By Tara John, Nadine Schmidt and Claudia Otto, CNN Austria’s parliament has approved the European Union’s strictest Covid-19 vaccine mandate, making it compulsory for the country’s residents over the age of 18 to get the shot. The legislation is set to be ratified before it is expected to come into effect on February 4. However,
Continue ReadingBy Miguel Marquez, Aaron Cooper and Theresa Waldrop, CNN Dr. Aaron Parker Banks gets emotional when talking about the toll Covid-19 has taken on his tightknit rural community in northeastern Kentucky, where he works as the only physician at a clinic. “I’ve held the hands of people dying of Covid,” he said. “I’ve had close
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There are 15 newly reported COVID-19-related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 5,908, the Oregon Health Authority reported Wednesday.
Continue ReadingBy Danielle Wiener-Bronner, CNN Business Starbucks is no longer requiring employees to get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing, following the US Supreme Court’s rejection last week of President Joe Biden’s vaccine and testing requirement for large businesses. In a letter published on January 4, the coffee company recommended that its workers get vaccinated by
Continue ReadingCNN By Deidre McPhillips, CNN Covid-19 case counts in the United States have dipped in recent days, a promising sign that the Omicron wave is starting to subside. But hospitalizations and deaths are still rising, and experts say the country has not reached a peak across the board. After reaching nearly 808,000 new cases on
Continue ReadingBy Jeremy Diamond and Paul LeBlanc, CNN The Biden administration will make 400 million N95 masks available to Americans for free starting next week, a White House official told CNN, the latest federal step aimed at reining in the US’ Covid-19 surge. The masks — which are coming from the Strategic National Stockpile — will
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St. Charles now has three new outpatient treatments for COVID-19, two oral antivirals and a monoclonal antibody infusion, though supplies so far are limited, so they are only going to high-risk patients.
Continue ReadingBy Tierney Sneed A group of parents of public school students in Chesapeake, Virginia, filed a lawsuit Tuesday asking Virginia’s Supreme Court to block a new executive order issued by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin that makes masks voluntary for children in the state’s public schools. The lawsuit, obtained by CNN affiliate WTKR, points to guidance
Continue ReadingBy Jessie Yeung, CNN Hong Kong will euthanize about 2,000 hamsters and other small animals after a pet store worker and several rodents tested positive for coronavirus, as the city pursues an uncompromising zero-Covid strategy two years into the pandemic. The announcement by the Hong Kong government on Tuesday was met with outrage by pet
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The federal website https://www.covidtests.gov/ is up and running, and Central Oregonians are among those seeking the four free at-home COVID-19 tests.
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There are 10 newly reported COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 5,893, the Oregon Health Authority reported Tuesday.
Continue ReadingCNN By Kaitlan Collins, Maegan Vazquez and Tami Luhby, CNN The federal government has quietly launched its website to sign up for free Covid-19 tests, allowing people to order a maximum of four tests shipped directly to their household. White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Tuesday that the government website to order free Covid-19
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The Oregon Brewers Guild announced Tuesday the return of the Central Oregon Winter Beer Festival, to be held on Saturday, March 5th at GoodLife Brewing in Bend.
Continue ReadingCNN By Travis Caldwell and Holly Yan, CNN It’s still too early to predict whether Omicron’s rapid spread will help push coronavirus from the pandemic phase to a more manageable endemic phase — but “I would hope that that’s the case,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday. A disease that is endemic has a constant presence
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As COVID-19 cases surge in Oregon — forcing some of the state’s largest school districts to close last week, due to staffing shortages — a letter from three-dozen nurses at Portland Public Schools circulated over the weekend in which they question the relative health and safety in school buildings.
Continue ReadingBy Dan Merica and Eva McKend, CNN Newly inaugurated Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has been in office for mere days, but the Republican is already rolling back the priorities of his Democratic predecessors and running into opposition from counties he lost months earlier, specifically on the hot-button issue of mask requirements in schools. The tension
Continue ReadingBy Jacqueline Howard, CNN Early data out of Israel suggests that a fourth dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine can bring an increase in antibodies — more than what’s been seen after a third dose — but it still might not be enough to protect against breakthrough infections caused by the Omicron
Continue ReadingCNN By Jen Christensen, CNN Picture a not-too-distant future when you can book that summer trip to Italy or you don’t have to remember to take off your mask for graduation photos. After the past 25 months, forgetting the pandemic for even a little while may sound like a fantasy — after all, the coronavirus
Continue ReadingTORONTO (AP) — Canada’s health regulator has approved a pill by Pfizer that treats the effects of COVID-19. Health Canada authorized Paxlovid for adult patients with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are also at high risk of becoming more seriously ill. Health Canada did not authorize it for use on teenagers or on patients who
Continue ReadingBEIJING (AP) — A 26-year-old woman in China’s capital Beijing who contracted the omicron strain of COVID-19 has drawn national attention on social media for her shopping trips. The woman, who has not been formally identified, reportedly visited high-end shops in the city before showing symptoms of having the virus. It wasn’t known how she
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