Coronavirus updates: Texas joins California as only states with 1.5M cases

ALSO SEE: Hopeful sign: Midwestern states see drop in new virus cases --AP

In the headlines:

• Texas has become just the second state to surpass 1.5 million COVID-19 cases, according to Johns Hopkins data. Only 10 countries have topped that somber milestone.

• The other state with more than 1.5 million cases, California, has ordered an additional 5,000 body bags and stationed mobile morgues to hospitals in the hardest-hit counties, including Los Angeles and San Diego, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.

• Coronavirus cases have declined in the past few weeks in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Nebraska. Hospitalizations and deaths, however, are still on the rise due to an earlier surge of positive COVID-19 cases.

• Oregon reported a record 54 coronavirus deaths on Tuesday, a day before the first vaccinations of health care workers at hospitals in Portland and Ontario, according to Gov. Kate Brown’s office. ...

• The U.S. has 16.7 million confirmed coronavirus cases and 303,500 deaths. The global totals: More than 73.4 million cases and 1.6 million deaths.

• A Kansas mayor has resigned following backlash to comments she made in a USA TODAY story in support of a mask mandate in her city. Dodge City Mayor Joyce Warshaw, citing concerns for her safety, resigned Tuesday, effective immediately.

  Since the Dec. 11 publication of the USA TODAY story, Warshaw said she has been met with aggression, including threats via phone and email from Dodge City citizens. Some threatening emails have been turned over to police, she said. ...