School Bill Challenges New Mexico Virus Restrictions -
By Cedar Attanasio Associated Press / Report For America
A bipartisan group of New Mexico lawmakers is pushing legislation that would allow more students to attend class in person by shifting authority over decisions to reopen from state officials to local school boards.
The proposal follows the start of vaccine distribution to some teachers and growing pressure from parents to reopen schools and resume high school sports.
GOP House Minority Leader Jim Townsend, is expected to introduce the legislation on Monday.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham would likely veto the bill.
She has allowed for limited in-person learning for younger students and those with disabilities, but they cover only a fraction of students in the state.
Jan 25, 2021
FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2021, file photo, a medical worker walks past a refrigerated trailer parked outside the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. U.S. hospital intensive care units in many parts of the country are straining under record numbers of COVID-19 patients. Cedars-Sinai Medical Center ran into shortages of take-home oxygen tanks, which meant some patients who could otherwise go home were kept longer, taking up needed beds. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)
(AP) Straining to handle record numbers of COVID-19 patients, hundreds of the nation’s intensive care units are running out of space and supplies and competing to hire temporary traveling nurses at soaring rates. Many of the facilities are clustered in the South and West.
CARLA K. JOHNSON and NICKY FORSTER
Straining to handle record numbers of COVID-19 patients, hundreds of the nation’s intensive care units are running out of space and supplies and competing to hire temporary traveling nurses at soaring rates. Many of the facilities are clustered in the South and West.
An Associated Press analysis of federal hospital data shows that since November, the share of U.S. hospitals nearing the breaking point has doubled. More than 40% of Americans now live in areas running out of ICU space, with only 15% of beds still available.
Intensive care units are the final defense for the sickest of the sick, patients who are nearly suffocating or facing organ failure. Nurses who work in the most stressed ICUs, changing IV bags and monitoring patients on breathing machines, are exhausted.