California may prioritize age above all for COVID-19 vaccine

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Advocates for farmworkers, teachers, grocery store clerks and other essential workers are worried they will have to wait until this summer to be vaccinated against the coronavirus as California considers giving priority to older residents. State officials said the move makes sense...

Spain's virus surge hits mental health of front-line workers

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year. In Barcelona’s Hospital del Mar, the...

Maine virus-related deaths, infections soar to a new high

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The number of new COVID-19 infections and deaths soared to new heights during a surge of the coronavirus across the state, officials said Friday. The Maine Center for Disease Control reported 41 deaths and 782 infections, both daily records in the state. The rolling 14-day daily...

US services sector grows for seventh consecutive month

SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The U.S. services sector, where most Americans work, grew for the seventh consecutive month in December even as coronavirus cases surged through the holidays. The Institute for Supply Management reported Thursday that its index of services activity grew slightly to a reading of...

Costume could be link to deadly virus outbreak at hospital

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — A Kaiser Permanente employee died and dozens of workers were infected with the coronavirus after a staffer appeared at one of its Northern California medical centers wearing an inflatable holiday costume on Christmas Day, the hospital and health care company said Monday. Irene...

Amid virus fears, China urges workers to skip holiday travel

BEIJING (AP) — China is encouraging tens of millions of migrant workers not to travel home during next February’s Lunar New Year holiday to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, disrupting its most important time for family gatherings. The measure from the National Health Commission is not a...

China urges migrant workers not to travel home during February's Lunar New Year holiday to prevent further virus spread

BEIJING (AP) — China urges migrant workers not to travel home during February's Lunar New Year holiday to prevent further virus spread.

Kansas hospital workers: Hope, purpose shadowed by COVID-19

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Steve Morgan spent part of Christmas morning as the chaplain on duty in a Wichita hospital comforting the family of a patient who died and said he knows from personal experience how a death on a holiday means “you'll always remember that.” But Morgan, an ordained United...

Novelist Yu Miri: Olympics not helping Fukushima rebuilding

TOKYO (AP) — Yu Miri, who won this year’s National Book Award for translated literature, says Tokyo’s Ueno Park, where a homeless man kills himself in her award-winning story, looks very clean ahead of next summer's Olympics. Still, she says, that doesn't help to raise hope amid the...

US hospitals facing worrisome shortage of nurses, doctors

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With so many states seeing a flood of coronavirus patients, U.S. hospitals are again worried about finding enough medical workers to meet demand just as infections from the holiday season threaten to add to the burden on American health care. California, which is enduring by far its...