Category Archives: Corona Virus

A skateboarding superstar is among five people Los Angeles prosecutors have charged with organizing parties that were possible superspreader events at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nyjah Huston, a four-time world skateboarding champion, and Edward Essa, the owner of a home in the Fairfax District where authorities say parties have been repeatedly shut down by police since last fall, are among those charged.

After the latest party last month, Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered the L.A. Department of Water and Power to cut off electric service to the home in the 800 block of North Curson Avenue. Huston and Essa are both charged with creating a nuisance, a misdemeanor. Neither could be reached for comment Friday.

Three other people face similar charges in unrelated cases, allegedly involving a secret New Years Eve banquet in downtown L.A. and frequent gatherings behind covered windows at another Fairfax nightspot.

Mike Feuer, the city attorney who acts as L.A.'s top prosecutor, said the coronavirus has dramatically changed the lives of Angelenos, but some have refused to change their behavior.

During this crisis, my office has held those individuals and businesses who have had large indoor gatherings, violating important public health and safety orders, accountable. he said. Those charged, he said, are connected to properties where we allege that large indoor parties were held in violation of public health orders.

It is the latest crackdown on the worst violations of emergency orders that seek to limit the spread of the virus, targeting a party scene driven in part by social media creators who make money by providing entertainment for the maskless mass gatherings.

During the pandemic, this enforcement is particularly important because party houses can produce superspreader events that jeopardize public health. Were taking the steps to shut them down, Feuer added.

Last month, LAPD Capt. Sharon Paulson said officers cleared about 40 people from the Curson Avenue address after receiving a complaint of a gathering at a social media influencer residence. Officers had previously shut down events at the home on Sept. 12-13 and Oct. 17 and issued warnings to the residents that large gatherings violated the mayors public order, officials said.

Huston has gotten into trouble for house parties before. In September 2019, he pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace at a 2017 Los Angeles party. The multiple X Games gold medalist, who has 4.5 million Instagram followers, was originally charged with felony assault. In 2014, he was cited for noise violations after Orange County deputies responding to multiple complaints found 200 to 300 people at his south Orange County home.

Prosecutors allege that Salon Oaxaca in downtown Los Angeles, owned by Hermelinda Nicolas De Ruiz, was the site of a New Years Eve party with about 150 guests, and that dozens have gathered for underground parties at the Hidden River, owned by Brandon Miller, Oshri Elmorich and a company, Royva Inc., in the 300 block of North La Brea Avenue.

Last August, Feuer filed charges against TikTok stars Bryce Hall and Blake Gray and the owners of mega mansions they rented for massive parties.

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Skateboarding superstar charged with hosting COVID-19 superspreader party in L.A. - Los Angeles Times

The global tally for confirmed cases of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 climbed above 109.9 million on Thursday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, while the death toll rose above 2.43 million. The U.S. has the highest case tally in the world at 27.8 million and the highest death toll at 490,550. The U.S. added at least 70,142 new cases on Wednesday, according to a New York Times tracker , and counted at least 2,471 deaths. Case numbers have been declining, however. The U.S. averaged 77,661 new cases a day in the past week, down 43% from the average two weeks ago. Brazil has the second highest death toll at 242,090 and is third by cases at 9.9 million. India is second worldwide in cases with 10.9 million, and now fourth in deaths at 156,014. Mexico has the third highest death toll at 177,061 and 13th highest case tally at 2 million. The U.K. has 4 million cases and 119,159 deaths, the highest in Europe and fifth highest in the world.

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Coronavirus tally: Global cases of COVID-19 top 109.9 million and U.S. death toll above 490,000 - MarketWatch

Peter Wells in New York

California on Wednesday reported fewer than 5,000 new coronavirus cases for the first time since early November in a further sign the state is bringing its most recent wave of the pandemic under control.

The health department revealed an additional 4,090 infections, down from 5,692 on Tuesday, and marking the smallest one-day increase in cases since November 3.

While the latest figures may reflect delays in reporting following the long weekend, the sub-5,000 milestone underscores a change in fortune compared to the worst of California's pandemic from mid-December to mid-January, when the most populous state in the US on several occasions reported single-day increases of more than 50,000 cases.

Other closely-watched metrics have also been heading in encouraging directions. The 14-day positivity rate, at 4.1 per cent, is the lowest it has been since mid-November and down from a recent high of 14 per cent in early January.

Hospitalisations, at 8,855, were below 9,000 for the first time since late November, while the number of available intensive care unit beds in the state was at its highest in just over two months.

Deaths, which tend to lag cases and hospitalisations, still remain relatively high. Authorities attributed a further 400 fatalities to coronavirus, up from a seven-week low on Tuesday of 64.

The state has administered 6.4m coronavirus vaccines, according to the health department. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as at February 16 put the total at 6.2m, or 15,719 doses per 100,000 people, which ranks it among the 20 US states with the lowest per capita vaccination rates.

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Coronavirus: UK airlines push for plan on easing travel restrictions as it happened - Financial Times

What about the cases that appeared before the outbreak in the seafood market?

There was other spread going on outside of Huanan market. There are other patients who have no links to the market, quite a few in December. There were other markets. And we do know that some of the patients had links to other markets. We need to do some further work, and then the Chinese colleagues need to do some further work.

When we sat down as a group, the China team and the W.H.O. team on the last full day of work, and said, Lets go through the hypotheses, the one that received the most enthusiastic support was this pathway wildlife, through a domesticated wildlife link, into Wuhan.

What is the next step?

For the animals chain, its straightforward. The suppliers are known. They know the farm name; they know the owner of the farm. Youve got to go down to the farm and interview the farmer and the family. Youve got to test them. Youve got to test the community. Youve got to go and look and see if there are any animals left at any farms nearby and see if theyve got evidence of infection, and see if there is any cross-border movement. If the virus is in those southern border states, its possible that theres been some movement across neighboring countries like Vietnam, Laos or Myanmar. Were finding more and more related viruses now. Theres one in Japan and one in Cambodia, one in Thailand.

For the human side, look for earlier cases, for clusters; look in blood banks for serum, if possible. Anything like this is going to be sensitive in China, and its going to take some persuasion and diplomacy and energy for them to do that because, to be honest, looking for the source of this virus within China is not a great, high priority I think for the Chinese government. Anywhere this virus is shown to emerge is a political issue. Thats one of the problems, and that is clear and obvious to anyone who has been looking at this.

Do you have a particular animal that you suspect right now as an intermediate link, more strongly than others?

Its too up in the air. We dont know if civets were on sale. We know they are very easily infected. We dont know what the situation is with the mink farms in China or the other fur farms, like raccoon dogs, even though theyre normally farmed in a different part of China. That needs to be followed up on, too.

But if you were to say which pathway would you put the most weight on, I think the virus emerging either in Southeast Asia or Southern China from bats, getting into a domesticated wildlife farm. Ive been to many of these, and they often have mixed species civets, ferret badgers, raccoon dogs. Those animals would be able to get infected from bats.

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W.H.O. Researcher Seeking Coronavirus Origins on His Trip to China - The New York Times

Thu, Feb 18, 2021

MENASourcebyShalom Lipner

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a visit to Leumit Health Care Services vaccination facility in Jerusalem where he meets the 4,000,000 person who had been vaccinated in Israel, February 16, 2021. Alex Kolomoisky/Pool via REUTERS

March 23 will see Israelis trek to the pollsfor the fourth time since April 2019after the close of an election campaign that has, thus far, entertained discussion of little else other than the coronavirus and its ramifications.

COVID-19 has earned singular status as a potential game-changer in Israeli political life. In a recent Israel Democracy Institute survey, only 24 percent of Israelis awarded a positive score to the incumbent governments handling of the public health crisis, voicing even lesser approval for its measures to mitigate economic and social fallout from the pandemic. These numbers contrast markedly with the 57 percent and 48 percent of Israelis who praised their governments performance in the realms of foreign policy and national security, respectively. Failure to curb the deleterious effects of the virus could deliver a coup de grce to the career of Benjamin Netanyahu, the longest reigning prime minister in Israels history.

There have been approximately 5,500 COVID-19 fatalities in Israel, where more than 52,000 active cases are still being monitored among its population of nine million people. With the country emerging gradually from its third lockdown, it is Israeli citizens critical deliberation of their leaderships fumbling response to the outbreak that has eclipsed attention paid to all additional items on a full national agenda.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared briefly in Jerusalem District Court on February 8 to plead not guilty to multiple counts of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. The high drama of that event aside, his indictments have been proceeding through the Israeli legal system for years already and have been the focal point of long-running protests. Israelis have had ample opportunity to formulate their views on whether Netanyahus alleged wrongdoing should disqualify him from serving as prime minister and, as such, the impact of his trialwhich promises to continue long into the futureon voting patterns has been factored comprehensively into the results of the previous three ballots.

The advent of the coronavirus has also superseded debate of the extent to which President Joe Biden is recalibrating Israels premier alliance with the United States. It took Biden until February 17almost a full month after moving into the Oval Officeto speak with Netanyahu, a fact not lost on watchers of the US-Israel relationship. That the prime ministers challengers have not exploited this opening to lambaste his apparent fall from grace in Washington speaks, in part, to the publics present disinterest in matters not related to the spread of COVID-19. Similarly, Netanyahus repeated postponements of his planned visits to the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain suggest an understanding that a photogenic celebration of the popular Abraham Accords is equally unlikely to distract Israelis.

Netanyahu, who regularly leveraged the political capital of his close bond with Bidens predecessor in office, has been put on the defensive by the new administration, which has acted quickly to attenuate the force ofor even reversecertain decisions of Donald Trump which Israel applauded. US moves to reinvigorate diplomacy with Iran and to renew Americas membership on the Geneva-based United Nations Human Rights Councilrenowned for its disproportionate focus on Israel, as acknowledged on February 8 by State Department spokesman Ned Pricehave clarified that Netanyahus charms have been less than effective on the current White House. He bristled perceptibly after Secretary of State Tony Blinken issued an only tentative endorsement of Trumps earlier recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. And, yet, Israels relations with Bidens team continue to be a work in progress, which also contributes to Israelis withholding final judgment at this time.

Instead, what consumes bandwidth are practical questions of government mismanagement with respect to COVID-19 protocols. Israeli decision-makers stand accused of ignoring early professional advice to padlock Ben-Gurion International Airportwhich was shuttered almost totally to traffic only in Januaryfor purely political considerations. The same motive has been tendered as an explanation for what many have deemed to be the selective enforcement of lockdown restrictions.

Israels most prominent feat in battling the pandemicthe acquisition of many millions of vaccinations and the rollout of a coordinated, nation-wide effort to administer the injections also appears to be losing steam. Three-quarters of Israelis have received at least one dose to date, but inoculation facilities are now operating below capacity as holdouts among the remaining one-quarter have resisted being immunized. Infection rates, which are showing signs of finally slowing down, had skyrocketed due to new and more contagious mutations of the virus which were imported unknowingly to Israel, challenging health care providers to keep apace.

With Election Day less than five weeks away and a full reopening of Israel likely to take much longer, members of the Netanyahu government are scrambling anxiously to balance the demands of the population for a return to normal life with the imperatives of ensuring everyones physical wellbeing. Approval was granted on February 9 for preschools and grades 1-4 to resume classroom study in cities where the disease has been brought under relative control. Another matter of great contention is a timetable for permitting commercial and cultural institutions to receive patrons once again, a stage scheduled to commence on February 21. The temptation is high for Netanyahu to declare mission accomplished before Israelis go to vote on March 23.

Hopes that Israel is on a fast track to recovery are substantiated by some relevant data, but Israelis are not out of the woods yet. Amid charges that the country lacks an effective exit strategy from its predicament, one senior medical advisor to Israels National Security Council has warned that it could soon be necessary to choose between a fourth closure and a spike in serious cases and deaths. For Netanyahuwho has not been shy about touting the success of his governments vaccine programeither of those two outcomes could trigger his political demise.

Shalom Lipner is a nonresident senior fellow for Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council. From 1990 to 2016, he served seven consecutive premiers at the Prime Ministers Office in Jerusalem. Follow him on Twitter @ShalomLipner.

Mon, Feb 1, 2021

In a first project of trilateral collaboration, the directors and strategists from leading think tanks in the US, the UAE, and Israel have submitted nine recommendations on issues that deserve priority treatment from the new administration.

MENASourcebyKirsten Fontenrose, Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, and Udi Dekel

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Israel's upcoming election: A referendum on the handling of the coronavirus - Atlantic Council

CLEVELAND, Ohio Ask any mom, and she can recall her first big corona-cry. The moment when she realized this virus was not a three-week spring break, as Gov. Mike DeWine originally deemed it, but rather an eternal tight-rope walk balancing work and childcare cut off from all support.

Uncertainty, anxiety, isolation, plus endless pots of pasta to cook and clean up, a kid adamantly refusing to do his math homework and daily battles over the brushing of teeth.

Dont look down or youll fall into the pit of despair.

The yoke is untenable. And its pushed many mothers to downsize their jobs or opt out of the workforce altogether.

Consider this: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the economy lost 140,000 net jobs in December, marking the first month of job loss since the economy started adding jobs in May 2020. All of the jobs lost were womens, with women losing 156,000 jobs and men gaining 16,000.

Between January 2020 and January 2021, the number of female jobs fell 6.8% or 5.2 million, while the number of male jobs fell 5.8% or 4.4 million. While the difference may seem negligible, its a reversal from recent years.

This mass exodus of women from the workforce is a national emergency, and it demands a national solution, Vice President Kamala Harris wrote in a Washington Post op-ed. Job loss, small business closings and a lack of child care have created a perfect storm for women workers.

In a spring survey, Lean In found that 31% of women with full-time jobs and families said they have more to do than they can possibly handle, while 13% of working men with families said the same.

Women are disproportionately feeling overwhelmed because they are disproportionately the ones working day and night to keep households afloat, Lean In co-founders Sheryl Sandburg and Rachel Thomas wrote in Fortune.

That leaves us hissing IM ON VIDEO to kids whining for cookies while were on a Zoom screen. Taking work calls at the dinner table. Attempting to break up sibling fights from a different room. Pounding the keys of our laptops in front of the TV at night, while mainlining peanut-butter-fudge ice cream from Target (when they have it in stock). There is no longer work-life balance, just work-life integration. You never feel like youre off the clock.

When people ask, How do you do it? I answer honestly: I yell a lot. I also have a helpful husband taking on the bulk of our sons fractions meltdowns. And I commiserate a lot. Thank God for good friends, text chains and Mean Girls emojis. Because were all doing the best we can, and feeling like were failing a lot of the time.

A survey administered of Millennial moms ages 24 to 39 by the website Motherly found that 86% experience burn out at least occasionally, and a large portion (41%) are feeling burnout frequently (35%) or worse, all the time (6%).

Related: How can I work from home with kids during the coronavirus pandemic?

As schools went remote, mothers often took over teaching, while still handling the bulk of housework and taking on more.

According to McKinseys 2020 Women in the Workplace study, mothers are more than three times as likely as fathers to be responsible for most of the housework and caregiving. The extra burden has intensified moms traditional double shift. And McKinsey worries that as more women leave the workforce, businesses will face a dearth of women leaders and women will see a widening wage gap.

Business experts urge employers to relieve the stress on working moms. But what about our communities?

A society must have childcare in order to function. And relying on mothers to do it all, or even to do most, is counter-productive.

According to the U.S. Census, 44% of working mothers 25 or older have a bachelors degree or higher, compared with 38% of all workers 25 or older. Nearly half of working mothers work in management, business, science and the arts.

These are important occupations, and we need dedicated, innovative women in them. Moms know how to get stuff done.

Yet 61% of out-of-work women with at least one child under the age of 6 reported caretaking as the reason for their joblessness. For women with kids age 6-17, the statistic was 46%. And for the general unemployment population, 10%. And that was before the pandemic!

A 2018 report from the Center for American Progress found that in no state does the cost of center-based infant or toddler child care meet the federal definition of affordable, at no more than 7% of annual household income.

We all lose when women drop out of the workforce. Why cant society agree that affordable child care would improve our communities as much as serviceable roads or clean drinking water?

Life has gotten more manageable, as school and sports programs reopened. But this could be our seminal moment. Cleveland.com wants to start a Northeast Ohio conversation about working moms.

A lot of this is my story. We want to hear yours. Were looking for people who might be willing to write their experiences, even if they wish to withhold their names, or to talk with reporters about the issues they see.

What is it like to juggle childcare and jobs? How has the pandemic affected your choices? And what you propose could make life better for moms, families and the community?

Email content director Laura Johnston at ljohnston@cleveland.com with your thoughts.

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How the coronavirus pandemic is pushing moms out of the workforce: Tell us your stories - cleveland.com

Admissions to hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19 fell markedly again in November as cases of infections with the novel coronavirus began to surge anew, suggesting that more people were delaying care due to the worsening pandemic, according to an updated analysis by Epic Health Research Network (EHRN) and KFF.

The recent decline follows a big drop in overall admissions nationally last spring after the onset of the pandemic, which was followed by a rebound in admissions in the summer. The latest drop-off has been steepest in the Midwest and West, the analysis finds. In both regions, non-COVID-19 admissions were at roughly 76 percent of predicted levels at the end of November, as COVID-19 cases rose in many parts of those regions.

This new analysis updates a study from October and is based on electronic medical record data from EHRN. It includes all inpatient hospital admission volume from Dec 31, 2017 to December 5, 2020, involving patients who either were discharged or died as of January 13, 2021. Data are aggregated weekly and pooled from 34 health care organizations in the United States, representing 97 hospitals that span 26 states and cover 20 million patients.

Overall, non-COVID-19 hospital admissions sank to approximately 80 percent of predicted levels nationally by the week ending December 5, 2020, the analysis finds. Non-COVID-19 admissions reached a low of 63.4 percent of predicted admissions for the week ending April 11, 2020, but by mid-summer had rebounded to 92 percent of predicted levels.

The decrease in hospital admissions from March 8 to December 5, 2020 represented 8.5 percent of the total expected admissions for all of 2020. Total admissions were on pace to be 8.9 percent below the predicted volume for the entire year.

The federal government is giving additional financial support to hospitals and other providers to help them weather the decline in health care utilization sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes grants for hospitals from the $178 billion provider relief fund and a 20 percent increase in Medicare inpatient reimbursement for COVID-19 patients.

The decline in non-COVID-19 admissions also signals that people may be delaying care in ways that could be harmful to their long-term health. Spending on health care services declined in 2020. Other studies have documented declines in emergency department visits, and screenings for breast, cervical, and colon cancer were far below expected levels. The impact of that forgone care will be an important subject of future study.

For the full analysis, as well as other data and analyses related to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit kff.org.

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As Coronavirus Cases Surged This Fall, Admissions to Hospitals for Reasons Other Than COVID-19 Fell Markedly, Especially in the Midwest and West -...

HONOLULU (KHON2) Team sports have been shut down since last summer but youth sports organizers on Oahu are hopeful restrictions will be relaxed soon.

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Low case-counts and promising positivity rates are giving many hope that youth sports will resume soon. Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi has said numerous times that he is interested in relaxing restrictions to give island keiki that much-needed outlet.

Honolulu could move to Tier 3 as early as the week of Monday, Feb. 22, which would allow groups up to 10 to gather if the numbers remain low enough. Organized sports would remain shut down, however.

i9 Sports Exec Director Roger Dequina said, he hopes something can be done.

Youth sports, were kind of put on the back end in Tier 4. And its been tough, Dequina said.

ICEE Football Coach Mark Veneri said, the lack of sports has taken a toll on island youth

Sports is a life lesson. And its a life teacher. And these kids have really been, I guess, you could say, out of touch with that, Veneri said. And therefore, it affects school that affects home.

Kids need the opportunity to just, I think physically interact, you know, have a social setting to do that, Dequina said. And (sports) really just brings a lot of well-being for them, I think physically as well as emotionally.

The mayor said in a press conference on Friday, Feb. 12, he has been in discussions with the governor about relaxing some restrictions surrounding youth sports, but nothing has been finalized

Were very aware of the hardship thats been imposed, Blangiardi said. Were very aware of even all the benefits there would be to get our kids out there playing again in practice fields and being able to be the people that they are, young people, who really need this physically and psychologically and in every way.

Dequina and Veneri said, both i9 Sports and the ICEE Football program already have safety measures in place

We have hand sanitizing out there. We also have, you know, kids working, staggering in groups, Veneri explained.

Dequina said, they imposed rules that had kids playing within their own teams to limit interaction when sports resumed briefly before shutting down again in July, 2020. Those rules are something he said could easily be implemented once they are given the green light to resume games.

Some concerns are the potlucks and gatherings before and after games.

We have to do our part. Is our kids more important or is a potluck is more important? I think if we can govern that by, you know, doing a little bit for each other saying, hey, lets do our part, Veneri said.

Dequina said, it can be done safely if clear guidelines are set.

Im hopeful that we can continue to move forward in that space and be wise and discerning, Dequina said. I think its going to be a key component that parents are able to park the potlucks and a lot of the snacks and the the hui-ing and gathering afterwards, at least for a little bit longer, you know, and just really allow the kids that opportunity and space to to play.

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Low coronavirus cases fuel hopes that organized sports will resume on Oahu - KHON2

Dallas County reported 35 COVID-19 deaths and 383 new coronavirus cases Wednesday. Officials said the numbers are artificially low because ongoing power outages have disrupted reporting.

The latest victims include 24 men and 11 women ranging from their 40s to their 90s. Fifteen people lived in Dallas, five in Grand Prairie, three in Garland, two each in Carrollton, Farmers Branch, Mesquite and Rowlett, and one each in Addison, Coppell, Irving and Richardson. All but four had underlying health conditions.

County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement Wednesday that he encourages residents to take refuge in friends homes or warming stations across the county amid the outages, while also maintaining social distance and masking requirements.

If your home is largely maintaining power, please do all you can to take in loved ones and help as many people as you can, Jenkins said. Now is the time to help one another and to keep our spirits up.

Of the new cases, 352 were confirmed and 31 were probable. The numbers bring the countys overall case total to 275,783, including 241,884 confirmed and 33,899 probable. The death toll is 2,701.

Health officials use hospitalizations, intensive-care admissions and emergency-room visits as key metrics to track the real-time impact of COVID-19 in the county. In the 24-hour period that ended Tuesday, 601 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 309 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.

According to the state, 248,497 people in Dallas County have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 101,202 are fully vaccinated.

Jenkins said in a tweet Wednesday evening that the Fair Park vaccination site would be closed through Saturday due to weather. Those who need second doses will be prioritized, he said.

Across the state, 3,766 more cases were reported Wednesday, including 3,506 new cases and 260 older ones recently reported by labs.

The state also reported 72 COVID-19 deaths, raising its toll to 40,717.

Of the new cases, 2,563 were confirmed and 943 were probable. Of the older cases, 146 were confirmed and 114 were probable.

The states case total is 2,571,063, including 2,231,717 confirmed and 339,346 probable.

There are 7,609 COVID-19 patients in Texas hospitals, including 2,122 in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. On Tuesday, 13.38% of patients in the hospital region covering the Dallas-Fort Worth area were COVID-19 patients below the 15% threshold the state has used to define high hospitalizations.

The seven-day average positivity rate statewide for molecular tests, based on the date of test specimen collection, was 10.34% as of Tuesday. For antigen tests, the positivity rate for the same period was 3.9%. A molecular test is considered more accurate and is sometimes also called a PCR test; an antigen test is also called a rapid test. Gov. Greg Abbott has said a positivity rate above 10% is cause for concern.

According to the state, 3,020,660 people in Texas have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 1,248,338 are fully vaccinated.

Tarrant County reported 18 COVID-19 deaths and 497 coronavirus cases Wednesday.

The latest victims include 11 men and seven women ranging from their 40s to older than 90. Nine people were from Fort Worth, three lived in White Settlement, and one each were from Bedford, Mansfield, Richland Hills, Saginaw, Southlake and an unincorporated part of Tarrant County. All had underlying health conditions.

Of the new cases, 378 were confirmed and 119 were probable. The numbers bring the countys case total to 236,461, including 201,930 confirmed and 34,531 probable. The death toll is 2,671.

According to the county, 740 people were hospitalized with the virus as of Wednesday.

According to the state, 171,211 people in Tarrant County have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 90,618 are fully vaccinated.

The state added one COVID-19 death and 336 coronavirus cases to Collin Countys totals Wednesday.

No details about the latest victim was available.

Of the new cases, 252 were confirmed and 84 were probable. The numbers bring the countys case total to 80,777, including 68,399 confirmed and 12,378 probable. The death toll is 685.

According to the county, 329 people are hospitalized with the virus.

According to the state, 115,412 people in Collin County have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 38,188 are fully vaccinated.

Denton County Public Health was closed Wednesday because of the weather and did not issue a coronavirus update.

The county last reported 60,167 total cases, including 46,439 confirmed and 13,728 probable. The most recently announced death toll is 382, and according to the countys last update, 115 people were hospitalized with the virus.

According to the state, 62,774 people in Denton County have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, while 26,020 are fully vaccinated.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has taken over reporting for these other North Texas counties. In some counties, new data may not be reported every day.

The latest numbers are:

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Dallas County adds 35 COVID-19 deaths, 383 cases; over 3 million in Texas have received 1st vaccine shot - The Dallas Morning News

For the first time in months Minnesota has fewer than 300 patients requiring hospital care for COVID-19 as the states coronavirus outbreak continues to show signs of being under better control.

As of Wednesday, the state Department of Health reported 287 Minnesotans hospitalized with COVID-19 including 54 in critical condition. However, the state is still struggling with some hospital capacity issues including in the Twin Cities metro where just 3 percent of regular hospital beds were available.

Hospitals need both the staff and the space to have the capacity to care for patients. While COVID-19 hospital admissions have declined significantly, other types of admissions have quickly filled the gaps and many hospitals have remained near capacity.

Minnesota added 14 more COVID-19 fatalities Thursday and another 928 infections were reported by the state Department of Health.

The death toll has reached 6,404 with the latest deaths ranging in age from their early 30s to their late 90s. Eight lived in long-term care and six in private homes.

The state has now diagnosed 476,292 cases of coronavirus since March 2020. Of those, 463,041 have recovered enough they no longer need to be isolated.

Since the outbreak began, 25,341 people have needed hospital care and 5,230 have been admitted to the intensive care unit.

Minnesota has administered 975,626 doses of coronavirus vaccine. There are more than 710,000 whove received at least one dose and 264,122 who have gotten both shots.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, the only two currently with federal emergency approval, both require two doses, spaced between three and four weeks apart, for the best immune system response.

More than 325,000 of the states estimated 919,000 seniors have gotten at least one dose of vaccine. Health officials said they hope all of the states residents 65 and older will have a chance to be vaccinated by the end of March.

It will likely be summer before vaccine is widely available to the general public.

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Coronavirus Thursday update: 14 more Minnesota deaths and 928 new infections - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press