Month: January 2021

Categories
Entertainment

The Bachelor: Who Is Abigail Heringer?

The Bachelor: Who Is Abigail Heringer?

Abigail Heringer, one of 32 women vying for Matt James’ heart on season 25 The bachelor, quickly falls in love with the show’s lead actor with her honesty and laid-back demeanor. The 25-year-old client finance manager from Beaverton, OR was the first woman to receive a coveted rose from James at the show’s premiere, and we can definitely get the spark see flying between them. Abigail admits her love for the outdoors and told ABC she sees herself as “easy-going, relaxed, [and] Always down for fun. “Abigail shows her vulnerability by talking about her hearing loss. She makes it clear that she has never been stopped from living her life to the fullest, her favorite way to approach a man.

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World News

Britain, Trump, Coronavirus: Your Tuesday Briefing

Britain, Trump, Coronavirus: Your Tuesday Briefing

There are many more ideas at home about what to read, cook, see, and do while being safe at home.

Steve Kenny, the Times’ senior editor for nights, briefs the newsroom about what happened while many of us were asleep. Five evenings a week, Mr. Kenny sends an email to editors and reporters around the world, summarizing the news and preparing others for the day ahead. Here are some of his “late notes” telling the story of 2020.

THURSDAY, JAN. 9, 2020. 2:08 pm

Sui-Lee Wee and Donald McNeil gave us the latest news that researchers in China have identified a new virus that is behind a mysterious pneumonial disease that has caused panic in the central China region. “There is no evidence that the virus, a coronavirus, is easily spread by humans and is not tied to death,” they write. “But health officials in China and internationally are watching it closely.”

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 3:52 am

Within five minutes tonight, President Trump concluded his coronavirus speech. Tom Hanks announced on Instagram that he and his wife Rita Wilson had tested positive, and the NBA said it would put their season on hold until further notice.

TUESDAY, JUNE 23rd, 12:40 am

White House Trade Advisor Peter Navarro raised the alarm tonight when he told Fox News the trade deal with China was “over”. He took it back pretty quickly – or rather said that what he said had been “wildly out of context” – but not before Asian stock markets began to plunge.

TUESDAY, OCT. 6. 01:58 am

We got off to a hectic start with Trump’s return to the White House and his dramatic maskless salute on the balcony overlooking the South Lawn. Then he released a video recorded in the White House telling Americans that Covid-19 was nothing to fear.

That’s it for this briefing. Until next time.

– Victoria

Many Thanks
To Theodore Kim and Jahaan Singh for the break from the news. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

PS
• We listen to “The Daily”. Our last episode is about the Georgia runoff elections.
• Here is our mini crossword puzzle and a clue: pond foam (five letters). You can find all of our puzzles here.
• Jeffrey Henson Scales spoke to ABC News about the Times year in photos.

Categories
Business

Moderna will increase minimal 2021 Covid vaccine manufacturing by 20% to 600 million doses

Moderna increases minimum 2021 Covid vaccine production by 20% to 600 million doses

A health worker holds a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine bottle on the first day Orange County residents 65 and older can be vaccinated on December 29, 2020 at a drive through at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

Paul Hennessy | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Moderna is increasing its Covid-19 vaccine production this year, increasing the expected minimum dose by 20% to 600 million, the company said on Monday.

The company says it is working to produce up to 1 billion doses of its Covid vaccine this year. The U.S. is well on its way to securing 100 million shots of Moderna’s vaccine by the end of March and an additional 100 million by June, the Massachusetts-based company said in a statement.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Moderna’s emergency coronavirus vaccine approval to anyone age 18 and older in the U.S. in December and started the drug’s first launch.

The federal government has agreed to buy 200 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, with an option to secure an additional 300 million, the company said.

Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, which uses the new mRNA technology and requires two doses four weeks apart, has also been approved in Canada for people aged 18 and over. The company has agreed to supply this country with 40 million doses of its vaccine, with the option to provide an additional 16 million.

“Our effectiveness in delivering early supplies to the US and Canadian governments, as well as our ability to increase baseline production estimates for 2021, are both signals that our increase in mRNA vaccine production is a success,” said Juan Andres, director made a statement to Moderna’s technical department.

The U.S. government, under the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, said it would distribute close to 6 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine in an emergency once FDA approved.

The introduction of the vaccine in the nation has been slower than originally planned. So far, the US has only distributed more than 13 million doses of vaccine, but given only 4.2 million “shots in the arms,” ​​according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last updated on Saturday. By the end of December, officials wanted to vaccinate 20 million people with Pfizers and Moderna’s two-dose vaccines against Covid-19.

Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar defended the operation’s vaccine distribution Monday on ABC’s Good Morning America. He said there was a delay in getting the cans first made available, ordered by the states, and then delivered, all of which was slowed down by the holidays.

However, the US has seen a “rapid uptake” of vaccines in the past few days, Azar said.

“We said our goal is to actually have 20 million first doses available by December. Those are available,” said Azar. It is unclear what Azar meant when he said the cans were “available” as only 13 million were distributed in the US on Saturday morning.

Categories
Health

Windfall Hospital System defies America’s gradual vaccine rollout development

West Virginia mistakenly gives 42 people Regeneron IV Covid treatment instead of vaccine shot

Covid vaccination efforts in the US are well below original estimates. More than 15.4 million doses have been given to states, but only 4.5 million Americans have received their first shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, the Providence Hospital System has bucked the country’s slow roll-out trend, providing the first dose of the vaccine to more than half of its 120,000 employees in 51 hospitals in seven states.

Dr. Amy Compton-Phillips, clinical director of Providence, told The News with Shepard Smith that “planning is the antidote to panic.” She said Providence began developing strategies in September to identify caregivers at greatest risk and incorporate technology such as email and text to streamline the rollout process.

She told Shepard Smith that one of the solutions is to create a “validation and verification” tool to manage vaccine rollouts in the vendor’s hospitals. The tool included the “roles” that consisted of specific jobs, and it also included places of work for those within the Providence system. People would then in turn reach and validate the data.

“By doing this, we avoided much of the dismay you’ve heard from other organizations that, despite their best intentions, accidentally left out important groups of people who should be vaccinated,” said Compton-Phillips. “I think the biggest lesson we’d have is not to hesitate to do something. Some vaccinations are better than none. Ask your people too, make sure you hear from them, not just them Trust data. “

Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar estimated that 20 million Americans could be “vaccinated” by the end of December and another 50 million could be “vaccinated” by the end of January. He added that “we expect” a total of 100 million vaccinations by the end of February.

CDC officials have attributed the slow rollout to complex vaccination stores, overburdened public health departments and health care providers, and the timing of the vaccination rollout during the holidays.

Federal officials have required states to run vaccination campaigns. On Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo admitted that hospitals in his state need to give vaccines faster and threatened with fines.

“Any vendor who does not use the vaccine could be fined up to $ 100,000 in the future. They must use the allocation within seven days. Otherwise, they can be removed from future distribution,” said Cuomo.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued a similar warning to hospitals, saying the state could try converting test sites into vaccination centers. California Governor Gavin Newsom has pledged US $ 300 million for vaccination measures in his current budget proposal.

Providence’s successful rollout still identified areas that needed improvement. According to the Los Angeles Times, one in five frontline nurses at the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, Calif., Turned down the shot.

Compton-Phillips noted that the hospital is in an area that is underserved and caters to a large immigrant community. She said that Providence seeks to understand the barriers to vaccination in order to better serve the community.

“We know vaccines are hesitant, especially in certain underserved communities, color communities that have less confidence in the health system. So we’re working very closely with them to understand these concerns and make sure we address them.” them so we can really convince people to do what is in their best interests and protect themselves from this virus, “said Compton-Phillips.

Categories
Politics

Trump’s Insurgency From Contained in the Oval Workplace

Trump's Insurgency From Inside the Oval Office

A group of 22 historians released a statement Monday noting that the 2020 elections weren’t even particularly close, historically. Mr Biden has won as many or more electoral college votes in five elections since 1960 as the winning candidates and more majority votes than in more than half of the presidential elections held in the past six decades.

“However, in none of these elections has a lost candidate attempted victory by brazenly sabotaging the electoral process, as Donald Trump did and continues to do,” said the letter, written by Rice University’s Douglas Brinkley and Sean Wilentz from Princeton University. Among those who signed was Michael W. McConnell of Stanford University, a former appeals court judge who effectively dismissed the efforts of one of its former employees, Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri.

Mr Trump’s allegiance to the concept of American democracy has long been debated. From the earliest days of his campaign for the White House, critics suggested that he harbored autocratic tendencies that raised questions about whether he would eventually undermine democracy or try to stay in power even if he lost, questions that loud enough that he felt compelled to react. “There is no one who is less fascist than Donald Trump,” he emphasized in 2016.

But Mr Trump did little to allay those fears in the years that followed. He admired strong men like Putin, Orban, President Xi Jinping of China and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, and showed envy of their ability to act decisively without the control of a democratic government. He asserted at various points that the constitution “allows me to do whatever I want with the special adviser investigating him” and that his “authority” is total to order states to obey his wishes.

He tried to turn government agencies into instruments of political power and pressured the Justice Department to persecute his enemies and spare his friends. He made extensive use of the implementing ordinances sometimes decided by the courts and went too far. He was charged with abuse of power by the Democratic-controlled House in 2019 for pressuring Ukraine to help him tarnish Mr Biden’s reputation, despite being later acquitted by the Republican-run Senate.

When Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt published their bestselling book How Democracies Die in 2018, warning that even the United States could slip into autocracy, they were repulsed by some who thought they were overstating the case. “We have been criticized by some as alarming,” said Ziblatt, a government professor at Harvard University, on Monday. “It turned out we weren’t alarming enough.”

Mr Ziblatt said a healthy democracy requires at least two political parties that know how to compete and lose. “I hope and think we will get through the next few weeks,” he said, “but our democracy cannot survive in a recognizable way for long unless we have two parties that are committed to the rules and norms of democracy.”

Categories
Business

How Trump’s Push to Undo Election Has Divided His Media Allies

How Trump's Push to Undo Election Has Divided His Media Allies

President Trump’s final term began Monday with the Republican Party’s disorder – and the president’s media allies also disagreed on how to deal with the crisis sparked by his fantasies of a “rigged” election.

On the Monday episode of Fox News’ normally Trump-friendly morning show “Fox & Friends,” host Brian Kilmeade urged Mr. Trump’s lawyers to produce evidence of fraud. He also warned that the pro-Trump protests scheduled for Washington this week are “the kind of anarchy that by and large works for no one, Republicans or Democrats.” His co-host Steve Doocy noted, “So far we haven’t seen the evidence.”

In the same program, Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee who has announced that she will object if Congress approves the vote on Wednesday’s electoral college, discussed the bomb record of a phone call made on Saturday that President Trump tried to get Brad Raffensperger to do. Georgia’s Secretary of State to defeat to change the state’s vote.

“Brian, one of the things I think everyone said is that that call wasn’t a helpful call,” Ms. Blackburn said. (On another Fox News broadcast, Republican strategist Karl Rove called Mr. Trump’s call “inappropriate”.)

Complicated matter for experts on the right: Acceptance of Mr. Trump’s allegations of a stolen election could stifle Republican turnout in Tuesday’s Georgia runoff election that will determine control of the United States Senate.

But Fox News has also expressed very different views of the President than those of Mr. Rove and the hosts of Fox & Friends. On Sunday night, right-wing brand Mark Levin told viewers of his prime time show on Fox News, “Our Declaration of Independence and Constitution are being destroyed by the Democratic Party and the media, and they want to destroy what’s left of it. ”

Throwing a warning to Republican leaders who are not involved in Mr. Trump’s efforts, Mr. Levin mentioned Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell by name and added, “The Republican leadership in the Senate has been extremely pathetic.”

Like the breakaway Republican senators who advocated Mr Trump’s efforts to undermine the election, Mr Levin has stayed in step with Mr Trump’s increasingly far-fetched fraud allegations.

At 9 p.m. on Fox News, Sean Hannity’s program presented viewers with numerous false statements about the 2020 election as it aired unfiltered Mr. Trump’s rally for the Georgia Republican Senate nominee. However, the prime-time venue provided by Mr Hannity was not enough for those in the audience who were aware of the reluctance of some Fox News personalities to support the President’s fraud claims. His mention of the network, almost an hour after his speech, drew the crowd.

Economy & Economy

Updated

Jan. 4, 2021, 3:39 p.m. ET

Monday’s comment on MSNBC and CNN was, unsurprisingly, slightly different.

John Heilemann, an MSNBC analyst, compared Mr. Trump to a mob boss. On CNN, host Jake Tapper described Mr Trump’s call to Georgian officials as “putting pressure on them, threatening them and suggesting that they could be prosecuted if they couldn’t find” enough votes “for Trump to get the election results in Georgia to change. ” . “He added,” Too many members of the ruling Republican Party are clearly trying to undermine the American experiment of undermining democracy. “

And when Fox News showed the Trump rally at 9 p.m., CNN host Chris Cuomo had a discussion on the slow roll-out of coronavirus vaccines.

Newsmax, the conservative network that has tried to outperform Fox News on the right by fueling Mr. Trump’s conspiracy theories, gave up time on Monday to several guests who vigorously supported the president’s unsubstantiated claims, including Representative Jody B. Hice Georgia and a Trump campaign advisor Steve Cortes.

Republican Mo Brooks, Republican of Alabama, told Newsmax viewers that there was “massive electoral fraud” and stated that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. “would not be a legitimate president.” He also complained that the judicial system – which has been issuing opinion after opinion at the state and federal level against Mr. Trump’s fraud allegations – has been a “pathetic failure”. Bob Sellers, the Newsmax host who interviews Mr. Brooks, has not pushed his claims back.

Newsmax White House correspondent Emerald Robinson claimed Monday afternoon that Mr Trump did not try to get Mr Raffensperger to reverse the Georgia election results during the phone call, but instead used it as some sort of information tour.

“You can hear how passionately the president believes he has won the state,” said Ms. Robinson.

Even so, Newsmax does not protect viewers from the inevitability of Mr Biden’s inauguration, although many voters may object to the drafting. On a segment of the network, anchor John Bachman stated that Mr Biden’s plans for inauguration day would be reduced because of the pandemic; Right-wing commentator Dan O’Donnell, one of Mr. Bachman’s guests, wondered for no reason whether the minor inauguration was due to Mr. Biden’s “decreased mental capacity”.

“That’s a fair question,” said Mr. Bachman.

Categories
Health

Does Coconut Oil Deserve Its Well being Halo?

Does Coconut Oil Deserve Its Health Halo?

Dr. Greenland reiterated this assessment, noting that “The marketing of coconut oil is confusing. Attempts are made to sell it as healthy fat, but those who know its composition do not believe it at all. “

These and other experts separate themselves from advertisers and proponents of coconut oil because of its chemical makeup and the well-established biological activity of various types of fatty acids.

“Fat can’t circulate on its own,” said Dr. Greenland, explaining that long-chain fatty acids, such as those found in beef tallow, are absorbed into the bloodstream by fat-carrying particles called chylomicrons, which release the fat to tissues throughout the body. Chylomicrons keep LDL cholesterol in circulation and provide ample opportunity to get stuck in the arteries. In contrast, fats that are mainly medium-chain fatty acids are more water-soluble. They can be absorbed into the bloodstream without the help of chylomicrons and transported directly to the liver, where they are used for energy.

Although lauric acid is usually called a medium chain fatty acid, according to Dr. Sacks really arbitrary. “The classification of lauric acid as a medium-chain fatty acid is a misnomer,” he wrote. “Instead of the number of carbon atoms in a fat,” he said, “what counts is how the fat is metabolized in the body. Lauric acid acts like a long-chain fatty acid that promotes atherosclerosis. In addition, coconut oil contains two other long-chain fatty acids – myristic and palmitic – and all three have arterial damaging effects on blood cholesterol levels.

One claim for coconut oil is undisputed: it can increase blood HDL cholesterol, which has long been believed to protect against heart disease. However, clear health benefits of HDL cholesterol in humans have yet to be demonstrated. Dr. Sacks reported: “Genetic studies and HDL-increasing drugs have so far not confirmed any causal link between HDL cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. HDL consists of a large number of sub-particles that can have adverse or beneficial effects. It is not known what foods or nutrients that increase HDL cholesterol do so in ways that reduce atherosclerosis and coronary events. “

The same goes for Dr. Greenland. “Efforts to increase HDL have not resulted in beneficial clinical improvements.”

Proponents also like to cite the fact that a number of indigenous peoples – including Polynesians, Melanesians, Sri Lankans, and Indians – consume fairly large amounts of coconut products without suffering from cardiovascular disease. However, most of these people have traditionally eaten coconut meat or pressed coconut cream as part of a diet that is low in processed foods and high in fruits and vegetables, with fish being the main source of protein. They are also much more physically active than typical westerners.

But that is also changing now, reported a New Zealand research team. The “imports of unhealthy foods like corned beef, fast foods and processed ingredients are driving huge increases in obesity and ill health.”

Categories
World News

Inventory futures flat after S&P 500 suffers first unfavorable begin to a 12 months since 2016

Stock futures flat after S&P 500 suffers first negative start to a year since 2016

Stock futures remained stable in overnight trading on Monday after the S&P 500 suffered its first decline since 2016.

The futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 10 points. S&P 500 futures were unchanged and Nasdaq 100 futures fell less than 0.1%.

Movements in futures came after a sharp sell-off on Wall Street at the start of 2021. The S&P 500 fell 1.5%, its worst daily performance since October 27th. Ten out of eleven S&P 500 sectors posted losses, led by real estate.

The blue chip Dow lost 382 points after losing 700 points from its daily low. The Nasdaq Composite was down 1.4% as the FAANG block collapsed early in the new year.

The market’s widespread sell-off came ahead of the Georgia runoff election on Tuesday, which will determine whether Republicans can retain control of the Senate. In the meantime, rising Covid-19 cases around the world and new lockdown restrictions kept investors informed.

“Investors are feeling nervous this week,” Lindsey Bell, chief investment strategist at Ally Invest, said in an email. “COVID cases continue to rise and a new variant of the virus is spreading around the world. Tomorrow’s run-off elections in Georgia could determine the composition of the Senate and the market has generally done better in a divided Congress.”

Many fear that higher tax rates and more progressive policies could become a reality once the Democrats take control of the Senate. However, such an outcome could create the opportunity for a larger and faster package of expenses that will help support the market.

“Even if the Democrats get control, the margin will be remarkably small and analysts are skeptical of the possibility of a significant change in tax or regulatory policy,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide, in a note. “However, democratic control could trigger another round of coronavirus stimuli and possibly an infrastructure package.”

England imposed a third coronavirus lockdown on Monday as the region grappled with a more transmissible variant of Covid-19. New York State has confirmed its first case of the new tribe, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

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Categories
Entertainment

Bobby Shmurda Eligible for Launch From Jail in February

Bobby Shmurda Eligible for Release From Prison in February

Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda, whose rapid rise in the music industry was interrupted when he was arrested in 2014 for conspiracy and gang arrest, will be released from prison next month, the New York State Department of Corrections said on Monday.

Shmurda, 26, whose legal name is Ackquille Pollard, was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2016 after pleading guilty to conspiracy and gun possession in connection with his leading role in the GS9 gang, an offshoot of the Crips in the East Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn.

Shmurda was denied parole in September, partly due to disciplinary action against him while he was incarcerated, and he was then ordered to serve his maximum sentence until December 11, 2021. Following a review by the Corrections Department, Shmurda’s recognition for good institutional behavior was restored, making him eligible for a conditional release from February 23, provided no further incidents occurred. The remainder of his sentence was to be served on parole.

“I’m glad he comes home,” said Alex Spiro, a lawyer who represented Shmurda in the criminal case.

Before his arrest at a Manhattan recording studio in December 2014, Shmurda went viral thanks to a hit single known in its edited version as “Hot Boy” and a related meme taken from the social media app Vine Rise in hip-hop that showed him throwing his hat in the air and doing his trademark “Shmoney Dance”. Mimicked by Beyoncé and in NFL touchdown dances, the move helped send “Hot Boy” to # 6 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The then 19-year-old Shmurda signed a seven-digit contract with Epic Records for several albums. However, while waiting for the trial and unable to pay his $ 2 million bail, he complained that the label had abandoned him. “When I was locked up, I thought they would come pick me up,” he told the New York Times in an interview, “but they never came.”

In the years since, Shmurda, despite only releasing a handful of songs, has become something of a folk hero in rap; His release from prison was eagerly awaited by fans and fellow artists. His close associate, Rowdy Rebel, who was convicted of the same case, was released on parole last month.

While behind bars, Shmurda was disciplined for numerous violations of fighting and possession of contraband, which damaged his reputation with the probation authority. In a partial transcript of the probation hearing published by New York magazine, Shmurda said he “tried to learn how to defend himself” while detained on Rikers Island and called the prison “just a crazy place”.

Shmurda is currently being held in the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, NY, according to the Department of Corrections inmate database.

He told the parole board last year that he hoped to get back to rap and the entertainment business while also advising children from areas similar to those he grew up in. “I was young, I was just a follower,” he said, “and then I got older, I started making music and then I saw my life start on a different path, but my past just caught up with me . ”

In a recent interview with NPR’s Louder Than a Riot podcast, Shmurda suggested that he should have started rapping sooner. “I would never have been on the street, you know what I mean?” he said. “My biggest regret is not to follow my dreams sooner.”

Categories
Business

New York Gov. Cuomo confirms state’s first case of latest Covid pressure initially present in UK

NY Gov. Cuomo briefs the press on Covid pandemic as state distributes vaccines

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo wears a protective face mask as he approaches during a daily briefing following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Manhattan in New York City, New York, the United States, on July 13, 2020 Word comes.

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New York State confirmed its first case of a new, contagious variant of the coronavirus originally discovered in the United Kingdom, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

The strain, which has also been found in California, Florida, and Colorado, is believed to be communicable but doesn’t appear to make people sicker or increase the risk of death from Covid-19, experts have said.

The case was identified in a 60-year-old man from Saratoga County who had no travel history, Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters. The man, who is now recovering, worked in a jewelry store where three other people also tested positive for Covid-19. The state is investigating whether these cases were caused by the new strain.

Cuomo told reporters that the state had conducted about 5,000 tests looking for the new variant known as B.1.1.7. Cuomo said he believed it was “a lot more common” than people already know.

“If other states could test as much as we tested and tested on the British strain, as much as we tested, they would find them,” Cuomo said, adding that officials haven’t had any cases with the strain in the EU have established Downstate New York City area.

U.S. health officials have said the variant’s arrival in the nation comes as no surprise, although if it is allowed to spread uncontrollably it could make matters worse.

While the new variant doesn’t appear to cause more serious illness in infected people and current vaccines should still work against it, it could lead to more hospitalizations due to the increase in cases, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. The US is also on high alert for a second new, highly infectious strain first found in South Africa, similar to the one in the UK, CDC officials said.

“Increased infection is a problem, but increased hospitalization rates change the game because if hospital capacity in a region is threatened, that region would have to be closed,” Cuomo told reporters.

In California, Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state has now confirmed six cases of the new variant, all in the southern part of the state. One person was hospitalized in San Diego County, he said.

“We actually imagine that one should only expect others to be identified,” Newsom said during a press conference.

State officials are expected to provide an update by the end of Tuesday on the genome tests in California, which are being carried out to “understand more fully what this strain looks like and what it has done,” Newsom said. He said state health officials are conducting contact tracing efforts.

The CDC now requires all passengers traveling from the UK to the US to provide evidence of a negative Covid-19 test, which was carried out no later than three days prior to departure, before boarding.

In the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Monday a new national blocking order for England until at least mid-February, in hopes of slowing down the spread of the new variant. He said the best doctors in the country believe the burden is between 50% and 70% more transmissible compared to previous versions.

“With most of the country already facing extreme measures, it is clear that we must do more together to get this new variant under control while our vaccines are rolled out,” Johnson said on a television announcement.

– CNBC’s Riya Bhattacharjee contributed to this report.