Latest coronavirus news, Dec. 13, 2020: Public health officials announced 8,737 new COVID-19 cases, 127 deaths

Latest

127 more Illinois coronavirus deaths as state prepares to receive first vaccine doses

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

As the state prepares to receive its first shipment of coronavirus vaccine doses from the federal government, Illinois public health officials on Saturday announced COVID-19 has killed an additional 127 residents and spread to 8,737 more.

Both figures are well below the state’s average daily tallies over the last two weeks, which have marked Illinois’ deadliest period of the entire pandemic. About 9,200 people have tested positive each day during that stretch, with the virus claiming an average of 147 lives every day.

The new cases were diagnosed among a record-high 126,888 tests submitted to the Illinois Department of Health, meaning only about 6.9% of the latest tests came back positive. That’s the lowest one-day proportion of positive tests the state has reported since Oct. 27, before Illinois’ autumn resurgence hit a peak in mid-November.

Read the full story here.

News

3:59 p.m. Tree sales soar ahead of coronavirus Christmas: ‘We didn’t really see it coming’

Buying a real Christmas tree is part of the Barnett family’s holiday tradition. Each year, Troy Barnett tries to find the largest evergreen he can from a lot near his Lincoln Park home, he said.

But his plan hit a snag earlier this month when the lot shut down for the season after it sold its entire inventory just weeks after opening.

“I was totally surprised,” Barnett said. “It was our tradition just to walk over, but they sold out of their trees two weeks prior to us traditionally getting it.”

Shannon Carey ran into a similar issue. As Carey and his girlfriend looked around online to find a real tree, they noticed many lots were already empty.

“I was surprised at how much the demand had surged.” Carey said. “I had no idea.”

Merchants say Chicagoans are flocking to Christmas tree lots at unprecedented rates this year amid a holiday season like no other. Unable to travel or see extended family as COVID-19 cases continue to rise, many are turning to real Christmas trees to make their holiday season bright, resulting in many places selling out earlier than they have in the past.

It’s reflective of a national trend as Christmas tree sales were up nearly 30% nationwide through the first week of December, according to a CNBC report.

Read the full story here.

3:32 p.m. Charley Pride, first Black member of Country Music Hall of Fame, dies at 86

NEW YORK — Charley Pride, country music’s first Black star whose rich baritone on such hits as “Kiss an Angel Good Morning” helped sell millions of records and helped make him the first Black member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, has died. He was 86.

Pride died Saturday in Dallas of complications from Covid-19, according to Jeremy Westby of the public relations firm 2911 Media.

Pride released dozens of albums and sold more than 25 million records during a career that began in the mid-1960s. Hits besides “Kiss an Angel Good Morning” in 1971 included “Is Anybody Goin’ to San Antone,” “Burgers and Fries,” “Mountain of Love,” and “Someone Loves You Honey.”

He had three Grammy Awards, more than 30 No. 1 hits between 1969 and 1984, won the Country Music Association’s Top Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year awards in 1972 and was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.

The Smithsonian in Washington acquired memorabilia from Pride, including a pair of boots and one of his guitars, for the the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Read the full story here.

2:38 p.m. Florida’s Keyontae Johnson in critical but stable condition after collapsing on court

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida coach Mike White declined to do any postgame media interviews. He wanted to get to the hospital to be near Keyontae Johnson’s side as quickly as possible.

No one could blame him.

Johnson, the Southeastern Conference’s preseason player of the year, collapsed coming out of a timeout against rival Florida State and needed emergency medical attention Saturday. Johnson was taken off the floor on a stretcher and rushed to Tallahassee Memorial for evaluation. The team said he was in critical but stable condition and later said he would remain in the hospital overnight.

“I know you’re fighting bro,” teammate Tre Mann tweeted long after the game ended. “God got you.”

Johnson had just dunked in transition before he crumpled to the floor as the team broke its huddle. Several Gators were in tears and a couple buried their faces in towels as White gathered them in prayer.

Officials sent both teams to the locker room to regroup, and the game continued a few minutes later. Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said administrators gave the Gators the option of continuing and said they ultimately decided to play.

Read the full story here.

1:16 p.m. FDA approves Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine

Ashlee Rezin Garcia/Sun-Times

WASHINGTON — The U.S. gave the final go-ahead Friday to the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, marking what could be the beginning of the end of an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans, according to a person familiar with the decision but not authorized to discuss it publicly.

Shots for health workers and nursing home residents are expected to begin in the coming days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized an emergency rollout of what promises to be a strongly protective vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech.

Initial doses are scarce and rationed as the U.S. joins Britain and several other countries in scrambling to vaccinate as many people as possible ahead of a long, grim winter. It will take months of work to tamp down the coronavirus that has surged to catastrophic levels in recent weeks and already claimed 1.5 million lives globally.

Read the full story here.

11:41 a.m. COVID-19 vaccine shipments set to arrive in states on Monday

WASHINGTON — The nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine will begin arriving in states Monday morning, U.S. officials said Saturday, after the government gave the final go-ahead to the shots needed to end an outbreak that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans.

Trucks will roll out Sunday morning as shipping companies UPS and FedEx begin delivering Pfizer’s vaccine to nearly 150 locations, said Army Gen. Gustave F. Perna of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development program. Another 450 sites will get the vaccine Tuesday and Wednesday.

The locations include hospitals and other sites able to meet the ultra-cold storage requirements for the vaccine. Within three weeks, vaccines should be delivered to local pharmacies and other locations, Perna said at a news conference.

The vaccine was timed to arrive Monday morning so that health workers would be available to receive the shots and begin giving them, Perna said.

It was unclear who would receive the first dose of the vaccine, though health workers and nursing home residents were the priority. Perna said that decision would be determined by health authorities.

The announcement kicks off a massive logistical operation involving the federal and state governments, private companies and health care workers to quickly distribute limited vaccine supplies throughout the U.S.

Read the full story here.

9:12 a.m. Indiana reinstating surgery limits amid COVID-19 surge

Indiana’s hospitals will have to postpone elective surgeries starting in the coming week under an order the state’s governor said is needed to free up hospital capacity amid steep recent increases in serious COVID-19 illnesses.

An initial shipment of 55,000 doses of the first coronavirus vaccine is expected to arrive at Indiana hospitals shortly as front-line health care workers start to receive shots.

CORONAVIRUS LIMITS

Gov. Eric Holcomb said that hospitals were being directed to postpone all non-urgent in-patient surgeries starting Wednesday and continuing through Jan. 3.

Holcomb said Indiana is “on fire” with coronavirus as the number of Indiana counties with the highest risk level of coronavirus spread more than doubled in the state health department’s weekly update. The tracking map labels 36 of the state’s 92 counties the most dangerous red category, up from 16 a week ago. All other counties are in the next riskiest orange rating.

The state halted elective medical procedures for most of April, but Holcomb lifted that restriction as concerns eased about availability of equipment and protective gear. Still, Indiana’s hospitals are currently treating more than quadruple the number of COVID-19 patients than they were in September, with health officials worried about hospitals being overwhelmed.

“Our nurses and our doctors understandably are overwhelmed and beyond exhausted ... to go into one of the toughest environments that anyone in our state’s history has had to face on a day-in, day-out basis,” Holcomb said.

Read the full story here.

New Cases

• COVID-19’s rampage through vulnerable Illinois communities continued unabated Friday as public health officials announced 190 more people have died of the coronavirus. At least 3,782 people in Illinois have succumbed to the virus over the last month alone, a toll greater than in the previous four months combined.
• Among the latest victims were 101 Chicago-area residents, including a Cook County man in his 30s and two women in their 40s.
• Maria Lopez, the wife of Guadalupe Lopez, a beloved 911 dispatcher who died from complications of COVID-19 last month, died of complications from COVID-19 on Friday.

Analysis & Commentary

9:14 p.m. Legislative panel should approve nursing home safety rules

Long before the COVID-19 pandemic took hold, Illinois nursing home residents were already vulnerable, suffering and alone.

Illinois nursing homes ranked 50th in the nation for direct care nursing hours per resident per day and were the second worst in the nation for long-stay residents receiving inappropriate use of antipsychotic medication, according to a 2018 AARP report.

More than eight in 10 voters in Illinois back in 2019 said that action should be taken to increase the quality of care in Illinois nursing homes, according to an AARP survey.

Then COVID-19 arrived, making the already tragic circumstances for Illinois’ nursing home residents devastatingly worse.

Read the full column here.