What you need to know about the coronavirus right now Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Reuters Reuters

-- South Korea said on Friday it would extend stricter social distancing rules for two weeks amid a persistent surge in serious coronavirus infections and concerns over the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant.

What you need to know about the coronavirus right now Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now: Reuters Reuters

 -- NYC firefighters union says members should defy vaccine mandate

China to start vaccinating children to age 3 as cases spread TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Children as young as 3 will start receiving COVID-19 vaccines in China, where 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated and authorities are maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward outbreaks. AP NEWS

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Children as young as 3 will start receiving COVID-19 vaccines in China, where 76% of the population has been fully vaccinated and authorities are maintaining a zero-tolerance policy toward outbreaks.

CNS The Soufan Group Morning Brief Sent out each weekday, The CNS Soufan Group Morning Brief offers a roundup of the most important current events stories related to national security.

The World Health Organization is reviving its stalled investigation into the origins of COVID-19 with a new team of about 20 scientists. The team—including specialists in laboratory safety and biosecurity and geneticists and animal-disease experts versed in how viruses spill over from nature—is being assembled with a mandate to find new evidence in China and elsewhere. The possibilities that the new team is charged with examining include whether the COVID-19 virus could have emerged from a lab, according to WHO officials.