The COVID-19 pandemic has placed historic pressures on the veterinary field and pet owners across the country.
These challenges impact patients, especially at a provider like VCA Animal Hospitals, which has more than 1,000 locations across the United States and Canada that care for more than 4 million pets each year. Consider these tips to help navigate this new reality and ensure your pet has access to the care needed to stay healthy.
Establish a relationship with a veterinarian. Establishing a relationship with a veterinary hospital means your pet will have a team to help that is familiar with his or her medical history and can identify concerns early to improve chances of a positive outcome. Just like your own health, dont wait until something goes wrong to visit your pets veterinarian.
Book appointments in advance and outside peak hours. The best appointments to book early include annual and semi-annual wellness check-ups, vaccinations, dental cleanings and elective surgeries. If youre unsure which appointments to schedule, ask your veterinarian. Booking your pets next recommended exam while youre checking out from your last one is an easy way to find an appointment time that works best for you.
Have a financial plan. Veterinary care for unexpected events and emergencies can often be costly, just like human health care. Owners should consider the total cost of caring for a pet and create an emergency fund to use should something happen to your pet. Obtaining pet insurance or enrolling in a wellness plan are other strategies that can help lighten the financial load.
Know where to go for emergency care. Its important to know where you can take your pet in case of an emergency. Know where several veterinary emergency hospitals are in your area just in case your pets primary care doctor is unable to see you. You can also ask if your veterinary hospital offers tele-triage or other virtual care options. For example, through the myVCA app, you can access 24/7 live chat with licensed veterinary professionals to help answer questions and offer advice.
Be patient. Veterinary medicine is undergoing a surge in demand. Remember that caring for pets is not just a career, but a passion for veterinarian professionals. They are working to ensure you and your pets receive world-class medicine and hometown care you expect and deserve, even with the increased patient load.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of April 22, 2022, there are currently 544 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There has been one death reported since the last report, with a total of 6,823 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
DHHR has confirmed the death of a 93-year old male from Mason County.
As we send sympathies to this family, I urge everyone in West Virginia to do their part to stop the spread of this virus and prevent further loss of life, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Please schedule your COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot today.
CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (6), Berkeley (43), Boone (8), Braxton (6), Brooke (9), Cabell (26), Calhoun (11), Clay (0), Doddridge (0), Fayette (9), Gilmer (1), Grant (3), Greenbrier (14), Hampshire (10), Hancock (4), Hardy (4), Harrison (18), Jackson (3), Jefferson (24), Kanawha (35), Lewis (4), Lincoln (6), Logan (8), Marion (14), Marshall (23), Mason (8), McDowell (4), Mercer (18), Mineral (13), Mingo (0), Monongalia (46), Monroe (2), Morgan (11), Nicholas (3), Ohio (15), Pendleton (5), Pleasants (0), Pocahontas (1), Preston (11), Putnam (30), Raleigh (22), Randolph (10), Ritchie (2), Roane (0), Summers (3), Taylor (10), Tucker (1), Tyler (1), Upshur (6), Wayne (6), Webster (0), Wetzel (3), Wirt (0), Wood (14), Wyoming (10). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.
Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.
West Virginians ages 5 years and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination; after the primary series, first booster shots are recommended for those 12 and older. Second booster shots for those age 50 and over that are 4 months or greater from their first booster have been authorized by FDA and recommended by CDC, as well as for younger individuals over 12 years old with serious and chronic health conditions that lead to being considered moderately to severely immunocompromised. To learn more about COVID-19 vaccines, or to find a vaccine site near you, visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965.
Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Braxton, Cabell, Clay, Fayette, Gilmer, Grant, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Hancock, Jefferson, Lewis, Logan, Marion, Marshall, Mason, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Taylor, Upshur, Wayne, and Wood counties.
Barbour County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Community Market, 107 South Main Street (across the street from Walgreens), Philippi, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVBBC)
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Berkeley County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Airborne Church, 172 Creative Place, Martinsburg, WV
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM, Shenandoah Community Health, 99 Tavern Road, Martinsburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Braxton County
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Braxton County Memorial Hospital (parking lot), 100 Hoylman Drive, Gassaway, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=Braxton)
Cabell County
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Marshall University Campus (parking lot), 1801 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
8:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Cabell-Huntington Health Department (parking lot), 703 Seventh Avenue, Huntington, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Clay County
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, Lizemores Volunteer Fire Department, 13175 Clay Highway, Lizemores, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVClayCounty)
Fayette County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Fayette County Health Department, 5495 Maple Lane, Fayetteville, WV
Gilmer County
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Minnie Hamilton Health System (parking lot), 921 Mineral Road, Glenville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMHCT11)
Grant County
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Petersburg City Parking Lot, South Main Street (across from Walgreens), Petersburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Greenbrier County
9:30 AM - 3:00 PM, State Fair of WV, 891 Maplewood Avenue, Lewisburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVGBC)
Hampshire County
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Hampshire Memorial Hospital, 363 Sunrise Boulevard, Romney, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Hancock County
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Hancock County Health Department, 100 North Court Street, New Cumberland, WV (optional pre-registration: https://roxbylabs.dendisoftware.com/patient_registration/)
Jefferson County
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Lewis County
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, City Parking Lot, 95 West Second Street, Weston, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavLewis1)
Logan County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Town of Man Fire Department, Administration Building, 110 North Bridge Street, Man, WV
12:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Old 84 Lumber Building, 100 Recovery Road, Peach Creek, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Marion County
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Dunbar School Foundation, 101 High Street, Fairmont, WV
Marshall County
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Cameron City Building, 46 Main Street, Cameron, WV
Mason County
8:30 AM - 3:00 PM, Krodel Park, 1186 Charleston Road, Point Pleasant, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavCOUNTY12)
Morgan County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, The Blue (of First United Methodist Church), 440 Fearnow Road, Berkeley Springs, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavMorgan1)
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Nicholas County
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Summersville Regional Medical Center, 400 Fairview Heights Road, Summersville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVNL)
Ohio County
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Ohio Valley Medical Center (back parking lot at the top of 22nd Street), 2000 Eoff Street, Wheeling, WV (optional pre-registration: https://roxbylabs.dendisoftware.com/patient_registration/)
Putnam County
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Putnam County Health Department (behind Liberty Square), 316 Putnam Village Drive, Hurricane, WV
Raleigh County
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Beckley-Raleigh County Health Department, 1602 Harper Road, Beckley, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=MavBeckleyRaleigh)
Randolph County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Davis Health Center, 812 Gorman Avenue, Elkins, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVRDC)
Taylor County
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Grafton-Taylor Health Department, 718 West Main Street (parking lot at Operations Trailer), Grafton, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Upshur County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Buckhannon Fire Department (parking lot), 22 South Florida Street, Buckhannon, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVUSC)
Wayne County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Wayne County Health Department, 217 Kenova Avenue, Wayne, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Wood County
8:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Vienna Baptist Church, 3401 Grand Central Avenue, Vienna, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavWood1)
Please check with the testing site, DHHRs social media pages and the COVID-19 website https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx for any last minute cancellations, and to find other free testing opportunities across West Virginia.
Policymaking aside, clinical trial findings involving the immunocompromised can bring about benefits at the individual level. This is what will happen with Ubuntu, says Ivy Fikelephi Kaunda, who works with Caprisa to help recruit participants for clinical trials. Based outside the east coast city of Durban, Kaunda spends much of her time engaging on healthcare issues with residents in the surrounding townships, where over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, she says she has encountered resistance when encouraging people to take the vaccine. "The ones who are HIV positive will turn and say 'Oh, this is not for us, because we are HIV-positive'." This fear is rooted in the fact that people living with HIV often feel like they are left out, she explains, because they are routinely told that regular treatments are not suitable for them.
But according to Kaunda, this changed with the launch of the Ubuntu trial. When, during her community rounds to recruit participants, Kaunda was able to explain that the trial was tailor-made for people living with HIV, she noticed increasing enthusiasm for the study. Now "when you go to the community people are saying 'I'm part of Ubuntu'... People understand that we also have something for them, and they'll say 'I was part of this change'."
Kaunda speculates that feeling represented by the trial might ultimately encourage more HIV-positive people to get the vaccine which could be a positive stimulus for vaccination rates.
There's another benefit to the trial, which may play out in the longer term: knowing the precise effectiveness of a vaccine can lay a foundation for improved general healthcare, Bekker believes. "It becomes great advocacy to say to people that the vaccine works, but it's better if your immune system is fully constituted therefore it's another reason to get tested and to take your [antiretroviral drugs]," she says. "So it's sort of a secondary public health outcome that is ideal in many ways."
Back at the health centre in Masiphumelele, the circle of women fan themselves with wads of paper consent forms that they need to fill in before the vaccinations can begin. In the centre of the ring, a nurse explains the process, which could take most of the day and will stretch over lunch, which is cooking fragrantly in the nearby kitchen. Their willingness to devote hours of their time could perhaps be taken as an indication that, at the very least, the trial's focus on inclusion is paying off.
"In a world where we recognise that people are marginalised, stigmatised, left behind in clinical research," says Bekker, "we should do our bit to say we don't want to leave people behind."
*This article was supported with funding from the European Journalism Centre, through the Global Health Security Call. This programme is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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Fewer than one in three people who have been hospitalised with Covid-19 have fully recovered a year after they succumbed to infection.
That is the shock finding of a survey into the impact of long Covid in the UK. The team of scientists and doctors at Leicester University also found that women had poorer recovery rates than men after hospitalisation, while obesity was also likely to hinder a persons prospects of health improvements.
Among the symptoms reported by patients a year after their initial infection were fatigue, muscle pain, poor sleep and breathlessness.
Given that more than 750,000 people have been hospitalised in the UK with Covid-19 over the past two years, it is clear from our research that the legacy of this disease is going to be huge, said Rachael Evans, one of the studys authors.
The team stressed their results show there is now an urgent need to develop ways to tackle long Covid. Without effective treatments, long Covid could become a highly prevalent long-term condition, said Professor Chris Brightling, another author.
The research, which will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Lisbon on Sunday, involved the analysis of more than 2,000 individuals from 39 NHS hospitals who had been admitted after contracting Covid-19. Follow-up assessments of their health were made after five months and then again after one year.
We found that only 25% of people who had been hospitalised with Covid-19 had fully recovered five months after they had been discharged, a figure that increased only slightly to 29% after a year, said Evans. That was a very limited rate of recovery in terms of improvements in mental health, organ impairment and quality of life. It was striking.
Being female, being obese and having had mechanical ventilation while in hospital were all associated with even poorer rates of recovery. If you are a man, you are more likely to be hospitalised if you get Covid-19 but have a [higher] chance of feeling better when you get out, added Evans. We found being female and obese were major risk factors for not recovering after a year.
A critical factor in these poor rates of recovery was the lack of treatments that exist for long Covid, added Professor Louise Wain, who was also involved in the study. No specific therapeutics exist for long Covid and our data highlights that effective interventions are urgently required.
The researchers also found that many of those reporting impairment in the wake of their hospitalisation were suffering from persistent inflammation. That suggests these groups might respond to anti-inflammatory strategies, added Wain.
The widespread impact of Covid-19 on the health of Britain was underlined last week when the Office for National Statistics published figures suggesting that more than seven in 10 people in England have now been infected with the disease since the start of the pandemic. This estimate, based on testing a sample of more than 500,000 individuals, indicates that 71% of the population in England had caught Covid between 27 April 2020 and 11 February 2022.
However, this figure is likely to be an underestimate, given the impact of the most recent Omicron wave of infections which reached their highest prevalence after February. The number of infected people was rising rapidly when the data stopped. The bottom line is the majority of people in the UK have had Covid-19, said Prof James Naismith, the director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford.
The ONS also revealed that Covid cases are falling across the country, indicating that the latest wave of the disease has peaked. About 3.8 million people were estimated to be infected last week, compared with a peak of 4.9 million a month ago when case numbers reached their highest level since the pandemic began.
For a second year in a row, coronavirus was the third leading cause of death in the United States after heart disease and cancer, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 was associated with roughly 460,000 deaths in the country from January to December 2021, accounting for 13.3% of all deaths in the United States last year, marking an increase from 10.4% the year before, the CDC noted in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Friday. Comparatively, heart disease caused 693,021 deaths in the U.S. last year, and cancer caused 604,553.
The year 2021 saw the highest death rate since 2003, with increases in many leading causes of death, including COVID-19 and unintentional injuries, the CDC said in its report. Unintentional injury deaths were largely driven by drug overdose deaths, and likely contributed to the increased death rate in younger populations.
The provisional number of COVID-19 and other deaths by week of death in 2021 compared to 2020. (CDC)
The CDCs report presents an overview of provisional mortality data for 2021, including a comparison of death statistics between 2021 and 2020. Last year, there were around 3.458 million deaths in total in the U.S., up by roughly 75,000 deaths from the year before.
Of the total number of deaths in 2021, roughly 460,513 involved coronavirus, marking an increase of nearly 76,000 from 2020. Last year, COVID-19 death rates were lowest among people ages 1-4 and 5-14 and highest among those ages 85 and above. Coronavirus death rates increased from 2020 to 2021 for all age groups, except for those ages 85 and above.
Looking at race and ethnicity, demographic patterns in COVID-19-related death rates for 2021 were similar to those in 2021. However, certain populations experienced shifts. While coronavirus death rates decreased among Asian, Black and Hispanic individuals, rates increased for American Indians and Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders as well as white people.
The 10 leading causes of death in 2021. (CDC)
Rates did not just increase for deaths caused by COVID-19, but for other leading causes of death as well. Unintentional injuries, for example, the fourth leading cause of death in the United States in both 2020 and 2021, rose from causing 200,955 deaths in 2020 to 219,487 last year, according to the CDC.
Other leading causes of death in the U.S. maintained the same ranking from 2020 to 2021, except for kidney disease and influenza and pneumonia, with kidney disease rising to the ninth leading cause of death and influenza and pneumonia dropping from ninth to 11th. Suicide, which was not among the top 10 causes of death in the U.S. in 2020, was the 10th leading cause in 2021, accounting for 47,458 deaths, the CDC said.
The four other leading causes of death in the United States last year included: stroke, chronic lower respiratory disease, Alzheimer disease and diabetes.
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In the middle of last year, the World Health Organization began promoting an ambitious goal, one it said was essential for ending the pandemic: fully vaccinate 70 percent of the population in every country against Covid-19 by June 2022.
Now, it is clear that the world will fall far short of that target by the deadline. And there is a growing sense of resignation among public health experts that high Covid vaccination coverage may never be achieved in most lower-income countries, as badly needed funding from the United States dries up and both governments and donors turn to other priorities.
The reality is that there is a loss of momentum, said Dr. Isaac Adewole, a former health minister of Nigeria who now serves as a consultant for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Only a few of the worlds 82 poorest countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal have reached the 70 percent vaccination threshold. Many are under 20 percent, according to data compiled from government sources by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.
By comparison, about two-thirds of the worlds richest countries have reached 70 percent. (The United States is at 66 percent.)
The consequences of giving up on achieving high vaccination coverage worldwide could prove severe. Public health experts say that abandoning the global effort could lead to the emergence of dangerous new variants that would threaten the worlds precarious efforts to live with the virus.
This pandemic is not over yet far from it and its imperative that countries use the doses available to them to protect as much of their population as possible, said Dr. Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the nonprofit that runs the global vaccine clearinghouse Covax.
Countries in different parts of the world, including some in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, have seen their vaccination rates stagnate in recent months at a third or less of their populations. But Africas vaccination rate remain the most dismal.
Fewer than 17 percent of Africans have received a primary Covid immunization. Nearly half of the vaccine doses delivered to the continent thus far have gone unused. Last month, the number of doses injected on the continent fell by 35 percent compared to February. W.H.O. officials attributed the drop to mass vaccination pushes being replaced by smaller-scale campaigns in several countries.
Some global health experts say the world missed a prime opportunity last year to provide vaccines to lower-income countries, when the public was more fearful of Covid and motivated to get vaccinated.
There was a time people were very desperate to get vaccinated, but the vaccines were not there. And then they realized that without the vaccination, they didnt die, said Dr. Adewole, who wants to see countries continue to pursue the 70 percent target.
What momentum remains in the global vaccination campaign has been hindered by a shortfall in funding for the equipment, transportation and personnel needed to get shots into arms.
In the United States, a key funder of the vaccination effort, lawmakers stripped $5 billion meant for global pandemic aid from the coronavirus response package that is expected to come up for a vote in the next few weeks. Biden administration officials have said that without the funds, they will be unable to provide support for vaccine delivery to more than 20 under-vaccinated countries.
Some public health experts point to reasons for optimism that the global vaccination campaign still has steam. Despite the drop off from the February peak, the number of Covid vaccinations being administered each day in Africa is still near a pandemic high. And Gavi earlier this month drew a significant new round of funding pledges, securing $4.8 billion in commitments, although it fell short of its $5.2 billion goal.
There is also hope that a global Covid summit the White House plans to co-host next month could be an opportunity to generate momentum and funding.
But the drop in public demand has led some health officials and experts to quietly, and in some cases outright, question whether the 70 percent vaccination target is feasible or even sensible.
Reported fatalities from Covid-19 remain comparatively low in sub-Saharan Africa, although there is debate about how much of this reflects poor data tracking. The perception, however, in many countries in the region is that the disease does not pose a serious threat, certainly not as much as other pervasive health problems that demand attention with scarce health care resources.
Many lower-income governments are turning their focus to their economies and other health issues like H.I.V., said Fifa Rahman, a civil society representative to a W.H.O.-launched group coordinating the global Covid response. Theres a sense of a lot of competing priorities, but thats a symptom of the momentum being gone. Because when the momentum was there, everyone was like, Where are our vaccines?
In rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where the reported Covid death rate is very low, there is a surge in measles cases threatening 20 million children. Yet the government says it cannot spare the resources to provide supplementary measles vaccinations this year, said Christopher Mambula, medical manager for Doctors Without Border in East Africa. In this kind of context, it makes little sense to continue to divert resources to widespread vaccination against Covid, he said.
As African governments have received more vaccines donated from wealthy countries and struggled to distribute even those supplies, their interest in ordering more doses has dropped.
The African Union still aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the end of 2022. But with countries slow to use up donated vaccines, the bloc has not exercised its options to order more doses of the shots from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.
The South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare earlier this year finalized a deal to bottle and market the Johnson & Johnson vaccine across Africa, a contract that was billed as an early step toward Africas development of a robust vaccine production industry. Aspen geared up for production, but no buyers, including the African Union and Covax, have placed orders yet, said Stephen Saad, Aspens chief executive.
The Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker, stopped its production of Covid shots in December last year, when its stockpile grew to 200 million doses; Bharat Biotech, another Indian firm that was a major producer, also stopped making vaccines in the face of low demand. The companies say they have no further orders since their contracts with the Indian government ended in March.
After the W.H.O. began promoting the 70 percent vaccination goal, many lower-income governments adopted the target for their own populations. The Biden administration also endorsed it last September, setting a deadline of September 2022.
At the time, two doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were understood to offer very strong protection against even mild disease, and there was still hope that achieving high levels of vaccination coverage would tame the virus. But the emergence of new variants and the spread of the virus in Africa changed the calculus.
The vaccine regimens that had been planned for the developing world offered little protection against infection with the Omicron variant. And as sub-Saharan African countries were shut out of vaccine distribution for much of last year, more and more Africans gained protection against the virus from natural infection, which studies have shown works as well as two mRNA doses in preventing infection. New data from the W.H.O. shows that at least two-thirds of Africans had been infected with the virus before the Omicron wave.
Given these factors, some public health experts in Africa say the broad 70 percent goal no longer makes sense. Theres very little value to it. In fact, we will gain much more by getting to more than 90 percent of people above the age of 50, said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and the dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. About two-thirds of South Africans above age 50 are currently fully vaccinated.
Dr. Madhi said that South Africa could close down mass vaccination sites and instead redouble its efforts to seek out the most vulnerable at church services and at government offices that pay out monthly pension benefits.
Katherine OBrien, who directs the W.H.O.s work on vaccines and immunizations, said the agency encourages countries to focus on its most vulnerable citizens rather than vaccinating a random set of 70 percent of their populations. The aspiration she said, has always been 100 percent of health workers, 100 percent of older adults, 100 percent of pregnant women, 100 percent of the people who fall into those highest risk groups.
Countries can of course make decisions about what health goal they wish to prioritize, Dr. OBrien said, but finite resources should not be the obstacle to vaccinating against the coronavirus. The world has enough resources to do this, if countries want to do it, she said. And that should be really the North Star.
Some public health experts said that while the 70 percent vaccination threshold is clearly not achievable by its original deadline, it would be unwise and unethical to give up on that target over a longer time horizon. They expressed frustration about the growing gulf between wealthy countries vaccinating young children and offering healthy adults fourth vaccine doses, and the regions where the majority of people still do not have one dose.
Why are we making it one target for high-income countries and one target for low income? said Dr. Ayoade Alakija, a co-chair of the African Unions vaccine delivery program.
She said that even though many people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected, there is still need for the additional protection that would come from a high level of vaccination coverage.
Modest vaccination coverage, she said, is not considered a good enough level of protection in England, its not a good enough level of protection in America. How is it OK not to be aiming for the very maximum, maximum we can? Aim for the sky and get to the top of the tree.
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Over the course of the covid-19 pandemic, except for the federal mask mandate on transport and federal government buildings, across the US there was a patchwork of requirements. A judge struck down the nationwide federal mandate for wearing protective face coverings on commercial flights, public transit and in transportation hubs 18 April.
The CDC is challenging that decision, but the health safety agency has relaxed its rules on when people need to wear masks in recent months. However, the guidelines still recommend wearing a mask where transmission levels are high. The CDC provides a website to learn more about preventative measures you can take and where you can your areas risk level.
During the pandemic the imposition of statewide mandates became a political hot-button topic with some states even placing bans, or attempting to, on local authorities and school districts from implementing masking requirements. Of the 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico that had some form of public or indoor mask mandate, all have been rescinded or allowed to expire.
Likewise, the majority of cities and counties that had some ordinance for masking up have followed suit as the covid-19 case numbers have declined dramatically since spiking to their highest levels of the pandemic in January with the Omicron variant.
However, although all statewide mandates for masking up in public and indoor places have ended, there still exist face covering requirements for some settings in select states and localities. These are generally for high-density or congregate and high-risk settings such as health care and long-term care facilities, as well as correctional facilities and shelters for the homeless or victims of domestic abuse.
Apart from any federal, state or local government requirements to wear a mask, businesses and other private entities may implement their own policies to protect their employees and customers.
For those that that are in New York City, although the mayor relaxed many of the indoor mask rules, youll want to carry one with you, businesses may require you to put one on. You will definitely need one if you go to a Broadway show where you must wear a mask, and you will most likely have to off Broadway as well, although its up to each venue.
Even though the federal mask mandate on public transit is on hold, youll need it on all New York City MTA public transit, as well in taxis and rideshares where they are still required, but not across the river in New Jersey. Mask mandates on public transport and ridesharing also applies in Colorado and Los Angeles County.
If you visit or live in Columbia, South Carolina youll need to mask up, in part of the city at least. Richland County, which encompasses part of the metro area, extended its mask mandate for indoor public spaces regardless of vaccination status until at least 1 May. Norfolk, Virginia requires masks in city buildings and clinical Department of Public Health facilities, including WIC.
There are fourteen states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, that still require masks in high-density or congregate and high-risk settings. These include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island and Washington.
Note:The Pfizer vaccine is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in persons aged 16 and older, and is authorized under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in persons aged 5 to 15. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are authorized under an EUA for use in persons aged 18 and older. The emergency use of these products is only authorized for the duration of the COVID-19 emergency declaration that circumstances exist justifying the authorization of emergency use of the medical product under Section 564(b)(1) of the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act unless the declaration is terminated or authorization revoked sooner.
For a study, researchers sought to determine the peripartum consequences of COVID-19 immunization during pregnancy. A birth registry connected with the provincial COVID-19 vaccination database was used in a population-based retrospective cohort research in Ontario, Canada. All births occurred between December 14, 2020, and September 30, 2021. COVID-19 immunization during pregnancy, COVID-19 immunization after pregnancy, and no immunization Postpartum hemorrhage, chorioamnionitis, cesarean birth (including elective and emergency cesarean delivery), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission, and poor infant 5-minute Apgar score (7) Linear and robust Poisson regression were used to calculate adjusted risk differences (aRDs) and risk ratios (aRRs) when comparing the cumulative incidence of outcomes in those who received COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy to those who were vaccinated after pregnancy and those who had no record of COVID-19 vaccination at any point. To account for confounding, inverse probability of treatment weights were utilized.
About 22,660 (23%) of 97,590 people (mean [SD] age, 31.9 [4.9]) got at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy (63.% received dose 1 in the third trimester; 99.8% received an mRNA vaccine). When those vaccinated during pregnancy were compared to those vaccinated after pregnancy (n=44,815), there were no significantly increased risks of postpartum hemorrhage (incidence: 3.0% vs 3.0% ; aRD, 0.28 per 100 individuals [95% CI, 0.59 to 0.03]; aRR, 0.91 [95% CI, 0.82-1.02]), chorioamnionitis (0.5% vs 0.5%; aRD, 0.04 per 100 individuals [95% CI, 0.17 to 0.09]; aRR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.70-1.21]), cesarean delivery (30.8% vs 32.2%; aRD, 2.73 per 100 individuals [95% CI, 3.59 to 1.88]; aRR, 0.92 [95% CI, 0.89-0.95]), NICU admission (11.0% vs 13.3%; aRD, 1.89 per 100 newborns [95% CI, 2.49 to 1.30]; aRR, 0.85 [95% CI, 0.80-0.90]), or low Apgar score (1.8% vs 2.0%; aRD, 0.31 per 100 newborns [95% CI, 0.56 to 0.06]; aRR, 0.84 [95% CI, 0.73-0.97]). When compared to individuals who did not receive COVID-19 vaccination at any point (n = 30,115), the findings were qualitatively similar.
COVID-19 immunization during pregnancy, compared to vaccination after pregnancy and no vaccination, was not related with a higher risk of unfavorable peripartum outcomes in the population-based cohort analysis in Ontario, Canada. The studys analysis should take into account that the immunizations received during pregnancy were mostly mRNA vaccines given in the second and third trimesters.
Reference:jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2790607
