Page 12 - HOH2

A2 UP FRONT
Saturday 21 November 2020

Daily COVID-19 deaths in US reach highest level since May

times higher than a month
ago.
"Our hospitals are over-
whelmed with coronavirus
patients. Health care work-
ers are burned out," Demo-
cratic Gov. Laura Kelly said
Friday.
In rural western Kansas, the
number of people seeking
testing at a Kearny County
clinic doubled over the
past week to about 80 per
day, said Dr. Lane Olson, a
family practice doctor.
He said nurses had to
make multiple calls this
week before the University
of Kansas Hospital, about
360 miles (580 kilometers)
away in Kansas City, Kan-
sas, agreed to take one
of his coronavirus patients
whose oxygen levels were
falling. Then several more
calls were needed to find
an air transport company
that could fly her there.
In the state capital,
Topeka, the emergency
department at Stormont
Vail Hospital has taken over
a back hallway and a wait-
ing room, with some pa-
tients waiting hours to be
In this Nov. 19, 2020, file photo, healthcare workers process people waiting in line at a United Memorial Medical Center COVID-19 moved to a regular room.
testing site in Houston.
Associated Press The crunch has area offi-
Continued from Front widely available. Pfizer has the governor Tuesday set- said the curfew will do lit- cials considering opening a
said the vaccine appears ting a 10 p.m. curfew. tle to curb the coronavirus field hospital.
The county had already 95% effective at preventing DeWine said he will veto and will instead anger peo- In Arizona, four Democratic
begun paying jail inmates the disease. the bill when it reaches his ple who consider it govern- mayors urged Republican
$2 an hour to help move In Texas, Republican Gov. desk. ment overreach. Gov. Doug Ducey to im-
corpses and has ordered at Greg Abbott has ruled out Republicans in both the He thinks the order will par- pose a statewide require-
least 10 refrigerated trucks another shutdown and House and Senate have ticularly rankle supporters ment for people to wear
as morgues run out of room. singled out El Paso county enough votes to override of President Donald Trump masks in public. The move
COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. leaders for not enforcing re- the veto if they choose. who are already agitated came as health officials
are at their highest level strictions already in place. "This bill is a disaster," by the president's claims reported more than 4,000
since late May, when the The state's attorney gener- DeWine said Thursday. "This of election fraud and back additional COVID-19 cases
Northeast was emerging al, Ken Paxton, likened the is not a bill that can be- his hands-off approach to for the second consecutive
from the first wave of the county's chief administrator come law." regulating behavior during day.
crisis. to a "tyrant" after Paxton In California, the curfew the pandemic. Ducey's chief of staff, Dan-
They peaked at about won an appeals court rul- will be in place in 41 of the "It's really, really throwing iel Scarpinato, pushed
2,200 a day in late April, ing blocking local leaders state's 58 counties. Its im- gasoline on a fire," said Te- back on the request, saying
when New York City was from shutting down gyms pact will depend heavily masamani, 52, who was the mayors are doing little
the epicenter and bodies and other nonessential on voluntary compliance. skeptical that police will to enforce their own mask
were being loaded onto businesses. Sheriffs of some counties enforce the curfew. ordinances or ensure that
refrigerated trucks by fork- Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, said they won't enforce Michael Maring, an auto existing safety measures
lift. also a Republican, failed it. Under the rules, people mechanic from El Centro, put in place by the gover-
Amid the bleak new sta- to persuade leaders of the who are not on essential er- California, who was visit- nor are being enforced.q
tistics, Pfizer said Friday it is GOP-controlled legislature rands must stay home after ing San Diego, said he will
asking U.S. regulators to al- to reject a bill that would 10 p.m. obey the curfew, despite
low emergency use of its limit his administration's The curfew is less strict than his fondness for 2 a.m. bike
COVID-19 vaccine, setting power to deal with the cri- the near-total ban on non- rides, because he doesn't
in motion a process that sis. essential business and trav- want any trouble with po-
could make the first, lim- At issue is a Senate bill that el that Democratic Gov. lice.
ited shots available as early would ban the state health Gavin Newsom imposed in Like Temasamani, he thinks
as next month, with health department from issuing March and which he cred- authorities will be reluctant
care workers and other mandatory quarantine ited with flattening the rate to enforce the new meas-
high-risk groups likely to get orders enforced against of COVID-19 cases. ure.
priority. people who are not sick or Rocco Temasamani, who In Kansas, new cases have
But it could take months be- exposed to disease — such was selling jewelry Friday at risen to an average of over
fore the vaccine becomes as the order announced by San Diego's Ocean Beach, 2,700 per day, nearly four