The administration of President Biden is pushing for governors and mayors to reinstate mask mandates and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning of “impending doom” as COVID-19 cases begin to once again tick upward, The New York Times reports.

The newspaper noted there is a “growing sense of urgency among top White House officials and government scientists that the chance to conquer the pandemic, now in its second year, may slip through their grasp.”

The Wall Street Journal reports that as more people get the various available COVID-19 vaccines, fewer people are saying they probably or definitely won’t receive the shot, based on a survey from the U.S. Census Bureau. At the same time, it doesn’t seem like the group that is more fervently against vaccinations has moved much.

“The survey found about 17% of adults said they would either definitely or probably not get vaccinated, down from 22% in January,” the newspaper reports. “The decline was almost entirely due to fewer respondents saying they probably won’t get the shot; the share saying they definitely won’t has remained essentially unchanged in the past two months.”

Sloan Dean’s first year as president and CEO of Remington Hotels didn’t go exactly as he planned, given that he took the top role just months before the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic downturn, but he believes ultimately the pandemic has proven his company’s ability to be more adaptable than other third-party hotel managers, HNN’s Sean McCracken writes.

He's also aiming to be a buyer of smaller hotel operators in the latter half of the year, targeting management companies with 15 to 40 properties.

"Remington is going to be very active in the [mergers and acquisitions] space," he said. "Aimbridge has gotten a lot of the headlines and Highgate, as well, in terms of putting their capital to work and buying competitors, doing some creative mergers and that kind of thing. I think you'll start to see Remington in those headlines, as well."

More companies are joining the list of those cutting back on office spaces as more people transition to remote work, with The Wall Street Journal reporting JPMorgan Chase, Salesforce.com Inc. and PwC are “looking to unload big blocks of office space.”

The newspaper notes “subleasing activity is already causing fresh headaches for landlords. Office rents for more expensive space, including concessions, fell around 17% over the past year in New York and San Francisco and 13% nationwide, according to real-estate firm JLL.”

STR senior analyst Kelsey Fenerty writes that February’s key performance indicators for U.S. hotels “brought excellent tidings,” with occupancy hitting its highest mark — 45.3% — since October 2020. STR is CoStar’s hospitality analytics firm.

While a resurgence in demand is obviously positive, the industry is still struggling on the supply side, with several major markets reporting the percentage of rooms still closed in the double digits.

Compiled by Sean McCracken.