On an equivalent day, it hosted Super Bowl LV, Florida on Sunday became the primary state to report 200 cases of coronavirus variants, consistent with a USA TODAY analysis.
The concerning news comes as public health officials across the state are bracing for a possible surge in coronavirus infections for those that may have did not listen to warnings to not gather for Super Bowl parties.
The game itself was played before 22,000 masked fans, many of them vaccinated health care workers, at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' stadium, but videos on social media after the sport showed revelers in Tampa, many maskless and ignoring social distancing guidance, celebrating within the streets.
“At now in handling COVID-19, there's A level of frustration once you see that,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said at a Monday morning press conference.
Castor later tempered her remarks, but White House press secretary Jen Psaki voiced an identical message when asked if it worried President Joe Biden to ascertain numerous ignore health guidelines.
“He is concerned when there are pictures and photos – we all are that show many, many of us without masks in close distance with each other at the peak of an epidemic,” Psaki said.
The country now has 699 known cases of virus variants, up from 618 on Thursday. Cases of the highly contagious variants have quite doubled since Jan. 27.
Florida holds about 29% of the known variant cases within the country, and now has more variant cases than the whole country had Jan. 23. Each of Florida's known cases is of B.1.1.7, referred to as the U.K. variant, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says might be the predominant version within us next month.
On Sunday night, the U.S. also reported that B.1.135, referred to as the South African variant, reached Virginia. the opposite five known cases are in Maryland and South Carolina. And the P.1 variant, referred to as the Brazilian variant, has been found in Oklahoma and Minnesota.
Arizona reapplies for more vaccine doses, despite being told 'no' before
Arizona officials have refiled their federal request for extra COVID-19 vaccine doses after their initial application was denied last month. The state wants an instantaneous 300,000 extra doses and a further 300,000 doses quite Arizona's normal allotment hebdomadally moving forward.
A request was submitted in mid-January to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. it had been denied during a matter of two days because FEMA said they were the incorrect agency to ask, albeit FEMA officials had prompted the state to use, said Dr. Cara Christ, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The dosing system is managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and therefore the CDC, but if Arizona submitted such an outsized request through that system, it could deduct doses from smaller orders waiting to be filled. To avoid that, Arizona is using FEMA's resource request process as a kind of "workaround" then FEMA can share the knowledge with partners, although FEMA itself won't fulfill the request.
Worrisome South African variant may change expectations about vaccines
The new study showing the South African variant of the coronavirus eludes protection from the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine means "we must recalibrate our expectations,” consistent with the researcher who conducted the trial.
There is still much to find out about the variant, which has been detected in just six instances within the U.S. so far. We still do not know if it's more transmissible and if so by what proportion, or whether the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine prevents the severe disease from the variant, as some scientists expect.
Here are some answers to questions on the variant.
Iowa governor lifted restrictions before checking with health officials
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds didn't consult health officials from her administration before lifting pandemic mitigation restrictions, consistent with lawmakers who spoke with those officials.
The move by the Republican governor, which removed mask requirements and limits on the number of individuals who could take in bars and restaurants starting on Super Bowl Sunday, caught many all of sudden. Iowa still features a high positivity rate and has fallen to the last place within the nation in delivering the primary dose of coronavirus vaccine.
“I just can’t understand why the governor would lift that once we still have such a coffee percentage of vaccinations completed,” said state Sen. Liz Mathis, a Democrat.
A Reynolds spokesman said the choice came in response to a big reduction in COVID hospitalizations.
The US reports 88Knew cases; the first week of February deadlier than all of June
The 88,044 new COVID-19 cases reported within us on Sunday was the low marker in three months, but it still represents a mean of quite a case per second, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data found.
The country hadn't reported fewer than new 100,000 cases during a day since Nov. 2, apart from Christmas, when some states didn't report numbers.
In the week ending Sunday, the U.S. reported 819,050 cases, about half the speed reported a month earlier. But January's disastrous spike in cases led to a surge in deaths. The country has been averaging about 3,000 reported deaths per day for a month, and within the week ending Sunday, the U.S. reported 22,121 deaths.
That first week of deaths in February is bigger than the number of deaths reported altogether in June.
Chicago schools to reopen this week; San Francisco reaches deal; NYC reopening middle schools
Chicago schools are set to reopen in the week after a tentative agreement was figured out with the teachers’ union over COVID-19 safety protocols, potentially averting a strike within the third-largest administrative district within the nation.
Under the possible deal, which still requires approval by the Chicago Teachers Union, pre-K and education programs would return Thursday and other groups would be staggered. Kindergarten through fifth-grade students would return to high school on March 1 and middle schoolers every week later. No return date has been set for top schoolers.
Elsewhere, the unions that represent San Francisco administrative district workers said Sunday that they even have tentatively agreed to a deal that might allow public schools to reopen, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
And in NY City, middle schools are to reopen on Feb. 25, bringing 62,000 more students back to the classroom after shuttering in November
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