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CORONAVIRUS

Prosecutor: Wisconsin pharmacist thought vaccine was unsafe

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin pharmacist convinced the world was “crashing down” told police he tried to ruin hundreds of doses of coronavirus vaccine because he believed the shots would mutate people’s DNA, according to court documents released Monday. Police in Grafton, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Milwaukee, arrested Advocate Aurora Health pharmacist Steven Brandenburg last week following an investigation into the 57 spoiled vials of the Moderna vaccine, which officials say contained enough doses to inoculate more than 500 people. Charges are ...

Walz to relax restrictions on indoor dining

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz plans to announce loosened restrictions this week on indoor dining and in other settings, a spokesman said, as restaurant and bar owners increasingly push back on coronavirus measures that have pushed some to the edge of survival. Walz spokesman Teddy Tschann said the governor will make the move Wednesday as the state’s coronavirus numbers have improved in recent weeks “following the pause on activities around the holidays.” Walz has gradually relaxed virus restrictions, moving first to get elementary students back into school, ...

UK’s Johnson warns of more lockdown measures as virus soars

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned Sunday that more onerous lockdown restrictions in England are likely in the coming weeks as the country reels from a new coronavirus variant that has pushed infection rates to their highest recorded levels. Johnson, though, insisted he has “no doubt” that schools are safe and urged parents to send their children back into the classroom in areas of England where they can. Unions representing teachers have called for schools to turn to remote learning for at least a couple of weeks more due to the new variant, which ...

India OKs AstraZeneca and locally made COVID-19 vaccines

EW DELHI (AP) — India authorized two COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday, paving the way for a huge inoculation program to stem the coronavirus pandemic in the world’s second-most populous country. The country’s drugs regulator gave emergency authorization for the vaccine developed by Oxford University and U.K.-based drugmaker AstraZeneca, and another developed by the Indian company Bharat Biotech. Drugs Controller General Dr. Venugopal G. Somani said that both vaccines would be administered in two dosages. He said the decision to approve the vaccines was made after “careful ...

Fauci: Vaccinations ramping up in ‘glimmer of hope’

Associated Press The U.S. ramped up COVID-19 vaccinations in the past few days after a slower-than-expected start, bringing the number of shots dispensed to about 4 million, government health officials said Sunday. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, also said on ABC’s “This Week” that President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to administer 100 million shots of the vaccine within his first 100 days in office is achievable. And he rejected President Donald Trump’s false claim on Twitter that coronavirus deaths and cases in the U.S. have been greatly ...

California announces first confirmed case of virus variant

Associated Press California on Wednesday announced its first confirmed case of the new and apparently more contagious variant of the coronavirus, the second case documented in the United States in a day. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the infection found in Southern California during an online conversation with Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “I don’t think Californians should think that this is odd. It’s to be expected,” Fauci said. Newsom did not provide any other details about the person who was infected. The first ...