As the pandemic continues, Gov. Jay Inslee announced a new plan last week called “Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery.”
This new plan takes effect Monday, and unlike the state’s previous “Safe Start” plan, “Healthy Washington” consists of two phases instead of four, with the state divided into eight regions.
Every region will start in Phase 1, and reopenings will happen by region rather than county. Additionally, regions do not have to apply to move forward to the next phase. The state Department of Health (DOH) will promote regions based on whether they hit four key metrics. The DOH will examine data every Friday to determine if each region can move forward on the following Monday.
We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see previous days’ live updates and all our other coronavirus coverage, and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington and the world.
Young Chicago students begin return to classroom learning
Chicago Public Schools students began their return to the classroom Monday as school doors opened to thousands of pre-kindergarten and some special education students.
The nation’s third-largest district, with about 355,000 students, plans a gradual return to in-person instruction after going remote last March due to the coronavirus pandemic. Pre-kindergarten and some special education students can return this week or continue online learning. Students in kindergarten through 8th grade have the option next week. No date has been set for high school students’ return.
Nearly 40% of eligible students, about 77,000, expressed interest in returning, with about 6,000 students in pre-kindergarten and special education expected Monday. District officials didn’t immediately release data on how many students returned or how many teachers reported to work.
The Chicago Teachers Union has opposed reopening over safety concerns.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
China: WHO experts arriving Thursday for virus origins probe
Experts from the World Health Organization are due to arrive in China this week for a long-anticipated investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, the government said Monday.
The experts will arrive on Thursday and meet with Chinese counterparts, the National Health Commission said in a one-sentence statement that gave no other details.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the experts will travel to the central Chinese city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019.
Negotiations for the visit have long been underway. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed disappointment last week over delays, saying that members of the international scientific team departing from their home countries had already started on their trip as part of an arrangement between WHO and the Chinese government.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
Storied Swiss ski races canceled because of virus outbreak
FILE – In this Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019 file photo, Monaco’s Arnaud Alessandria speeds down the course during an alpine ski, men’s World Cup downhill in Wengen, Switzerland. The signature Alpine skiing race in Switzerland is cancelled this year due to COVID-19.. (Gabriele Facciotti / The Associated Press)
Switzerland’s signature ski race was canceled Monday after a rise in COVID-19 infections was blamed partly on tourists from Britain.
Wengen was to host three races on the iconic Lauberhorn mountain from Friday to Sunday.
The widely expected cancellation was confirmed by the Swiss ski federation. It followed a second day of talks between the International Ski Federation and local organizers with health officials in Bern.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
US ramps up vaccinations to get doses to more Americans
FILE – In this Sunday, Jan. 10, 2021, file photo, Medical professionals from Oregon Health & Science University load syringes with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru vaccination clinic in Portland, Ore. The U.S. is entering the second month of the largest vaccination effort in history with a massive expansion of the campaign, opening up football stadiums, major league ballparks, fairgrounds and convention centers to inoculate a larger and more diverse pool of people. (Kristyna Wentz-Graff / The Associated Press)
The U.S. is entering the second month of the biggest vaccination effort in history with a major expansion of the campaign, opening football stadiums, major league ballparks, fairgrounds and convention centers to inoculate a larger and more diverse pool of people.
After a frustratingly slow rollout involving primarily health care workers and nursing home residents, states are moving on to the next phase before the first one is complete, making shots available to such groups as senior citizens, teachers, bus drivers, police officers, firefighters and people with underlying medical conditions.
“Every shot in the arm is a step closer to ending this pandemic,” Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
Romania Holocaust survivor Tucarman dies from COVID-19 at 98
Iancu Tucarman, one of the last remaining Holocaust survivors in Romania, was buried Monday after dying from COVID-19 last week. He was 98.
Dozens gathered at Tucarman’s funeral in Bucharest to pay respects and mark a horrific legacy of World War II. The funeral was held in line with anti-virus measures.
Tucarman died on Jan. 8 after battling the coronavirus. Romania has been hit hard in the outbreak, recording more than 16,000 deaths in the country of 19 million people.
Tucarman was 18 years old in June 1941 when German and pro-Nazi Romanian troops rounded up thousands of other Jews in the northwest city of Iasi during the events that became known as the “Iasi Pogrom.”
Iasi Jews were crammed into trains and driven around Romania until most of them suffocated inside or died of dehydration. About 13,000 people died.
“A survivor of unimaginable horrors during the Iasi Pogrom, a man with an incredible will to live, Iancu Tucarman could not fight this unforgiving virus,” Israeli Ambassador David Saranga said after Tucarman’s death.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
South Africa struggles with post-holiday spike in COVID-19
South Africa is struggling to cope with a spike in COVID-19 cases that has already overwhelmed some hospitals, as people returning from widespread holiday travel along the coast spread the country’s more infectious coronavirus variant.
Of particular concern is Gauteng province, the country’s most populous, which includes the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria. Authorities say it is already seeing a spike in new infections after people traveled to coastal areas, where the variant is dominant.
The Steve Biko Hospital in the Pretoria area has already reached capacity and is putting COVID-19 patients into a field hospital outside the main building.
In response to the resurgence, South Africa has reimposed restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, including banning alcohol sales, closing bars, enforcing a night curfew and limiting attendance at public gatherings including church services and funerals.
South Africa, with a population of 60 million, has reported 1.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, representing more than 30% of all the cases in Africa, which this week exceeded 3 million.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
80% say Tokyo Olympics should be called off or won’t happen
FILE – In this Dec. 1, 2020, file photo, the Olympic Symbol is reinstalled after it was taken down for maintenance ahead of the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympics in the Odaiba section in Tokyo. More than 80% of people in Japan who were surveyed in two polls in the last few days say the Tokyo Olympics should be canceled or postponed, or say they believe the Olympics will not take place. (Eugene Hoshiko / The Associated Press)
More than 80% of people in Japan who were surveyed in two polls in the last few days say the Tokyo Olympics should be canceled or postponed, or say they believe the Olympics will not take place.
The results are bad news for Tokyo organizers and the International Olympic Committee as they continue to say the postponed Olympics will open on July 23.
Tokyo is battling a surge of COVID-19 cases that prompted the national government last week to call a state of emergency. In declaring the emergency, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said he was confident the Olympics would be held.
The surge has heightened skepticism about the need for the Olympics and the danger of bringing into the country 15,000 athletes and tens of thousands of coaches, judges, officials, VIPs, sponsors, media and broadcasters.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
‘It Became Sort of Lawless’: Florida Vaccine Rollout Turns Into a Free-for-All
Linda Kleindienst Bruns registered for a coronavirus vaccine in late December, on the first day the health department in Tallahassee, Florida, opened for applications for people her age. Despite being 72, with her immune system suppressed by medication that keeps her breast cancer in remission, she spent days waiting to hear back about an appointment.
“It’s so disorganized,” she said. “I was hoping the system would be set up so there would be some sort of logic to it.”
FILE — People queue for COVID-19 vaccinations at a sports complex in Fort Myers, Fla., Dec. 29, 2020. Florida decided people 65 and older should get the coronavirus vaccine first but demand has overwhelmed supply, and people are frustrated. (Octavio Jones / The New York Times)
Phyllis Humphreys, 76, waited with her husband last week in a line of cars in Clermont, west of Orlando, that spilled onto Highway 27. They had scrambled into their car and driven 22 miles after receiving an automated text message saying vaccine doses were available. But by 9:43 a.m., the site had reached capacity, and the Humphreyses went home with no shots.
“We’re talking about vaccinations,” said Humphreys, a retired critical care nurse. “We are not talking about putting people in Desert Storm.”
Florida is in an alarming new upward spiral, with nearly 20,000 cases of the virus reported Friday and more than 15,000 Saturday. But the state’s well-intended effort to throw open the doors of the vaccine program to everyone 65 and older has led to long lines, confusion and disappointment.
Read the story here.
—The New York Times
English health official warns pandemic entering worst weeks
People wait to receive a Covid-19 vaccine at the NHS vaccine centre that has been set up at Millennium Point centre in Birmingham, England, Monday Jan. 11, 2021. The centre is one of the seven mass vaccination centres now opened to the general public as the government continues to ramp up the vaccination programme against Covid-19. (Jacob King / The Associated Press)
England’s chief medical officer warned Monday that the coming weeks would be the worst of the pandemic for the National Health Service as he appealed to the public to strictly follow guidelines meant to prevent the spread of the disease.
Chris Whitty said political leaders are considering tightening the rules as a new, more transmissible variant of COVID-19 aggravates an already difficult situation. Hospitals are overflowing and exhausted medical staff are under strain.
“I think everybody accepts that this is the most dangerous time we’ve really had in terms of numbers into the NHS,’’ Whitty told the BBC.
The warning comes as hospitals in England struggle to keep up with a surge in coronavirus infections that has seen the number of beds filled by COVID-19 patients rise steadily for more than a month. English hospitals are now treating 55% more COVID-19 cases than during the first peak of the pandemic in April.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
Idaho ski resort punts twilight skiing after people defy COVID-19 rules, abuse staff
Twilight skiing at Schweitzer Mountain Resort has been called off next weekend due to noncompliance with mask and social distancing policies, the resort announced Sunday.
“The bottom line is, the rules are the rules and we need everybody to comply with them, and it’s not happening,” said Dig Chrismer, marketing manager at the Sandpoint, Idaho resort.
In a Facebook post Sunday morning, the resort said “due to an overwhelming lack of compliance with our mask policies and social distancing,” twilight skiing will not be offered over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend from Jan. 15-17.
Schweitzer requires skiers and snowboarders to wear face coverings when they are unable to socially distance from people outside of their household.
“I will not continue to tolerate the verbal abuse that has been directed towards our staff as they have attempted to enforce our safety requirements,” wrote Tom Chasse, president and CEO. “We hope this will only be a ‘pause’ but we will need to reassess our approach to twilight skiing before we commit to any future dates.”
Read the story here.
—Emma Epperly, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
California virus deaths top 30,000 after deadliest weekend
California has hit another grim coronavirus milestone. Data from John Hopkins University on Monday showed the nation’s most populous state has recorded more than 30,000 deaths since the pandemic started nearly a year ago.
Deaths have exploded since a COVID-19 surge began in October. It took the California six months to record its first 10,000 deaths. But in barely a month, the total rose from 20,000 to 30,000.
Over the weekend, state officials reported a two-day record of 1,163 deaths. Hospitalizations also have exploded and many hospitals are stretched to the limit.
Health officials have warned the worst is yet to come later this month, when there’s full picture on infections from the holidays.
Read the story here.
—The Associated Press
Quarantine corner: Diversions to get you through the day
—Kris Higginson
Catch up on the past 24 hours
• Our state’s new reopening plan starts today, and some of the most visible changes affect fitness centers. Here’s what you can and can’t do now, and what’s coming in the next phase.
• A Washington ski resort is trying to “stop the madness” by halting its popular twilight skiing as people refuse to follow COVID-19 rules and verbally abuse workers.
• With 175,000 Washingtonians behind on rent, what will happen when eviction bans end? There’s no plan to tackle the COVID-19 debt that could follow some people for much of their lives, and some fear a “tsunami” of evictions will be just the beginning.
• “The Shootist,” one of the most prolific bank robbers in U.S. history, has been granted early freedom — along with dozens of other federal felons in Washington state — because of COVID-19. Former Bothell resident Johnny Madison Williams Jr., 69, hadn’t been scheduled to go free until 2072.
• Why is Washington still struggling to vaccinate the most vulnerable people, three weeks after doses arrived? A Times Watchdog look inside the rollout reveals reasons for the frustratingly slow pace.
• Vaccines in the trash: New York keeps loosening rules on who can get vaccinated as precious doses go to waste. And Florida threw open the doors to everyone 65 and older, but the result is chaos.
