Free Republic

The governor of New York on Friday declared a state of emergency as COVID transmission reached rates not seen since April 2020, and warned that the troubling new variant of COVID which first emerged in Botswana is 'coming'. Earlier on Friday, the US banned flights from eight Southern African countries to try and prevent the mutant strain, Omicron, from arriving. Kathy Hochul, the governor, said that all non-urgent procedures could be postponed, beginning December 3, if the hospital's capacity falls dangerously low. -snip- She also issued a 'declaration of disaster emergency', noting that COVID transmission is at a level not...

The most-reported symptoms of COVID-19 are now a headache, sore throat, and runny nose, according to the research team behind a U.K. symptom tracking app, and medical experts here in Canada say various factors could be causing the illness to feel more like a common cold.

House Republican legislative leaders say “a return to normalcy might be on the horizon” after reviewing U.S. Western District Judge William Stickman IV’s ruling that found Gov. Tom Wolf’s restrictions imposed to control the spread of COVID-19 to be unconstitutional. In a ruling issued on Monday, the federal judge ruled Gov. Tom Wolf’s and Health Secretary Rachel Levine’s congregate gathering, stay-at-home and business shutdown orders violated the First and Fourteenth amendments. In their reaction, House Speaker Bryan Cutler, R-Lancaster County, and House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff, R-Centre County, cited an excerpt from the judge’s opinion that highlight that a response...