Technologies

CDC and WHO recommend fully vaccinated should wear masks indoors. Here’s the latest

The CDC recently updated its stance to say fully vaccinated people should wear masks in certain areas. We’ll explain what’s going on.

For the most up-to-date news and information about the coronavirus pandemic, visit the WHO and CDC websites.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors again in some areas — including schools — it announced during a telebriefing Tuesday. This is different from its guidance earlier in July that said it’s safe for teachers and students who are fully vaccinated to skip the face masks. So why the sudden change? A spike in COVID-19 cases across the US caused by the highly contagious delta variant has resulted in the CDC updating its guidance for mask wearing.

The World Health Organization continues to recommend that to slow the rapidly spreading delta variant, everyone should continue to wear face masks in crowded areas, even people who are past the two-week mark after receiving their second vaccine dose, for example from Pfizer, Moderna or AstraZeneca.

Both the WHO and CDC agree that people who aren’t vaccinated should continue to wear face masks. But given the high rate of protection that vaccinated people have against the delta variant and other COVID strains, why are some medical experts in conflict about a barrier over your nose and mouth? We continue to update this story.

CDC guidance: Fully vaccinated should continue wearing masks in some areas

The CDC on Tuesday changed its guidance for mask wearing to say that vaccinated people should continue wearing masks indoors in certain areas of the country. This includes areas where COVID-19 cases are on the rise. It also changed the guidance for K-12 schools, saying everyone should wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. Earlier this month, it said fully vaccinated teachers and students don’t need to wear masks inside the school.

Originally, the guidelines said those who are fully vaccinated can «resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing» except where required, such as in planes and businesses. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky previously stuck to that guidance on NBC’s Today show on June 30, saying fully vaccinated people are protected from the delta variant.

The CDC warned CNN that there’s still a small chance fully vaccinated people can become infected with the new variant if they’re exposed. We’ve asked the CDC for comment.

What is the CDC’s new guidance for kids and teachers?

Those who aren’t vaccinated — ages 2 and up — need to wear a mask while inside but don’t have to when they’re outside. For fully vaccinated teachers and students, the CDC recommends continuing to wear masks inside the school building.

For child care programs, regarding schools with children younger than 12, universal mask use can be implemented, as children this age aren’t eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines yet. Mask mandates can also go into effect if coronavirus transmission is high in that community.

For schools that can’t provide adequate physical distancing, the CDC says «layered COVID-19 prevention strategies» should be put in place to protect kids and teachers who aren’t fully vaccinated.

Why are experts at odds over masks for vaccinated people?

In June, WHO officials repeated a longstanding recommendation that everyone should wear masks to stem the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, the CDC until Tuesday had been continuing to uphold its guidance that not all fully vaccinated Americans need to wear masks indoors or maintain social distancing. White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said that those who’ve had two doses of the vaccine should still «go the extra step» of wearing a mask when traveling to places with low vaccination rates.

A few days after the WHO recommended that people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine should continue wearing a face mask, Fauci explained why the advice differed from the CDC’s. «There’s a reason for that,» he said in a virtual White House press briefing. «The WHO is responsible for the planet as a whole. It’s different in the world in general from here in the United States.»

So, while the WHO is monitoring the pandemic around the world, with a majority of people unvaccinated, the CDC is responding to the situation in the US, where the vaccines have been shown to work quite effectively against hospitalization from the delta variant. Only 13.9% of the global population is fully vaccinated, according to vaccine tracker site Our World in Data. The US nearly quadruples that number: 49.7% of Americans are considered fully vaccinated as of July 4, according to the Mayo Clinic.

For Fauci and the CDC, the focus is on getting a greater number of Americans vaccinated in the first place. On July 4, Fauci said that 99.2% of COVID-related deaths last month involved unvaccinated people.

What is WHO’s position on mask wearing?

Wearing a mask consistently continues to be important, even for people who are vaccinated, a WHO official said during a press briefing in late June. «People cannot feel safe just because they had the two doses. They still need to protect themselves.»

Wearing masks in public places is essential to keep people from inhaling particles that will cause them to become sick, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, an American infectious disease epidemiologist, said during the same briefing.

While the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are showing robust protection against variants, «breakthrough» infections may still sporadically occur. In a case in early June, a fully vaccinated woman in Napa, California, died from COVID-19. She was over 65 and was reported to have underlying medical conditions.

Why is the coronavirus delta variant serious?

The delta variant is the latest of new coronavirus variants and is the most contagious of the variants identified so far, according to the WHO. The delta variant has been identified in 96 countries so far and is spreading among the unvaccinated population, the organization said during the press conference.

«The delta variant is currently the greatest threat in the US to our attempt to eliminate COVID-19,» Fauci said during a White House press briefing on June 22.

Will there be new mask mandates or tighter restrictions?

Some countries have already begun tightening COVID-19 restrictions. For instance, four cities across Australia have returned to lockdown, including Sydney’s state of New South Wales. In the US, Los Angeles County is strongly recommending face masks indoors, regardless of whether someone has been vaccinated, though masks aren’t required in most places. Some countries within Africa and Asia — for instance, South Africa and Malaysia — have also moved into lockdown due to the delta variant spreading.

Some places never loosened mask mandates, such as airports and airlines. In the US, other public transportation facilities require masks, such as buses and trains.

For more information, here’s what you need to know about «long COVID» and how it’s treated. Also, read up on these COVID-19 vaccine side effects and important dos and don’ts of getting your COVID-19 vaccine.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Technologies

These Smart Glasses Would Adjust Focus on the Fly Based on Your Eye Movements

A Finnish company is building glasses with lenses that can adapt instantly to the wearer’s needs.

While some of the world’s biggest tech companies including Meta, Google and (reportedly) Apple are eyeing the future of smart glasses, startups are working on a major innovation for the other kind of glasses. The regular kind, worn by billions across the world.

One of those startups, Finland-based IXI Eyewear, has raised more than $40 million from investors including Amazon to build glasses with adaptive lenses that could dynamically autofocus based on where the person wearing them is looking.

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In late 2025, the company said it had developed a glasses prototype that weighs just 22 grams. It includes embedded sensors aimed at the wearer’s eyes and liquid crystal lenses that respond accordingly. According to the company, the autofocus is «powered by technology hidden within the frame that tracks eye movements and adjusts focus instantly — whether you’re looking near or far.»

By contrast, smart glasses like Meta’s Ray-Bans and Ray-Bay Displays as well as Xreal and Google’s Project Aura are leaning into cameras that look out at the world around the user and AI-powered features such as facial recognition, language translation and recording photos and video. Lenses tend to be a secondary consideration.

IXI told CNN in a story published Tuesday that it’s expecting to launch its glasses within the next year. It has a waitlist for the glasses on its website but has not said in what regions they’ll be available.

While the goal is to make these glasses an improvement on traditional bifocals and progressive lenses, the IXI glasses likely won’t be a fully seamless experience. «The center part is the sharp area, and then there is the edge where the liquid crystal stops and which is not that great to look into, but the center area is large enough that you can use that for reading,» CEO Niko Eiden told CNN. «So, we do have our own distortions that we’re introducing, but the majority of the time, they will not be visible.»

The IXI glasses won’t be cheap. «We will be in the really high end of existing eyewear,» Eiden said.

IXI didn’t immediately respond to CNET’s request for additional comment.

This type of technology is also being pursued by Japanese startups Elcyo and Vixion, which already has a product with adaptive lenses embedded in the middle of the lenses (they do not look like standard glasses).

Technologies

My Clicks Communicator Hands-On: Boldly Going Where Phones Have Been Before

The new Android handset is meant to be a secondary phone optimized for messaging, with a BlackBerry-like physical keyboard, headphone jack and other features lost to time.

It’s one thing to have a great idea and another to actually make it a reality. The newly announced Clicks Communicator phone, from the keyboard phone case company of the same name, is a refreshing breath of fresh air that is also oh-so-familiar. You might easily mistake it for a BlackBerry phone from circa 2007, and that’s because it was designed by a former BlackBerry designer. However, it runs Android 16 and has a nifty, minimalist app launcher that looks sleek and contemporary. In the hour I spent learning about it and using a non-working prototype, the Clicks Communicator quickly became my favorite CES gadget in years.

The Communicator is a surprisingly smart take that combines old and new phone features in a way that, aside from Motorola, very few phone makers have successfully done before. It’s a straightforward-to-use Android smartphone with seemingly every popular feature that companies have removed over the past decade.

In its small design, there is a physical keyboard, a notification alert light, a headphone jack, a physical SIM card tray, support for a microSD card and buttons, oh so many buttons. Jony Ive’s soul must be hurting right now.

At a time when phones have become overly complicated, AI-centric attention stealers, the Clicks Communicator aims to provide an experience optimized for typing and voice-to-text recording, all while minimizing distractions. It’s designed to be a secondary device that complements your regular smartphone. The idea is similar to what Palm tried almost a decade ago, when it sold a small Android phone meant to complement larger ones. However, Palm’s phone didn’t offer amenities like a physical keyboard.

«Communicator is to a smartphone what a Kindle is to an iPad,» said Jeff Gadway, chief marketing officer at Clicks, in a press release. «It’s a complementary product that stands on its own, optimized for a specific purpose. In the case of Clicks Communicator, that means communicating with confidence in a noisy world.»

We expect our smartphones to do anything we want, but that often means compromising on how features are implemented. On an iPhone 17 Pro, for example, I can definitely type and respond to texts, emails and jot down the occasional random thought in the Notes app. But for me, and I expect many others, I have a much more enjoyable experience typing on a physical keyboard. I prefer to use a laptop to respond to a long or complex email versus writing it on a phone.

But the Communicator’s singular focus on input, along with the fact that it can be your only phone, unlocks a much wider appeal (at least on paper). I could see the Communicator being the ideal «work» phone for those jobs where you want a separate device from your personal smartphone. You could quickly respond to a Slack thread without being tempted to check out TikTok or Instagram.

It might be an attractive option to a growing number of people who crave a phone that doesn’t need all their attention every damn minute. This could be someone burnt out from being obsessively online or someone who misses having a physical keyboard and features like a headphone jack. It could appeal to a person who wants a minimal-feeling smartphone like the Light Phone and Punkt, which each have their own take on what a less distracting phone might look like.

The Communicator costs $499 and launches later this year. However, you can preorder the phone for $399 or reserve one for $199 right now. It joins the Clicks Keyboard Pro and Keyboard Case.

«We’re really trying to help have people see us as a company that’s building purpose-built tech for people who want to do shit and not doom scroll,» Gadway told me.

Clicks Communicator’s stand-out features

Name: The phone is named in part for the iconic handheld voice device from Star Trek. Clicks co-founder Michael Fisher also explained that calling the device a «communicator» really captures what the phone was designed for: to provide the best typing and voice-to-text experience (in terms of both hardware and software) that you’ll find on a phone.

Design: The phone is compact. Its aluminum frame and polycarbonate body felt solid in my hand. Small phone lovers, this one seems aimed at you. It weighs only 170 grams. Compare that to the iPhone 17 Pro, which is 206 grams. It’s roughly the size of a small SSD or magnetic battery pack. It has a 4-inch screen and a keyboard similar to the one found on the Clicks keyboard case — with keys that are 43% larger on the Communicator.

Android 16 and Niagara launcher: The Communicator runs on Android 16 and has a custom version of the Niagara app launcher. Messages from apps like WhatsApp, Telegram and Slack are curated directly on the home screen, allowing people to review and respond quickly without having to open and jump between apps.

Prompt Key and Signal light: On the right side of the phone is a button called the Prompt Key. You press and hold it to record voice-to-text. Surrounding the button is the Signal light (think Android notification light from years ago) that makes it easy to distinguish messages and notifications at a glance. It can be customized with different colors and light patterns to glow when getting messages from specific people, groups, or apps.

Removable backplate: The back has a sloped, ergonomic, and interchangeable plate — think Moto X. During my briefing, there were half a dozen different plates made of polycarbonate and leather. The backplate also supports Qi2.2 wireless charging.

Other features:

50-megapixel rear camera with optical image stabilization
24-megapixel front camera
4,000 mAh silicon-carbon battery
256GB onboard storage plus expandable microSD
Physical SIM card tray and eSIM
A 3.5mm headphone jack
Android 16 with 5 years of security updates
Global 5G, 4G LTE, and 3G/2G support, unlocked
NFC with Google Pay, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 6
USB-C and wireless charging
4,000mAh battery
A 3.5mm headphone jack
A configurable mute switch

Technologies

Xbox Set to Bring Resident Evil, Star Wars and More to Xbox Game Pass

Subscribers can play several other games, including the original Final Fantasy in all its 2D glory, on Game Pass in January.

Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth game in the main Resident Evil series, is set to be released on Feb. 26. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can prepare for Requiem by playing Resident Evil Village, the most recent entry in the series, starting on Jan. 20.

Xbox Game Pass offers hundreds of games you can play on your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Amazon Fire TV, smart TV and PC or mobile device, with prices starting at $10 a month. While all Game Pass tiers offer you a library of games, Game Pass Ultimate ($30 a month) gives you access to the most games, as well as Day 1 games, like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, added monthly.

Here are all the games subscribers can play on Game Pass soon. You can also check out other games the company added to the service in December, including Marvel Cosmic Invasion.

Note: «Handheld» means a game is optimized for handheld play.

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Brews & Bastards (Cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S)

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

What’s a hero gotta do to get a drink around here? Choose an inebriated hero to travel deep under a tavern in search of the stolen Brew Stone. You’ll explore tavern-themed dungeons and use bar-inspired weapons, like high-caliber champagne bottles, to blast through drunken demons and other boozy monsters. And if you’ve ever called one of your exes a drunken demon, maybe this game will be a little cathartic for you.

Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition (Cloud, handheld, PC and Xbox Series X/S)

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can play now.

Little Nightmares is back in high-quality 4K and 60FPS in this enhanced edition of the dark tale. You play as a lone child trapped in a massive world inhabited by monstrous versions of adults called the Maw. All you can do is run from these creatures, but you’ll also have to sneak and hide to throw them off your trail if you want to survive.

Atomfall (Cloud, console, handheld and PC)

New to Game Pass Premium on Jan. 7. Previously on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

The Windscale fire was the worst nuclear disaster in the UK’s history, and it’s estimated that it caused between 100 and 240 cancer-related deaths. And Atomfall asks, «What if Windscale was similar in magnitude to the disaster at Chornobyl?»

This game takes place five years after a more devastating Windscale disaster. You’ll encounter gangs of bandits, cults and rogue government agencies throughout the quarantine zone in the Lake District, Cumbria. It’s up to you whether you avoid conflict or charge into the heat of battle, but resources are scarce, so maybe don’t go in guns blazing every chance you get.

Lost in Random: The Eternal Die (Cloud, Xbox Series X/S, handheld and PC)

New to Game Pass Premium on Jan. 7. Previously on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

You’re the once-great ruler of Random, Queen Aleksandra, and you’re on a mission of vengeance and redemption in this fast-paced rogue-like game. You’ll fight monsters and beasts with four unique weapons, plus powerful card-based abilities and relics. But death isn’t final here, so if you fall, you’ll return to Sanctuary to rearm, upgrade and prepare for your next run.

Rematch (Cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S)

New to Game Pass Premium on Jan. 7. Previously on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

Tackle, dribble and score in this team-based football game (or soccer, depending on your locale). This game was designed for 5v5 online multiplayer matches where players control a single athlete. That means you’ll have to coordinate and plan with the rest of your co-op teammates if you want to win. And with no player stats to give one person an advantage over another, coordination is the key to success.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Master Crafted Edition (Cloud, PC and Xbox Series X/S)

New to Game Pass Premium on Jan. 7. Previously on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

You are Capt. Demetrian Titus, an Ultramarine in the Imperium of Man, and it’s up to you and your squad to help reclaim the Forge World Graia from an Ork horde. Originally released in 2011, this third-person shooter has been remastered for modern consoles with enhanced character models, a modernized control scheme and more. So grab your chainsword and bolter and get ready to fight. For the Emperor!

Final Fantasy (Cloud, Xbox Series X/S and PC)

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Jan. 8.

This is the game that started it all. Join the Warriors of Light on a journey to restore power to the Crystals and save their home world. The remastered version of this game brings improved gameplay features, like auto-battle and more, to your screen.

Star Wars Outlaws (Cloud, PC, and Xbox Series X/S)

Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Jan. 13.

Luke Skywalker and the Jedis are cool and all, but who didn’t want to be a cool smuggler like Han Solo? This open-world Star Wars game lets you become just that. You play as Kay Vess, a scoundrel looking for freedom and a new life. You’ll fight, steal and outsmart crime syndicates from around the galaxy. But the Empire is out there, too, so watch your back.

My Little Pony: A Zephyr Heights Mystery (Cloud, console, handheld and PC)

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium and PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Jan. 15.

Go on an adventure with Sunny, Hitch, Izzy, Pipp, Zipp and Misty as you try to solve a mystery together. Strange music is turning the world upside down, and it’s up to you and your friends to use your powers to put a stop to the music.

Resident Evil Village (Cloud, console and PC)

Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass Premium, PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Jan. 20.

The latest entry in the mainline Resident Evil series puts you back in the shoes of Ethan Winters as he ventures into a haunting European village in search of his abducted daughter. You’ll fight lycans, vampires and other monstrous creatures as you try to uncover why your daughter was taken and your wife was murdered.

MIO: Memories in Orbit (Cloud, handheld, PC and Xbox Series X/S)

Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass subscribers can play on Jan. 20.

Get ready to explore a treacherous ship in this sci-fi metroidvania game. You play as Mio, a nimble android that wakes up in the Vessel, a spaceship drifting aimlessly through the stars. The ship’s machines have gone rogue and vegetation has taken over parts of the Vessel. It’s up to you to figure out what happened to the Vessel and the ship’s purpose.

Games leaving Xbox Game Pass on Jan. 15

While Microsoft is bringing those games to different Game Pass tiers this month, the company is also removing these games from the service on Jan. 15. So, you still have some time to complete your campaign or any sidequests before you have to purchase these games separately.
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn
Neon White
Road 96
The Ascent
The Grinch: Christmas Adventures

For more on Xbox, discover other games available on Game Pass now and check out our hands-on review of the gaming service. You can also learn about recent changes to the Game Pass service.