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U.S. NEWS Thursday 14 april 2022
CDC extends travel mask requirement to May 3 as COVID rises

Associated Press to more than 30,000. More
WASHINGTON (AP) — The than 85% of those cases
Biden administration an- are the highly contagious
nounced Wednesday that BA.2 strain. Those figures
it is extending the nation- could be an undercount
wide mask requirement for since many people now
airplanes and public transit test positive on at-home
for 15 days as it monitors an tests that are not reported
uptick in COVID-19 cases. to public health agencies.
The Centers for Disease Severe illnesses and deaths
Control and Prevention tend to lag infections by
said it was extending the several weeks. The CDC
order, which was set to ex- is awaiting indications of
pire on April 18, until May 3 whether the increase in
to allow more time to study cases correlates to a rise in
the BA.2 omicron subvari- adverse outcomes before
ant that is now responsible announcing a less restric-
for the vast majority of cas- tive mask policy for travel.
es in the U.S. A poll in mid-March by the
"In order to assess the po- Kaiser Family Foundation
tential impact the rise of found that Americans are
cases has on severe dis- evenly divided over keep-
ease, including hospital- ing the mask rule for trans-
izations and deaths, and A person wearing a face masks to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walks in Phila- portation.
health care system capac- delphia, Feb. 16, 2022. The poll found that 51%
ity, the CDC order will re- Associated Press wanted the mandate
main in place at this time," to expire and 48% said it
the agency said in a state- ernment restrictions to con- date. of children; or at large in- should remain in place – in
ment. trol the pandemic, and pos- Critics have seized on the door political gatherings," effect, a tie, given the poll's
When the Transportation sibly the most controversial. fact that states have rolled Nicholas Calio, the CEO of margin of error. Democrats
Security Administration, A surge of abusive and back rules requiring masks industry trade group Airlines overwhelmingly supported
which enforces the rule for sometimes violent incidents in restaurants, stores and for America, said Wednes- the rule, and Republicans
planes, buses, trains and on airplanes has been at- other indoor settings, and day in a letter to the heads were even more united in
transit hubs, extended the tributed mostly to disputes yet COVID-19 cases have of the CDC and the Health opposing it. Vaccinated
requirement last month, over mask-wearing.Airlines fallen sharply since the and Human Services De- people and those with
it said the CDC had been have lobbied for months to omicron variant peaked in partment. "Simply put, an chronic health conditions
hoping to roll out a more kill the requirement, argu- mid-January. extension of the mask man- favored keeping the rule,
flexible masking strategy ing that effective air filters "It is very difficult to under- date does not make sense." but by smaller margins.
that would have replaced on modern planes make stand why masks are still re- There has been a slight in- Airlines imposed their own
the nationwide require- transmission of the virus dur- quired on airplanes, but not crease in cases in recent mask mandates in 2020,
ment. ing a flight highly unlikely. needed in crowded bars weeks, with daily confirmed when the Trump admin-
The mask mandate is the Republicans in Congress and restaurants; in packed cases nationwide rising istration declined to take
most visible vestige of gov- also fought to kill the man- sports arenas; in schools full from about 25,000 per day action. q
U.S. agencies: Industrial control system malware discovered

By FRANK BAJAK configured to initially target warned critical infrastruc-
BOSTON (AP) — Multiple liquified natural gas and ture industries the gird for
U.S. government agencies electric power sites in North possible cyberattacks from
issued a joint alert Wednes- America. Russia as retaliation for se-
day warning of the discov- Lee would not name the vere economic sanctions
ery of malicious cyber tools state actor, referring ques- imposed on Moscow in re-
created by unnamed ad- tions to the U.S. govern- sponse to its Feb. 24 inva-
vanced threat actors that ment. Nor would he explain sion of Ukraine.
they said were capable of how the malware was dis- Lee said the malware was
gaining "full system access" covered, other than to say "designed to be a frame-
to multiple industrial control it was caught "before an work to go after lots of dif-
systems. attack was attempted." ferent types of industries
The public alert from the "We're actually one step and be leveraged multiple
Energy and Homeland Se- ahead of the adversary. times. Based on the con-
curity Departments, the None of us want them to figuration of it, the initial
FBI and National Security understand where they targets would be LNG and A joint cybersecurity advisory released by the Department of
Energy, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency,
Agency did not name the screwed up," said Lee. "Big electric in North America." the National Security Agency and the FBI is photographed in
actors or offer details on win." He said the malware, Washington, Wednesday, April 13, 2022.
the find. The Cybersecurity and In- dubbed Pipedream, is only Associated Press
But the CEO of one of the frastructure Security Agen- the seventh such malicious
cybersecurity companies cy, which published the software to be identified identified and analyzed its specifics The U.S. govern-
involved in the effort, Rob- alert, did not immediately that is designed to attack capability in early 2022 as ment alert offers thanks to
ert M. Lee of Dragos, says respond to a request for industrial control systems. part of its normal business Dragos, Mandiant, Micro-
it has high confidence the details on the discovery or Lee said Dragos, which research and in collabora- soft. Palo Alto Networks
malware was developed threat actor. specializes in industrial tion with partners. and Schneider Electric for
by a state actor and was The U.S. government has control system protection, He would offer no more their contributions.q