US virus deaths hit record levels with the holidays ahead
Virtually every state is reporting surges in cases and deaths. The virus is blamed for more than 285,000 deaths and 15 million confirmed infections in the United States. Southern California’s Riverside University Health System Medical Center went so far as to open an ICU in a storage room. The state is averaging more than 5,000 confirmed or suspected cases per day. That’s below the summer peak of 3,200 but more than double the most recent low point in mid-October.
Sean Penn ups fight against COVID-19 with relief expansion
Actor Sean Penn, founder of Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE), is interviewed at a CORE coronavirus testing site at Crenshaw Christian Center, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)LOS ANGELES Sean Penn has expanded his fight against the coronavirus beyond his own expectations. The Oscar winners disaster relief organization CORE has gone from providing 6,500 tests in a couple weeks to administering more than 1.3 million within a five-month span. The organization, which started as an international relief group, had initially planned to operate testing sites in Los Angeles for three months. She thought CORE's virus testing would last only three months as a bridge until government-funded programs took over.