Covidwise, the pandemic app from Apple and Google, to roll out in Virginia The technology arrives nearly four months after Apple and Google partnered to create the software for public health agencies. Matt O'Brien and Sarah Rankin USA TODAY

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia has rolled out a smartphone app to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus, becoming the first U.S. state to use new pandemic technology created by Apple and Google.

America’s slow, painful shift to enforcing mask mandates Mask enforcement won’t work without education. Lois Parshley Vox

Though 33 states now have face mask mandates, Gov. Pete Ricketts says his state of Nebraska will not be joining them. On Monday, Ricketts doubled down on his conviction that a statewide mask mandate would be too “heavy-handed.”