WV and National Disaster News - February 16, 2021

• West Virginia surpasses 100% vaccine rate for 1st and 2nd doses combined (WDVM)
• Gov. Justice: No ‘red’ counties in WV, essential workers over 50 set to be vaccinated (12WBOY)
• Governor Justice alerts Emergency Management Division to be on “high alert” for winter weather (WSAZ)
• Why West Virginia’s Vaccine Rollout Puts New York and California to Shame (New Republic)
• WV COVID Daily Update & Stats for February 16, 2021 (WVDHHR)  

• The US just saw its lowest Covid-19 daily case count since October. But here's why experts are still worried (CNN)
• COVID-19: Scientists believe new batch of variants originated in the U.S. (CBS47)
• Hospitals still ration medical N95 masks as stockpiles swell (Associated Press)

• COVID-19 vaccine in high demand across US, but supply limited (CIDRAP)
• Fauci: ‘Pan-viral’ vaccine may be needed to tackle tenacious COVID-19 long-term (McKnights Long-Term Care News)
• WHO lists two additional COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use and COVAX roll-out (WHO News Release)
• Many Nursing Home Employees Are Skeptical Of COVID-19 Vaccines (NPR)
• Some Agencies Tell Employees They Should Be Prioritized for COVID-19 Vaccine, But Offer Little Other Help (Gov Exec

The Weather Channel reports tornadoes also touched down in Panama City, Florida, and Damascus, Georgia, on Monday afternoon causing damage and injuries but no reported loss of life. AccuWeather reports an EF-0 tornado caused extensive damage to a retirement community near Tampa, Florida, early Sunday morning. 

 

The Weather Channel reports the death toll and injuries from Winter storm Uri continues to climb. At least one person died in Louisiana and one in Texas due to the storm over the weekend. More than 3.6 million Texas homes and businesses were without power Monday evening and more than 4 million outages were being reported in 10 states as thick ice downed trees and arctic cold stressed power grids. The Insider reports Southwest Power Pool ordered rolling blackouts in 14 states from Texas to the Dakotas after declaring an energy emergency in an effort to prevent further uncontrolled power failures. The rolling outages in Texas could last days instead of hours and officials say that all grid operators and electric companies in the state were "fighting to restore power" as soon as possible.

 

The power outages and dangerous icy conditions have impacted the ability for multiple states to continue with COVID vaccinations. ABC News reports officials in Texas scrambled to administer over 5,000 vaccine doses before they expired after URI knocked out power to the freezers storing the vaccines and the backup generator failed. Officials were able to distribute 5,410 doses from the affected facility to four designated centers. The rest of the vaccines were approved for re-refrigeration by vaccine maker Moderna.