A number of public school districts across the U.S. are reinstating face-mask mandates, or considering doing so, as they seek to protect students from the wave of COVID cases being driven by the BA.5 omicron subvariant. BA.5 is understood to be the most transmissible variant seen so far and to have an ability to break through vaccination and cause reinfection. School districts in Lousiville, Atlanta and Los Angeles are either requiring masks for may yet do so, according to the Washington Post. The daily average for new U.S. cases stood at 131.319 on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker, up 3% from two weeks ago. The true case count is likely higher, given the number of people who are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for hospitalizations rose to 43,341, up 10% in two weeks. The daily average for deaths is up 2% to 439. In California, cases are higher than they've been in six months, while in New York, there are more patients in hospitals than at the peak of last year's delta wave of cases. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 573.8 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.39 million with the U.S. leading the world with 90.9 million cases and 1,028,819 deaths.

Intel Corp. drew sharp criticism from analysts after the company reported results that were disappointing on many fronts, indicating a storm of macroeconomic, competitive, and execution challenges.

Ciara Linnane is MarketWatch's investing- and corporate-news editor. She is based in New York.

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