Covid-19 live updates: Omicron will infect ?just about everybody,? Fauci says

Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker promoted ‘mist’ that he claimed would ‘kill any covid on your body’ What to know about the coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5U.S. to buy 500 million additional doses of AstraZeneca covid treatment Key coronavirus updates from around the world Biden administration considering making high-quality masks more widely availableFour reasons you’re seeing empty grocery store shelves Britain’s Boris Johnson apologizes amid national anger over controversial lockdown partyWest Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says he’s ‘extremely unwell’ after testing positive for coronavirusTexas mom charged with child endangerment after police say she drove to coronavirus test site with sick son in the trunk A top Democrat says lawmakers who ignore mask mandate should sit in ‘isolation boxes’ in House chamber New Orleans revives mask mandate ahead of Mardi GrasWhite House brings on new coronavirus testing coordinatorAre fourth vaccine doses needed? Global experts question strategy of repeat boosters.Mexico is one of many nations asking: How much can you seal yourself off?South Korea approves Novavax coronavirus vaccine Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker promoted ‘mist’ that he claimed would ‘kill any covid on your body’ What to know about the coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5U.S. to buy 500 million additional doses of AstraZeneca covid treatment Key coronavirus updates from around the world Biden administration considering making high-quality masks more widely availableFour reasons you’re seeing empty grocery store shelves Britain’s Boris Johnson apologizes amid national anger over controversial lockdown partyWest Virginia Gov. Jim Justice says he’s ‘extremely unwell’ after testing positive for coronavirusTexas mom charged with child endangerment after police say she drove to coronavirus test site with sick son in the trunk A top Democrat says lawmakers who ignore mask mandate should sit in ‘isolation boxes’ in House chamber New Orleans revives mask mandate ahead of Mardi GrasWhite House brings on new coronavirus testing coordinatorAre fourth vaccine doses needed? It can also be spread through smaller virus-containing particles that remain in the air over longer distances and time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Nearly 23 million eligible children have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine since the most recent group of 5-to-11-year-olds got the green light late last year and started rolling up their sleeves.But many families are anxiously awaiting a pediatric vaccine for the youngest Americans — ages 6 months through 4 years — as the omicron variant surges across the United States.Pediatricians say coronavirus vaccines probably will be important well beyond this wave.Here are some things we know about the vaccine for the youngest children.Federal health officials said Wednesday that the United States has agreed to buy hundreds of millions of doses of a covid-19 treatment developed by drugmaker AstraZeneca.The Biden administration is “in the process of ordering another half-million doses of AstraZeneca as preventive therapy for immunocompromised individuals,” White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said during a task force briefing.“The federal government was instrumental in the research and development of this product,” he added, “and our latest order will also bring us to over 1 million doses available through the end of March.”AstraZeneca officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency-use authorization last month for Evusheld, an antibody cocktail designed to help prevent covid-19 in immunocompromised people. “And as a result, our nation’s medicine cabinet has never been more stocked.”Here’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the globe.The Biden administration is weighing making high-quality masks more widely available, officials said Wednesday, as some experts urge the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend KN95 and N95 masks amid the case surge driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant.Speaking at a news briefing, White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients said the CDC continues to recommend that well-fitting masks be worn in indoor public settings. “That’s why it behooves us right now to take every step we can.”The White House has appointed epidemiologist Tom Inglesby as its new coronavirus testing coordinator, responsible for building on testing capacity in the United States as the omicron variant spreads rapidly through the country.The testing capacity in the United States has already grown to about 300 million a month, up from 50 million in September, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, in announcing Inglesby’s appointment.“We’re going to keep moving at this speed, and faster, to get volume up on a monthly basis,” Inglesby, who is on leave from his post as director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Bloomberg News.The news comes as demand for both PCR and rapid antigen coronavirus tests has intensified, and when many people have found it difficult or impossible to find testing as coronavirus cases surge.“Obviously, it has not been enough, but omicron has put demand on testing all around the world,” Inglesby told Bloomberg about testing availability in the United States.The White House this week promised to provide 10 million free coronavirus tests each month to schools, in an effort to keep in-person schooling open.Global health experts are casting doubt on the strategy of giving people coronavirus vaccine boosters every few months, warning there’s not enough data to support the unsustainable policy — especially given the extreme demand in many parts of the world for first shots.The European Union’s drug regulator is also questioning whether repeated boosters could risk overloading people’s immune systems.While one booster dose is needed to extend vaccine protection over time and additional doses can be part of contingency plans, “repeated vaccinations within short intervals would not represent a sustainable long-term strategy,” the European Medicines Agency’s head of vaccines, Marco Cavaleri, said during a briefing Tuesday.