After states lift restrictions, CDC says mask mandates can reduce deaths

Top Democrats in the Senate reached an agreement to scale back unemployment payments in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan late Friday, ending a nine-hour standoff that threatened to derail action on the coronavirus relief bill.

Disneyland and other California theme parks were given the green light to reopen with limited capacity beginning April 1, the state’s Health Department announced Friday. Venues for outdoor sports and live performances can also allow in-person audiences beginning next month, but attendees cannot visit from out of state.

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) said Friday he would ease face covering requirements for restaurants and state buildings, touting that he never implemented a comprehensive mask mandate during the pandemic.

All nine Supreme Court justices have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, a spokeswoman said Friday. The news comes after the court stopped holding in-person oral arguments about a year ago.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, made another appeal on Friday to waive some intellectual property rights for coronavirus vaccines to increase the global supply and to level out distribution between poor and rich countries.

Health Canada approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Friday, making it the fourth vaccine to be permitted in the nation.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that the administration supports an independent review following reporting that New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) and his aides altered a nursing home report to conceal the real higher death toll.