■ A winter storm in the Northeast complicated the nation’s COVID-19 response. NATION
Up to 2 feet of snow is expected by Thursday
NEW YORK — A major snowstorm rolled into the Northeast on Wednesday at a key moment in the coronavirus pandemic, days after the start of the U.S. vaccination campaign and in the thick of a virus surge that has throngs of people seeking tests per day.
Snow was falling from northern Virginia to points north of New York City by late afternoon. The storm was poised to drop as much as 2 feet of snow in some places by Thursday, and the pandemic added new complexities to officials’ preparations — deciding whether to close testing sites, figuring out how to handle plowing amid outdoor dining platforms in New York City streets, redefining school snow days to mean another day of learning from home, and more.
“Our theme today ought to be, ‘If it’s not one thing, it’s another,’” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy as he gave residents storm guidance that’s new this year — mask up if you help your neighbors shovel.
Still, officials said they didn’t expect the winter blast to disrupt vaccine distribution, which began Monday for frontline health care workers, the first group of Americans to get the shots. The first 3 million shots are being strictly limited to those workers and to nursing home residents.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday that the government is tracking the vaccine shipments precisely, has staffers already in place to receive them and believes the companies transporting them can navigate the storm.
“This is Fedex, this is UPS express shipping. They know how to deal with snow and bad weather. But we are on it and following it,” he told Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends.”
The National Weather Service said the storm was “set to bring an overabundance of hazards from the mid-atlantic to the Northeast,” including freezing rain and ice in the mid-atlantic, heavy snow in the New York City area and southern New England, strong winds and coastal flooding, and possibly even severe thunderstorms and some tornadoes in North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
The heaviest snowfall was expected in central Pennsylvania, where forecasters in the state capital of Harrisburg said a six-decade-old record for a December snowfall could potentially be broken. But some areas from West Virginia to Maine could get a foot of snow — for some, more than they saw all last winter.
In New York City, officials braced for the biggest storm in about three years.
“Take this seriously,” Mayor Bill de Blasio warned residents.