Were senators Reunited on Friday to debate President Joe Biden’s $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 stimulus package After adding hours to the process, a Republican asked that each word of the 628-page bill be read aloud. The Senate’s 20-hour debate on the bill could last until Sunday, and a final vote may not take place until early next week.
Vice President Kamala Harris, as President of the Senate, pushed the bill forward when she broke a 50:50 tie to start the debate, however Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., made the rare request for a reading, stalled debate.
In the meantime, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was again criticized according to reports from the New York New York Times and Wall Street Journal as detailed as its administration successfully pressurized The New York City Health Department brushes the full number of COVID-19 deaths attributed to nursing homes from a state report released last July.
According to the report, more than 6,200 nursing home residents had died instead of nearly 10,000 who lived in the homes and died either there or in a hospital.
Also in the news:
►Attitudes rebounded strongly in February After a two-month slump in which employers had created 379,000 jobs, the Ministry of Labor announced on Friday. Falling COVID-19 cases and easing business restrictions made up for harsh winter weather across much of the country.
►The variant of the coronavirus, which first appeared in the UK, has now been discovered in almost the entire country, CDC data showed on Thursday. Only the states of Montana, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Vermont did not report any cases.
►A new variant of the coronavirus is being studied in the UK. Health officials said. At least 16 cases have been identified since February 15. The variant is believed to originate from the UK the BBC reported that it shares a mutation with the variants in South Africa and Brazil.
►More than 49.7 million Americans had received at least one dose of vaccine, according to a US TODAY analysis of the Centers for Disease Control data on the last day of February.
►Road deaths in the United States increased For the first time in four years in 2020, when coronavirus-induced lockdowns opened roads and led to more reckless driving, according to a report from the nonprofit National Security Council.
►Arizona’s Gila County anyone over the age of 18 can get a COVID-19 vaccine, making it one of the first areas in the country to vaccinate the general population.
📈 Today’s numbers: The US has more than 28.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 520,200 deaths. according to the Johns Hopkins University. The global total: more than 115.5 million cases and 2.56 million deaths. In the United States, more than 109.9 million vaccine doses have been distributed and approximately 82.57 million administered. according to CDC.
📘 What we read: President Joe Biden said this week that there will be enough COVID-19 vaccine for every adult in the US by May, almost two months ahead of what his administration predicted last month. Some health professionals wouldn’t be surprised if it was even sooner. Read the full story.
USA TODAY is tracking COVID-19 news. Please keep updating this page for the latest updates. Want more? Sign up for our Coronavirus Watch newsletter for updates in your inbox and Join our Facebook group.
CDC Study: Mask Mandates Associated with Falling Cases and Deaths; Reopening of food related increases
A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday found further evidence of the effectiveness of mask mandates while cases and death rates increased after reopening food.
According to the CDC’s weekly report on morbidity and mortality:
- Mandate masks have been linked to a decline in daily COVID-19 case and death growth rates within 20 days of the order taking effect.
- Reopening restaurants for inside or outside dining was associated with an increase in daily growth rates within 41-100 days of a ban being lifted and an increase in daily growth rates for deaths between 61-100 days after implementation.
“Mask mandates are very effective – and if we terminate them early for political reasons – people suffer and lose their lives,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, emergency physician at Lenox Hill Hospital.
The study examined county-level data on mask and restaurant orders and found that from March to December 2020, 73.6% of 3,142 U.S. states had mask mandates, while 97.9% of U.S. states had restaurants reopening on-site restaurants allowed period.
While Americans are being vaccinated, fewer are being tested for COVID-19
Public health experts criticized states like Texas and Mississippi for ditching mask mandates at a critical time in the country’s pandemic this week. But they also warn of another threat to highly competitive profits in recent weeks – The number of Americans being tested for coronavirus has dropped significantly since January.
While the slowdown in testing may have been due to fewer infections, it could also indicate that too many Americans are becoming complacent in the second year of the COVID-19 march, with millions being vaccinated every week.
In January, labs and other test sites were running an average of nearly 1.9 million tests a day when cases hit record highs. According to the COVID Tracking Project, the average daily tests dropped to 1.5 million in February and 1.3 million in March.
Mary K. Hayden, a professor of internal medicine and pathology at Rush Medical College in Chicago, said the nation’s testing never reached a level that health officials deemed “appropriate or optimal” to control the virus. “We never quite got there,” said Hayden, a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. “And now we’re falling.”
– Ken Alltucker
9 great apes receive COVID-19 vaccinations at the San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo vaccinated nine great apes against the coronavirus after a troop of gorillas became infected in its safari park, officials said Thursday.
Four orangutans and five bonobos received COVID-19 injections in January and February. Three bonobos and one gorilla were also expected to receive the experimental vaccine.
The vaccinations followed an outbreak of COVID-19 in the zoo’s Safari Park in January. Eight western lowland gorillas received the virus, likely through contact with a zookeeper who tested positive for COVID-19, officials said in January, although staff around the gorillas are working masks at all times.
The Cuomo administration reformulated a report on nursing homes to hide the COVID-19 death toll: reports
The Cuomo Administration Report on COVID-19 Deaths Nursing homes came under renewed criticism late Thursday after it was revealed that the total death toll was removed from a state report in July last year.
The report released by the Ministry of Health last summer was long criticized for ignoring the number of deaths in nursing homes in hospitals, resulting in a drastic undercount.
Now the reason is clearer: the Cuomo government has pressured the health department not to include in the report the full number of deaths attributed to nursing homes The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Instead, the report stated that more than 6,200 nursing home residents had died, rather than nearly 10,000 residents of the homes at the time, dying either there or in a hospital.
The lower number allowed Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo to announce more positively the state’s response to the pandemic that killed more than 48,000 New Yorkers. In October, he wrote a book to improve his image by reducing the state’s deaths and cases through government action.
– Joseph Spector, USA TODAY network in New York
Biden fought as a mask candidate. Now he is standing in front of the borders of the bully’s pulpit.
Joe Biden ran as a mask candidate for the White HouseCriticizing then-President Donald Trump’s rejection of masks, he promised to tighten masks and model good behavior by wearing at least one – and sometimes two – masks himself.
As president, however, Biden reaches the limits of the bullying pulpit, as the wearing of masks remains politically polarized. After the Texas and Mississippi governors moved Tuesday to lift mask mandates, an angry and frustrated Biden said Wednesday that such decisions stem from “Neanderthal thinking.”
“It shouldn’t be political at all, but it seems like it,” said Rep. Charlie Crist, a former GOP governor of Florida who is now a Democrat and who criticizes the lack of a mask requirement in his state. “What President Biden is doing is exactly what he has to do: ask them to.”
– Maureen Bullhead
Texans who lost loved ones to COVID were injured by the state’s decision to lift the mask mandate
Greg Abbott’s statement Tuesday that it was time to open Texas was rejected by local officials and health experts who say it is too early to let go of coronavirus restrictions. Only 7% of the state’s residents have been fully vaccinated against the virus.
But the announcement hit Delia Ramos and others who have lost spouses, parents, or friends to the virus harder – in some cases, wondering if the death of their loved ones meant nothing.
It feels like people who think it’s “impractical to wear a mask,” all of “people who have been lost to the virus,” as well as doctors and nurses who work long hours and teachers who Afraid to go to work, override for fear of exposure. Ramos, 39, said.
She will continue to wear her mask “with honor”.
“I don’t want other children to grow up without a father, like mine, unfortunately, have to grow up without one,” she said. Read the full story.
– Shannon Najmabadi, Corpus Christi Caller-Times
Wealthy white Florida residents receive vaccines for rural minorities
In Palm Beach County, Florida, where former President Donald Trump lives today, people in affluent white areas are receiving a significant portion of COVID-19 vaccines, which are intended for rural black and Latin American communities.
STAT News reports Although Hispanics make up 21.7% of the county’s population and Blacks make up 18% of the population, as of March 1, they had received only 4.7% and 4.1% of the vaccines, respectively. Together, the two races or ethnic groups make up nearly 40% of the county’s population and had received less than 9% of the doses.
And it’s not just those in the county who take part in vaccination campaigns for poorer neighborhoods. STAT reports that people drove to these events from more than 100 miles away.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and state health officials have been investigated on allegations of preferring wealthy residents for vaccinations. DeSantis has denied any favor.
Contributor: The Associated Press
