NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Republican lawmakers are close to ending a number of COVID-19 mandates after a Special Session last week.
This comes despite businesses and doctors speaking out against the proposed laws, even up to the last minute of legislative debate.
The GOP supermajority passed the bills in the dead of night October 30th. Now doctors are speaking out as some public health mitigation strategies are close to being done with here in Tennessee.
Despite the sweeping COVID bills targeting mask and vaccine mandates, State health commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, who could be granted broader authority, declined to answer questions about the bills.
Most government entities, including public schools, cannot require the COVID-19 vaccination or proof of it. However, entertainment venues can still require negative test.
We all want freedom from COVID, but making laws that are anti-mask, anti-vaccine, anti-science, is just, its a huge step backwards for our state, said Dr. Amy Gordon Bono, a Primary Care Internal Medicine Physician.
Dr. Bono was at the State Capitol as parts of the bills were debated. She said the legislation will make responding to COVID more difficult.
Under the bills, masks cannot be required unless 1,000 out of 100,000 residents are COVID positive.
Once your infection rate starts going forward at that high level, its really hard to stop it, Bono said. Much like this legislation was a freight train being rammed through, COVID can certainly do the same.
However, private prisons, businesses, and schools can require masks.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center said in addition to vaccinations you can continue to stay protected amid uncertainty.
In crowds indoors or outdoors wearing the masks, good hand hygiene, staying away from people who are coughing and sneezing, those are the sorts of things that will protect you and your family, Schaffner said.
The Governors emergency powers could also be limited to 45 days.
Governor Lee you need to have every available tool in your tool belt to fight COVID, and the legislature has now taken many of those tools away from you, said Dr. Bono.
The Governor will be evaluating the bills before he signs or vetoes the legislation.
I commend members of the General Assembly for working to address the Biden Administration's overreach into our state, our workforce, & our schools. We are evaluating each piece of legislation to ensure we push back on harmful federal policies & do right by Tennesseans.
However, he could allow the bill to become law without his signature after ten days.
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- There were five newly reported COVID-19 related deaths in Oregon over the weekend, raising the states death toll to 4,377, Oregon Health Authority reported Monday.
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported 2,569 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. Monday, bringing the state total to 367,610.
COVID-19 hospitalizations
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 540, which is 11 more than Sunday. There are 114 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four more than Sunday.
There are 65 available adult ICU beds out of 690 total (9% availability) and 355 available adult non-ICU beds out of 4,101 (9% availability).
St. Charles Bend reported 66 COVID-19 patients as of early Monday, six of whom were in the ICU, with three on ventilators. None of the six ICU patients were fully vaccinated, the hospital reported, while 48 of the 66 total patients were not fully vaccinated.
The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.
Note: Please do not visit an emergency department for COVID-19 testing, unless you require emergency care for your symptoms.
Emergency departments in Oregon are under significant strain. You canfind a test here.
If you have a medical condition that doesnt require emergency care, contact your provider. An urgent care center may also help you get the care you need and will save emergency departments from added strain.
More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
Vaccinations in Oregon
OHA reported Monday that 10,364 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry on Sunday. Of this total, 2,759 were administered on Sunday: 398 were initial doses, 218 were second doses and 2,129 were third doses and booster doses. The remaining 7,605 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Sunday.
The seven-day running average is now 15,236 doses per day.
Oregon has now administered 3,305,040 doses of Pfizer Comirnaty, 2,012,076 doses of Moderna and 228,725 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Monday, 2,820,379 people have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,615,092 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series.
These data are preliminary and subject to change.
Updated vaccination data are provided on Oregons COVID-19data dashboardsand have been updated Monday.
Cases and deaths
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Monday are in the following counties: Baker (8), Benton (48), Clackamas (235), Clatsop (8), Columbia (29), Coos (33), Crook (25), Curry (1), Deschutes (262), Douglas (68), Grant (6), Harney (2), Hood River (12), Jackson (146), Jefferson (36), Josephine (74), Klamath (51), Lake (2), Lane (195), Lincoln (23), Linn (151), Malheur (8), Marion (290), Morrow (9), Multnomah (420), Polk (40), Sherman (1), Tillamook (10), Umatilla (23), Union (22), Wallowa (4), Wasco (10), Washington (270) and Yamhill (47).
Oregon reported 1,240 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases on Oct. 29, 771 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases on Oct. 30, and 558 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases on Oct. 31.
Oregons 4,373rd COVID-19 related death is a 95-year-old man from Umatilla County who tested positive on Aug. 31 and died on Oct.19 at his residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
Oregons 4,374th COVID-19 related death is a 62-year-old woman from Lane County who tested positive on Oct. 14 and died on Oct. 28 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at Riverbend. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
Oregons 4,375th COVID-19 related death is a 67-year-old woman from Josephine County who tested positive on Oct. 22 and died on Oct. 29 at Asante Three Rivers Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.
Oregons 4,376th COVID-19 related death is a 56-year-old man from Jackson County who tested positive on Oct. 18 and died on Oct. 28 at Providence Medford Medical Center. He had underlying conditions.
Oregons 4,377th COVID-19 related death is a 69-year-old man from Harney County who tested positive on Oct. 4 and died on Oct. 25 at St. Charles Bend. He had underlying conditions.
Correction:Oregons 4,371st COVID-19 related death is a 74-year-old woman from Klamath County who tested positive on Sept. 24 and died on Oct. 27 at Sky Lakes Medical Center. She had underlying conditions.
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccinations
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit OHA's web page (EnglishorSpanish), which has a breakdown of distribution and other information.
Alaska over the weekend reported three more COVID-19 deaths and 1,547 new cases of the virus.
On Saturday, the state reported 625 cases, plus 564 on Sunday and 358 on Monday, according to data from the Department of Health and Social Services. Alaska recently been in the midst of a case plateau with case rates still high though not increasing and instead staying relatively level from day to day with some see-sawing, health officials say.
The deaths announced Monday included an Anchorage woman in her 80s or older, an Anchorage man in his 70s and a Fairbanks man in his 60s. Since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, 702 Alaskans and 26 non-residents have died of COVID-19.
By Monday, 190 people were hospitalized for the virus, which follows a week in which COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to record levels with 236 hospitalized COVID-19 patients midweek.
But its too early to say whether the decrease is encouraging, said Jared Kosin, president and CEO of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association. Last week there were extremely high COVID-19 case counts at hospitals on the Kenai Peninsula, Matanuska-Susitna Borough and in Anchorage, Kosin said.
It continues to be extremely challenging to operate in this environment, he said.
The state is in its darkest days of the pandemic, Kosin said, and the numbers wont be encouraging until hospitalizations sink to more consistent lows.
Data from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention showed Alaska with the highest case rate in the nation Monday. For the past seven days, Alaska had 623.5 cases per 100,000 people, more than four times the national rate.
Other largely rural western states like Montana and Wyoming have also led the nation in high case rates. On Monday, the two states followed Alaska in the national ranking, with 494 and 475.5 cases per 100,000 people respectively.
The portion of COVID-19 tests returning positive results was trending down by Monday, with 8.53% of tests positive based on a seven-day rolling average.
Mathematical model from Penn State shows an alternative to business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders that are unsustainable over time.
COVID-19 testing capacity could reduce reliance on costly preventative interventions, such as distancing and shutdowns, results of a mathematical model by Penn State shows.
The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 and the strategies used to manage it have come at significant societal costs; for example, shutdowns of non-essential businesses and stay-at-home orders are powerful tools to control the pandemic spread of the virus, but are unsustainable over time, Katriona Shea, professor in biological sciences at Penn State University, said in a statement.
Understanding the efficacy of combined public health interventions is a key first step in identifying cost-effective ways to manage the pandemic, especially in areas where there is low vaccine uptake and as we continue to see new, and potentially more dangerous, variants of the virus emerge.
The study results show that high test administration, more intense non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), and short testing delays all decrease SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The results also show that when testing delays are long, an additional 5% of the population each day yields, at most, a 1.5% decrease in the minimally sufficient NPI intensity required to achieve the same level of pandemic control.
When tests are rapid, a 5% increase in test administration yields a 12.6% decrease in NPI intensity.
The lowest NPI levels are possible only when many tests are administered and test delays are short. Reducing reliance on NPIs is highly dependent on the ability of a testing program to identify and isolate unreported, asymptomatic infections, Emily Howerton, a graduate student in biology at Penn State University, said in the statement.
Investigators designed the model to support government and public health officials in implementing testing and isolation programs to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and reduce the costly interventions.
The model measured the public health outcomes in a variety of scenarios, including testing isolation, and NPIs, such as distancing, masking, and lockdowns.
The test system comprises 3 parts: test administration, test delays, and test sensitivity.
Investigators modeled the number of tests that were administered each day, defining testing delays as the average time to receive tests results after the test was administered and test sensitivity as the percent of actively infected individuals correctly identified.
They also used NPI intensity to model the decrease of transmitting by a certain amount.
The results were published in PLOS Computational Biology.
Reference
More strategic COVID-19 testing could prevent distancing and shutdowns. EurekAlert. News release. October 28, 2021. Accessed November 1, 2021. https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/933121
Walking outside the Dr. Marcelino Vlez Santana Regional Hospital in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic's capital, de la Nuez told CNN he's still in shock.
"My wife contracted Covid-19 10 days ago. She had a high fever. She also had very severe muscle pains which caused her to have contractions. Our baby girl died. When we went to get a sonogram, it was already too late," he said.
His wife is still recovering in the hospital's intensive care unit. The de la Nuez family is one of many dealing with yet another wave of infections in this Caribbean nation of nearly 11 million. Last week at the same hospital, 17 of 18 beds in the ICU were occupied and there was only one ventilator left.
Until recently, the Dominican Republican seemed to be heading toward normality. September saw a record number of tourists visit the Caribbean nation, and more than 2 million students in the public education system returned to in-person classes for the first time in more than a year. On October 11, the country's nationwide state of emergency was lifted.
But was it too soon?
Just as students returned to classes, Covid-19 cases began trending upward, data published by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) shows.
Less than two weeks later, Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), announced that while the Covid-19 trend in most of Latin America and the Caribbean was downward, new cases had increased by over 40% in the Dominican Republic.
New variants, schools and vaccination rates
Dr. Jorge Marte, director of the Center for Diagnosis, Advanced Medicine and Telemedicine (CEDIMAT), one of the main hospitals in Santo Domingo, points to the spread of new variants and the reopening of schools as significant factors in the country's surging case numbers.
But those measures could only go so far, according to Marte, who says that despite the introduction of booster shots, the country's overall vaccination campaign has been insufficient.
Less than 50% of the total Dominican population has been fully vaccinated, according to JHU. The government had aimed to vaccinate 70% of the country's eligible population with at least two doses.
"We have yet to vaccinate the population target we set for ourselves," says Marte, who also serves as a presidential health adviser.
Dominican Health Minister Daniel Rivera has described the virus' resurgence as a crisis of the unvaccinated, who are taxing health resources and occupying ICU beds.
"Out of the last 31 people who died, 29 of them were not vaccinated at all. And the only person who was vaccinated and died was a 68-year-old patient," Rivera said during a press conference last week.
Dr. Indira Jimnez, who's in charge of the Covid-19 unit at Francisco Moscoso Cuello Hospital, told CNN that 90% of the infected patients arriving at her hospital were unvaccinated or had only received one shot.
"There has been a very noticeable increase in the number of infected patients. Those who are being admitted in the intensive care unit are coming to us already in critical condition," Jimnez said. On Friday, there were no available ventilators in her hospital at all.
Death rates are still far lower than in the earlier days of the pandemic, however. Eighteen people died of Covid-19 the last week, compared to 165 deaths in the first week of February -- the peak for Covid-19 fatalities in the Dominican Republic so far.
Recently Marte says he has also noticed a new factor in Covid-19 hospitalizations.
In fact, the Dominican Republic was the first country in Latin America to approve booster shots, starting with its health care workers in July. It was not the only country in the region to start supplementing its Sinovac campaign however.
"What I can tell you with very objective data is that there's an enormous difference between those who have received two Sinovac doses versus the ones who have added a Pfizer booster shot to those two Sinovac shots," Marte said.
"In the whole country there's not a single individual who has received a Pfizer booster shot and ended up hospitalized."
Marte also said that out of 17,000 Covid-19 patients seen at his hospital, only five contracted the virus after getting the Pfizer booster shot. One was an 86-year-old patient, and another was a 78-year-old suffering from diabetes and cancer. None of those five ultimately required admittance, he said.
Popular longtime Cobb school bus driver dies of COVID-19 The Atlanta Journal Constitution
(WJW) The Biden administration will release details this week on new guidelines that will require companies that employ 100 people to require COVID-19 vaccinations or regular COVID testing.
The plan would also require those companies to provide paid time off to get vaccinated and paid sick leave for any side effects.
According to WhiteHouse.gov, the Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is developing a rule to ensure employers have either a fully vaccinated workforce or implement a program that would require any unvaccinated employees to produce a negative test result at least on a weekly basis.
The Biden administration says the new policy will impact over 80 million workers.
Heres a statement from the Department of Labor, from CNBC:
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working expeditiously to develop an emergency temporary standard thatcovers employers with 100 or more employees, firm- or company-wide, and provides options for compliance. Covered employers must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose either to get vaccinated or to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work. The ETS also requires employers to provide paidtime to workers to get vaccinated and paidsickleave to recover from any side effects.On November 1, the Office of Management and Budget completed its regulatory review of the emergency temporary standard. The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days.
The Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) of the rule allows OSHA to issue the rule with emergency authority if the Labor secretary believes workers face grave danger in the workplace, according to CNBC.
Most Republican state attorney generals, including Ohios Dave Yost, have signed a letter to the president threatening legal action if the administration moves forward with the new guideline.
The new rule is expected to be published this week.
This is separate from President Joe Bidens executive order requiring federal contractors to be fully vaccinated.
That rule has made headlines because of its impact on airlines.
The administration does allow federal contractors to decide what to do with employees who choose not to be vaccinated, allowing some groups to develop their own policy for unvaccinated employees.
News 12 Staff
Oct 30, 2021, 10:39pm
Updated on: Oct 30, 2021, 10:39pm
On this weeks Connecticut Power & Politics, COVID-19vaccines for kids are just days away, but will it be required?
Also, Connecticut's attorney general is warning parents to watchout for cannabis candy this Halloween. And Sen. Richard Blumenthal is taking oneven more social media giants, but is Congress up to the job?
Republican Iowa Gov.Kim Reynoldson Friday signed a bill that allows residents to obtain unemployment benefits if they are fired for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.
Reynolds, whohas opposed other governmentvaccine mandates, said in a statement that "no Iowan should be forced to lose their job or livelihood over the COVID-19 vaccine," according to The Associated Press.
The Iowa legislature passed the bill in a one-day special session Thursday with a 68-27 vote.
The governor also announced Friday that she will join nine other states in suing the Biden administration over its vaccine requirement for workers, the Des Moines Register reported.
Reynolds is vaccinated and has encouragedIowans to get the vaccine but has stated she believes getting the shot should be a personal choice.
Nearly 7,000 Iowans have died as a result of the coronavirus, and Iowa is currently 23rd in the country for percentage of itsresidentsfully vaccinated at 55.4 percent, the AP noted.
