Tag: pandemic

After hiding with maskless Republicans, Rep. Jayapal feared she would catch the coronavirus. Now she’s tested positive.

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After a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, forcing Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) to take shelter in a crowded committee room, she began preparing for the worst.

Many of the GOP members of Congress hiding out with her were not wearing masks, she said, and had refused to accept them from a colleague. So, soon after Congress affirmed President-elect Joe Biden’s electoral victory later that night, she began to quarantine, fearing she could have contracted the coronavirus.

Her prediction turned to be right. Late Monday night, Jayapal announced that she had tested positive, making her the second Democratic representative to do so this week, after New Jersey Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. Continue reading.

Trump administration makes sweeping changes to speed up pace of COVID-19 vaccinations

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The Trump administration will no longer hold back the second dose of a coronavirus vaccine as part of a host of changes intended to speed up the pace of inoculations and make more vaccines available to the public.

The sweeping changes are a major departure from current administration policy, and align with a plan unveiled by President-elect Joe Biden to release nearly every available vaccine dose.

The Trump administration has been holding back half of the available doses to ensure there is enough supply for everyone who is getting a first dose to later get a second dose as well. Continue reading.

Minnesota reports first cases of coronavirus variant

Strain detected in specimens from five residents in Twin Cities metro area. 

Minnesota reported Saturday its first cases of a new variant of the pandemic coronavirus, a strain that has stoked worldwide concern for apparently spreading more quickly than others.

First detected last year in the United Kingdom, the variant was identified in specimens from five residents of four Twin Cities metro area counties, according to an announcement by the Minnesota Department of Health.

The variant strain is not thought to be more virulent than those that have been widely circulating in Minnesota, Kris Ehresmann, the state’s director of infectious diseases, said in a statement. But Ehresmann said the prospect of a more contagious variant underscores the importance of slowing the spread by wearing masks, maintaining social distance and quarantining if exposed to a positive case. Continue reading.

U.S. surpasses 300,000 daily coronavirus cases, the second alarming record this week

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NOTE: This post provided free of charge by The Washington Post.

The United States on Friday surpassed 300,000 daily coronavirus cases, the second alarming record this week. The number, which roughly equates to the population of St. Louis, Pittsburgh or Cincinnati, comes about two months after the country reported 100,000 coronavirus cases a day for the first time, and one day after more than 4,000 people died from the virus, also a record.

The United States has reported 21.8 million infections and 367,458 deaths. View the post here.

Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 8, 2021

Governor Walz, Lieutenant Governor Flanagan Statements on Attempted Insurrection at United States Capitol

On Wednesday, Governor Walz and Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan released statements responding to the attempted insurrection at the United States Capitol.

“I see the events unfolding in our nation’s capital today not just as a Governor, but as a former high school history teacher. The last time our nation’s capital was under siege was more than 200 years ago when our country was at war with the British,” said Governor Walz.

“Today, it wasn’t a foreign nation that seized the capitol building and attempted an insurrection. It was citizens of our own country, incited by our president and enabled by many political leaders, who made a direct assault on our democracy.”

Continue reading “Gov. Walz and Lt. Gov. Flanagan Update: January 8, 2021”

U.S. sets covid-19 death record as researchers point to asymptomatic cases as a major source of infections

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As the United States marked another grim milestone Thursday with more than 4,000 covid-19 deaths reported in a single day, federal disease trackers said research suggests that people without symptoms transmit more than half of all cases of the novel coronavirus.

The findings, which came from a model developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, demonstrate the importance of following the agency’s guidelines about wearing a mask and maintaining social distance, officials said. The emergence of a more contagious variant of the virus, first detected in the United Kingdom and discovered in eight U.S. states by Thursday, places the federal agency’s conclusion about how the virus is spreading in even starker relief.

“Those findings are now in bold, italics and underlined,” said Jay C. Butler, the CDC deputy director for infectious diseases and a co-author of the study published in the journal JAMA Network Open. Continue reading.

U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn

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It’s not too late to curb the contagious variant’s spread in the U.S., experts say — but only with a national program for genetic sequencing.

With no robust system to identify genetic variations of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track a dangerous new mutant, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat.

The variant, which is now surging in Britain and burdening its hospitals with new cases, is rare for now in the United States. But it has the potential to explode in the next few weeks, putting new pressures on American hospitals, some of which are already near the breaking point.

The United States has no large-scale, nationwide system for checking coronavirus genomes for new mutations, including the ones carried by the new variant. About 1.4 million people test positive for the virus each week, but researchers are only doing genome sequencing — a method that can definitively spot the new variant — on fewer than 3,000 of those weekly samples. And that work is done by a patchwork of academic, state and commercial laboratories. Continue reading.

Operation Warp Speed leader to stay on during Biden administration

Moncef Slaoui had told POLITICO in November that he was planning to step down by early this year.

Operation Warp Speed chief scientific adviser Moncef Slaoui said he plans to continue working on the government’s vaccine accelerator during the Biden administration, reversing earlier plans to step down soon.

Slaoui said the Biden team asked him to remain on as a consultant and he accepted. However, Slaoui didn’t say how long he would stay and indicated that his role could shrink in the coming weeks.

“I have decided to extend that in order to ensure that the operation continues to perform the way it has performed through the transition of administration,” Slaoui said during an Operation Warp Speed press briefing Wednesday. Continue reading.

Walz to loosen restrictions on indoor dining, other venues

Restaurants, bars, other venues can reopen with limited seating capacity starting Monday. 

Gov. Tim Walz announced the limited reopening of bars, restaurants and other venues on Wednesday, which have been closed for in-person services since late November to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Also among the adjustments, youth and adult organized sports will be able to resume games on Jan. 14 with spectators, but must follow capacity limits for indoor or outdoor venues.

Starting Monday, bars and restaurants can reopen for in-person dining at 50% capacity and with a 10 p.m. curfew, according to a release from the governor’s office. Movie theaters, bowling alleys and museums can also reopen at 25% capacity. All venues must limit the total number of people inside to no more than 150, and masks are required. Continue reading.

The Trump administration approved faster line speeds at chicken plants. Those facilities are more likely to have covid-19 cases.

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The Trump administration allowed 15 poultry plants to increase slaughter line speeds during the pandemic, an action that boosts production and makes it more difficult for workers to maintain space between one another. It also appears to have hastened the spread of the coronavirus.

Now the outgoing administration is rushing to finalize a rule that would make the faster line speeds permanent and expand them to dozens of other poultry plants — a move at odds with views held by President-elect Joe Biden.

“Whether it’s cattle, whether it’s beef, whether it’s pigs, whether it’s chicken, they’re moving down that line faster and faster and faster to increase the profit rate,” Biden said last year. “People are getting sicker. . . . People are getting hurt. The very thing we should be doing now is making sure these people are protected, that they have space six feet apart, that they have shields around them. Slow the process up.” Continue reading.