Mask angels, NYC oases, sugar tax: News from around our 50 states From USA TODAY Network and wire reports, USA TODAY
Alabama
Clanton: The city has lost a second elected official to the coronavirus pandemic six months after the longtime mayor died of COVID-19. City Council member Sammy Wilson died Thursday while in a hospital where he was being treated for the illness caused by the new virus, WBRC-TV reports. A statement by Mayor Jeff Mims said the town of 8,800 people was thankful for Wilson’s service to the community. Council member Mary Mell Smith called Wilson’s death “a big loss.” “He had that big smile on his face every time you saw him,” she said. Wilson died about six months after Billy Joe Driver, who had served as mayor for 36 years before he died of COVID-19 in July. Mims was elected to replace Driver.
Jan 30, 2021
Genetic sequencing of COVID-19 samples done by Oregon State University’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing has detected multiple variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 in samples from around the state, including the highly contagious U.K. strain in one sample from Bend, Oregon.
The Bend wastewater sample was obtained Dec. 22 and sequencing conducted by OSU revealed the U.K. strain on Jan. 21. Bend is one of several locations throughout the state where OSU’s TRACE Community project conducts wastewater testing, which is funded in part by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA).
“OHA is working quickly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and partners statewide to build COVID-19 sequencing surveillance to track the evolution of virus mutations over time. All viruses mutate and these variants are not unexpected,” said Dr. Melissa Sutton, OHA medical director of respiratory viral pathogens. “We will see COVID-19 variants rise