18, January 2021
US: Biden chief of staff warns COVID deaths will reach 500,000 by end of February 0
US President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff Ron Klain has warned that the COVID death toll in the US will reach 500,000 by the end of February as Biden is set to assume control of a struggling economy and surging coronavirus outbreak in less than two days.
“The virus is going to get worse before it gets better. People who are contracting the virus today will start to get sick next month, will add to the death toll in late February, even March, so it’s going to take awhile to turn this around,” Klain said
The United States is fast approaching 400,000 virus deaths, with about 3,300 Americans dying from the coronavirus every day in the country.
More than 23,983,600 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus as of Monday.
Over the past week, there have been an average of 218,971 cases per day in the US, an increase of 3 percent from the average two weeks earlier.
Klain said the Biden’s team was “inheriting a huge mess” in terms of vaccine production and distribution in comments directed at states’ disappointment that a reserve of additional vaccines that the Trump administration had promised to release did not exist, US media say.
“But we have a plan to fix it,” said Klain, who has been critical of President Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We think there are things we can do to speed up the delivery of that vaccine.”
Source: Presstv
18, January 2021
Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland: Fr. Berngeh to serve as vicar for local churches 0
Bishop Robert Deeley has announced that Fr. Roland Berngeh will serve as parochial vicar at Parish of the Transfiguration of the Lord Holy Redeemer Church, Bar Harbor; St. Peter Church, Manset; St. Ignatius Church, Northeast Harbor; Stella Maris Parish, St. Vincent de Paul Church, Bucksport; Our Lady of Holy Hope Church, Castine; St. Mary Star of the Sea Church, Stonington, St. Joseph Parish, St. Joseph Church, Ellsworth; Blue Hill Mission, Blue Hill; Our Lady of the Lake Mission, Green Lake; and St. Margaret Chapel, Winter Harbor, effective immediately.
A native of Jakiri, Cameroon, Fr. Berngeh attended St. Augustine’s College Nso in Kumbo, Cameroon, and Bishop Rogan College in Small Soppo-Buea, Cameroon. He completed his clerical studies at St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Bambui, Cameroon, and was ordained to the priesthood on April 10, 1985.
Since his ordination, Fr. Berngeh served in Cameroon parishes for eight years before being appointed the pioneer rector and principal at St. Aloysius Minor Seminary Kitiwum in Kumbo in 1993. He served at the seminary for 13 years before becoming the rector of the Cathedral Church of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus in Kumbo. In 2007, Fr. Berngeh was named principal at his alma mater, St. Augustine’s College Nso, where he served until 2012 when he was appointed rector of Immaculate Conception Parish, also in Kumbo. For the last six years, Fr. Berngeh has served at the cathedral in Kumbo. In addition to those assignments, he has served as a vocations director, diocesan and national chaplain, member of the presbyteral council and as vicar general.
Fr. Berngeh holds a bachelor’s degree in theology and a diploma in philosophy from St. Thomas Aquinas Major Seminary in Bambui. He also earned a master’s degree in educational counseling from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Calif., where he studied from 1997-2000.
Source: mdislander.com