Coronavirus Watch: This Ash Wednesday, priests told to skip marking worshippers' foreheads

It's Ash Wednesday, and Catholic priests have been advised by the Vatican to skip making the traditional sign-of-the cross with ashes on worshipers' foreheads and sprinkle the ashes upon their heads instead. Some churches are offering drive-thru ashes and do-it-yourself, bagged ashes.

The day follows Mardi Gras, or "Fat Tuesday," which also saw big changes this year. Parades were canceled and the streets of the French Quarter in New Orleans, usually packed with parties, were relatively quiet. Instead, locals decorated their homes in festive colors.

Last year on Ash Wednesday, former President Donald Trump announced then-Vice President Mike Pence would lead his administration's response to the virus. The U.S. had fewer than 100 reported cases at the time.

It's Wednesday, and this is the Coronavirus Watch from the USA TODAY Network. Here's more news you need to know:

• President Joe Biden made clear Tuesday his goal is for the majority of K-8 public schools to be open "five days a week" by the end of his first 100 days after the White House received criticism for scaling back that goal last week.
• Funding to find variants? A bill cleared for floor debate last week would provide $1.75 billion for genomic sequencing. It calls for the CDC to organize a national network to track the spread of mutations and guide public health countermeasures.
• The European Union announced plans to buy a further 300 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine. Hours earlier, Pfizer and BioNTech said they had signed a deal to deliver an additional 200 million doses of their vaccine to the bloc.
• Reparations could have public health benefits for Black individuals and the entire nation, a study led by Harvard Medical School researchers suggests. Their model for Louisiana showed that greater equity between Black people and white people might have reduced COVID-19 infection transmission rates by up to 68% for every person in the state.

Today's numbers: The U.S. has reported more than 27.7 million COVID-19 cases and 488,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there have been more than 109.6 million cases and more than 2.4 million deaths. Nearly 12% of people in the U.S. have received at least one vaccine shot, and about 4.5% of people have received both doses, according to the CDC.

See the numbers in your area here, check out where cases are rising here, and see how many vaccines your state has received here.

– Grace Hauck, USA TODAY breaking news reporter, @grace_hauck