Cuomo: Buffalo Bills propose 6,700 fans allowed to attend playoff game with prior testing
North Carolina couple die from Covid-19 on same day
Just a week and a half before Christmas, a North Carolina couple married for 61 years died from Covid-19.
Sherwood Lee Pope, 82, a retired maintenance worker, and Doris Knox Pope, 78, a retired furniture upholsterer, of Coats, North Carolina, died on Dec. 14 after being hospitalized for over a week at University of North Carolina Rex Hospital. The couple died side-by-side holding hands, according to an obituary.
Shelton Pope, one of the couple’s three sons, told NBC News affiliate WRAL that his parents started feeling sick the weekend after Thanksgiving. Sherwood and Doris both had underlying health conditions, the family told WRAL, which made them high-risk cases after contracting the virus.
The couple were originally in separate hospital rooms, but when both took a turn for the worse, hospital staff moved them into the same room, the family said.
"They agreed to put them in the same room to be beside each other so they could hold hands and just be with each other," Shelton Pope told WRAL. “They were holding hands when they left this world and went to the pearly gates. He left shortly before she did."
North Carolina has reported more than 492,000 cases and over 6,400 deaths from Covid-19, according to an NBC News tally.
First vaccines rolled out to NYC's EMS workers
New York City's emergency medical services workers began lining up for Covid-19 vaccinations Wednesday, a significant undertaking for a department that had seen thousands of members become infected with the coronavirus since March.
Vaccines produced by the biotechnology company Moderna were being distributed to the training headquarters of the EMS and the FDNY Fire Training Academy, both in Queens, and FDNY headquarters in Brooklyn.
"Today has been a long-awaited moment for the EMTs, paramedics and fire inspectors who have bravely responded to well over 1 million emergency medical calls this year, all throughout New York City," Oren Barzilay, president of FDNY EMS Local 2507 in Queens, said in a statement.
Emergency medical technicians and paramedics will be vaccinated over the next several days, officials said, and the FDNY anticipates vaccinating 450 people per day at each location. Firefighters will be vaccinated beginning next week.
The FDNY is the largest municipal firefighting department in the U.S., with 4,400 EMS and 11,000 firefighters. The roll out comes as the FDNY announced the death of Evelyn Ford, a 27-year EMS veteran, from Covid-19 and the 12th member of the agency to die after contracting the virus.
L.A. area hospital sets up 'surge tents' as it copes with dramatic patient influx
Confronted with a dramatic influx of Covid-19 patients, a major hospital in Southern California has set up "surge tents" for patients who visit the emergency room but do not have life-threatening conditions.
Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, a city in Los Angeles County, is said to be "bursting at the seams," according to a local report.
The city of Pasadena shared photos of the tents on Twitter:
Actor Kirk Cameron hosts another caroling event to protest California stay-at-home order
Actor Kirk Cameron held another Christmas caroling event outside of a Thousand Oaks, California, mall to protest the governor's stay-at-home order.
The Tuesday night event at The Oaks mall attracted between 75 and 100 mostly maskless people, according to KABC-TV. People of all ages attended, including children and senior citizens.
The "Growing Pains" actor, 50, shared videos of the caroling on his Instagram Story showing a large crowd standing close together and singing "The First Noel."
The mall said it had asked that the event not be held there and slammed it as "irresponsible."
"In regards to the peaceful protest planned for The Oaks this evening, we do not condone this irresponsible — yet constitutionally protected — event. We share your concern and have notified the Sheriff’s office," the mall said in a Facebook statement on Tuesday.
Cameron confirmed to NBC News that he attended the caroling event and stated that all attendees were encouraged to wear masks. He had no further comment.
Pandemic forces company holiday parties to go virtual
While most companies are canceling their traditional holiday office celebration this year, a quarter of them planned to keep them, and take the office party digital.
Some are going big, with livestreamed music acts, gingerbread house decorating contests, dance competitions and games. Other firms are just having a casual virtual toast.
Just over 5 percent of companies say they're still hosting in-person gatherings, according to a survey. Of them, about 1 percent say they won't make any modifications due to COVID-19.
Families of Covid victims in Italy take government to court
ROME — Five hundred families of coronavirus victims are taking legal action against Italy's regional and national governments, whom they deem responsible for a series of omissions, mistakes and delays during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The families say the national government and regional authorities in the hard-hit Lombardy region were unprepared for the crisis as the virus hit and did not take actions that could have prevented a national lockdown and subsequent economic damage, as well as loss of life.
Italy became one of the early epicenters of the pandemic, with its health care system pushed to the breaking point. Nearly 70,000 people died from coronavirus in Italy so far, the highest fatality count in Europe.
Weekly jobless claims fall to 803,000 but remain elevated
Weekly initial jobless claims fell to 803,000, down from a revised level of 892,000.
It's an improvement after two weeks of increases in layoffs, but still represents an increase from early November's recent lows of 711,000.
Businesses are grappling with renewed restrictions as coronavirus cases reach new highs, showing how an economic recovery is predicated on a health recovery.