The Canadian Press
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden issued a rebuke of Republican lawmakers who refused to wear masks while sheltering in crowded rooms during last week’s violent insurrection on the Capitol. “What the hell’s the matter with them?” Biden asked, adding that “it’s time to grow up.” Dozens of lawmakers were ushered off the House floor to an undisclosed location as a mob of Donald Trump supporters descended on the Capitol last week to protest Biden’s election win. Democrats say Republicans refused to wear masks, with some even resisting when Delaware Democratic Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester tried to pass them out to the crowd. Five members of Congress announced they tested positive for the coronavirus after being taken to a safe space when the riot began. ___ THE VIRUS OUTBREAK: Global deaths reach 2 million from coronavirus. Pfizer temporarily reduces European deliveries of vaccine. Desperate effort to bring oxygen supplies to the Brazilian rainforest’s biggest city. City in northern China builds 3,000-unit quarantine facility to handle anticipated overflow of COVID-19 patients. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has unveiled $1.9 trillion plan for tackling the coronavirus pandemic and provide 100 million vaccines in 100 days. Spain insists it can stay open and still beat the virus while much of Europe is increasingly locked down. ___ Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak ___ HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING: DENVER — Colorado Gov. Jared Polis on Friday criticized false information given by the Trump administration regarding the existence of a federal vaccine reserve as “gross incompetence.” “We’re glad that every dose was sent out, but the fact that on several calls with state governors, the White House lead us all to believe that there was a second dose that had been paired that would be released soon,” Polis said. Colorado’s goal is to give vaccines to 70% of 70 and up population by the end of February. Polis said the additional supply would’ve allowed Colorado to expand its eligible vaccine group since it would’ve covered half of the 70 and up population in the state. Polis said close to 40,000 Colorado residents 70 and older have received the vaccine. “There was a lot of upside. We were hopeful that there would be a more aggressive timeline sooner for getting to others but I’m still confident we’ll meet our initial timeline because we did base that on the conservative figures of what we knew we could expect through the normal supply chain,” Polis said. ___ PARIS — French health authorities, who have been concerned over polls showing the majority of French were wary of vaccines against COVID 19, may have had a surprise with the number of people who have signed up for shots starting Monday, reserved for those 75 and older or with a high health risk. The health agency reported more than 500,000 appointments scheduled for the first of two shots until Feb. 14, saturating the system. The agency said an internet site set up as one means to make appointments was receiving up to 20,000 connections a minute. More appointments can be scheduled after that date, with the progressive arrival of more vaccines. France has been lagging far behind European neighbours in vaccinating because of a strategy to start in nursing homes with complex consent forms for each person. Officials defended the strategy, but got the message and are now setting up vaccination centres and providing daily figures about the number of people inoculated. Paris announced 19 centres opening Monday. Authorities appear to have underestimated the wish of the people to get protection from the virus after early polls that showed up to 60% of the French were wary. Latest polls showed a drastic turn-around as deaths mount, with nearly 70,000 counted by Friday. ___ WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden will use the Defence Production Act to expand the production of the COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination supplies as part of a wide-ranging plan to deliver on his pledge to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days. Biden’s first and perhaps biggest challenge in getting there will be addressing vaccine shortages in health systems across America. He’s long advocated for the use of the Defence Production Act, which gives the government authority to direct private companies to meet national defence needs. President Donald Trump had invoked the Defence Production Act to address various aspects of the COVID-19 public health crisis. His plan also includes proposals to create federally funded community vaccination centres, make the vaccination available in pharmacies and launch mobile clinics to get the shot to underserved communities. And he’ll expand the health care workforce so there are more people qualified to deliver the vaccine to Americans. ___ SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California officials are rushing to help county coroners overwhelmed by a surge in coronavirus deaths. California is now averaging 525 coronavirus deaths per day. In the last week, 3,675 people have died. The California Office of Emergency Services said Friday it has secured 98 refrigerated trailers to serve as makeshift morgues. Most were donated by the Illinois-based Hub Group and are being retrofitted to boost their capacity. The state sent 20 trailers to six counties, mostly in Southern California. That includes Los Angeles County, which has accounted for 40% of the state’s coronavirus deaths. Office of Emergency Services Director Mark Ghilarducci said it is important for people to know the state has a plan “to ensure that all of these folks are taken care of in the most respectful manner.” ___ UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations chief is urging the world to mark the “heart-wrenching milestone” of 2 million deaths from the coronavirus by acting with greater solidarity to ensure vaccines are available and affordable in all countries. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message Friday that governments have a responsibility to protect their people. “Science is succeeding — but solidarity is failing,” he warned. “Vaccines are reaching high income countries quickly, which the world’s poorest have none at all.” Guterres said the world’s leading economies have a special responsibility to support the World Health Organization’s COVAX program to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poorest people. He also urged rich nations to share excess doses of vaccines which “would help vaccinate all health care workers around the world on an urgent basis and protect health systems from collapse.” New York has offered vaccinations to people 65 and over and the 71-year-old Guterres is scheduled to be vaccinated next week, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Volkan Bozkir, the 70-year-old president of the 193-member U.N. General Assembly, says he’ll be vaccinated on Feb. 2. ___ RICHMOND, Va. — A spokeswoman for Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam says reports the federal government has already depleted a reserve of vaccine promised to states are “astonishing.” On Tuesday, governors “were told explicitly” that they’d be provided additional doses, Northam’s spokeswoman, Alena Yarmosky, said in a statement to The Associated Press. Northam, a Democrat and a doctor, then moved quickly to announce the state would expand vaccine eligibility. Yarmosky says Northam’s administration on Friday is “trying to gather as much information as possible” to understand the situation and plan accordingly. ___ NEW YORK — Health officials say by March, a new and more infectious strain of coronavirus — first found in the United Kingdom — will likely become the dominant strain in the United States. The UK variant currently is in 12 states but has been diagnosed in only 76 of the 23 million U.S. cases reported to date. However, it’s likely that version of the virus is more widespread in this country than is currently reported, according to scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While it’s considered more infectious than the virus that’s been causing the bulk of U.S. cases so far, there’s no evidence that it causes more severe illness or is transmitted differently. Therefore, mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing and other prevention strategies can still work, the CDC says. ___ GENEVA — The U.N. health agency’s emergencies chief says the impact of new variants of the coronavirus in places like Britain, South Africa and Brazil remains to be seen, and faults human behaviour for some recent rises in case counts. “It’s just too easy to lay the blame on the variant and say, ‘It’s the virus that did it,’” Dr. Michael Ryan, the emergencies chief at the World Health Organization, said Friday. “Well unfortunately, it’s also what we didn’t do that did it.” That’s a reference to holiday gatherings and other social contacts as well as loosening adherence by some to calls from public health officials to respect mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing. Ryan also pointed to new recommendations from the WHO’s emergency committee advising that countries shouldn’t require proof of vaccination by incoming travellers for now. “If you look at the recommendation made by the committee around vaccination for travellers, it says ‘at the present time,’” Ryan said, noting that vaccine supply is not complete and that the science remains unclear if the COVID-19 vaccines now being deployed act to prevent transmission from a vaccinated person to others. ___ MEXICO CITY — The global death toll from the coronavirus has topped 2 million. A tally by Johns Hopkins University showed it crossed the threshold on Friday. The bleak milestone comes amid a monumental but uneven effort to vaccinate people against the coronavirus. Some countries are seeing real hope of vanquishing outbreaks. In wealthy countries, including the United States, Britain, Israel, Canada and Germany, tens of millions of citizens have already received shots. But elsewhere, immunization drives have barely gotten off the ground. Many health experts are predicting another year of loss and hardship in places like Iran, India, Mexico and Brazil. Those four countries collectively account for about a quarter of the world’s deaths. The U.S. leads the world with nearly 390,000 confirmed deaths. ___ COPENHAGEN, Denmark — U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer has confirmed it will temporarily reduce deliveries to Europe of its COVID-19 vaccine while it upgrades production capacity to 2 billion vaccine doses per year. “This temporary reduction will affect all European countries,” a spokeswoman for Pfizer Denmark said in a statement to The Associated Press. Germany’s Health Ministry says Pfizer had informed the European Commission, which was responsible for ordering vaccines from the company, that it won’t be able to fulfil all of the promised deliveries in the coming three to four weeks. The ministry says German officials took note of the unexpected announcement by the Commission “with regret” because the company had made binding delivery commitments by mid-February. ___ TORONTO — Canada’s procurement minister says production issues in Europe will temporarily reduce Pfizer’s ability to deliver vaccines. Minister Anita Anand says the U.S. drug-maker is temporarily reducing deliveries because of issues with its European production lines. She adds while the company says it will still deliver 4 million doses by the end of March, that is no longer guaranteed. Canada has received just 380,000 doses of the vaccine and was supposed to get another 400,000 this month. It is expecting nearly 2 million doses in February. Canada hopes to vaccinate everyone who wants to be vaccinated by September. ___ WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden also is tapping former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler to help lead the incoming administration’s vaccine rollout and development program. Kessler has been advising Biden as a co-chair of his advisory board on the coronavirus pandemic. He served in the FDA from 1990 to 1997, under Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. The pick of Kessler comes after Biden on Thursday called the Trump administration’s rollout of coronavirus vaccines a “dismal failure” and says he will unveil his own plans on Friday to speed up inoculations. He will replace Moncef Slaoui, a researcher and former drug company executive who led Operation Warp Speed for the Trump administration, Slaoui will become a consultant to Operation Warp Speed. Kessler will work with Gen. Gustave Perna, who will continue as chief operating officer. ___ SALEM, Ore. — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says the state’s efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccinations have been thrown in disarray because of “deception on a national scale” by the Trump administration. The Democrat wrote on Twitter that she was told by Gen. Gustave F. Perna, who leads the “Operation Warp Speed” federal vaccine effort, states won’t receive increased shipments of vaccines from the national stockpile next week “because there is no federal reserve of doses.” Brown wrote: “I am demanding answers from the Trump Administration. I am shocked and appalled that they have set an expectation on which they could not deliver, with such grave consequences.” On Thursday, officials from the Oregon Health Authority announced vaccination sites had met the goal of 12,000 coronavirus vaccine doses a day. The state has administered a total of 146,137 first and second doses of vaccines. ___ The Associated Press
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