(NEW YORK) — Here are today’s In Crisis headlines:
Prosecutors assert Chauvin “acted with particular cruelty,” seek severe sentence
Minnesota’s attorney general has requested a severe sentence for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for acting with “particular cruelty” in the death of George Floyd. In a legal brief filed Friday, State Attorney General Keith Ellison asked Judge Peter Cahill to hand down a harsher sentence based on “five aggravating factors” that “support an upward sentencing departure.” The factors included that “Mr. Floyd was treated with particular cruelty…Defendant continued to maintain his position atop Mr. Floyd even as Mr. Floyd cried out that he was in pain, even as Mr. Floyd exclaimed 27 times that he could not breathe, and even as Mr. Floyd said that Defendant’s actions were killing him,” Ellison wrote.
Chauvin was found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on April 20 for the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May 2020. His sentencing has been scheduled for June 25. Chauvin will be sentenced on second-degree murder because, per state law, it’s the single most serious charge. It also allows a sentence of up to 40 years, but based on Minnesota sentencing guidelines, Chauvin could be more likely to receive up to 15 years, based on his lack of a prior criminal record.
Families separated by Trump administration “zero-tolerance” immigration policy to be reunited
Four families separated at the U.S.-Mexico under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy in 2017 will be reunited this week, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced Monday. The government only released limited details about the families, due to privacy concerns. It marks the first time the Biden administration’s Family Reunification Task Force has announced such a reunification since it was established at the beginning of Biden’s term. The children are already in the U.S.
More than 5,000 children were separated from their parents during the Trump administration, going back to July 1, 2017, many of them under the zero-tolerance policy to criminally prosecute any adult who entered the country illegally, according to court filings. The Biden administration is doing its own count going back to Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. According to Michelle Brane, executive director of the Family Reunification Task Force, more than 1,000 families remain separated.
COVID-19 numbers
Here’s the latest data on COVID-19 coronavirus infections, deaths and vaccinations.
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers globally per Johns Hopkins University
Global diagnosed cases: 152,933,322
Global deaths: 3,204,107. The United States has the most deaths of any single country, with 577,045.
Number of countries/regions: at least 192
Total patients recovered globally: 89,703,705
Latest reported COVID-19 numbers in the United States per Johns Hopkins University
There are at least 32,421,989 reported cases in 50 states + the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. This is more than in any other country.
U.S. deaths: at least 577,045. California has the greatest number of reported deaths in the U.S., with 61,939.
U.S. total people tested: 436,289,138
The greatest number of reported COVID-19 cases in the U.S. is in California, with 3,744,937 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 39.51 million. This ranks third in the world after England, which has 3,861,901 cases, and Maharashtra, India, which leads the world with 4,722,401 reported cases. Texas is second in the U.S., with 2,897,175 confirmed cases out of a total state population of 29 million.
Latest reported COVID-19 vaccination numbers in the United States
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports a total of 312,509,575 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S. Of those, 245,591,469 doses have been administered, with 147,047,012 people receiving at least one dose and 104,774,652 people fully vaccinated, representing 44.3% and 31.6% of the total U.S. population, respectively. The Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines each require two doses to be effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires a single dose to be effective.
Now more than 100 million fully vaccinated people in the US, but vaccination numbers declining
The United States now has more than 100 million people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the latest date from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The U.S. passed the milestone over the weekend and as of Monday morning the CDC reports 104,774,652 fully vaccinated people, comprising 31.6% of the total population. The percentages grow when broken down by demographic, with Americans aged 65 and older the most-vaccinated group, with 69.6% now fully vaccinated, and 82.7% having received at least one vaccine dose. A total 245,591,469 vaccinations have so far been administered.
Despite the continued vaccination efforts, the number of vaccines administered daily is down 22% from the country’s peak just three weeks ago, prompting fears that the U.S. may be losing its sense of urgency in the campaign to vaccinate all Americans. The U.S. is currently averaging just over 50,500 new COVID-19 cases every day, down by 15.3% in the last week; in the last seventeen days, the national case average has dropped by nearly 20,000 cases. Even so, the U.S. still leads the world in COVID-19 cases and deaths. With over 32.4 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, approximately one out of every ten Americans has now tested positive for COVID-19.
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