California Town Unhappy with State, Federal COVID Mandates
Australia’s New South Wales state to ease COVID restrictions
The Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Sunday it has recorded 249.5 million global COVID cases and more than 5 million deaths. The center said 7.2 billion COVID vaccines have been administered. A northern California town’s city council has declared itself a “constitutional republic” as a way to express its displeasure with what it considers state and federal overreach in the issuing of mandates, such as for mask wearing, designed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Legal experts say Oroville’s city council’s move, however, does not allow Oroville to opt out of the mandates. The fully vaccinated in Australia’s New South Wales state are on the verge of having a number of COVID restrictions eased Monday, including elimination of limits on the number of home visitors. Health professionals in India are bracing for a surge in coronavirus cases following Diwali, the annual festival of lights, that began Thursday. Dr. Prakash Singh, a virologist, told , “For this Diwali, people almost forgot the virus is still here and killing people.” Johns Hopkins reports that India has 34.4 million COVID infections, but public health experts say the tally is likely undercounted. Only the United States has more COVID cases, with 46.5 million. Fire swept through a newly built hospital ward for coronavirus patients in western India Saturday, killing at least 10 coronavirus patients. Officials said about two dozen patients were in the intensive care unit of the hospital in the western city of Ahmednagar when the fire broke out. It was the latest in a string of deadly fires at COVID-19 hospital wards in India since the country’s underfunded public health care system was overwhelmed by a coronavirus surge between April and May. Maharashtra state’s chief minister, Uddhav Thackeray, ordered an investigation into Saturday’s fire and the safety conditions at the hospital. Sixteen COVID-19 patients and two nurses were killed in May in a fire at a hospital in India’s Gujarat state. In April, about 35 patients were killed in separate fires at two health facilities in Mumbai. In Russia on Saturday, the government’s coronavirus task force reported 41,335 new infections over a 24-hour period, the country’s highest one-day total since the beginning of the pandemic. It also reported 1,188 coronavirus-related deaths. Officials say Russia’s low vaccination rate is largely to blame for a surge in cases that began in mid-September. Less than 40% of the country’s 146 million people are fully vaccinated. A record high number of coronavirus-related deaths were reported in Ukraine on Saturday. The health ministry reported 793 deaths over the previous 24 hours, topping the country’s previous high of 734 on Oct. 26. Unvaccinated people in Greece, about 40% of the country’s population, are facing more stringent government restrictions as the country grapples with a surge in coronavirus infections. The restrictions, imposed on Saturday, require the unvaccinated to show proof of a negative test to enter indoor public facilities such as banks, government buildings and most shops. They must also show proof in order to eat at outdoor restaurants and cafes.