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A long-term care facility staff member, Pam Byers LPN, receives the COVID-19 vaccination for Oklahoma nursing home residents and staff at The Lodge at Brookline in Oklahoma City, Okla. on Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. (Chris Landsberger/The Oklahoman via AP)

The Latest: Hawaii says scarcity hinders vaccination efforts

Jan. 19, 2021 9:10 PM EST

HONOLULU — Hawaii’s leaders say limited supply is the main thing constraining distribution of the coronavirus vaccine in the state. Hawaii received 59,000 doses of the vaccine last week, but expects to get only about 32,000 this week. Still, Lt. Gov. Josh Green says the state expects to be able to...

FILE - This Aug. 19, 2015, file photo, shows a monarch butterfly in Vista, Calif. The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted to a new record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. A recent count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000 butterflies, a massive decline from the millions of monarchs that in 1980s clustered in trees from Marin County to San Diego County. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Monarch butterfly population moves closer to extinction

Jan. 19, 2021 3:33 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The number of western monarch butterflies wintering along the California coast has plummeted precipitously to a record low, putting the orange-and-black insects closer to extinction, researchers announced Tuesday. An annual winter count by the Xerces Society recorded fewer than 2,000...

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2021, file photo a pharmacist draws saline while preparing a dose of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in Sacramento, Calif. Mutations to the virus are rapidly popping up and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the more likely it is that a variant that can elude current tests, treatments and vaccines could emerge. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, Pool, File)

A new COVID-19 challenge: Mutations rise along with cases

Jan. 19, 2021 11:55 AM EST

The race against the virus that causes COVID-19 has taken a new turn: Mutations are rapidly popping up, and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the more likely it is that a variant that can elude current tests, treatments and vaccines could emerge. The coronavirus is becoming more genetically diverse, and...

A man holds up a child, both wearing face masks to help curb the spread of the coronavirus, to reach out a tree branches at the Wangfujing shopping district in Beijing, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. A Chinese province grappling with a spike in coronavirus cases is reinstating tight restrictions on weddings, funerals and other family gatherings, threatening violators with criminal charges. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

The Latest: China grapples with virus outbreaks in northeast

Jan. 18, 2021 11:37 PM EST

BEIJING — China is now dealing with coronavirus outbreaks across its frigid northeast, prompting additional lockdowns and travel bans. The country reported a total of 118 newly confirmed cases Tuesday — most of them in Jilin province, the Hebei region just outside Beijing and Heilongjiang province...

President-elect Joe Biden, right, listens as his nominee for the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy and adviser on science Eric Lander speaks during an event at The Queen theater, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021, in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Biden says his advisers will lead with 'science and truth'

Jan. 18, 2021 4:55 PM EST

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — In a dig at the outgoing Trump administration, President-elect Joe Biden introduced his slate of scientific advisers Saturday with the promise that they would summon “science and truth” to combat the coronavirus pandemic, climate crisis and other challenges. ...

A healthcare worker shows a bag of syringes containing the Moderna new coronavirus vaccine immediately before a vaccination at the University Hospital in Essen, Germany, Monday, Jan. 18, 2021. The Corona vaccination campaign in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has been extended to hospital staff. (Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa via AP)

Merkel, governors to meet amid fears over virus variants

Jan. 18, 2021 11:59 AM EST

BERLIN (AP) — Chancellor Angela Merkel is holding a virtual meeting Tuesday with the governors of Germany's 16 states to discuss the country's pandemic measures amid concerns that new mutations of the coronavirus could trigger a fresh surge in cases. Germany's infection rate has stabilized in recent days,...

In this aerial photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, workers build a large centralized quarantine facility capable of holding several thousand people in Shijiazhuang in northern China's Hebei Province, Saturday, Jan. 16, 2021. China on Saturday finished building a 1,500-room hospital for COVID-19 patients in Nangong, south of Beijing in Hebei Province, to fight a surge in infections the government said are harder to contain and that it blamed on infected people or goods from abroad. (Yang Shiyao/Xinhua via AP)

The Latest: China reports a few new cases of COVID-19

Jan. 16, 2021 9:41 PM EST

BEIJING — China on Sunday reported 109 new confirmed COVID-19 cases, two-thirds of them in a northern province that abuts Beijing, and no deaths. There were 72 new cases in Hebei province, where the government is building isolation hospitals with a total of 9,500 rooms to combat an upsurge in infections,...

FILE - In this Sept. 7, 2010, file photo, Eric Steven Lander, head of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, gestures as he delivers a speech during the forum Mexico XXI Century, organized by the Telmex Foundation, in Mexico City. President-elect Joe Biden picked a pioneering geneticist to be his science advisor and elevated the job to his Cabinet. Friday's announcement of Lander won wide praise (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz, File)

Biden picks geneticist as science adviser, puts in Cabinet

Jan. 15, 2021 6:32 PM EST

President-elect Joe Biden announced Friday that he has chosen a pioneer in mapping the human genome — the so-called “book of life” — to be his chief science adviser and is elevating the top science job to a Cabinet position. Biden nominated Eric Lander, founding director of the Broad...

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2020, file photo, workers in protective gear carry a bag containing a giant salamander that was reported to have escaped from the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. A 10-member team of international researchers from the World Health Organization hopes to find clues as to the origin of the coronavirus pandemic in the central Chinese city of Wuhan where the virus was first detected in late 2019. (Chinatopix via AP, File)

EXPLAINER: What WHO researchers in Wuhan are trying to learn

Jan. 14, 2021 9:23 PM EST

WUHAN, China (AP) — The WHO team of international researchers that arrived in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on Thursday hopes to find clues to the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. The visit has been shrouded in secrecy, with neither China nor the WHO revealing exactly what the team will do or where it...

A worker in protective coverings directs members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team on their arrival at the airport in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province on Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. A global team of researchers arrived Thursday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

WHO team arrives in Wuhan to investigate pandemic origins

Jan. 14, 2021 8:47 AM EST

WUHAN, China (AP) — A global team of researchers arrived Thursday in the Chinese city where the coronavirus pandemic was first detected to conduct a politically sensitive investigation into its origins amid uncertainty about whether Beijing might try to prevent embarrassing discoveries. The group sent to...

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