Chicago Tribune (January 3)
“Chicago-area hospitals are postponing many elective surgeries, as Illinois on Sunday set a record for COVID-19 hospitalizations…. Statewide, there were 6,294 COVID-19 patients in the hospital, surpassing the previous peak of 6,175 on Nov. 20, 2020.” In addition to the influx of COVID-19 patients, hospitals are struggling with “industrywide staffing shortages” worsened by staff testing positive to breakthrough infections.
Tags: Chicago, COVID-19, Elective surgeries, Hospitalizations, Hospitals, Illinois, Patients, Postponing, Record
Wall Street Journal (December 23)
“Businesses, schools, hospitals and governments are preparing for a new year with a sense of déjà vu, as the spread of Covid-19’s Omicron variant brings a familiar challenge: how best to navigate another surge. This time, they’re hopeful they can stay open and operating.”
Tags: Businesses, Challenge, COVID-19, Déjà vu, Governments, Hospitals, Omicron, Schools, Spread, Surge, Variant
Star-Ledger (December 17)
“New Jersey on Thursday reported another 16 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 6,271 confirmed cases—the state’s highest one-day total for confirmed positive tests since Jan.13, the peak day from last winter’s pandemic surge, before vaccines were widely available.”
Tags: Cases, Confirmed, COVID-19, Deaths, Highest, New Jersey, Pandemic, Peak, Positive tests, Surge, Vaccines
The Economist (November 27)
The EU is currently “recording nearly a quarter of a million cases a day,” its highest levels ever, and the WHO has warned “that 700,000 more Europeans could die by March.” Eventually, “covid-19 will probably settle down as a seasonal disease, a lethal threat to the elderly and the poor in health, but to everyone else mostly a nuisance. However, as Europe is discovering, getting there will be perilous.”
Tags: Cases, COVID-19, Die, Elderly, EU, Europe, Health, Highest, Lethal threat, March, Nuisance, Poor, Seasonal disease, WHO
Foreign Policy (November 24)
“The pro-business Free Democratic Party is about to wield power in Berlin, thanks to the country’s youngest voters—but doesn’t yet know what it wants.” Whether the voters will ultimately “regret their choice is an open question. All of the party’s appeals to philosophical traditions and grand concepts have left more open questions than concrete approaches to governing,” but skyrocketing COVID-19 cases will increase the urgency to produce “concrete proposals for governance.”
Tags: Berlin, Concepts, Concrete approaches, COVID-19, FDP, Governing, Power, Pro-business, Questions, Regret, Skyrocketing, Traditions, Voters
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (November 22)
“The deadliest threat facing law enforcement officers in Georgia isn’t being shot, stabbed or run over by assailants—it’s COVID-19. Since the pandemic began, at least 60 Georgia police officers, deputies and jailers have died from the virus,” killing four times as many as violence or accidents.
Tags: Assailants, COVID-19, Deadliest threat, Georgia, Law enforcement, Officers, Pandemic, Police, Run over, Shot, Stabbed, Violence
San Francisco Chronicle (November 18)
“Officials are concerned hospitals could be strained this winter as COVID-19 cases increase across the region ahead of Thanksgiving weekend.” In San Francisco infection rates have already “risen sharply in recent weeks…. With people expected to travel, gather with friends and spend more time indoors over the next few weeks… the region could soon head for another surge.”
Tags: COVID-19, Hospitals, Indoors, Infection rates, Officials, San Francisco, Strained, Surge, Thanksgiving, Travel, Winter
U.S. News & World Report (November 7)
“With the approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for younger children, many elementary schools around the U.S. are preparing to offer the shots, which educators see as key to keeping students learning in person and making the classroom experience closer to what it once was.”
Tags: Approval, Children, Classroom experience, COVID-19, Educators, Elementary schools, In-person, Learning, Shots, Students, U.S., Vaccine
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (November 5)
“On Thursday, Georgia topped 25,000 confirmed deaths in the 20-month-long coronavirus pandemic… the same week that the U.S. toll reached 750,000 and the global toll 5 million.” The reality is likely grimmer. “The number is likely a significant undercount…. In addition to undiagnosed cases, the state listed and additional 5,351 deaths as ‘probable’ pandemic deaths—ones attributed by health authorities to COVID-19 but not yet confirmed with the proper test.”
Tags: Authorities, Confirmed, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Deaths, Georgia, Pandemic, Probable, Toll, U.S., Undercount, Undiagnosed
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (September 30)
“An array of recent Georgia job postings include a new qualification: You’ll need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The prerequisite is spreading. And more employers soon may be forced to take similar steps” when a new rule requires that “employers with more than 100 workers ensure their staffers are either fully vaccinated or tested weekly.”
Tags: COVID-19, Employers, Georgia, Job postings, Prerequisite, Qualification, Rule, Vaccinated, Workers
