Coronavirus News Update – March 26: French Cabinet Ministers Hospitalized for Covid

Arizona Moves Vaccinations Indoors as Temperatures Climb

By Jesse Sokolow on 26 March 2021
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The Seine in Paris

France’s minister of culture, Roselyne Bachelot, was hospitalized with Covid-19 on Wednesday, the second minister in France to be admitted due to coronavirus in the past week, after the country’s minister of labor, Élisabeth Borne, was also hospitalized.  The news comes on the heels of a third, albeit less strict, lockdown last week in 16 regions.

As of Friday, the world has recorded almost 126.22 million Covid-19 cases since the first cases in December 2019 and it has seen over 2.77 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such data.

Since the start of vaccinations at the end of last year, the world has administered more than 508 million doses, the equivalent of 6.6 doses for every 100 people, an increase from 6.4 on Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that as of Friday morning, 87.1 million people in the United States, or roughly 33.7% of the population over the age of 18, have received at least one dose, including over 47.3 million people, or 18.3% of the same population, who have received both doses. Overall, 14.3% of the population has been fully vaccinated against the virus, a 0.3 percentage point increase over Thursday.

France added three additional regions to the list of areas, namely Rhône, Aube and Nièvre that would impose new rules. One of the regions includes Lyon, and new restrictions would see the city close all nonessential shops, and limit residents to traveling 10 kilometers, or six miles, from their homes.

Thursday marked one year since Hawaii implemented its first lockdown, ordering residents to stay at home and closing all schools and non-essential businesses. The state also ordered a mandatory 14-day quarantine period for any travelers arriving to the islands.

Although the Aloha State is doing better one year later, a hospital on Maui was forced to throw away approximately 1,400 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine after the refrigerator that they were being stored in did not seal properly. However, official from the hospital said that there were still enough doses stored to keep all scheduled vaccination appointments for the moment.

In Arizona, where the weather is getting significantly warmer, the state will begin moving vaccination appointments indoors and to nighttime, as the high desert temperatures will be unsafe for patients and volunteers to be waiting in, health officials there announced, adding that the technology used for managing appointment flow, such as Apple iPads, would not function well in the heat.   The forecast for Phoenix called for a high of 84° F (32° C) on Monday.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)

Accura News