Rural areas: Louisiana officials will work with local partners to deploy “mobile vaccine teams” to areas with little access to health care, Louisiana Department of Health Secretary Courtney Phillips said Tuesday, according to The Center Square. In a congressional subcommittee hearing held remotely, Phillips said Louisiana is prepared to distribute more COVID-19 vaccine doses as they are made available. Phillips says 90% to 95% of the doses Louisiana gets are administered within a week and the state ranks 18th in the number of residents vaccinated per 100,000. Read the full story.
Payroll increases: Hiring by U.S. private employers rebounded in January, though COVID-19 infections continued to soar, hurting operations in the leisure and hospitality industry, Reuters reports. Private payrolls increased by 174,000 jobs last month, the ADP National Employment Report showed this morning. Data for December was revised to show 78,000 jobs lost instead of the initially reported 123,000. Read the full report.
Activity gains: The services sector, where most Americans work, operated in January at the highest level in almost two years. Activity climbed to a reading of 58.7% in January on a seasonally adjusted basis, according to a report this morning from the Institute for Supply Management, up a full percentage point from 57.7% the previous month. This was the highest reading since February 2019 when the index hit 58.8%. The January performance represented the eighth straight month of growth after sharp declines last spring when the economy was leveled by a global pandemic. Read the full story.
