Morning News Brief
Written by Tom Tharp on January 12, 2022
Batavia City schools are spending more than 400 thousand dollars on classroom disinfecting devices after the Board of Education unanimously approved a slate of proposals Tuesday night. The funding for these devices will come from the federal American Relief Act, which was doled out to school districts for various virus-related solutions. The board agreed that Enviro-mist came in with the best bid for air purification and disinfection devices, at $1,665 each for 250 disinfection units, or $416,250.
Governor Hochul took to the airwaves in New York City to say that COVID may have peaked in the Empire State. Over the last week the state averaged about 75 thousand cases daily with a high of 90 thousand new cases on Saturday. Monday saw far less with 48 thousand. The state is ending its contract tracing program. Hochul said the decision on whether to contract trace will be left up to individual counties. In Genesee and Orleans counties, the health department has already announced the changes to contact tracing, making it up to the individual to call friends and families after a positive test if they fall within the 19-65 age group. The governor also urged people not to go to emergency rooms to get tested for COVID.
In weird news: According to Oregon State University there is a strange benefit to using hemp products. They apparently stop COVID from entering human cells. Not to be confused with THC, the hallucinogenic ingredient in recreational marijuana, CBD appears to bind to the spike protein of the COVID virus so it can’t bind to cells in the body. The researchers also said that they have found CBD helps with HIV and Hepatitis and another odd product, Black Licorice, also appears to bind to COVID spike proteins.
The Sabres were thunderstruck as they lost to the Lightning 6 to 1 Tuesday night. Vinnie Hinostroza scored the lone goal for the Buffalo team and Lukkonen left the game with a lower body injury after stopping 7 of the 9 shots sent his way. With the loss, the Sabres fall to 10-19-6. They’re back on the ice Thursday in Nashville.
