COVID-19 NEWS
Keep up with all the fast-moving novel coronavirus news, particularly as it impacts the Columbia Basin.
COVID-19 update
RITZVILLE — Adams County Health Department administrators have reported another death related to COVID-19, raising…
Inslee wants schools to be open before end of school year
Gov. Jay Inslee wants the state’s schools reopened and kids — including middle school and high school students — back in class before the end of the school yea…
COVID-19 deaths in state pass 5,000
SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state has surpassed 5,000 deaths from the coronavirus, a milestone that comes a few days after the one-year anniversary of the first …
Dems tighten relief benefits, firm up support for virus bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Democrats agreed to tighten eligibility limits for stimulus checks, bowing to party moderates as leaders prepared to move their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill through t…
California to give 40% of vaccine doses to vulnerable areas
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will begin setting aside 40% of all vaccine doses for the state's most vulnerable neighborhoods in an effort to inoculate people most at risk from the coronavirus and get the st…
Grant County approaches 9,000 cases of COVID-19
The total of reported COVID-19 cases in Grant County rose approximately 900 from the end of January, reaching 8,954.
Quincy Valley Historical Society & Museum: Normal opening, odd year
The state moved into Phase 2 in time for a "normal" March opening at the Quincy Valley Historical Society & Museum. But this year will be anything but normal.
Virtual concert, real smiles: Moses Lake’s Brews and Tunes goes digital
Moses Lake’s annual Brews and Tunes event, Moses Lake Business Association’s festival of local breweries and bands, went virtual for the first time Saturday ni…
Washington educators, childcare workers eligible for vaccine
OLYMPIA — Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced Tuesday that educators, school staff and licensed childcare workers of all ages have been added to the current t…
Royal, Warden kick off season at Saturday football jamboree
Royal and Warden footballl were among the six teams from the North Central Washington Region that kicked off their season with a jamboree at Lions Field in Mos…
Minimum wage hike all but dead in big COVID relief bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats' hopes of including a minimum wage increase in their $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill seemed all but dead Monday as the Senate pr…
Chinese vaccines sweep much of the world, despite concerns
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The plane laden with vaccines had just rolled to a stop at Santiago's airport in late January, and Chile's president, Sebastián Piñera, was beaming. "Today," he said, "is a day of joy, emotion…
COVID-19 pandemic fuels attacks on health workers globally
Two Nigerian nurses were attacked by the family of a deceased COVID-19 patient. One nurse had her hair ripped out and suffered a fracture. The second was beate…
Ready for a new season: MarDon Resort looks forward to a good 2021
As the ice disappeared from the surface of Potholes Reservoir in recent warmer weather, MarDon Resort in Othello started getting calls asking if the boat ramp …
J&J's 1-dose shot cleared, giving US 3rd COVID-19 vaccine
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is getting a third vaccine to prevent COVID-19, as the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two.
Fraud overwhelms pandemic-related unemployment programs
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — With the floodgates set to open on another round of unemployment aid, states are being hammered with a new wave of fraud as they scramble to update security systems and block scammers who alre…