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CORONAVIRUS

Local governments turn away $73M of pandemic aid

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — From small towns to big cities, every government across the U.S. was offered a slice of $350 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds to help shore up their finances, cover pandemic-related costs and invest in community projects. Officials in 1,468 local governments effectively said "no," turning away a potential total of $73 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of data compiled from every state. The declined money ranged from $177 for the one-person village of Monowi, Nebraska, to $3.9 million for DeWitt County, Texas, population about ...

Gridlock could delay COVID funds until fall — or longer

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is headed for "a lot of unnecessary loss of life," the Biden administration says, if Congress fails to provide billions more dollars to brace for the pandemic's next wave. Yet the quest for that money is in limbo, the latest victim of election-year gridlock that's stalled or killed a host of Democratic priorities. President Joe Biden's appeal for funds for vaccines, testing and treatments has hit opposition from Republicans, who've fused the fight with the precarious politics of immigration. Congress is in recess, and the next steps are uncertain, despite ...

Deaths of 3 women in early heat wave raise questions, fears

CHICAGO (AP) — Temperatures barely climbed into the 90s and only for a couple of days. But the discovery of the bodies of three women inside a Chicago senior housing facility this month left the city looking for answers to questions that were supposed to be addressed after a longer and hotter heat wave killed more than 700 people nearly three decades ago. Now, the city — and the country — is facing the reality that because of climate change, deadly heat waves can strike just about anywhere, don't only fall in the height of summer and need not last long. "Hotter and more ...

WHO: COVID-19 cases mostly drop, except for the Americas

LONDON (AP) — The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths are still falling globally after peaking in January, the World Health Organization said. In its latest weekly assessment of the pandemic, the U.N. health agency said there were more than 3.7 million new infections and 9,000 deaths in the last week, drops of 3% and 11% respectively. COVID-19 cases rose in only two regions of the world: the Americas and the Western Pacific. Deaths increased by 30% in the Middle East, but were stable or decreased everywhere else. WHO said it is tracking all omicron subvariants as "variants ...

UCLA reinstates mask mandate as California COVID cases surge

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of California, Los Angeles said Thursday it will reinstate an indoor mask policy as coronavirus cases surge in the nation's most populous state, which now forecasts hospitalizations will nearly triple in the next month. UCLA's 45,000 students and all faculty, staff and visitors will be required to wear masks inside starting Friday following "a consistent rise in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County and on our campus," school officials said in a statement. Los Angeles County's public health director, Barbara Ferrer, applauded UCLA's decision, which ...

US making COVID antiviral drug more available at test sites

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Thursday announced more steps to make the antiviral treatment Paxlovid more accessible across the U.S. as it projects COVID-19 infections will continue to spread over the summer travel season. The nation's first federally backed test-to-treat site is opening Thursday in Rhode Island, providing patients with immediate access to the drug once they test positive. More federally supported sites are set to open in the coming weeks in Massachusetts and New York City, both hit by a marked rise in infections. Next week, the U.S. will send authorized ...