The Latest: 2nd hospital in Alaska begins rationing care

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A second hospital in Alaska is beginning to ration health care as the state deals with a spike in coronavirus cases.

Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corp. in Bethel announced the move Wednesday as it reported it is operating at capacity.

Rationing of care had already been imposed by Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage, which is the state’s largest hospital.

Coronavirus infections in Alaska have risen 42% in the last week.

The president of the Bethel region hospital says it did everything possible to delay rationing but had to take the step.

Hospital CEO Dan Winkelman is urging “every resident of the Yukon-Kuskokwim region to get vaccinated, wear a mask in indoor public areas, and social distance.” He warns that “this is our last stand against this virus.”

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— Booster shots, plus more focus on unvaccinated in US

— AP-NORC poll: Virus concerns linger for vaccinated older adults

— Slovenia police use water cannons at anti-COVID-19 pass protest

— Zimbabwe’s vaccine mandates face supply, hesitancy issues

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See all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

MELBOURNE, Australia — Victoria state in Australia has reported 1,438 new coronavirus cases — almost 500 more than the previous high set a day just earlier.

Australia’s second-most populous state on Thursday also reported five more deaths from COVID-19 in the latest 24-hour period. Victoria on Wednesday reported 950 new infections and a daily record of seven deaths.

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg says the national government remains determined to end lockdowns in Australia despite the worsening situation in the Victoria’s capital of Melbourne.

Frydenberg is a Melbourne resident and says the city has become despondent after spending 242 days in lockdown.

The government has said its payments to workers who have lost hours due to lockdowns will end two weeks after 80% of the people in a state or territory are fully vaccinated.

The government says 49% of Victoria’s target population is fully vaccinated

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DENVER — A pediatrician and a medical student at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus have filed suit challenging denials of their requests for religious exemptions from the school’s coronavirus vaccination mandate.

The conservative public interest law firm the Thomas More Society filed the lawsuit Wednesday in U.S. District Court.

The suit argues that university administrators judging the sincerity of personal religious beliefs violates their First Amendment rights.

The Colorado lawsuit is one of many clashes over private- and public-sector vaccine mandates nationwide that officials are using in an effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus, which has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S.

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LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles City Council is debating a far-reaching proposal to expand pandemic restrictions, including requiring people to have proof of full vaccination against the coronavirus to enter a wide range of indoor businesses and venues.

Most council members spoke supportively of the plan Wednesday, while saying it had flaws, including questions about the city’s ability to enforce it. The ordinance is expected to be considered again next week.

Business groups warned about safety risks for workers who would have to question patrons.

Under the proposal, anyone eligible for vaccination would be required to have had the shots to enter restaurants, bars, nightclubs, gyms, sports arenas, museums, spas, nail salons, indoor city facilities and other locations. Current eligibility includes people ages 12 and up.

Anyone with a religious or medical exemption would have to show a negative coronavirus test done within the preceding 72 hours.

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PHOENIX — The Arizona Supreme Court has declined to immediately reinstate a series of new laws that include measures blocking schools from requiring masks and restricting the power of local governments to impose pandemic restrictions.

The high court on Wednesday turned down state Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s request to stay a lower court ruling that blocked provisions in three state budget bills and an entire budget law from taking effect just after midnight Wednesday.

The Supreme Court decision means schools can continue requiring face masks without facing legal jeopardy.

Nearly 30 Arizona school districts had mask mandates and some are extending them because Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper struck down the new law.

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HONOLULU — Over 160 Oahu business operators have been cited, warned or arrested in the weeks since Honolulu imposed new pandemic safety rules. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports that most of the cases involved warnings.

The Liquor Commission issued six notices of violation, included three for serving alcohol after 10 p.m., two for not checking vaccination status and one for failing to conduct contact tracing.

Police also issued citations or made arrests for people not wearing masks and not observing required physical distances.

Honolulu Police Department spokesperson Michelle Yu says city officials could not immediately break down the number of arrests vs. citations because they are compiled together in the same records-keeping category.

City spokesperson Tim Sakahara says the great majority of businesses are in compliance with the rules.

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DES MOINES, Iowa — The rise of the delta variant and the new school year have dramatically increased the risks children face during the coronavirus pandemic, according to pediatricians writing in court documents submitted in the federal lawsuit against Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and its Iowa chapter filed a brief Tuesday with the federal court judge who is considering the lawsuit 11 parents of Iowa children and the disability rights group The Arc of Iowa filed last week. It seeks to strike down a measure that Reynolds signed into law in May that prohibits school boards from imposing mask mandates in schools.

The group argues it’s clear universal mask policies in schools significantly reduce the spread of the coronavirus.

The AAP says cases of pediatric COVID-19 have skyrocketed since the start of the school year, with 20% of all child cases during the pandemic diagnosed between Aug. 13 and Sept. 16.

The document said more than 5.5 million total child COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States. Iowa has reported more than 56,000 child cases, the group said.

The AAP says nationally among 45 states and New York City, Puerto Rico and Guam reporting data, 498 children have died. It says three children have died in Iowa from COVID-19. Texas leads the nation in child deaths from the virus with 79 and Arizona with 38.

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WARSAW, Poland — Poland registered 1,234 new daily cases on Wednesday, the highest number since May. There were 22 confirmed deaths.

“Today we have crossed the fourth wave barrier, we have a significant increase from last week,” when around 800 daily cases were reported, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski told Radio Plus.

Poland is extending through October the current restrictions, including a quarantine to unvaccinated persons entering the country and wearing masks indoors in public spaces.

The government had previously warned new restrictions may be added locally, in regions with highest rise in new cases.

More than 19.2 million people in this nation of 38 million have been fully vaccinated. All vaccinated persons above age 50 are encouraged to register for a booster shot. Poland has registered more than 2.9 million confirmed cases and more than 75,500 confirmed deaths.

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — A county medical director in northern Michigan area says he’s losing his job, weeks after he criticized elected officials for a policy that bans mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for county employees and controls vaccine messages.

Dr. Michael Collins says his contract wasn’t renewed, which means Thursday is his last day after 28 years at the Grand Traverse County Health Department. Collins told the Traverse City Record-Eagle: “Nobody should be in a better position to advise than the health department.”

In August, county commissioners approved a resolution that says the county will not require a vaccination or COVID-19 test for county employees, contractors or job applicants. It says any messages about vaccines from the county will encourage people to discuss “risks and benefits” with their doctor and people can make a choice. Local health departments in Michigan typically have been urging people to get vaccinated.

Collins wrote an essay in the newspaper two days later, saying commissioners had “crossed the line from illogical opinion to irresponsibility.”

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COLUMBIA, South Carolina — School districts in South Carolina now have the authority to require masks, the state’s education chief said Wednesday.

The memo from Education Superintendent Molly Spearman confirmed for districts a federal court ruling on Tuesday siding with parents of disabled students. The parents said a state ban on masks was discriminatory and they didn’t feel safe sending them to public schools without required face coverings.

Gov. Henry McMaster and state Attorney General Alan Wilson promised to appeal.

U.S. District Judge Mary Geiger Lewis wrote her decision to side with the parents who sued the state with the help of The American Civil Liberties Union wasn’t a close call.

“It is noncontroversial that children need to go to school. And, they are entitled to any reasonable accommodation that allows them to do so. No one can reasonably argue that it is an undue burden to wear a mask to accommodate a child with disabilities,” Lewis wrote.

Lewis compared the General Assembly preventing mask requirements to telling schools they can no longer install wheelchair ramps.

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DENVER — A judge on Wednesday dismissed an attempt by a group of Denver police officers to block the city’s vaccine mandate, a day before it’s set to take effect.

In a lawsuit filed last week, seven officers claimed the city didn’t have the authority to impose the mandate under a local disaster emergency declared by Mayor Michael Hancock at the start of the pandemic, noting that Democratic Gov. Jared Polis rescinded his statewide emergency pandemic order in July.

They claim the city should have followed the longer process laid out in state law to impose regulations. However, Judge Shelley Gilman ruled that law only applies to state agencies. Under city law, the officers should have appealed the vaccine mandate, first issued on Aug. 2, at the city level before filing a lawsuit, she said. Since they didn’t, Gilman said she had no jurisdiction to decide the case and dismissed it.

Under the Denver public health order, updated Sept. 1, all city employees, workers in public and private schools and people who work for private employers such as hospitals, homeless shelters, childcare centers, must show proof that they are vaccinated. City workers face dismissal if they don’t comply.

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NEW YORK — A new survey finds that vaccinated older adults are far more worried about COVID-19 than the unvaccinated.

Those vaccinated older adults are likelier to take precautions of wearing a mask, avoiding crowds and travel despite the protection afforded by their shots. That’s according to a survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

The survey finds growing numbers of the unvaccinated are planning travel, embracing group gatherings and returning to gyms and houses of worship.

Kathy Paiva is a 70-year-old retired bartender from Palm Coast, Florida. She and her 67-year-old sister both fell ill with the coronavirus. Paiva, who is vaccinated, survived. Her sister, who wasn’t, did not.

“I’m scared to go anywhere right now,” she said. “I’d like to go out to eat, too, but I’m not going to put anyone’s life in danger, especially my own.”

Oliver Midgette, a 73-year-old retired electronics salesman in Norfolk, Virginia, rarely dons a mask and eats in restaurants. He says he “grew up in the old days. I ate dirt. I drank water from a hose.”

Dr. Irwin Redlener, a public health expert and founding director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said unvaccinated people’s concerns about the virus are lower because of their “disregard for science.”

Linda Wells, a 61-year-old retired high school administrator in San Francisco, says defiance about vaccines is “selfish” and a “stubborn point of view keeps them from resolving a health crisis.”

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PORTLAND, Maine — More than 75% of Maine’s population age 20 and older is fully vaccinated against coronavirus, one of the highest rates in the country.

The Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported about 65% of the state’s total population is fully vaccinated. The nationwide rate is closer to 55% for the total population.

Meanwhile, Maine is dealing with an early fall surge of new cases of the coronavirus among the unvaccinated. Deaths from the virus fell in the past two weeks.