ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Around 15,000 residents previously ineligible for pandemic stimulus checks have started receiving payments from the state. The group includes immigrants in the country without work authorization.
Officials with the New Mexico Human Services Department said the $465 relief payments began arriving this week via direct deposit or checks.
The Legislature allocated $5 million to the fund for those who hadn’t received federal payments in April. Agency officials say they were able to identify an additional $2 million on top of that.
COVID-19 cases have been declining in New Mexico, but the economic fallout from the pandemic continues.
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MADRID Health Minister Salvador Illa said that, beginning Saturday, Spain will receive 4.5 million Pfizer vaccine doses over the next 12 weeks, enough to vaccinate some 2.3 million people.
Illa said on Wednesday that the first batch would arrive in the central province of Guadalajara and be distributed around Spain from there so that vaccination could begin as planned on Sunday.
The ministry reported 12,386 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, up from 11,079 on Tuesday, for a total of 1.8 million. There were 178 new confirmed deaths, down from 260 on Tuesday.
The 14-day cumulative index, closely watched by epidemiologists, rose to 254 per 100,000 inhabitants, up from 236 a day earlier but still down from the second-wave high of 529 on Nov. 9.
CAIRO Egypt reported its highest daily confirmed cases in months, with over 911 confined cases and 42 fatalities, as authorities said New Year’s Eve celebrations would be canceled.
Health Minister Hala Zayed announced the numbers in a news conference in Cairo on Wednesday, which brought the county’s official tally to more than 127,970 COVID-19 cases including at least 7,209 deaths.
The increase came amid repeated warnings by the government about a second wave of the pandemic. Authorities have been urging people to take preventive measures, including wearing face masks and social distancing.
Minister Mustafa Madbouly said on Wednesday that his government would closely follow the measures to avoid a lockdown. The government said celebrations and other activities on New Year’s Eve are not allowed as part of their ongoing efforts to fight the pandemic.
NAIROBI, Kenya South Africa’s health minister says the country has seen more than 14,000 confirmed new coronavirus cases in the past day, with a positivity rate of 26%, as overall cases edge toward 1 million.
Heath Minister Zwelini Mkhize says the “alarming rate of spread” of infections is much faster than during the first wave in midyear. His daily report doesn’t say how many of the new infections are attributed to the new variant of the virus in South Africa.
The country has more than 950,000 confirmed cases, including more than 25,000 deaths. More than 400 people have died in the past day.
Mkhize says COVID-19 is “unrelenting” and urges South Africans to not be complacent as they enter the holiday season, and he warns that the government will have to review restrictions meant to limit the spread of the virus and “consider further measures.”
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