Duke University basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski on Tuesday night questioned whether his sport should be played, as America embarks on what's feared to be a dark winter of coronavirus spread.

“I don’t think it feels right to anybody,”  Krzyzewski said following his team's 83-68 loss to Illinois.  “I mean everyone is concerned.”

Krzyzewski stopped short of calling for a halt to college basketball. But he seemed to hint the sport could stop temporarily, as vaccinations roll out in early 2021.

"You have 2,000 deaths a day,” said Krzyzewski, who leads all active coaches in wins. “You have 200,000 cases, a million and a half last week. You have people saying that the next six weeks are going be the worst. To me, it’s already pretty bad. And on the other side of it, there are these vaccines that are coming out that where people say by the end of the month 20 million vaccine shots will be given, especially to our healthcare (workers) and the other who need it.  By the end of January or in February, another 100 million.  Well, should we not reassess that? And see just what would be best?" 

The NCAA's wildly popular postseason basketball tournament, known as March Madness, was one of the first major cultural casualties of the pandemic earlier this year. The annual competition is usually held in cities across America, but the NCAA announced last month that its 2021 tournament would be played entirely in one region, so to limit travel and lessen the chance of spread.

Texas announced a program to provide Covid-19 rapid tests to the state’s small businesses in an effort to keep them open during the pandemic. 

Governor Greg Abbott announced the program on Monday in partnership with the Texas Department of Emergency Management. The program will provide testing supplies to small businesses who choose to participate in the program, allowing them to administer rapid tests to their employees. 

"This effective strategy will help us detect and mitigate this virus while ensuring that Texas remains safely open for business," Governor Abbott said in a press release. 

The launch will include participation from Chamber of Commerce organizations in Amarillo, Edinburg, El Paso, Laredo and Lubbock with plans to ramp up the program across the state. The program is similar to one designed for the Texas school system that provided access to rapid tests for all teachers in the state, which was implemented in October.

Texas has reported more than 1.3 million cases and more than 23,000 deaths from Covid-19, according to the latest NBC News data. It is just one of three U.S. states that has reported more than one million cases, the data shows. 

LONDON — British regulators warned Wednesday that people who have a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country’s mass vaccination program.

The U.K.’s Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency is looking into whether the reactions were linked to the vaccine. The two people affected were staff members with the National Health Service who had a history of allergies, and both are recovering. Authorities have not specified what their reactions were.

In the meantime, the regulator has issued the warning for anyone who has had a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food. That includes anyone who has been told to carry an adrenaline shot or others who have had potentially fatal allergic reactions.

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LONDON — Now the camera flashes have stopped, an arduous journey begins.

The United Kingdom drew the gaze of the world Tuesday by administering the first clinically approved vaccine to patients. It was a rare moment of optimism in a hellish year.

But for all the morale-boosting symbolism and political tubthumping, this vaccine will make little practical difference to the vast majority of people for months to come.

A procession of mostly elderly patients — one memorably named William Shakespeare — earned rounds of applause and global attention as the first recipients of this groundbreaking medicine. But British doctors and nurses now face an unglamorous slog this winter that will be repeated in countries across the world.

The number of people receiving shots will be low at first — and it will take time to make any dent in a pandemic that's killed more than 62,000 people in the U.K. and more than 1.5 million around the world.

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Santa Claus is just like the rest of us in the pandemic, pivoting to remote, practicing social distancing, and working harder for the same pay.

Men who professionally portray Santa estimate they have seen a 30 to 50 percent drop in income from doing video call visits instead of a traditional mall, retail, or hired event, all while putting in as many hours.

Some say they miss the old magic. “I can’t hold babies, I don't have any children on my knee,” one Santa said.

And, like everyone else, Santas are weighing their choices and risks. One Santa portrayal artist said he turns down multiple requests per week from families contacting him through a gig message board who want a completely “old-fashioned” experience.

“They’re looking for Santa to come to the house for an hour. Five kids and 20 adults, and they want the kids to sit on Santa's knee without a mask,” he said.

“I get where you’re coming from, and feel for you folks,” he said. “But let’s try again next year.”

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More than 150 people were arrested and a juvenile sex trafficking victim was rescued after Los Angeles County authorities shut down a massive underground party.

Deputies broke up the party Saturday night at a vacant home in Palmdale, northeast of Los Angeles.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a news conference on Tuesday that organizers broke into the home and used a rental truck to move their party equipment.

"This is how brazen this operation was," Villanueva said, calling the party a "super-spreader" event that could become a "deadly source of contagion" during the coronavirus pandemic.

"As you can see, this was a flagrant violation of the governor's health order. But also please understand that even without the health order, these actions were criminal in nature," he said.

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The U.S. is facing a new wave of Covid-19 outbreaks straining hospitals, workers, businesses, and schools.

In this, the country is not alone: Wealthy nations across Europe are facing a major surge in new infections too, as is Canada. But unlike their economic peers, elected leaders in the U.S. have left citizens to face the current crisis without any additional financial cushion from their government.

In the United Kingdom, the conservative government led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson has extended relief to workers that had been set to expire — a lifeline for millions contending with new lockdowns across the country. In Germany, officials approved more funding to compensate businesses affected by health restrictions. And in Canada, a new budget plan lays out more aid to businesses in hard-hit sectors to complement ongoing subsidies for workers, including $2,000 a month for those who have lost jobs or income due to the pandemic.

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BOISE, Idaho — Idaho public health officials abruptly ended a meeting Tuesday evening after the Boise mayor and chief of police said intense anti-mask protests outside the health department building — as well as outside some health officials’ homes — were threatening public safety.

The request from Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and the Boise Police Department came just a few minutes after one health board member, Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo, tearfully interrupted the online meeting to say she had to rush home to be with her child because protesters were banging outside her front door.

The board had been expected to vote on a four-county mask mandate in Idaho’s most populated region.

Coronavirus is so widespread in Idaho that hospital officials have repeatedly warned they are becoming overwhelmed and could be forced to implement “crisis standards of care” — where the patients most likely to survive are given access to life-saving treatment because there aren’t enough of the resources to go around — as soon as the end of the year.