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CORONAVIRUS

Virus surge breaks hospital records amid rising toll on kids

Associated Press Kentucky and Texas joined a growing list of states that are seeing record numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a surge that is overwhelming doctors and nurses and afflicting more children. Intensive care units around the nation are packed with patients extremely ill with the coronavirus — even in places where hospitalizations have not yet reached earlier peaks. The ICU units at Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital in Georgia typically have room for 38 patients, and doctors and nurses may have only two or three people who are very sick, said Dr. Jyotir Mehta, ...

Pfizer seeking FDA OK for COVID-19 vaccine booster dose

AP Health Writer Pfizer is seeking U.S. approval of a booster dose of its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine. The drugmaker said Wednesday that it has started the application process for a third dose of its vaccine for everyone ages 16 and older. The company said it will complete the application with the Food and Drug Administration by the end of this week. The FDA earlier this month said transplant recipients or others with weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Then last week, U.S. health officials announced plans to give COVID-19 booster shots to all ...

US outbreaks force early reversals on in-person learning

Associated Press ATLANTA — A few weeks into the new school year, growing numbers of U.S. districts have halted in-person learning or switched to hybrid models because of rapidly mounting coronavirus infections. More than 80 school districts or charter networks have closed or delayed in-person classes for at least one entire school in more than a dozen states. Others have sent home whole grade levels or asked half their students to stay home on hybrid schedules. The setbacks in mostly small, rural districts that were among the first to return dampen hopes for a sustained, ...

Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine gets full approval

Associated Press WASHINGTON — The U.S. gave full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday, potentially boosting public confidence in the shots and instantly opening the way for more universities, companies and local governments to make vaccinations mandatory. The Pentagon promptly announced it will press ahead with plans to force members of the military to get vaccinated amid the battle against the extra-contagious delta variant. The University of Minnesota likewise said it will require its students get the shot, as did Louisiana’s major public universities, including LSU, ...

Record delta wave hits kids, raises fear as US schools open

AP Medical Writer The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with COVID-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, thought his frightened mother, Yessica Gonzalez. Francisco was normally healthy and rambunctious. At 9, he was too young to get vaccinated, but most of the family had their shots. She had heard kids rarely got sick from the coronavirus. But with the highly contagious delta variant spreading across the U.S., children are ...

With no beds, hospitals ship patients to far-off cities

Associated Press MISSION, Kan. — Many overwhelmed hospitals, with no beds to offer, are putting critically ill COVID-19 patients on planes, helicopters and ambulances and sending them hundreds of miles to far-flung states for treatment. The surge in the delta variant of the virus, combined with low vaccination rates, has pushed hospitals to the brink in many states and resulted in a desperate scramble to find beds for patients. The issue is that large hospitals in urban areas already were running short of space and staff with non-COVID procedures like cancer biopsies and hip ...