In the News

Cuba has defied the odds in the fight against Covid-19 by developing five vaccines. NBC News’ Ed Augustin explains how the country is so far ahead of others.
 

As coronavirus pandemic case numbers, hospitalizations and deaths continue to plummet, fewer people now than in January say they are concerned that they will be infected after the rise and fall of the wildly contagious virus variant, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
 

Ukraine is coming off its highest spike in Covid cases and has been working to control a polio outbreak since October.
 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased mask recommendations for the vast majority of the country Friday under a new framework to monitor the coronavirus that immediately affects about 70 percent of Americans — a process that state and local officials had already begun amid demands for a return to normalcy.
 

The guidance comes at a time when many states have already canceled mask mandates or announced they will roll them back soon, when the choice of whether to wear a mask in public settings will in most cases transition to individuals — at least for the time being.
 

While Ukraine is under attack by Russia, Ukraine’s civilian population is also under siege from the coronavirus, a situation only likely to worsen.
 

Other large scale sporting events that have been held since the pandemic began attest to the fact that it can be done, though they've showed the need for caution. No outbreaks thus far have been traced to events such as the Super Bowl or the Daytona 500 last month.
 

Nearly two years after a state of emergency was first declared in the US, experts still struggle with how to think about long COVID, vaccine effectiveness and more.
 

U.S. health officials are optimistic, albeit cautiously, the country has turned the corner on the unprecedented wave of infection caused by the omicron Covid variant as new cases plummet 90% from a pandemic record set just five weeks ago.
 

As omicron cases continue to decline across the region, health departments in the District, Virginia and Maryland have reported new cases of a subvariant strain of the illness, but one expert said it doesn’t appear the newest version of COVID-19 will lead to another spike in cases.
 

Cases, deaths, and hospitalizations have plummeted – but transmission remains high across the nation.
 

Pointing out the logical flaws in mask mandates is easy. Fixing them is hard—and important.
David Dowdy and Tara Kirk Sell are quoted.