US coronavirus cases spike pushing up hospitalizations
The highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus has overtaken delta in the United States, sending the daily caseloads soaring to levels higher than last year’s winter pandemic peak in parts of the Northeast and Midwest. Hospitalizations are starting to tick up, too, although not at the same rate as cases. It is unclear if they will continue to follow the rise in cases, especially given evidence internationally that omicron may cause fewer severe cases of COVID. On Friday, the seven-day national average of new daily cases surpassed 197,000, a 65% jump over the past 14 days, and hospitalizations reached a seven-day average of more than 70,000, an increase of 10%.
Girl, 14, ID’d in fatal police shooting at LA dressing room
The Los Angeles Police Department is expected Monday to release more details about an encounter between officers and a man reported to be assaulting a woman that resulted in the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old girl in a North Hollywood clothing store Thursday. When officers arrived at the store, they said, they found a man assaulting a woman and fired at him. They identified him as Daniel Elena Lopez. The teenager, Valentina Orellana-Peralta, was in a dressing room with her mother directly behind him. Police said a bullet, likely fired by an officer, penetrated the dressing room’s wall. Both the man and the girl died from gunshot wounds to the chest.
Desmond Tutu, whose voice helped slay apartheid, dies at 90
Desmond Tutu, the cleric who used his pulpit and spirited oratory to help bring down apartheid in South Africa and then became the leading advocate of peaceful reconciliation under Black majority rule, died Sunday in Cape Town. He was 90. His death was confirmed by the office of South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, who called the archbishop “a leader of principle and pragmatism who gave meaning to the biblical insight that faith without works is dead.” The cause of death was cancer, the Desmond and Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation said, adding that Tutu had died in a care facility. He was first diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997.
US blood banks experiencing biggest shortage in decade
The pandemic has caused many supply-chain bottlenecks, but few are as critical as America’s ever-shrinking blood banks. For the American Red Cross, which supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood, and other nonprofit blood centers, the problem lies mostly at the top of the chain: the diminishing number of healthy donors. Donations of blood typically decline at this time of year. But Chris Hrouda of the American Red Cross said December’s supply had dipped to levels that the Red Cross has not seen in 10 years. “We simply like to keep three days of inventory,” he said. “We’re struggling to keep one day.”
More members of K-pop band BTS test positive for the coronavirus
Three members of the K-pop phenomenon BTS have tested positive for the coronavirus, according to Big Hit Music, the group’s management company. The company said RM, 27, and Jin, 29, tested positive Saturday after returning to South Korea from the United States this month. The day before, Big Hit Music announced that Suga, 28, who returned from the United States on Thursday, discovered he was infected while in quarantine and after taking a PCR test. All three received their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine in August. Suga had tested negative before traveling to the United States. RM and Jin initially tested negative on returning to South Korea.
India expands vaccinations, starts boosters to fight omicron
India is expanding its COVID-19 vaccination drive to include everyone 15 or older and making health workers and some older citizens eligible for booster shots, as the country grapples with the prospect of another wave fueled by the omicron variant. Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said vaccines would be available to those 15 to 18 years old as of Jan 3. He said booster doses would be offered as a “precaution” to health workers and those 60 and older with comorbidities starting Jan 10. India has fully vaccinated about 60% of its adult population of roughly 900 million people, while about 90% have received at least one dose.
By wire sources