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COVID-19 News from Around the Web

States report vaccine shortages and cancel appointments
AP - January 21, 2021
The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled. … The reason for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand in the U.S. was unclear, but last week the HHS suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.
Biden leads observance of America’s 400,000 COVID-19 dead on eve of inauguration
Reuters - January 20, 2021
The sundown commemoration came just hours before President Donald Trump was due to leave the White House and hand over a country in crisis. The ceremony, spearheaded by Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris from the base of the Lincoln Memorial, marked the federal government’s first official nod to the staggering death toll from the pandemic.
Plunged into virus ‘dark winter,’ Biden must lead US out
AP - January 20, 2021
No matter his first acts in the White House, the raging coronavirus pandemic could take another 100,000 American lives in his first month as president after crossing the grim marker of 400,000 deaths just minutes before Biden began his trip to Washington. He inherits a country weary from 10 months of lockdowns and business closures, divided by attacks on public health professionals and tantalized by the promise of widespread vaccination that will take months to have much effect.
‘Shameful’: US virus deaths top 400K as Trump leaves office
AP - January 20, 2021
As President Donald Trump entered the final year of his term last January, the U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of COVID-19. Not to worry, Trump insisted, his administration had the virus “totally under control.” Now, in his final hours in office, after a year of presidential denials of reality and responsibility, the pandemic’s U.S. death toll has eclipsed 400,000. And the loss of lives is accelerating.
New Covid-19 cases declined 11% after hitting a peak last week
CNN - January 20, 2021
New Covid-19 cases in the United States have been trending down since hitting a peak last week, but experts say it's too soon to be overly optimistic. The US recorded 1.5 million new Covid-19 cases in the past seven days, according to the most recent data from Johns Hopkins University -- an 11% drop from the previous week. Cases declined in 35 states week-over-week, and 18 states saw a drop in the number of deaths.
New California Variant May Be Driving Virus Surge There, Study Suggests
The New York Times - January 20, 2021
California had produced a variant of its own. That mutant, which belongs to a lineage known as CAL.20C, seemed to have popped up in July but lay low till November. Then it began to quickly spread. CAL.20C accounted for more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles laboratories on Jan. 13, according to a new study that has not yet been published.
Widespread use of coronavirus face masks can help control virus transmission: study
Fox News - January 20, 2021
The study, published Tuesday in The Lancet Digital Health, surveyed more than 300,000 Americans 13 years of age or older about their mask-wearing habits. … By the end, a logistic model "controlling for physical distancing, population demographics and other variables found that a 10% increase in self-reported mask-wearing was associated with an increased odds of transmission control," the researchers, from Boston Children’s Hospital, wrote.