COVID-19

MONTEREY COUNTY — Monterey County’s state-supported Covid-19 testing sites located in Seaside, Salinas and Soledad are expanding hours in response to an increase in demand for testing. The community testing sites will be adding additional days and appointment times as a result, announced Monterey County...

California will once again require residents to wear masks in indoor public settings everywhere in the state, amid uncertainty surrounding the rapid spread of the omicron coronavirus variant and rising case rates as the holidays approach. The mandate will go into effect Wednesday and will...

As soon as the first U.S. case of the omicron variant of the coronavirus was reported in San Francisco, California officials began sounding the same message: Don’t panic. “We are not surprised by this. This was predictable. This was predicted,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Tuesday moved up by two weeks, to April 19, his deadline for states to make every American adult eligible for coronavirus vaccination, following the lead of states around the country that are already meeting that timetable. Biden’s announcement came...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Frontline Workers Counseling Project (FWCP), a San Francisco-based nonprofit that pairs frontline and essential workers with private-practice therapists for pro bono counseling services, is expanding its service area to Monterey County. FWCP, formerly called the Covid-19 Pro Bono Counseling Project, was created...

MONTEREY COUNTY — After several weeks of discussion, Monterey County Board of Supervisors has approved a countywide indoor face covering ordinance that could begin in late October if certain criteria are met. Last week the Board delayed final approval of its mask mandate until Tuesday...

UNITED STATES — The average number of vaccine doses being administered across the United States per day topped 2 million for the first time Wednesday, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A month ago, the average was about 1.3...

The surge in unemployment filings in March 2020 provided one of the first clear warnings of the havoc the pandemic was wreaking on the U.S. economy. One year later, that klaxon is still blaring. More than 746,000 people filed first-time applications for state unemployment benefits last...

MONTEREY COUNTY — Monterey County is making good on its commitment to invest up to $1 million to secure more Covid-19 rapid tests for the community, with the first direct purchases from this effort arriving last week. About 750 test kits were delivered last Wednesday,...

GREENFIELD — Community members who registered for a Covid-19 vaccine at McDonald’s in Greenfield recently were able to get a free Big Mac. The two-day event was held Aug. 6 and 7 in partnership between McDonald’s and Virus Integrated Distribution of Aid (VIDA) Monterey County,...