Pompono Beach, Fla. (AP) – U.S. The first COVID-19 vaccines are running in nursing homes, where the virus has killed more than 110,000 people as the country struggles to contain such a devastating epidemic, as California has administered thousands. Body bags and refrigerated morgue trucks up.
With the rollout of the shot captured Wednesday, lawmakers in Washington and Washington have stalled on the long-stalled 900 900 billion coronavirus relief package that has cost most Americans. Will send a direct payment of 600. Meanwhile, U.S. Adding another vaccine to his arsenal was found to be several days away.
At the same time, a heavy snowfall that headed northeast caused concern, which hampered the distribution of the first vaccine.
Residents of a nursing home in Florida began receiving shots on Wednesday, after nearly 2,000 such vaccinations were given in West Virginia on Tuesday. Thousands more are scheduled there in the coming days. Other states are also likely to follow suit soon.
The elderly and the disabled in long-term care are among the most susceptible to the virus, and together with health workers, Pfizer and Germany are the first to receive a limited initial supply of vaccines developed by Biotech. Nursing home residents and workers account for more than 1,000,000,000 deaths in the country, or more than a third of the deaths confirmed by Covid-1.
In Florida, a longtime retirement shelter whose 141,000 nursing home residents are second only to California in any state, the eagerness to get vaccinated was mixed with little concern.
“I hope it helps me get COVID,” said Vera Leap, an 88-year-old retired schoolteacher who lives in the village of John Knox near Fort Lauderdale. “I don’t know anything about it, but I prefer not to have it.”
The household does not require its staff to be vaccinated, and only 80 of the 200 staff at the skilled nursing facility volunteered for the first wave, said Mark Rainer, director of health services. He said many of the people falling from the shots looking at the nation’s history of medical experiments on black people are African-Americans and don’t believe it.
“They’re terrified,” he said. “It’s also the line of culture as much as we educate them.”
Working with small and local pharmacies to reach nursing homes in a largely rural state, with one of the oldest and most undesirable populations in West Virginia, the CPS said. And to kick in any of the states that rely on partnerships with the Walgreens drug store chain. Day now.
Marty Wright, head of the West Virginia Health Care Association, which represents nursing homes and helps living communities, said state pharmacies expect to receive 7,000 doses of the weapon by the end of the week.
Through many steps the crisis develops into an increasingly acute one.
The U.S. recorded more than 3,000 deaths on Tuesday for the third time in less than a week, which would easily eclipse the peaks seen last spring. On an average, more than 212,000 new cases a day are pending. And the number of Americans in hospital with COVID-19 hit nearly 113,000, the second-highest on Tuesday.
California distributes over 1,000 body bags, mostly in the hard-hit Los Angeles and San Diego areas, and makes0 refrigerated trailers stand as temporary mortgages. An average of 163 viruses are dying every day in the state, up from 63 63 just two weeks ago.
Many California hospitals are running out of space in the intensive care ward, as the state records an average of 32,500 new virus cases a day. At the beginning of the month it is about 14,000 days.
“Our hospitals are under siege and our models are not running out of sight,” said Dr. Christina Ghali, director of Los Angeles County Health Services.
Officials in Fresno County said only a few ICU beds are available and are filling up quickly. To continue, the county’s hospital system has entered into an agreement with a Virginia company to provide a 50-bed temporary facility to doctors, nurses and others that will begin meeting patients by the end of the week.
In Orange County, health officials planned to send large tents to four hospitals to help accommodate patients.
Riverside County EMS director Bruce Barton said several hospitals had affected capacity in the past week and local authorities had to step in to pick up some of the bodies.
There is also pressure from hospitals in Arizona, where a record 92% of beds are filled, with about half of them with covid-19 people.
Dr. Joshua, executive director of the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University. “It’s an amazing statistic when you think about things that can hurt people,” Joshua Laber said. “And that certainly means that hospitals at this stage have to make the decision to keep people away from the hospital to make beds available for COVID patients.”
In the country’s capital, congressional leaders said they hoped to seal the deal on a package as early as Wednesday that would help individuals and businesses and help vaccinate millions of people. It will include a second round of enhanced federal unemployment benefits and stimulus investigations.
On Thursday, a government advisory panel will consider whether to support the emergency use of a second vaccine, created by Moderna.
Meanwhile, officials overseeing the distribution of the first vaccine said they did not expect it to disrupt the distribution of winter storms.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said the government is accurately tracking shipments of vaccines, has employees to receive them and believes the companies transporting them – FedEx and UPS – have the expertise to detect the storm. Is.
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Quinet Dil, Associated Press writers in Charleston, West Virginia; Olga R. in Fresno, California. Rodriguez; Bob Christie in Phoenix; John Antakzak in Los Angeles and Andrew Taylor in Washington Washington contributed to this report.
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