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ZZZ_Coronavirus

Health department: 14 days remains the quarantine standard

MARQUETTE — The Marquette County Health Department has clarified the change in quarantine requirements for COVID-19. The MCHD said that on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance regarding the length of the quarantine period for individuals at high risk of exposure to COVID-19, which it acknowledged has created much confusion among the public. The health department stressed that the CDC guidance is merely a recommendation to states. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, it said, has determined quarantine periods to be used ...

US virus deaths top 3,100 in a single day for 1st time

By SAM METZ Associated Press The U.S. recorded over 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, obliterating the record set last spring, while the number of Americans in the hospital with the virus has eclipsed 100,000 for the first time and new cases have begun topping 200,000 a day, ...

GOP senator: Let high schools decide about opening

By DAVID EGGERT Associated Press LANSING — A Republican lawmaker pressed a top state health official Thursday to lift an order closing all Michigan high schools to in-person instruction due to the coronavirus, saying the decision should be left at the local level. "Let the parents decide. Let the school systems decide whether they're open or whether they're closed," Sen. Kim LaSata of Berrien County's Bainbridge Township told Robert Gordon, director of the state Department of Health and Human Services, in a joint House-Senate hearing. High schools and colleges are two weeks ...

UN and world leaders meet to forge path to end pandemic

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. General Assembly president opened the world body’s first special session on COVID-19 Thursday, calling it a historic and overdue moment of reckoning to forge a path to end the pandemic that not only ensures people everywhere have access to vaccines but mobilizes financial resources for “an inclusive and resilient recovery.” Volkan Bozkir said the world is looking to the United Nations for leadership and action “to address the greatest challenge our world is facing today.” “This is not a time to point fingers,” he said. “We have ...

Supreme Court orders another look

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower federal court to reexamine California restrictions on indoor religious services in areas hard hit by the coronavirus in light of the justices’ recent ruling in favor of churches and synagogues in New York. The high court’s unsigned order, with no noted dissent, leaves the California restrictions in place for now. But it throws out a federal district court ruling that rejected a challenge to the limits from Pasadena-based Harvest Rock Church and Harvest International Ministry, which has more than 160 churches across ...

Black clergy, United Way launching anti-COVID-19 effort

By ELANA SCHOR Associated Press NEW YORK — Black clergy leaders are joining forces with the United Way of New York City for a new initiative designed to combat the coronavirus’ outsized toll on African Americans through ramped-up testing, contact tracing and treatment management. Details of the new effort, shared with The Associated Press in advance of its launch, rest on harnessing the on-the-ground influence of church leaders to circulate resources that can better equip Black Americans in safeguarding against and treating the virus. Its rollout will begin in five major ...