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Your taxpayer dollars are at work today combating the pandemic.
The Biden administration is shipping 400 million N95 face masks out to pharmacies and other outlets for free distribution to the populace while also unveiling a website allowing every household to sign up for four free coronavirus tests.
The intensified effort to halt the most recent, omicron-fueled surge comes as hospitals struggle with spiking caseloads. And the seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been trending upward since mid-November, reaching nearly 1,700 this week. That’s half the peak of a year ago – but if unchecked would push the U.S. death total to 900,000 just a month from now.
Those much-anticipated free coronavirus tests are now available on a new federal government website. COVIDTests.gov has an “Order free at-home tests” button that brings users to usps.com/covidtests to order four at-home free tests. The Postal Service will only send one set of four free at-home coronavirus tests to valid residential addresses, the site said.
Americans will be able to pick up their masks at one of “tens of thousands” of pharmacies, thousands of community centers and other locations across the country beginning next week, according to a White House official.
– Joey Garrison, Kelly Tyko and Maureen Groppe
Also in the news:
► The pandemic will be among the most pressing topics facing President Joe Biden at his news conference today, the eve of his one-year anniversary in office.
► Louis Thornton III, 63, of St. Petersburg, Florida, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for fraudulently collecting over $800,000 in COVID-19 relief funds. Thornton submitted fraudulent applications for Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Paycheck Protection Program loans on behalf of several defunct companies.
► A California man who punched two medical assistants at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Tustin and later groped a nurse has been charged with misdemeanor battery and resisting arrest, prosecutors in Orange County announced. Thomas Apollo, 44, had been asked to leave the Families Together clinic after he refused to wear a mask.
► A group of parents in the Chesapeake Public Schools district sued new Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, arguing that his executive order allowing parents to opt their kids out of any school’s mask mandate violates state law.
►More than 100 countries are on U.S. federal health officials’ list of destinations to avoid because of a high risk of COVID-19, including Australia, Israel, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 67 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 854,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 333 million cases and over 5.5 million deaths. More than 209 million Americans – 63% – are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
📘 What we’re reading: The world’s 10 richest men doubled their wealth during the pandemic while 99% of incomes dropped, a new study says.
Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more? Sign up for USA TODAY’s free Coronavirus Watch newsletter to receive updates directly to your inbox and join our Facebook group.
‘Plateaus, downturns’ in new infections seen in some major cities
The end may be in sight for the unforgiving omicron surge. The University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts a peak in daily new infections within a few days, followed by a decline as steep as the ascent over the last six weeks. Daily deaths, now averaging about 1,700, also should decline rapidly under the institute’s model.
Dr. Ali Khan, chief medical officer at Oak Street Health, a national network of primary care centers specializing in vulnerable patients, says the omicron surge is finally leveling off.
“We are seeing plateaus and downturns in the northern markets that were first hit hard by omicron in mid-December – Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia and New York City – so that’s a somewhat promising sign.”
But Khan said other markets, such as Texas and Oklahoma, are really “in the thick of things.” A nationwide, sustained decline probably remains a couple of weeks away, he said.
French, U.S. Opens in doubt for world No. 1 Novak Djokovic
Novak Djokovic, barred from the Australian Open because he isn’t vaccinated, could find himself out of some other grand slam tournaments – the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open – as well. The French Sports Ministry said this week it would provide no exemptions from France’s new vaccine mandate for the tournament, which starts in May.
“The situation may change between now and then, and we hope that it will be more favorable,” the ministry statement said. “But clearly there’s no exemption.”
Djokovic is seeking his record 21st grand slam victory, and Wimbledon might be his best chance to compete. It starts in June, and Britain has allowed visiting athletes to enter the country unvaccinated. The U.S. Open has said it will follow U.S. government rules, which currently require vaccination to enter the country, although that could change by August.
WHO sees global slowdown in cases
The number of new coronavirus cases globally rose by 20% last week to more than 18 million – actually marking a slowdown in the surge caused by the omicron variant’s spread, according to the World Health Organization. That’s because confirmed COVID-19 cases jumped by about 50% the week before last, and earlier this month, WHO reported the biggest single-week increase in cases of the pandemic.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says is it ”misleading” to consider the omicron variant as causing mild disease, although studies have shown omicron is less likely to result in severe illness or hospitalization than its predecessors.
“We are concerned about the impact omicron is having on already exhausted health workers and overburdened health systems,” Tedros said.
Mississippi prison deals with hundreds of COVID cases
Nearly 500 inmates at a federal prison in Mississippi have tested positive for COVID-19, currently the highest number of inmate cases among federal prisons nationwide, according to the Bureau of Prisons. The medium-security prison, with a population of 1,425, is part of a federal complex that also includes low and maximum-security facilities. Federal Bureau of Prisons Director Michael Carvajal said as far back as April 2020 that the Yazoo City site was a hot spot for coronavirus. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the Federal Bureau of Prisons in the fall of 2020 to learn more about the bureau’s response to COVID-19 in federal jails and prisons, eventually obtaining emails from Yazoo City and other federal prisons.
“My concerns have not been resolved. We are critically understaffed. We are breaking policy to complete our mission. A case could be made that we are violating the constitutional rights of our inmate population,” one Yazoo City federal prison employee wrote, according to the ACLU.
Report: Justice Gorsuch refuses to wear a mask in the courtroom
Outside their usual docket of blockbuster constitutional controversies, Supreme Court justices are divided over something else: face masks. Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor has diabetes, which puts her at higher risk for a serious bout with COVID-19. In the fall, the Obama appointee was the only one of the nine justices to wear a mask in the courtroom where attendance is limited because of the coronavirus to the court, the attorneys and the Supreme Court press corps. As cases began to rise during the holiday season, Sotomayor said she did not feel safe near people who were unmasked.
Chief Justice John Roberts then asked everyone to wear masks in the courtroom, NPR reported. Everyone complied – except for Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch. Since Gorsuch, who sits next to Sotomayor on the bench, has refused to wear a mask, Sotomayor has been tuning into arguments remotely from her chambers at the Supreme Court building.
– Amy Nakamura, USA TODAY
Contributing: The Associated Press
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