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A2 UP FRONT
Tuesday 19 January 2021

Coronavirus deaths rising in 30 US states amid winter surge

vast effort is underway to six minutes. On Sunday,
get Americans vaccinat- the South Coast Air Qual-
ed — what Cuomo called ity Management District
"a footrace" between the suspended some pollution-
vaccination rate and the control limits on the number
infection rate. But the cam- of cremations for at least 10
paign is off to an uneven days in order to deal with a
start. According to the lat- backlog of bodies at hospi-
est federal data, about tals and funeral homes.
31.2 million doses of vac- In other areas of the coun-
cine have been distribut- try, officials are working to
ed, but only about 10.6 mil- ensure that people take
lion people have received the vaccine once they're
at least one dose. offered it amid concerns
In some cases, vaccine that many people are hesi-
supplies thus far do not tant. Maryland Gov. Larry
meet demand. More than Hogan, in a livestreamed
172,000 people in Missouri's event on Martin Luther King
St. Louis County have reg- Jr. Day, received a shot,
istered for the vaccine, but and urged other Mary-
the the local health de- landers to do likewise.
partment so far has only "We're all looking forward
received 975 doses, said to the day we can take
In this Thursday, Jan. 14, 2021. file photo, Norton, Mass. police salute as a hearse carrying County Executive Sam off and throw away our
colleague Det. Sgt. Stephen Desfosses briefly stops in front of the police station. Page. masks," Hogan said. "The
Associated Press In California, the most pop- only way we are going to
Continued from Front zations and deaths simply spread will depend on ulous state, counties are return to a sense of nor-
because it spreads more whether those who did pleading for more vaccine malcy is by these COVID-19
Referring to new versions easily. In Britain, it has ag- gather with family and as the state tries to reduce vaccines."
detected in Britain, South gravated a severe out- friends quarantined af- a high rate of infection that But challenges to the vac-
Africa and Brazil, Cuomo break that has swamped terward or went back to has led to record numbers cine campaign are surfac-
said: "Stop those people hospitals, and it has been school or work in person, of hospitalizations and ing worldwide.
from coming here.... Why blamed for sharp leaps in she said. deaths. The World Health Organiza-
are you allowing people cases in some other Euro- One of the states hardest Although the state last tion chief on Monday lam-
to fly into this country and pean countries. it during the recent surge week said anyone age 65 basted drugmakers' profits
then it's too late?" As things stands, many is Arizona, where the rolling and older can start receiv- and vaccine inequalities,
The U.S. government has U.S. states are already un- average has risen over the ing the vaccine, Los Ange- saying it's "not right" that
already curbed travel der tremendous strain. The past two weeks from about les County and some oth- younger, healthier adults in
from some of the places seven-day rolling average 90 deaths per day to about ers have said they don't some wealthy countries get
where the new variants are of daily deaths is rising in 160 per day on Jan. 17. have enough to immunize vaccinated against COV-
spreading — such as Britain 30 states and the District of Rural Yuma County — so many people. They are ID-19 before older people
and Brazil — and recently Columbia, and on Monday known as the winter lettuce concentrating on protect- or health care workers in
it announced that it would the U.S. death toll surpassed capital of the U.S. — is now ing health care workers poorer countries.
require proof of a nega- 398,000, according to data one of the state's hot spots. and the most vulnerable Director-General Tedros
tive COVID-19 test for any- collected by Johns Hopkins Exhausted nurses there elderly in care homes first. Adhanom Ghebreyesus la-
one flying into the country. University — by far the high- are now regularly sending On Monday, the superin- mented that one country
But the new variant seen in est recorded death toll of COVID-19 patients on a tendent of the Los Ange- received a mere 25 doses
Britain is already spreading any country in the world. long helicopter ride to hos- les Unified School District while over 39 million doses
in the U.S., and the Cent- Ellie Murray, an assistant pitals in Phoenix when they sent a letter asking for state have been administered in
ers for Disease Control and professor of epidemiol- don't have enough staff. and county authorization nearly 50 richer nations.
Protection has warned that ogy at the Boston Univer- The county has lagged on to provide vaccinations at "Just 25 doses have been
it will probably become sity School of Public Health, coronavirus testing in heav- schools for staff, local com- given in one lowest income
the dominant version in the said cases have prolifer- ily Hispanic neighborhoods munity members — and for country — not 25 million,
country by March. The CDC ated in part because of and just ran out of vac- students once a vaccine not 25,000 — just 25. I need
said the variant is about gatherings for Christmas cines. for children has been ap- to be blunt: The world is
50% more contagious than and New Year — and com- But some support is coming proved. on the brink of a cata-
the virus that is causing the pounded previous surges from military nurses and a The death rate from COV- strophic moral failure," Te-
bulk of cases in the U.S. from Thanksgiving and the new wave of free tests for ID-19 in Los Angeles County dros said. He did not spec-
While the variant does not return of students to schools farmworkers and the eld- — an epicenter of the U.S. ify the country, but a WHO
cause more severe illness, it and universities in the fall. erly in Yuma County. pandemic — works out to spokeswoman identified it
can cause more hospitali- The pace of any further Amid the rise in cases, a about one person every as Guinea.q