Day: December 21, 2021

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NHL Players Will Not Compete at Beijing Olympics: Reports

NEW YORK — National Hockey League players will not compete in February’s Beijing Winter Olympics in the wake of 50 NHL games being postponed over COVID-19 issues, according to multiple reports Tuesday.

ESPN, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and other newspapers cited unnamed sources in saying the league and the NHL Players Association had reached agreement not to send talent to China.

Without the NHL’s elite millionaire stars, national teams at the Olympics will likely resemble those at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, when minor-league and recently retired players filled out rosters, with the Olympic Athletes from Russia capturing the gold medal.

The NHL and players union had agreed to send players to the 2022 and 2026 Winter Olympics unless league seasons were impacted by COVID-19 postponements.

With Tuesday’s Washington at Philadelphia game being postponed by an outbreak from the visitors, the NHL has been forced to postpone 50 games this season.

Staying home during the period of the Beijing Olympics would open two weeks to reschedule contests and still provide something of a rest for most of the players.

The NHL plans to pause the season after Tuesday’s lone contest, which finds Tampa Bay at Vegas.

Games planned for Wednesday and Thursday were called off ahead of a scheduled three-day Christmas weekend break, which was tweaked to have players return to work on Sunday.

Teams would be off Wednesday through Saturday and return Sunday for testing, with negative tests required to enter team facilities.

On Sunday, the NHL announced that all games involving cross-border travel for US and Canadian clubs would not be played. Nine teams had already shut down operations to the break by Monday.

That’s when concerns rose about the NHL skipping Beijing.

“The NHL and NHLPA are actively discussing the matter of NHL Player participation in the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, and expect to be in a position to announce a final determination in the coming days,” a league spokesman said Sunday.

Source: Voice of America

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Center for Disease Control records 543 positive samples of Corona virus and 8 deaths during past 24 hours.

Tripoli, the National Center for Disease Control announced the registration of 543 positive samples of Corona virus during the past 24 hours, recovery of 618 cases, and 8 deaths.

Daily update of the local epidemiological situation of corona virus for Monday, December 20, 2021, according to statement No. (592), the National Center for Disease Control received (4438) samples distributed among 24 scientific laboratories throughout Libya, and after examining the samples using Real Time PCR technology, the results were As follows :- –

– (3895) negative samples.

– Number (543) positive samples.

– Percentage of positive cases (12.2%).

– (124) critical cases.

– The Health Communication and Information Committee of the National Center for Disease Control explains that 618 cases have recovered, and (08) deaths have been recorded, including 05 cases in the Western Region 03 cases in the eastern region, and no deaths were recorded in the southern region.

– Thus, the general statistics of the Corona virus arrived.

– Total number of infections “the cumulative number” 382,884 cases, the active cases amounted to 6,084 cases, the recovered: 371,185 cases, and the total deaths as a result of the Corona virus 5615 cases throughout Libya.

Source: Libyan News Agency

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Fewer Police, Medics, so Mardi Gras Parade Routes Shortened

NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans is shortening parade routes for the upcoming Mardi Gras season because there are fewer police officers, medics and other first responders to handle the crowds, officials said Tuesday.

The city canceled Mardi Gras parades this past February because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and 2020 parade crowds are considered a big reason that New Orleans was an early pandemic hot spot.

“The big news and the best news is that Mardi Gras is returning to the city of New Orleans and to the world in 2022,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said.

As city officials announced their Carnival plans, Governor John Bel Edwards said Tuesday that he’s again extended Louisiana’s public health emergency, which was first enacted by the Democratic governor in March 2020.

He’s modified it several times since then, and the latest version contains few restrictions for businesses and no statewide mask mandate.

But Edwards announced that agencies led by his Cabinet secretaries will again start requiring employees and visitors to wear masks inside their offices, including at Office of Motor Vehicle locations around the state.

“While vaccines and booster doses are the strongest tools we have in the fight against COVID, public health experts also agree that masks are an important way to slow the spread of the omicron variant now. This means you should be masking indoors around people who aren’t in your household,” Edwards said in a statement.

The face covering recommendation comes as infectious disease experts say Louisiana appears to be entering its fifth surge of the coronavirus outbreak, driven by the fast-spreading omicron variant of the virus. The number of new cases of COVID-19 has doubled over the past week, and hospitalizations of patients with the coronavirus illness are starting to grow again.

That hasn’t derailed Mardi Gras plans in New Orleans, however.

Weeks of Carnival season parades lead up to Fat Tuesday, which will be on March 1. Members of each parade krewe pay for that group’s parade.

Some krewes have not decided whether to roll, but none has given pandemic guidelines, mandates or restrictions as the reason for their uncertainty, Cantrell said.

“Clearly it’s about the bottom line and the impacts COVID has had on our community and on our economy and particularly on their krewe members. … They pay the price for us to enjoy our Mardi Gras,” the mayor said.

She said krewes will have to follow city pandemic restrictions.

Cantrell noted that “if things go wrong in our city” she might have to change its plans for Carnival and Mardi Gras.

But she said she is confident the city can make it through the omicron variant, flu season and the holiday season.

With 80% of its residents fully vaccinated, New Orleans is a national leader, she said.

Source: Voice of America