Mexico’s president admits he briefly fainted due to COVID-19

• By Associated Press
• April 26, 2023

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his doctors had been concerned enough to administer a liter of rehydration fluids Read more

Hawaii reports 858 new COVID-19 cases, 6 more deaths

• By Nina Wu
• April 26, 2023
• 23

The state’s seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases was at 114 a day, down from 133 a day reported on April 19. Read more

China drops coronavirus PCR test rule for inbound travelers

• By Vivian Wang / New York Times
• April 25, 2023

Notices by Chinese embassies overseas said that travelers arriving in China would still need to fill out a health declaration form. Read more

Chinese censorship is quietly rewriting the COVID-19 story

• By Mara Hvistendahl and Benjamin Mueller / New York Times
• April 24, 2023
• 9

China’s censorship campaign has targeted international journals and scientific databases, shaking the foundations of shared scientific knowledge, a New York Times investigation found. Read more

Cities reviving downtowns by converting offices to housing

• By Mae Anderson, Ashraf Khalil and Michael Casey / Associated Press
• April 24, 2023
• 17

Across the country, office-to-housing conversions are being pursued as a potential lifeline for struggling downtown business districts that emptied out during the coronavirus pandemic. Read more

Teen survey results taken during pandemic are out

• By Nina Wu
• April 24, 2023
• 3

Vaping rates among teens appeared to decline in 2021 compared with 2019, according to the latest Youth Risk Behavior Survey — the first to reflect data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more

Child abuse cases in Hawaii rose to 2,114 in 2022 as pandemic unwound

• By Allison Schaefers
• April 24, 2023
• 4

A state program tracked more child abuse cases in Hawaii in 2022 than in the previous two years, which saw cases fall during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more

Health Department supports additional COVID-19 boosters for kupuna

• By Nina Wu
• April 21, 2023
• 13

Those who have not yet been vaccinated with the original, monovalent COVID vaccines can now get the updated bivalent one. Read more

VIDEO: Dr. Scott Miscovich joins ‘Spotlight Hawaii’

• By Ryan Kalei Tsuji and Yunji de Nies / Special to the Star-Advertiser
• April 21, 2023
• 7

Dr. Scott Miscovich of Premier Medical Group Hawaii joined the Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s “Spotlight Hawaii” livestream show today and answered viewer questions. Read more

CDC greenlights second bivalent booster dose for kupuna

• By Nina Wu
• April 20, 2023
• 7

Federal authorities have approved another COVID-19 booster for kupuna ages 65 and older, as well as for those who are immunocompromised. Read more

Hawaii reports 935 new COVID-19 cases, 10 more deaths

• By Nina Wu
• April 19, 2023
• 19

Indiana nurse in mask case avoids jail time with plea deal

• By Associated Press
• April 18, 2023

A southern Indiana nurse facing a criminal charge for allegedly removing a nursing home resident’s oxygen mask hours before his death from COVID-19 will avoid jail time under a plea bargain. Read more

Administration will fund program to keep COVID vaccines free for uninsured

• By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Noah Weiland / New York Times
• April 18, 2023
• 4

Pfizer and Moderna have pledged to offer the shots at no cost to those who lack insurance. Read more

Extra COVID-19 booster now open to some high-risk Americans

• By Associated Press
• April 18, 2023
• 2

U.S. regulators today cleared another booster dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for older Americans and people with weak immune systems. Read more

Nonprofits scramble for help amid dearth of volunteers

• By Thalia Beaty and Glenn Gamboa / Associated Press
• April 17, 2023

Researchers, nonprofit professionals and volunteers offer a variety of explanations for the decline in volunteering, including the COVID-19 pandemic and economic woes. Read more

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., possible presidential candidate, sows vaccine doubts

• By Sheryl Gay Stolberg / New York Times
• April 17, 2023
• 11

Kennedy has blamed childhood vaccines for autism — a discredited theory that has been repudiated by more than a dozen peer-reviewed scientific studies in multiple countries. Read more

Republican report on COVID origins pushes lab leak theory

• By Riley Griffin and Madison Muller /Bloomberg News
• April 17, 2023
• 6

A new report suggests that researchers in the People’s Liberation Army were potentially developing SARS-related coronavirus vaccines in 2019 with the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Read more

Experts monitoring emerging omicron variant with new symptoms

• By Sonya Goins / Mayo Clinic News Network
• April 14, 2023

The World Health Organization is keeping an eye on a new COVID-19 variant — the omicron subvariant XBB.1.16, known as “Arcturus.” Read more