A growing number of federal judges have announced their departures in the weeks since President BidenJoe BidenDemocrats say Trump impeachment defense ‘wholly without merit’ A US-Israel defense treaty has benefits — and perils White House: Biden won’t spend much time watching Trump impeachment trial MORE was sworn in, giving the new administration an early opportunity to start making inroads into former President TrumpDonald TrumpDominion spokesman: MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell ‘is begging to be sued’ DC officers who defended Capitol, family of Sicknick honored at Super Bowl US will rejoin UN Human Rights Council: report MORE’s success at filling the judiciary with conservative judges.
There are currently 57 vacancies in the federal district and appellate courts and another 20 seats that will become vacant in the coming months. At least 25 of those vacancies were announced after Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
The group of departures includes Emmet Sullivan, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by former President Clinton in 1994. Sullivan presided over several high-profile cases during the Trump era, including the prosecution of Michael Flynn on charges that the former White House national security adviser had lied to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat during Trump’s transition period.
Another Clinton-appointed judge, Robert Katzmann of the influential 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, announced on Jan. 21 that he would be leaving his seat. Katzmann was also involved in a number of Trump-related cases. Last year, he was part of a three-judge panel that sided with the Manhattan district attorney’s office in a lawsuit Trump filed seeking to block the prosecutor’s subpoena for his tax returns.
Both Katzmann and Sullivan will be taking senior status, which allows them to stay on as judges with a lighter case load while leaving seats for Biden to fill through the Senate confirmation process.
“I think that he already, right off the bat, has an incredible opportunity to improve the cause of justice, that he has a tremendous opportunity to leave his mark by getting on the bench remarkable jurists who are both demographically and professionally diverse and with a demonstrated commitment to equal justice in this country,” said Daniel Goldberg, legal director of the progressive group Alliance for Justice.
But despite the wave of newly vacant seats, Biden will face an uphill battle to match Trump’s success on the courts, partly because he is inheriting significantly fewer vacancies than his predecessor and must navigate the delicate balance of a 50-50 Senate.
It’s not unusual for federal judges to time their exits with the changing of administrations in order to ensure their replacements will be picked by a president who will choose someone ideologically similar. But Russell Wheeler, a scholar at the Brookings Institution who studies the judiciary, said he believes the number of vacancies that have opened up in the final months of Trump’s administration and the early days of Biden’s is relatively low.
“I was surprised by the number of judges, including Republican appointees, who didn’t take senior status compared to earlier years,” Wheeler said. “In the twilight of the Obama administration and the twilight of the Bush administration, usually you see people begin to rush for the exits once it’s pretty clear what the presidential outcome will be, or in the case of the Republicans, try to get the senior status done in the hopes that the Republican president can appoint their successor.”
According to Wheeler’s data, Trump has been one of the most prolific presidents in the modern era when it comes to judicial confirmations, filling the federal benches with young, conservative judges at a rapid clip.
In four years, Trump successfully appointed 226 judges to the federal bench, including three Supreme Court justices, 54 appeals court judges and 174 district court judges, according to the Pew Research Center.
Wheeler has found that Trump lags behind only former President Carter in terms of the total number of judicial appointments in any recent president’s first four years. President Reagan, who appointed four Supreme Court justices in eight years, is the only recent president who left a larger footprint on the high court.
Wheeler thinks it will be harder for Biden to match Trump’s success in shaping the judiciary. For one, he argues, Biden is inheriting fewer high-profile vacancies.
When Trump came into office in January 2017, there were 17 empty seats on the nation’s powerful circuit courts of appeals, which sit just below the Supreme Court. There are now seven current and future circuit court vacancies that Biden will have an opportunity to fill, not including the D.C. Circuit seat that will open up if Merrick GarlandMerrick Brian GarlandBiden’s commission on the judiciary must put justice over politics Cotton tries to squeeze Democrats on expanding the Supreme Court The Hill’s Morning Report – Presented by Facebook – Cheney keeps leadership post; Dems to punish Greene MORE is confirmed as attorney general.
Wheeler also noted that Trump and Senate Republicans made judicial confirmations one of their biggest priorities, which Biden and his colleagues in the upper chamber may not be able to repeat given the new administration’s ambitious legislative agenda.
“I wouldn’t expect to see the courts revolutionized after four years, and of course, if the Republicans take back the Senate in 2022, it’s just going to get more dire,” Wheeler said.
But progressives who are pushing the new administration to focus on the judiciary argue that the fate of Biden’s policy plans will depend largely on the judges who hear the legal challenges that are sure to follow.
“The advancement of so many of the policy issues will not matter if there are not judges on the federal bench who will give proper effect to the critical legislation,” Goldberg said. “And whatever legislation has passed, whether civil rights legislation, legislation protecting workers, we need federal judges, the back end, making sure that those statutes are properly enforced and applied as intended by Congress.”
To that end, Goldberg said, Senate Democrats seem to be taking the judiciary more seriously than in years past.
“It’s clear that they are ready to prioritize this issue like never before,” he said.
The YouTuber known as Roaring Kitty, who became the face of the GameStop stock frenzy and also worked until last week as a broker, could be in legal trouble for potential violations of federal rules governing brokers’ communications with the public.
Keith Gill, 34, placed a huge bet on GameStop shares more than a year ago and shared his ideas about the stock online in the months leading up to the ‘meme stock’ bubble.
But his commentary may create a problem for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co., which employed him and had a duty to supervise him.
Keith Gill, the YouTuber known as Roaring Kitty, is facing regulatory scrutiny
Securities regulators in Massachusetts are said to be investigating Gill and his former day job as a financial wellness education director at insurance company MassMutual.
The company told regulators that it was unaware of Gill’s YouTube videos promoting GameStop stock, and that if it had known it would have asked him to stop or fired him, according to the New York Times.
Although he didn’t advise specific clients on investments or insurance, he was not exempt from regulations that tightly regulate brokers’ conduct, securities lawyers have suggested to the Wall Street Journal.
The once obscure YouTuber has become an unlikely celebrity in the clash between small investors and big hedge funds, and is seen by some as a folk hero and others as a dangerous disruptor of markets.
Gill first touted GameStop as a potential investment more than a year ago
The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) may well be taking a closer look at Gill
After shares of the struggling video game retailer skyrocketed 1,600 percent in January, as small investors inspired by the WallStreetBets message board on Reddit snapped up the stock to punish hedge funds that bet against it, the bubble collapsed this week, and is down more than 70 percent since Monday.
Gill worked as a ‘financial-wellness education director’ but was a registered broker. He has already cashed out more than $13 million on his trades and was sitting on another $7.6 million in gains as of Wednesday, according to a screenshot of his brokerage account he posted on Reddit. At the height of the frenzy last week, his account was worth nearly $48 million.
Gill gave his notice at MassMutual on January 21, but was technically still employed there until January 28, as the GameStop frenzy neared its peak, the company told regulators.
Gill quit his job at MassMutual on January 21 as GameStop shares exploded
He is a licensed securities broker, and licensed professionals have an ‘obligation’ to inform their employers about their outside activities, said William Galvin, the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth.
On Friday, Galvin’s office sent a letter to MassMutual seeking information about Gill’s employment and whether the company was aware of his outside activities.
‘I am not trying to inhibit anyone’s ability to access the marketplace,’ Galvin said. ‘The issue here is transparency.’
Over the last six months Gill posted dozens of videos, the majority related to his view that GameStop shares were undervalued and would rise as others took notice.
Some videos looked at Gamestop’s past performance and forecasts but even posting online using a pseudonym does not absolve him of regulatory obligations, said lawyer Susan Light.
Gill is seen last week at his rented home in Massachusetts, where he lives with his wife and their two-year-old daughter
Shares of GameStop, which soared 1,800 percent in January in a speculative bubble fueled by small investors, have fallen nearly 84 percent in the first four days of this month
‘An average Joe can go on a website and say, “I like XYZ stock.” A broker can’t do that. It would make sense for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (Finra) to be interested in looking at this.’
‘If you have a registered person trading securities away from the firm and making recommendations to the general public, it is potentially a big supervisory miss,’ said Brad Bennett, a former Finra enforcement director to the Journal.
‘After 40 years in the industry, there is no question in my mind that if you are a registered representative [of a brokerage firm], you should not be communicating with anybody on Reddit,’ Bill Singer, a regulatory defense lawyer said. ‘That’s the safest thing to do.’
Gill’s videos included a disclaimer saying investors should consult with a financial adviser before making any investment decision and ‘should not treat any opinion expressed on this YouTube channel as a specific inducement to make a particular investment.’
Roaring Kitty continued to create topical memes regarding the stock’s soaring price
Andrew Calamari, a lawyer with Finn Dixon & Herling and a former director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s New York office, told the Times that it was too soon to determine whether Gill had violated any securities regulations.
But he said that Gill could have violated company rules at MassMutual if he did not receive permission for his posts on Reddit and YouTube.
‘Firms don’t allow employees to go out and make predictions on stock,’ he said of employees other than analysts.
Gill has not posted on YouTube since January 22, and on Wednesday he announced on Reddit that he would step back from providing daily updates on his GameStop position there.
He has remained mostly silent on the controversy, aside from an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week.
‘I didn’t expect this,’ he said. ‘This story is so much bigger than me… I support these retail investors, their ability to make a statement.’
Gill made an initial investment in GameStop of about $53,000 in June 2019. He later added to the investment, plowing in a total of $745,991.
A five-day view of GameStop stock price shows the steep decline from its peak last week
GameStop stock price is seen in a one-year view, showing the shares spiking and falling
In his latest YouTube videos, filmed in his basement, he celebrated his success with as many as 200,000 fans, wearing sunglasses and a sweatband to hold back his shoulder-length hair and dipping chicken tenders (the mascot food of his followers) in Prosecco.
Gill gained notoriety in the Reddit trading forum WallStreetBets as he posted regular updates of his ‘YOLO [You Only Live Once]’ trade beginning in 2019 under the username DeepF***ingValue.
But Gill told the Journal his original decision to buy – at first ridiculed in WallStreetBets before it was venerated – was based on fundamentals about the company.
‘People were doing a quick take, saying GameStop was the next Blockbuster,’ he said, referring to the video store all but destroyed by the decline of retail and the rise of streaming services.
‘It appeared many folks just weren’t digging in deeper. It was a gross misclassification of the opportunity,’ he said.
FOX Business’ Kristina Partsinevelos breaks down what’s happening with the brokerage app Robinhood and how users reacted to the company limiting trading this week.
Embattled mobile brokerage platform Robinhood is seeking to hire a lobbyist to defend its interests on Capitol Hill ahead of likely congressional hearings on its involvement in the GameStop stock trading controversy.
Robinhood posted a listing Friday for a “federal affairs manager” on Daybook, a job board for public policy professionals. The listing went live as executives at the popular day-trading app face bipartisan criticism from lawmakers over their decision to restrict transactions involving shares of GameStop and other stocks embraced by retail investors.
WHAT ARE THE BLUE SHEETS? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE TRADING DATA
“This role will focus on federal advocacy and government affairs related to legislative and regulatory matters, and will report to our Deputy General Counsel of Litigation, Regulatory Enforcement & Investigations, and Government & Regulatory Affairs,” the job description says.
It’s unclear if the latest posting was directly related to calls for Congress to hold hearings on Robinhood’s handling of the situation and the circumstances that led to unprecedented volatility for a number of stocks this week. A posting with the same title on the job board Indeed has been live for more than 30 days.
FAMED GAMESTOP BULL ‘ROARING KITTY’ IS A MASSACHUSETTS FINANCIAL ADVISER
Robinhood representatives did not immediately respond to a request for further comment on the job posting.
The Democratic heads of the Senate Banking Committee and the House Financial Services Committee have each indicated that they will move forward with hearings on the GameStop trading frenzy. Meanwhile, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission pledged to “closely review actions taken by regulated entities that may disadvantage investors or otherwise unduly inhibit their ability to trade certain securities.”
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A handful of stocks favored by the Reddit group “WallStreetBets” spiked in value this week as users bought up shares. The surge prompted a “short squeeze” on hedge funds that were betting against the stocks, which included GameStop, BlackBerry and AMC Entertainment, forcing them to buy more shares to cover their losses.
Critics of Robinhood and other platforms that enacted trading restrictions have argued they did so at the behest of Wall Street hedge funds at risk of insolvency. The platforms have denied those allegations and stated the restrictions were meant to mitigate risk.
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is considering sending active-duty troops to large, federally run coronavirus vaccine centers, a major departure for the department and the first significant sign that the Biden administration is moving to take more control of a program that states are struggling to manage.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency is hoping to set up roughly 100 vaccine sites nationwide as early as next month, and on Wednesday night requested that the Pentagon send help to support the effort. The sites, and the use of the military within them, would require the approval of state governments.
While many state governors have turned to their National Guard units to assist with the mass effort to vaccinate Americans and outrace more contagious variants of the coronavirus, the Pentagon’s role has been largely behind the scenes, providing help with logistics.
During his confirmation hearings last week, Lloyd J. Austin III, the secretary of defense, said he would increase military support to manage the pandemic. On Thursday, Max Rose, Mr. Austin’s senior adviser for Covid-19, said his first topic of conversation in meetings with senior leaders had been making this the “No. 1 priority.”
Sending troops to help set up sites, assist with logistics and even put shots in arms is something the Defense Department is “actively considering,” Mr. Rose said. He declined to provide specifics, saying that Pentagon officials would be reviewing the request from FEMA carefully.
“We are obviously going to source this request,” said John F. Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, noting that, after a review, it would most likely be filled with more National Guard, reserve and active-duty troops.
“I would say we are talking days, certainly not weeks, to get this sourced,” Mr. Kirby said. “We know there’s an urgency.”
The military is likely to provide thousands of troops in the next several months, not unlike the mobilization that the Trump administration put together a few years ago to supplement enforcement at the border with Mexico.
Many states and territories have set up large vaccination sites, and over half are using National Guard members to give shots, drawing on doctors, nurses, medics and others skilled in injections. FEMA, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has already told six states, two territories and Washington, D.C., that it would spend $1 billion on vaccine measures, including community vaccination sites.
It was not immediately clear where the vaccines would come from for new federal sites; they would most likely be drawn from the supply already given to individual states and territories. Most states have not come close to administering the vaccine they have been given.
Covid-19 Vaccines ›
Answers to Your Vaccine Questions
Currently more than 150 million people — almost half the population — are eligible to be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The nation’s 21 million health care workers and three million residents of long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials urged all states to open up eligibility to everyone 65 and older and to adults of any age with medical conditions that put them at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from Covid-19. Adults in the general population are at the back of the line. If federal and state health officials can clear up bottlenecks in vaccine distribution, everyone 16 and older will become eligible as early as this spring or early summer. The vaccine hasn’t been approved in children, although studies are underway. It may be months before a vaccine is available for anyone under the age of 16. Go to your state health website for up-to-date information on vaccination policies in your area
You should not have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, although you will be asked for insurance information. If you don’t have insurance, you should still be given the vaccine at no charge. Congress passed legislation this spring that bars insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as a co-payment or deductible. It layered on additional protections barring pharmacies, doctors and hospitals from billing patients, including those who are uninsured. Even so, health experts do worry that patients might stumble into loopholes that leave them vulnerable to surprise bills. This could happen to those who are charged a doctor visit fee along with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get your vaccine from a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, talk to them about potential hidden charges. To be sure you won’t get a surprise bill, the best bet is to get your vaccine at a health department vaccination site or a local pharmacy once the shots become more widely available.
That is to be determined. It’s possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event, just like the flu shot. Or it may be that the benefits of the vaccine last longer than a year. We have to wait to see how durable the protection from the vaccines is. To determine this, researchers are going to be tracking vaccinated people to look for “breakthrough cases” — those people who get sick with Covid-19 despite vaccination. That is a sign of weakening protection and will give researchers clues about how long the vaccine lasts. They will also be monitoring levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccinated people to determine whether and when a booster shot might be needed. It’s conceivable that people may need boosters every few months, once a year or only every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, a Republican, has already said he does not want “FEMA camps” in his state. “That’s not necessary in Florida,” he told reporters last week after the Biden administration released its plan to address the pandemic, including the FEMA sites. “All we need is more vaccine.”
The Trump administration largely preferred the states to manage efforts to combat the pandemic, leaving governors to acquire protective gear for health care workers and manage testing, contact tracing and other aspects of response. While it cut deals with pharmaceutical companies to expedite the development of vaccines and offered guidance on whom to prioritize in receiving shots, it largely left states to manage their supplies.
State governments have run into a number of snags in getting their vaccines into arms, including resistance among some health care and nursing home workers and others in prioritized groups to the vaccine, and struggles in medical centers to manage their supplies.
The Biden administration has set goals to get more Americans vaccinated quickly, but it is not clear that there will be enough supply should it succeed in speeding up the logistical system, particularly with many Americans now awaiting second shots.
The federal government had been reimbursing states — many of them struggling from large drops in tax revenue — for only 75 percent of their National Guard costs associated with coronavirus relief. The administration will increase that to 100 percent, including for support needed to distribute and administer vaccines, until the end of September.
Jerome Powell in December.Credit…Al Drago for The New York Times
The Federal Reserve meets in Washington on Wednesday, and while it is widely expected to leave interest rates near zero while continuing to buy about $120 billion in government-backed bonds each month, Chair Jerome H. Powell could stage an interesting news conference afterward.
Mr. Powell answered many of the urgent monetary policy questions of the day at an appearance on Jan. 14, making it clear that interest rates will rise “no time soon” and that the Fed will “let the world know” when it is starting to think about slowing down its mass Treasury and mortgage-debt bond buying.
“His goal will be to preserve the status quo — it’s too soon for the message to change,” Roberto Perli and Benson Durham at Cornerstone Macro wrote in a note previewing the meeting.
That could leave the door open for a suite of more thematic questions. The Fed’s policy statement comes out at 2 p.m., and the webcast question-and-answer session starts at 2:30.
Mr. Powell could be asked to give his assessment on whether a bubble is building in stocks, digital currency, house prices — everything, basically — and, if so, what the Fed can do about it. Low interest rates and bond-buying have the effect of pushing investors into riskier assets, and the Fed underlined in its revised policy framework last year that it keeps a wary eye on financial risks.
The Fed chair might also need to take on the question of inequality. As asset prices boom, the wealthy people who disproportionately own stocks are becoming paper millionaires, billionaires, multibillionaires and so on even as the working class struggles with high pandemic-era unemployment and cars continue to line up at food banks. Mr. Powell has typically pushed back on the idea that monetary policy — which also lowers unemployment and sets the stage for higher wages in the longer run — can be boiled down to having one simple effect on income and wealth distribution.
Finally, Mr. Powell might face queries about his own future. He was appointed chair by President Donald J. Trump, and his four-year term expires in early 2022. It is unclear whether President Biden will reappoint him or whether Mr. Powell will seek another term.
A $10 billion company, thanks to a gamma squeeze, delta hedging and Reddit.Credit…Nam Y. Huh/Associated Press
Why is Wall Street obsessed with GameStop, the video game chain that until recently was known for middling performance? The company’s stock has soared to scarcely believable levels — its market capitalization is now more than $20 billion — thanks to an army of small traders spurred on by a Reddit message board, the DealBook newsletter explains.
Traders on the Reddit message board, WallStreetBets, a community known for irreverent market discussions, made GameStock their cause du jour and rushed to buy out-of-the-money GameStop options, a bet on the company’s share price rising in the future. (A sample comment on the board: “PUT YOUR LIFTOFF DIAPERS ON ITS ABOUT TO START.”) Both Tesla’s Elon Musk and the billionaire tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya also egged on the crowd via Twitter.
The frenzy has forced market makers who sold the options to buy the underlying shares to hedge their risk. As more traders snap up options, the brokers have to buy up more shares. That squeeze is driving the astounding rise in the company’s stock price, which began the year at $19 and opened for trading on Wednesday at around $350, double the previous day’s close.
Gabe Plotkin, the hedge fund trader whose Melvin Capital was shorting GameStop — and who recently raised a $2.75 billion bailout from Citadel and his former boss, Steve Cohen, amid the short squeeze — confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday that he had exited his position. Though Mr. Plotkin’s other short bets appear to be suffering, possibly because they are being targeted by traders (Melvin and Mr. Plotkin are often pilloried on the message boards), he said that his firm had plenty of capital.
Officials at the Securities and Exchange Commission and elsewhere are closely watching internet chat rooms for signs of potential market manipulation, though they can do only so much without clear signs of fraud. If a big group of traders simply decides to buy options on a stock at the same time, out in the open, for the heck of it, proving malfeasance may be difficult.
U.S. markets
The S&P 500 fell more than 1.5 percent in early trading on Wednesday, ahead of the latest policy decision from the Federal Reserve and several earnings reports from large technology companies.
The central bank is widely expected to keep interest rates at low levels and continue its large bond-buying program. But investors will be eager to hear what the Fed chair, Jerome H. Powell, might say about concerns asset bubbles are building in markets.
Microsoft rose 0.7 percent after the company said profits were up 33 percent in the past quarter because of the increase in demand for its cloud services while so many people are working from home. Apple, Facebook and Tesla are among companies scheduled to report their results later Wednesday.
Boeing fell more than 3 percent after it reported a record loss of $11.9 billion for the year. The company recorded a $6.5 billion charge related to the development of the 777X, a wide-body plane that had been slated for delivery, next year but the company now expects to arrive in 2023.
‘Wall Street Bets’
GameStop’s shares continued to rocket higher, doubling in early trading after Elon Musk tweeted “Gamestonk!!” and linked to Reddit’s “Wall Street Bets” forum, which has hyped up buying the stock. Shares in the video game retailer, had risen from $19 at the start of the year to $148 on Tuesday.
Small-scale traders are now looking for other companies to promote, especially those that might have a large short position against them (a bet that the stock’s price will fall). Movie-theater chain AMC’s shares rose more than 200 percent. BlackBerry has also appeared on the forum and its shares are up more than 20 percent after gaining 185 percent already this year.
Europe
The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped more than 1.5 percent Wednesday, with indexes falling in most countries. Europe’s vaccine rollout is struggling to ramp up amid supply issues, raising concerns about when an economic recovery will return. Recent surveys has shown business confidence dropping in Germany and France, the eurozone’s two largest economies.
On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund upgraded its outlook for the global economy this year but the recovery is expected to be uneven. The Washington-based institution downgraded its forecast for the eurozone because of the increase in coronavirus infections and lengthy lockdowns. It said the economy would grow 4.2 percent in 2021; three months ago it had predicted a 5.2 percent increase.
Shares in LVMH rose almost 2 percent in early trading after the luxury goods company’s earnings beat analysts’ expectations, particularly in the sales of its fashion and leather goods unit.
Asia
A Boeing 737 Max at Miami International Airport in December.Credit…Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Boeing lost more than $11.9 billion last year, its worst year ever, as it struggled to overcome the crisis surrounding its 737 Max jet as it also endured the disastrous slowdown in global aviation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The company’s bottom line suffered especially during the final three months of the year, during which Boeing reported a loss of more than $8.4 billion. In that quarter, the company recorded a $6.5 billion charge related to the development of the 777X, a wide-body plane that had been slated for delivery next year but the company now expects to arrive in 2023.
Over the course of the year, Boeing brought in more than $58 billion in revenue, which was down 24 percent from 2019.
In a letter to staff, Boeing’s president and chief executive, Dave Calhoun, described 2020 as “a year of profound societal and global disruption, which significantly impacted our industry.”
The financial results were announced on Wednesday morning, shortly after aviation regulators in Europe approved the 737 Max to fly again, joining counterparts in Brazil, Canada and the United States. The Federal Aviation Administration became the first regulator to allow the Max to return to service in November, ending a global ban that had been in place since March 2019, after 346 people were killed in two crashes involving the plane.
Five airlines have resumed Max service, racking up more than 2,700 flights, according to Boeing. In the United States, only American Airlines is flying the Max, though United Airlines is expected to start using the jet next month, followed in the second quarter by Southwest Airlines.
Boeing has started making deliveries and collecting payments on the Max again, a huge relief for its commercial airplane business, which rests heavily on the 737 line. Still, the steep decline in travel caused by the pandemic has hurt Boeing’s airline customers, muting hopes for a recovery this year.
The U.S. Federal Reserve in November last year.Credit…Stefani Reynolds for The New York Times
Top Federal Reserve officials downplayed the chance that they would use their power as bank overseers to actively discourage investment in carbon-heavy companies, setting out a boundary line in an evolving conversation about what role the central bank should play in dealing with the fallout from global warming.
“We would note that it has long been the policy of the Federal Reserve to not dictate to banks what lawful industries they can and cannot serve, as those business decisions should be made solely by each institution,” Jerome H. Powell, the Fed’s chair, and Randal K. Quarles, the vice chairman for supervision, wrote in a letter this month.
Their comments came in response to a letter sent by Representative Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky, and several of his colleagues that raised concerns about the central bank’s recent attention to climate change.
Mr. Powell and Mr. Quarles said the Fed makes sure the institutions it oversees are well-prepared to handle risks they face, including climate-related risks. But they indicated that they were not rolling out climate stress tests or using their supervisory powers to pressure banks to meet climate-related goals — big concerns among Republicans.
“We have seen banks make politically motivated and public relations-focused decisions to limit credit availability to these industries,” the lawmakers said in their letter, specifically referencing coal, oil and gas. “It is possible that the introduction of climate change stress tests could perpetuate this trend, allowing regulated banks to cite negative impacts on their supervisory tests as an excuse to defund or divest from these crucial industries.”
The Fed said its research into climate financial risks was in the “early stages,” and noted that directly addressing climate change was not one of its congressional mandates. America’s central bank is behind its peers when in coming up with a framework for dealing with climate risks.
House Republicans, in December calling for the extension of the Paycheck Protection Program.Credit…Anna Moneymaker for The New York Times
The restarted Paycheck Protection Program allows hard-hit small businesses to get a second government-backed relief loan, but thousands of business owners who are trying to apply have been ensnared by what the Biden administration said are significant errors in the program’s loan records.
P.P.P. loans are guaranteed by the government but made by banks and other lenders. For months, lawmakers and government watchdogs — including the Small Business Administration’s inspector general — have raised alarms about signs of fraud and mistakes that allowed potentially ineligible borrowers to obtain billions of dollars from the aid program.
Those reviewing the program’s loan records, which were released in December after a court ordered they be made public, have also noted that they are rife with errors, like inaccurate loan amounts or loans that were canceled before being disbursed.
The S.B.A. said on Tuesday that it had found “anomalies,” which it described as “mostly data mismatches and eligibility concerns,” in 4.7 percent of the 5.2 million loans made through the program in its initial round of lending, which ended in August.
Those errors have complicated efforts by some borrowers to obtain second-round loans, which the agency began approving two weeks ago, using $284 billion in fresh funding provided by Congress last month to restart the relief program. The S.B.A. said it would provide lenders with additional guidance and resources for resolving troubled cases.
The problems came to light in part because of new fraud checks the agency imposed before it began approving applications for the new funding round.
The agency “is committed to making sure stringent steps are put in place on the front-end and compliance checks address issues more efficiently moving forward so we are ensuring fair and equitable access to small businesses in every community,” said Tami Perriello, the agency’s acting administrator. (President Biden’s nominee to lead the agency, Isabel Guzman, is awaiting her confirmation hearing.)
The S.B.A. said Tuesday that it had approved 400,000 loans, totaling $35 billion, in the new lending round.
Lenders said the new process has generally been working, with some glitches. Some banks have had high numbers of applications rejected because of formatting issues and other technical challenges in getting through the S.B.A.’s new automated vetting system, said Dan O’Malley, the chief executive of Numerated, a software company that is handling P.P.P. applications on behalf of more than 100 lenders.
Shelly Ross, the owner of Tales of The Kitty, a cat-sitting business in San Francisco, said she applied last week for a second loan, but was caught in a holding queue. She tried three other lenders, with results ranging from no response to cryptic replies telling her she did not qualify.
“I’m ready to bang my head against a wall,” she said. But others have had better luck: Ms. Ross said a friend of hers got a quick approval on her own loan application through PayPal.
Richard Zaro started his sandwich shop in a hotel kitchen to save on expenses.Credit…Landon Nordeman for The New York Times
The hotel industry, where occupancy rates are still down 30 percent from a year ago, is getting in on the ghost kitchen trend.
Ghost kitchens, also called digital kitchens, are cooking facilities that produce food only for delivery or takeout. Demand for the concept is booming, Debra Kamin reports in The New York Times.
The pandemic has opened the business model to more entrepreneurs. To turn his chicken cutlet sandwich concept into a business, Richard Zaro started renting space in July at the Four Points by Sheraton Midtown near Times Square, paying $6,000 a month for a fully outfitted catering kitchen. Average restaurant start-up costs for brick-and-mortar locations, in comparison, can run from $200,000 to more than $1 million.
Within four months, he had generated enough revenue — and created a large enough base of loyal customers — to move to a stand-alone location. His new business, Cutlets, opened in a former Tender Greens restaurant near Gramercy Park on Dec. 1, and has plans to expand.
Mr. Zaro found his rented kitchen space through Use Kitch, an online commercial kitchen marketplace that likens itself to an Airbnb for the restaurant industry.
Testing from a base at a Times Square hotel was the ultimate risk reduction, Mr. Zaro said, adding that the hotel benefited, too: “It was nice for them to have incoming revenue.”
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Here are the latest updates about COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, in North Carolina.
Have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine? Send them to us here
WEDNESDAY MORNING STORYLINES
North Carolina will receive its first federal shipment of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday. The 120,000 doses of the vaccine the state receives each week will be less than what’s been made available so far from the state’s supply.
Gov. Roy Cooper will speak Wednesday afternoon along with the state’s COVID-19 task force. Cooper is expected to answer questions about the state’s vaccine supply. North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen has said the state is finished giving out its backlog of shots.
Gov. Cooper is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. The briefing will be carried live on ABC11 and abc11.com and on the free ABC11 North Carolina Streaming App.
A driver-thru vaccination clinic at Galot Motorsports Parks on NC 242 in Dunn will begin at 10 a.m. today and continue as long as supplies last. The clinic is for healthcare workers and adults 65 and older. You don’t have to register, but you will need to bring a form of ID.
TUESDAY
11 p.m. What happens to unused COVID-19 vaccines at the end of the day? ABC11’s Josh Chapin spoke to a UNC doctor who said once vials are opened, they have a shortened shelf live. When there’s 30 minutes left in the day, UNC pulls from a priority list containing local workers in the area to get the shots.
4 p.m. The number of hospitalizations in North Carolina increased slightly on Tuesday after a couple days of decreases.
3,368 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, NCDHHS reported. That’s 72 more people than Monday.
303 confirmed COVID-19 patients were admitted in the last 24 hours.
3,987 new cases were reported on Tuesday. That number was the lowest we’ve seen this month, however, test reporting was also low.
21,846 tests were completed. Normally that number is above 50,000.
The percent positive in the state is at 13.3 percent.
3:45 p.m. The Biden administration is giving states an approximately 17% boost in vaccine next week following complaints around the U.S. of shortages so severe that some vaccination sites had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments with people waiting for their first shot.
ANNOUNCEMENT FROM BIDEN:
Detailed figures posted on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website Tuesday showed that the government plans to make about 10.1 million first and second doses available next week, up from this week’s allotment of 8.6 million. The figures represent doses of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The increase comes as vaccination sites around the U.S. are canceling large numbers of appointments because of vaccine shortages. Governors and top health officials have complained about inadequate supplies and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates of how much is on the way so that they can plan accordingly.
1:15 p.m. North Carolina healthcare providers have administered 95% of all available first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, with North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mandy Cohen saying she’s confident the remaining 5% will be given out just in time for the next shipment from the federal government Wednesday.
Cohen said 630,000 people have received first doses (another 180,000 have received both first and second doses). In the past week, health officials have used 260,000 doses — a major increase when compared to the first weeks of vaccine doses arriving in the state.
Cohen said now that the state has largely exhausted its backlog of first doses, NCDHHS is outlining a process for allocations that will provide more transparency and certainty to providers.
Cohen said that when the state first started receiving vaccine, it allocated doses to counties based on population, but to clear the state’s backlog and demonstrate to the federal government that North Carolina is capable of taking on more vaccine, NCDHHS moved to a “posture of speed,” asking certain providers to ramp up vaccinations at the expense of predictable allocations.
Cohen said this, along with the state committing to multiple large scale vaccination events, left some providers without any doses to administer.
“This week is going to feel particularly tight with many providers getting small, or no allocations,” Cohen said.
But moving forward, Cohen said providers will get a baseline amount of doses they can expect for the next three weeks.
Each week, North Carolina gets 120,000 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government.
Cohen said the state’s plan includes distributing 84,000 of those doses to counties based on population, which will then be divided among local providers based on their capacity to push them out quickly.
The remaining 36,000 doses will be used to balance vaccine distribution to counties and areas that need it most.
“We’re also asking providers to prioritize equity,” Cohen said. “The percentage of vaccines administered to historically marginalized communities should meet or exceed the population estimates of their communities in their county and region.”
Cohen said the state is helping counties achieve equitability by supporting providers with data entry, event planning, coordination amongst community players and registration assistance.
“Demand for vaccines far exceeds our supply,” Cohen reminded.
She said the state will continue to work to distribute vaccine as quickly as possible and to be transparent about where the vaccines are going and how they’re being used.
1 p.m. The state has launched a new website to help everybody learn when they will be eligible to get a vaccine. Click here for that website.
NCDHHS also released the day’s COVID-19 metrics. The data showed another decrease in hospitalizations but an increase in the daily percent positive. To take a look at the numbers for yourself, click here.
10:30 a.m. Durham County has confirmed its leaders are working on a mass vaccination site with plans to open in early February.
“We are still working out the details such as hours of operation, appointment scheduling, and other logistical considerations, but it is our goal to open to the public in the early weeks of February,” said Durham County Health Director Rodney Jenkins.
Officials now believe the site could vaccinate approximately 17,000 individuals per week in an update from an earlier projection. Vaccinations are currently ongoing at Southern Durham High School. You can call 919-560-HELP to schedule a vaccination.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy Cohen and Emergency Management Director Mike Sprayberry will speak to the media Tuesday afternoon at 1.
9:40 a.m. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is holding a virtual job fair on Tuesday to help those struggling with unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fair will be from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Job seekers will be able to speak with recruiters and hold one-on-one virtual interviews.
More information here.
9:30 a.m. A new Brazilian variant of the coronavirus has made its first known appearance in the United States, in a person who had recently returned to Minnesota after traveling to that country, state health officials announced Monday.
The virus known as the Brazil P.1 variant was found in a specimen from a patient who lives in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and became ill the first week of January, the Minnesota Department of Health said in a statement. Epidemiologists were re-interviewing the person to obtain more details about the person’s illness, travel and contacts.
There was no immediate indication that the variant was spreading in the state.
Viruses are constantly mutating, and new versions – called variants – often emerge. Health officials are also worried about variants that were first reported in the United Kingdom and South Africa. Researchers believe they may spread more easily than the virus that’s already caused nearly 420,000 deaths in the United States.
9 a.m. Duke University’s COVID-19 testing continued last week, netting 82 positive results after testing 27,865 students and 2.716 faculty and staff.
There were 62 positive results among students, who recently started classes for the spring semester. Students are required to be tested before starting classes and on-campus activities. The total positivity rate is 0.27 percent.
More data about Duke’s testing can be found here.
8:45 a.m. The Moderna company is reporting its supplied 30.4 million doses of its brand of the COVID-19 vaccine to the U.S. government so far
In a release, Moderna said its trajectory of 100 million doses by the end of March is on target as well as its track to deliver 200 million doses to the government by the end of June. Around 10.1 million doses have been administered so far, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
TUESDAY MORNING STORYLINES
A newly-conceived mass vaccination site in Durham will be able to vaccinate as many as 45,000 people per week.
“We are delighted to report the state of North Carolina and Fidelity have reached an agreement as far as hosting a mass vaccination site,” Durham County Health Director Rodney Jenkins said at a county commissioners’ meeting on Monday night. Dr. Mandy Cohen requested the site be placed in Durham.
Jenkins told the county that he’ll work with the state and Durham Public Schools to scout out possible locations for the site. More details on the site are forthcoming.
The North Carolina Healthcare Association is calling on Gov. Roy Cooper to do more when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine in the state. The group wants more regular vaccine allocations to deal with the surge in demand. They feel the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services gave providers little to no advance notice when they decided to move forward with vaccinating adults 65 and older.
“At the end of the day, we’re taking directives, which in many cases is last minute, and we’re doing the best we can with it,” said Steve Lawler with the NCHA.
NCDHHS is giving an update on its effort Tuesday and asking providers to “aggressively provide opportunities” for vaccinations. NCDHHS said as of Sunday night, providers have administered 88% of all available doses. Meanwhile, suppliers are struggling with getting enough doses from the state.
The Governor said the state’s top priority is getting vaccines out quickly and equitably. Federal officials are being urged to make more vaccines available. There’s a drive-thru clinic at the Crown Expo Center today in Fayetteville, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
A food drive is happening Tuesday in Raleigh at PNC Arena to help families put food on the table. The North Carolina Community Action Association is holding the event, which starts at 10 a.m. A box with food, drinks and home goods will be given away while supplies last.
Cape Fear Valley Health clinics will no longer be able to accommodate walk-in vaccines for first-dose vaccinations at any of its four clinics. Appointments can still be made online.
Vice President Kamala Harris will receive her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday. Harris will get the shot at the National Institutes of Health.
MONDAY
11 p.m. Duke University has identified a cluster of COVID-19 cases at Berkshire Ninth Street apartment complex.
A “cluster” is defined by the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services as five or more related cases that are deemed to be in close proximity of time and location, such as a residential hall or apartment complex.
Duke said the five students in this cluster have been identified and are now isolating in a separate location.
6:19 p.m.
As of Monday, Naval Health Clinic Cherry Point (NHCCP) began vaccinating authorized TRICARE beneficiaries aged 75 years and older.
Beneficiaries aged 75 years and older should call the NHCCP Appointment Line at (252) 466-0921 (Option 3). The clinic will coordinate appointment times with command officials of active duty and frontline personnel who are eligible according the phase definition.
The Naval Clinic is NOT accepting patients for walk-in vaccinations at this time.
4:49 p.m. For the third week in a row, the Orange County Health Department has not received any first dose allotment of COVID-19 vaccines from the NCDHHS. The lack of first dose allotment will not affect or delay the second vaccines for community members who have already received their first shot, the health department said. Anyone who has received their first vaccine from the Orange County Health Department will be contacted to make an appointment for their second dose by phone or email.
“As of January 24, 2021, all first doses of vaccine have been exhausted and it is not clear when we will be receiving more vaccine from the state.” said Orange County Health Director, Quintana Stewart. “Until the vaccine supply is significantly increased it will be weeks or perhaps months until we can complete vaccinations for Phases One and Two. We understand this must be frustrating for our community members to hear and we want let you know that we share in your frustration.”
The Health Department is scheduling health care workers, long-term care residents and staff and older adults ages 65 and older for appointments (Phase One and Two). There are 1.6 million people older than 65 in North Carolina. In Orange County there are approximately 22,000 people who are 65 years of age or older.
4:45 p.m. In response to a letter the North Carolina Healthcare Association sent to Gov. Roy Cooper with several specific requests to improve the COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the state, the governor’s office responded, saying there’s simply not enough vaccine in the state to meet demands.
“The Governor’s top priority is getting vaccines out quickly and equitably,” the statement said. “The state has directed vaccines to all 100 counties and deployed high-throughput sites. Unused vaccine here could lead federal authorities to cut future allotments, so NCDHHS has pushed providers to exhaust North Carolina’s supply of first doses. However, the reality is that there is not enough vaccine here for those eligible and we need more. North Carolina providers have shown they can distribute more than double the state’s current weekly allotment and the Governor will continue to urge federal officials to make more vaccine available.”
READ THE FULL LETTER BELOW:
NCHA President Steve Lawler said the letter was a result of various conversations he’s had with Cooper and Cohen but didn’t want the concerns of hospitals and health systems he’s representing to get buried.
Among those issues expressed in the letter, Lawler called for more transparency and better communication.
“What we’ve asked, specifically is, one, involve us. Let us help you make good decisions because no one knows our patients and our communities as well as we do,” he said. “I think there’s a difference between providing directives and asking the people that are doing the work to participate in the design and development so that it’s done well. Because at the end of the day we’re taking directives- hospitals, health systems, community providers, health departments are taking this directive, which in many cases is last minute and we’re doing the best we can with it.”
4:45 p.m. The Cumberland County Department of Public Health will be giving second doses only of the COVID-19 vaccine during a drive-thru clinic scheduled for Tuesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be available and appointments are not needed for second doses. First and second doses of the Pfizer vaccine and second doses of the Moderna vaccine will be available at clinics scheduled on Wednesday, and Friday at the Crown from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., while supplies last. People seeking second doses will be seen on a first-come, first-served basis or by appointment this week.
The Health Department will receive 975 first doses of Pfizer this week. Because of the limited supply of first doses and already scheduled first-dose appointments for the week, there will be reduced first-come, first-served opportunities on Wednesday and Friday.
Visit the County’s vaccine website for information on how to request an appointment block.
4:45 p.m. A drive-thru COVID-19 testing event has been scheduled for next week in Moore County on January 28 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Morganton Road Sports Complex at 190 Fire Lane in Southern Pines.
The testing event is open to all residents of Moore County with no physician referral required. Testing is sponsored by the Moore County Health Department and Goshen Medical Center.
Everyone who wishes to participate in testing should register by calling (910) 267-2044.
There will be no out of pocket cost for testing.
All testing participants are instructed to remain in their vehicle throughout the testing.
4:20 p.m. Lee County health officials announced six more COVID-19 deaths, bringing the county death total to 56 since March. The county said 253 more COVID-19 cases have been reported since last Monday, bringing the total to 4,682.
3:25 p.m.
NCDHHS launched a new online tool for North Carolinians to know when they are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.
Find My Vaccine asks a few questions to help determine what group you are in.
“Given the very limited supplies we currently have, there may be wait times, but every North Carolinian has a spot. A spot for accurate information. A spot in line. A spot to take their shot,” said NCDHHS Secretary Dr. Mandy K. Cohen.
As of Sunday evening, 88 percent of all first doses have been reported as being administered, according to NCDHHS.
Providers reported administering more than 260,000 doses this past week. As of Monday, the CDC ranked North Carolina 10th in total vaccines administered and 29th in vaccines administered per 100,000 people. Beginning on Jan. 27, North Carolina will have only 120,000 doses to allocate across the entire state. A large portion of those doses are committed to the large-scale events planned several weeks ago to address the backlog in vaccine. As a result, many providers are getting small or no allocations for the coming week. Through no fault of their own, they will be postponing appointments.
Answering your questions about when & where you can get a COVID-19 vaccine in NC
2:43 p.m. Wake County is inviting health-care workers and anyone age 65 or older to join its COVID-19 vaccine waiting list. The county also is holding free, drive-thru COVID-19 testing events at Lake Benson Park through January 31.
1:47 p.m. Because of a change in the number of COVID-19 vaccines that Cape Fear Valley Health has been allotted by the State of North Carolina, the health system has had to reconfigure the way in which it runs its COVID-19 vaccination clinics.
Effective Tuesday, the health system will no longer be able to accommodate walk-ins for first-dose vaccinations at any of the four vaccine clinics in operation at Cape Fear Valley Rehabilitation Center, Health Pavilion North, Hoke Hospital and Bladen County Hospital.
Appointments can be scheduled online to receive a first-dose vaccination. Appointments will be opened for a given week the Saturday before.
At this time, no appointment is required for the second dose, but this may change as supply levels fluctuate. Cape Fear asks that people return to the same location where they received their first dose to receive the second dose.
1:40 p.m. The North Carolina Healthcare Association sent a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper with several specific requests to improve the COVID-19 vaccination efforts in the state.
The letter includes seven different bullet points that the group believes would help improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the vaccine rollout.
READ THE FULL LETTER BELOW:
1:10 p.m. Sampson County reports 16 new cases for a total of 6,076 positive cases.
There have been three additional deaths since Friday for a countywide total of 78.
12:53 p.m. The Halifax County Health Department said that because of the limited allowance of vaccination from the state, it will vaccinate on Wednesday only this week. COVID 19 vaccinations will be offered at Halifax Community College Building 700 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. for group 1 and group 2 only.
If you are unable to walk, a health department worker will come and vaccinate you while you remain in your car.
Halifax County also reports 87 new cases and four additional deaths.
The county now has 4,058 total positive COVID 19 cases and 74 deaths.
Daily Lab Confirmed Cases 12:05 p.m. Wake County Health Department reports it received less than 1,000 new doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week.
The department said it requested 3,000 doses, but instead only received one case of the Pfizer vaccine (975 doses).
Earlier today, UNC Health reported receiving just 10,000 doses of the vaccine, despite preparing for as many as 30,000.
ABC11 is working to see if other local agencies also received fewer vaccines than requested, and to get a comment from NCDHHS about the allocation decisions for this week.
12 p.m. COVID-19 hospitalizations dropped yet again in Monday’s report–marking the lowest count of 2021.
The number of people hospitalized with the virus is listed at 3,287. That’s the lowest since Dec. 27.
The daily percent positive also decreased, falling to 10.2%. That number remains well above the state’s 5% goal, which we were achieving at times during the summer.
Since the start of the pandemic, 8,720 people have died from the virus in North Carolina. For a full look at the state’s latest numbers, click here.
10:50 a.m. The Carolina Hurricanes have rescheduled another game due to COVID-19.
The Hurricanes’ home game against the Tampa Bay Lightning originally scheduled for Tuesday will now be played Feb. 22. Last week, Carolina postponed games against Nashville and Florida due to COVID-19 safety measures.
10:30 a.m. UNC Health will get 10,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from the state this week, with that number being less than half of what was expected.
The UNC Health system said it would not cancel or postpone any appointments based on the news. The lower allocation meant fewer appointments were scheduled.
“We understand the frustration and disappointment of not being able to get an appointment for a vaccination more quickly,” said Dr. Ian Buchanan, UNC Health President of Ambulatory and Post-Acute Care. “This is truly an issue of supply and demand. We are very aware of the angst this is causing everyone who is eligible now to receive a vaccine and cannot get an appointment or who spends hours online trying to get one.”
UNC Health asks that patients call the state’s COVID-19 at 1-877-490-6642 or look online to find a vaccination location. UNC has given out more than 75,000 shots since the vaccination program started in December.
10:20 a.m. Wake County has declared a COVID-19 outbreak at an assisted living home in Cary, the second one at the facility since September.
Brookdale MacArthur Park, on MacArthur Drive, has had its second outbreak of the pandemic. An outbreak is defined as a situation where two or more people – residents or employees – tested positive. No other information about the residents or employees was disclosed.
10:15 a.m. The state has rolled out a COVID-19 Community Readiness toolkit to help those with disabilities and mental health issues. The toolkit contains resources for parents helping their children through remote learning as well as family-based needs.
The toolkit can be found here.
“These are unprecedented, stressful times, and we know families and individuals are being faced with existing and new mental health challenges,” said Victor Armstrong, Director of the Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, Substance Abuse Services. “We want to provide North Carolinians with this toolkit to give them all the support they need to navigate these difficult times to stay healthy physically and mentally.”
MONDAY MORNING STORYLINES
Three new COVID-19 testing sties will open in Wake County on Monday.
Jaycee Park and Sertoma Arts Center in Raleigh along with Lake Benson Park in Garner will be open for testing. All sites are reachable by public transportation and begin at 11 a.m. You don’t need an appointment, insurance or ID to get tested.
For the full, up-to-date list of Wake County testing sites (including hours of operation), click here.
Sunday marked the fourth straight day of more than 100 COVID-19-related deaths in North Carolina. Over the weekend, the U.S. passed 25 million cases, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
In Chatham County, more than 400 people (healthcare workers and those over 65) are expected to get vaccinated at the Chatham County Agricultural and Conference Center on Monday.
President Joe Biden is expected to reinstate the COVID-19 travel restrictions on non-US citizens who have been in Brazil, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and much of Europe
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Both New York City and New York state have run completely dry of covid vaccines with the next shipment not expected until early next week.
The news comes as more and more hospitals cancel vaccination appointments with no new appointments scheduled through Monday.
15 vaccine centers have also closed.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo is blaming the now-former Trump administration for opening up too many categories of eligibility, without increasing supply.
“It should have been opened as you had allocation. Anyway, that is not what we did, it’s not what they did. And now you have a period of confusion and anxiety because you’re trying to hit seven million people at 250,000 a week,” Cuomo said.
Another quarter-million doses will arrive in time for next week, but state officials say that’s far from enough.
Some have suggested using second doses, which are in storage, as first doses.
During a visit to a COVID-19 vaccine pop-up site at a NYCHA complex in Brooklyn Saturday, Cuomo said that would only be possible with collaboration from the federal government.
“The reason why the federal government has to agree is because they have to agree that they’re then going to send you enough second doses in the future. Otherwise, you want them giving people first dosages and then you don’t have a second dosage for them,” Cuomo said.
Health experts say administering the second dose of the vaccine within the timeframe outlined by federal guidelines is critical to ensuring long-term protection.
So far more than one million people in the state have gotten their first dose of the vaccine.
At a Friday briefing, Cuomo said deliveries of the week six allocations, about 250,400 doses, are on the way, but those deliveries “are delivered by the federal government by various means and they arrive at different times throughout the week.”
The state is able to administer about 80,000 doses per day and could easily do 100,000 per day, Cuomo said.
“The moment the vaccines arrive, our goal is to get them in arms as soon as possible. 250,400 doses per week is not enough,” Cuomo said.
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