Tag Archives: WorldNews

Covid kills half of Sussex care home’s residents over Christmas

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Exclusive: ‘We’re sitting ducks,’ says Edendale Lodge boss, as fears rise of variant breaching homes’ defences

A care home in East Sussex has been devastated by Covid, losing half of all its residents to the disease over Christmas, fuelling fears the new, more transmissible virus variant sweeping the south-east of England is beginning to breach homes’ defences.

Thirteen of 27 residents at Edendale Lodge care home in Crowhurst had died with confirmed or suspected Covid since 13 December, said the home operator’s managing director, Adam Hutchison, who also runs care homes in Kent.

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January 6 was the deadliest day of the Covid-19 pandemic so far


A nurse wears personal protective equipment (PPE) while she cares for a Covid-19 patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Tarzana, California on January 3, 2021. | Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images

Nearly 4,000 Covid-19 deaths were recorded in the US on the day of the Capitol siege.

On January 6, the day a pro-Trump mob stormed the US Capitol, America also recorded the most Covid-19 deaths in a single day so far in the pandemic.

There were 3,964 Covid-19 deaths reported on Wednesday, according to the New York Times’s database. The US is now averaging about 2,700 deaths daily over the last seven days. In total, 361,383 Americans have died in the pandemic.

Every important Covid-19 metric — cases, deaths, and hospitalizations — is at or near its record high in the waning days of the Trump administration.

Four charts showing Covid-19 metrics since April 2020.
Covid Tracking Project
Charts showing Covid-19 metrics since April 2020.

Despite the rollout of two vaccines, the death totals are going to continue to climb alongside hospitalizations. Public health experts have said they expect the holiday season to continue to take a heavy toll, the full extent of which will take several weeks to be seen in the numbers. A new, more contagious variant of SARS-Cov-2 has arrived, cropping up in states across the country.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Director Robert Redfield warned at the beginning of December that the US could see as many as 450,000 Covid-19 deaths by February. Yet there’s been no significant federal mobilization to combat the surge.

Public health experts point the finger squarely at the White House, as well as state leaders, to explain the record-breaking Covid-19 numbers being reported across the country.

“It’s really from my perspective because of failed leadership at the state and federal level that we’re in the position we’re in,” Harry Heiman, a clinical professor at Georgia State University, told me this week.

President Trump has barely commented on the pandemic since Election Day, while fomenting discontent over his electoral loss that led to Wednesday’s siege at the Capitol. Meanwhile, the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines that could help end the pandemic has become a mess on his watch.

Heiman said his hope for turning the tide in the pandemic was President-elect Joe Biden bringing in an “A-team” and providing more resources to states for their Covid-19 response and vaccine efforts.

After the Democratic victories in the Georgia Senate runoffs, the other big event in this historic week, Biden should have a better chance of passing legislation to fund those efforts. Some additional funding for hospitals and local health agencies is already on the way, part of the second Covid-19 relief package that passed in December. Biden has said additional funding will be a top priority when he takes office.

But in the meantime, thousands of Americans will continue dying from Covid-19, as the US suffers the worst of the pandemic to date.

Lebanon Begins New Lockdown amid Huge Surge in Virus Cases

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Lebanon began a 25-day nationwide lockdown Thursday to limit the spread of the coronavirus as infections hit a new record in the tiny nation and patients overwhelm the health care sector.

The lockdown in Lebanon is the third since the first case was reported in late February. It closes most businesses and limits traffic by imposing an odd and even license plate rule on alternating days. It also reduces the number of flights at the country’s only international airport.

Biden reportedly set to pick R.I. Gov. Raimondo for Commerce

By Jeff Zeleny and Kate Sullivan | CNN

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to nominate Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo as commerce secretary, two people familiar with the matter say, in a round of Cabinet positions that could be announced on Friday.

Raimondo is the first woman governor of Rhode Island, and has served in the role since her election in 2014. She was among the women considered to serve as Biden’s vice president, and has been praised for her leadership amid the coronavirus pandemic.

She is currently under quarantine after a close contact tested positive for Covid-19, but that is expected to end Friday. Like other nominees who are near Biden, she would have to test negative to be at any announcement event with him.

At the same time as commerce secretary, Biden is also planning to unveil leaders for the Labor Department and the Small Business Administration.

Biden is expected to tap Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as labor secretary, two sources familiar with the decision tell CNN. The President-elect is also expected to tap Isabel Guzman to lead the Small Business Administration, two sources familiar with the decision said.

Guzman is currently the Director of California’s Office of the Small Business Advocate, a government office that works to support and grow small businesses in America’s most populous state. Prior to taking over the state office, Guzman was the deputy chief of staff and senior adviser at the US Small Business Administration, the office she will now lead.

Biden is expected to lean on his commerce secretary to rebuild relationships with a business community that has had a sometimes fractured relationship with the Trump White House. While the Republican President has often touted support from different businesses, pro-business groups like the Chamber of Commerce have often been critical of Trump.

Prior to serving as governor, Raimondo was elected to serve as general treasurer of Rhode Island in 2010. She also co-founded Point Judith Capital, an early stage venture capital firm.

Raimondo was also a contender to be the nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, CNN previously reported, but Biden nominated California Attorney General Xavier Becerra for the post.

Before Biden announced Becerra as his pick, Raimondo said at a news conference that she would not be Biden’s HHS secretary and that her focus was on her duties in her home state. The New York Times reported earlier this month that labor unions helped block Raimondo from becoming Biden’s pick to lead HHS because of her record on pension changes.

Raimondo has spent much of her time as governor attempting to spur economic development and lower the state’s employment rate, according to The Boston Globe. She revamped the state’s economic development office and had state lawmakers approve programs that allowed for millions of dollars in tax incentives for companies that relocate to Rhode Island, according to the Globe.

Raimondo was the first governor to back New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 Democratic presidential bid and joined his campaign as a national co-chair. She later backed Biden’s presidential bid after Bloomberg dropped out of the race.