Novel Coronavirus

In April, Google and Apple launched software that state health authorities can use to build COVID-19 contact tracing apps. But fewer than half of U.S. states have taken advantage, and most people living in those states aren't putting the apps to use.

In the Mountain West, Colorado's Exposure Notifications app has had the most success, with about 20% of the state's population having downloaded it. But fewer than 3% of Wyoming and Nevada residents have downloaded their states' smartphone apps.

Sione Ray Tuineau was 35-years-old and lived in West Valley City. He went by Ray, and was a husband, father, one of eight siblings and — by all accounts — the life of the party.

“He was always full of light. Every time he walked in the room, you knew you were gonna have a good time,” said A.J. Tuineau, his brother.

Ray’s widow Juliet said that sense of fun was part of everything he did — especially parenting.

“He would rap with my kids, he would sing off key with my kids, he would have little dance parties,” she said.

The U.S. hit a horrific milestone this week: More than 3,000 COVID-19 fatalities in just one day. But rising deaths do not necessarily translate into rising concern.

Marnie Miller Blevins was 49-years-old and a long-time nurse in Garfield County. Friends and family remember her for always joking around with those she loved.

DeAnn Brown first met Blevins through their jobs at Garfield Memorial Hospital in Panguitch, and they grew to be good friends.

“People really enjoyed her because she could just kind of get away with saying things to people that nobody else would probably dare say,” Brown, who is a nurse administrator at the hospital, said. “She had a real fun personality, and people really enjoyed her.”

Kolina Koltai first heard about the coronavirus back in January, but not from newspapers or TV. Instead, she read about it in anti-vaccination groups on Facebook.

"They were posting stories from China like, 'Hey, here's this mysterious illness,' or 'Here's this something that seems to be spreading,'" she said.

Note: This story was updated at 12:45 p.m. ET Monday, Jan. 11, and will be updated periodically, as new data are released.

The federal government on Monday released an updated set of detailed hospital-level data showing the toll COVID-19 is taking on health care facilities, including how many inpatient and ICU beds are available on a weekly basis.

Jayme Henderson says her college's decision to cancel fall graduation over coronavirus concerns felt like "a slap in the face."

Henderson, a graduating senior at the University of Missouri in Columbia, remembers thinking about the campus activities that hadn't been cancelled: Football was still on, with fans still able to attend games in-person, and there were even some in-person classes. To make matters worse, the email cancelling fall commencement arrived the same day as another email detailing parking restrictions for big game day crowds.

Updated at 6:20 a.m.

Nearly 85% of California residents are now under sweeping new restrictions as the state's struggles to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control. The new restrictions come as coronavirus cases continue to surge and while the state's intensive care capacity has neared dangerously low levels.

Updated Thursday at 11:20 a.m. ET

More than 100,000 Americans are in the hospital with COVID-19, at the same time the nation recorded its worst daily death toll since the start of the pandemic.

Data from the COVID Tracking Project show 100,226 people were hospitalized on Wednesday with the disease caused by the coronavirus — a figure that has been steadily rising for weeks.

Despite a drop in confirmed COVID-19 cases across the Mountain West last week, public health officials are warning folks not to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Here [in Utah] a lot of the facilities that were doing testing were closed completely on Thanksgiving," said Utah Department of Health spokesperson Charla Haley. "I think that had a big impact on the smaller numbers of people testing positive as well as people just being tested in general."

Updated 5:48 p.m. ET

A federal advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted Tuesday to recommend who should get COVID-19 vaccines first once one is authorized for use.