Coronavirus

Kansas and Missouri announced their first confirmed positive COVID-19 cases on Mar. 7, 2020. A registered respiratory therapist shares her experience caring for patients — some of whom refused proper treatment — in a Kansas hospital.

The city of Shawnee will not enforce future masking, vaccination and social distancing orders from Johnson County.

The federal COVID-19 public health emergency will end in May, and with it some significant policy changes around health insurance and public benefits. Kansas City's health director shares what's changing and what residents should do before then.

Enrollment in Medicaid hit a record high in Missouri in part because states weren’t allowed to kick people off during the coronavirus pandemic — but that changes soon, threatening health insurance for hundreds of thousands of residents. Plus: Across the Midwest, statewide weather monitors that provide critical weather data are threatened by a lack of stable funding.

Insurers, employers, taxpayers and other consumers will all be affected as drugmakers move these products to the commercial market in May. How much you'll pay depends on your health insurance.

The federal government barred states from kicking anyone off Medicaid during the coronavirus pandemic but, when those protections expire this spring, patients will need to renew their coverage. Advocates and health officials worry that eligible people could drop off the rolls.

Thousands of other Missouri families are waiting for benefits called summer Pandemic EBT, a federal program administered by states that provides a one-time deposit of $391 in grocery benefits for each eligible child. Compared to every other surrounding state, Missouri’s delays have been especially unusual.

Paxlovid, an antiviral treatment for people at high risk of severe disease who have mild to moderate cases of COVID-19, is effective against the latest COVID-19 variant. Experts recommend that people at high risk figure out how to access the drug and any effect it may have on their current medications before they contract COVID.

Customers are paying more at the grocery store for a number of items, but one item is seeing a bigger spike than anything else: Eggs. Plus: Kansans with long COVID struggle to find remedies in one of the only states without dedicated treatment centers.

Post-COVID care centers have been popping up across the country as millions of Americans struggle with the aftereffects of the virus. The centers are typically in larger cities and can have months-long wait times.

While unemployment is at a near historic low, many businesses are still struggling to find workers — as many otherwise eligible workers in Missouri are out with short or long-term complications of long COVID.

Former Attorney General Eric Schmitt sued the federal government last year claiming it was colluding with social media companies to suppress misinformation. The lawsuit has become a cause célèbre for some of the country’s most prolific anti-vaccine activists, and now Andrew Bailey is picking up the fight.