Fenit Nirappil

Americans are navigating murky waters in the latest wave of the pandemic, with highly transmissible subvariants of omicron spreading as governments drop measures to contain the virus and reveal less data about infections.

The shift away from mask mandates in blue cities and states has been months in the making, and they are not coming back even as cases of the highly transmissible BA. 2 coronavirus variant rise.

The pandemic’s toll is no longer falling almost exclusively on those who chose not to get shots, according to a Post analysis, as the elderly and immunocompromised have a harder time dodging increasingly contagious strains.

Here’s what we know about the science of masking to help you make decisions about if, when and where to cover your face.

Some cities, including Chicago and Philadelphia, say they are prepared to bring back vaccine mandates to combat surges.

The mask era appears to be on the decline as the coronavirus pandemic lurches into a third year, another turning point on the circuitous path to normalcy.

As electoral warning signs flash for Democrats and the public yearns for normalcy, Democratic governors are making moves without waiting for the Biden administration to get there first.

Omicron has been particularly lethal to people over 75, the unvaccinated and the medically vulnerable, according to doctors and public health officials.

But in some corners of the nation, hospitals continue to reel from waves of omicron infections.

Those cases can be as modest as a few days of sniffles, but, in other circumstances, can spawn debilitating headaches and fatigue.