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Registered nurse Scott McGieson wears an N95 mask as he walks out of a patient's room in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022, in Seattle. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is deploying 100 members of the state National Guard to hospitals across the state amid staff shortages due to an omicron-fueled spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Inslee announced Thursday that teams will be deployed to assist four overcrowded emergency departments at hospitals in Everett, Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane, and that testing teams will be based at hospitals in Olympia, Richland, Seattle and Tacoma.

CDC encourages more Americans to consider N95 masks

Registered nurse Scott McGieson wears an N95 mask as he walks out of a patient's room in the acute care unit of Harborview Medical Center, Friday, Jan. 14, 2022, in Seattle. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is deploying 100 members of the state National Guard to hospitals across the state amid staff shortages due to an omicron-fueled spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Inslee announced Thursday that teams will be deployed to assist four overcrowded emergency departments at hospitals in Everett, Yakima, Wenatchee and Spokane, and that testing teams will be based at hospitals in Olympia, Richland, Seattle and Tacoma.

January 14, 2022, 2:59pm Health

U.S. health officials on Friday encouraged more Americans to wear the kind of N95 or KN95 masks used by health-care workers to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Read story

President Joe Biden speaks about the government's COVID-19 response, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.

Federal testing website launches next week; 4 tests per home

President Joe Biden speaks about the government's COVID-19 response, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House Campus in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.

January 14, 2022, 1:49pm Health

The federal website where Americans can request free COVID-19 tests will begin accepting orders on Wednesday as the White House looks to address nationwide shortages, but supplies will be limited to just four free tests per home. Read story

FILE - Nurse manager Edgar Ramirez checks on IV fluids while talking to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dec. 13, 2021. More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to the highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. (AP Photo/Jae C.

A shift away from daily COVID case counts has begun

FILE - Nurse manager Edgar Ramirez checks on IV fluids while talking to a COVID-19 patient at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Los Angeles, Dec. 13, 2021. More than a year after the vaccine was rolled out, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to the highest level on record at over 265,000 per day on average, a surge driven largely by the highly contagious omicron variant. (AP Photo/Jae C.

January 14, 2022, 9:08am Health Free

The most familiar indicator of COVID-19’s inexorable nationwide spread — daily state and local case counts — may be on the way out. Read story

FILE - In this May 8, 2020, file photo, respiratory therapist Neeru Kaur, right, and other medical staff work on a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center, which is part of Seattle-area health care system UW Medicine, in Seattle. The number of deaths in Washington because of the coronavirus has reached 1,000, the Washington State Department of Health reported Saturday, May 16, 2020. The agency added eight more deaths and listed the total number of confirmed cases at 18,288.

Washington hospital workers filed record number of workplace safety complaints in 2021, unions say

FILE - In this May 8, 2020, file photo, respiratory therapist Neeru Kaur, right, and other medical staff work on a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center, which is part of Seattle-area health care system UW Medicine, in Seattle. The number of deaths in Washington because of the coronavirus has reached 1,000, the Washington State Department of Health reported Saturday, May 16, 2020. The agency added eight more deaths and listed the total number of confirmed cases at 18,288.

January 14, 2022, 7:33am Health

Washington hospital workers filed a record number of workplace safety complaints last year, the state’s health care unions reported Thursday — another reminder of the exhaustion and burnout nurses, technicians, therapists, aides and other health care staff have struggled with during the pandemic. Read story

Members of the Washington National Guard toss a bag of potatoes as they load a waiting car, Thursday, May 14, 2020, during the free distribution of 200,000 pounds of potatoes provided by the Washington State Potato Commission in Tacoma, Wash. Most of the potatoes were donated by farmers across the state who have not been able to sell to their regular restaurant customers due to the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Ted S.

Inslee deploys National Guard to assist hospitals, testing

Members of the Washington National Guard toss a bag of potatoes as they load a waiting car, Thursday, May 14, 2020, during the free distribution of 200,000 pounds of potatoes provided by the Washington State Potato Commission in Tacoma, Wash. Most of the potatoes were donated by farmers across the state who have not been able to sell to their regular restaurant customers due to the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Ted S.

January 13, 2022, 3:05pm Health Free

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is deploying 100 members of the state National Guard to hospitals across the state to set up testing sites and to assist in non-medical tasks amid staff shortages due to an omicron-fueled spike in COVID-19 hospitalizations. Read story

Josef Triman, a senior defensive back at Pacific Lutheran, waits in line to take a three-times-a-week COVID-19 test Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, in Tacoma, Wash. Like the big programs that played in the fall, testing, distancing and protective equipment have topped the priority list in trying to pull off a season. (AP Photo/Ted S.

Washington logs 1 million coronavirus cases

Josef Triman, a senior defensive back at Pacific Lutheran, waits in line to take a three-times-a-week COVID-19 test Monday, Feb. 1, 2021, in Tacoma, Wash. Like the big programs that played in the fall, testing, distancing and protective equipment have topped the priority list in trying to pull off a season. (AP Photo/Ted S.

January 13, 2022, 7:30am Health Free

The number of coronavirus cases in Washington state has surpassed 1 million, with a new surge in cases largely driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant. Read story

FILE - Teachers protest for stronger COVID-19 safety protocols outside Oakland Unified School District headquarters on Jan. 7, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Officials across the U.S. are again weighing how and whether to impose mask mandates as COVID-19 infections soar and the American public grows weary of pandemic-related restrictions. Much of the debate centers around the nation's schools, some of which closed due to infection-related staffing issues.

Soaring COVID-19 cases renew U.S. debate over mask mandates

FILE - Teachers protest for stronger COVID-19 safety protocols outside Oakland Unified School District headquarters on Jan. 7, 2022, in Oakland, Calif. Officials across the U.S. are again weighing how and whether to impose mask mandates as COVID-19 infections soar and the American public grows weary of pandemic-related restrictions. Much of the debate centers around the nation's schools, some of which closed due to infection-related staffing issues.

January 12, 2022, 12:33pm Health

Officials across the U.S. are again weighing how and whether to impose mask mandates as COVID-19 infections soar and the American public grows ever wearier of pandemic-related restrictions. Read story

FILE - Elsa Estrada, 6, smiles at her mother as pharmacist Sylvia Uong applies an alcohol swab to her arm before administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a pediatric vaccine clinic for children ages 5 to 11 set up at Willard Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif., Nov. 9, 2021. As of Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, just over 17% of children in the U.S. ages 5 to 11 were fully vaccinated, more than two months after shots for them became available. (AP Photo/Jae C.

Kids’ low COVID-19 vaccination rates called a ‘gut punch’

FILE - Elsa Estrada, 6, smiles at her mother as pharmacist Sylvia Uong applies an alcohol swab to her arm before administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a pediatric vaccine clinic for children ages 5 to 11 set up at Willard Intermediate School in Santa Ana, Calif., Nov. 9, 2021. As of Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, just over 17% of children in the U.S. ages 5 to 11 were fully vaccinated, more than two months after shots for them became available. (AP Photo/Jae C.

January 12, 2022, 9:50am Health

Distrust, misinformation and delays because of the holidays and bad weather have combined to produce what authorities say are alarmingly low COVID-19 vaccination rates in U.S. children ages 5 to 11. Read story

FILE - People line up and receive test kits to detect COVID-19 as they are distributed in New York on Dec. 23, 2021. The COVID-19 surge caused by the omicron variant means once-reliable indicators of the pandemic's progress are much less so, complicating how the media is able to tell the story.

Omicron wave prompts media to rethink which data to report

FILE - People line up and receive test kits to detect COVID-19 as they are distributed in New York on Dec. 23, 2021. The COVID-19 surge caused by the omicron variant means once-reliable indicators of the pandemic's progress are much less so, complicating how the media is able to tell the story.

January 12, 2022, 8:38am Health

For two years, coronavirus case counts and hospitalizations have been widely used barometers of the pandemic’s march across the world. Read story

A woman wearing a winter coat gets tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing site in New York, Jan. 11, 2022. Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19?s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.

Omicron may be headed for a rapid drop in Britain, U.S.

A woman wearing a winter coat gets tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing site in New York, Jan. 11, 2022. Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19?s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically.

January 12, 2022, 8:19am Health Free

Scientists are seeing signals that COVID-19′s alarming omicron wave may have peaked in Britain and is about to do the same in the U.S., at which point cases may start dropping off dramatically. Read story