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headline

Thousands of Virus Patients Sent to New York Nursing Homes, World Stats

More  than 9,000 virus patients were sent into New York nursing homes; Biden says US is securing 600 million vaccine doses by July

More than 9,000 recovering coronavirus patients in New York state were released from hospitals into nursing homes under a controversial directive that was scrapped amid criticism it was accelerating outbreaks.

That’s according to new records obtained by the AP, report Bernard Condon and Jennifer Peltz.

The new number of more than 9,000 recovering patients sent to hundreds of nursing homes is more than 40% higher than what had been previously released by the state health department.

And it raises new questions as to whether Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 25 directive helped spread sickness and death among residents. That’s a charge his administration disputes.

Overall, New York has lost more than 45,000 people to the virus, more than any other state except California.

U.S. Vaccination Drive: President Joe Biden says the U.S. will have enough supply of the vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans. Biden toured the Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory at the sprawling National Institutes of Health complex just outside Washington that created the COVID-19 shots now manufactured by Moderna. Biden says the U.S. had secured contractual commitments from Moderna and Pfizer to deliver the 600 million doses of vaccine by the end of July — more than a month earlier than initially anticipated, Zeke Miller and Jonathan Lemire report.

Australian city of Melbourne begins third lockdown due to cluster; Portugal’s relief at falling cases tempered by fear; Pandemic’s toll on exhausted UK funeral directors 

Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne will begin its third lockdown due to a rapidly spreading coronavirus cluster centered on hotel quarantine. The five-day lockdown will be enforced across Victoria state to prevent the virus spreading from the state capital.

The Australian Open tennis tournament will be allowed to continue but without spectators.

Only international flights that were already in the air when the lockdown was announced will be allowed to land at Melbourne Airport.

A population of 6.5 million will be locked down from 11:59 p.m. until the same time on Wednesday because a contagious British variant of the virus first detected at a Melbourne Airport hotel has infected 13 people. Some Australian states have imposed border restrictions on travelers from Melbourne.

Portugal’s Peak: After about two weeks last month as the world’s worst-hit country by size of population, the anxiety in Portugal over the recent pandemic peak has eased slightly. The number of COVID-19 patients in hospital and in intensive care fell for the third straight day. But Portugal’s seven-day average of daily deaths remained the world’s highest, at 2.05 per 100,000 people. One doctor had a nagging fear as the Iberian nation’s January surge of cases threatened to overwhelm his intensive care unit at the capital’s Curry Cabral Hospital: He was afraid he wouldn’t be able to care for his patients. Helena Alves reports from Lisbon.

Britain’s Undertakers Under Pressure: Funeral home staff are under intense pressure in many countries, but the burden is especially intense in Britain, where more than 115,000 people with the virus have died. That’s one of the highest per-capita death tolls in the world.

One London funeral director says her phone hasn’t stopped ringing, and she worries that “I don’t have what it takes.” Undertakers, embalmers and others who deal with death for a living often regard the burden on them as less important than the pain felt by bereaved families. But many are exhausted by the sheer amount of mortality they have faced, and the pandemic is increasing awareness that their own mental health also deserves consideration, Jill Lawless and Jo Kearney report from London.

Brazil Vaccination-Amazon: Traveling to remote communities in the Amazon is only the first challenge for health workers vaccinating Indigenous and riverine people. They can also face deep skepticism about receiving the shot. Much of that stems from the doubts that Brazil’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro repeatedly sowed about the efficacy of the vaccines. Although Indigenous communities have gained greater access to technology and the internet in recent years, information often arrives in a very distorted way, Diane Jeantet and Fernando Crispim report.

Coronavirus Cases:

108,358,209

Deaths:

2,380,471

Recovered:

80,409,652
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

[back to top ↑]

Latest News

February 12 (GMT)

Updates

  • 127 new cases and 2 new deaths in Nepal [source]
  • 6,379 new cases and 247 new deaths in Poland [source]
  • 15,089 new cases and 507 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 10,677 new cases and 1,474 new deaths in Mexico [source]

The post Thousands of Virus Patients Sent to New York Nursing Homes, World Stats appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

headline

Explosion destroys supermarket building in southern Russia

A gas explosion destroyed a supermarket building in Vladikavkaz, a city in southern Russia, on Friday morning, local officials said.

Russian news agencies reported that no one was appeared to be wounded in the blast.

A man who was inside the building at the time of the explosion was rescued from under the rubble and didn't sustain any injuries, the state Tass news agency reported.

Russian Emergency Ministry employees work at a scene of a powerful explosion in Vladikavkaz, Russia, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021

According to Tass, the explosion occurred early in the morning in a three-story building housing a supermarket, as well as several shops and offices. Media reports said a gas leak was the likely cause.

The blast completely destroyed the building and shattered windows in several residential buildings close by.

Russia's Investigative Committee has opened a preliminary inquiry into the incident.

Russian Emergency Ministry employees work at a scene of a powerful explosion in Vladikavkaz, Russia, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021

headline

Biden Stops Mexican Border Wall Construction

President Biden has rescinded the emergency order used by former President Trump to justify construction of the border wall, the White House announced Thursday.

“I have determined that the declaration of a national emergency at our southern border was unwarranted,” Biden wrote in a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

“I have also announced that it shall be the policy of my administration that no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall, and that I am directing a careful review of all resources appropriated or redirected to that end.”

The nail in the coffin: The proclamation is a final step from Biden after issuing an executive order on day one of his presidency questioning the validity of Trump’s national emergency and ordering a pause on all border wall construction.

It also comes after the administration asked the Supreme Court to cancel an upcoming hearing on the legality of the border wall, which the court then granted.

The background: Trump issued the national emergency at the border in early 2019 after repeatedly butting heads with lawmakers over funding for the project. The emergency declaration loosened the limits on taxpayer funding, paving the way for Trump to divert funds originally intended for other agencies, including the Defense Department.

But the move landed his administration in court, as environmental groups and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged $2.5 billion in Pentagon spending that had been diverted to complete construction.

Trump first floated the idea of a border wall on the campaign trail, repeatedly insisting that Mexico would pay for its construction. But in early 2020, Customs and Border Protection reported it had found $11 billion in funding for the wall.

The post Biden Stops Mexican Border Wall Construction appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

headline

New bodycam reveals moment police swarm stolen school bus at Queensland KFC

Officers smashed their way into an stolen school bus at a north Queensland KFC car park in extraordinary new bodycam footage, the sort of police takedown normally reserved for Hollywood.

The footage, shown for the first time in a Queensland courtroom today, captured police running to the bus with weapons drawn in December 2019.

"Get! Get out of the f—— car now! Get out of the f—— car," officers yell as the sound of their metal batons smash against the glass windows.

"Had my foot run over but I'm all good," another says at the scene.

Blow after blow after blow, tasers out, batons still smashing the glass, until officers managed to break through the driver's side window.

The driver, Bradley Paul McNamara, pleaded guilty to the 50km joy ride from Giru, to a Townsville KFC on December 11, 2019, as he appeared at court today.

Locked up ever since the incident, McNamara is eligible for parole some 428 days after he was put behind bars.

headline

Senate Trial: Dems Warn Trump a Future Threat to Nation

Democrats closed their case against former President Trump Thursday by pleading with their Republican colleagues to convict him or risk more political violence in the future.

Lead impeachment manager Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) argued that “any president could provoke insurrectionary violence again” if Trump were to be acquitted. His colleague Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) asked, “who’s to say it won’t happen again?” if firm action is not taken now.

Raskin argued that Trump’s pattern of incitement, which Democrats say led a mob to attack the Capitol on Jan. 6, would resume if he were to become president again.

“My dear colleagues, is there any political leader in this room who believes that if he is ever allowed by the Senate to get back into the Oval Office, Donald Trump would stop inciting violence to get his way?” Raskin asked. “Would you bet the lives of more police officers on that? Would you bet the safety of your family on that? Would you bet the future of your democracy on that?”

The Democratic argument is, in essence, that the Senate needs to redraw the norms of American political life that Trump so repeatedly transgressed. here is, however, little chance of Trump becoming the first president in history to be convicted, given that the overwhelming majority of GOP senators are expected to vote to acquit.

Thursday’s arguments, which were more legalistic and theoretical, lacked the emotive power of the previous two days, when Democrats played harrowing video from the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Even some Democratic commentators worried that the prosecution was losing steam as time when on.

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) on Thursday afternoon tweeted her view that “some of the House managers’ case is getting too repetitive.” David Axelrod, a key aide to former President Obama, mused whether “the managers would have been smart to quit and simply sum up with the lack of remorse argument after their incredibly tight powerful case yesterday?”

There were some signs within the chamber itself that senators were less compelled by Thursday’s proceedings.

At one point at least 18 GOP senators were missing from their seats. Some of their Democratic colleagues, including Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y), stood for periods rather than remain seated throughout.

Trump’s lawyers will now have the floor, and it is expected their defense will be concluded within a single day. If that happens — and assuming witnesses are not called — the entire proceedings could conclude by Saturday or Sunday.

Trump’s lead lawyers, Bruce Castor and David Schoen, will be hoping to improve on their opening arguments from earlier in the week. Castor’s performance, in particular, was widely panned and was reported to have left the former president irate as he watched at his Florida resort of Mar-a-Lago.

The Trump team doesn’t need to do very much to gain an acquittal for their client. No more than six Republican senators have so far even agreed that the impeachment trial is constitutional. The chance of the necessary number voting to convict — 17 Republicans, assuming the Democrats all vote to do so — seems vanishingly small.

The president’s team is expected to argue that Trump did not directly spark the riot that enveloped the Capitol. They may also cite what they see as belligerent rhetoric from Democratic politicians in other contexts, in order to assert that Trump is being unfairly singled out.

The core of the pro-Trump case rests on trying to separate the haunting scenes at the Capitol from the issue of his culpability. Schoen called the way in which Democrats presented their argument “an entertainment package” during a Thursday appearance on Fox News.

But even if Trump escapes conviction, the trial has put his behavior — and the disgraceful scenes that played out on Jan. 6 — back in the center of the public stage.

Over the three days when Democrats made their case, new video footage emerged of lawmakers, including Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), only just avoiding the mob.

Senators, and the public, were also reminded of the violence inflicted upon Capitol Police officers as they sought to contain a group of rioters that vastly outnumbered them.

And, undergirding it all, was Trump’s penchant for inflammatory rhetoric, stretching all the way back to his 2016 White House candidacy. On Thursday, Democrats replayed clips in which the then-candidate encouraged his supporters to “knock the hell” out of protesters.

The Democrats have sought to avoid falling into the political trap of hyper-partisanship where possible. They foregrounded Republican voices, including former members of Trump’s administration, who blamed the then-president for the violence in the immediate aftermath of the riot.

They also repeatedly praised former Vice President Mike Pence and sought to portray the effort to convict Trump as a necessary action to protect American democracy itself.

Lawmakers, Raskin reminded the Senate on Thursday, were made to “literally flee for our lives.”

The outcome of Trump’s trial is basically a foregone conclusion.But the events that he stands accused of inspiring will not easily fade from memory.

The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage. Alexander Bolton contributed reporting.

 

The post Senate Trial: Dems Warn Trump a Future Threat to Nation appeared first on The St Kitts Nevis Observer.

headline

UK economy suffered its biggest slump on record

The UK economy suffered its biggest slump on record in 2020, with GDP falling by 9.9 per cent over the course of the year.

That means the COVID-19 pandemic has effectively wiped out all growth in the United Kingdom over the past seven years, returning the UK economy to the size it was in 2013.

There were some signs of improvement in the final months of 2020, with GDP estimated to have increased by one per cent in the fourth quarter, following record growth in the third.

READ MORE: UK variant of coronavirus could become dominant strain

But there were big swings in output over the course of the October-December period, largely tracking the level of restrictions imposed to contain the coronavirus.

The scale of the annual drop in GDP last year means the UK has suffered more than many other major economies.

Germany, for example, held up better in the pandemic than it did during the global financial crisis.

Provisional estimates suggest Europe's biggest economy contracted by five per cent last year.

Heathrow Airport

READ MORE: UK to start hotel quarantine this month amid criticism of delay

The US fared even better by comparison, with GDP decreasing by 3.5 per cent from the prior year.

A new national lockdown in the United Kingdom, imposed on January 5, is expected to hit the economy hard in the first quarter of 2021.

Disruption to EU-UK trade following the end of the Brexit transition period on December 31 is also expected to weigh on activity.

headline

Woolworths, Coles introduce purchase limits

Both Coles and Woolworths have reinstated purchase limits in Victoria amid fears of a rise in panic buying ahead of the state's snap five-day lockdown.

Despite Victorian residents still being allowed to buy groceries – and essentials such as toilet paper – during the lockdown, preliminary reports suggest shelves in some regions have already been stripped bare.

Both supermarkets have said there is no issue with the supply of products and the purchase limits are to manage demand for customers in-store.

READ MORE: Panic buying frenzy begins in Victoria after lockdown announced

LIVE UPDATES: Victorians react to snap five-day lockdown

Coles supermarkets across the country were shut because of a register outage.

Shoppers will only be allowed to buy one pack of toilet paper at Coles, and two at Woolworths.

A full list of limits for both supermarkets can be found below.

"We have plenty of stock to draw on from our suppliers and distribution centres and our team will be hard at work making sure it flows into our stores in large volumes over the coming days," said Woolworths Victoria Assistant State Manager, John Di Tirro.

"We encourage Victorian to be mindful of others in the community and to continue shopping as they usually would."

READ MORE: Victoria's 'circuit breaker' lockdown explained: What you can and can't do

https://twitter.com/woolworths/status/1360093439988142081

Coles Chief Operations Officer Matt Swindells said the health and safety of customers and team members remains Coles' top priority.

"We have well-established safety protocols in Victoria based on what we have learned from COVID restrictions implemented in other states. Taking these immediate and additional safety measures will protect and ensure our customers and team members can feel safe in our stores," he said.

"We have also increased the number of team members in stores and expanded our Coles Online capacity to help serve customers quickly and safely during this busy time."

READ MORE: Australian Open to go ahead without crowds

https://twitter.com/Mad_Morris/status/1360066753913495560

COLES PURCHASE LIMITS FOR VICTORIANS:

Two packs per customer:

·         Toilet Paper

. Paper Towels

. Fresh white milk

·         Chilled pasta

·         Liquid soaps

·         Poultry thighs

·         Poultry breasts

·         Mince

·         Burgers

·         Frozen Vegetables

·         Sausages

·         Frozen Chips

·         Pasta

·         Flour

·         Rice

·         Pre-packed seafood

·         Sugar

·         Eggs

WOOLWORTHS PURCHASE LIMITS FOR VICTORIANS:

Two items per customer, per shop:

·         Antibacterial wipes

·         Canned fish

·         Canned tomatoes

·         Canned legumes

·         Canned vegetables

·         Flour

·         Frozen chips, including gems and wedges

·         Frozen desserts

·         Frozen fruit

·         Frozen vegetables

·         Longlife milk

·         Longlife specialty milk

·         Liquid handwash

·         Noodles

·         Pasta

·         Paper towels

·         Rice

·         Sugar

·         Tissues

·         Toilet paper

·         Bread loaves (including in-store)

·         Chilled pasta

·         Eggs

·         Fresh milk (excluding flavoured)

·         Meat

·         Burgers, rissoles, meatballs

·         Mince (fixed weight only)

·         Sausages

·         2 packs beef

·         2 packs chicken

·         2 packs lamb

·         2 packs pork

Two kilogram limits on the following:

·         Meat from the Butcher

·         Poultry from the Deli

·         Smallgoods from the Deli

You can get up-to-date information from the Federal Government's Coronavirus Australia app, available on the App Store, Google Play and the Government's WhatsApp channel.

Beyond Blue's Coronavirus Mental Wellbeing Support Service is a 24/7 service free of charge to all Australians. Visit the site here or call 1800512348

For coronavirus breaking news alerts and livestreams straight to your smartphone sign up to the 9News app and set notifications to on at the App Store or Google Play.

headline

Panic buying frenzy begins in Victoria after lockdown announced

Victorians have been urged to refrain from 'panic buying' as lockdown restrictions come into effect from midnight tonight.

However, some shoppers wasted no time stripping essential items from supermarket shelves, including toilet paper.

Vision shared online captured bare shelves at a Melbourne Woolworths as dozens rushed to the store to snap up supplies.

LIVE UPDATES: Victoria lockdown restrictions explained, states close borders

AUSTRALIAN OPEN: What five-day lockdown means for the grand slam

Premier Daniel Andrews today pleaded for Victorians to use "common sense" and reiterated supermarkets would not close.

"You are allowed to go and shop," he said.

"Supplies are adequate. There is no need to be doing any of that.

'You just put pressure on some of the hardest workers, some of the best Victorians, the people who are there driving the trucks from the distribution centre to the supermarket, the people who are stacking the shelves'

"Let's not make their job harder by hoarding six months' worth of toilet paper."

Supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths have reinstated product limits in Victoria both in-store and online as a "precaution" to prevent panic buying.

BORDER CLOSURES: Latest details here

https://twitter.com/woolworths/status/1360086610130268161

The limits include grocery items in high-demand including toilet paper, paper towels, tissues, pasta, meat and other staple supplies.

"We encourage Victorian to be mindful of others in the community and to continue shopping as they usually would," Woolworths Victoria Assistant State Manager, John Di Tirro said.