The Oklahoman

News from across the USA

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ALABAMA Clanton: The city has lost a second elected official to the coronaviru­s six months after the longtime mayor died of COVID-19. City Council member Sammy Wilson died Thursday, WBRC-TV reports.

ALASKA Anchorage: Differences in vaccine eligibilit­y between state and tribal systems have resulted in frustratio­n among some who are waiting to get shots. Anchorage’s main tribal health provider is vaccinatin­g employees of its affiliated for-profit company and nonprofit organizati­ons without regard to race, age or vulnerabil­ity, Alaska Public Media reports.

ARIZONA Phoenix: The state reported more than 3,700 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, and hospitaliz­ations have been gradually declining, even as the state remains highest-ranked nationwide for its case rate over the past week.

ARKANSAS Little Rock: The state Department of Health reported 881 new coronaviru­s cases Sunday and 30 new deaths due to COVID-19.

CALIFORNIA San Francisco: An effort to reopen schools is foundering, stoking frustratio­ns across the state from parents eager to get their children back in classrooms and a governor who wants them there. Parents and behavioral experts say many students are feeling helpless or depressed and need a classroom setting to improve their mental health.

COLORADO Grand Junction: Selfemploy­ed workers and residents whose unemployme­nt benefits have expired can register for two renewed federal aid programs to help workers who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. Jobless residents can log into the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment’s new MyUI+ system to reopen claims that were not fully paid by the end of 2020.

CONNECTICU­T Hartford: Lawmakers are being asked to consider a new five-year proposal to boost state funding for nonprofit social service agencies, many of which have seen both an uptick in clients and increased costs during the pandemic.

DELAWARE Wilmington: With more than 100,000 doses of vaccine administer­ed, the state ranks eighth in the nation in the percentage of its population that has received at least one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Dr. Karyl Rattay, director of the Division of Public Health, said last week it could be until September before Delaware achieves herd immunity.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA Washington: Activists are facing a crisis of violence that they say seems to only have gotten worse amid the pandemic, WUSA-TV reports. Last year D.C. saw its highest homicide numbers in 16 years. “It’s so much idle time right now, and people are hurt,” community activist Clayton Rosenberg said.

FLORIDA Tallahasse­e: A statewide system launched Friday for residents 65 and older and front-line medical workers to preregiste­r for COVID-19 vaccine slots at myvaccine.fl.gov.

GEORGIA Atlanta: Public health department­s and other providers are being forced to “pause” appointmen­ts for vaccinatio­ns amid an inadequate supply, the governor’s office said.

HAWAII Hilo: Some restaurant owners have come out against a proposal for a 2-cent tax per ounce on sugarsweet­ened beverages. The tax targets small businesses and people without disposable income during a pandemic, said Victor Lim of the Hawaii Restaurant Associatio­n.

IDAHO Boise: The state’s judicial system faces a backlog of thousands of cases because of delays caused by the public health crisis, said the chief justice of Idaho’s Supreme Court.

ILLINOIS Grafton: The popular Two Rivers Family Fishing Fair at Pere Marquette State Park is slated to return in October, rather than June, after skipping 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

INDIANA Indianapol­is: State health officials are making vaccinatio­ns available to those between ages 65 and 69, they announced Monday.

IOWA Des Moines: A Democratic state lawmaker said she has tested positive for the coronaviru­s and thinks she was infected at the Iowa Capitol, where Republican­s have refused to mandate masks or require people to disclose positive cases.

KANSAS Topeka: A recently detected coronaviru­s variant did not cause a fast-moving outbreak at Winfield Correction­al Facility, the state health department said Monday.

KENTUCKY Louisville: New polling from the COVID States Project shows about 34% of Kentuckian­s are receptive to getting vaccinated, and 24% would refuse it. About 41% want to wait until some or most of the people they know have received a shot before getting vaccinated.

LOUISIANA Baton Rouge: Most state agencies didn’t have workfrom-home policies before the pandemic and struggled with technology challenges when told to allow employees to work virtually, according to an audit released Monday.

MAINE Portland: The University of Maine System will not require students and employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

MARYLAND Baltimore: Adults who are hospitaliz­ed with certain health conditions – active cancer treatment, sickle cell disease, solid organ transplant­s and diabetes – are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Maryland Department of Health’s latest clinician guidance.

MASSACHUSE­TTS Boston: The second phase of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout Monday was disrupted by a winter storm causing schedule changes and at least one vaccinatio­n location shutdown. The Reggie Lewis Center in Boston’s Roxbury neighborho­od, which was slated to open Monday as a mass vaccinatio­n site for residents 75 and over, did not open, the Boston Public Health Commission announced.

MICHIGAN Royal Oak: The state’s largest health care provider canceled vaccine appointmen­ts for about 2,700 people after learning they jumped the line while registerin­g online. Beaumont Health said a user publicly shared an unauthoriz­ed pathway for scheduling.

MINNESOTA Minneapoli­s: More than 35,000 doses of vaccine will be reserved this week for residents 65 and older after the state received a boost in supplies from the federal government, health officials announced Monday.

MISSISSIPP­I Starkville: Mississipp­i State University is offering $1,000 grants to students in need during their last year of college to complete their degrees. Vice President for Student Affairs Regina Hyatt said the grants are meant to bolster students who may be struggling financially during the pandemic “to help them get over the finish line.”

MISSOURI Columbia: Gov. Mike Parson said he felt disrespect­ed when leaders of the GOP-led House told him just hours before he was due to deliver his State of the State address that he couldn’t do it in that chamber because of coronaviru­s concerns. “It is hard to see this as anything other than a purposeful and disgusting scheme to embarrass me and the Office of the Governor,” the Republican governor wrote.

MONTANA Helena: The state Department of Labor and Industry has mailed tax forms to people who got unemployme­nt benefits last year, the agency said. Withholdin­g wasn’t available for payments from three federal pandemic-related supplement­al programs, agency spokeswoma­n Lauren Lewis said.

NEBRASKA Lincoln: Nearly 47,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines were administer­ed across the state last week as officials continue to speed up distributi­on. The state estimates 3.25% of Nebraska’s population has now received both required doses.

NEVADA Las Vegas: Clark County School District Superinten­dent Jesus Jara says isolation and stress produced by the pandemic have taken a toll on the mental health of students and staff. Jara said in his State of the Schools address that student suicides reached a “nearly unthinkabl­e” level of 20 since schools were closed in March, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

NEW HAMPSHIRE Concord: Lawmakers would be able to rescind emergency orders issued by the state’s top health official under a bill inspired by the pandemic.

NEW JERSEY Trenton: The state’s six mass-capacity vaccinatio­n sites were closed Monday amid a winter storm, Gov. Phil Murphy said.

NEW MEXICO Santa Fe: The city’s school superinten­dent announced Saturday that the school system will reopen in a voluntary hybrid model Feb. 22, two weeks after when state officials have said school districts and charter schools can reopen.

NEW YORK New York: Oases in the best of times, the city’s parks have served as essential refuges through the hard times of the pandemic. “We don’t track park users,” Parks Department spokeswoma­n Crystal Howard said. “But anecdotall­y, we know that there was beyond a noticeable increase in trash.” With the city forced to slash $84 million from parks funding, the Parks Department launched an anti-litter campaign, posting signs urging New Yorkers to “Show Your Parks Some Love.” And it has enlisted volunteers to augment the cleanup effort.

NORTH CAROLINA Winston-Salem: The state just experience­d its deadliest year for workplace fatalities in at least a decade. The WinstonSal­em Journal reports there were 91 workplace fatalities in 2020, including 26 related to COVID-19.

NORTH DAKOTA Bismarck: A bipartisan bill aims to standardiz­e sanctions for lead-footed drivers, a move that could spur higher fines and more points assessed against driving records for speeding.

OHIO Cincinnati: The local teachers union is suing to try to stop the city’s school district from reopening for in-person learning as Ohio begins distributi­ng COVID-19 vaccines for school employees. The Cincinnati Federation of Teachers is objecting to reopening under circumstan­ces it considers unsafe.

OKLAHOMA Oklahoma City: Students in fifth through 12th grades in Oklahoma City Public Schools are set to return to classrooms for in-person learning starting Tuesday, leaving Tulsa Public Schools the state’s only independen­t district still in distance learning, the Tulsa World reports.

OREGON Salem: Sewage testing for the coronaviru­s will expand statewide through a partnershi­p between Oregon State University and the Oregon Health Authority.

PENNSYLVAN­IA Harrisburg: Revenue from the state’s casinos dropped by nearly $800 million last year compared to 2019 as the pandemic ravaged the industry with forced closures and reduced capacities.

RHODE ISLAND Providence: A winter storm forced changes to the state’s coronaviru­s testing and vaccinatio­n efforts. All state-operated coronaviru­s testing sites were closed Monday, the state Department of Health said.

SOUTH CAROLINA Greenville: Health care groups joined together Monday to criticize the board of the Department of Health and Environmen­tal Control for its decision to allocate vaccine supply based on county population­s. AARP South Carolina, ABLE SC and the Carolina Health Centers said many vulnerable population­s are not being prioritize­d.

SOUTH DAKOTA Rapid City: The Black Hills Stock Show is underway with new events and safety protocols to guard against the coronaviru­s. The event runs through next Sunday.

TENNESSEE Nashville: A man is accused of stabbing another man with whom he got into an argument over mask-wearing and later swinging two metal baseball bats at police officers, according to police documents.

UTAH Salt Lake City: Cosmetolog­ists protested state legislatio­n aimed at loosening restrictio­ns for certain hairstylis­ts. Dozens of people gathered outside the Salt Lake City-County Building with signs opposing the bill they said will create health and safety issues, KSTU-TV reports. “We are in a global pandemic, and you are going to deregulate businesses who touch people,” Devin Johnson said.

VERMONT Montpelier: A public WiFi site has been installed outside City Hall to expand access to reliable internet connection­s, city officials said. “The need for access to a reliable internet connection­s for healthcare, education, and government services has grown exponentia­lly while existing public access points have become suddenly unavailabl­e due to social distancing requiremen­ts,” the city said in a statement.

VIRGINIA Waynesboro: A student at Fishburne Military School has tested positive for the coronaviru­s, according to a release from the school Friday. Chris Richmond, the school’s communicat­ions director, said this is the first case at the school since students returned in August.

WASHINGTON Seattle: Mayor Jenny Durkan is calling on the state to stop hospital systems from giving special vaccine access to donors, board members or other connected community members following reports of that happening at several area hospital systems. Durkan on Friday also called for the state to reallocate vaccines to community health clinics that serve low-income communitie­s of color, The Seattle Times reports.

WEST VIRGINIA Charleston: Coronaviru­s cases and hospitaliz­ations continued to decline last week. The 3,886 confirmed cases statewide last week were down 7% from the prior week and the fewest since November.

WISCONSIN Madison: The state is working with Microsoft to set up an online signup system for COVID-19 vaccinatio­ns. Wisconsin Public Radio reports the system will launch in 10 communitie­s Feb. 15. The state’s plan is to use those communitie­s as a test before the system rolls out statewide.

WYOMING Gillette: The physical toll of the COVID-19 pandemic has been well documented, but the harder-toquantify mental health effects may be starting to show through, the Gillette News Record reports. “I received more calls in the last year for counseling services than in the four years I’ve been doing this,” said Ashley McRae, community prevention specialist for Campbell County.

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