Apple has closed in-store shopping in a swath of New York City stores due to rising COVID-19 cases.
Why it matters: The highly contagious Omicron variant is driving a surge in COVID cases nationwide, with cities like New York and Washington, D.C., leading the latest wave.
The CDC on Monday shortened its recommended isolation time for people who test positive for COVID-19 from 10 days to five days if they're asymptomatic.
The big picture: Industries across the country are strained with employees in quarantine as Omicron cases surge. The new guidance seeks to balance "what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses," per CDC director Rochelle Walensky.
President Biden said during a meeting with the nation's governors and his COVID-19 response team Monday that the administration has not yet done enough to scale up the nation's COVID-19 testing capacity.
Why it matters: As the nation faces a surge in COVID cases driven by the Omicron variant, Biden conceded that the administration's efforts to scale up rapid testing were "clearly not enough."
A COVID vaccine requirement should "seriously" be considered for domestic air travel in the U.S. as a response to the Omicron variant of the virus, NIAID director Anthony Fauci told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Monday.
Israel started a trial of a fourth dose of a coronavirus vaccine Monday, becoming what's believed to be the first country to study an additional booster dose, according to AP.
Driving the news: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett last week ordered the rollout of a fourth dose of the vaccine to certain individuals in response to the threat of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant.
Between 8,000 and 12,000 shipping containers carrying medical supplies to various parts of the U.S. are on a delay of up to 37 days due to ongoing transportation congestion, according to new data from the Health Industry Distributors' Association.
Why it matters: Per their projections, medical supplies arriving at a U.S. port on Christmas Day won't be delivered to hospitals and other care settings until February 2022. That could delay critical supplies at a time when health care is already expected to most need them due to surges from Delta and Omicron.
NIAID director Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he was "dismayed" when followers of former President Donald Trump booed after Trump revealed he got a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot last week.
Between the lines: Trump was more vocal about his support for the vaccines last week, even pushing back against doubts about their efficacy during an interview with conservative media personality Candace Owens.
America's third year of dealing with the pandemic is likely to start as bleak as ever, with a devastating Omicron surge for the first couple of months.
Yes, but: Experts are hopeful that once the wave of cases, hospitalizations and deaths caused by the Omicron variant ebbs, life will finally be able to more closely resemble normal.
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