The COVID-19 pandemic has claimed millions of innocent lives and billions of people are still struggling with it. This remains a serious matter of concern despite the world’s laudable achievements against the deadly virus (“Biden administration toils to put pandemic behind him,” April 20, Gulf Today).

President Joe Biden’s administration has been working for months to prepare people to rethink their personal risk calculations as the nation gets used to the idea of living with an endemic COVID-19. But that measured approach disappeared abruptly when a federal judge on Monday threw out the federal requirement to mask up when using mass transit. After the government last month eased indoor mask-wearing guidelines for the vast majority of Americans — even in schools — masking on planes was one of the last redoubts of the national COVID-19 restrictions. Now, as the policy fails, the administration turns to accelerating its efforts to provide the best advice for millions making their own personal safety decisions in the still-dangerous pandemic.

We have to be careful with the coronavirus situation because the war against the deadly virus is still on. Hope the world will work unitedly till the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ghazali Mehmood,
By email