A rural Alabama town voted to offer its employees a $200 incentive to get the COVID-19 vaccine using federal pandemic relief money.
Leaders in the Walker County town of Dora said they hoped the move would boost the vaccination rate in the city of 2,200, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Birmingham, the Daily Mountain Eagle reported Thursday.
Mayor Randy Stephens, who is retired from the medical profession, said providing the vaccine bonus with federal funding is a really good idea.
I understand some people are opposed to it. It wouldnt make any difference if we gave them $1,000. They wouldnt take it, he said.
Opposition to vaccinations against the coronavirus has been persistent in some areas, particularly those with mostly white, conservative makeups. About 42% of the population is fully vaccinated in Walker County, roughly in line with the statewide average, according to statistics from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The citys 40 workers have until Dec. 31 to provide verification that they are vaccinated.
Officials initially discussed an incentive of $100 per worker, but Council member George Sides Jr. said he didnt know if that was enough since some people have reactions to the shots.
Good point, Stephens said. My son was on the couch for three days.
The panel increased the incentive to $200. Booster shots arent included, the mayor said.
More than 818,000 people have contracted COVID-19 in Alabama, and more than 15,370 have died, according to the state health agency.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 243.6 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.94 million. More than 6.84 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
Urgent action is needed to support Papua New Guinea amid a surge in COVID-19 cases which threatens to overwhelm the country's health system, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has warned.
New Zealand has reported its second-highest tally of new daily COVID-19 cases - 109 - since the start of the pandemic.
Officials in Australia are planning a roll-out of COVID-19 booster shots to prevent a resurgence in cases.
It comes as the city of Melbourne announced plans to ease more curbs when its home state of Victoria reaches an 80% vaccination rate.
Britain has recorded its highest number of new COVID-19 cases since July over the past week, government figures have shown.
China's latest COVID-19 outbreak is likely to spread further, a health official said yesterday, with authorities urging regions to step up monitoring and called for a reduction in travel between provinces.
South Korea announced on Saturday that it has achieved its goal of vaccinating 70% of its 52 million people.
Russia reported 1,075 COVID-19 deaths on Saturday, its fifth straight record day.
Germany recorded the highest incidence of COVID-19 infections since mid-May on Saturday, reaching the threshold of 100 cases per 100,000 in the past seven days that used to be the yardstick for imposing a strict lockdown.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.
Image: Our World In Data
The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in eastern Europe passed 20 million on Sunday, according to a Reuters tally. The region is currently dealing with its worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic.
Countries in the region also have among the lowest vaccination rate in Europe, with less than half the population having received a single dose, Reuters reports.
New infections in the region have steadily risen and now average over 83,700 new cases per day, the highest level since November last year, Reuters data through Friday showed. Although it has just 4% of the world's population, eastern Europe accounts for roughly 20% of all new cases reported globally.
The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is a coalition of 85 global leaders, hosted by the World Economic Forum. Its mission: Join hands in support of social entrepreneurs everywhere as vital first responders to the pandemic and as pioneers of a green, inclusive economic reality.
Its COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda, outlines 25 concrete recommendations for key stakeholder groups, including funders and philanthropists, investors, government institutions, support organizations, and corporations. In January of 2021, its members launched its 2021 Roadmap through which its members will roll out an ambitious set of 21 action projects in 10 areas of work. Including corporate access and policy change in support of a social economy.
For more information see the Alliance website or its impact story here.
Scientists at the US Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that the likely benefits of giving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to 5- to 11-year-olds clearly outweigh the risks of rare cases of heart inflammation.
The vaccine makers had announced earlier that day that their shot showed 90.7% efficacy against the disease in a clinical trial of children in that age group.
The details were in briefing documents published ahead of a meeting of a panel of outside experts scheduled to vote on Tuesday whether to recommend the FDA authorize the shots for the young age group.
If the FDA authorizes the Pfizer/BioNTech immunization for children 5 to 11 years old, it would be the first COVID-19 vaccine for the age group and shots could be available in the United States in early November.
Written by
Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) Colorful handmade signs spelled out the plan, but most patients were unaware of that plan when they showed up Monday morning for COVID-19 vaccinations at the Community Vaccination Center, AKA, the former Macys department store at Military Circle Mall.
Those seeking booster shots had to go elsewhere, but Linda Shape of Virginia Beach was at the right place at the right time.
She is vaccinated, but is concerned she has what is called a breakthrough infection.
Regina Mobley: Do you have a fever?
Linda Sharpe: I did last week; I dont right now.
Regina Mobley: And when will you get the results?
Linda Sharpe: They said as early as this afternoon or a couple of days out.
Thats exactly what state health officials hope others will do if they suspect they have COVID-19.
Dr. Parham Jaberi is the acting director of the Norfolk and Portsmouth Health Departments. He urges those with concerns to turn the professionals for testing.
Some people may be infected and have such mild symptoms and they chalk it up to allergies or hay fever. Unfortunately, we know those individuals can spread the virus without even knowing it, said Jaberi.
Politics aside, Jaberi says vaccinations, testing, and masking up are still critical as the pandemic response plan is now in its 19th month.
The fact that vaccinations prevent illness is consistent. There are certain communities that dont believe in it or have stronger feelings against it. That doesnt make the vaccinations less effective; we have to make sure that we can work with them to make sure the other strategies: testing and masking are in place., said Dr. Jaberi.
COVID-19 shots resume Tuesday through Saturday at the mall and state officials say scheduling for the next testing clinics will take place after officials have examined all COVID-19 metrics.
Administering a shot at a community vaccination and testing site in San Francisco last month.Credit...Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times
The Delta variant of the coronavirus was the leading reason that people decided to get vaccinated against Covid-19 this summer and why most say they will get boosters when eligible, according to the latest monthly survey on vaccine attitudes by the Kaiser Family Foundation, released on Tuesday morning. But the survey indicated that nearly three-quarters of unvaccinated Americans view boosters very differently, saying that the need for them shows that the vaccines are not working.
That divide suggests that while it may be relatively easy to persuade vaccinated people to line up for an additional shot, the need for boosters may complicate public health officials efforts to persuade the remaining unvaccinated people to get their initial one.
Another takeaway from the Kaiser Family Foundation survey: For all the carrots dangled to induce hesitant people to get Covid shots cash, doughnuts, racetrack privileges more credit for the recent rise in vaccination goes to the stick. Almost 40 percent of newly inoculated people said that they had sought the vaccines because of the increase in Covid cases, and more than a third said that they had become alarmed by overcrowding in local hospitals and rising death rates.
When a theoretical threat becomes a clear and present danger, people are more likely to act to protect themselves and their loved ones, said Drew Altman, the Kaiser Family Foundations chief executive.
The nationally representative survey of 1,519 people was conducted from Sept. 13-22 during a time of surging Covid deaths, but before the government authorized boosters for millions of high-risk people who had received the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, including those 65 and over and adults of any age whose job puts them at high risk of infection.
Sweeteners did have some role in getting shots in arms. One-third of respondents said that they had gotten vaccinated to travel or attend events where the shots were required.
Two reasons often cited as important for motivating those hesitant to get a vaccine employer mandates (about 20 percent) and full federal approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (15 percent) carried less sway.
Seventy-two percent of adults in the survey said that they were at least partly vaccinated, up from 67 percent in late July. The latest numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are even higher, reporting 77 percent of the adult population in the United States with at least one shot. The sharpest change in this month was in vaccination rates for Latinos: a jump of 12 percentage points since late July, to 73 percent, in the number of Latino adults who had received at least one shot.
With the vaccination racial gap narrowing, the political divide has, by far, become the widest, with 90 percent of Democrats saying that they have gotten at least one dose, compared with 58 percent of Republicans.
Perhaps reflecting pandemic fatigue, about eight in 10 adults said that they believed Covid was now a permanent fixture of the health landscape. Just 14 percent said that they thought it will be largely eliminated in the U.S., like polio.
Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Tuesday that they had submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration that the companies said showed their coronavirus vaccine is safe and effective in children ages 5 to 11.
The companies said they would submit a formal request to regulators to allow a pediatric dose of their vaccine to be administered in the United States in the coming weeks. Similar requests will be filed with European regulators and in other countries.
The announcement, coming as U.S. schools have resumed amid a ferocious wave of the highly contagious Delta variant, brings many parents another step closer to the likelihood of a coronavirus vaccine for their children.
Asked on Tuesday when the vaccine might be cleared for children, Pfizers chief executive, Dr. Albert Bourla, said he did not want to pre-empt regulators.
Its not appropriate for me to comment how long F.D.A. would take to review the data, Dr. Bourla said in an appearance at the Atlantic Festival, hosted by The Atlantic magazine. They should take as much time as they think is appropriate for them. He added that an authorization around Halloween, as some health officials have suggested could be possible, was one of the options, and its up to the F.D.A.
Just over a week ago, Pfizer and BioNTech announced favorable results from their clinical trial with more than 2,200 participants in that age group. The F.D.A. has said it will analyze the data as soon as possible. Dr. Peter Marks, the agencys top vaccine regulator, said recently that barring surprises, an authorization could come in a matter of weeks, not months after the companies submitted data.
The companies said last week that their vaccine had been shown to be safe and effective in low doses in children ages 5 to 11, offering hope to parents in the United States who are worried that a return to in-person schooling has put children at risk of infection.
About 28 million children ages 5 to 11 would be eligible for the vaccine in the United States, far more than the 17 million of ages 12 to 15 who became eligible for the vaccine in May.
But it is not clear how many in the younger cohort will be vaccinated. Inoculations among older children have lagged: Only about 42 percent of children ages 12 to 15 have been fully vaccinated in the United States, compared with 66 percent of adults, according to federal data.
New York States pioneering effort to force health care workers to receive coronavirus vaccines appears to have pressured thousands of holdouts to receive last-minute shots, though hospitals and nursing homes continue to brace for potential staffing shortages should the mandate fall short, according to state and industry officials.
As the vaccination mandate went into full effect just after midnight on Monday, 92 percent of the states 600,000 hospital and nursing home workers had received at least one vaccine dose, state officials said.
The significant increase in the days before the deadline just 84 percent of the states nursing home workers, for example, had received a vaccine dose as of five days ago propelled New Yorks health care workers into the highest tiers of vaccination rates among those workers nationally, and served as a positive sign that President Bidens planned federal vaccination mandate for most health care workers might also buoy rates nationwide.
At the same time, at least eight lawsuits and several angry protests against mandates in New York served as a reminder that thousands of health care workers would likely resign or choose to be fired rather than get vaccinated.
Many hospitals and nursing homes were facing staffing shortages before the mandate took effect, for reasons including pandemic-related burnout and the high pay being offered to traveling nurses, meaning even minor staff losses because of vaccine resistance could put some patients at risk.
As a result, many health care facilities have braced themselves by activating emergency staffing plans, calling in volunteers and moving personnel to cover shifts.
Implementing the mandate has become a major test for Gov. Kathy Hochul, who took office in August and has made fighting Covid a top priority.
The governor declared a state of emergency late Monday night that will allow her to use the National Guard to fill staffing shortages at hospital and nursing homes if needed. She has also opened a crisis operations center for health care facilities to request help and waived licensing requirements to allow nurses and other health care workers from other states and countries to help out in New York.
Im using the full power of the state of New York to ensure that we do everything to protect people, Ms. Hochul said on Monday. This is simple, common sense.
New York is a bellwether of sorts for vaccine mandates, as a number of states have imposed similar requirements that take effect soon, including California, where health care workers must be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30. New Yorks mandate is among the strictest, providing no option to test weekly rather than get vaccinated. It also allows no religious exemptions, though that is the subject of litigation.
In the New York City public hospital system, more than 8,000 workers were unvaccinated a week ago. By Monday morning, that number had dropped to about 5,000 or just over 10 percent of the work force.
Dr. Mitchell Katz, the president of the system, said Tuesday that about 500 unvaccinated nurses were among the employees placed on unpaid leave on Tuesday, but that the system had enough staff and reinforcements to continue functioning safely.
LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, said on Tuesday that he had been vaccinated against the coronavirus, after evading questions about his vaccination status last season. Several other high-profile N.B.A. players have resisted getting vaccinated before the start of the N.B.A. season next month.
I think everyone has their own choice to do what they feel is right for themselves and their family, James said. I know that I was very skeptical about it all, but after doing my research and things of that nature, I felt like it was best suited for not only me but for my family and my friends, and thats why I decided to do it.
James did not say which vaccine he had taken or the number of doses he had received. He also said that he would not use his platform to publicly encourage others to be vaccinated.
Were talking about individuals bodies, he said. Were not talking about something thats political or racism or police brutality and things of that nature.
He added: So I dont feel like for me personally that I should get involved in what other people should do for their bodies and their livelihoods.
Rob Pelinka, the Lakers general manager, said last week that he expected the teams entire roster to be fully vaccinated ahead of its season opener against the Golden State Warriors on Oct. 19. Kent Bazemore, one of the teams new players, said that he had been reluctant to be vaccinated before Pelinka persuaded him to receive his first dose.
Americans who received a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine in recent weeks reported side effects at roughly the same rates as they had after their second shots, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday, a reassuring sign about the safety of additional doses.
At the time of the C.D.C. study, which stretched from mid-August to mid-September, additional vaccine doses were only authorized for people with compromised immune systems who had gotten two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine. Last week, though, federal regulators authorized Pfizer booster shots for broad swaths of the general population, making the safety of the additional doses an issue of intense interest for health officials, doctors and ordinary Americans.
The C.D.C. analyzed how commonly people reported side effects after a third dose compared with a second among 12,600 recipients who had filled out surveys as part of a voluntary safety monitoring system.
Reactions at the injection site, like pain or swelling, were reported by 79.4 percent of recipients after a third vaccine dose, compared with 77.6 percent after a second dose. Slightly smaller numbers of people experienced systemic reactions, like a fever or headache: 74.1 percent of people reported those side effects after dose three, compared with 76.5 percent after dose two.
Most reported local and systemic reactions were mild to moderate, transient, and most frequently reported the day after vaccination, the studys authors said.
The study focused on people who had received a third dose of the same vaccine that they had originally received, either from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. The C.D.C. said that too few people had reported receiving an additional dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or an additional dose from a different vaccine maker than they had originally received, to study those side effects.
The results reinforced findings from a small clinical trial of third shots of the Pfizer vaccine that the companys scientists outlined to federal medical advisers last week. That trial, too, found that adverse reactions after a third dose were similar to those after a second.
While the C.D.C. study covered only a period when people with immune problems were eligible for additional doses, the data likely also included people without such conditions who had nevertheless received a third shot, the studys authors wrote. In all, the study said, about 2.2 million people had received additional doses by Sept. 19, the end of the C.D.C. study period.
Harvard Business School said on Monday that all first-year and some second-year graduate students would temporarily revert to remote learning after a recent surge in breakthrough coronavirus cases driven by the Delta variant.
The shift to remote learning for the school will last through Sunday, said Mark Cautela, a spokesman for the business school.
In recent days, weve seen a steady rise in breakthrough infections among our student population, despite high vaccination rates and frequent testing, he said in a statement.
As of Sept. 22, 95 percent of students and 96 percent of employees at Harvard were fully vaccinated, according to data from the university.
Contact tracers who have worked with positive cases highlight that transmission is not occurring in classrooms or other academic settings on campus, Mr. Cautela said. Nor is it occurring among individuals who are masked.
The university has asked students to avoid unmasked indoor activities, group travel and gatherings with people outside their household.
The business school will begin testing all students three times a week, regardless of their vaccination status, Mr. Cautela said. Previously, unvaccinated students were being tested twice a week, and vaccinated students once a week, he said.
Graduate students have accounted for most of the recent positive cases at Harvard, according to the universitys Covid-19 dashboard. Over the past seven days, graduate students have made up 51 of the 66 positive cases at the school.
Massachusetts has some of the highest vaccination rates in the country, with 77 percent of its population at least partly vaccinated and 68 percent fully vaccinated. New cases in the Boston area have been falling since a recent spike in mid-September.
Japan is ending its state-of-emergency measures on Thursday amid a fall in the number of new daily coronavirus cases and a vaccine rollout that has reached nearly 60 percent of the population, hoping that the move helps to revive the countrys economy.
It will be the first time since April 4 that no part of Japan is under a state of emergency.
The move was announced by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga on Tuesday, a day before a Liberal Democratic Party vote that will select a leader to succeed him. Mr. Suga said that he would not be extending the emergency measures currently active in 19 prefectures and that they would instead expire at the end of the month, as scheduled.
Moving forward, we will continue to put the highest priority on the lives and livelihoods of the people, Mr. Suga said in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon.
He said that the government would work to continue to achieve both infection control and the recovery of daily life.
New daily coronavirus cases in Japan have decreased 73 percent over the past two weeks, to an average of 2,378 a day, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. And there has been a sharp improvement in Japans vaccine rollout, with close to 60 percent of the population fully inoculated, a rate that exceeds that of the United States and of many other countries around the Pacific Rim.
Under the state of emergency, people were urged to refrain from nonessential outings, and restaurants were asked to close by 8 p.m. and to not serve alcohol. The government plans to ease those restrictions in stages.
Yasutoshi Nishimura, a government minister who is leading Japans Covid-19 response, said that serving alcohol would be allowed but that governors will decide on that appropriately, according to the regions infection situation.
Across the United States, local officials seeking to bolster Covid vaccination rates have offered a range of incentives, like grocery store gift cards, cash or free sports games tickets, to encourage people to get vaccinated. The role of these incentives is unclear fear of getting sick seems to be more persuasive, according to some research but health departments continue to dangle them.
And now that the latest phase of the vaccine rollout Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots six months after the second dose for people over 65, those with medical conditions that put them at greater risk, and frontline workers people may wonder if those incentives will apply to those shots as well.
In most places, health departments so far are saying no but not everywhere.
New York City, for example, pays a cash incentive of $100 to people receiving their first dose of vaccine, but not their second or third.
Whether in New York City or elsewhere in the country, the biggest challenge has been motivating people to come in for their first doses, said Laura Feyer, a spokesperson for the mayors office. The initial series is our primary focus, in order to reduce mortality rates.
She added that with boosters so far only authorized for certain people who received the Pfizer vaccine, the future of booster accessibility remains unclear.
As some vaccinated Americans worry about the Delta variant of the coronavirus and wait impatiently for booster shots, experts have continued to emphasize that the key to tempering the viruss impact is vaccinating the unvaccinated. But it is not clear how much difference incentives make. A survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation on Tuesday found that few recent vaccine recipients mentioned incentives as a major reason. Far more cited fear of Delta, worry about overburdened hospitals or having known someone personally who died or became very ill with Covid-19.
In July, President Biden urged local and state governments to offer $100 to anyone willing to get vaccinated. But the president has not made the same suggestion for Pfizer booster shots, which were endorsed last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other cities and counties across the country are, like New York, leaving boosters out of their incentive programs. On Friday, San Antonio began offering grocery store gift cards to people who get inoculated, but booster shots are excluded.
An incentive program recently passed by the City Council in Fayetteville, Ark., does not apply to the additional shots. There are no incentives offered for booster shots anywhere in Ohio, according to a spokeswoman for the state health department, or in Los Angeles County, according to its health officials.
One exception is Alachua County, Fla., where health officials made the rare choice to offer $25 gift cards to people receiving booster shots, as well as first or second shots.
It was an easy choice, said Mark Sexton, the communications director for the county. County officials decided to offer the incentive for booster shots, he said, in hopes of keeping as many Covid-19 patients out of the hospital as possible.
We want to give our health care workers a break, Mr. Sexton said, because theyve had a really tough time throughout the last year and a half, and in particular over the last two or three months.
Syria is experiencing a major surge of coronavirus infections as depleted hospitals across the country find themselves ill equipped to deal with the worst influx of cases since the pandemic began, Syrian health officials and aid groups say.
Exacerbating the crisis is the toll of a decade of war that has ravaged the economy, heavily damaged the health infrastructure and left the territory divided between competing administrations.
The government of President Bashar al-Assad, which controls only about two-thirds of the country, said that new infections had reached daily levels this week of more than 440, the highest so far in the pandemic.
Hospitals in the capital, Damascus, and in the coastal city of Latakia have reached capacity and are sending patients elsewhere, health officials said.
Syria, a country of about 20 million people, has reported more than 32,000 cases and 2,100 deaths in government-controlled areas since the start of the pandemic, but outside experts say that those numbers fail to reflect the true toll, largely because of the lack of widespread testing.
Areas outside the governments control have struggled, too.
Around Idlib Province in the northwest the last pocket held by armed rebels and home to millions of people displaced from elsewhere in the country new daily Covid cases rose by a factor of 10 from the start of August to early September, reaching more than 1,500 per day, according to the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian group. The increase left clinics running low on test kits and oxygen, the group said.
Misinformation about vaccines has been rife in Idlib, with voice notes circulated on social media telling people that vaccines cause dangerous blood clots.
The areas health facilities were on the verge of collapse even before the pandemic hit because of years of battles between rebels and government forces and frequent airstrikes by Syrian and Russian jets.
In Syrias northeast, the Kurdish-led administration backed by the United States that runs the territory has announced new lockdowns after a rise in coronavirus infections there.
Vaccination campaigns have proceeded slowly in all parts of Syria, with 2 percent of the population having received a single dose and only 1.2 percent having received two doses, according to the World Health Organization.
Syria had been given about 730,000 vaccine doses through the United Nations-backed Covax program and other donations as of Sept. 19, the W.H.O. said.
This fall, there is a surreal swirl of newness and oldness in the hallways of John F. Kennedy High School: Black Lives Matter face masks and exhortations to pull them up Over your nose, please! but also ribbing and laughter, bells ringing, hall passes being checked and loudspeaker reminders about the dress code (collared black or navy shirts, and khaki or black bottoms).
Kennedy was open for in-person learning most of the last school year. But families in this working-class, majority Hispanic and Black school district in Waterbury, Conn., opted out in large numbers, with two-thirds of high school students ending last year fully online.
This year, only students with severe health concerns can qualify for remote learning, and so far no Kennedy families have been approved.
That means most juniors and seniors have returned to the building for the first time in 18 months. They are taller and more mature sometimes physically unrecognizable, a counselor noted but often reeling from what the pandemic has wrought: anxiety, economic precarity and academic struggle.
The school is teeming with over 1,300 students, more than before the pandemic, because of the closing of a nearby Catholic school and an influx of families moving from New York City in search of affordable housing.
The Times interviewed students and teachers at Kennedy to get a sense of what its like to be back after such a tumultuous year.
For more than a year, misinformation touting that ivermectin is effective at treating or preventing the coronavirus has run rampant across social media, podcasts and talk radio. Even as the Food and Drug Administration has said that the drug is not approved to cure Covid and has warned people against taking it, media personalities who have cast doubt on coronavirus vaccines, like the podcaster Joe Rogan, have promoted ivermectin for that purpose.
The inaccuracies have led some people to overdose on certain formulations of the drug, which has then stretched doctors and hospitals. And the false claims have even caused problems for veterinarians, who regularly use the medicine for the animal treatments that it was approved for.
While certain versions of ivermectin can treat head lice and other ailments in people, other formulations which come in forms such as liquid and paste are common across the equine and livestock industries as ways to get rid of worms and parasites.
People are increasingly trying to obtain those animal products to ward off or treat the coronavirus, according to farmers, ranchers and suppliers.
Overwhelmed by orders, one farm supply store in Las Vegas started selling the medicine only to customers who could prove that they had a horse. In California, a rancher was told that the backlog of orders was so large that she was 600th in line for the next batch.
The dearth has led some farm owners, ranchers and veterinarians to switch to generic or more expensive alternatives for their animals. Others have turned to expired ivermectin or stockpiled the drug.
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.
