Americas Covid-testing infrastructure, from drugstores to diagnostics manufacturers, is bracing for a surge in demand following the Biden administrations order that most large U.S. companies mandate their workers get vaccinated or be screened weekly for the virus.
Makers of over-the-counter Covid-19 tests are continuing to boost production, while laboratories and companies are ramping up operations that some had scaled back after the virus largely retreated earlier this year.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. The state Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reported 2,244 new COVID-19 cases on its dashboard Sunday.
Active cases are now at 27,137, the highest since January 15. There were no new deaths reported Sunday.
Hospitalizations remained at 810 which remains below the previous pandemic peak of 818. 254 cases are patients in the ICU and 161 patients are on vents.
Another hospital system, Mountain Health Network, which includes Cabell Huntington and St. Marys hospitals in Huntington reported Friday theyve reached their pandemic high in patients. The peak was 115 patients earlier this week. The hospitals reported a combined 105 patients Friday.
According to the DHHR, just over 400 people in the state were vaccinated on Saturday.
Forty-seven of the states 55 counties were in the red on Sundays daily alert COVID map.
Another Boston Red Sox player has been added to the team's COVID-19 related injured list.
The team announced Sunday that pitcher Phillips Valdez had been placed on the list. Brad Peacock was activated from Triple-A Worcester to fill his spot on the active roster.
Valdez, 29, has made 28 appearances for the Red Sox this season, posting a 5.85 ERA with 35 strikeouts.
The announcement that Valdez had been placed on the COVID-19 injured list came just an hour after the Red Sox announced that they had reinstated pitcher Nick Pivetta from the COVID-19 list. He is expected to start Sunday's game against the Chicago White Sox.
The Red Sox announced Friday that ace pitcher Chris Sale had tested positive for COVID-19 and would miss his scheduled start on Sunday. The 32-year-old missed all of last season recovering from Tommy John surgery. Since returning Aug. 14, he is 3-0 with a 2.52 ERA.
The Red Sox have placed 18 players on the COVID-19-related injury list since Aug. 3, including infielders Xander Bogaerts and Christian Arroyo and pitchers Nick Pivetta, Matt Barnes and Martn Prez.
Bogaerts was reinstated Friday and returned to the starting lineup against the White Sox. It was his first game since he was pulled from an 8-5 loss at Tampa Bay on Aug. 31 after the Red Sox found out he had tested positive. The three-time All-Star had to stay behind in Florida after the team departed.
Outfielder Hunter Renfroe claimed Thursday that Major League Baseballtold the Red Sox to "stop testing"amid the outbreak, a claim which MLB denied.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
North Texas COVID-19 hospitalization numbers appear to be leveling off from latest surge
After the highest ever pediatric case count of the entire pandemic here in North Texas, positive cases appear to be leveling off.
DALLAS - There's new hope in the battle against COVID-19 in Texas schools.
After the highest ever pediatric case count of the entire pandemic here in North Texas, positive cases are leveling off.
But doctors warn we don't know how long we could be in the plateau, or how many could be infected at the top of the curve.
The Dallas Medical Society reports the amount of new positive COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals is trickling down slowly.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations are still battling little to no bed space.
"The burnout rate among the nursing staff and physicians is really out of control,"pediatrician Dr. Marcial Oquendo said.
Dr. Oquendo said hes looking for any sign of relief.
Now, in mid-September,the Dallas pediatrician said COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to show theyre leveling off in most counties.
"What we have seen from most other countries, with the delta spike, it goes up quickly and comes down. We just didnt know how many people were going to be affected in the area under the curve," he explained.
According to the DFW Hospital Council, hospitalization numbers in North Texas have been hovering around 3,500 for the past two weeks.
The vast majority of COVID-19 patients are unvaccinated.
Available ICU beds in Dallas County remain in the teens, with the death toll rising.
MORE: Continued COVID-19 Coverage
As of Sunday, Dallas and Tarrant counties together surpassed 8,000 COVID-19 deaths.
Also on Sunday, Texas reported 272 pediatric COVID-19 patients, with 111 of them being in North Texas.
A slight decrease from last weeks pandemic high of 131 North Texas pediatric COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Oquendo did notice a change in the number of positive cases in Texas public schools.
"I am cautiously optimistic that this will show the beginning of the decline and peak of COVID and the delta variant in schools," he said. "We dont know for sure. Could it be a blip in the data? Hopefully we have seen the peak."
During the last week of August, COVID-19 in the classroom skyrocketed, according to the state.
A pandemic high of more than 35,000 Texas students tested positive.
Following the first week of September, that number was cut in half to 13,000 positive cases, which is still higher than any week during last school year.
"At some point, we are going to have another spike, whether its another variant or something else. So we need to protect the kids and the community because this is how it spreads," Dr. Oquendo said.
Gabriel Williams got the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Oak Cliff Sunday. He admitted he was hesitant.
"I felt like I was in a good place to pull the trigger and get the vaccine," he said.
But he said he couldnt wait any longer, worried his son and wife would be in danger.
"I just want to be safe, whether its my family or someone elses," he said.
Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation said ages 18 and under are still making up close to a quarter of the new positive cases.
Meanwhile, across North Texas, childrens hospitals are still battling with zero pediatric ICU beds available as of Sunday.
September 12, 2021
Media Contact:
Deidre McCabe, Director, Office of Communications, 410-767-3536
Charles Gischlar, Deputy Director, Media Relations 410-767-6491
PHOTO RELEASE: Maryland Department of Health provides free COVID-19 vaccinations at the Salvadoran Independence Festival in Montgomery County
Baltimore, MD The Maryland Department of Health (MDH) today conducted a free COVID-19 mobile clinic and vaccine outreach at the 16th Annual Salvadoran Independence Festival held at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds in Gaithersburg.
The event is an example of statewide efforts for the equitable and convenient administration of COVID-19 vaccines by bringing them directly to vulnerable and hard-to-reach communities.
Community promoters sharing information with festival participants to encourage vaccination.
In addition to the mobile clinic, bilingual community canvassers shared educational material about the vaccine, available in English and Spanish, with festival attendees to encourage them to get vaccinated.
For more information on COVID-19 vaccines, visit covidLINK.maryland.gov.
To schedule a COVID -19 vaccination appointment, visit covidvax.maryland.gov.
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The Maryland Department of Health is dedicated to protecting and improving the health and safety of all Marylanders through disease prevention, access to care, quality management and community engagement.
Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/MDHealthDept and https://www.facebook.com/MDHealthDept
Fake job offers on the rise amid COVID-19 pandemic, says Better Business Bureau WWMT-TV
RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) Family and friends are remembering lives lost due to COVID-19.
Historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh hosted a COVID-19 Day of Remembrance on Sunday.
Visitors wrote messages on ribbons and tied them to trees located in the cemeterys Grove of Remembrance.
The section opened about two months ago as a way for people to remember loved ones. The cemeterys Executive Director Robin Simonton said the pandemic made it difficult for many people to hold traditional funerals.
It really changed the way we say goodbye, Simonton said. And so, we created this Grove of Remembrance a couple months ago because whether your loved one died of COVID or something else, but you had a funeral during this challenging time, it was really different for families to be able to gather.
For Deborah Liggins, it was a way to remember her husband of more than 50 years.
Ricky Liggins was a retired Raleigh police officer who passed away in Nov. 2020 after contracting COVID-19. His wife came up with the idea for a day dedicated to remembering those lost to COVID-19 and reached out to Oakwood Cemetery.
They dont need to be forgotten either, Liggins said. They were human, they were here, they were part of us, and its left a big void in everybodys life.
Bob Carson of Raleigh came to honor two friends.
We wrote we miss you so much Jack, and we love you, Carson said.
It was a message similar to the one Liggins wrote on the ribbon for her husband.
I actually put on the ribbon that he was missed every day, hes missed all day long, and that I love him, and that I would never forget about him, she said.
Simonton said the group Activate Good made hundreds of cards for families who lost loved ones to COVID-19 for the cemetery to hand out. She said people can visit the cemetery office Monday through Friday and pick up a ribbon.
Its a way to refresh my memory of him and then realize that its not just one life lost, but hundreds of thousands, so yes it does help, Carson said.
More than 15,000 people in North Carolina have died from COVID-19.
Just a few months ago, there were only five COVID-19 patients, at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho. As of Thursday, there were more than 45.
Nearly all of these patients are not vaccinated, a reflection of "the amount of misinformation that's being absorbed, and taken as truth in our community because people are convinced that they don't want to be vaccinated, and then they end up here," Dr. Meghan McInerney, the intensive care unit's medical director, told ABC News.
Given the influx of patients, beds do not stay empty long.
"We are overwhelmed. We have so many patients with COVID, who are unvaccinated," said McInerney. "On top of an already busy ICU, you add the volume of COVID patients that we're seeing now and yes, it's just added a different level of busy, a different level of crazy. ... It's a lot. It's a lot."
Hospitals across the state of Idaho are now facing their most significant surge yet, as COVID-19 patients flood into emergency departments.
Statewide, more than 600 patients are now hospitalized with the virus, the highest on record, and less than 13% of the state's ICU beds remain available.
ABC News' Kaylee Hartung speaks with hospitalist, Dr. Carolyn McFarlane, and COVID-19 charge nurse, Alicia Luciani, at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise, Idaho.
Earlier this week, in an effort to address the ongoing surge, state health officials in Idaho announced that they had activated a "crisis standards of care" for the state's northern hospitals, which will allow hospitals to ration care given the increased demand and a "severe staffing shortage."
The rapidly spreading delta variant has rendered the job of these front-line workers even more difficult, McInerney explained. Idaho currently has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S., with less than 40% of the state's total population fully vaccinated; the national rate stands at 53.6%.
"It's really hard to be a physician at the front lines, doing this every single day and living in a state where the vaccination rate is so low," McInerney said.
In fact, all of the patients who are critically ill from COVID-19 and currently under care in Saint Alphonsus Boise have not been vaccinated, ICU nurse Jessica Parrott told ABC News, while "the people who are not getting critically ill, are the people who have the vaccine," she added.
The virus is also landing much younger people in the ICU, some of whom are in their early 20s. This particular wave of infections feels more "aggressive," than those treated during the surge in 2020, said Dr. Carolyn McFarlane, a hospitalist at Saint Alphonsus Boise.
"The deaths within our system in the past 24 hours are a 30-year-old and another in their 50s. It feels preventable," McFarlane said.
ABC News' Kaylee Hartung speaks with Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center's ICU Medical Director, Dr. Meghan McInerney, in Boise, Idaho.
Staff are completely overworked and overwhelmed, McInerney said, and teams are facing a staffing crisis. Nurses are being increasingly asked to pick up extra shifts due to the influx of patients coming from all over Idaho, and even from outside the state.
"We don't have the hands that we need to take care of everyone. And it is incredibly frustrating for all of those involved on every level, between [administration] down to environmental services," said Alicia Luciani, a COVID-19 charge nurse at Saint Alphonsus Boise. "It's affecting everyone and affecting how our patients are getting care. And we do our utmost to provide all that we can for these patients." However, she added, "It's incredibly frustrating. Everyone is so tired."
In addition to the physical and emotional exhaustion from working shifts that feel like a "silent battleground," medical staffers at Saint Alphonsus said they are disheartened by the continued unwillingness of some Idaho residents to get the vaccine.
Although a number of patients do express regret that they have not received or sought out a vaccination, some even apologizing for it, according to nurse educator Monica Brower, others remain contentious, even after being on a ventilator and confronting the stark reality of their mortality.
"Don't tell me I have COVID. I don't believe in COVID," patients have told McFarlane, who teared up as she recounted combative patients.
"There is an almost adversarial tone to things when we ask, 'Did you get vaccinated?'" McFarlane said. "It creates a rift in the tone of the room, because it's a feeling of 'well you're going to treat me differently because I didn't get vaccinated,' and that is far from the truth."
Medical professionals pronate a 39-year old unvaccinated COVID-19 patient in the Medical Intensive care unit (MICU) at St. Luke's Boise Medical Center in Boise, Idaho, Aug. 31, 2021.
In fact, said McFarlane, "It almost gets to a point where you read the tone in the room and you shy away from even asking about vaccination status, because you want to be able to focus on saving the person's life, not going into the politics behind the vaccine."
As more unvaccinated patients fill hospital beds, Luciani said it has become "really hard to maintain a level of hope."
"They stick to their guns," Luciani explained, and even on their death bed she's had to listen to people deny that they have the virus, while maintaining their fervent anti-vaccine sentiment. "In my mind, that life is essentially over as we know it. ... Some people just refuse. And it's kind of like a slap in the face."
"They don't get to see how hard we're working to try to keep them alive. ... This is the real deal. This is what it looks like," McInerney said.
When asked what keeps them going, McFarlane's answer resonates.
"We are taking care of our communities, family members, people that are acquaintances, neighbors. ... We will do everything we can to care for them, because we care, because we have taken an oath, and it's the time for us to rise to the occasion. And we are here for our community."
CHICAGO (NewsNation Now) The family of an Alabama man who died of heart issues more than 200 miles from his home is asking people to get vaccinated against the coronavirus after more than 40 hospitals across three states were unable to accept him due to full cardiac ICUs.
Ray Martin DeMonia died Sept. 1; three days before his 74th birthday, his family said.
DeMonia suffered a heart attack and was transferred to the nearest available bed, which was more than 200 miles away at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi.
In his obituary, his family urged people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
In honor of Ray, please get vaccinated if you have not, in an effort to free up resources for non-COVID-related emergencies, the obituary read.
Cases in COVID-19 cases are once again pushing hospitals across the country to their limits.
Danne Howard, the Alabama Hospital Association deputy director, said the state is in a dire place. The COVID-19 surge began in mid-august and has now reached its highest point ever during the pandemic.
I cant predict whats going to happen tomorrow, but were certainly not rending in the right direction, Howard said.
Although hospitals do have the capability to expand capacity, Howard said theres a lack of staff to handle that change adequately.
Thats why were so aggressively trying to find additional resources, so those decisions dont have to be made, so those types of life-or-death situations are not something that have to be faced, Howard explained.
On Tuesday, Alabama saw83 more ICU patientsthan ICU beds open statewide. On Wednesday, there were94 more ICU patients than beds available.
The Alabama Hospital Association says morethan half of those patients are battling COVID-19. Howard says relief cant come soon enough.
Were not throwing in the towel, but it is a dire and serious situation, she said.
The Alabama Hospital Association works daily with the state health department and the governors office to find staff and resources. However, Hurricane Ida has taken much of it away; federal medical teams are still deployed to help there. Theyre urging people to continue to socially distance themselves and only go to the emergency room if it is a true emergency.
The NFL is moving closer to its goal of getting as many players vaccinated as possible, with nearly 94% of all players on Week 1 rosters getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the NFL, 93.5% of all players and more than 99% of all club personnel are vaccinated. There are 17 teams above 95% and 27 clubs have 90% or more of all players vaccinated. The lowest club is at 80% and there are three teams between 80-85%. TheColtsandVikingsare among the teams that have dealt with COVID-related issues this offseason, are there are no shortage of coaches and executives around the league who wish their rates were higher.
TheFalcons,BuccaneersandRaidersare fully vaccinated.
COVID will clearly remain a factor in the NFL this season, as it does in our society. The onboarding process for free agents is set up to incentivize vaccination, with non-vaxxed players needing five days until they fully join a new club. That is a substantial factor for teams looking for replacements for practices and games right away, and you cannot find a personnel person or agent in the NFL who is not convinced that this is a significant factor in making roster decisions on the fly moving forward.
Particularly with specialists or players at positions with very limited reserves (like quarterback), the additional time a player must miss for being a close contact or testing positive without being vaccinated has massive ramifications in terms of availability.
"Take a look at some of the punters or quarterbacks still out there," one personnel exec said. "And then check on their vaccination status."
The NFL has made it clear it is not willing to go to the lengths it so often did a year ago to facilitate the playing of a game compromised by a team's COVID situation. That too is lost on no one making roster decisions in the league.
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