U.S / 16.12.2020 20:40:18
A large storm was moving over northeast U.S at a key moment in the pandemic of coronavirus, days after a vaccination campaign began and at the most difficult time of a spike in infections that has crowds of people trying to get tested daily.
In the afternoon it was already snowing from the north of Virginia to certain places north of the city of NY. The storm is expected to dump up to 60 centimeters of snow in some places tomorrow, and the pandemic added new problems to the authorities’ preparations: deciding whether to close the testing sites of coronavirus, figuring out how to handle snow removal between outdoor restaurant tables on New York streets, redefining school snow days so kids can spend another day learning from home, and more.
“Our theme today should be, ‘If it’s not one thing, it’s another,’” New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said when giving residents a new guideline for this year’s snowfall: Wear a mask if help your neighbors shovel snow.
Still, authorities said they do not expect the winter storm to affect the distribution of the vaccines, which began Monday for front-line health workers, the first group of Americans to receive the injections. The first 3 million vaccines are strictly limited to those workers and residents of nursing homes.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the government is carefully monitoring vaccine shipments, already has personnel to receive them, and believes the companies that are transporting them can weather the storm.
“This is an express shipment from FedEx and UPS. They know how to deal with snow and bad weather. But we are already working on it and we are following it up, “he told the Fox News program” Fox & Friends. “
With 35 vaccine deliveries to New Jersey hospitals scheduled in a day or two, Murphy said his agency was focused on ensuring they continue, including exempting vaccine delivery trucks from a storm-related commercial transit ban. on some roads. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the shipment of the first round of vaccines from his state had already been distributed to about 90 hospitals, with the next delivery not due until about Tuesday, long after the storm. .
The National Meteorological Service indicated that the storm would cause “an overabundance of risks from the Mid-Atlantic region to the northeast”, including freezing rain and ice in the Mid-Atlantic, heavy snowfall in the metropolitan area of the city of NY and the south of New England, high winds and coastal flooding, and possibly severe thunderstorms and some tornadoes in the Outer Banks region of North Carolina.
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