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‘Relieved’: US well being staff get started getting COVID-19 vaccine
Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, is inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine via Dr. Michelle Chester, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, within the Queens borough of New York.AP Photos
The biggest vaccination marketing campaign in U.S. historical past were given underway Monday as well being staff in make a selection hospitals rolled up their sleeves for pictures to offer protection to them from COVID-19 and get started beating again the pandemic — an afternoon of optimism even because the country’s loss of life toll neared 300,000.
“I feel hopeful today. Relieved,” stated vital case nurse Sandra Lindsay upon getting a shot within the arm at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York.
Shipments of treasured frozen vials of vaccine made via Pfizer Inc. and its German spouse BioNTech started arriving at hospitals across the nation Monday.
Read the overall tale right here.
News
10:10 a.m. Coronavirus deaths in Cook County surpass 7,000
Coronavirus deaths in Cook County have surpassed 7,000, officers stated Monday.
The Cook County clinical examiner’s place of work showed any other 357 deaths from COVID-19 since Dec. 7, bringing the county’s overall to 7,311.
That’s greater than part of all statewide coronavirus deaths, which the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Sunday as 14,291.
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7:45 a.m. US set for first COVID-19 pictures as shipments start arriving
Hospital staff start unloading treasured frozen vials of COVID-19 vaccine Monday, with the primary vaccinations in opposition to a virulent disease that has killed just about 300,000 Americans anticipated later within the day.
“It feels like the cavalry is arriving,” Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, stated as New Jersey’s biggest well being community awaited supply.
Shots made via Pfizer Inc. and its German spouse BioNTech are the primary licensed for emergency use via the Food and Drug Administration — starting what is going to turn out to be the biggest vaccination marketing campaign in U.S. historical past. Several different nations even have OK’d the vaccine, together with the U.Ok., which began vaccinating ultimate week.
Read the overall tale right here.
7 a.m. Tree gross sales leap forward of coronavirus Christmas: ‘We didn’t truly see it coming’
Buying an actual Christmas tree is a part of the Barnett circle of relatives’s vacation custom. Each yr, Troy Barnett tries to search out the biggest evergreen he can from so much close to his Lincoln Park house, he stated.
But his plan hit a snag previous this month when the lot close down for the season after it offered its whole stock simply weeks after opening.
Merchants say Chicagoans are flocking to Christmas tree loads at unheard of charges this yr amid a vacation season like no different. Unable to shuttle or see prolonged circle of relatives as COVID-19 instances proceed to upward push, many are turning to actual Christmas bushes to make their vacation season shiny, leading to many puts promoting out previous than they’ve prior to now.
It’s reflective of a countrywide development as Christmas tree gross sales have been up just about 30% national throughout the first week of December, in step with a CNBC record.
Read the overall tale right here.
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Analysis & Commentary
10 a.m. ‘Oh my God — this is carnage’: Hospitals combating COVID additionally take care of exhaustion and burnout.
Look intently, throughout the face defend, over the masks. You’ll see it.
“Walk around the hospital, you can see the fatigue in people’s eyes,” stated Dr. Roy Werner, director of the emergency division at Roseland Community Hospital at the Far South Side. “We have an entire staff of physicians, nurses, tech staff, housekeepers, working harder than they have ever had to work.”
Eight months into the COVID-19 pandemic, with a vaccine tantalizingly close to however nonetheless now not in hand, the relentlessness of combating the virus — the never-ending circulation of sufferers, the round the clock shifts, the deaths, the want to plug holes within the agenda created via unwell…