COVID-19 cases have begun to rise in local schools as case counts throughout the region have climbed rapidly in the past month. Since the Southeast Missourian's last COVID-19 update on Saturday, total confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases in Cape Girardeau County jumped from 608 to 1,065...

Where to find COVID-19 tests in the Cape Girardeau area? The short answer: It’s not always easy. COVID-19 tests have become increasingly hard to come by because of a national shortage and surge in COVID-19 cases. Several local pharmacies reported a steep demand but short supply. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- So far in January, 62 Missouri school districts have closed for one or more days, largely because of a lack of staff caused by a surge in COVID-19 cases, education officials said Thursday. That number is 12% of districts statewide, said Mallory McGowin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education...

MADRID -- When the coronavirus pandemic was first declared, Spaniards were ordered to stay home for more than three months. For weeks, they were not allowed outside even for exercise. Children were banned from playgrounds, and the economy virtually stopped...

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden launched into his second year in office Thursday with a new focus on making fatigued Americans believe they're better off under his leadership as he embraces a pared-back agenda before the midterm elections. The persistence of the coronavirus, rising inflation and congressional gridlock have exacted a bitter toll on Biden's approval rating and threaten a midterm routing for his party, but the president sees no need for a major shift in direction...

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden ends his first year in the White House with a clear majority of Americans for the first time disapproving of his handling of the presidency in the face of an unrelenting pandemic and roaring inflation, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research...

WASHINGTON — For the first time, people across the U.S. can log on to a government website and order free, at-home COVID-19 tests. But the White House push may do little to ease the omicron surge, and experts say Washington will have to do a lot more to fix the country's long-troubled testing system...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Gov. Mike Parson in his State of the State address Wednesday proposed spending hundreds of millions of dollars to boost child care services and teacher wages as the state battles the latest COVID-19 surge. Parson asked the GOP-led Legislature for $722 million to prop up child care centers and close to $22 million for matching grants to raise teacher salaries...

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden acknowledged Wednesday that the pandemic has left Americans exhausted and demoralized but insisted at a news conference marking his first year in office that he has "outperformed" expectations. He said he would likely have to settle for "big chunks" of his signature economic package to break an impasse in Congress...

LONDON -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson defied calls to resign in a feisty performance Wednesday in Parliament -- but it may be too little to prevent a push by his Conservative Party's lawmakers to oust him over a series of lockdown-flouting government parties...

The fast-moving omicron variant may cause less severe disease on average, but COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are climbing and modelers forecast 50,000 to 300,000 more Americans could die by the time the wave subsides in mid-March. The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. ...

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A task force created to consider how to help Missouri's small businesses recover from the financial strain caused by the COVID-19 pandemic issued several recommendations Monday. The Show Me Strong Recovery Task Force, created by Gov. ...