(CHICAGO) — More than 350,000 public school students in Chicago are expected to resume in-person learning on Wednesday after a tentative agreement was reached between the school district and the Chicago Teachers Union to bolster classroom safety amid a wave of COVID-19 infections.
A deal was struck Monday night to end nearly a week of in-classroom cancellations and remote learning. Tuesday marked the fifth day students have been out of classrooms after a long holiday break.
The more than 25,000 teachers and staff in the nation’s third-largest school district are to return to their schools on Tuesday to prepare for reopening classrooms.
Negotiations between the CTU and the district focused on demands to expand student testing for the virus and to create a set of metrics designed to trigger closing schools and returning remote learning if coronavirus infections continue to soar. The talks grew contentious at times as union leaders accused Mayor Lori Lightfoot of “bullying” teachers back to the classrooms and school district officials accused the union of staging an “illegal walkout.”
Both sides filed complaints to a state labor board.
“Some will ask who won and who lost,” Lightfoot said Monday night. “No one wins when our students are out of the place where they can learn the best and where they’re safest. After being out of school for four days in a row, I’m sure many students will be excited to get back in the classroom with their teachers and peers. And their parents and guardians can now breathe a much deserved sigh of relief.”
Pedro Martinez, CEO of Chicago Public Schools, said the district is committed to the safety of its students, teachers and staff, and said the negotiations forged “some really good things.”
CTU President Jesse Sharkey said Monday that the union fought to improve classroom safety for both students and teachers.
“I’m ultimately proud the Chicago Teachers Union took a stand,” Sharkey said at a news conference. “We’re going to keep doing what’s right as we navigate this. It’s not a perfect agreement but we’ll hold our heads up high, as it was hard to get.”
The agreement also includes new incentives to boost the number of substitute teachers in the district and establishes metrics that will prompt a return to remote learning, but for individual schools, not the districtwide protocols for which CTU had asked.
The district also offered to spend about $100 million to implement a safety plan that includes air purifiers for all classrooms. The district said it will provide KN95 masks for all teachers and students.
The union’s governing body, composed of 700 members, voted by nearly a 2-to-1 margin — 63% to 27% — to end remote teaching. Rank-and-file members have until later this week to vote on whether to ratify the agreement.
Like Chicago, school districts nationwide are reeling from a surge in COVID-19 cases sparked by the highly contagious omicron variant.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is planning to reopen schools for in-person learning on Tuesday, although some schools in the nation’s second-largest school district have opted to delay reopening due to an increase in reported COVID-19 cases.
LAUSD officials are requiring all students and staff to get tested for COVID-19 before the first day of classes. The district announced on Monday that at least 65,630 of those tests have come back positive.
The Philadelphia School District announced on Friday that 46 schools would switch to virtual learning as the omicron variant and a winter storm took a toll on staffing.
(KAZAKHSTAN) — Russian-led troops sent to help quell protests will begin leaving Kazakhstan in two days now that the government is back in control, the country’s president has said.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in an address to Kazakhstan’s parliament Tuesday said the troops, deployed by the Moscow-dominated military alliance, the Collective Security Treaty Organisation at his request last week, would start a phased withdrawal that would finish in no more than 10 days.
“The main mission of the CSTO peacekeeping forces has been successfully completed,” Tokayev told lawmakers. He said that the situation was now stable in all regions of Kazakhstan.
The Russian-led alliance sent troops late last week to Kazakhstan as violent protests saw Tokayev’s authoritarian government lose control over its biggest city, Almaty. Russia sent the largest contingent, deploying paratroopers units with armored vehicles, backed by several hundred soldiers from the other former Soviet countries in the alliance: Belarus, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Tokayev has said the force numbers around 2,300 troops.
In recent days, Tokayev’s security forces have forcibly regained control in Kazakhstan, using live fire to end the uprising in Almaty and arresting nearly 10,000 people. The unrest saw at least 164 people killed and over 2,000 injured, according to authorities.
The Russian-led troops have not been used in combat or in direct clashes with protesters, according to the authorities, who say instead they were used to guard key facilities, including Almaty’s airport which was overrun by protesters. Tokayev has said the arrival of the foreign forces freed up his security forces in the capital Nur-Sultan to help quash the unrest in other regions.
The Russian intervention had worried Western countries that have expressed fear the Kremlin’s forces might remain indefinitely and that Kazakhstan could find its independence eroded.
The U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this weekend told reporters, “I think one lesson in recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it’s sometimes very difficult to get them to leave.”
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin a day earlier has insisted his troops would “without question” leave as soon as their mission was complete.
Life was slowly returning to some normalcy in Almaty on Tuesday, although the city remained under heavy guard by security forces. Troops are posted at key buildings and checkpoints, stopping people and examining their phones for signs they may have taken part in the protests, according to an ABC reporter on the ground.
Tokayev on Tuesday announced his picks for a new government, including a new prime minister. The lower house of parliament quickly approved Tokayev’s acting prime minister, Alikhan Smailov, to the the post. In a special session of parliament, Tokayev also promised to launch broad reforms to overhaul Kazakhstan’s government and tackle economic problems in the country — addressing concerns that led to the protests. The unrest was triggered by a sudden hike in fuel prices, and came amid wide discontent with rising prices on basic goods and stagnant wages that have worsened with the pandemic.
Tokayev said his government would announce a new packet of measures within two months aimed at tackling inflation and raising incomes.
He also declared he would radically improve Kazakhstan’s security forces to prevent a repeat of last week’s unrest, promising to increase the number of special forces units in the police and create new ones in the national guard. He also promised to announce in September a packet of political reforms, saying Kazakhstan would “continue a course of political modernisation.”
(WASHINGTON) — Senators from both sides of the aisle grilled top health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, on the latest COVID-19 guidance during a Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing Tuesday.
Democrats and Republicans both demanded better communication on rules for testing, isolation and quarantine.
“I’m not questioning the science… but I’m questioning your communication strategies. It’s no wonder that the American people are confused,” Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, who is also the ranking HELP Republican, said.
Committee chair Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said: “I have heard from so many people who find the latest CDC isolation and quarantine guidance confusing and hard to interpret.”
Murray pressed Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky to provide not just “background” but a “straightforward” answer.
“If they are exposed to COVID-19 and they are completely boosted, they should — they do not need to stay home, but they should get a test at day five,” Walensky responded.
“If they have COVID, our guidance does not distinguish between your vaccination status. And our science has demonstrated that you’re maximally infectious two days before and two-to-three days after,” Walensky continued.
“By five days after your symptoms, if you’re feeling better, if your fever is better, if your cough and sore throat are better, then on day six you can go out,” Walensky said. “But you have to wear a mask — you have to wear a mask reliably and you should not go to places you can’t wear a mask. You probably shouldn’t go and visit grandma, you shouldn’t get on an airplane.”
Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah asked for clarity on the latest definition of exposure.
“When you say what people have been exposed, please let us know what it means to be exposed. We’re in a room right now — I’m sure someone here has omicron. Are we all exposed? And therefore, need to get tested? What does it mean to be exposed? And when do we need to get tested?” Romney asked.
Fauci reiterated that the CDC guideline for exposure is if you are in close contact with someone with COVID-19 for “a period of 15 minutes at a time, or a total of 15 minutes over a 24-hour period.”
CDC guidance is to test on day five if you are exposed.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wisc., brought up the scarce availability of N95 masks.
“Americans still can’t go to a local pharmacy and purchase an American-made N95,” Baldwin said. “So President [Joe] Biden has now personally urged Americans to upgrade the quality of the masks they wear — I want to know when the American people will be able to buy an American-made N95 mask?”
Dawn O’Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told the committee that the Biden administration plans to sign a contract with a supplier by next month to get 140 million N95 masks per month.
Some 737 million N95 masks are in the national stockpile that could be provided to hospitals that need them, and those masks come from a dozen domestic suppliers, she said.
O’Connell said the plan is to reach an agreement with a company to create “warm-based manufacturing,” meaning the factory would be able to expand in times of high demand.
“We are very invested in N95 masks being made available. And we’ll continue to look — and I appreciate your support in getting us the American rescue plan dollars that we’re currently investing — and we’ll continue to look at the right ways to invest,” she said.
This hearing also featured another contentious exchange between Fauci and Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
Paul asked Fauci about his email correspondence and accused Fauci of trying to “attack scientists who disagree with you.”
Fauci responded, “you keep distorting the truth.”
“I brought together a group of people to look at every possibility with an open mind … you’re completely turning it around,” Fauci said.
Fauci said the purpose of the committee is to help the American public, but he said Paul instead chooses to “keep coming back to personal attacks on me that have absolutely no relevance.”
Fauci said Paul’s attacks are “for political reasons” and inspire “the crazies out there.”
Dr. Fauci, in another contentious exchange with Sen. Rand Paul, says Paul’s attacks against him “kindles the crazies out there, and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children.”
Fauci referenced the December arrest of a California man who, at a traffic stop, was allegedly found with an AR-15 style rifle, loaded magazines, boxes of ammunition and body armor. Prosecutors said the driver downloaded TikTok videos, compiling a list of people he allegedly wanted to kill, including Fauci and former Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
Fauci and Paul have butted heads repeatedly. At a hearing in July 2021, Paul and Fauci got in a shouting match over COVID-19’s origins.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — When U.S. Army veteran Brian Snow drove 12 hours from his home in Indiana to Washington for then-President Donald Trump’s rally on the Ellipse Jan. 6 — amid chants of “stop the steal” — he came prepared for a fight. Clad in body armor, the father or four feared he could be attacked just for attending the event.
Still, he said, he felt called to be there.
“The president asked for people to come himself. So, you know, that’s what we do,” Snow said on that day a year ago, standing just outside the White House grounds.
But as that protest escalated into an insurrection, it was Trump’s supporters who turned to violence, brutally overtaking security forces to breach the U.S. Capitol and temporarily derailing the certification of the 2020 election.
Among those rioters were dozens of former members of the armed forces, as well as a handful of current service members sworn to protect the country and the Constitution. Roughly 70 of the 800 people who faced criminal charges in the wake of the attack had a military background.
While Snow calls violence against police officers “appalling” and did not storm the Capitol himself, he says he understands the motivation driving the military men and women who did. Because despite the more than 60 unsuccessful lawsuits filed by the former president and his allies, thorough reviews across six critical swing states, and zero documented evidence of widespread voter fraud, he still insists the election was “tainted.”
“If you feel like liberty is being trampled on, then you have a responsibility,” Snow said.
To the Pentagon, the elevated number of military-trained rioters motivated by these false claims is not coincidental, but a sign of extremism in the ranks–an enduring, nocuous problem thrown under a new spotlight by the events of Jan. 6th and one in urgent need of attention.
In the weeks following the attack, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered an unprecedented stand down across the armed services to address extremism. And in the final weeks of 2021, the Pentagon issued a new definition of prohibited extremist activities intended to identify radicalized service members and updated guidelines on social media, warning that “liking” or reposting extremist content could result in disciplinary action.
“The new definition preserves a service members right of expression to the extent possible, while also balancing the need for good order and discipline to affect military combat and unit readiness,” said John Kirby, the Pentagon’s top spokesman.
Additionally, military recruiters are now required to ask candidates about any connections they may have to extremist groups, and service members transitioning to civilian life are warned that they might be approached by these organizations.
While the impact of these measures remain to be see, many — like David Smith, a former Navy medic who served in Afghanistan — fear that without further action, the issue will only intensify.
“I think when we talk about extremism, we should actually like focus in on what the actual extremism is, which is white nationalism,” Smith said. “The military doesn’t want to have to actively address it.”
Smith happened to be passing out hand-warmers to homeless people near the Capitol on Jan. 6, and witnessed some of the rioters’ brutality firsthand.
“It was gut-wrenching,” Smith said, noting especially his fellow veterans among the mob. “To see them storming the building and to do so as if they had the authority to do so — it goes against everything and we swore an oath to protect.”
Smith is the founder of Continue to Serve, a grassroots organization dedicated to engaging former members of the military in lawful activism and community service centered on social justice issues. But he says many veterans are still vulnerable to being swayed by extremists.
“When we talk about veterans and their willingness to serve, they have an undying patriotism. And when politicians can manipulate that, that’s going to give them a lot of power,” Smith said.
Inaction, he predicts, will invite history to repeat itself.
“We’ve got to ensure that we’re creating mechanisms so that when people are getting out of the military, they actually have a place to go,” he said. “And they’re not falling into these groups where they are being indoctrinated and they’re being radicalized and they’re, they’re doing what they did on January 6th.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump has asked a federal judge in New York to halt a civil investigation into his business practices by New York Attorney General Letitia James, accusing her in a new court filing of weaponizing her office to carry out a “targeted attack against a political adversary.”
Trump sued James last month in federal court to block her investigation into how the Trump Organization valued its real estate holdings. He is now asking for a preliminary injunction while the outcome of his lawsuit is decided and for James to recuse herself from the civil investigation.
“Letitia James has displayed a shocking irreverence for her prosecutorial ethics and has routinely exploited her position to malign the former president by turning an unfounded investigation into a public spectacle,” Trump’s motion said. “In doing so, she has exposed the vindictive and self-serving nature of her actions.”
In response, James said this was merely a delay tactic by the former president.
“The Trump Organization has continually sought to delay our investigation into its business dealings. To be clear, neither Donald Trump nor the Trump Organization get to dictate if and where they will answer for their actions,” James said in a statement. “Our investigation will continue undeterred because no one is above the law, not even someone with the name Trump.”
James recently subpoenaed two of Trump’s children, eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and eldest daughter Ivanka Trump, and indicated in a court filing neither would cooperate.
The Trump Organization sought to vacate the subpoenas, arguing they were improperly issued while the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, with assistance from James’ office, conducts a parallel criminal investigation.
“The all too familiar subject areas identified in the document subpoenas include requests for information about valuations and appraisals of properties and assets of Plaintiffs. These matters have long been the subject of Defendant’s joint criminal investigation with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and Defendant’s civil investigation dating back to 2019,” Trump’s motion said.
(NEW YORK) — Millions of Americans woke up to the coldest air of the season on Tuesday morning.
Temperatures plummeted overnight as an arctic blast moved into the northeastern United States.
By morning, the wind chill — what temperature it feels like — had dropped near or below zero degrees Fahrenheit in several areas along Interstate 95, including Philadelphia, New York City and Boston. Meanwhile, parts of upstate New York and northern Maine were almost 30 or 40 below zero.
The frigid air produced blinding lake-effect snowbands in western New York and Pennsylvania. Up to 30 inches of snow fell in 24 hours near the tiny town of Osceola, New York, some 55 miles north of Syracuse.
As of Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service has issued alerts for wind chill and lake-effect snow in 10 U.S. states, from Wisconsin to Maine.
Temperatures are expected to warm up slightly in the afternoon, with numbers in the teens for Boston and New York City, though the wind chill will still be close to zero at times.
The arctic blast is forecast to continue for the next 24 hours.
The wind chill is expected to be in the teens and single digits along the I-95 corridor on Wednesday morning, before temperatures rebound to near 40 and 50 degrees on Thursday from Boston to Washington, D.C.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 839,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.6% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 11, 9:50 am
Florida sees over 126,000 cases in 1 weekend
Florida reported 126,704 new COVID-19 cases this weekend, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG reported, citing CDC data.
Orlando opened a new testing site Monday at Camping World Stadium.
Jan 11, 9:20 am
United cuts flights, 3,000 employees out with COVID-19
About 3,000 United Airlines workers currently have COVID-19, though none are in the hospital, the airline said.
On one recent day, one-third of all United Airlines employees at Newark Airport called in sick, the airline said.
United CEO Scott Kirby said the airline is cutting its near-term flight schedule to ensure they have enough staffing.
Kirby added that, prior to the vaccine requirement, United had one employee die each week from COVID-19.
-ABC News’ Sam Sweeney
Jan 11, 8:35 am
3 cities, 20 million people under lockdown in China
Some 20 million people across three Chinese cities are now under lockdown due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
Anyang, home to 5.5 million people, was the latest city to lock down its residents after discovering two cases of the fast-spreading omicron variant. Another 13 million people are under lock down in Xi’ian and 1.1 million in Yuzhou, with both cities still battling the highly contagious delta variant. Neither has reported any cases of omicron.
Meanwhile, restrictions have been imposed in the port city of Tianjin, about 80 miles southeast of Beijing, which is to host the 2022 Winter Olympics next month. The city’s 14 million people are being tested for COVID-19 after two locally transmitted cases of omicron were detected over the weekend — the first for mainland China.
-ABC News’ Karson Yiu
Jan 11, 7:58 am
Mexico’s president reveals he has COVID-19 for 2nd time
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been reinfected with COVID-19.
Lopez Obrador, 68, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and received a booster shot in December, revealed Monday evening that he has tested positive for the virus a second time.
“Although the symptoms are mild, I will remain in isolation and will only do office work and communicate virtually until I get through it,” the president wrote on Twitter. “In the meantime, the interior secretary, Adan Augusto Lopez Hernandez, will take over for me at press conferences and other events.”
The announcement came after two of the president’s cabinet secretaries announced that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days. Lopez Obrador attended a press conference earlier Monday without wearing a face mask.
The president, who has been accused of downplaying the highly contagious omicron variant as “a little COVID,” contracted the virus for the first time and recovered in early 2021.
Jan 11, 7:00 am
Red Cross declares ‘dire’ blood shortage as omicron surges
The American Red Cross said on Tuesday it’s facing its worst blood shortage in over a decade.
“While some types of medical care can wait, others can’t,” said Dr. Pampee Young, chief medical officer of the Red Cross, in a statement. “Hospitals are still seeing accident victims, cancer patients, those with blood disorders like sickle cell disease, and individuals who are seriously ill who all need blood transfusions to live even as Omicron cases surge across the country.”
The Red Cross, which supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood, said it saw donor numbers fall as the delta variant of COVID-19 spread in August. The number of blood donors has fallen by about 10% since the beginning of the pandemic. That trend continued as omicron spread, the organization said.
“We’re doing everything we can to increase blood donations to ensure every patient can receive medical treatments without delay, but we cannot do it without more donors,” Young said. “We need the help of the American people.”
Jan 11, 6:27 am
Omicron to infect over 50% of Europe’s population within weeks, WHO warns
The highly contagious omicron variant is expected to infect more than half of Europe’s population within the next two months, the World Health Organization’s top official in the region warned Tuesday.
Over 7 million newly confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported across Europe in the first week of 2022, more than doubling over a two-week period. So far, 50 countries in the region have detected omicron infections, according to Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe.
Kluge said omicron, which was first identified in southern Africa in November, “represents a new west-to-east tidal wave” and is “quickly becoming the dominant [variant] in western Europe and is now spreading in the Balkans.”
“As of Jan. 10, 26 countries report that over 1% of their population is catching COVID-19 each week,” Kluge told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. “At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected in the next six to eight weeks.”
Jan 11, 4:40 am
Over 65,000 Los Angeles public school staff and students test positive for COVID-19
More than 65,000 public school staff and students in Los Angeles have tested positive for COVID-19 as the nation’s second-largest school district returns to classrooms on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is requiring all employees and students to get tested for COVID-19 before returning for the Spring semester. Staff headed back to campuses on Monday, while the first day of classes for students was pushed back to Tuesday.
As of Monday evening, 424,230 employees and students have been tested and 65,630 were positive for the virus. The student positivity rate stands at 16.6% and the employee positivity rate stands at 14.9%, according to data released by the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Our positivity rate remains lower than the overall county positivity rate as a result of our heightened safety measures and the continued partnership of families and employees,” the school district said in a statement Monday evening.
Since the start of the pandemic, Los Angeles County has reported a total of more than 2 million cases of COVID-19, with a positivity rate of 21.4%, according to data released Monday evening by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Jan 11, 2:49 am
Pentagon spends $442.1 million on Pfizer antiviral pills
The U.S. Department of Defense announced a $442.1-million contract with Pfizer to produce 835,000 doses of Paxlovid, the first oral antiviral authorized to treat Covid-19.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Monday he expected distribution of the pill to rise “exponentially” in the coming months, with 6 million courses available by March.
The Pentagon’s announcement came less than a week after the White House announced it would double its purchase of Paxlovid from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses, with 10 million treatment courses ready by June.
The estimated completion for the Pentagon’s contract was set for the end of March, officials said on Monday.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 839,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 62.6% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 11, 7:58 am
Mexico’s president reveals he has COVID-19 for 2nd time
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been reinfected with COVID-19.
Lopez Obrador, 68, who is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and received a booster shot in December, revealed Monday evening that he has tested positive for the virus a second time.
“Although the symptoms are mild, I will remain in isolation and will only do office work and communicate virtually until I get through it,” the president wrote on Twitter. “In the meantime, the interior secretary, Adan Augusto Lopez Hernandez, will take over for me at press conferences and other events.”
The announcement came after two of the president’s cabinet secretaries announced that they had tested positive for COVID-19 in recent days. Lopez Obrador attended a press conference earlier Monday without wearing a face mask.
The president, who has been accused of downplaying the highly contagious omicron variant as “a little COVID,” contracted the virus for the first time and recovered in early 2021.
Jan 11, 7:00 am
Red Cross declares ‘dire’ blood shortage as omicron surges
The American Red Cross said on Tuesday it’s facing its worst blood shortage in over a decade.
“While some types of medical care can wait, others can’t,” said Dr. Pampee Young, chief medical officer of the Red Cross, in a statement. “Hospitals are still seeing accident victims, cancer patients, those with blood disorders like sickle cell disease, and individuals who are seriously ill who all need blood transfusions to live even as Omicron cases surge across the country.”
The Red Cross, which supplies about 40% of the nation’s blood, said it saw donor numbers fall as the delta variant of COVID-19 spread in August. The number of blood donors has fallen by about 10% since the beginning of the pandemic. That trend continued as omicron spread, the organization said.
“We’re doing everything we can to increase blood donations to ensure every patient can receive medical treatments without delay, but we cannot do it without more donors,” Young said. “We need the help of the American people.”
Jan 11, 6:27 am
Omicron to infect over 50% of Europe’s population within weeks, WHO warns
The highly contagious omicron variant is expected to infect more than half of Europe’s population within the next two months, the World Health Organization’s top official in the region warned Tuesday.
Over 7 million newly confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported across Europe in the first week of 2022, more than doubling over a two-week period. So far, 50 countries in the region have detected omicron infections, according to Dr. Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe.
Kluge said omicron, which was first identified in southern Africa in November, “represents a new west-to-east tidal wave” and is “quickly becoming the dominant [variant] in western Europe and is now spreading in the Balkans.”
“As of Jan. 10, 26 countries report that over 1% of their population is catching COVID-19 each week,” Kluge told reporters during a press conference Tuesday. “At this rate, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecasts that more than 50% of the population in the region will be infected in the next six to eight weeks.”
Jan 11, 4:40 am
Over 65,000 Los Angeles public school staff and students test positive for COVID-19
More than 65,000 public school staff and students in Los Angeles have tested positive for COVID-19 as the nation’s second-largest school district returns to classrooms on Tuesday.
The Los Angeles Unified School District is requiring all employees and students to get tested for COVID-19 before returning for the Spring semester. Staff headed back to campuses on Monday, while the first day of classes for students was pushed back to Tuesday.
As of Monday evening, 424,230 employees and students have been tested and 65,630 were positive for the virus. The student positivity rate stands at 16.6% and the employee positivity rate stands at 14.9%, according to data released by the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Our positivity rate remains lower than the overall county positivity rate as a result of our heightened safety measures and the continued partnership of families and employees,” the school district said in a statement Monday evening.
Since the start of the pandemic, Los Angeles County has reported a total of more than 2 million cases of COVID-19, with a positivity rate of 21.4%, according to data released Monday evening by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Jan 11, 2:49 am
Pentagon spends $442.1 million on Pfizer antiviral pills
The U.S. Department of Defense announced a $442.1-million contract with Pfizer to produce 835,000 doses of Paxlovid, the first oral antiviral authorized to treat Covid-19.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on Monday he expected distribution of the pill to rise “exponentially” in the coming months, with 6 million courses available by March.
The Pentagon’s announcement came less than a week after the White House announced it would double its purchase of Paxlovid from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses, with 10 million treatment courses ready by June.
The estimated completion for the Pentagon’s contract was set for the end of March, officials said on Monday.
(ATLANTA) — With less than 10 months until the 2022 midterm elections, President Joe Biden heads to Georgia on Tuesday to make his biggest push yet for national voting rights bills and is expected to call for changes to the Senate’s filibuster rules in order to get them passed.
Echoing his impassioned address on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection when he blamed former President Donald Trump and his supporters for holding a “dagger at the throat of democracy,” Biden’s remarks in Atlanta are expected to be a “forceful” call to action to protect voting rights.
“The president will forcefully advocate for protecting the most bedrock American rights: the right to vote and have your voice counted in a free, fair and secure election that is not tainted … by partisan manipulation,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki previewed in her press briefing Tuesday.
“He’ll make clear in the former district of the late Congressman John Lewis, that the only way to do that are (sic) for the Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.”
In excerpts of the speech released Tuesday morning, the White House said Biden will pressure the Senate to act.
“The next few days, when these bills come to a vote, will mark a turning point in this nation. Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?” he was expected to say. “I know where I stand. I will not yield. I will not flinch. I will defend your right to vote and our democracy against all enemies foreign and domestic. And so the question is where will the institution of United States Senate stand?”
Georgia is one of 19 states that have passed new restrictive voting laws since the 2020 election.
There have been 34 such new laws in total accross the country, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, and most of them in states controlled by Republicans.
Many of the new laws, fueled by false claims of widespread election fraud by the former president, take aim at mail-in voting, implement stricter voter ID requirements, allow fewer early voting days and limit ballot drop boxes.
The Brennan Center calculates that 13 more restrictive laws are in the works, including one in Georgia that would ban the use of ballot boxes altogether.
Biden will be speaking alongside Vice President Kamala Harris from the grounds of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, but the trip has been met with criticism from some voting groups that warned in a statement to the Atlanta Constitution-Journal that “anything less” than a finalized plan to pass voting rights in the House and Senate is insufficient and unwelcome.”
On Monday afternoon, The Asian American Advocacy Fund, Atlanta North Georgia Labor Council, Black Voters Matter Fund, GALEO Impact Fund and New Georgia Project Action Fund all said they won’t be attending the event and asked Biden and Harris to stay in Washington.
“We don’t need another speech,” said Cliff Albright, executive director of the Black Voters Matter Fund. “What we need is action — what we need is a plan.”
Biden’s speech will be the third he has delivered focused on the issue of voting rights. It comes after the president signaled in an interview with ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir that he would be open to making a one-time Senate rule change to the filibuster that would allow a simple majority to pass new voting laws.
Psaki said the president would directly address the issue of the filibuster.
“The President has spoken to this issue a number of times, as I’ve said before, including as recently as December where he said that, ‘if that is how we get this done, I’m open to that,'” Psaki said.
The president’s message, according to Psaki, will include a call to “ensure January 6 doesn’t mark the end of democracy, but the beginning of a renaissance for our democracy, where we stand up for the right to vote and have that vote counted fairly, not undermined by partisans.”
In her briefing, Psaki pushed back on criticism of the president, stressing that the speech Tuesday is focused on moving forward.
“We understand the frustration by many advocates that this is not passed into law yet. He would love to have signed this into law himself. But tomorrow’s an opportunity to speak about what the path forward looks like to advocate for — for this moving forward in the Senate.”
While Biden has signaled his openness to passing voting rights with a carveout to the filibuster, he would still need the support of all 50 Democratic senators to do so — which could prove challenging with holdout Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
“Look, I think that everyone is going to have to take a hard look at where they want to be at this moment in history as we’re looking at efforts across the country to prevent people from being able to exercise their fundamental rights,” Psaki said when asked about Sinema’s opposition.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised a vote on voting rights legislation soon and warned that if Republicans filibuster the effort, he will force another vote by Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The White House insists Biden will “work in lockstep” with Schumer to move a vote forward but are taking it “day by day.”
Republicans oppose the proposed federal voting laws as a government overreach, and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell has said Democrats are promoting a “fake narrative,” “fake outrage” and “fake hysteria” on voting rights “ginned up by partisans.”
Harris was tasked in June by the president to lead the administration’s efforts on voting rights reforms. Psaki said the vice president has worked to “help build a groundswell of support” and has been meeting with a number of advocates on the issue.
ABC News’ Meg Cunningham contributed to this report.
A sample of the new quarter coming out in 2022 that on the tail side will show images of poet Maya Angelou. – (U.S. Mint)
(WASHINGTON) — Americans will soon be seeing the face of the late Maya Angelou on U.S. quarters.
On Monday, the United States Mint announced it has begun shipping quarters featuring Angelou, the first of five trailblazing American women to be featured on quarters in 2022.
The new quarter, available in local banks starting in late January, depicts Angelou, an award-winning author and civil rights activist, with her arms uplifted, in front of a bird in flight and a rising sun, images that are “inspired by [Angelou’s] poetry and symbolic of the way she lived,” according to the Mint.
Angelou is now the first Black woman to appear on a U.S. quarter.
The heads side of the quarter featuring Angelou also marks a first, according to the Mint. It depicts a portrait of George Washington originally composed by Laura Gardin Fraser, described by the Mint as “one of the most prolific female sculptors of the early 20th century.”
Gardin Fraser’s portrait was a recommended design for the quarter in 1932, but was not chosen by the then-treasury secretary.
“Laura Gardin Fraser was the first woman to design a U.S. commemorative coin, and her work is lauded in both numismatic and artistic circles,” Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a statement. “Ninety years after she intended for it to do so, her obverse design will fittingly take its place on the quarter.”
The designs are part of the American Women Quarters Program, a four year program featuring coins with reverse (tails) designs of women who have made their mark in American history.
For each year until 2025, the Mint will issue five quarters honoring individuals with a wide range of accomplishments and fields, including suffrage, civil rights, abolition, government, humanities, science, space and the arts.
In addition to Angelou, the women being featured this year include Anna May Wong, the first Chinese American film star in Hollywood; Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman to soar into space; Wilma Mankiller, the first woman elected principal chief of the Cherokee Nation and an activist for Native American and women’s rights; and Nina Otero-Warren, a leader in New Mexico’s suffrage movement and the first female superintendent of Santa Fe public schools.
“Each 2022 quarter is designed to reflect the breadth and depth of accomplishments being celebrated throughout this historic coin program,” Gibson said. “Maya Angelou, featured on the reverse of this first coin in the series, used words to inspire and uplift.”
Angelou was the author of more than 30 bestselling titles, including her autobiography, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. A teacher, poet and performer, in addition to her work as a writer and social activist, Angelou became the first African-American woman to write and present a poem at a Presidential inauguration when she read “On the Pulse of Morning” at then-President Bill Clinton’s 1992 inauguration, according to the Mint.
In 2010, Angelou was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by then-President Barack Obama.
