Up to 150 people could be in intensive care in Ireland with COVID by the end of November, the Taoiseach has warned.
Micheal Martin said he believed there could be an annual vaccine against the virus in the future and added that he could not predict when the country would return to normal following the pandemic.
In an interview with Newstalk FM, Mr Martin said there was concern about the growing number of COVID cases in the country.
He said: "There are a lot of things going on. First of all, we are in a much different space than we were last year in the sense that we have vaccination and 93% of the population have been fully vaccinated.
"There is concern out there and I am concerned about the rising numbers."
Asked about Nphet modelling for case numbers over the winter, Mr Martin said: "There is the optimistic model, there is the pessimistic model.
"You could be looking at up to 150 in ICU by the end of November. That would be serious in terms of the wider impact on the health service.
"But if we all collectively behave, what I mean by that is watch ourselves, be a bit more cautious about how we go about in congregations, we can pull this back."
FAIRMONT Community Health and Human Services of Faribault and Martin Counties has been tracking local information regarding the Covid-19 pandemic since it began in early 2020. Tim Langer, Public Health Sanitarian, said that while numbers had been going in an upward trend, theyve recently taken a dip.
Its increased weekly until this last week. It appears we may have reached a peak, Langer said.
He went on to say the case rates have been going in a peak and valley trend over the course of the pandemic.
We had the highest peak since the start of the pandemic in the last couple of months, Langer said.
He said that locally we had peaked around Nov. and Dec. 2020. However, he said the cases went way down over the summer months.
Many people thought they we had went through the worst of it, but due to the number of unvaccinated people, we in public health knew we were susceptible to another peak, Langer said.
He said around late August, case rates started going up again, especially with the emergence of the Delta variant.
It spreads very easily. A coupe of weeks ago we were at our highest point of the entire pandemic, he said.
The week of Sept. 5-11, there were 57 new Covid-19 cases in Martin County. The next week, there were 97 cases. In the week of Sept. 26- Oct. 2 there were 146 cases in Martin County. Most recently, number reported on Monday, Oct. 18 showed 112 cases in the county.
Langer is hopeful that the county is turning a curve now as the numbers have gone done in the last week, however, he knows its a fluid situation.
As for vaccinations, Langer said the trend has certainly been downward recently compared to when vaccines first became available.
More recently theyve had some high profile cases in Faribault County and Langer said hes hoping it helps increase vaccination rates in Faribault and Martin counties.
Its critical to ending this pandemic. It will keep spreading as long as theres people who are unvaccinated, he said.
Langer acknowledges that there have been breakthrough cases, but said that theyre typically less severe.
Langer also talked about the boosters that are available. He said a new booster for those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be available. A Pfizer booster has been available for certain age groups and those who are immunocompromised.
Moderna will be available for a booster shortly and Im also hearing that in November hopefully there will be some changes that will allow the 5-11 year-olds to receive the Pfizer vaccine, Langer said.
Langer encourages that people take advantage of the boosters.
The third dose, from what Ive been reading, really kicks in your immune system and provides protection, especially against the Delta variant, he said.
When comparing the counties vaccination rates with the rest of the states, Langer said its not as high as some areas, but probably higher than others. According the the Minnesota Department of Health, 77 percent of Martin County age 18 and over is vaccinated.
Langer said if more of the population was vaccinated, we wouldnt be experiencing the large peaks anymore.
In public health, were trying to get people to understand that this is good for them. Its a good choice. We hope people do their research and get vaccinated, Langer said.
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A South Korean woman receives her first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
SEOUL, Oct 23 (Reuters) - South Korea said on Saturday that it has achieved its goal of vaccinating 70% of its 52 million people, paving the way for a planned return to normal next month.
The target, set a month before the country kicked off its inoculation campaign in late February, was reached by 2 p.m. (0500 GMT), with some 36 million vaccinated, said the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
The goal earlier met with scepticism as the government grappled with global COVID-19 vaccine shortages and shipment delays. But despite its rough start, South Korea quickly ramped up its vaccination drive, thanks chiefly to expanded supplies and relatively high public acceptance, surpassing the United States and other early starters.
Health Minister Kwon Deok-cheol said last week that the government will begin a phased return to normal activities starting Nov. 1, putting forward the shift initially scheduled for mid-November.
"It's impossible to put an end to the pandemic by reaching herd immunity due to the spread of highly transmissible Delta variant," the KDCA said in a statement.
"But meeting the vaccination goal has significant meaning in reducing severe cases and fatality, and as an important precondition for a transition to phased recovery of our daily lives."
South Korea has largely successfully managed to cope with the pandemic without imposing lockdowns seen in many other parts of the world, on the back of intensive testing and tracing.
But it has struggled to suppress its fourth COVID-19 wave since last summer, with new daily cases topping 3,000 for the first time last month, though they brought fewer critical cases and deaths.
The KDCA reported 1,508 new cases for Friday.
Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
by: Nancy R. Buchan University of South Carolina, AP The Conversation
(THE CONVERSATION) TheResearch Briefis a short take about interesting academic work.
The big idea
People who got COVID-19 or were directly affected by the disease, either by losing loved ones or having close friends or relatives become infected by the coronavirus, are more likely to give to a charity to support pandemic relief.
That was one of the main findings froman online studyweconductedin May 2020with932 adults living in the United States and replicated in June of that year with 723 adults who reside in Italy. Three other researchers worked on this experiment with us:Adriana C. Pinate,Giulia Ursoand Marilynn B. Brewer.
Our team told participants they would be paid US$3 to take a survey regarding their experiences and decision-making during the COVID-19 pandemic. Afterwards, we gave them a $5 bonus and asked if they wanted to donate some or all of the bonus money to charities supporting COVID-19 relief in their state or region, their own country or around the world. Italians got the equivalent in euros for the base payment and bonus. We told participants we would match any amount donated.
We found that people in the U.S. who were more directly affected by COVID-19 pandemic were 9% more likely to donate than others. They also donated 9.2% more money. The results were similar in Italy.
About 63% of the U.S. and 77% of the Italian participants gave away at least some of this unexpected money. Overall, people taking part in the study gave away 35% of their bonus and kept 65% for themselves. Nearly 20% gave away their entire bonus.
It also turned out that people in both countries were more likely to select a charity in their own state or region, rather than a national or global one. This reflects something prior research has found: People prefer to support their own communities when they make charitable donations,particularly during pandemics.
Interestingly, those who selected a global charity gave more money.
Our findings also suggest that having COVID-19 or seeing its toll up close through friends and loved ones makes the reality of the pandemic more certain and the need for charity more obvious.
Why it matters
U.S. charitable giving rose 3.8% to a record $471 billionin 2020. Andmost Americans found ways to express generosityduring the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, whether by donating, volunteering, going out of their way to keep local businesses afloat or other means.
That growth in support reflects acommon refrainduring theCOVID-19 pandemic: Were all in this together. We wanted to learn what that catch phrase actually means. That is, who do people mean by we? Whom do they want to help?
We also wanted tosee if that sentiment would affect altruism: the tendency to act selflessly to help others.
[Research into coronavirus and other news from scienceSubscribe to The Conversations new science newsletter.]
In meeting any global challenge, its worth considering evidence that people tend to be most interested in causes that directly affect their own interests or help their local communities even when crises are worldwide in nature.
We believe our findings may point to one reason why it has provenhard for governments to work togetherin the fight against COVID-19.
What other research is being done
Other scholars are also studying the degree to which people are expressing altruism in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their findings suggest that older people in several countries seem to be more altruistic than others in response to the pandemic, but also that older people also aremore likely to give to charities closer to them. Additional research shows that people who experiencefeelings that they could die from COVID-19 are more altruistic.
Whats next
We also collected data about how political affiliation may affect charitable giving. We will relay those findings in another study.
The statement notes that the Pennsylvania Republican began experiencing "cold-like symptoms and was promptly tested for COVID-19" on Friday afternoon, and that he is vaccinated.
"He is in good spirits and further updates will be made available in the coming days," the statement on Thompson's Twitter said.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN's Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.
Good morning, Mission, and welcome to Virus Village, your (somewhat regular) Covid-19 data dump.
Numbers continue to trend downwards as the Citywide 7-day average daily positivity rate dips to its lowest level since July 3.
In a breathless headline last month, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: New population figures change what we thought we knew about COVID in San Francisco The article went on to report that San Franciscos Department of Public Health uses dated population figures when reporting on neighborhood case and vaccination rates. Probably the same applies to age groups. Does this change what we know about how covid is affecting SF? To some degree, but not all that much. Given the lack of adequate data collection and reporting systems, at best, the numbers Covid Tracker reports help provide a general picture of the local virus spread.
In addition, the numbers (provided to the public) are valuable for watching trends (such as last years testing debacle), and suggesting questions, but dont expect answers, and certainly not certainty.
The real problem is the lack of key indicators provided by DPH, especially hospitalization demographics. The fear of hospital overload has driven much of the covid policies, yet DPH provides no demographic data whatsoever on hospitalizations. Nor are we given the cumulative number of hospitalizations, so we never know the infection/hospitalization rate and if it has changed over time. Did The Vaccine provoke a decoupling of cases from hospitalizations? We can only guess. And it doesnt help that for over a month, DPH has temporarily paused reporting on vaccination status of those hospitalized.
Contact tracing is another black hole, inviting many to ask whether DPH actually does contact tracing.
Recently it has begun to appear that racial and ethnic minorities are more vulnerable to breakthrough infections. But this is data not reported, or apparently tracked, locally or nationally.
Probably the main argument for mass boosterism (pushed by Big Pharma) is data which shows a waning of the antibodies produced by The Vaccine. Some have argued that this concern has been overblown. Now some argue that waning antibodies are not only a natural and expected phenomenon, but may actually help, rather than hinder, long term immunity.
CalOHSA is debating whether or not to extend a mandate to pay those workers who get sick with covid or who must quarantine because of exposure. Why is this a debate? And will the agency enforce whatever it mandates?
Scroll down for todays covid numbers.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control data used for the chart lags behind the data supplied from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. As of Oct. 20, DPH reports more than89 percent of all San Francisco residents over 12 have received one dose, and 83 percentare completely vaccinated. For those over 65, better than 90 percent are fully vaccinated. New vaccinations, though low, keep on truckin. On Oct. 20, the seven-day rolling average of shots per day was 196. For information on where to get vaccinated in and around the Mission, visit ourVaccination Page.
On Oct. 16, DPH reports there were 50 covid hospitalizations,or about5.7 per 100,000 (based on an 874,000 population). DPH has not reported breakthrough hospitalizations and deaths since Sept. 17. According to the CDC, there were 39 new admissions for the seven days ending Oct. 19 (-9.30 percent from the previous seven days). For the week ending Oct. 19, covid patients accounted for 2.58percentof hospital beds (no change from the previous week) and5.62 percentof ICU beds (-.92 percent from the previous week). As of Oct. 18, the CDC says that, of more than 189 million vaccinated U.S. residents, 41,127 patients with a covid vaccine breakthrough infection were hospitalized or died (though 26 percent were either aymptomatic or not covid related). Note: 85 percent of the deaths and 66 percent of the non-fatal hospitalizations were among those 65 and older.
The latest report from the federal Department of Health and Human Services shows Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital with 6 covid patients and 7 ICU beds available, while across the Mission, CPMC had 5 covid patients and 5 ICU beds available. Of 59 reported covid patients,30 were at either SFGH or UCSF, with at least 76 ICU beds available among reporting hospitals. The California DPH says there are 80 ICU beds available in San Francisco. SFDPH wont say.
Between Aug. 18 and Oct. 17, DPH recorded 364 new cases in the Mission for a rate of 62 new cases per 10,000 residents. Over that period, DPH recorded 457 new cases in Bayview Hunters Point or 121 new cases per 10,000 residents. SOMA remains the only other neighborhood with new case rates above 100 per 10,000 residents and only 4 other neighborhoods (Chinatown, Treasure Island, Tenderloin and Western Addition) have rates over 80 per 10,000 residents.
On October 14, the 7-day average of daily new cases in the City was 53, or approximately 6.1 new cases per day per 100,000 residents (based on an 874,000 population). The 7-day average case rate among vaccinated residents was 5.2per 100,000 fully vaccinated residents and for unvaccinated residents 9.5 per unvaccinated 100,000 residents.
So far in October, White San Franciscans had 365 recorded infections, or 38.5 percent of October cases; Asians 230 or 24.3 percent, Latinxs 158 or 16.7 percent, Blacks 63 or 6.7 percent, Multi-racials 20 or 2.1 percent, Pacific Islanders 9 or 1 percent and Native Americans had 0 recorded infections or 0 percent of the months cases.
So far in October, Pacific Islanders have a 2.6 percent positivity rate, Latinxs 1.8 percent, Whites 1.6 percent, Blacks 1.6 percent, Multi-racials 1.5 percent, and Asians 1.3 percent. Note: Above, DPH reported 0 October cases among Native Americans. Here DPH reports 14 October cases among Native Americans with a positivity rate of 4.7 percent.
Covid-related deaths in San Francisco have always been among the most ambiguous numbers. Its even worse now as the City no longer provides a definition of what constitutes a covid (or covid-related) death. Four new deaths have been recorded in October bringing the Delta total so far (August October) to 74 and the cumulative covid-related death toll to 650. September and October numbers should be considered less reliable meaning updates are likely. For over a month, DPH has temporarily paused reporting the vaccination status of covid-related deaths.
Covid R Estimation lowered its San Francisco R Number to .90 and revised its estimate for the California R number up to .99. The ensemble raised its average for the San Francisco R number to 77 and its California R Number average to .87. No model in the ensemble currently estimates San Francisco transmissibility above .9.
So far in October, San Franciscans 0-4 years of age have recorded 26 new cases for 2.7 percent of new cases this month; 5-10: 61 new cases, 6.4 percent, 11-13: 20 new cases, 2.1 percent, 14-17: 17 new cases, 1.8 percent, 18-20:10 new cases, 1.1 percent, 21-24: 52 new cases, 5.5 percent, 24-29: 134 new cases 14.1 percent, 30-39: 229 new cases, 24.2 percent, 40-49: 123 new cases, 13 percent, 50-59: 127 new cases, 13.4 percent, 60-69: 86 new cases, 9.1 percent, 70-79: 44 new cases, 4.6 percent, 80 +: 18 new cases 1.9 percent.
AUSTIN (KXAN) Austin Public Health says it will monitor and track COVID-19 cases following the Formula 1 Aramco United States Grand Prix race weekend at Circuit of the Americas.
Austin health officials did the same after the two weekends of the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Earlier this week, APH said a total of 36 COVID-19 cases so far were linked to ACL.
With over 360,000 people expected to be at COTA over the three-day weekend, the track is operating at full capacity with some COVID-19 protocols. The race is a sell-out with an estimated 140,000 people around the track for Sundays race.
If youre planning to be at one of COTAs indoor facilities, the Tower Club, Club SI, Circuit Suite and the Chairmans Suite, proof of a negative COVID-19 test is required. The test must be from Wednesday at the earliest to receive a wristband.
Rapid and PCR tests will be accepted. Masks are recommended indoors.
The Austin-Travis County area hit the threshold for Stage 2 COVID-19 risk-based guidelines Friday. Though, the local health authority hasnt officially announced a move from Stage 3 down to Stage 2 after the 7-day moving average of hospital admissions fell within the threshold Friday.
The metric APH largely uses to determine which COVID-19 risk-based guidelines we fall under is the7-day moving average of new hospital admissions. The threshold for Stage 2 guidelines is anything under 15 and above 5. We hit 14 Friday. Anything below 5 would be in the threshold for Stage 1, the least restrictive tier.
LIHUE Friday, the state Department of Health Kauai District Health Office reported 17 new cases of COVID-19, which include 16 residents and one visitor. Of the 17 new cases, three are children and 14 are adults.
Seven of the cases are related to travel, including two mainland and five interisland. The remaining 10 cases are considered community-acquired. Five of the community-acquired infections are close contacts of a previously announced case or are tied to an active cluster. The remaining five cases have no known source of infection.
Cases have jumped up in the last two days. The increase is likely related to fall-break travel, Kauai District Health Officer Dr. Janet Berreman said in a press release.
If you traveled recently, please get tested. If you test positive or if youre feeling sick, please isolate at home to avoid spreading disease to others. And if you havent been vaccinated, please do so.
Fridays cases bring the number of active cases to 63, with two hospitalized. To date, the county has seen 2,596 cumulative cases.
There is a growing sense of optimism across the country, with national coronavirus infection rates steadily falling, booster shots available for many Americans and pending vaccine approval on the horizon for young children.
In southern states like Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia, which were hit early on by the delta surge, hospitalizations are on the decline.
But despite the good news, experts are pleading with Americans to remain alert, as the highly infectious delta variant continues to circulate.
Despite vaccination rollouts, several states, particularly those in colder climates, are beginning to see a rise in infections.
"You're starting to see an uptick in cases in the colder parts of the country and as people are driven indoors without masks on," former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNN earlier this month. "The delta wave has not run through the United States... I think we have a couple of months to go."
Experts have been warning for weeks that colder areas may see an uptick in cases this winter.
"We may be starting to see the delta surge in the northern parts of the country that were relatively spared over the summer," said John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
In recently released forecasts, the PolicyLab at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia reported that infection rates in parts of the Midwest and Mountain states remained "stubbornly high," and that despite declining transmission in the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic and in California, a period of resurgence may be on the horizon for northern regions of the country.
A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 test at a testing site in Mifflin Square Park in Philadelphia, Aug. 12, 2021.
"We can take some comfort this week in the fact that national daily case counts have dropped below 100,000 and national adult and pediatric hospital censuses have declined by 50% since late summer," the group wrote, adding that the country must still be prepared to see a resurgence.
In the Midwest, many counties throughout Minnesota and Michigan have had a significant rise in cases, while other states (Delaware, Maine, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, West Virginia and Wyoming) are reporting high transmission in nearly every county, according to federal data.
"Coronaviruses tend to thrive in winter months and colder weather," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said. "Right now is not the time, as cases are coming down to become complacent because we do know colder weather is ahead of us."
These local increases in cases are being accompanied by an uptick in hospitalizations. Ten states (Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Wyoming) are already seeing a higher number of hospital admissions.
In Montana, forecasters noted that cities are experiencing the highest rates of case incidence and hospitalizations they have seen throughout the pandemic, mirroring what happened in Idaho last month. Similarly, in Utah, the outlook continues to worsen, specifically in the Salt Lake City region, as resurgence spreads to a wider geographic area.
According to the PolicyLab, the regional variation across the country makes predicting the trajectory of this period of the pandemic challenging. While the team wrote that the likelihood of a fall and winter resurgence in northern areas "seems more probable," there is "uncertainty about the magnitude, duration and breadth of geographic regions that will be impacted."
"We need to expect that, as we enter a season of shorter, colder days that will push more people to gather indoors, we will soon see a widening geographic distribution of resurgent transmission in many locations," forecasters wrote.
The group noted that the Northeast did not experience a significant surge last year, until the holiday season in November and December, and added that nationally, case incidence increased rapidly just after Halloween last year, surging through the New Year.
"As winter approaches, indoor mixing, especially among the remaining unvaccinated populations, means that we will likely continue to see increases in cases. The biggest remaining question is whether we have vaccinated enough of the population to see a decoupling with hospitalizations and deaths," added Brownstein.
People who have not been fully vaccinated are 6.1 times more likely to test positive with the virus and 11.3 times more likely to die from it, compared with people who are vaccinated, according to federal data.
Although nearly two-thirds of Americans have now received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, more than 112 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated. Approximately 64 million of those unvaccinated Americans are people over the age of 12, and thus, are currently eligible to get the shot.
PolicyLab experts say it is therefore critical for communities to act now in order to "maximize vaccinations among children and adults so that we can prevent local surges in all regions this winter and finally move toward the waning days of the pandemic."
Avoid this frustrating COVID-19 testing mistake while traveling in the UK
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