U.S. President Joe Biden on Sept. 16 directed his ire at the governors of Florida and Texas, accusing the Republican leaders of “doing everything they can to undermine the life-saving requirements” he proposed to counter the spread of Covid-19.
In a scene replayed across the United States, angry parents and activists streamed into a meeting of the Florida’s Lake County school board on Sept. 2 where it considered whether to mandate mask-wearing for students and staff due to Covid.
Florida’s largest school district on Aug. 18 imposed a mask mandate in defiance of the state’s governor, another chapter in the coronavirus political battle in the southern United States where new infections are highest.
California on Aug. 11 became the first U.S. state to require that its teachers and other school staff be vaccinated or regularly tested for Covid-19, a move Governor Gavin Newsom called “a responsible step” to ensure the safety of children.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Aug. 3 urged Republican leaders in Florida and Texas – home to roughly a third of all new U.S. Covid-19 cases – to follow public health guidelines on the pandemic or “get out of the way” as the country struggles to contain the rapid spread of the disease’s Delta variant.
Los Angeles health officials told first responders to stop bringing adult patients who cannot be resuscitated to hospitals, citing a shortage of beds and staff as the latest Covid-19 surge threatened to overwhelm healthcare systems in America’s second-largest city.
More than two-thirds of the 15 million coronavirus vaccines shipped within the United States have gone unused, U.S. health officials said on Jan. 4, as the governors of New York and Florida vowed to penalize hospitals that fail to dispense shots quickly.
