Month: January 2021

“We were literally like … who can get people here? People started texting and calling and we were just counting down,” said Kevin Brooks, the chief operating officer of Swedish, who helped coordinate everything at their clinic at Seattle University. “Thirty-seven. Thirty-five. Thirty-three … People were showing up and running down the hall.” By the last shots, staff and volunteers were running out to the road on a cold night, at one point jabbing someone through the window of a car, Brooks said. One elderly woman in flip flops was photographed rolling up her sleeve on the sidewalk just as the clock ran out. It was a familiar story: Faced with expiring vials, health-care workers distribute vaccine doses at top speed, sometimes to whomever they can find. These impromptu giveaways have be...

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported 355 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday and 20 new deaths.There have now been 39,168 total cases in the state since the beginning of the outbreak.The number of Mainers with COVID-19 who have died has increased to 590.Cumberland and York counties both reported three new deaths. Aroostook County reported four, Androscoggin County reported two and Penobscot County reported five. Kennebec, Oxford, and Washington counties all reported one new death.The 20 additional deaths reported Saturday reflect a review of vital records filed in the past two week, primarily involving deaths that occurred between Jan. 10 and Jan. 23, 2021.MAINE CORONAVIRUS DATA: Deaths: 590 Total cases: 39,168 Confirmed cases: 31,567 ...

Los Angeles The average number of daily deaths from coronavirus among the county’s Latino residents increases from 3.5 deaths to 40 deaths per 100,000 Sat 30 Jan 2021 06.00 EST The average number of Latino residents dying from coronavirus each day in Los Angeles county has increased by more than 1,000% since November, according to county public health officials.Los Angeles is battling one of the worst Covid-19 outbreaks in the US, amid a winter surge that has left hospitals across the region overwhelmed. LA county’s Latino population has faced the brunt of the crisis.In November, the average number of Latino residents in LA county dying from Covid-19 each day stood at 3.5 per 100,000 residents. Now, it is 40 deaths per 100,000 residents. “That’s an increase of over 1,000%,” said Barba...

In Alamogordo, New Mexico, Florence Nightingale is known for being a bit cantankerous. She’s an older, bigger lady and when she stops working, she often needs some gentle coaxing before she’ll start again. The coronavirus pandemic has pushed her to the brink, and working so much overtime depleted her tank. She spent the holiday break getting some much-needed pampering. Flo, as her friends call her, is a 40-foot Winnebago turned into a mobile nurse's station. She's Alamogordo Public Schools' most lauded health care provider, purchased with CARES funding.  Her most frequent passenger? School nurse Lisa Patch, who is also the health services director for the rural school district just 80 miles from the Mexican border. Patch, who has been working in health care for 23 years, had the wild idea...

Then there were those parents, sadists I was certain, whispering about how it might last until the end of the school year. Nobody knew back then when schools would reopen, and here's a truth I don't want to admit -- nobody knows now. Like so many parents, I am desperate for some clarity. I want to hope. I also want to plan. Should we budget for extra child care again next year if there is no in-person school? Or should we find ways to cut back at work? Should we sign up for summer camps? Then, the hardest part, what do we say to our children when they look us in the eye and ask when-oh-when can they have birthday parties and soccer games and sleepovers and the incalculable other rites of passage they are being denied? How much longer do we have to say no? Parents, caregivers, kids: We ...