Roanoke city health department says the city’s health is falling behind state averages in several key areas. A presentation presenting data at the recent city council meeting opened discussion on these challenges.

Danville Police are investigating after an 8-year-old boy died from injuries suffered from an attack by the family dog.

Bribery and conspiracy charges against the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, are the latest shock to the state's capital city.

Mexico's health authorities have belatedly released a report showing a significant spike in heat-related fatalities in the last two weeks.

Mississippi’s capital city is struggling with multiple water problems — there's been too much on the ground after heavy rainfall in the past week, and not enough safe water coming through the pipes for people to use.

Here's a look at some of the stories we'll be following today as they make headlines in Southwest Virginia.

Florida’s coronavirus cases jumped 50% this week, continuing a six-week surge that has seen it responsible for 1 in 5 new infections nationally, becoming the outbreak’s epicenter.

Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine strongly protects kids as young as 12.

After remaining closed in 2020, Roanoke’s pools will once again be open this summer.

The Biden administration’s call to lift patent protections on COVID-19 vaccines to help poor parts of the world get more doses has drawn praise from some countries and health advocates.

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)A new study raised questions about how well COVID-19 vaccines protect organ transplant recipients — and what precautions people with suppressed immune systems should take after the shots. Transplant recipients take powerful immune-suppressing drugs to prevent organ rejection, which also increases their risk from the coronavirus — but excluded them from vaccine studies. Specialists say the shots appear safe for transplant recipients and any protection is better than none. A few weeks after the first dose, 17% of the transplant recipients had developed antibodies against the coronavirus, said Dr. Dorry Segev, a Hopkins transplant surgeon who co-authored the study. Those waiting for a life-saving organ transplant might be able to get vaccinated first.

About a third of the state's nursing home fatalities were excluded from the report as a result of the change. Impeach,” tweeted Queens Assembly member Ron Kim, who said Cuomo bullied him for criticizing how Cuomo withheld nursing home data. AdState officials acknowledged even then that the true number of deaths was higher because the report was excluding patients who died in hospitals. State officials insisted Thursday that the edits were made because of concerns about accuracy. The administration initially released data about how many nursing home residents died at both hospitals and nursing homes, but quietly stopped in early May.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Two women who dressed up to make themselves appear as older adults to get coronavirus vaccinations were turned away and issued trespass warnings in Orlando, officials said. Dr. Raul Pino, state health officer in Orange County — where Orlando is located — said the women disguised themselves on Wednesday with bonnets, gloves and glasses. It appeared that the women had gotten the first shot, but it was unclear where. AdGuido said the warning means they can’t return to the convention center for any reason -- including a vaccine, COVID-19 test, convention or show. Pino said the Health Department’s investigation will try to determine where they were vaccinated earlier and how they managed to get an appointment.

More recently, he said the spread of more contagious variants of the virus increases the need for more people to get their shots — and quickly. The poll of 1,055 adults, taken Jan. 28 through Feb. 1, provides insight into the skepticism. About the same percentage said they don’t trust COVID-19 vaccines. And 38% said they don’t believe they need a vaccine, with a similar share saying that they don’t know if a COVID-19 vaccine will work and that they don't trust the government. ___The AP-NORC poll of 1,055 adults was conducted Jan. 28-Feb. 1 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population.

The state crossed that mark Monday, exactly a year after officials reported the first case of a coronavirus infection in Massachusetts. — Maryland’s acting health secretary says the state’s hospitals have received less than half of their expected allocations of second doses of the coronavirus vaccine for front-line health workers this week. Schrader says state officials were talked with the federal Department of Health and Human Services all weekend trying to figure out what happened. The CDC says Iowa has delivered 190,689 first vaccine doses to individuals, or 6,044 per 100,000 people, the third lowest rate in the nation. Ad___PRAGUE — The Czech Republic is not planning to limit use of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for elderly people like some other European Union nations.

Mississippi's Health Department stopped taking new appointments the same day it began accepting them because of a “monumental surge” in requests. In California, counties begged for more coronavirus vaccine to reach millions of their senior citizens. “This is about life and death.”In Mississippi, officials said new appointments will probably have to wait until a hoped-for shipment of vaccine in mid-February. But the local hospital had no openings on Wednesday, Clark said, and the other vaccination sites are too far away. “She’s too old.”Allison Salerno, an audio producer from Athens, Georgia, said she spent the better part of a day calling her state’s health department to get a vaccine appointment for her 89-year-old mother.

A U.S. Marine Corps band performs in the Entrance Hall of the White House during the 2020 Christmas preview, Monday, Nov. 30, 2020, in Washington. The D.C. Health Department can’t do much more than track the numbers and hope its virus guidelines are being followed. But the White House and other federal properties are not required to comply with those rules. On Wednesday night, Trump hosted about 200 guests at the White House for the annual Hanukkah celebration. Bowser's government has generally avoided direct confrontations with the Trump White House over virus protocols.

(AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Authorities in Sri Lanka have closed the country’s main fish market and widened the curfew in many parts of the island nation following a surge of coronavirus infections related to a new cluster centered on a garment factory. — Boston schools will switch to all-remote learning in response to rising coronavirus cases in the city. Kelly said Wednesday that two-thirds of the state’s confirmed cases now are outside the Wichita and Kansas City region. On Wednesday, the state reported its first patient to the field hospital on the state fairgrounds in West Allis outside of Milwaukee. ___ROME — The Italian region of Lazio, which includes Rome, is imposing an overnight curfew to combat surging coronavirus infections.

That means health care professionals account for about 15% of all Mexico’s confirmed coronavirus cases, and about 18% of all COVID-19 deaths. Active-service health care workers largely mirrored Mexico’s over-all fatality rate of almost 67 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants. The state’s average number of confirmed COVID-19 cases increased from 476 cases a day on Sept. 29 to 685 cases on Oct. 13. Before then, the only confirmed coronavirus death in a Missouri veterans home was in April in north St. Louis County. There were an additional 1,121 confirmed cases, bringing the total to 102,614 since the pandemic began.

A member of the cleaning staff sprays The James Brady Briefing Room of the White House, Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, in Washington. Bowser acknowledged on Monday that White House medical officials “have their hands full” at the moment. Instead it has been forced to entrust the White House medical staff to conduct its own contact tracing. Dr. LaQuandra Nesbit, head of the D.C. Health Department, said the process must begin with an official notification from a medical professional. White House spokesman Judd Deere said Monday that the White House "has established a robust contact tracing program led by the White House Medical Unit with CDC integration to provide appropriate recommendations.”He said those who com in close proximity to Trump would continue to be tested.

Amid a new surge of COVID-19 in New Yorks Orthodox Jewish communities, many residents are reviving health measures that some had abandoned over the summer social distancing, wearing masks. Officials say the worst-hit ZIP codes overlap with large Orthodox Jewish communities in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens and in a couple of nearby counties. Last week, Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization, worked with the Boro Park Jewish Community Council to distribute 400,000 masks. “The Jewish community feels they’re being singled out and there’s some element of anti-Semitism,” he said Monday. In 2018 and 2019, measles cases spread in Orthodox communities in New York as well as other regions.

ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, Va. – Rockbridge County school leaders announced on Saturday that a teacher at Central Elementary School tested positive for COVID-19. The Health Department is contacting anyone who may have been in contact with this teacher and has advised another staff member to quarantine, according to Superintendent Phillip Thompson. Officials said these two staff members have not been in close contact with any students as they are not teaching in-person. Due to privacy laws, the division can’t identify anyone who tests positive or is in quarantine, according to Thompson. This is the second positive case in the school district, and both cases involve staff members.

LONDON Britain started testing a new smartphone app Thursday to help people find out whether theyve been close to someone infected with COVID-19 after security concerns torpedoed an earlier effort to use technology to track the disease. The Department of Health and Social Care said that trials of the app began on the Isle of Wight, with testing in the London borough of Newham scheduled to begin soon. The app, which was developed in conjunction with privacy experts and companies such as Google and Apple, is similar to technology being used in Germany and Ireland. ``It uses the latest security technology and is designed with user privacy in mind, so it tracks the virus, not people, the Health Department said in a statement. The app uses bluetooth technology to determine when a users phone has been in close proximity to the phone of someone who has tested positive for the disease.

SAN JUAN SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) Puerto Rico on Thursday reported 485 new cases of the coronavirus, but officials say 355 of those correspond to April and early May and had not been shared with the government until now. The announcement drew criticism from many who say the government lifted a two-month lockdown without taking into account those cases. The islands Health Department said samples involving the cases in question were taken from March 31 to May 16 and were identified by health officials and laboratories. It was not immediately clear why the 355 cases were not identified earlier. The U.S. territory has reported a total of more than 4,500 COVID-19 cases and at least 140 deaths.

- Maryland health officials haven't identified a source for a significant increase in intestinal illnesses reported this month, which comes as Virginia's Health Department says they're dealing with a similar uptick. Maryland's Health Department announced Thursday there've been 42 reports of cyclosporiasis this year, with 37 of those occurring in the last two weeks. In Virginia, 39 cases of cyclosporiasis have been confirmed since May 1, up from the usual nine cases reported. Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a parasite. The Virginia Department of health said Thursday they're investigating cafeterias at the Capital One Building and the Valo Park Building in McLean and a CarMax in Richmond.