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Diahuebs 31 December 2020
Colorado Guardsman has 1st reported US case of virus variant
immediately returned. oped nations, so the finding in Col-
orado probably means it is already
The alarming new version was first spreading in other parts of the coun-
identified in Britain, where infections try and it is too late for travel bans.
are soaring and hospitalizations have
climbed to the highest levels on re- “We’re behind in finding it. Colorado
cord. It has also been found in several is likely one of many places it’s land-
other countries. ed here,” Topol said. “It’s all over the
place. How can you ban travel from
Scientists in Britain have found no everywhere?”
evidence that it is more lethal or
causes more severe illness, and they Colorado public health officials are
believe the vaccines now being dis- conducting contact tracing to deter-
pensed will be effective against it. mine its spread, and Gov. Jared Polis
said infections are being monitored
Nevertheless, the discovery over- closely.
seas led the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to issue rules British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
on Christmas Day requiring travelers reported the weekend before Christ-
arriving from Britain to show proof mas that the variant was moving rap-
of a negative COVID-19 test. idly through London and southeast
England. The region was placed un-
(AP) — The first person in the ing home in the small town of Simla, The variant is probably still rare in the der strict lockdown measures, and
U.S. known to be infected with a in a mostly rural area about 90 miles U.S., but the Colorado patient's lack dozens of countries banned flights
new and apparently more conta- outside Denver, said Dr. Rachel Her- of travel history means it is spreading, from Britain. France also briefly
gious variant of the coronavirus lihy, state epidemiologist. They were perhaps seeded by visitors from Brit- barred trucks from Britain before al-
was identified Wednesday as a among six Guard members sent to ain in November or December, said lowing them back in, provided the
Colorado National Guardsman the home. scientist Trevor Bedford, who studies drivers got tested for the virus.
who had been sent to help out at the spread of COVID-19 at the Fred
a nursing home struggling with A state laboratory began looking for Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Japan announced a ban Monday on
an outbreak. And health officials signs of the variant after its spread in Seattle. all nonresident foreigners as a pre-
said a second Guard member may was announced in England earlier caution.
have it, too. this month, Herlihy said. Staff and “Now I’m worried there will be an-
residents at the nursing home who other spring wave due to the variant,” New versions of the virus have been
The cases have triggered a host of tested positive for the coronavirus are Bedford said. “It’s a race with the vac- seen almost since it was first detected
questions about how the mutant ver- having their samples screened for the cine, but now the virus has just got- in China a year ago. It is common for
sion circulating in England arrived in variant, and so far no evidence of it ten a little bit faster.” viruses to undergo minor changes as
the U.S. and whether it is too late to has been found, she said. they reproduce and move through
stop it now, with top experts saying The confirmed case is in a Colora- “The virus is becoming more fit and a population. The fear is that muta-
it is probably already spreading else- do man in his 20s who hadn’t been we’re like a deer in the headlights,” tions will become significant enough
where in the country. The discovery traveling, officials said. He has mild warned Dr. Eric Topol, head of to defeat the vaccines.
has also added urgency to the nation’s symptoms and is isolating at his Scripps Research Translational Insti-
vaccination drive. home near Denver, while the person tute, South Africa has also discovered a
with the suspected case is isolating at highly contagious COVID-19 vari-
The two Guard members had been a Colorado hotel, Herlihy said. He noted that the U.S. does far less ant that is driving the country’s lat-
dispatched on Dec. 23 to work at genetic sequencing of virus samples est spike of cases, hospitalizations and
the Good Samaritan Society nurs- A call to the nursing home was not to discover variants than other devel- deaths.
Vaccine delivered to prison where feds carry out executions
(AP) — The Bureau of Prisons has started number of cases at the prison has increased expo- The Bureau of Prisons had initially planned to re-
vaccinating staff members and some inmates nentially in recent weeks; when the last execution serve doses of the coronavirus vaccine only for its
at the federal prison complex where the Jus- was carried out earlier this month, 133 inmates at staff members, but said last week that some high-
tice Department carries out federal execu- the facility had the virus. risk inmates had also been vaccinated. But so far,
tions, as officials work to contain a coronavi- the agency has not said how many inmates have
rus outbreak at the facility. Two men who are scheduled to be executed by the been vaccinated or how it selects those to receive
federal government next month, Cory Johnson the vaccine.
Doses of the coronavirus vaccine had been de- and Dustin John Higgs, are among the inmates at
livered to 19 prisons, including the Federal Cor- Terre Haute who have tested positive for the virus. A spokesman for the bureau said roughly half of
rectional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana, by The Justice Department said in a court filing this the staff at each of the facilities has received the
Wednesday, a Bureau of Prisons spokesman told week that both had been “medically cleared from vaccine and that remaining doses “were, and will
The Associated Press. They include some prisons isolation” but were still exhibiting symptoms of the be, provided to inmates based on priority of need,”
that have been hit the hardest during the pandemic. virus. in accordance with guidelines from the Centers for
Nearly 7,100 federal inmates and more than 1,600 Disease Control and Prevention.
Bureau of Prisons staff members across the coun- Attorneys for both of the men have asked federal Additional doses will be given to other inmates
try had active, positive test results for COVID-19 courts to step in and halt the executions. The gov- when they become available, the agency said.
on Wednesday, including 406 inmates at the fed- ernment has opposed those requests. Another ex-
eral penitentiary in Terre Haute. Since March, 179 ecution, for Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on
federal inmates across the country have died after federal death row, had been scheduled for the same
contracting the virus. week, but a federal judge vacated an order from the
director of the Bureau of Prisons, saying the Justice
The agency has struggled for months to combat the Department had unlawfully rescheduled the ex-
exploding number of coronavirus cases in federal ecution after Montgomery’s attorneys contracted
prisons across the U.S. Federal statistics show there coronavirus visiting their client and asked him to
are currently more inmates with positive COV- extend the amount of time to file a clemency peti-
ID-19 test results at the Terre Haute penitentiary tion.
than at any other federal prison in the country. The