COVID Surge Forces Florida Hospital to Close Down Its Labor and Delivery Unit

Photo: Johnny Louis/Getty A Florida hospital is temporarily shutting down its labor and delivery unit due to themassive surge of COVID-19 cases in the area, which has sickened much of the staff. Holy Cross Health in Fort Lauderdale announced Sunday that “in the best interest of patient safety,” they’ve decided to close the labor and delivery unit as “people are out sick due to the surge in COVID cases,” Holy Cross spokesperson Christine Walkertold NBC Miami.

COVID Survivor Who Spent 110 Days in Hospital Eyes Ironman: 'There's Going to Be a Lot of Tears'

Photo: courtesy Tom Butts Tom Butts admits he likes challenges, but the one he faced in 2020 was like none he had ever experienced before. The 67-year-old attorney from Northern California spent 110 days at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Jose last year. Throughout that time, doctors fought to spare Butts from the same fate that’s befallen more than562,000 people who have died from COVID-19 in the United Statessince the start of the pandemic.

COVID Treatments and Testing No Longer Free for Uninsured Patients After Federal Funding Runs Out

Doctors at North Memorial Health Hospital in Minnesota treat a COVID-19 patient.Photo: Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune via Getty Images As theremaining federal funding for COVID-19 programs quickly runs out, many uninsured Americans will now have to pay for their treatment and testing. Early in the pandemic, the U.S. government set up a program to reimburse hospitals and clinics for any care they performed on uninsured patients, such as hospital stays,COVID-19 testingand antibody treatments.

COVID Vaccinations Could Have Saved Around 234,000 American Lives in 2021

Houston hospital workers cover a patient who died of COVID-19.Photo: Go Nakamura/Getty COVID-19 continued to be one of the deadliest illnessesin the United States in 2021, and just as in 2020, the virus was the third leading cause of death, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control. But it didn’t have to be thanks to the COVID-19 vaccines, and another new report estimates that around 234,000 Americanswho died from the virusafter June 2021 would have been saved if they had gotten vaccinated.

COVID Vaccinations Could Start Monday in U.S. After FDA Panel Approves Pfizer Vaccine

A person receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.Photo: FRANK AUGSTEIN/POOL/AFP via GettyAmericans couldstart getting vaccinated against COVID-19as early as Monday, a senior health official said, as the Food and Drug Administration readies to approve a vaccine from Pfizer.On Thursday, a panel of vaccine experts voted in favor of approving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in the U.S. The decision now goes to the FDA, which is expected to fully approve the vaccine as soon as Saturday.