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A protestor wears a helmet decorated as a COVID-19 virus at the Los Angeles "Defeat the Mandate" rally to protest vaccination mandates designed to slow the spread of COVID-19 outside Los Angeles City Hall Sunday, April, 10, 2022. California battled a deadly winter coronavirus surge linked to the omicron variant but began easing masking and vaccination requirements this year as caseloads and hospitalization rates fell, which public health officials largely attributed to widespread vaccination and other safety measures. However, the rates began to rise again a couple of weeks ago, leading to concerns that the new, more infectious BA.2 variant was spreading. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)