Va. governor gives shot a thumbs-up
But Northam not ready to ease virus mandates
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam got a shot of the coronavirus vaccine Monday, joining the growing number of Virginians who are being inoculated against the potentially deadly disease.
Northam shed a navy blue sport jacket and a light blue dress shirt before a member of the Virginia National Guard plunged a needle into his left shoulder. Northam, who is also a doctor, gave a thumbs-up and got a round of applause at the governor’s mansion in Richmond.
“I really encourage all Virginians to register through our central registration site and really stay by your phone or your computer so that we can communicate with you because we’ve got over 400,000 doses in Virginia,” he said.
Governors throughout the country have been getting vaccine shots over the past several weeks. They include Nevada’s Democratic governor, Steve Sisolak, who got a dose last week along with workers at a supermarket.
Iowa’s Republican governor, Kim Reynolds, received a shot March 3 at her weekly news conference. She said that nearly half of the U.S. governors have been vaccinated.
But even as more Americans are inoculated and the number of new cases falls, Virginia is not lifting many of its coronavirus-related restrictions, such as its mask-wearing requirement. A handful of other states — including Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Texas and Wyoming — are ending their mask-wearing mandates.
“We still have several months where we have to remain vigilant,” Northam said. “I want everybody to continue to wear their masks, social distance, keep your hands clean. And finally we can get this pandemic in the rearview mirror.”
In other developments:
■ Two new studies add evidence that a virus variant first detected in Britain is more deadly than the previous dominant form. Other research had demonstrated the strain is more transmissible, but a new paper published Monday in the journal Nature suggests the variant may also be associated with an increased risk of death.
■ The mayor of Oklahoma’s largest city publicly received his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine Monday and urged others in the state to do the same. Roughly 85 percent of Oklahoma residents are currently eligible to receive the vaccine after state health officials opened eligibility last week to workers in essential industries.
■ Many Arizona schools reopened for full-time in-person instruction Monday as mandated by Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive order. He cited teachers getting vaccinated as a main factor for reopening.
■ Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Monday declined Republicans’ request to investigate whether nursing home orders issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer led to COVID-19 deaths or if related data is inaccurate, citing a lack of evidence that any law was violated.