Deaths are running close to 1,600 a day on average, back up to where they were in October. And the overall U.S. death toll less than two years into the crisis could hit another heartbreaking milestone, 800,000, in a matter of days.
The order came in response to a lawsuit from several contractors and seven states. It applies across the U.S. because one of those challenging the order is the trade group Associated Builders and Contractors Inc.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said that while two doses may not be protective enough to prevent infection, lab tests showed a booster increased by 25-fold people’s levels of virus-fighting antibodies against the omicron variant.
The Indiana State Department of Health on Tuesday reported 93 more deaths from COVID-19, increasing the state’s pandemic death toll to 17,230.
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said the pandemic remains a real threat and is taking lives, but he maintains that the state’s role is to provide vaccines and other resources, not impose vaccine requirements or mask mandates.
Initial data indicate that omicron may be more transmissible even than delta, the variant that became dominant throughout the world this summer.
The Quebec City company said it will seek Canadian approval “imminently” and has also begun the process to file with regulators in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries.
Major corporations that had planned to shepherd all their employees back into offices in early 2022 now have to decide whether those dates make sense in light of further evidence of the pandemic’s unpredictability.
Across the state, 2,408 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 Saturday. That’s up from a recent low of 1,209 on Nov. 6, and six times the number of people hospitalized from COVID-19 at the year-to-date low mark of 369 on June 24.
The omicron variant is likely to have picked up genetic material from another virus that causes the common cold in humans, according to a new preliminary study.
Isolation. Anxiety. Uncertainty. The stresses of the coronavirus pandemic have taken a toll on Americans of all ages, but a new poll finds that teens and young adults have faced some of the heaviest struggles as they come of age during a time of extreme turmoil.
U.S. health officials said while the omicron variant of is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it might be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations.
The controversial bill is scheduled for an unusual pre-session public hearing more than two weeks before the legislative session officially begins Jan. 4. The hearing will be the second attempt by House Republicans to expedite the legislation.
South African scientists are warning that reinfections among people who’ve already battled COVID-19 appear to be more likely with the new omicron variant than with earlier coronavirus mutants.
CEO Ugur Sahin told Reuters on Friday that he could foresee a scenario where coronavirus vaccine shots became annual, like flu shots.
The omicron variant of COVID-19, which had been undetected in the United States before the middle of this week, had been discovered in at least five states by late Thursday.
COVID-19 patients now occupy 26.3% of Indiana’s intensive care unit beds.
The four-week average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, fell below 239,000, a pandemic low.
Statewide hospitalizations due to COVID-19 increased from 2,203 on Monday to 2,244 on Tuesday, the highest number since Sept. 23.
A person in California who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 became the first in the United States to have an identified case of the omicron variant, the White House announced Wednesday.
