Plaintiffs allege that, even if hospital-system defendants obtained their Asheville-area inpatient-care monopoly legally (largely via the now-repealed Certificate of Public Advantage law), defendants illegally coerced health insurers into including anti-steering provisions in their policies in order to maintain defendants’ monopoly in the “Asheville Region Inpatient Services Market.” Plaintiffs allege that, absent these anti-steering provisions, the
Rest of World News: MANILA: The Philippine government extended a lockdown by another week Monday after an alarming spike in coronavirus infections continued to surge and .
President Rodrigo Duterte placed Metropolitan Manila and four outlying provinces, a region of more than 25 million people, under lockdown last week as daily infections breached 10,000. Roman Catholic leaders shifted Holy Week and Easter events online after all public gatherings, including in places of worship, were temporarily banned.
MONTREAL — The Quebec government has reached a deal with pharmacies that will allow them to start administering COVID-19 vaccines by mid-March, Health Minister Christian Dube said Tuesday. Dube told a news conference that some 350 pharmacies in the Montreal area will start taking appointments for vaccinations by March 15. COVID-19 vaccinations are open to Quebecers aged 85 and older in outlying regions, while they are open to people as young as 70 in the Montreal area. Dube said the Montreal region is being prioritized in part because of the presence of more contagious variants, such as the B.1.1.7 mutation that was first identified in the United Kingdom. "We're afraid," Dube said. "We’re afraid the Montreal region is the calm before the storm." Quebec reported 588 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday and eight more deaths attributed to the novel coronavirus. Hospitalizations rose by 16 to 628, and 121 people were in intensive care, a drop of one. Dub