AUSTIN, Texas — The variety of deaths in Texas as a result of sickness brought on by the coronavirus elevated by greater than 200 on Saturday whereas the variety of individuals hospitalized with the virus declined, in line with the Texas Division of State Well being Providers.
There have been an extra 227 COVID-19 deaths, greater than 4,900 new circumstances and seven,535 hospitalizations, a decline of 222 individuals hospitalized, the division reported.
Texas has had greater than 2.5 million coronavirus circumstances because the pandemic started, and greater than 42,000 deaths resulting from COVID-19, the third highest dying depend in the US, in line with Johns Hopkins College.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
— Pope Francis and Italy’s president mark new annual day to honor medical doctors, nurses and different well being care employees
— Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California are embroiled in political woes from the pandemic
— Powdering sleeping magnificence’s nostril: Virus eases Louvre works
— Airways plan to ask passengers for contact-tracing particulars
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Comply with all of AP’s pandemic protection at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
LOS ANGELES — A skateboarding world champion is amongst 5 individuals prosecutors in Southern California have charged with organizing events that have been doable superspreader occasions amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Los Angeles Instances studies Nyjah Huston, a four-time world skateboarding champion, and Edward Essa, the proprietor of a house within the Fairfax District, held a celebration final month with at the least 40 folks that was shut down by police after receiving a criticism.
Huston and Essa have been each charged with making a nuisance, a misdemeanor.
Neither may very well be reached for remark.
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OKLAHOMA CITY — Greater than 681,000 Oklahomans have now acquired the coronavirus vaccine, together with greater than 204,000 who’ve acquired each required doses, in line with an Oklahoma State Division of Well being report.
The state ranked twelfth within the nation on Saturday with 14.3% of the inhabitants having acquired at the least one dose of the vaccine, in line with the federal Facilities for Illness Management, and the state well being division has scheduled vaccination clinics throughout the weekend to interchange these canceled due to a winter storm.
There have been a reported 418,318 whole virus circumstances and 4,155 deaths resulting from COVID-19, the sickness brought on by the virus, because the pandemic started, will increase of 973 circumstances and 23 deaths since Friday, in line with the well being division.
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JERUSALEM — Israel unveiled a plan on Saturday to permit individuals who have been vaccinated towards the coronavirus to attend cultural occasions, fly overseas and go to well being golf equipment and eating places.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu introduced the plan at a information convention on Saturday night time, saying those that have been vaccinated will be capable of obtain the “inexperienced badge” within the coming days.
“The inexperienced badge is steadily opening up the nation,” Netanyahu mentioned.
Israel has performed the world’s speediest vaccine marketing campaign over the previous month and a half, inoculating almost half of its 9.3 million individuals. However with the coronavirus nonetheless spreading quickly among the many unvaccinated, the nation solely lately started rising from a two-month lockdown.
On Sunday, retail shops, purchasing malls, gyms, some center faculty grades and different public companies for restricted crowd sizes are set to start out again up.
Netanyahu mentioned the federal government couldn’t preserve unvaccinated residents from locations like medical clinics, pharmacies and supermarkets. However he mentioned different companies can be allowed solely for many who have acquired two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Israel’s primary worldwide airport, as an illustration, stays closed to almost all air site visitors due to considerations of international variants of the virus getting into the nation.
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PODGORICA, Montenegro — Tiny Montenegro has launched vaccinations towards the coronavirus with doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines that have been donated by neighboring Serbia.
Well being authorities mentioned the primary particular person to obtain a shot on Saturday was a 66-year-old resident of a care residence within the coastal city of Risan. Two medical doctors working on the similar nursing residence got here subsequent.
A nation of some 620,000 individuals, Montenegro has reported greater than 70,000 confirmed COVID-19 circumstances and 939 identified deaths.
Montenegrin authorities say they plan to accumulate provides of China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
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MEXICO CITY — The official main Mexico’s response to the pandemic says he has examined constructive for the coronavirus.
Assistant Well being Secretary Hugo López-Gatell tweeted Saturday that he had mild COVID-19 signs on Friday night time and an antigen take a look at got here out constructive. He was awaiting the outcomes of a PCR take a look at, which takes longer to course of and is usually extra correct..
“I’ll be working from residence,” López-Gatell mentioned, including that he was concerned in Mexico’s vaccination program.
Some 200,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine arrived in Mexico from Hong Kong on Saturday, International Minister Marcelo Ebrard mentioned on Twitter. A complete of 10 million Sinovac vaccines are anticipated.
Mexico has accepted a number of different coronavirus vaccines and has administered 1.5 million photographs up to now.
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HONOLULU — The Hawaii Division of Well being says it has briefly prolonged the window incoming vacationers must get a pre-arrival coronavirus take a look at that comes again destructive.
The state says vacationers can now take the assessments as much as 96 hours earlier than their scheduled flights as an alternative of 72 hours due to winter storms which have ravaged the continental U.S.
The assessments nonetheless must be performed by a state-approved supplier.
Hawaii Information Now studies the extension will likely be in impact by way of Sunday.
Alternatively, guests can quarantine for 10 days after arriving in Hawaii.
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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska public well being officers say 3,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine will arrive later than anticipated due to a winter storm that has ravaged the continental U.S.
The state’s immunization program supervisor, Matt Bobo, mentioned some vaccine appointments could also be postponed till subsequent week.
The doses have been supposed to succeed in 21 totally different suppliers.
One other state vaccine official says the delay occurred at a considerably fortuitous time — part of the month for which the state had already anticipated a smaller vaccine cargo.
State officers say they’ve been speaking with officers on the White Home and the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management in regards to the delay.
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LAS VEGAS — Earlier than the coronavirus pandemic, tourist-dependent Nevada had a infamous attraction: It was the one place in America the place somebody may legally pay for intercourse. Nowadays, even within the state identified for sin, the enterprise is taboo.
Authorized brothels have been shuttered for almost a 12 months, leaving intercourse employees to supply less-lucrative options like on-line dates or nonsexual escort companies.
Whereas the enterprise of authorized bordellos could appear incompatible with social distancing, intercourse employees and brothel house owners say they need to be allowed to reopen with protecting measures like different close-contact industries, together with therapeutic massage remedy and dental companies.
A state process pressure that makes suggestions on coronavirus restrictions hasn’t responded to pleas from brothel house owners searching for a strategy to reopen.
Gov. Steve Sisolak lately mentioned brothels, together with different grownup leisure like nightclubs and strip golf equipment, would keep closed at the least by way of Might 1. After that, the state might let counties resolve whether or not to permit these companies to open, so long as COVID-19 infections aren’t surging.
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PHOENIX — Enrollment at U.S. neighborhood schools dropped 0% from fall 2019 to fall 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.
That’s in line with The Nationwide Pupil Clearinghouse, which says neighborhood schools have been hit the toughest amongst all varieties of schools when it comes to enrollment drops.
4-year universities within the U.S. fared higher than many had anticipated, seeing solely slight enrollment decreases.
There are myriad causes for the neighborhood school downturn. Fewer freshmen are enrolling and a few are delaying school till campuses absolutely reopen.
However the pandemic has additionally taken a heavy toll on older grownup college students. Many misplaced jobs or don’t have any time for their very own education as they supervise their youngsters’s on-line lessons.
Extra Individuals sometimes flip to neighborhood school schooling amid financial downturns, searching for to study new job abilities or change careers. However schooling consultants say the pandemic appears to have upended typical developments.
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PHOENIX — Arizona’s Maricopa County plans to shut two of its six regional COVID-19 vaccination websites in coming weeks as public well being officers put elevated emphasis on smaller websites and occasions to offer extra photographs.
The county’s web site in north Phoenix, operated by Honor Well being, will final function on Feb. 28. and the positioning run by Dignity Well being in Chandler will shut in early March.
Officers say present appointments will likely be honored at each places. Arizona on Saturday reported 2,047 extra confirmed COVID-19 circumstances and 59 deaths, rising the state’s pandemic totals to 806,163 circumstances and 15,480 deaths.
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LONDON – The British authorities has introduced a small step out of lockdown — permitting nursing residence residents to have a single buddy or member of the family go to them indoors.
Residents and their guests will be capable of maintain fingers, however not hug. The change takes impact March 8. For months, nursing residence residents have solely been capable of see family members outside or by way of screens.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he’ll announce a “highway map” out of lockdown on Monday. The federal government has burdened that reopening will likely be gradual and cautious, with retailer reopenings or out of doors socializing unlikely earlier than April, although youngsters will return to high school from March 8.
Johnson’s Conservative authorities has been accused of reopening the nation too shortly after the primary lockdown within the spring. Britain has had about 120,000 coronavirus deaths, the very best toll in Europe.
The brand new measures apply in England. In different components of the U.Ok., nursing residence visiting guidelines fluctuate, with Scottish residents capable of have two guests from March 8.
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HELSINKI — Denmark has briefly closed some border crossing factors with Germany and stepped up checks at others resulting from a spike in COVID-19 circumstances and an increase in virus variants within the the northern German city of Flensburg, simply off the Danish border.
The Danish justice ministry mentioned late Friday that an rising variety of infections and virus mutations have been detected in Flensburg, just a few seven kilometers (4 miles) from the border with Denmark.
The Danish justice ministry mentioned officers police will considerably intensify border controls on the Danish-German border. Native authorities in Germany mentioned Saturday on Flensburg’s webpage that the city’s coronavirus incidence price was working at 193 per 100,000 individuals.
Dozens of circumstances of mutated coronavirus, principally the variant first detected in Britain, have been detected in Flensburg, a city with some 90,000 inhabitants, up to now days.
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UNITED NATIONS — Britain has circulated a draft decision to the U.N. Safety Council demanding that every one combatants instantly institute a “sustained humanitarian pause” to allow individuals in battle areas to be vaccinated towards COVID-19.
The proposed decision reiterates the council’s demand final July 1 for “a common and quick cessation of hostilities” in main conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan and Somalia, an enchantment first made by U.N. Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres on March 23, 2020, to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
The draft, obtained Friday by The Related Press, “emphasizes the necessity for solidarity, fairness, and efficacy and invitations donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low- and middle-income nations and different nations in want, together with by way of the COVAX Facility,” an bold World Well being Group undertaking to purchase and ship coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poorest individuals.
The British draft stresses that “equitable entry to reasonably priced COVID-19 vaccines, licensed as protected and efficacious, is crucial to finish the pandemic.”
It might acknowledge “the position of intensive immunization towards COVID-19 as a world public good for well being in stopping, containing, and stopping transmission, in an effort to carry the pandemic to an finish.”
The draft follows up on British International Secretary Dominic Raab’s enchantment to the 15-member Safety Council on Wednesday to undertake a decision calling for native cease-fires in battle zones to permit the supply of COVID-19 vaccines.
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MEXICO CITY — Mexico says it would get its first cargo of the Chinese language Coronavac vaccine Saturday and by Monday will obtain its first lot of the Russian Sputnik V shot. Each shipments are anticipated to include about 200,000 doses.
Well being officers say the primary shipments of the Chinese language and Russian vaccines will likely be utilized in low-income neighborhoods of Mexico Metropolis or its suburbs.
Mexico is presently utilizing the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines and has utilized nearly 1.6 million doses of these.
The nation will now be confronted with the logistical problem of dealing with 4 totally different vaccines, all of which require two doses. As well as, the Sputnik first shot is totally different from the second and isn’t interchangeable.
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LOS ANGELES — The College of Southern California expects to reopen campuses this fall, becoming a member of the state’s main public universities in planning to renew on-campus life curtailed by COVID-19.
USC President Carol Folt issued a web based letter Friday that mentioned she is “cautiously optimistic” as a result of virus circumstances are down and vaccinations are ramping up. USC and different universities nationwide have been pressured to change to on-line studying final March.
Each the College of California and California State College methods even have mentioned they plan to reopen their campuses this fall if situations allow.
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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Alberto Fernández requested Argentina’s well being minister to resign after a widely known native journalist mentioned he had been given a coronavirus vaccination preferentially after requesting one from the minister, a authorities official mentioned Friday.
The president “instructed his chief of employees to request the resignation of well being minister” Ginés González García, who’s in command of the federal government’s COVID-19 technique, mentioned the official, who was not licensed to launch the data and spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity. He didn’t say who would substitute González García as well being minister.
The scandal erupted when journalist Horacio Verbitsky, whose tales and columns on an internet site and on the radio are seen as pro-government, mentioned he known as the minister to request a vaccinination and González García summoned him to the Well being Ministry the place he acquired a Sputnik V vaccine shot Thursday.
“I made a decision to get vaccinated. I began to search out out the place to do it. I known as my outdated buddy Ginés González García, whom I’ve identified lengthy earlier than he was a minister,” Verbitsky instructed a neighborhood radio station. “I went to the ministry and the group of vaccinators was there.”
Fernández’s authorities has been harshly criticized for Argentina’s gradual vaccination operation.
