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EL DEPARTAMENTO DE TRIBUNALES MUNICIPALES DE HOUSTON PRESENTARÁ LA COMUNIDAD DEL TRIBUNAL DE PUERTO SEGURO VISITA EL VIERNES EN EL EDIFICIO BEULAH SHEPHERD
Houston Health Department, partners announce free COVID-19 testing schedule for week of December 20
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First shipments of Moderna vaccine roll out, a new weapon in U.S. Covid-19 response
Following the distribution of the Pfizer vaccine last week, Moderna’s effort means the U.S. now has two vaccines in its arsenal to fight the coronavirus.
Distribution for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine began on Sunday, just two days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized it for emergency use.
Moderna’s vaccine distribution means the U.S. now has two vaccines in its arsenal to fight the pandemic that has infected more than 17.7 million Americans and claimed more than 317,000 lives.
McKesson, a healthcare supply chain management company, is shipping the vaccine around the country from its distribution centers in Olive Branch, Mississippi, and outside of Louisville, Kentucky. It began filling its first orders on Sunday, including the vaccine and ancillary supply kits needed to administer the shot. The company said their initial deliveries, at the U.S. government’s direction, should arrive by Monday.
“We are honored to be a partner with the U.S. government and other private-sector companies such as Moderna to support in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and the ancillary supply kits,” McKesson CEO Brian Tyler said in a statement.
The U.S. was the first country to greenlight the use of Moderna’s vaccine, which does not need to be stored at ultracold temperatures like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
McKesson has partnered with FedEx and UPS, who will help deliver the vaccine.
A UPS truck carrying the Moderna vaccine was spotted with a police escort Sunday in Louisville, Kentucky, outside the UPS Worldport hub, and a FedEx truck carrying the vaccine arrived with a police escort to the FedEx World Hub in Memphis, Tennessee.
Nearly 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been earmarked for distribution and are expected to be shipped to 3,285 locations across the country, according to officials with Operation Warp Speed, the federal organization with oversees vaccine development and distribution, which partially funded the Moderna work.
In a Friday statement, Modern said about 20 million doses of its vaccine will be delivered to the U.S. government by the end of this year
Moderna’s vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective at preventing symptomatic illness, according to documents released Tuesday. The data also suggest that the vaccine may reduce the virus’s spread by preventing infections, though more data are needed to fully understand that finding.
Austin firefighters, paramedics receive first COVID-19 vaccinations
COVID-19 numbers:
- Texas: More than 1.3 million cases have been reported in the state, and more than 24,900 people in Texas have died, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.
- Central Texas counties:
- Travis County: At least 44,796 cases have been reported and at least 516 people have died. At least 40,236 people have recovered from the virus.
- Hays County: At least 8,759 confirmed cases have been reported and at least 119 people have died. At least 7,378 people have recovered from the virus.
- Williamson County: At least 17,220 cases have been reported in the county and at least 187 people have died. At least 15,868 people have recovered from the virus.
Updates:
5:10 p.m. – On Saturday, Austin firefighters and paramedics began receiving their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Fire specialist Eli Tennefrancia became the first member of the Austin Fire Department to receive his shot, AFD said.
The vaccine shipments were expected later this month, but thanks to Dell Medical School, 25 AFD firefighters and a corresponding number of paramedics and EMTs from Austin-Travis County EMS received theirs on Saturday. They were among the first in the state to do so.
“The men and women of the Austin Fire Department have been serving on the frontlines of this pandemic since the beginning,” said Fire Chief Joel G. Baker. “We’re excited to be on the frontlines again with the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine so that we can continue to safely serve the citizens of Austin in their times of need.”
In addition to AFD and ATCEMS members getting vaccinated on Saturday, Austin Public Health Interim Health Authority Dr. Mark Escott received a vaccination.
More vaccinations are expected throughout the weekend and into next week.
“We’re lucky to have such a close working relationship with our hospital partners. To be invited to get vaccinations earlier than expected was an opportunity we could not and would not pass up,” said Ernesto Rodriguez, chief of Austin-Travis County EMS. “It really is a blessing to have such a good partnership and work together to ensure the safety of all the health care workers in our area. Getting the vaccines ahead of our expected timeline means that our hardworking EMTs and paramedics will be able to safely care for Austin-Travis County residents all the sooner.”
8 a.m. – Two Fourth Street bars have recently announced temporary closures due to COVID-19 cases among employees. On Dec. 16, Rain On 4th announced that it would be closed this weekend after an employee tested positive for the virus. The bar said before it reopens, all staff and entertainers will have to provide multiple negative test results over an extended period.
On Dec. 11, Oilcan Harry’s had announced one of its entertainers had tested positive for COVID-19 after working at the bar on Dec. 6 and being there again on Dec. 9. Oilcan Harry’s said all employees will get tested prior to returning to work when the bar reopens.
Fight over Federal Reserve powers stalls $900 billion COVID-19 aid plan
The impasse is just the latest stumble in a partisan, monthslong battle over COVID-19 relief, and feelings hardened as the Senate congregated for a weekend session.
An arcane battle over emergency Federal Reserve powers foiled efforts on Saturday to lock down an agreement on an almost $1 trillion COVID-19 economic relief package. Saturday’s deadlock was just the latest stumble in a partisan, months-long fight over pandemic relief and the lack of progress is backing lawmakers once again up against a government shutdown deadline Sunday night.
Lawmakers on both sides said a provision by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., that would curb emergency Federal Reserve powers was the sticking point. Republicans are insisting on the Toomey plan, while Democrats are adamantly against it. A compromise was proving elusive, but communications channels are open, as key lawmakers convened in scrums on the Senate floor and as Toomey and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., met to exchange ideas.
“I think that we should be able to get a deal done,” Toomey said afterward.
“I think they agreed to go back and write down what they were saying, so everybody can read it and exchange paper,” said Sen. John Cornyn.
The latest pratfall likely upends hopes for a House vote Sunday and quick Senate action on an agreement that’s virtually ready save for Toomey’s provision.
“That has to be resolved. And then everything will fall into place,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “It’s a very significant difference.”
A new deadline of midnight Sunday for a government shutdown served as a backstop for the tortuous negotiations, which were being conducted in secret largely among the top four leaders in Congress.
“We need to conclude our talks, draft legislation, and land this plane,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Toomey defended his controversial provision in a floor speech, saying the emergency powers were designed to stabilize capital markets at the height of the COVID panic this spring and are expiring at the end of the month anyway. The language would block the Biden administration from restarting them.
Even Toomey said this week that his provision “could be seen as redundant,” but neither he nor his Democratic adversaries were backing down from the fight, though compromise language was being shuttled back and forth.
At issue are Fed emergency programs, launched amid the pandemic this spring, that provided loans to small and mid-size businesses and bought state and local government bonds. Those bond purchases have made it easier for those governments to borrow, at a time when their finances are under pressure from job losses and health costs stemming from the pandemic.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said last month that those programs, along with two that purchased corporate bonds, would close at the end of the year, prompting an initial objection by the Fed. Under the Dodd-Frank financial reform law passed after the Great Recession, the Fed can only set up emergency programs with the support of the treasury secretary.
But in Mnuchin’s letter closing the programs, he said the Fed could request that future treasury secretaries renew them. Fed Chair Jerome Powell echoed that view Wednesday at a news conference. Yet Toomey’s language would bar the Fed from doing so.
That prompted a rare statement Saturday from former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who oversaw a dramatic expansion of the Fed’s emergency lending during the Great Recession, which most economists credit with helping end the financial crisis.
It is “vital that the Federal Reserve’s ability to respond promptly to damaging disruptions in credit markets not be circumscribed,” Bernanke said. “The relief act should ensure, at least, that the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authorities, as they stood before the passage of the CARES Act (in March), remain fully intact and available to respond to future crises.”
Democrats in Congress also say that Toomey is trying to limit the Fed’s ability to boost the economy, just as Biden takes office.
“This is about existing authorities that the Fed has had for a very long time, to be able to use in an emergency,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. “It’s about a lending authority for helping small businesses, state government, local government in the middle of a crisis.”
Toomey disputed that charge, saying his proposal “is emphatically not a broad overhaul of the Federal Reserve’s emergency lending authority.”
The massive package would wrap much of Capitol Hill’s unfinished 2020 business into a take-it-or-leave-it measure that promises to be a foot thick or more. House lawmakers will probably have only a few hours to study it before voting as early as Sunday afternoon. A Senate vote would follow, probably on Monday. One more short-term funding bill probably would be needed to avoid the looming deadline.
An agreement in principle Saturday would be a precursor to more hours of translating compromises into detailed legislation. Lawmakers are eager to exit Washington and close out a tumultuous year.
The $900 billion packages come as the pandemic is delivering its most fearsome surge yet, killing more than 3,000 victims per day and straining the health care system. While vaccines are on the way, most people won’t get them for months. Jobless claims are on the rise.
The emerging agreement would deliver more than $300 billion in aid to businesses and provide the jobless a $300-per-week bonus federal unemployment benefit and renewal of state benefits that would otherwise expire right after Christmas. It includes $600 direct payments to individuals; vaccine distribution funds and money for renters, schools, the Postal Service, and people needing food aid.
It would be the first significant legislative response to the pandemic since the landmark CARES Act passed virtually unanimously in March, delivering $1.8 trillion in aid, more generous $600 per week bonus jobless benefits, and $1,200 direct payments to individuals.
The new relief aid would be added to a $1.4 trillion governmentwide appropriations bill that would fund agencies through next September. That measure is likely to provide a last $1.4 billion installment for Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall as a condition of winning his signature.
620,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine to be delivered to 1,100 Texas providers next week
Next week the state of Texas is getting more than 620,000 more doses of the coronavirus vaccine.
The shipments are slated to begin arriving as early as Monday and will go to more than 1100 providers, including pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics, many of them in smaller, rural areas of the state.
The owners of one of those pharmacies in Sugar Land, DeliverIt Pharmacy, are very excited to be receiving about 100 of the vaccines.
“When I got this email that our application for the vaccines was approved and we’re getting the shipment on Monday, I was likeHallelujah, a sign of relief”, said Dr. Ehab Abughazaleh, CEO of DeliverIt.
All told, over 620,000 doses will be shipped to providers in 185 Texas counties.
460,500 doses will come from Moderna and 159,900 will come from Pfizer.
Among those getting the vaccine, the Houston Fire Department is slated to receive 3000 doses to be given to the department’s first responders.
Woman shot outside her home in south Houston
A woman was shot outside her home in south Houston early Saturday, according to the Houston Police Department.
At around 2 a.m., units were dispatched to a residence in the 4200 block of Davenport Street in reference to a shooting. On arrival, officers located a middle-aged female suffering a gunshot wound to the leg and a graze wound to the head.
Officers applied a tourniquet to the woman’s leg and soon after, she was transported to an area hospital for treatment. The woman is expected to recover from her injuries.
According to investigators, two women in a grey sedan pulled up in front of the woman’s home and honked their car horn repeatedly, prompting the woman to come outside. Upon recognizing one of the individuals in the car as the current girlfriend of her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, the woman attempted to run back in her house. But before she could get inside, someone inside the car shot the woman several times.
The victim’s daughter, who lives with the victim, told police that her baby’s father has a new girlfriend who does not get along well with her, and on Friday she began receiving threatening texts from the new girlfriend and the girlfriend’s friend.
“We do have a good idea of who the suspect is so investigators are going to work this case and we’re confident we’ll get some charges on it,” an officer at the scene said.
An investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
Texas nears 25,000 virus deaths, awaits more vaccines
Texas is nearing 25,000 deaths during the coronavirus pandemic, the second-highest total in the country.
On Friday, state health officials reported 294 new deaths due to COVID-19, bringing Texas’ death toll to 24,954.
Cases of COVID-19 and virus-related hospitalizations continue to rise in the state. On Friday, the state reported 9,709 people hospitalized with the virus, an increase of nearly 22% over the last month.
Officials reported 12,192 new cases on Friday. That’s a drop from the one-day record of new cases — 16,864 — that was set on Thursday.
One in every 262 people in Texas tested positive for the virus in the past week, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
The increase in cases and hospitalizations comes as state health officials announced Friday that Texas will receive 620,000 more doses of COVID-19 vaccines over the next week.
More than 224,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have already been delivered in Texas.
The new round of vaccines will go mainly to front-line health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.
Dr. John Hellerstedt, the commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said much of the vaccine the state was expected to receive in the coming week would be the one developed by Moderna Inc., which was given approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday.
“Adding the Moderna vaccine will dramatically increase the amount of vaccine that can go to rural areas and smaller providers because it ships in smaller quantities and can be stored longer at regular refrigerator temperatures,” Hellerstedt said.
Gov. Greg Abbott has said he expects more than 1 million Texas residents will be vaccinated by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, officials in two Texas cities announced they have tested positive for COVID-19.
Port Arthur Mayor Thurman Bartie told he was being treated at a Houston-area hospital but that he was “feeling a little better.” He expected to remain hospitalized through the weekend.
The Fort Worth Police Department announced that Police Chief Ed Kraus was quarantined at home after testing positive and being asymptomatic.
Southeast Texas unemployment rate rises to 11.8 percent, higher than state, national average
November’s numbers are out and the unemployment rate in Southeast Texas is higher than the state and national average.
Nine months into the pandemic, unemployment numbers are on the rebound. Southeast Texans are grappling with even higher rates of unemployment.
November’s numbers are out and the unemployment rate in Southeast Texas is higher than the state and national average.
The pandemic put thousands of Texans out of work, leaving many to depend on collecting unemployment.
“Since the week ending March 14, the Texas Workforce Commission has processed over 6.4 million claims for unemployment insurance benefits,” Texas Workforce Commission Media and Public Relations Specialist Cisco Gamez said.
That is the equivalent of more than nine years of claims since March when compared to last year’s total, he said.
“And since that time, the Texas Workforce Commission has paid over $36.5 billion in benefits using state and federal funds,” Gamez said.
Unemployment has been especially tough in Southeast Texas. From November 2019 to November 2020, the unemployment rate has nearly doubled.
The hardest-hit industries are oil and gas, construction and hospitality, Workforce Solutions Southeast Texas business representative Kevin King said.
While there has been significant job growth in the state, TWC said the growth has not reached Southeast Texas.
“The problem is where is that growth, in what industries, and it’s not really the industries that are dominant in the Beaumont-Port Arthur area,” TWC director of communications James Bernsen said.
Soon extra money people were getting under the CARES Act is set to expire the day after Christmas, although a new bill is being debated in Congress.
If Congress decides to approve the next COVID-19 stimulus bill, that could mean another round of stimulus checks of up to $600 for those unemployed.
“If legislation is passed, we will implement it right away,” Bernsen said.
Congress could potentially make a decision to pass a new stimulus bill by the end of the weekend.
Walgreens start to provide Covid vaccines at thousands of hard-hit nursing homes
For nursing homes across the country, the coronavirus pandemic has been specially marked by isolation, illness, and loss. On Friday, CVS Health and Walgreens are beginning to offer Covid-19 vaccinations for residents and staff at those long-term care facilities, making them among the first Americans to receive the shots.
Walgreens said its pharmacists will administer the shots at nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Ohio, Connecticut, and Florida. CVS said it will provide them at facilities in Ohio and Connecticut.
Both companies will expand to facilities in other states next week.
The vaccine rollout at long-term care facilities is one of the early steps of a national effort aimed at reaching the most at-risk Americans and then the general public. It’s a speedier start for the companies, which expected to begin vaccinations next week. Health-care workers, including those who work in emergency rooms and intensive care units, began to get Covid vaccinations on Monday. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities have been put at the top of the priority list, too, because they are home to older and sicker Americans who have been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus.
Less than 1% of the U.S. population lives in long-term care facilities, but they account for nearly 40% of all Covid-19 deaths in the country as of Dec. 10, according to COVID Tracking Project, an effort led by The Atlantic magazine to understand the impacts of the coronavirus.
The vaccines will eventually be available at neighborhood drugstores and grocery stores. Walgreens and CVS Health officials said they expect to have Covid shots for the general public at their stores in the early spring.
CVS and Walgreens will play a key role with distribution at long-term care facilities, after striking deals with the federal government in October to run the on-site clinics. Their pharmacists and technicians will initially use the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which has been approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration. The Moderna vaccine is expected to get FDA approval clearing it for distribution and use in the coming days. Both vaccines require two doses.
He said the U.S. “can really put a dent” into the coronavirus’s impact by quickly and safely vaccinating such a vulnerable population.
For CVS, the vaccinations on Friday will also include its very first. Chief Operating Officer Jon Roberts and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont will watch a resident get the first shot provided by its staff at a skilled nursing facility in West Hartford.
Through a spokesman, CVS said it anticipates it will vaccinate about 500 people at three facilities in Connecticut and approximately 1,000 people at four facilities in Ohio on Friday based on numbers provided by the long-term care facilities.
Over 40,000 long-term care facilities have chosen CVS to provide the vaccinations. Next week, the company’s pharmacists and technicians expect to give doses of the facilities across 12 states, including Connecticut and Ohio.
Walgreens expects to give vaccinations to nearly 3 million residents and staff at 35,000 long-term care facilities. On Friday and Saturday, a company spokeswoman said it plans to send teams to eight to 10 locations. Next week, it will provide vaccinations in approximately 800 long-term care centers across 12 states.
