Archives for February 2021

CLEVELAND (AP) — Cy Young winner Shane Bieber reported to training camp on Saturday with the Indians after the right-hander was quarantined with COVID-19.

Bieber, who was baseball’s best pitcher in 2020, was medically cleared and joined Cleveland’s other pitchers and catchers in Goodyear, Arizona. The 25-year-old recently tested positive with the virus, but only experienced mild symptoms.

Bieber spent part of the winter working out at the team’s training complex, and manager Terry Francona said his ace will resume a normal work schedule.

“He was actually able to throw a bullpen I think in his backyard when he was down,” said Francona, who is recovering from a staph infection in his toe. “So he’s not behind. I do think that being in this environment is more conducive to better work, but we’ve all seen Biebs.

“He’s going to get it done wherever. That’s not an issue.”

Bieber took part in non-throwing, fielding practice on his first day. The Indians will have their first full-squad workout on Sunday.

Dominant during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Bieber led the majors with eight wins, a 1.63 ERA and 122 strikeouts, a rare Triple Crown for pitchers.

Bieber will be expected to carry the load again this season as the Indians try to get back to the postseason after making it as a wild card in 2020. Cleveland has one of the AL’s best starting staffs, led by Bieber, who is 34-14 in three major league seasons.

There’s still room for Bieber to grow and improve. Francona doesn’t see any reason that won’t happen.

“I do think as he learns the league and learns himself, you will see improvements because he’s that kind of kid,” Francona said. “He’s conscientious and smart, and he has the drive to want to be great. So I think you’ll see some things he’ll improve on this year for sure.”

NOTES: Projected closer James Karinchak also cleared COVID intake and reported. Francona said it’s possible he’ll use the hard-throwing right-hander in non-save situations as well, something the manager has done in the past with Cody Allen and Adam Miller. … Francona is on crutches following surgery to remove the infection from his big left toe. Doctors had him try two different devises to help him get around. “One was a thing you kneel on and it has wheels, but it also has a basket on the front,” Francona said. “And as much as that may have helped me get around the complex, I was not going to take that amount of grief.”

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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, two Democratic governors on opposite ends of the country were hailed as heroes for their leadership in a crisis. Now they’re leaders on the ropes.

Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California are embroiled in distinct political woes. For Cuomo, it’s a federal investigation into whether his administration sought to hide the true toll of the pandemic. For Newsom, it’s fending off a recall effort fueled by opposition to his lockdowns — and his own personal missteps.

But for both men the bottom line is clear: If you’re not careful, the same crisis that can raise your stock can just as easily bring you down.

“We’ve had too many mission accomplished moments,” said Rebecca Katz, a New York City-based Democratic strategist who ran a primary challenge against Cuomo in 2018, in a reference to former President George W. Bush’s premature boast days after the conquest of Iraq.

The COVID-19 virus has been an especially painful illustration of that point. The virus is now stretching into its second year, a timeline few could have comprehended when schools and workplaces were first shuttered last March and governors who control lockdowns played newly prominent roles in Americans’ lives.

Cuomo and Newsom both seized the moment in their own ways. Cuomo went on television for daily briefings that were paternal, almost philosophical, and also sharply critical of the Trump administration. They became must-see TV across the country, aided in part by his CNN news host brother. Newsom, meanwhile, instituted early lockdowns, and for a time his state avoided the worst of the virus. He was a smoother, reassuring presence. He studiously avoided partisanship, even landing himself in an ad for President Donald Trump.

But ultimately it was their actions, not their tone or words, that brought them down to earth.

“This is all a bunch of tough stuff,” said California strategist Rob Stutzman, noting that governors are judged on outcomes and the outcomes in this crisis have been bad everywhere. “At the end of the day, these different approaches the governors have taken have made very little difference because, well, it’s a virus.”

Several governors have managed to avoid major political backlash, like Republican Charlie Baker in Massachusetts or Democrat Jared Polis in Colorado. But the travails of Cuomo and Newsom show how big states are exceptionally tricky to run and always under the microscope — something also demonstrated this week in Texas, as the nation’s second-largest state suffered extended power outages during a deep freeze that sparked criticism of its Republican governor, Greg Abbott.

“New York and California are under a magnifying glass,” said Jared Leopold, former spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association. “Everything good that happens there looks five times better and everything bad looks five times worse.”

While the coronavirus may have first landed on U.S. soil on the West Coast, it exploded into public consciousness in March as New York City was wracked by a hideous outbreak. As the epidemic spiraled, Cuomo on March 25 issued a directive barring nursing homes from refusing patients based solely on a COVID-19 diagnosis. Cuomo defended the directive as an effort to prevent catastrophic hospital overcrowding and discrimination against virus patients.

Despite his state’s death toll — more than 46,000 people in New York state have died of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University — Cuomo’s popularity soared, and some Democrats in the spring and summer favorably contrasted his response with Trump’s bravado and false optimism, wondering if Cuomo could replace Joe Biden on their ticket or sign on as a vice presidential candidate. In October, Cuomo took an early victory lap, releasing a book titled “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

But the nursing home issue exploded onto the political scene with two recent revelations. First, the state’s Democratic attorney general chastised the Cuomo administration for minimizing the death toll at nursing homes by excluding certain fatalities from the count. Cuomo’s administration then revealed at least 15,000 people living in long-term care facilities have died of COVID-19, nearly double the number Cuomo had initially disclosed.

The New York Post reported that a member of Cuomo’s administration told lawmakers it had withheld the numbers for fear of them being “used against us.” A furious Cuomo at a press conference accused Ron Kim, a Democratic state legislator who spoke to the Post, of corruption.

Kim said Cuomo had called him and threatened to “destroy” him.

“The nursing homes story really exposed quite a bit about questions about his leadership style and the success of his leadership during COVID,” said Christina Greer, a political science professor at Fordham University. “The governor wrote a book touting his accomplishments, and we don’t know if we’re halfway out of the pandemic.”

The meltdown in California has been more gradual. A month after Cuomo released his coronavirus book, an embarrassed Newsom was apologizing for attending a lobbyist’s birthday party at the posh French Laundry restaurant, even as he was telling Californians to avoid gatherings.

The restaurant scandal came as California’s image as a model of COVID response began to fade. Rising cases and shrinking capacity at hospitals prompted Newsom to reinstate stay-at-home orders between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Republicans had circulated recall petitions against Newsom months before, complaining about his handling of homelessness and the economy, but they shifted to include his COVID-19 response in their complaints and began racking up signatures.

In January, Newsom abruptly lifted the stay-at-home orders, sparking accusations he was abandoning science. He was then forced to retool the state’s vaccine distribution system. Now the state’s coronavirus numbers are dropping. His job approval rating has also.

Stutzman said Newsom is suffering for failing to provide the smooth, efficient government he promised when elected. But part of his fall, and Cuomo’s, was inevitable because they are no longer being compared to Trump and his often hands-off approach to the virus response.

“Any of these Democratic governors are going to come off these initial highs they got that were better than Republican governors,” Stutzman, a Republican, argued. “Democrats across the country got a false boost out of this because of Trump, but when it all nets out it looks the same.”

The governors’ troubles stand as a warning for Biden, a Democrat who has declared he now owns the pandemic response and will be judged by how he delivers.

“At least the Biden administration got to see how everyone else did first,” Katz said.

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Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writer Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, contributed to this report.

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AUSTIN, Texas — The number of deaths in Texas due to the illness caused by the coronavirus increased by more than 200 on Saturday while the number of people hospitalized with the virus declined, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

There were an additional 227 COVID-19 deaths, more than 4,900 new cases and 7,535 hospitalizations, a decline of 222 people hospitalized, the department reported.

Texas has had more than 2.5 million coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, and more than 42,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the third highest death count in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— Pope Francis and Italy’s president mark new annual day to honor doctors, nurses and other health care workers

— Governors Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gavin Newsom of California are embroiled in political woes from the pandemic

— Powdering sleeping beauty’s nose: Virus eases Louvre works

— Airlines plan to ask passengers for contact-tracing details

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Follow all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

LOS ANGELES — A skateboarding world champion is among five people prosecutors in Southern California have charged with organizing parties that were possible superspreader events amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Los Angeles Times reports Nyjah Huston, a four-time world skateboarding champion, and Edward Essa, the owner of a home in the Fairfax District, held a party last month with at least 40 people that was shut down by police after receiving a complaint.

Huston and Essa were both charged with creating a nuisance, a misdemeanor.

Neither could be reached for comment.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — More than 681,000 Oklahomans have now received the coronavirus vaccine, including more than 204,000 who have received both required doses, according to an Oklahoma State Department of Health report.

The state ranked 12th in the nation on Saturday with 14.3% of the population having received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control, and the state health department has scheduled vaccination clinics during the weekend to replace those canceled because of a winter storm.

There have been a reported 418,318 total virus cases and 4,155 deaths due to COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus, since the pandemic began, increases of 973 cases and 23 deaths since Friday, according to the health department.

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JERUSALEM — Israel unveiled a plan on Saturday to allow people who have been vaccinated against the coronavirus to attend cultural events, fly abroad and go to health clubs and restaurants.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the plan at a news conference on Saturday night, saying those who have been vaccinated will be able to download the “green badge” in the coming days.

“The green badge is gradually opening up the country,” Netanyahu said.

Israel has conducted the world’s speediest vaccine campaign over the past month and a half, inoculating nearly half of its 9.3 million people. But with the coronavirus still spreading rapidly among the unvaccinated, the country only recently began emerging from a two-month lockdown.

On Sunday, retail stores, shopping malls, gyms, some middle school grades and other public services for limited crowd sizes are set to start back up.

Netanyahu said the government could not keep unvaccinated residents from places like medical clinics, pharmacies and supermarkets. But he said other services would be allowed only for those who have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Israel’s main international airport, for instance, remains closed to nearly all air traffic because of concerns of foreign variants of the virus entering the country.

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PODGORICA, Montenegro — Tiny Montenegro has launched vaccinations against the coronavirus with doses of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines that were donated by neighboring Serbia.

Health authorities said the first person to receive a shot on Saturday was a 66-year-old resident of a care home in the coastal town of Risan. Two doctors working at the same nursing home came next.

A nation of some 620,000 people, Montenegro has reported more than 70,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 939 known deaths.

Montenegrin authorities say they plan to acquire supplies of China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

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MEXICO CITY — The official leading Mexico’s response to the pandemic says he has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Assistant Health Secretary Hugo López-Gatell tweeted Saturday that he had light COVID-19 symptoms on Friday night and an antigen test came out positive. He was awaiting the results of a PCR test, which takes longer to process and is generally more accurate..

“I’ll be working from home,’’ López-Gatell said, adding that he was involved in Mexico’s vaccination program.

Some 200,000 doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine arrived in Mexico from Hong Kong on Saturday, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Twitter. A total of 10 million Sinovac vaccines are expected.

Mexico has approved several other coronavirus vaccines and has administered 1.5 million shots so far.

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HONOLULU — The Hawaii Department of Health says it has temporarily extended the window incoming travelers have to get a pre-arrival coronavirus test that comes back negative.

The state says travelers can now take the tests up to 96 hours before their scheduled flights instead of 72 hours because of winter storms that have ravaged the continental U.S.

The tests still have to be conducted by a state-approved provider.

Hawaii News Now reports the extension will be in effect through Sunday.

Alternatively, visitors can quarantine for 10 days after arriving in Hawaii.

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ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska public health officials say 3,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine will arrive later than expected because of a winter storm that has ravaged the continental U.S.

The state’s immunization program manager, Matt Bobo, said some vaccine appointments may be postponed until next week.

The doses were supposed to reach 21 different providers.

Another state vaccine official says the delay occurred at a somewhat fortuitous time — a part of the month for which the state had already anticipated a smaller vaccine shipment.

State officials say they have been communicating with officials at the White House and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control about the delay.

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LAS VEGAS — Before the coronavirus pandemic, tourist-dependent Nevada had a notorious attraction: It was the only place in America where someone could legally pay for sex. These days, even in the state known for sin, the business is taboo.

Legal brothels have been shuttered for nearly a year, leaving sex workers to offer less-lucrative alternatives like online dates or nonsexual escort services.

While the business of legal bordellos may seem incompatible with social distancing, sex workers and brothel owners say they should be allowed to reopen with protective measures like other close-contact industries, including massage therapy and dental services.

A state task force that makes recommendations on coronavirus restrictions hasn’t responded to pleas from brothel owners seeking a way to reopen.

Gov. Steve Sisolak recently said brothels, along with other adult entertainment like nightclubs and strip clubs, would stay closed at least through May 1. After that, the state may let counties decide whether to allow those businesses to open, as long as COVID-19 infections aren’t surging.

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PHOENIX — Enrollment at U.S. community colleges dropped 0% from fall 2019 to fall 2020 amid the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s according to The National Student Clearinghouse, which says community colleges were hit the hardest among all types of colleges in terms of enrollment drops.

Four-year universities in the U.S. fared better than many had expected, seeing only slight enrollment decreases.

There are myriad reasons for the community college downturn. Fewer freshmen are enrolling and some are delaying college until campuses fully reopen.

But the pandemic has also taken a heavy toll on older adult students. Many lost jobs or have no time for their own schooling as they supervise their children’s online classes.

More Americans typically turn to community college education amid economic downturns, seeking to learn new job skills or change careers. But education experts say the pandemic seems to have upended usual trends.

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PHOENIX — Arizona’s Maricopa County plans to close two of its six regional COVID-19 vaccination sites in coming weeks as public health officials put increased emphasis on smaller sites and events to give more shots.

The county’s site in north Phoenix, operated by Honor Health, will last operate on Feb. 28. and the site run by Dignity Health in Chandler will close in early March.

Officials say current appointments will be honored at both locations. Arizona on Saturday reported 2,047 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 59 deaths, increasing the state’s pandemic totals to 806,163 cases and 15,480 deaths.

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LONDON – The British government has announced a small step out of lockdown — allowing nursing home residents to have a single friend or family member visit them indoors.

Residents and their visitors will be able to hold hands, but not hug. The change takes effect March 8. For months, nursing home residents have only been able to see loved ones outdoors or through screens.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he will announce a “road map” out of lockdown on Monday. The government has stressed that reopening will be slow and cautious, with store reopenings or outdoor socializing unlikely before April, though children will go back to school from March 8.

Johnson’s Conservative government has been accused of reopening the country too quickly after the first lockdown in the spring. Britain has had about 120,000 coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in Europe.

The new measures apply in England. In other parts of the U.K., nursing home visiting rules vary, with Scottish residents able to have two visitors from March 8.

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HELSINKI — Denmark has temporarily closed some border crossing points with Germany and stepped up checks at others due to a spike in COVID-19 cases and a rise in virus variants in the the northern German town of Flensburg, just off the Danish border.

The Danish justice ministry said late Friday that an increasing number of infections and virus mutations have been detected in Flensburg, just some seven kilometers (4 miles) from the border with Denmark.

The Danish justice ministry said officials police will significantly intensify border controls at the Danish-German border. Local authorities in Germany said Saturday on Flensburg’s webpage that the town’s coronavirus incidence rate was running at 193 per 100,000 people.

Dozens of cases of mutated coronavirus, mostly the variant first detected in Britain, have been detected in Flensburg, a town with some 90,000 inhabitants, in the past days.

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UNITED NATIONS — Britain has circulated a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council demanding that all warring parties immediately institute a “sustained humanitarian pause” to enable people in conflict areas to be vaccinated against COVID-19.

The proposed resolution reiterates the council’s demand last July 1 for “a general and immediate cessation of hostilities” in major conflicts from Syria and Yemen to Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan and Somalia, an appeal first made by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on March 23, 2020, to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.

The draft, obtained Friday by The Associated Press, “emphasizes the need for solidarity, equity, and efficacy and invites donation of vaccine doses from developed economies to low- and middle-income countries and other countries in need, including through the COVAX Facility,” an ambitious World Health Organization project to buy and deliver coronavirus vaccines for the world’s poorest people.

The British draft stresses that “equitable access to affordable COVID-19 vaccines, certified as safe and efficacious, is essential to end the pandemic.”

It would recognize “the role of extensive immunization against COVID-19 as a global public good for health in preventing, containing, and stopping transmission, in order to bring the pandemic to an end.”

The draft follows up on British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab’s appeal to the 15-member Security Council on Wednesday to adopt a resolution calling for local cease-fires in conflict zones to allow the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.

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MEXICO CITY — Mexico says it will get its first shipment of the Chinese Coronavac vaccine Saturday and by Monday will receive its first lot of the Russian Sputnik V shot. Both shipments are expected to consist of about 200,000 doses.

Health officials say the first shipments of the Chinese and Russian vaccines will be used in low-income neighborhoods of Mexico City or its suburbs.

Mexico is currently using the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines and has applied almost 1.6 million doses of those.

The country will now be faced with the logistical challenge of handling four different vaccines, all of which require two doses. In addition, the Sputnik first shot is different from the second and is not interchangeable.

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LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California expects to reopen campuses this fall, joining the state’s major public universities in planning to resume on-campus life curtailed by COVID-19.

USC President Carol Folt issued an online letter Friday that said she is “cautiously optimistic” because virus cases are down and vaccinations are ramping up. USC and other universities nationwide were forced to switch to online learning last March.

Both the University of California and California State University systems also have said they plan to reopen their campuses this fall if conditions permit.

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BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — President Alberto Fernández asked Argentina’s health minister to resign after a well-known local journalist said he had been given a coronavirus vaccination preferentially after requesting one from the minister, a government official said Friday.

The president “instructed his chief of staff to request the resignation of health minister” Ginés González García, who is in charge of the government’s COVID-19 strategy, said the official, who was not authorized to release the information and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. He did not say who would replace González García as health minister.

The scandal erupted when journalist Horacio Verbitsky, whose stories and columns on a website and on the radio are seen as pro-government, said he called the minister to request a vaccinination and González García summoned him to the Health Ministry where he received a Sputnik V vaccine shot Thursday.

“I decided to get vaccinated. I started to find out where to do it. I called my old friend Ginés González García, whom I have known long before he was a minister,” Verbitsky told a local radio station. “I went to the ministry and the team of vaccinators was there.”

Fernández’s government has been harshly criticized for Argentina’s slow vaccination operation.

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BERLIN (AP) — After scoring the winning goal to help Eintracht Frankfurt beat Bundesliga leader Bayern Munich 2-1 on Saturday, Amin Younes’ first thought was for the victims of a racist attack.

The 27-year-old Younes ran straight to the sideline, where he held up a commemorative shirt bearing the name and portrait of Fatih Saraçoğlu, one of nine people with immigrant backgrounds killed in a rampage by a gunman in the nearby town of Hanau just over a year ago.

Frankfurt’s players had warmed up for the league game wearing the commemorative tops with “say their names” across the front, and individual victims’ names and faces on the back. Ferhat Unvar, Hamza Kurtović, Said Nesar Hashemi, Vili Viorel Păun, Mercedes Kierpacz, Kaloyan Velkov, Sedat Gürbüz, Gökhan Gültekin and Saraçoğlu were all remembered, continuing Friday’s commemorations on the anniversary of the killings.

“We wanted to show the faces of the victims. We want to remind people that not forgetting means not letting it happen again,” Frankfurt president Peter Fischer told Sky TV before the game. “Opposing racism, hate, anti-Semitism and homophobia is in Eintracht’s statutes.”

Younes, who troubled Bayern’s defense in the first half, was involved in one goal, then scored the other as he helped Frankfurt reinvigorate the title race.

“We didn’t learn from the Bielefeld game,” Bayern captain Manuel Neuer said, referring to his team coming from two goals down to draw 3-3 in its previous game. “You have to be aggressive from the start.”

Leipzig can cut Bayern’s lead to two points with a win at Hertha Berlin on Sunday. Frankfurt is level on points with third-place Wolfsburg after maintaining its outstanding start to the year with its eighth win from nine games in 2021.

FRANKFURT FLYING

Frankfurt made a brilliant start with Younes and Filip Kostic combining to set up Daichi Kamada for the opening goal in the 12th minute.

Frankfurt had seven shots compared to Bayern’s one before Younes made it 2-0 in the 31st. Kamada played the ball back and Younes unleashed a powerful shot inside the far top corner.

Robert Lewandowski pulled one back in the 53rd to take his season tally to a league-leading 26 goals, but missed out on scoring a late equalizer when Lucas Hernández’ cross sailed just over his head at the far post in injury time.

Frankfurt was without top-scorer André Silva (18 goals) due to an injury picked up in training, giving Luka Jovic his first start since he returned on loan from Real Madrid.

Bayern also had enforced absences in Thomas Müller and Benjamin Pavard due to the coronavirus, while Corentin Tolisso is out for around three months. Leon Goretzka and Javi Martínez were back among Bayern’s substitutes after recovering from their COVID-19 infections. Goretzka came on to help Bayern’s improved performance in the second half.

DORTMUND WINS DERBY

Erling Haaland scored twice as Borussia Dortmund sent rival Schalke another step closer to relegation with a 4-0 win in the Ruhr derby.

Jadon Sancho broke the deadlock in the 42nd, then floated in a cross for Haaland to score with a spectacular scissor kick three minutes later.

Schalke responded with a good start to the second half – American Matthew Hoppe hitting the post – but Raphäel Guerreiro effectively decided the result with a goal on the hour-mark.

Jude Bellingham crossed for Haaland’s second in the 79th. It was the Norwegian’s 17th goal in 17 Bundesliga appearances this season.

Dortmund players celebrated their third consecutive derby win in front of the empty stand where their supporters would usually sit in non-pandemic times.

Schalke remained last with nine points from 22 rounds, nine points behind Bielefeld in the playoff place with 12 rounds to play. Bielefeld has played a game less.

“I hope they stay in the league,” Dortmund defender Emre Can said of Schalke.

GLADBACH SHOCKED

Kevin Stöger scored late for relegation-threatened Mainz to grab a 2-1 win at Borussia Mönchengladbach.

It was Gladbach’s first game since the club announced that coach Marco Rose will be leaving to join Dortmund next season, and it stretched his team’s winless run to three games before it plays Manchester City in the Champions League on Wednesday.

Union Berlin won 1-0 in Freiburg to move ahead of Gladbach on goal difference.

Marcus Ingvartsen crossed for Grischa Prömel to head Union’s winner in the 64th.

Saša Kalajdžić also headed Stuttgart to a 1-0 win at Cologne.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic senator is calling for federal investigations into possible price gouging of natural gas in the Midwest and other regions following severe winter storms that plunged Texas and other states into a deep freeze that caused power outages in millions of homes and businesses.

Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith says natural gas spot prices spiked as high as 100 times typical levels, forcing utilities and other natural gas users to incur exorbitant costs, many of which were passed on to customers.

In a letter sent Saturday to federal regulators, Smith said the price spikes will not just harm consumers, but could “threaten the financial stability of some utilities that do not have sufficient cash reserves to cover their short-term costs in this extraordinary event.” The letter was sent to the Energy Department, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. A copy of the letter was obtained by The Associated Press.

The extreme weather spurred residents from Mississippi to Minnesota to crank up electric heaters and pushed demand for electricity beyond the worst-case scenarios planned for by grid operators. At the same time, many gas-fired power plants in Texas and other states were knocked offline because of icy conditions, and some plants appeared to suffer fuel shortages as natural gas demand spiked nationwide.

More than 70 deaths across the U.S. have been blamed on the storms.

In Winfield, Kansas, the city manager reported that a unit of natural gas that sold for about $3 earlier this month sold for more than $400 on Thursday. City Manager Taggart Wall told KWCH-TV in Wichita that Winfield, which budgets about $1.5 million a year for natural gas, expects to pay about $10 million for the past week alone. Residential customers could see bills as high as $2,500 this month, he said.

In Morton, Illinois, officials reported that gas normally sold for about $3 per unit cost nearly $225 this week as demand soared because of the deep freeze.

While officials don’t know all the details of what happened, nor precisely how it will affect utility rates, “we do know this situation could be a significant financial burden for utilities and their customers,” especially as families in Minnesota and across the country struggle in the coronavirus pandemic and economic downturn, Smith said.

The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission has called a special meeting Tuesday to investigate what caused the dramatic spikes in natural gas prices in that state.

A spokeswoman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, known as FERC, said the agency will review Smith’s letter and “respond in due course.”

A spokesman for the American Gas Association, which represents more than 200 local energy companies, said Feb. 14 and 15 set a record for the largest natural gas demand in U.S. history over a two-day period.

While natural gas utilities faced “unprecedented challenges” and “spot prices climbed in some regions due to spikes in demand, families and businesses that use natural gas were protected from higher prices by the careful planning of their utilities,” said Jake Rubin, a spokesman for the gas association. Most natural gas utilities use long-term contracts that seek to guarantee enough supply to meet demand and to lock-in affordable prices, he said.

Still, exorbitant price spikes were recorded in the spot market. Natural gas hit a record $600 per million British thermal units in Oklahoma, while Missouri Gov. Mike Parson said he’s asked the state attorney general to investigate complaints of price gouging of natural gas in that state.

Smith, in her letter to regulators, urged them to investigate conditions in the natural gas market over the last week, including any price gouging by natural gas producers and suppliers.

“A public report should detail what occurred, make recommendations to prevent such problems in the future and determine if laws have been broken,” she said. Smith also urged officials to invoke emergency authorities, including under the Natural Gas Policy Act and the Defense Production Act, to ensure natural gas is sold at fair prices during the current crisis.

The Biden administration and Congress should consider financial support to utilities and customers “that may be facing a cash crunch or rate increases as a result of the spike in natural gas prices,” Smith said.

The White House announced on Saturday that the president had declared a major disaster in Texas, and he has asked federal agencies to identify additional resources to address the suffering.

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