Officials are urging the public to get vaccinated and get tested — but many people are reporting challenges in finding tests.

The fast-spreading mutant version of the virus has cast a pall over Christmas and New Year’s, forcing communities to scale back or call off their festivities just weeks after it seemed as if Americans were about to enjoy an almost normal holiday season. 

The Transportation Ministry said in a statement Wednesday that the aircraft will be permitted to fly in Indonesia, but only after airlines carry out airworthiness directives.

Chief Judge Timothy Evans announced Tuesday that his office — which covers the courts and the Juvenile Temporary Detention Center — will impose COVID vaccine mandates. This after the Chief Judge was criticized for previously not mandating the vaccine for all employees.

The guidance has raised questions about how it was crafted and why it was changed now, in the middle of another wintertime spike in cases, this one driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant.

State legislatures across the country will be responding to the possibility of seismic change to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion across the U.S.

Flight cancellations that disrupted holiday travel stretched into Monday, with major U.S. airlines each canceling dozens of flights.

With cases of COVID-19 skyrocketing and hospitalizations surging in Illinois, officials are pleading with unvaccinated residents to change their minds about receiving shots.

More than 700 flights entering, leaving or flying within the U.S. were called off, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware. That figure was down from nearly 1,000 on Saturday. More than 50 flights were already canceled for Monday.

U.S. regulators authorized Pfizer’s pill, Paxlovid, and Merck’s molnupiravir last week. In high-risk patients, both were shown to reduce the chances of hospitalization or death from COVID-19, although Pfizer’s was much more effective.

As of Dec. 6, about 226,000 people had shared in the nearly $1.5 billion that FEMA has spent on COVID-19 related funeral costs. With the nation’s coronavirus death toll topping 800,000, it’s clear that many families who are eligible for reimbursement have yet to take advantage of the funeral benefit.

With the right mindset, you can enjoy the season without sabotaging your well-being.

More than 5 million children ages 5 to 11 have gotten a first dose since early November, and government safety monitoring has not uncovered any surprise problems. 

The most wonderful time of the year can also be the most stressful.

Worried that a new COVID-19 wave could overwhelm understaffed U.S. hospitals, federal officials on Thursday loosened rules that call on health care workers to stay out of work for 10 days if they test positive.

On the eve of Christmas Eve, state health officials reported nearly 19,000 new and probable cases of COVID-19 in a 24-hour period, breaking the record for highest single-day case count set just Wednesday.