In other news, up to 1.9 million workers will see their unemployment checks cut off or reduced next month as Republicans withdraw from enhanced benefits funded by the federal government under the American Rescue Plan.
Meanwhile, House Republicans voted to replace Liz Cheney in their leadership structure with Trump loyalist Elise Stefanik.
Finally, the CDC says their decision to ease guidance for wearing masks was based on a real-world study of vaccinated health care workers.
The research found that symptomatic illness was cut by 94% among the health-care personnel who were fully vaccinated, according to a report Friday by the CDC. It was reduced by 82% among those who were partially vaccinated. The analysis used data from health-care workers at 33 sites across 25 states from January to March.
Full vaccination was defined in the study as seven or more days after the second dose. Partial vaccination was measured as 14 days after the first dose through six days after the second dose.
The findings in the study also support the CDC’s recommendation for people to take both doses of the vaccine to get the most protection, according to the agency. Nearly half of Americans have now had at least one vaccine dose, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, with 35.8% fully vaccinated.