COVID

The isolated East Asian country has only stated how many people have fevers daily, and has only identified a few of the cases as COVID-19 since admitting to an outbreak of the omicron variant.

The 77-year-old guitar legend has been a critic of coronavirus vaccines and pandemic restrictions. He has tested positive for COVID-19 and canceled two upcoming European gigs.

The virus hit Whidbey Island early in 2020, and photojournalist Lynn Johnson was there. A million deaths later, we return to see how the pandemic has subtly but indelibly altered life there forever.

The virus became the third leading cause of death in the U.S., and caused so many to die in the prime of life that the country experienced the biggest drop in life expectancy since World War II.

"One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss," President Biden said Thursday.

While the scale of the outbreak isn't known, it could have serious consequences because the country has a poor health care system and its 26 million people are believed to be mostly unvaccinated.

The leader of the World Health Organization says he doesn't think that a 'zero-COVID' strategy is sustainable, given the behavior of the virus.

Vaccinations and residual immunity are among the reasons, President Biden's chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, said Tuesday, as the number of deaths drop and hospitalizations rise only slightly.

The antiviral pill is available to patients older than 12 who have tested positive for COVID and are at risk for developing a severe case of the disease.

The company says this version targets both the original coronavirus and the beta variant, and appears to provide broader and longer-lasting protection against different strains, including omicron.

The research is clear that air exchange and filtration curb the spread of COVID and other diseases, but upgrading systems is expensive, and there is little federal authority over indoor air quality.

The city will require masks in schools, businesses, government buildings and restaurants starting April 18.