|  | | | | | | | U.S. Politics | | Despite pressure from Trump to help overturn his election loss, Vice President Mike Pence will stick to his ceremonial duties and not block Wednesday’s certification by Congress of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, advisers said. Trump ramped up pressure on Pence to block congressional certification of the November election results in an ongoing attempt to stay in power, after dozens of lawsuits by his campaign challenging the outcome failed in U.S. courts. | | | | | What you need to know about the coronavirus today | | Ambulances put on alert as Los Angeles hospitals swamped
Los Angeles health officials have told first responders to stop bringing adult patients who cannot be resuscitated to hospitals, citing a shortage of beds and staff as the latest COVID-19 surge threatened to overwhelm healthcare systems in America’s second-largest city.
The order marked an escalation of measures being taken by state and local officials nationwide in the face of alarming increases in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.
Ambulances have been forced to wait hours to unload patients at some Los Angeles hospitals, causing delays throughout the county’s emergency response system.
State of emergency looms in Tokyo
Japan’s COVID-19 cases reached a new daily record on Wednesday, as the government faced mounting pressure from health experts to impose a strict state of emergency for the Tokyo greater metropolitan area.
Rising infections have driven Tokyo and surrounding areas to the highest level of a four-stage alert, prompting regional governors to call for a declaration of emergency that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is expected to announce on Thursday.
Infectious disease experts have called for stricter and longer countermeasures, while Suga has sought a more limited response to avoid damaging the economy.
Greek Christians defy ban on Epiphany services
Greek Christian churches held Epiphany services, openly defying government restrictions that banned public gatherings including religious ceremonies on one of the most important days of the Orthodox calendar.
Despite a plea by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for Church authorities to set an example during a crisis that has killed more than 5,000 in Greece, worshippers attended morning services, although with limits on the number allowed into churches.
“State orders are one thing and faith is another,” said a 38-year-old worshipper who gave her name as Stavroula, after attending morning service at a church in the outskirts of Athens.
Test kits by vending machine
The University of California’s San Diego campus has launched the winter academic term with a unique twist to its coronavirus safety regimen: newly installed vending machines stocked with do-it-yourself COVID-19 tests for students.
The 11 dispensers at UC San Diego since Jan. 2 - with nine more to be added over the next week or two - are the first of their kind to be introduced on a college or university campus in the United States, according to school officials.
Adapted from conventional vending machines, the systems aim to make it easier and less costly to regularly screen the school’s student body.
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