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To deal with the looming omicron surge, Oregon takes several steps, including the addition of three new high-volume vaccination and booster sites to the six currently operating.

Health officials in Southern Oregon are bracing for a surge in COVID-19 cases in a region that tops the list for the number of people who are unvaccinated.

Here’s a quick look at where things stand and what you should be doing as another COVID-19 surge looms.

The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said the costs of delaying implementation of the vaccine rule would be high. Employers have until Feb. 9 to comply with the testing requirement.

A key COVID-19 forecaster is warning that an omicron surge could peak with twice the number of Oregonians hospitalized as during the recent delta surge. Public health officials say getting booster shots to more older adults and other high-risk individuals in the next three weeks is critical to averting disaster — and offered the first details of a stepped up effort to distribute the shots.

A little more than a year after the first COVID-19 vaccines arrived in California, the state is bracing for yet another surge — and piling back on protections.

In wealthy, coastal Marin County, nearly 99% of kids 12 to 17 had at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and San Francisco County is at 95% for the same age group. That’s more than double the rate of those vaccinated in the same age group in rural, northern counties like Lassen, Plumas and Tehama , where fewer than 40% of teenagers are vaccinated.

Researchers at OHSU emphasize importance of booster shots to fight the new variant that is fueling a rise in cases in Europe that could happen here in the coming month.

Delta remains the dominant variant statewide, but Oregon joins a growing list of states reporting cases of omicron. The latest research suggests booster shots may be particularly important.

The White House says the president will veto the bill if it reaches his desk. But GOP lawmakers pushed the measure as the political fight over vaccine mandates deepens.

A campaign to recall Josephine County Commissioners Dan DeYoung and Herman Baertschiger accuses the pair of obstructing efforts to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

Omicron has many more mutations than previous variants of concern, a fact that raises questions about how effective existing vaccines will be against the new form of the coronavirus.