Month: February 2021

California will soon expand its list of people eligible for coronavirus vaccinations by another 4 million to 6 million people by adding the severely disabled and those with health conditions that put them at high risk for infection and death, state Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said Friday. Among those who will become eligible on March 15 are people with certain cancer, heart, lung and kidney conditions, as well as pregnant women, those with Down syndrome, organ transplant recipients and the severely obese. They join people 65 and over and those in high-risk job descriptions who already were eligible under the state's plan. California has been plagued by vaccine shortages and Ghaly couldn’t say how long it will take for the state to vaccinate the estimated 17 millio...

While images of people lined up for long-awaited COVID-19 vaccinations spurred hope in millions across the globe, they stirred up something else in Dr. Juan Jose Velez: frustration. Velez runs the coronavirus ward in one of the biggest public hospitals in Colombia, a country with one of the highest death rates and positivity rates in the world. While more than 152 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered globally, with roughly a third of those in the U.S., according to Bloomberg's vaccine tracker, Colombia is among a number of lower- to middle-income countries that still had not administered a single dose by mid-February. “I think the greatest thing this has shown us is the lack of solidarity .... the fact that lots of countries have started vaccinating, while many poorer cou...

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) – Officials say a U.S. Navy sailor assigned to USS Wasp (LHD 1) died as a result of COVID-19-related complications. The sailor was admitted to Sentara Princess Anne Hospital on Jan. 17 and was transferred to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital on Jan. 29. “We offer our condolences and join the sailor’s family, friends, and shipmates in mourning the loss of this sailor. Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this difficult time,” officials said in a statement released Friday. The name is being withheld until 24 hours after next-of-kin notification. This is a breaking news story.

Cape Cod’s Barnstable County has the oldest population in Massachusetts; however, as the state prioritizes at-risk seniors in its COVID-19 vaccine rollout, state Sen. Julian Cyr says the Cape is being “left behind. Cyr, who represents most of the Cape and Islands, said during a conference call Thursday that the disproportionately elderly and geographically isolated region is being underserved by vaccination sites and doses, even as Gov. Charlie Baker ramps up efforts to get those in the highly vulnerable 75-year-old-and-up age group vaccinated. “I’m frustrated, I’m disappointed, and quite frankly pretty enraged,” the Truro Democrat said during the Cape Cod COVID-19 Response Task Force call. Cyr pointed at a lack of a mass vaccination site on Cape Cod, as well as what he said was...

People weary of a pandemic that has dragged on longer than advertised may need to brace themselves for a troubling prospect, as the head of the EU's ECDC health agency has warned that Covid-19 will likely stick around forever. "It seems very well adapted to humans, so we should be prepared that it will remain with us," Andrea Ammon, head of the Stockholm-based European Center for Disease Prevention, told France's AFP in an interview on Friday. In fact, Ammon said it appears more likely that the virus will continue to circulate indefinitely than that it would disappear. "It wouldn't be the first virus that is with us forever, so it's not an unusual feature for a virus," she added. Despite the development of several vaccines to fight Covid-19, the virus could continue to pro...

Los Angeles County health officials on Friday reported a more than 35% increase in children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, in the last two weeks. There were 15 additional cases reported by the county’s Department of Public Health Friday, bringing the total to 90 cases, including one child death. The death was reported in December at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, in a patient who had a “complex, preexisting cardiac condition.” All 90 children with the rare syndrome linked to coronavirus were hospitalized, and 41% of them were treated in an intensive care unit. Of all the children with MIS-C in L.A. County, 30% were under 5 years old, 40% were between 5 and 11 years old, and 30% were between 12 and 20 years old, health officials said. Latino ...