Feeding the front line, whooping cranes, stadium crowds: News from around our 50 states From USA TODAY Network and wire reports, USA TODAY
Alabama
Montgomery: Vaccines against COVID-19 will soon be available at more than 70 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores across Alabama, the company and the state announced. The retailer said people who meet the state’s eligibility requirements can begin signing up for appointments, and the immunizations begin Friday. Part of the program’s aim is to get the vaccine into areas without adequate medical services, the company said. That includes the south Alabama town of Brewton, which the company said was chosen to get the vaccine because other immunization sites are so far away. More than 1,000 Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies in Alabama and 21 other states are receiving federal vaccine allocations this week. Gov. Kay Ivey said the state was grateful for the doses but urged patience since each store will have a limited supply
Seafood sales “are on fire” in America’s supermarkets and one king salmon from Southeast Alaska is worth the same as two barrels of oil.
That’s $116.16 for a troll-caught chinook salmon averaging 11 pounds at the docks vs. $115.48 for 2 barrels of oil at $57.74 per barrel on Feb. 3.
As more COVID-conscious customers opted in 2020 for seafood’s proven health benefits, salmon powered sales at fresh seafood counters. Frozen and “on the shelf” seafoods also set sales records, and online ordering tripled to top $1 billion.
Is Alaska now considering salmon socialism? Crabs are also doing better than oil, which is finally on its way out and never coming back.
Thurston County adds 21 COVID-19 cases Tuesday
The Olympian 1/20/2021 Martín Bilbao, The Olympian (Olympia, Wash.)
Jan. 20 Thurston County reported 21 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths Tuesday as vaccine eligibility expanded.
The county has seen 5,850 cases and 61 deaths since the first case was reported in March, according to the latest data from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. In all, the data show 326 people have been hospitalized at some point in their illness and 4,687 have recovered or are recovering.
Additionally, 10% of COVID-19 tests have returned positive results over the last week, a higher percentage than the previous week.
To date, there have been 42 outbreaks at congregate care facilities. The health department is currently investigating six such outbreaks including one that occurred at the Thurston County jail last week, said director Schelli Slaughter at an county board of commissioners meeting Tuesday.