Part of this is good news and part of this is disappointing. The good news is that mask mandates helped reduce surges of infections. The bad news is that even with mask mandates , there are still increases in infection rates. I think it goes to show that we can not mask our way out of this. It needs to be a comprehensive approach (mask, social distancing, hand washing, isolating if symptomatic) to reducing spread.
It's almost like the flu which has been around forever and we deal with it. Although the flu is down this year and they can't figure that out either.