LONDON – Thousands of people aged 80 and over have been invited to receive the coronavirus vaccine in England, officials said on Sunday as Britain increased its national vaccination program to reach a target of vaccinating some 15 million people by 15 February. .
More than 600,000 invitations will arrive at the threshold in England this week, asking the elderly to sign up at new mass vaccination centers near them.
The government has so far given a first dose of the vaccine to more than 1.2 million people.
The seven new large-scale vaccination centers join about 1,000 other sites across the country, including hospitals, general practitioners and some pharmacies.
Officials hope a swift vaccination through mass vaccination will help get Britain out of its third national exclusion, which was ordered this month to curb a disturbing rise in COVID-19 infections and deaths. According to a version by Johns Hopkins University, Britain has seen 81,000 deaths in the pandemic.
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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:
– California reports record one day total of 695 deaths in coronavirus
– British Prime Minister Boris Johnson under fire while Britain again faces the onslaught of COVID-19
– Overwhelmed hospitals in Ukraine see the consequences of Widespread New Year’s Celebrations
Israelis protest Netanyahu amid third-virus crackdown
– Night watch for pandemic launches in Quebec
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Follow AP coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus- vaccination and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak
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THIS HAPPENS DIFFERENTLY:
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.
Germany initially managed to keep mortality rates low compared to its European neighbors, but since October, new infections and deaths have gradually increased. On Sunday, Germany recorded 16,946 new infections.
The country began a second hard lockout last month, which was recently extended to the end of January. Schools and most shops have been closed, hospitals in the country are running and some mortuaries do not have enough space to cool off 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 mass vaccinations, which began in late December, would eventually bring relief.
A few hundred thousand have been vaccinated and it will become more every day. The speed will pick up, ”Merkel said in her weekly podcast.
Germany and the European Union have so far approved the vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. More than 530,000 people, mostly the elderly and medical staff, were vaccinated by Saturday.
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LVIV, Ukraine – A medical college in western Ukraine has been converted into a temporary hospital as the coronavirus floods the country in Eastern Europe.
The foyer of the college in the city of Lviv has 50 beds for COVID-19 patients, and 300 more are placed in lecture halls and auditoriums to accommodate the abundance of people seeking care in a packed emergency hospital nearby.
The head of the therapy department of the hospital, Marta Sayko, said that the university space has doubled the capacity of the treatment. She hopes that a broad closure ordered on Friday will reduce the burden on the Ukrainian health care system.
Many medical workers have criticized the government for ordering the exclusion only after the Christmas and New Year holidays, rather than angering the public.
“We have seen large-scale New Year’s festivals in almost every city,” said Borys Ribun, head of the regional pathology bureau in Lviv. “I think there will be consequences. We’ll see them in a week or two. ‘
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BEIJING – More than 360 people tested positive in a growing coronavirus outbreak south of 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 caused concern due to Hebei’s proximity to the country’s capital. The journey between the two is limited, and workers from Hebei had to provide proof that they were employed in Beijing to enter.
Hebei recorded 183 confirmed cases and another 181 asymptomatic cases during the past eight days. China does not include those who test the positive number but do not show symptoms.
Almost all of the cases are in Shijuazhuang, the provincial capital, which is 260 kilometers southwest of Beijing. A handful were also found in Xingtai. Both cities conducted mass tests of millions of residents, suspended public transportation and restricted residents to their communities or towns for one week.
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MEXICO CITY – Mexico has set another daily record for new cases of coronavirus, with 16,105 new infections reported on Saturday, and a near-record 1,135 deaths related to COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour period .
The country has now found 1.5 million infections and more than 133,000 deaths so far in the pandemic. Given Mexico’s extremely low level of testing, official estimates suggest that the actual death toll is more than 180,000.
Health authorities said 6,722 shots were fired against coronavirus, which is about 75,000 so far. In Mexico City, the current center of the pandemic in Mexico, 90% of hospital beds are full.
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MONTREAL – A junction designed to curb an increasing tide of COVID-19 cases went live in Quebec on Saturday night.
Prime Minister Francois Legault, says the measure is necessary to prevent rallies that have fueled the turbulent spread of the virus. The French-speaking Canadian province has more than 8.4 million inhabitants.
The rules will mean that most residents will face police questions or fines of up to $ 6,000 Canadian (US $ 4,728) if they are out between 20:00 and 05:00 for the next four weeks. There are exceptions for essential workers, people walking dogs, and those who have medical reasons to be outside, such as a doctor’s appointment.
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TOKYO – Japanese opposition lawmakers charged the government’s emergency statement on Sunday as too late to halt the rising coronavirus case.
They also insisted on more testing, which was left behind in Japan, expensive and difficult to obtain unless seriously ill.
“It is essential to consider the worst case scenario, but the response 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 as too limited in scope, area and duration. The statement, which began Friday, calls for restaurants to close at 8 p.m., last a month and focus on the Tokyo area.
Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga defended the focus of the statement, saying that the rising curve in the spread of the infection would flatten out in a month.
Deaths associated with COVID-19 have so far been around 4,000 nationwide. Concerns are growing about hospitals becoming thinner. Tokyo’s cases have recently increased to more than 2,000 per day.
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PROVIDENCE, RI – Rhode Island Lieutenant General Daniel McKee is being 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, has since tested negative and shows no symptoms, officials said. He will continue to test and will remain in midnight to midnight on January 12, officials said.
McKee is ready to serve the remaining two years of Gina Raimondo’s tenure after Raimondo was named as Democrat Joe Biden’s Biden’s choice of trade secretary.
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LAS VEGAS – Nevada reports one of the highest daily increases in coronavirus deaths since the pandemic, and the worst week yet.
The state reported 2,648 additional known COVID-19 cases and 56 additional deaths on Saturday. This is close to the record of 60 deaths that were only reported on Wednesday. The Las Vegas Review Journal reported that the state’s total of 299 COVID-19 deaths in one week was the worst yet.
Nevada has had 246,309 known COVID-19 cases and 3,450 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
The seven-day moving average of daily new cases in Nevada increased from 2,115.3 on December 25 to 2,373.6 on Friday, while the running average 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 on Saturday reported a record high of 695 coronavirus deaths as many hospitals were under unprecedented consequences.
The state Department of Public Health said the number had increased the death toll from the state since the start of the pandemic to 29,233.
A resurgence in cases after Halloween and Thanksgiving has yielded record hospitals in California, and now the most seriously ill of the patients are dying in unprecedented numbers.
Many hospitals in Los Angeles and other hard-hit areas are already struggling to keep up and have warned that it should be possible to care for rations as intensive care beds fall.
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OKLAHOMA CITY – A judge in Oklahoma has extended a temporary restraining order to keep bars and restaurants in Oklahoma open after a 23:00 evening bell issued by the government, Kevin Stitt, in November in an effort to distribute to slow down the coronavirus.
District Judge Susan Stallings heard arguments in the case on Friday and extended the order on Dec. 29, as she considers ruling in the case by bar owners who claim the governor has no legal authority to set the curfew.
Advocates for the governor say Stitt needs broad and flexible authority to combat the spread of the virus.
On Saturday, Oklahoma had the sixth most new cases per capita in the country with 1,218.16 per 100,000 inhabitants, 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 coronavirus vaccine on Saturday after becoming the first Israeli to be vaccinated last month.
Israel is in the midst of a third nationwide exclusion after seeing an increase in cases, despite unleashing one of the world’s fastest vaccination campaigns. The country gave the first of two vaccine doses to nearly 20% of its population. Netanyahu said on Saturday that he had secured enough vaccines to vaccinate the entire adult population by the end of March.
Netanyahu put the vaccination campaign in the middle of his re-election campaign in March, when Israel will hold its fourth nationwide vote in less than two years. Meanwhile, he called on Israelites to make one last major effort to stop the transfer by complying with the tightened restrictions.
Most schools and businesses are closed from Friday, and people must stay within 1,000 meters of the house, except for essential needs. Public gatherings are severely restricted and public transportation is restricted. The restrictions must last at least two weeks.