As part of the state’s ongoing efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus, Vermont residents can now pilot a new online system for ordering and delivering rapid COVID-19 tests.

The South Carolina State Board of Education announced that it has approved a new science techbook for statewide use as a core instructional resource.

During the pandemic, state and local government agencies accelerated the shift to digital services to keep vital programs and services running. However, according to Adam Thornton, the general manager for NIC Pennsylvania, there is now a new wave of the digital transformation movement.

The Department of Defense (DoD) has launched the DoD University Consortium for Cybersecurity (UC2) to better facilitate communication between the Secretary of Defense and academia, and fulfilling a requirement from the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, DoD announced Jan. 10.

Amid the spike in cases of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill that extends for the next two years the requirement adopted at the beginning of the pandemic that health benefits plans must reimburse health care providers for telehealth and telemedicine services at the same rate as in-person services, with limited exceptions.

Massachusetts has released a new tool to give residents a new way to access their COVID-19 digital vaccine card and vaccination history.

The Senate this week approved legislation sponsored by Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, which would promote stronger cybersecurity coordination between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and state and local governments.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Excelsior Pass and Excelsior Pass Plus are now available to all military veterans who received their COVID-19 vaccines at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital or health care facility located within the state of New York.

The Senate on Jan. 11 voted to approve the nomination of Alan Davidson as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, and head of the agency’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that the state will allocate $1 billion in funding for the ConnectALL initiative, which her office described as “the largest ever investment in New York’s 21st-century infrastructure.”