LONDON – Thousands of people aged 80 and over have begun receiving invitations to get the coronavirus vaccine in England, officials said on Sunday as Britain boosts its national vaccination program to try to achieve the goal of inoculate about 15 million people by mid-February.
This week more than 600,000 invitations will have to arrive at doors across England, asking seniors to sign up for jabs at the nearby new mass vaccination centers.
The government has administered a first dose of vaccine to more than 1.2 million people so far.
The seven new large-scale vaccination centers join another 1,000 sites across the country, including hospitals, general practitioners ’clinics and some pharmacies.
Officials hope a rapid introduction of mass vaccinations will help pull Britain out of its third national closure, which was ordered this month to curb an alarming rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths. Britain has suffered 81,000 deaths in the pandemic, according to a Johns Hopkins University account.
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VIRUS BROUGHT:
– California reports record a total of one day of 695 coronavirus deaths
– The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, under fire while Britain faces the COVID-19 attack again
– Overwhelmed hospitals in Ukraine see the consequences of the generalized New Year’s Eve festivities
– Israelis protest Netanyahu in the middle of the third virus blockade
– The pandemic night curfew has effect throughout Quebec
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Follow AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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HERE IS WHAT HAPPENS MOST:
BERLIN – More than 40,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Germany.
The sad record of 40,343 deaths was reached on Sunday when the country’s disease control center reported 465 new deaths.
Initially, Germany managed to keep the death toll low compared to its European neighbors, but since October, both new infections and deaths are steadily rising. On Sunday, Germany recorded 16,946 new infections.
The country entered a second hard blockade last month, which was recently extended until the end of January. Schools and most shops are closed, hospitals in the country are nearby and some youths do not have enough space to cool the relentless flow of incoming bodies.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that the coming weeks will be the most difficult in the pandemic. However, the chancellor also said the mass vaccinations, which began in late December, will eventually bring relief.
“A few hundred thousand have been vaccinated and more will return every day. The speed will increase, ”Merkel said in her weekly podcast.
To date, Germany and the European Union have approved vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. More than 530,000 people, mostly seniors and medical staff, had been vaccinated on Saturday.
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LVIV, Ukraine – A medical college in western Ukraine has been transformed into a temporary hospital as the coronavirus floods the Eastern European country.
The lobby of the Lviv city school has 50 beds for patients with COVID-19 and 300 more are placed in classrooms and auditoriums to accommodate the overflow of people seeking care in a full emergency hospital nearby .
The head of the hospital’s therapies division, Marta Sayko, said the university space has doubled its treatment capacity. He expects a broad closure ordered on Friday to reduce the burden on the Ukrainian health system.
Many medical workers have criticized the government for ordering the closure only after the Christmas and New Year holidays instead of running the risk of angering the public.
“We saw New Year’s Eve parties on a large scale in almost every city,” said Borys Ribun, head of the Lviv regional pathology office. “I think there will be consequences. We’ll see them in a week or two. “
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BEIJING – More than 360 people have tested positive for a growing outbreak of coronavirus in southern Beijing, in neighboring Hebei Province.
China’s National Health Commission reported on Sunday that 69 new cases had been confirmed, including 46 in Hebei.
The outbreak has raised special concerns about Hebei’s proximity to the nation’s capital. Travel between the two has been restricted, and Hebei workers have to show proof of employment in Beijing to enter.
Hebei has recorded 183 confirmed cases and 181 additional asymptomatic cases over the past eight days. China does not include those who test positive, but do not show symptoms in the official case count.
Almost all cases are in Shijuazhuang, the provincial capital, which is 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of Beijing. A handful have also been found in Xingtai. Both cities have conducted massive tests of millions of residents, suspended public transportation, and restricted residents to their communities or towns for a week.
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MEXICO CITY – Mexico has released another daily record of confirmed coronavirus cases, with 16,105 new infections reported on Saturday and a practical record of 1,135 COVID-19-related deaths in the last 24-hour period.
The country has now surpassed 1.5 million total infections and more than 133,000 deaths so far from the pandemic. Given Mexico’s extremely low level of evidence, official estimates suggest the actual death toll is more than 180,000.
Health officials said 6,722 shots of the coronavirus vaccine were administered on Friday, for a total of up to about 75,000. In Mexico City, the current center of the pandemic in Mexico, 90% of hospital beds are full.
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MONTREAL: A curfew was made on Saturday evening to curb the rise in COVID-19 cases across Quebec.
Prime Minister Francois Legault, says the measure is necessary to prevent meetings that have fueled the rampant spread of the virus. The French-speaking Canadian province has a population of over 8.4 million
The rules will allow most residents to face police questions or fines of up to C $ 6,000 (US $ 4,728) if they are out from 8pm to 5am for the next four weeks. There are exceptions for essential workers, people who walk with dogs, and those who have medical reasons for being away, such as an appointment with a doctor.
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TOKYO – Japanese opposition lawmakers on Sunday criticized the government’s declaration of emergency because it was too late to curb the growing coronavirus case.
They also pushed for more tests, which have lagged behind in Japan, being costly and difficult to achieve unless they are seriously ill.
“It is crucial to consider the worst-case scenario possible, but the answer has always been based on an overly optimistic outlook,” Yukio Edano, a former economy minister, told NHK TV.
Opposition lawmakers Toranosuke Katayama and Kazuo Shii also criticized the state of emergency for being too limited in scope, area and duration. The statement, which began on Friday, calls for restaurants to close at 8 p.m., lasts a month and focuses on the Tokyo area.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga defended the focus of the statement and said the upward curve of the spread of the infection will flatten in a month.
COVID-19-related deaths have totaled approximately 4,000 nationwide to date. Concerns are growing that hospitals will expand. Tokyo cases have recently risen to more than 2,000 a day.
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PROVIDENCE, RI – Rhode Island Lieutenant Governor Daniel McKee is quarantined at home after coming into close contact with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, officials said Saturday.
The lieutenant governor learned of the close contact on Saturday morning, since then it has been negative and shows no symptoms, officials said. He will continue testing and will remain in quarantine until midnight on January 12, officials said.
McKee is about to serve the remaining two years of Governor Gina Raimondo’s term after Raimondo was named Biden’s secretary of commerce, Democrat Joe Biden.
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LAS VEGAS – Nevada reports one of the state’s highest daily increases in coronavirus deaths since the pandemic began, and its worst week to date.
The state reported 2,648 more known cases of COVID-19 and an additional 56 deaths on Saturday. This is close to the record 60 deaths recorded on Wednesday alone. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that the one-week total of 299 deaths from COVID-19 in the state was the worst yet.
Nevada has had 246,309 known cases of COVID-19 and 3,450 deaths since the pandemic began.
The seven-day average of new daily cases in Nevada rose from 2,115.3 on Dec. 25 to 2,373.6 on Friday, while the rotating average of daily deaths rose from 33.6 to 35.4, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and The COVID Tracking Project.
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LOS ANGELES – California health authorities reported Saturday the record high of 695 coronavirus deaths, as many hospitals underwent an unprecedented number of cases.
The state Department of Public Health said the number has increased the number of deaths in the state since the start of the pandemic to 29,233.
An increase in cases after Halloween and Thanksgiving produced record hospitalizations in California, and now the most severely ill of these patients die in unprecedented numbers.
There are already many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas struggling to keep up and warned that care may need to be rationed as intensive care beds dwindle.
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OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma judge has extended a temporary restraining order allowing Oklahoma bars and restaurants to remain open after a 23-hour curfew issued in November by Gov. Kevin Stitt in an effort to curb coronavirus spread.
District Judge Susan Stallings on Friday heard the case’s arguments and extended the Dec. 29 order, while considering ruling the bar owners’ lawsuit arguing that the governor has no legal authority to impose the touch of remains, according to court records.
The governor’s lawyers say the state law gives Stitt “broad and flexible authority” to combat the spread of the virus.
On Saturday, Oklahoma has the sixth-largest number of newer cases per capita in the country, with 1,218.16 per 100,000 residents, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The state health department reported 2,738 deaths since the pandemic began on Saturday.
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JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the second dose of the coronavirus vaccine on Saturday after becoming the first Israeli to be inoculated last month.
Israel is in the midst of a third nationwide shutdown after seeing an increase in cases despite triggering one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world. The country has administered the first dose of vaccine to almost 20% of its population. Netanyahu said Saturday he has gotten enough vaccines to inoculate the entire adult population by the end of March.
Netanyahu has placed the vaccination campaign at the center of his re-election campaign in March, when Israel will hold its fourth national vote in less than two years. Meanwhile, he has called on the Israelis to make “one last great effort” to stop the transmission following tightened restrictions.
Most schools and businesses closed as of Friday, and people had to stay within 1,000 meters of their homes, except for essential needs. Public meetings are very restricted and public transportation is limited. Restrictions must last at least two weeks.