$ 1.9T package goes to House approval

Here’s what’s happening on Friday with the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.:

THREE THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

– A $ 1.9 trillion package aimed at helping the country to rebuild itself from the coronavirus pandemic appears to be moving towards House approval. Now, Democrats are also looking for a way to revive their effort to raise the minimum wage. The relief bill incorporates President Joe Biden’s initiative to free up money for individuals, businesses, states and cities suffering from the pandemic. But Democratic progressives insist that the party keep trying to pass legislation that would raise the federal minimum wage to $ 15 an hour. The Senate congressman says the provision should come out of the relief bill, so Democrats are discussing other measures.

– Tennessee has asked federal authorities to investigate the alleged theft of doses of the coronavirus vaccine in the state’s most populous county. At a news conference on Friday, health officials also said that a volunteer improperly vaccinated two children, although the shot was not released to minors. The details came after the state previously announced that about 2,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were wasted in Shelby County last month due to poor communication and record-keeping problems in the local health department. The county has also accumulated about 30,000 excess vaccine doses in its inventory.

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– Two US Navy warships operating in the Middle East were hit by coronavirus outbreaks. This is according to the commander. Rebecca Rebarich, spokesman for the 5th Fleet based in Bahrain. A dozen soldiers aboard the USS San Diego, an amphibious transport dock, tested positive for COVID-19. The commander says there were also sailors hit on board another ship, the guided missile cruiser USS Philippine Sea. San Diego sails about 600 sailors and marines on board, while the Philippine Sea carries 380 sailors. The 5th Fleet patrols the Middle East waterways and tends to have tense encounters with Iran.

THE NUMBERS: According to data until Thursday from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day continuous average for new daily cases in the U.S. has not increased in the past two weeks, from around 101,749 on February 11 to almost 67,880 on Thursday. market. In the same period, the seven-day moving average for new daily deaths in the United States dropped from almost 2,493 on February 11 to about 2,155 on Thursday.

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QUOTE: “I would be very disappointed if people thought that this is a new model, because it would completely alienate us from the essence of the municipal meeting, which is the opportunity to meet with our fellow voters, to listen to our elected officials directly, to question, to challenge them, to debate a budget and public issues at a meeting. ”- Former Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, commenting on the postponement and cancellation of New England municipal meetings during the pandemic.

ICYMI: It’s a promotion that could have come straight out of Don Draper’s “Mad Men” manual. The iconic Peter Luger Steak House in New York teamed up with Madame Tussauds to get wax figures of celebrities, including Jon Hamm in Draper mode, to mingle with customers on Friday to promote relief from dining restrictions in environments closed during the coronavirus pandemic. The trick coincides with a recent decision by Governor Andrew Cuomo to expand the restaurant’s indoor dining capacity to 35%, down from 25% in response to a reduction in coronavirus infections. On the market for more than 130 years, Peter Luger will keep the mannequins until Monday.

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ON THE HORIZON: The United States is about to get a third vaccine against COVID-19, and health officials are preparing for questions about which one is the best. If released for emergency use, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would offer a single dose option that could help speed up vaccinations. The challenge will be to explain how protective the J&J injection is after the surprising success of Pfizer and Moderna’s two-dose vaccines. These injections were found to be about 95% effective against symptomatic COVID-19. The numbers for J&J are not that high, but they are not a comparative comparison. Regulators say it strongly protects against serious illnesses.

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Find full AP coverage of the coronavirus pandemic: https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic