WASHINGTON U.S. officials say they are on track to deliver 20 million vaccine doses by the first week of January, but how quickly those shots will get into arms isn’t clear. In a briefing with reporters Wednesday, Operation Warp Speed official Gen. Gus Perna said states are administering doses at a “good pace” and are “immunizing quite a bit of people.” But the chief science adviser for the U.S. vaccine push added that vaccinating people is going “slower than we thought it would be.” Data from the CDC says about 1 million doses had been administered as of Wednesday morning out of the 9.5
New Mexico lawmakers appropriate $5M for food banks statewide
Colores United expected to reach 1 million pounds of food distributed
Headlight staff reports
SANTA FE – The New Mexico Human Services Department was appropriated $5 million from House Bill 1, during the second special session of the New Mexico Legislature last month to support and supplement emergency feeding operations at food banks across the state. The funds are being distributed equitably this week to the five major food banks that support all 33 counties and tribal communities through an existing hunger relief network:
• Road Runner Food Bank in Albuquerque
• The Food Depot in Santa Fe
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NAIROBI, Kenya South Africa’s health minister says the country has seen more than 14,000 confirmed new coronavirus cases in the past day, with a positivity rate of 26%, as overall cases edge toward 1 million.
Heath Minister Zwelini Mkhize says the “alarming rate of spread” of infections is much faster than during the first wave in midyear. His daily report doesn’t say how many of the new infections are attributed to the new variant of the virus in South Africa.
The country has more than 950,000 confirmed cases, including more than 25,000 deaths. More than 400 people have died in the past day.
Mkhize says COVID-19 is “unrelenting” and urges South Africans to not be complacent as they enter the holiday season, and he warns that the government will have to review restrictions meant to limit the spread of the virus and “consider further measures.”
New Mexico to meet deadline for sending out relief checks
By SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN and CEDAR ATTANASIODecember 23, 2020 GMT
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) More than 15,000 low-income residents previously ineligible for stimulus checks have started receiving payments from the state, and New Mexico officials are hopeful the next round of federal aid once approved could provide another opportunity to lessen the economic sting of the coronavirus pandemic.
Officials with the New Mexico Human Services Department said Wednesday that people began receiving the $465 relief payments this week.
The Legislature during a special session allocated $5 million to the fund for those mostly immigrants in the country without work authorization who hadn’t received federal payments in April. An additional $2 million was also made available from the Cares Act Fund.