Month: January 2021

This story will be updated. Four more Mainers died as health officials on Friday reported 700 new coronavirus cases across the state. Friday’s report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 24,901, according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. That’s up from 24,201 on Thursday. Of those, 21,144 have been confirmed positive, while 3,757 were classified as “probable cases,” the Maine CDC reported. The latest deaths include a woman in her 90s from Cumberland County; a woman in her 80s from Penobscot County; a man in his 90s from Washington County; and a woman in her 80s from Washington County. The statewide death toll now stands at 351. As of Friday, 30,877 Mainers have been vaccinated against COVID-19, or 2.02 percent of the...

What was initially thought to be a major human error of someone damaging 57 vials of the coronavirus vaccine at the Aurora Medical Center Grafton has since grown into a federal investigation.  A pharmacist at the facility intentionally removed 57 vials of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine from the refrigerator and left them out overnight knowing the vaccines would be "useless" to those who received them. On Dec. 26, Aurora gave 57 people the vaccine from the tampered vials. After further review the vials were discarded and an investigation into how the vials were left out began.  On Wednesday, Aurora notified Grafton police and it became public that the vials were left out intentionally and on Thursday the pharmacist was arrested. The FBI and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration were also ...

Ambulances waited hours for openings to offload coronavirus patients. Overflow patients were moved to hospital hallways and gift shops, even a cafeteria. Refrigerated trucks were on standby, ready to store the dead.For months, California did many of the right things to avoid a catastrophic surge from the pandemic. But by the time Gov. Gavin Newsom said on Dec. 15 that 5,000 body bags were being distributed, it was clear that the nation's most populous state had entered a new phase of the COVID-19 crisis.Now infections have been racing out of control for weeks, and California has routinely set new records for infections and deaths. It remains at or near the top of the list of states with the most new cases per capita.Experts say a variety of factors combined to wipe out the past effor...

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Here are some significant developments: The virus, spreading largely unchecked in much of the country, forced most people to have quieter New Year’s Eve celebrations. No one was likely to kiss a stranger at the annual ball drop in Manhattan’s Times Square, attended by only a few hundred front-line workers. A fired Wisconsin pharmacist was arrested Thursday on accusations of deliberately spoiling more than 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine, which is available in limited supply and being rationed for high-risk people. At a vaccination clinic in West Virginia, more than 40 people were accidentally given an antibody treatment for the virus, instead of Moderna’s vaccine. The West Virginia National Guard, which is assisting with inoculations, said those people were at no risk of harm. The n...