Tag Archives: Deaths

Milton’s devastating legacy

Clearing-sand-hurricane-Milton

Important Takeaways:

  • Across the state, the storm has been tied to at least 16 deaths.
  • As of Friday morning, 2.2 million utility customers remained without power
  • Some communities remained inundated with floodwater on Friday as residents salvaged belongings from damaged homes.
  • Throughout east central Florida, 42 warnings were issued and weather service officials have yet to determine the exact number of twisters that formed across the region.
  • Milton spawned a deadly tornado outbreak that killed at least six in St. Lucie County on Florida’s east coast.
  • In portions of St. Petersburg, the storm dumped over 18 inches of rain, and at one point, 8.50 inches fell in just 3 hours, according to the weather service.
  • In Milton’s wake, gasoline remains scarce in some areas
  • First responders in Hillsborough County conducted water rescues Friday morning as the Alafia River rose above its flood stage and houses were submerged in several feet of water.
  • Tampa International Airport resumed flights beginning at 8 a.m. Friday following a three-day suspension.
  • IRS has extended that deadline for many impacted by hurricanes and other natural disasters

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Just days after declaring Marburg virus outbreak Rwanda reports 8 people have already died

Marburg-disease

Important Takeaways:

  • Rwanda, a landlocked country in central Africa, declared an outbreak on Friday and a day later the first six deaths were reported.
  • Rwanda says eight people have died so far from the Ebola-like and highly contagious Marburg virus, the deadly hemorrhagic fever that has no authorized vaccine or treatment.
  • The public has been urged to avoid physical contact to help curb the spread. Some 300 people who came into contact with those confirmed to have the virus have also been identified, and an unspecified number of them have been put in isolation facilities.
  • Most of the affected are healthcare workers across six out of 30 districts in the country.
  • “Marburg is a rare disease,” Nsanzimana told journalists. “We are intensifying contact tracing and testing to help stop the spread.”
  • A person infected with the virus can take between three days and three weeks to show symptoms, he added.
  • Separately, Rwanda has so far reported six cases of mpox, a disease caused by a virus related to smallpox but that typically causes milder symptoms.

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Fourth of July sees 16 mass shootings across US with victims as young as 2

Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Important Takeaways:

  • From the nation’s capital to Fort Worth, Texas, from Florin, California, in the west to the Bronx, New York, in the east, the Fourth of July long weekend in the US was overshadowed by 16 mass shootings in which 15 people were killed and nearly 100 injured.
  • The tragic bloodletting was recorded from 5pm on Friday until 5am on Wednesday across 13 states as well as Washington DC. Texas and Maryland both entered the register twice.
  • The greatest fatality in a single incident over the long weekend was seen in Philadelphia, where five people were killed when a shooter wearing a bulletproof vest and bearing an assault rifle went on a random rampage on Monday night.
  • The youngest person to die was 15. A two-year-old boy was shot four times in the legs and a 13-year-old was shot twice in the legs.

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Data shows 27 School Shootings have occurred this year

2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.”

Important Takeaways:

  • 27 school shootings have taken place so far this year
  • Education Week has been tracking school shootings since 2018. According to its database, 119 such incidents have taken place since then.
  • There were 27 school shootings with injuries or deaths this year.
  • This comes just 10 days after a shooting at a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., that took the lives of 10 people.
  • Defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people were shot or killed, excluding the shooter.
  • The U.S. ended 2021 with 693 mass shootings, per the Gun Violence Archive. The year before saw 611. And 2019 had 417.

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Unprecedented disasters and communication nightmare on Tonga Island

Nahum 1:5 “The Mountains quake before him; the hills melt; the earth heaves before him, the world and all who dwell in it.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Tonga faces ‘unprecedented disaster’ as New Zealand warns of further eruptions and tsunami risk
  • New Zealand warned of further eruptions that may complicate the delivery of aid to remote islands where communications are down.
  • Tongan Prime Minster Siaosi Sovaleni said all houses on the island of Mango, where 36 people live, were destroyed.
  • The deaths of three people and several other injuries, and outlined the scale of destruction to communities.
  • The eruption on Saturday generated tsunami waves up to 49 feet (15 meters) high that hit the west coast of Tonga’s main island
  • With cleanup efforts underway, rescue workers are racing to deliver safe drinking water to the island nation as it grapples with the shortages.
  • Tonga’s communication systems remain severely limited after damage to a key undersea cable cut international and inter-island calls

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U.S. FDA set to authorize Pfizer, Merck COVID-19 pills this week – Bloomberg News

(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is set to authorize COVID-19 treatment pills from both Pfizer Inc and Merck as early as Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The two drugs, especially Pfizer’s pill Paxlovid, are seen as promising new oral treatments that can be taken upon onset of symptoms at home to help prevent COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.

Merck’s drug, molnupiravir, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, was shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by around 30% in a clinical trial of high-risk individuals early in the course of the illness.

Molnupiravir gained a narrow vote in favor of authorization by a panel of advisers to the FDA on Nov. 30.

Meanwhile, Pfizer’s Paxlovid showed near 90% efficacy in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in high-risk patients.

The FDA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Britain in November became the first country in the world to approve Merck’s antiviral drug for use in people with mild to moderate COVID-19 and for those who have at least one risk factor for developing severe illness.

The United States has a contract to buy as many as 5 million courses of Merck’s drug, and 10 million courses of Pfizer’s treatment.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V)

U.S. coronavirus cases rise, fueling fears of resurgence

By Maria Caspani

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A rapid increase in coronavirus cases in the United States and abroad is fueling fears of a pandemic resurgence and sending shockwaves through the stock market as the highly contagious Delta variant takes hold and vaccinations lag in several states.

Largely due to outbreaks in parts of the country with low vaccination rates, the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19 have been on the rise in recent weeks.

The vaccines work against the Delta variant, but lab tests have shown them to be less effective than they were against the original form of coronavirus.

Studies have also shown that two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and of the AstraZeneca vaccine are much more effective than one shot against being infected with the virus, making it more important for people to be fully vaccinated.

Concerns the outbreaks could derail an economic recovery sent the Dow down more than 2% on Monday.

In a speech about the U.S. economy, President Joe Biden said the recovery hinges on getting the pandemic under control. He said four states with low vaccination rates accounted for 40% of all cases last week.

“So please, please get vaccinated,” Biden said. “Get vaccinated now.”

The average number of new COVID-19 cases per day has tripled in the past 30 days in the United States, according to an analysis of Reuters data. In the month from June 18 to Sunday, it climbed from 12,004 to 32,136.

The average number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has gone up 21% over the past 30 days to over 19,000, up from 16,000, according to the same Reuters analysis.

Deaths, which can lag weeks behind a rise in cases, rose 25% last week from the previous seven days with an average of 250 people dying a day.

Some states have been especially hard hit. All but two of the 75 Arkansas counties have substantial or high levels of transmission, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

But even in states with higher vaccination rates, such as New York, officials have expressed concern about fresh outbreaks, pointing to the significantly more contagious Delta variant.

So far, the variant has been detected around 100 countries globally and is now the dominant variant worldwide, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci told reporters last week.

In California, Los Angeles County reimposed a mask mandate at the weekend. It followed six straight days of more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases in the county, with nearly 400 people hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Wednesday, up 275 from the week before.

While New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio acknowledged a rise in the number of cases, he told a daily news conference on Monday there were no plans to reintroduce mask mandates. He vowed instead to redouble vaccination efforts.

Overseas, COVID-19 restrictions are being reimposed in countries experiencing worrying spikes. The Netherlands announced it was re-imposing work-from-home guidelines due to soaring COVID-19 infections, just weeks after lifting them, as well as some restrictions on bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

Britain ended over a year of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on Monday but the so-called “Freedom Day” was marred by surging infections and grim forecasts.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday issued a more severe warning against travel to the United Kingdom, elevating the nation to “Level Four: COVID-19 Very High,” the CDC’s highest level.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Additional reporting by Anurag Maan, Sharon Bernstein and Caroline Humer; Editing by Howard Goller)

Identifying remains arduous as Florida condo collapse death toll rises to 94

(Reuters) -Confirmed deaths in the partial collapse of a condominium near Miami rose by four to 94 on Monday as identifying remains became progressively difficult with the recovery effort in its 19th day, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.

Due to the passage of time, recovery workers are leaning more heavily on the medical examiner’s office to identify recovered bodies, an undertaking that is “very methodical” and takes time, Levine Cava said at a briefing.

The number of people still unaccounted for dropped to 22 on Monday from 31 a day earlier, and may include some of the victims who have yet to be identified in the rubble of the 12-story oceanfront building in the town of Surfside that partially collapsed in the early morning hours of June 24.

“The process of making identifications has become more difficult as time goes on, and the recovery at this point is yielding human remains,” Levine Cava said.

With no survivors rescued from the ruins since the first few hours after the collapse, officials last week declared that their search effort had switched from rescue to recovery.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said security is being tightened at the site due to the importance of the location to families who lost loved ones.

A debate has already begun in the community over what to do with the site, with some people eager for it to be turned into a memorial for the victims.

“It’s much more than a collapsed building. It is a holy site,” Burkett said.

(Reporting by Nathan Layne in Wilton, Connecticut and Barbara Goldberg in Maplewood, New Jersey; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Steve Orlofsky)

UK daily COVID cases highest in a month, Indian variant rising sharply

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain reported its highest daily total of new coronavirus infections in a month while cases of a variant of concern first found in India continue to climb, official statistics showed on Thursday.

The overall incidence of infections in Britain is still low, while the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 fell to its lowest level since September on Thursday.

But clusters of the B.1.617.2 variant, believed to be more transmissible than the dominant Kent variant, are growing quickly, and could derail Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to reopen England’s economy by the summer.

British cases of the B.1.617.2 variant first found in India have risen to 3,424, up by 2,111 compared to comparable figures last week, Public Health England said.

It also represents a steep rise compared to figures given on Wednesday, when Health Minister Matt Hancock said there had been 2,967 cases of the variant.

“PHE will continue to monitor all variants closely, paying particular attention to the impact on hospitalizations and deaths which will help us to understand the protective effects of the vaccine,” said Meera Chand, COVID-19 Incident Director at PHE.

Britain reported 2,874 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the highest daily figure for new cases since April 19

The uptick comes as Johnson eases restrictions in England, and as a quick rollout of vaccines decouples the link between case numbers and hospitalizations and deaths.

On Thursday, the total number of patients in hospital fell below 900 for the first time since September.

Britain recorded another 7 deaths within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test, and the statistics portal showed 37.25 million people had been given a first dose of vaccine.

(Reporting by Alistair Smout; editing by Kate Holton and Giles Elgood)

Hungary to reopen only once past 25% vaccination milestone

BUDAPEST (Reuters) – A record rise in coronavirus infections and deaths keeps Hungary from loosening lockdown measures, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday before his government discussed plans to reopen the economy.

Partial reopening may begin after Easter, once a quarter of the population is vaccinated, the government decided, a senior Orban aide said.

Hospitals are under “extraordinary” pressure in Hungary, a hot spot as the pandemic hits Central Europe especially hard.

Orban, who faces elections in 2022, is balancing the world’s highest daily per-capita coronavirus death rates, according to Johns Hopkins University, with a need to open the economy to avoid a second year of deep recession.

“The next 1-2 weeks will be hard,” Orban told state radio.

Hungary reported a record high daily tally of 275 COVID-19 deaths and 11,265 new infections on Friday. Hospitalizations and people on ventilators are also at an all-time high with doctors comparing the situation to the global pandemic’s worst days.

The premier’s chief of staff said in a televised statement that the government considered business groups’ proposals and decided to wait until first vaccinations reach at least 2.5 million of the country’s 10 million people.

That should come a few days after Easter Monday, Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, said.

“We need one last big effort to make it through the peak of the pandemic’s third wave,” Gulyas said.

Once the milestone is passed shops can remain open until 9:30 p.m. and a nighttime curfew will start at 10 p.m. instead of 8 p.m. now, Gulyas said. The number of people allowed at one time will be limited in shops.

Services can reopen partially. Teachers and school staff will be inoculated to allow schools to reopen on April 19.

Two-thirds of those elderly people who registered, and a total of 1.8 million people, had received a first shot already, Orban said.

The Hungarian Medical Chamber warned people earlier this week to observe strict social distancing.

(Reporting by Budapest bureau; Editing by Toby Chopra and Steve Orlofsky)