As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles.
Those ads you do see are predominantly from local businesses promoting local services.
These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community.
It is important that we continue to promote these adverts as our local businesses need as much support as possible during these challenging times.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 2021 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.
Reported in the past 24 hours
1 October 2021 15:00 (EST)
177,954Additional cases
3,473Additional deaths
0.20%Relative in cases
0.16%Relative in deaths
*Daily reports are no longer published on weekends or holidays.
Highlighting the disproportionate human and economic impact of the pandemic in the region, which has killed over 2.4 million people and led 22 million into poverty in the Americas, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa F. Etienne stressed that vaccines must be made available to all. There is no path to recovery for any of us while our neighbors remain vulnerable and while variants circulate and multiply. Read more
Page last updated on October 2nd, 2021 at 05:03 pm
**Vaccine data dashboard updated Monday-Friday by 1 pm with the exception of holidays.
People received vaccine
People have received one dose of a two-dose series
People are fully vaccinated (depending on brand)***
Total doses administered(Total doses administered may include doses reported without an indication of 1st or 2nd dose.)
***Fully vaccinated includes people who have received both doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, or a single dose of the Janssen vaccine.
Vaccine Data at a Glance updated by 1:00 p.m. MT Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Data are current as of 10/1/2021.Vaccine administration data are based on data contained in the Immunization Reminder Information System (IRIS).
Cases(Total includes confirmed and probable cases)
New Cases (Confirmed and Probable) Today (10/2)
A note about our COVID-19 case data dashboard: It looks like cases numbers are decreasing, but recent data are incomplete. Several local public health districts are behind in their reporting to the state due to the high volume of new cases. We apologize for the confusion.
State-level case, laboratory, and hospital data updated daily by 5:00 p.m. MT, excluding holidays. Data are current as of 10/2/2021. Case data are based on surveillance system records provided by the public health districts. Public health district data will be updated on their agency website at their discretion and might differ from data presented here. Data are preliminary and subject to change.
To protect your family and friends, your community, vulnerable Idahoans, local businesses, and our students and teachers, please remember to:
There are no upcoming events at this time.
View all Events
Offices and non-public indoor work settings
Organisations and employers who are responsible for a workplace should take these actions now to reduce the risk of transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19). Full details can be found at thePreventing infection workplace coronavirus (COVID-19) page.
Victoria's coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions are enforceable with on-the-spot fines of $1,652 for individuals and $9,913 for businesses.
If you have any questions about your businesss ability to open under current restrictions you can contact Business Victoria'scoronavirus hotline by calling 13 22 15 or usingContact Us form . Subscribe to the Business Victoria Update to stay up-to-date with the latest advice for your business.
For the latest advice and resources on coronavirus (COVID-19), see the Victorian GovernmentDHHS coronavirus page .
The Fair Work Actdoes not have specific rules where employees are delayed overseas or in quarantine, so employees and employers need to come to their own arrangement. This may include:
You can contact theFair Work Ombudsman on 13 13 94 for further information.
If you have staff who must attend the workplace, encourage the use of the Australian Government's COVIDSafe app which speeds up contacting people exposed to coronavirus (COVID-19) as a measure to protect your staff and customers.
Free, short, accredited training is available to help staff identify and manage the ongoing risk of coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in the workplace.Free infection control training will help businesses prepare to safely reopen and ensure their customers and workforce are protected.
Information for workers to help them understand their rights and responsibilities in the workplace, and where to find support and information about coronavirus (COVID-19).
pdf 66.6 KB
pdf 44.09 KB
pdf 201.36 KB
Please view our rules before posting or commenting
For scientific discussion of COVID see /r/COVID19
If you makes claims to being a healthcare worker without verification you will be banned. Should you wish to be given a verified flair as a nurse, doctor, science PhD or MSc, please send a modmail with the title "FOR VERIFICATION" to learn more.
AMA Highlights
Other Links
Related Communities
Resources
FAQ
Vaccine Finder
Study Recruitment
Regional Subreddits
Support
BUCHAREST, Oct 2 (Reuters) - Thousands of people demonstrated in the main squares of the Romanian capital on Saturday against new coronavirus restrictions announced by the government this week to fight a steep rise in infections.
Protesters, mostly not wearing face masks, gathered in University and Victory squares outside government offices, holding Romanian flags, blowing vuvuzelas and shouting: "Freedom, freedom without certificates," and "Down with the government."
Local media put the number of demonstrators at 15,000.
The new measures due to take effect on Sunday include restricting entry to public spaces such as theatres, cinemas, restaurants and gyms to people who can present a digital certificate proving they are fully vaccinated or have had the illness.
The number of new COVID-19 infections reached a record high of 12,590 on Saturday and authorities said intensive care units were running out of space. Romania has the second lowest vaccination rate in the European Union, just ahead of Bulgaria.
Weekend curfews have been introduced for unvaccinated and the government plans to make inoculations mandatory for healthcare sector's workers, doctors and nurses. read more
The government has also made face masks mandatory in all public spaces in places where the case incidence exceeds 6.0 per thousand people. Bucharest reached a record of 8.28 per thousand new infections over the past two weeks, among the country's steepest rates.
Among the protest organisers was an ultranationalist parliamentary grouping that is hoping, together with other opposition parties, to topple the centrist government on Oct. 5, when a parliamentary vote of no-confidence is scheduled. read more
The AUR said on its website: "If they don't see us, they can't hear us."
Just over a third of Romania's adult population is fully vaccinated so far, amid widespread distrust in state institutions and misinformation campaigns.
Reporting by Radu MarinasEditing by Frances Kerry
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. As coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines are now available to kids 12 and over, and could be available to kids under 11 before the end of this year, one of Staten Islands top pediatrics doctors is encouraging families to get their kids vaccinated as the benefit of the vaccine against serious illness far outweighs the low risk of side effects.
My encouragement is for everybody to get the vaccine, that the number of side effects is extremely low and the temporary side effects, its much better than dealing with the illness -- where the child is going to be in a pediatric ICU and the parents are going to be praying for their childs life, said Dr. Brian McMahon, pediatric chair at Richmond University Medical Center (RUMC).
While many children are contracting the coronavirus and experiencing mild symptoms, the borough doctor is warning that there have been some very serious cases of COVID in children.
Many children get the COVID illness and its mild, however, there have been some very serious cases of COVID in children, said McMahon. I would make a distinction between the age 12 and older, and 12 and under. We have had serious cases where we were just thankful that the patient survived patients that we had to treat in our pediatric ICU.
He explained that the hospital has treated several patients in the pediatric unit, including an 18-year-old and a 17-year-old who both had pneumonia after contracting COVID-19.
There was a 19-year-old who, we were doing everything we could and we just said, almost to ourselves, Its in Gods hands. And we didnt think she was going to make it, but she did, McMahon recalled.
While children are less likely to be severely ill -- it doesnt mean its impossible. McMahon pointed to the 13-year-old in Mississippi, with no risk factors, who died a few weeks ago after contracting COVID-19.
A big point that I would like to make is there is no age in which we can say you are invulnerable, he said. Very often, the younger you are, the better youre going to do -- but nobody can say, Oh youre a baby, therefore, youll get COVID therefore we have nothing to worry about. Its not true.
MUST BE CAREFUL AT ALL AGES
He continued: We have to be careful at all ages, and thats the reason why we want vaccinations to be given -- and its also the reasoning why we give many, if not most, of the other vaccines.
A big task is to engage parents who may not think getting their kid vaccinated is necessary, or who have strong convictions against the shot, he said.
Ive seen too many times people who are on their deathbed saying, I wish I had gotten the vaccine, and weve seen it in healthy people, who are pictures of health.
McMahon said about 1.5 million patients between the ages of 12 and 17 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States.
So it does occur, and teenagers -- unfortunately, 13,000 were hospitalized, said McMahon. That comes to a little number for me that sounds like 88.7 per thousand. Thats much higher than the risk of side effects.
Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert, spoke to The New York Times during the media outlets special program, What We Know About Kids and Covid-19, about the concerns parents may have about getting their kids vaccinated.
Is the risk of COVID to the children worth the risk of the vaccine? Fauci asked. The risk of a vaccine is exceedingly low. True, in general, children do not have as likely a chance of getting a severe outcome as adults and those with underlying conditions, but all you need to do right now is go throughout the country, particularly in the southern states -- Florida, Texas, Alabama, Louisiana -- places like that, and go to the pediatric hospitals and you will see the beds are filled with children who have COVID-19 serious enough to have them require hospitalization.
He explained that while, statistically, the illness isnt as bad in children as in adults, you still do not want your child to get infected -- not only because it could be a serious disease, but because there may be long-lasting effects of COVID-19. Things that we refer to as long COVID.
Long COVID means that after you clear the virus and are apparently free of disease, there are lingering symptoms of fatigue, muscle aches, sleep disturbances, among others.
NOT A GOOD THING
So its not a good thing to get infected with this virus, and thats the reason why we feel strongly that ultimately we should get everyone vaccinated against it, Fauci added.
McMahon explained he has been giving the COVID vaccine in his office, and his pediatric patients havent experienced severe side effects. Most common side effects of the vaccine are pain at the injection site, chills, muscle or joint pain -- usually felt after the second dose.
This is, for me, minor. You can take Tylenol and you might feel it day two, and by day three youre fine, he said.
He pointed to one study that found 6% of vaccinated adolescents experienced an adverse event of a swollen lymph node. McMahon explained this isnt something severe to worry about, as some people can get swollen lymph nodes after a sore throat, whether it be strep throat or mononucleosis.
... by vaccinating the children, youre helping to protect everybody else in the family, whether it be the parents or the grandparents. So Im in favor of the vaccine, he said.
But some parents may still not be ready to vaccinate their children -- even for parents who are vaccinated themselves. But McMahon said there are no serious side effects when vaccinating children.
They think the vaccine is too new, but its been given to hundreds of millions of people, McMahon noted. Its got a tremendous safety margin, and its 90% effective.
He added that parents may be afraid that the mRNA of the vaccine is somehow going to get incorporated into the DNA of their children. But he said the MRNA lasts a finite time in which it instructs the cells to produce antibodies against COVID-19, and then its gone.
It doesnt hang around, it doesnt get incorporated into the DNA of their children, he said. And thats why you can give it to pregnant women and the mother will have antibodies, as well as it will protect her newborn at birth.
Currently, only children 12 and older are eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine under an emergency use authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Pfizer submitted research to the FDA on Wednesday on the effectiveness of its vaccine on children ages 5 to 11 years old, but the shots may not be available until November.
First of all, the companies [Pfizer and Moderna] have to submit the data to the FDA, Fauci told The Times. Then it becomes a regulatory decision as to whether or not they deemed that the risk-benefit is definitely worth the benefit over the risk. Hopefully, that will be the case, because we all want to see children who are in that younger age group get vaccinated.
FOLLOW ANNALISE KNUDSON ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER.
Merck said its pill to treat COVID-19 in newly infected patients cut deaths and hospitalizations by half.
Good evening. Im Karen Kaplan, and its Friday, Oct. 1. Heres the latest on whats happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.
Newsletter
Get our free Coronavirus Today newsletter
Sign up for the latest news, best stories and what they mean for you, plus answers to your questions.
Enter email address
Sign Me Up
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
Dear readers, meet molnupiravir. This little red pill has the potential to change the course of the pandemic.
Molnupiravir is an antiviral medication developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. It is designed to disrupt the coronavirus ability to replicate itself inside of human cells.
Essentially, the drug tricks the virus into using its recipe for replication, then inserts a program that generates so many mutations that the virus quickly sputters and dies. Clever, huh?
This strategy of inducing lethal mutagenesis appears to work not only on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 but also on other coronaviruses that plague humankind with respiratory illnesses ranging from the common cold to deadly pneumonias. (It has also been shown to hobble alpha viruses that cause equine encephalitis, the Ebola virus and others.)
Merck tested molnupiravir in 775 adults newly diagnosed with COVID-19 who were considered to be at higher risk for severe disease because they had underlying health problems or were over 60 years of age. Participants took eight pills a day for five days, though they didnt know whether they got the experimental drug or a placebo.
Among those taking molnupiravir, 7.3% were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days. That compares with 14.1% of the 377 patients who got the dummy pill.
Importantly, there were no deaths in the drug group during the study period, compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, the companies said.
In other words, the experimental pill cut rates of severe disease and death in half for this group of patients.
Merck said its new pill to treat COVID-19 in newly infected people reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half.
(Merck)
The results were so strong that an independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early so the companies could move forward with an application for emergency use authorization.
Merck and Ridgeback said they would file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as soon as possible, and if all goes well, millions of Americans could be treating themselves at home by the end of the year.
Nothing is as easy as giving people a prescription to take home, so I think it has extraordinary potential, Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who directs the infectious diseases division at the University of Alabama School of Medicine in Birmingham, told my colleague Melissa Healy.
Pills like the malaria drug hydroxychloriquine and the anti-parasitic medication ivermectin seem to hold special appeal among the unvaccinated, Marrazzo added. With so many patients clinging to treatments that have no track record of helping, it would be my prayer to have one that had been shown safe and effective, she said.
The red pills could plug a yawning gap between prevention strategies masking, social distancing and vaccination and currently available treatments, all of which require skilled medical care and costly facilities to deliver.
California cases and deaths as of 3:35 p.m. Friday:
Track Californias coronavirus spread and vaccination efforts including the latest numbers and how they break down with our graphics.
Imagine you played in a weekend basketball league and your team needed a new coach. Would you head to a doctors office or visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to find a replacement? Of course not.
By the same token, if youre looking for factual information about COVID-19 vaccines, your probably wouldnt make Kyrie Irving your first stop. Yet the views of the Brooklyn Nets All-Star have gotten more visibility over the past week than anyone elses.
Irving hasnt come right out and disparaged the vaccines, which have been administered to billions of people around the world. But when the Nets opened their training camp in New York City on Monday without him, the clear implication was that he wasnt among the nearly 70% of U.S. adults who are fully vaccinated.
Over the weekend, Rolling Stone published a story suggesting that Irving has bought into an unfounded conspiracy theory that the vaccines are part of a plot by secret societies to connect Black people to a master computer and carry out a plan of Satan. Irving has been following and liking Instagram posts from an account promoting the theory, the magazine said.
When he joined the Nets media day activities Monday via Zoom, he declined to get specific about his vaccination status.
I would just love to keep that private and handle it the right way with my team and go forward together with a plan, he said. Obviously, Im not able to be present there today. But that doesnt mean Im putting any limits on the future on my being able to join the team. And I just want to keep it that way.
NBA officials say 90% of players are vaccinated, and they expect at least half of the leagues 30 teams to be 100% vaccinated by opening night on Oct. 19. NBA spokesman Mike Bass said the league would like to implement a vaccine mandate for players, but their union would have to agree and it hasnt.
Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving wont be able to suit up for home games this season if he doesnt get vaccinated for COVID-19.
(Adam Hunger/Associated Press)
So the focus has shifted to the 10% of players who are holding out. In addition to Irving, that group includes Washington Wizards star Bradley Beal, who came down with COVID-19 this summer costing him a spot on the U.S. Olympic basketball team and said plainly that he is not vaccinated. Beals objections seemed centered on concerns that the shots arent all that effective since people can become infected even after getting vaccinated. (Never mind that the overwhelming majority of people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.)
Theres also Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors, who said not getting the vaccine is doing whats right. The Warriors play their home games in San Francisco, which is a problem for Wiggins since the city requires people who are 12 and older to be vaccinated if they want to attend large indoor events. Wiggins applied for a religious exemption so that he could play anyway, but the league denied his request.
The NBA has tried to incentivize players to get vaccinated by instituting a more permissive set of protocols for those whove had the shots. For instance, they can sit together in locker rooms, restaurants and on planes and busses, and they dont need to get tested unless they have COVID-19 symptoms.
Unvaccinated players, on the other hand, must be tested any day they travel or practice with their team, and they could be tested more than once on game days. They also have to stick with social distancing and, in accordance with CDC guidelines, they need to quarantine for a week if theyre exposed to someone with a confirmed coronavirus infection, even if they keep testing negative themselves.
This might be the motivation to get vaccinated: Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses, Bass said.
Its not too late for minds to be changed. Kent Bazemore, a newly signed member of the Los Angeles Lakers, said he came around after a conversation with general manager Rob Pelinka.
When the vaccine first came out, I felt like it was kind of forced on me, and Im not a person who responds well to that, Bazemore said. But I had a good call with Rob Pelinka, and he laid it down to me in the most fairly honest way that I ever heard.
Pelinka has vowed that every single Laker will be vaccinated when the season kicks off. On the teams media day, player after player acknowledged their vaccination status including superstar LeBron James.
I know that I was very skeptical about it all, James said. But after doing my research and things of that nature, I felt like it was best suited, not only for me but for my family and my friends. And thats why I decided to do it.
See the latest on Californias vaccination progress with our tracker.
California continues to have the lowest level of coronavirus transmission among the 50 states, and Gov. Gavin Newsom seems determined to keep it that way. On Friday, he issued the nations first statewide mandate requiring students to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The mandate will cover millions of primary and secondary students in both public and private schools. It will take effect for students in seventh through 12th grades once a vaccine receives full FDA approval for children ages 12 and up. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade would be phased in later.
Once the mandate is in place, the COVID-19 vaccine would be treated like vaccines for measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio and other contagious diseases. Children who dont get it would be barred from attending class on campus, unless they have a medical or religious exemption.
The FDA has already granted full approval to Comirnaty, the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, for use in people 16 and older. The same vaccine is currently available to adolescents ages 12 to 15 through an emergency use authorization; that could be upgraded to full approval as early as January, Newsom said.
Younger students would be subject to the mandate after a vaccine is formally approved for younger children. Pfizer has said it will soon seek emergency use authorization for a version of its vaccine designed for children ages 5 to 11, and experts believe it could be available around Thanksgiving. Its not clear how much longer it would take to receive full approval.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are also working on COVID-19 vaccines for children and teens.
Thursday was the deadline for around 2.4 million healthcare workers in California to be vaccinated or risk losing their jobs under a previous statewide mandate. It appears that the overwhelming majority of workers have complied, but thousands still remain unvaccinated.
Some of these holdouts obtained exemptions on medical or religious grounds. The state did not set rules for evaluating such requests, allowing some employers to be more permissive than others.
Scripps Health in San Diego allowed employees who were pregnant to delay their vaccinations as long as they got them when they returned to work after their parental leave. But in Visalia, the Kaweah Health Medical Center granted every one of the more than 800 religious exemption requests it received; any other approach could have left the hospital massively short-staffed, said Chief Executive Gary Herbst.
Visalia is in Tulare County, where the vaccination rate is just 43.3% and hospitals are straining to treat COVID-19 patients. We cannot afford to lose a single nurse, Herbst said.
Unvaccinated workers without exemptions present a significant test for employers. Some hospitals said they planned to start firing recalcitrant workers on Friday. Others said they would begin with suspensions or offer grace periods to give workers one more chance to come around. Most doctors were vaccinated months ago, but the inoculation rate lagged among nurses, janitors, food service workers and other hospital employees.
Its been about three weeks since President Biden said he would require most workers across the country to either get vaccinated or undergo regular coronavirus testing. A new poll found that 51% of those surveyed endorsed the vaccine mandate, while 34% disapproved and 14% were neutral.
Unsurprisingly, the responses revealed a deep partisan divide. While 72% of Democrats supported the mandate, just 27% of Republicans shared that view. On the flip side, 62% of Republicans opposed it, along with 11% of Democrats.
About two-thirds of those questioned said they were at least somewhat worried about the prospect that they or a family member would catch the coronavirus. However, the proportion of people expressing intense worry declined, from 41% in August to 33% in September.
Overall, 57% of Americans said they approved of Bidens handling of the pandemic including 86% of Democrats, 50% of independents and 23% of Republicans. Bidens overall pandemic approval was 54% in August and 66% in July.
Social media platforms have endured months of criticism for facilitating the spread of misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, and YouTube responded Wednesday with a promise to ban it.
The new rules prohibit false claims about any vaccine that has been OKd by health authorities and is currently being administered. Videos that violate the rules for instance, by claiming that vaccines cause cancer, autism or are otherwise dangerous will be deleted. Some have been kicked off already, including an account run by prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
YouTube will not police claims about vaccines that are still being tested. Nor will it remove personal stories about vaccine reactions, unless they come from accounts with a track record of spreading misinformation.
Heres something thats absolutely true: Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for a coronavirus infection. The 54-year-old jurist is vaccinated and has no symptoms, the court said Friday.
Kavanaugh is not the first member of the high court to test positive Amy Coney Barrett had COVID-19 last year, before she joined the court. (The Rose Garden ceremony where her nomination was announced turned the White House into a coronavirus hot spot.) But he is the first sitting justice to report an infection.
All nine justices were tested for the virus Thursday in advance of Barretts ceremonial swearing-in. Kavanaugh skipped the event after receiving his results. He along with the other members of the court tested negative before a meeting on Monday to discuss cases they might add to their docket.
The high courts new term begins Monday, and it will mark the first time in 18 months that the justices will return to the courtroom. Its unclear whether Kavanaugh will join them. The CDC recommends that people without symptoms isolate for 10 days after a positive test result.
Heres a final note from the Department of Silver Linings: Pandemic-related school closures are being credited with a huge drop in vaping among U.S. teens.
A national survey by researchers at the CDC and FDA found that 11% of high school students said they were recent users of e-cigarettes and other vaping products, down from 20% the year before. In addition, 3% of middle school students said they had vaped recently, down from 5% a year earlier.
This years survey was conducted online for the first time, and that may have affected the results, U.S. health officials cautioned. But other experts said the decline made sense since teens often vaped in social situations which they were deprived of while the pandemic forced them to stay home.
Its hard to imagine that doesnt represent a real decrease in use among high school and middle school students, said Dr. Nancy Rigotti of Harvard University, who studies tobacco use.
Todays question comes from readers who want to know: Is the Delta variant worse for kids than previous versions of the coronavirus?
If by worse you mean makes kids sicker, then the answer is no. Scientists and epidemiologists have seen no strong evidence that children and teens infected with Delta develop more serious cases of COVID-19 than their peers infected with other coronavirus strains.
But if by worse you mean makes more kids sicker, then the answer is yes. Since the Delta variant is more transmissible, the number of children and teens catching is higher than in the past.
More than 5.7 million children in the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus infections since the pandemic began, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Childrens Hospital Assn.
The number of newly diagnosed children has topped 200,000 per week for the past five weeks a figure the organizations deem exceptionally high. For much of September, the weekly number of new pediatric cases exceeded the peak from the winter surge.
Thankfully, most of those cases have been mild, and among infected children, the COVID-19 hospitalization rate has held steady at just under 1%.
We want to hear from you. Email us your coronavirus questions, and well do our best to answer them. Wondering if your questions already been answered? Check out our archive here.
People protest a vaccination mandate outside the San Diego Unified School District headquarters on Tuesday.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Americans may be tired of the pandemic, but were definitely not tired of protesting pandemic-related restrictions.
The photo above was taken outside the headquarters of the San Diego Unified School District on Tuesday as school board members considered a proposal to require students ages 16 and up to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Parents, teachers, students and medical professionals inside the meeting room discussed facts: Children can get sick with COVID-19, and the odds of that happening are far greater if they dont have the protection of a vaccine. But those truths held little sway for the hundreds of people who showed up to protest and stood extremely close together with hardly a mask in sight. Some carried signs broadcasting misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and the disease itself.
The school board members were undeterred. They approved the vaccine mandate in a unanimous vote two days before Newsom announced his statewide order.
Tonight were making a statement that we believe in the science, said school board Vice President Sharon Whitehurst-Payne.
A more colorful endorsement came from Mica Pollock, parent of a student at San Diego High: The FDA-approved vaccination is the best that human science has to offer, she said. If you dont trust it, you shouldnt get medical care of any kind from humans trained in science.
Resources
Need a vaccine? Keep in mind that supplies are limited, and getting one can be a challenge. Sign up for email updates, check your eligibility and, if youre eligible, make an appointment where you live: City of Los Angeles | Los Angeles County | Kern County | Orange County | Riverside County | San Bernardino County | San Diego County | San Luis Obispo County | Santa Barbara County | Ventura County
Practice social distancing using these tips, and wear a mask or two.
Watch for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Heres what to look for and when.
Need to get tested? Heres where you can in L.A. County and around California.
Americans are hurting in many ways. We have advice for helping kids cope, resources for people experiencing domestic abuse and a newsletter to help you make ends meet.
Weve answered hundreds of readers questions. Explore them in our archive here.
For our most up-to-date coverage, visit our homepage and our Health section, get our breaking news alerts, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
TORONTO -- The use of blood thinners by COVID-19 patients, either before being infected with the disease or afterward, can reduce deaths by almost half, according to new research.
The study, published in the open-access, peer-reviewed journal EClinicalMedicine, looked at ways to reduce clotting and hospitalizations related to COVID-19 through the use of prescribed blood thinners.
"We know that COVID-19 causes blood clots that can kill patients," Dr. Sameh Hozayen, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said in a news release. "But do blood thinners save lives in COVID-19? Blood thinners are medications prescribed to prevent blood clots in patients with a prior blood clot in their lungs or legs. They also prevent blood clots in the brain secondary to abnormal heart rhythms, like atrial fibrillation. Blood thinners are the standard of treatment in these diseases, which is why we looked at data to see if it impacted hospitalizations related to COVID-19.
"We already know that overwhelmed hospitals have a higher risk for death among their patients, so reducing hospitalization may have a positive impact during a COVID-19 surge."
The study also found that patients on blood thinners before contracting the virus were admitted less often to hospital despite being older on average and suffering from more chronic medical conditions than their peers.
The study evaluated 6,195 adult COVID-19 patients, including 598 who were immediately hospitalized and 5,597 who were treated as outpatients, between March 4 and Aug. 28, 2020. Among the outpatients, 160 were already on blood thinners, and 331 were eventually hospitalized. Outpatients who were on blood thinners at the time of diagnosis had a 43 per cent reduced risk of hospitalization.
Hospitalized patients also benefitted from blood thinners regardless of the type or dose of medication used.
Most medical centres around the world currently have protocols for starting COVID-19 patients on blood thinners upon hospital admission, according to Dr. Hozayen. Its easy to keep track of prescription drug use while in hospital, but among those who have previously been prescribed blood thinners and may want to benefit from this study, one of the challenges is getting them to adhere to their drug regimen.
"Unfortunately, about half of patients who are being prescribed blood thinners for blood clots in their legs, lungs, abnormal heart rhythms or other reasons do not take them. By increasing adherence for people already prescribed blood thinners, we can potentially reduce the bad effects of COVID-19," he said. "Outside of COVID-19, the use of blood thinners is proven to be lifesaving for those with blood coagulations conditions."
