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Added on the 13/01/2018 09:33:11 - Copyright : Wochit
In what Italy's prime minister said was 'not an easy decision,' PM Giuseppe Conte has put the country on lockdown for the holidays. Business Insider reports Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told reporters that experts fear there will be a jump in COVID-19 cases over Christmas. Italy wasn't the only European country to tighten restrictions over the holidays — the UK and Germany have both announced heightened coronavirus restrictions. Johns Hopkins University data reports that as of Saturday, Italy had recorded over 1.9 million confirmed cases of coronavirus since the pandemic began. Thus far, nearly 68,000 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported in Italy.
The pandemic shows no sign of abating in the US, and thus, neither has remote working nor remote learning. And according to Business Insider, that's led to a boom in the 'office in a box' market, in which people install minuscule 'home' offices in the backyard. In a recent survey of just over 2000 American consumers, 54% of respondents said they would buy a tiny office. Among them, 62% said they'd purchase a backyard unit. 30%, reported that the ideal tiny office would fall between 200 to 299 square feet. In terms of pricing, 26% said they'd spend less than $8,000 on a backyard office unit, while 23% said they'd fork out between $10,000 to $19,999.
It's generally thought that once the COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, front-line healthcare workers and nursing home residents will be first in line. But according to Gizmodo, bank tellers may get to skip the line--past them, and past the over-65's and those with underlying conditions. The industry trade group American Bankers Association has asked federal health authorities to designate consumer-facing bank employees as 'essential workers.' Such a designation would give them vaccine prioritization once the Federal Food and Drug Administration grants emergency-use authorization. To date, the U.S. has seen nearly 15 million COVID-19 cases and 280,000 deaths--the most in the world. The CDC predicts 19,500 new deaths will be reported during the week of Christmas, and that another 300,000 COVID-19 cases will be added in December.
The mayor of Austin, Texas, told his constituents on a video call last month to 'stay home' and avoid unnecessary travel. The message was a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus in the city and across Texas, as COVID-19 patients are already overwhelming hospitals. But according to Business Insider, Mayor Steve Adler, a Democrat, neglected to mention where he was when he filmed the public service announcement. In fact, he was speaking from a timeshare in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to which he'd flown on a private jet shared with eight other family members and guests. The day before the flight, Adler had hosted a wedding for his daughter, with 20 attending. As of Wednesday, more than 13.8 million Americans have tested positive for coronavirus and over 272,400 have died. Texas is the second worst-hit state in the US. It's surpassed 1.25 million cases and 22,100 deaths.