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The death toll has risen from seven to 15 among nursing home residents evacuated before Hurricane Ida to a warehouse where conditions were found too squalid for safety, the state health department said Thursday. However, a department statement noted that some deaths may be unrelated to the storm or conditions in the warehouse. “As time passes and given the health conditions that required a nursing home level of care, unfortunately the number of deaths among this group is likely to increase,” it said. “That is why it is important to make a distinction between the number of total deaths regardless of cause and the number of storm-related deaths.” (McConnaughey, 9/23)

New York State health commissioner Howard Zucker resigned on Thursday following pressure for his role in withholding nursing home COVID-19 death numbers under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Zucker led New York's response to COVID-19 last year but came under fire for reportedly undercounting the death toll in nursing homes by as much as 50%. (Frazier, 9/23)

Maryland will allow out-of-state licensed nurses to practice here, encourage early graduation for nursing students and ask hospital leaders to recruit nurses from other states as the country faces a nationwide shortage of medical staff amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Gov. Larry Hogan announced the new measures Thursday as a way to increase nursing personnel at hospitals, although COVID cases in Maryland remain relatively low. (Wagner, 9/23)

West Virginia’s Capitol Complex will offer a place for people to dispose of unused or expired medications next month as part of National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, officials said. The new Safe Zone at the bus turnaround next to the Culture Center will serve as a collection site on Oct. 23, a statement from the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security said. (9/24)

Mississippi House and Senate negotiators said Thursday that they have agreed on a proposed medical marijuana program. Leaders are expected to ask Republican Gov. Tate Reeves to call the Legislature into session to put the plan into law. The step comes months after the Mississippi Supreme Court tossed out a medical marijuana initiative that voters approved last November. Justices ruled in May that Mississippi’s initiative process was out of date and the medical marijuana proposal was not properly on the ballot. (Pettus, 9/23)

KHN: California Moves On Climate Change, But Rejects Aggressive Cuts To Greenhouse Emissions 

As California trudges into another autumn marred by toxic wildfire smoke and drought-parched reservoirs, state lawmakers have cast climate change as a growing public health threat for the state’s 40 million residents. But they were willing to push the argument only so far. On Thursday, against the smoldering backdrop of Sequoia National Park, where the massive KNP Complex Fire is burning uncontained, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $15 billion legislative package that he described as an unprecedented investment by any state in climate resiliency. The legislation outlines significant new efforts to bolster wildfire prevention, expand clean water supplies and build a network of community-level safeguards to protect people from episodes of extreme and potentially deadly heat. (Young, 9/23)