Vaccine shortage slows effort to end pandemic

January 25, 2021

LANSING — If Michigan could administer 50,000 coronavirus vaccine doses a day, it could hit its goal of inoculating 70% of people age 16 and older by August. At the current rate, about 29,000 per day, it would not finish until a year from now. The issue is limited supplies — something Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and health officials hope can be addressed as new President Joe Biden takes the helm amid the largest vaccination effort in U.S. history and as more contagious virus variants spread. “That’s our universal frustration,” the Democratic governor said. “We have the ...

Panel: China, WHO should have acted quicker to stop pandemic

January 20, 2021

GENEVA (AP) — A panel of experts commissioned by the World Health Organization has criticized China and other countries for not moving to stem the initial outbreak of the coronavirus earlier and questioned whether the U.N. health agency should have labeled it a pandemic sooner. In a report issued to the media Monday, the panel led by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said there were “lost opportunities” to set up basic public health measures as early as possible. “What is clear to the panel is that public health ...

Marquette County Health Department to set up additional COVID-19 vaccination appointments

January 13, 2021

NEGAUNEE — The Marquette County Health Department announced this morning on its Facebook page that the 400 appointments available for COVID-19 vaccination were filled on the department's website in 30 seconds. However, it said it is working to add more appointments to the website at www.mqthealth.org. It suggests people call 906-475-7847 to make an appointment, although it also said phones lines were being overwhelmed, and it requested people's patience.

Dutch see new coronavirus infections fall, credit lockdown

January 13, 2021

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands has fallen for the second week in a row, its public health institute said Tuesday, calling the decrease “the first effect” of a nationwide lockdown that began in mid-December. The announcement came hours before Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was expected to extend the lockdown in an attempt to further slow the spread of the virus and rein in the new, more transmissible variant first detected in the U.K. Confirmed new COVID-19 infections over the last week fell 12% to 49,398, the institute ...

Mexico sees bump in tourism amid pandemic

January 13, 2021

TULUM, Mexico (AP) — The friends from Jackson, Mississippi, relaxed on lounge chairs dug into a white sand beach and romped in the turquoise Caribbean waters, grateful for a break from the pandemic winter in the United States. They were among tens of thousands of American tourists who ...

Holocaust survivor Tucarman dies from COVID-19

January 12, 2021

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Iancu Tucarman, one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in Romania, was buried Monday after dying from COVID-19 last week. He was 98. Dozens gathered at Tucarman's funeral in Bucharest to pay respects and mark a horrific legacy of World War II. The funeral was held in line with anti-virus measures. Tucarman died on Jan. 8 after battling the coronavirus. Romania has been hit hard in the outbreak, recording more than 16,000 deaths in the country of 19 million people. Tucarman was 18 years old in June 1941 when German and pro-Nazi Romanian troops ...