Coronavirus

The local public health agency wants Austinites to get their vaccinations up to date before changes in federal policy potentially affect the availability of free shots.

Nurses often provide patients' most consistent face-to-face, hands-on care. But experts in the field are concerned about a loss of experience in the profession after pandemic fatigue and difficult working conditions caused many tenured nurses to leave the field.

Three years after Austin's first COVID case was detected, Lauren Ancel Meyers, director of UT Austin's Center for Pandemic Decision Science, says it's a matter of when, not if, another pandemic arrives. She and her fellow researchers want to be prepared.

The new approach would simplify vaccination guidance so that, every fall, people would get a new shot, updated to try to match whatever variant is dominant.

Donna Looper wanted to help her then 8-year-old son Ben conceptualize the toll COVID-19 was taking on their community. The two folded 248 origami butterflies to represent individuals who lost their lives to COVID-19 in Georgetown.

People are gathering indoors for the holidays, and there's been an uptick in COVID-19 cases. The federal government says you should test often to try to prevent the spread of the virus.

The CDC is advising people to practice indoor masking in nearly a tenth of U.S. counties, as three highly contagious respiratory viruses sweep the country.

Step aside, BA.5. The new variants BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, appear to be among the most adept yet at evading immunity from previous infection and vaccination.

Sick kids are crowding emergency rooms in parts of the country and some pediatric hospitals say they're running out of beds.

Here we go again. The virus is starting to surge in many European countries and there are early signs a wave may be starting in the U.S. too.