USA TODAY follows news about COVID-19 as a pair of vaccines join the US fight against a virus that has killed more than 375,000 Americans since the first reported death in February. Continue to refresh this page for the latest updates regarding the coronavirus, including who receives vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, as well as other news from the USA TODAY Network. Subscribe to our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates directly to your inbox, join our facebook group or scroll through our detailed answers to reader questions for everything you need to know about the coronavirus.
In the headlines:
►The celebration took place in Tuscaloosa after Alabama’s national football championship won on Monday night, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of the celebrants screaming and clapping as they huddled together on the streets were not wearing masks. The scene was exactly what officials feared ahead of the game as they urged people to watch in their homes and celebrate in private, the Associated Press said.
►The US government is asking states to speed up COVID-19 vaccination for people over 65 and others at risk instead of withholding vaccines for a second dose.
► Disneyland Resort in Anaheim will soon be transformed into a mass coronavirus vaccination site for residents of Southern California, Orange County officials said Monday.
►1 million healthcare workers, residents and nursing home workers in California will receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the week, Governor Gavin Newsom promised Monday. The state is grappling with a surge that is overwhelming hospitals and forcing them to ration care and beds, leading to the latest grim marker of 30,000 deaths.
► Several gorillas at San Diego Zoo Safari Park have tested positive for the coronavirus in what are believed to be the first cases among these captive primates. Park executive director Lisa Peterson said on Monday that eight gorillas who live together in the park are believed to be carriers of the virus and several are coughing.
► Indiana is the latest state to report its first case of a more contagious variant of COVID-19 first identified in the UK, bringing the total of states that have identified the strain to 10.
📈 Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 22.6 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and 376,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: over 90 million cases and 1.9 million deaths.
📘 What we read:
Trump administration calls on states to speed up vaccinations
The Trump administration is expected to issue new guidelines on Tuesday to speed up vaccine deployment to people over 65 and others at risk instead of withholding vaccines for a second dose. Federal officials withheld enough doses of the vaccine to ensure booster shots for everyone who received the first dose.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said it was now time to move on “to the next phase of the immunization program” and expand the pool of people eligible to receive the first dose. It also means increasing the number of places where people can be vaccinated by adding additional community health centers and pharmacies.
“We now believe our manufacturing is predictable enough that we can make sure second doses are available to people in current production,” Azar told “Good Morning America” on ABC on Tuesday. “So everything is now available for our states and our health care providers. ” Learn more here.
More lawmakers test positive for coronavirus after riot on Capitol Hill
Several lawmakers said they tested positive for the coronavirus after the Capitol riot. Representative Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., Said on January 12 that she tested positive for COVID-19 after taking refuge in a secure room with other lawmakers on January 6.
“I just received a positive COVID-19 test result after being locked in a secure room on the Capitol where several Republicans not only cruelly refused to wear a mask, but recklessly made fun of their colleagues and employees who did. offered one, ”Jayapal wrote on Twitter.
On Sunday, the congressional physician said elected officials and their staff were potentially exposed to someone infected with COVID-19 as the U.S. Capitol was locked down during an armed incursion by pro-Trump rioters. Several representatives announced that they had tested positive.
Hospitals face increase in COVID-19, staff shortage and increase in deaths
In the past week, a record 22,676 people have died from COVID-19, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University. More Americans die every day than the 2,977 victims of September 11, 2001.
Four states with the largest share of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients – California, Arizona, Nevada and Georgia – are struggling to keep pace with the unprecedented surge.
In Los Angeles, public hospitals are preparing to go into crisis mode and the county has ordered ambulances not to send patients to overcrowded hospitals if they cannot be resuscitated in the field. More than two dozen hospitals in Georgia do not have beds available in intensive care units, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.
While public health officials are optimistic widespread immunization will provide a silver lining this spring, there is no respite now for doctors and nurses in overcrowded emergency rooms and care units intensive.
– Ken Alltucker
Go big: US distributes blows at stadiums and fairs
The United States enters the second month of the largest vaccination campaign in history with a major campaign expansion, opening football stadiums, major league ball parks, fairs and convention centers for immunize a larger and more diverse pool of people.
After an extremely slow rollout mainly involving healthcare workers and nursing home residents, states are moving to the next phase before the first is complete, making the COVID-19 outlets available to groups such as the elderly people, teachers, bus drivers, police officers. and firefighters.
Across the United States, where the epidemic has entered its deadliest phase to date and the death toll has climbed to around 375,000, politicians and health officials have complained in the past few days that too of shots were unused on the shelves due to too stiff a grip. to federal guidelines that put approximately 24 million healthcare workers and nursing home residents on the front line.
Disneyland Resort in Anaheim will be one of the sites capable of vaccinating thousands of southern California residents, Orange County officials said Monday.
More than 75% of patients still had symptoms 6 months later, study finds
A Chinese study, published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet on Friday, found that more than 75% of patients with COVID-19 reported symptoms six months after being discharged from hospital.
In what the British newspaper said was the largest study to date on ‘long-haul COVID-19’, researchers examined 1,733 patients at Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus was born last year.
Over 60% of patients reported fatigue and muscle weakness, about 25% sleep disturbance and hair loss, and 23% anxiety and depression.
Contribuer: The Associated Press