coronavirus vaccine

The unprecedented infectiousness of XBB.1.5 prompted renewed calls for public caution Friday from New York City health officials, who announced the latest omicron descendant, widely believed to be behind the latest case wave, now accounts for nearly three-quarters of all coronavirus circulating across the five boroughs. Calling the new strain “the most transmissible COVID variant we know of to date,”…

COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York and New Jersey have soared to 11-month highs as the most transmissible variant yet, a combination of two prior omicron strains, fuels yet another infection wave nearly three full years into the pandemic, the latest federal health data show. Deaths are also climbing, with weekly fatality reports for both states currently at their highest levels…

The CDC said the new COVID-19 variant is responsible for 75% of new cases.

Novavax’s Covid shots rely on protein technology used in other vaccines for decades, rather than the messenger RNA used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

New York’s governor on Wednesday announced an end to a years-long COVID-19 rule that people had largely stopped heeding, and officials had stopped enforcing, months ago. The MTA mask mandate implemented at the start of the pandemic is over, Gov. Kathy Hochul said. The rule also ends in for-hire vehicles, airports, homeless shelters, correctional facilities and detention centers statewide....

The White House says getting a COVID shot will become a yearly tradition, much like the flu shot. Brian Thompson reports.

If you plan — or think you might need to — get tested for COVID in New York City over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, you better do it before Monday. NYC Health + Hospitals reminded New Yorkers on Friday that all of its COVID-19 testing and vaccination as well as its primary care sites will be closed in…

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to take up a legal challenge New York healthcare workers brought against the state’s vaccine mandate on religious grounds. The high court released its decision on Thursday as the term inched toward its close. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch, all part of the conservative majority, had said the Supreme Court...

An update to the COVID vaccines is needed to fight Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants that are increasing case counts now, says Dr. Uché Blackstock, an MSNBC medical contributor and head of Advancing Health Equity.

Pfizer says tweaking its COVID-19 vaccine to better target the omicron variant is safe and boosts protection.

The new CDC COVID risk map is out. See where New York stands now.

Everyone six months and older is now eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, marking a milestone moment in the pandemic. Adam Harding reports.

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee on Saturday endorsed Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines for young children, the last step before Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky can issue her final signoff.

U.S. health officials have opened COVID-19 vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers — the last group without the shots.

In this week’s episode of The Debrief, NBC New York’s Adam Kuperstein sat down with two researchers and a nurse who want to understand why some people haven’t been infected with the novel coronavirus yet after more than two years into the pandemic. Can they be immune?

The federal government is expected to authorize COVID-19 vaccinations for kids as young as 6 months old this weekend, with the CDC go-ahead vote Saturday the last hurdle to clear before doses can start being administered to babies across the U.S. The final decision will rest with CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, but she is expected to align with her…

And then there was one — or two, if you want to get technical about it.

The FDA authorized the first COVID-19 vaccination for children as young as six months on Friday. A panel of CDC advisors will vote Saturday, meaning shots for infants and preschoolers could be available as early as next week.

The FDA must still decide whether to take the recommendations and approve the COVID-19 vaccine for kids between six months and 5 years old.

Recognized for the expeditious development of a lifesaving shot, scientists Dr. Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman accepted an award in front of dozens of their peers celebrating the duo’s tireless efforts in inventing the mRNA technology behind the COVID-19 vaccine. On Tuesday in Manhattan, in conjunction with the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research and Molecular Medicine, the Ross...