December 21, 2020 6:54 am
The Washington Health System expects to receive some two-thousand doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine this week. President and CEO Brook Ward says they will vaccinate any health care worker that wants to receive it. Ward says they will be following all CDC distribution guidelines including those that live at nursing home and in long-term care facilities. In a video posted on Facebook, Ward says it is unclear when the vaccine will become available to the general public. He is also advising residents to avoid any gatherings outside of immediate households during the holidays. According to Ward, “We all want to get together like we have for decades with our family, friends and loved ones but one meal, one gathering, one social event is not worth risking the lives of your friends and family. So, I encourage you to avoid doing that this December”.
December 21, 2020 4:25 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has announced new social gathering restrictions while still refusing to implement a mask mandate despite pleas from front-line healthcare workers in a state experiencing the highest new cases per capita in the country. Instead of a mask mandate, the Republican on Sunday signed an executive order limiting public gatherings to 10 people. However, places of worship, weddings and funerals are exempt from the order. He called the state “ground zero” in the COVID-19 battle.
December 21, 2020 4:23 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – President-elect Joe Biden will receive his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe. Monday’s event will come the same day that a second vaccine, produced by Moderna, joins Pfizer’s in the nation’s arsenal. Top government leaders including Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell were given doses Friday. But missing from the action has been President Donald Trump, who has not said when he intends to get the shot.
December 21, 2020 4:22 am
WASHINGTON (AP) – Top negotiators in Congress have sealed a deal on $900 billion COVID-19 economic relief package. Lawmakers announced the agreement Sunday after days of negotiations, and passage by Congress is expected Monday. The agreement would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefits and $600 direct stimulus payments to most Americans, along with a fresh round of subsidies for hard-hit businesses and funding for schools, health care providers, and renters facing eviction. The final agreement was reached after a breakthrough over Federal Reserve emergency powers was resolved by the Senate’s top Democrat and a senior conservative Republican.
December 21, 2020 4:21 am
NEW YORK (AP) – A federal advisory panel has recommended that people 75 and older and essential workers like firefighters, teachers and grocery store workers be put next in line for COVID-19 shots as a second vaccine began rolling out to hospitals. The developments came as a desperately needed boost as the nation works to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control. The U.S. is trying to ramp up a vaccination program that only began in the last week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says initial shots have gone so far to about 556,000 Americans. Trucks left the Olive Branch, Mississippi, factory, near Memphis, Tennessee, with the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. The much-needed shots are expected to be given starting Monday.
December 21, 2020 4:20 am
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) – More than 1 million people have passed through U.S. airport security checkpoints in each of the past two days in a sign that public health pleas to avoid holiday travel are being ignored. It marks the first time U.S. airports have screened more than 1 million passengers since Nov. 29. That came at the end of a Thanksgiving weekend that saw far more travel around the country than had been hoped as coronavirus cases began to spike again. Now, the big fear is the pandemic will get even worse if people don’t stay at home. Hospitals in many areas are being overwhelmed amid the largest outbreak of COVID-19 in the U.S. since March
December 21, 2020 4:18 am
BERLIN (AP) – A growing list of European Union nations and Canada have barred flights from the U.K. and others are considering similar action. The moves were made Sunday to try to block a new strain of coronavirus sweeping across southern England from spreading to the continent. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland and Bulgaria all announced restrictions on U.K. travel. It came hours after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that Christmas shopping and gatherings in southern England must be canceled. He blamed rapidly spreading infections in the region on the new coronavirus variant, which officials say is 70% more transmissible than existing strains.
December 21, 2020 4:17 am
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – Authorities say a car went out of control and struck a northeast Philadelphia restaurant, killing one man and critically injuring two others. WPVI-TV reports that the car was heading south on Knights Road shortly after 1:30 a.m. Sunday when it left the road, landed on the roof of the barbecue restaurant and then fell to the parking lot. Police said 26-year-old John Cybulski was pronounced dead at a hospital about an hour later. A 21-year-old man and a 22-year-old man were reported in critical condition at hospitals. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
December 21, 2020 4:15 am
MCKEESPORT, Pa. (AP) – A spokeswoman for a Pennsylvania county says a law enforcement officer has been shot while taking a man into custody outside of a police station. Allegheny County Communications Director Amie Downs says the officer was shot outside of the McKeesport Police station Sunday evening and taken to a local trauma center. The officer’s identity and condition were not immediately known. Downs says the suspect escaped and is being sought by multiple law enforcement agencies. Allegheny County police say law enforcement and EMS have been dispatched to the station.
December 21, 2020 4:13 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — Undeterred by dismissals and admonitions from judges, President Donald Trump’s campaign continued with its unprecedented efforts to overturn the results of the Nov 3. election Sunday, saying it had filed a new petition with the Supreme Court. The petition seeks to reverse a trio of Pennsylvania Supreme Court cases having to do with mail-in ballots and asks the court to reject voters’ will and allow the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pick its own slate of electors. While the prospect of the highest court in the land throwing out the results of a democratic election based on unfounded charges of voter fraud is extraordinary unlikely, it wouldn’t change the outcome. President-elect Joe Biden would still be the winner even without Pennsylvania because of his wide margin of victory in the Electoral College. “The petition seeks all appropriate remedies, including vacating the appointment of electors committed to Joseph Biden and allowing the Pennsylvania General Assembly to select their replacements,” Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani said in a statement. He is asking the court to move swiftly so it can rule before Congress meets on Jan. 6 to tally the vote of the Electoral College, which decisively confirmed Biden’s win with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232. But the justices are not scheduled to meet again, even privately, until Jan 8, two days after Congress counts votes.
