VOICES: Don’t wait, vaccinate your keiki today

In early November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 through 11. While this may seem like a long-awaited step on the journey to end the pandemic for some, the decision to vaccinate keiki is daunting for many parents.

Hits ‘keep coming’: Hospitals struggle as COVID beds fill

DETROIT — Hospitals across the country are struggling to cope with burnout among doctors, nurses and other workers, already buffeted by a crush of patients from the ongoing surge of the COVID-19 delta variant and now bracing for the fallout of another highly transmissible mutation.

EXPLAINER: Must employers follow Biden’s vaccine mandates?

Tens of millions of workers across the U.S. are in limbo as federal courts have issued different rulings related to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates for larger private companies, certain health care workers and federal government contractors.

How COVID-19 upended Blinken’s diplomatic mission

HONOLULU — U.S. Air Force Special Air Mission 50601 departed from Joint Base Andrews on the night of Dec. 9 with an ambitious journey ahead — an eight-day, around-the-world trip with America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

WHO: Omicron detected in 89 countries, cases doubling fast

VIENNA — The omicron variant of the coronavirus has been detected in 89 countries, and COVID-19 cases involving the variant are doubling every 1.5 to 3 days in places with community transmission and not just infections acquired abroad, the World Health Organization said Saturday.