friday the statewide mask mandate will be lifted on May 21.

Delawareans and visitors will no longer be required to wear masks or face coverings indoors or outdoors based on updated guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he added.

Citing CDC guidance, Carney said people who are not currently vaccinated should continue to wear masks “when around others who are outside their immediate household,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.

In new safety guidelines posted on their website, Universal Orlando announced that masks are no longer mandatory while outdoors at the park.

Face coverings will still be required in all indoor locations, including shops and restaurants, as well as at all attractions, from the moment the line begins until the exit of the experience, according to the new guidelines.

Guests must still maintain a distance of 3 feet.

Correction: An earlier version of this post had the wrong start date for Universal Orlando's new mask guidelines. The park's mask guidelines start Saturday.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Friday the state will be lifting coronavirus mask mandates.

Public transportation, health care settings, and schools will be the only exceptions, he added.  

The state’s positivity rate dropped below 1.91% on Friday, the second lowest positivity rate during the entire pandemic.  

Costco said Friday that in its US locations where there are no state or local mask mandates, customers who are vaccinated against Covid-19 can shop without masks. 

“We will allow members and guests who are fully vaccinated to enter Costco without a face mask or face shield,” in those areas, the company said in a message posted to its website Friday.

Costco won’t require proof that customers have been vaccinated. Instead, the message said, “we ask for members’ responsible and respectful cooperation with this revised policy.” 

All customers will still have to wear face coverings in Costco’s pharmacy and other health care settings, the company specified. 

They will also have to wear them if they are in stores in locations where there are mask mandates.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has lifted the statewide mask mandate for vaccinated people in the state, according to a news release.

Northam also announced that the state will ease all distancing and capacity restrictions on May 28, two weeks earlier than planned.

The Minnesota Executive Council has approved ending the statewide mask mandate following the mask guidelines issued by the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention Thursday, a news release from Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz's office said Friday.

Walz signed an executive order Friday to end the mask mandate in the state, according to the release.

The governor also signed an executive order to extend the peacetime emergency in the state to maintain its testing program and vaccine distribution, the release said.

Nearly all states require some form of parental or guardian consent for vaccine providers to administer Covid-19 shots to adolescents ages 12 to 15, a CNN analysis finds. 

But there are a few exceptions. Five states — Alabama, Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon and Tennessee — either allow some ages in that group to consent for themselves or leave requirements up to individual vaccine providers.

CNN reached out to all 50 states about their laws regarding parental consent for vaccination of people age 12 to 15. The US Food and Drug Administration authorized the emergency use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus in this age group in the United States on Monday. On Wednesday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended using the vaccine in that age group. However, parental consent requirements for the vaccine fall under state law.

In North Carolina, teens can consent for themselves for Covid-19 vaccines “if they have the ability to understand and make decisions about their health," Bailey Pennington, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, told CNN in an email.

In two states — Alabama and Tennessee — teens 14 and older can be vaccinated without parental consent. In Oregon, children 15 and older may give consent without a parent or guardian.

In Iowa, individual health care providers or health systems consult with their legal counsel regarding requirements and documentation needed to administer Covid-19 vaccines.

Among the states that require parental consent to administer Covid-19 vaccines to ages 12 to 15, some noted rare exceptions to the requirement include if the person in that age group is married, pregnant or legally emancipated from their parents.

"Each person has to go to their state," she said. "Many places will say, 'Your parent doesn't need to be there, but your parent needs to have information or your parent needs to have signed off.' So, it really does vary by state."

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in April – before a Covid-19 vaccine for young teens was authorized — found that 30% of parents of people ages 12 to 15 said they would get their child vaccinated right away, and 26% said they would wait a while. However, 18% said they would get their 12- to-15-year-old vaccinated against Covid-19 only if it was required by school and 23% said they definitely wouldn’t.