Passengers queue up at Greece's Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport on Sept. 2. Recommendations about physical distancing prove hard to follow at airports and in the jetway leading to the plane. Konstantinos Tsakalidis/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption
Passengers queue up at Greece's Thessaloniki Makedonia Airport on Sept. 2. Recommendations about physical distancing prove hard to follow at airports and in the jetway leading to the plane.
Each week, we answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." See an archive of our FAQs here.
I waited until I was vaccinated and the CDC had OK'd non-essential travel to plan a trip but that was before the delta era. Now I have a flight scheduled in September, and cases are skyrocketing. What are the rules for flying this fall? Should I cancel?!
That depends.
The decision to travel rests on both your personal risk tolerance and on public health considerations, say medical and travel experts. If you have a flight booked for the next few weeks, now is the time to reevaluate. Ask yourself these questions, suggests Dr. Jill Weatherhead, an assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine:
So when should you cancel a trip?
This is a particularly challenging moment of the pandemic to make decisions, our experts acknowledge, because there's just a lot we don't know about the coming months.
"We don't know what direction things will go; it's hard to predict right now," Weatherhead says. "Delta is a new variable, and some areas are not using the same mitigation strategies they used last year."
The governor of Hawaii has even asked all tourists to stay away until at least the end of October, while hospitals are at capacity.
"Given all that, my best advice is that everyone's travel threshold should be a bit higher right now," Wu says. "With this wave being so serious it is wise to scale back on activity that increases exposure risk."
Instead of canceling, however, consider postponing.
"It makes sense to wait if travel can be delayed," Wu says. "I would say delay until there's more certainty or maybe change it to a road trip" to a safer destination.
The good news is that most major airlines are still waiving change fees. One thing that hasn't changed, however? The telephone hold time. You could be waiting around 2 hours to talk to a human.
If you go:
If you do fly, the rules haven't changed for domestic flights: You're still required to mask up in airports, and you'll still reduce your risk by keeping a physical distance from others as much as possible and removing your mask as infrequently as possible. Although many people dropped some of the layering strategies after they got vaccinated, they still work and are particularly essential when you're in riskier-than-usual situations, Wu says such as the jet bridge between the airport and the airplane.
"I traveled this summer and I think the most dangerous part was the jet bridges, which still get backed up and crowded," he says. "There's not a lot you can do, but keep your mask on. The more you can avoid that crowd the better."
The snack cart presents another potentially risky situation, so take your snack to go (save it for your destination) or eat it quickly when others have their masks on, Wu and Weatherhead suggest.
Logistically, travelling domestically remains fairly straightforward: There are no temperature checks or verification systems to check your vaccination or COVID-19 testing records. (Once you get to your destination, however, your vaccination card may be required to eat at restaurants or go to concerts.)
If you're travelling overseas, things are now a little more complex: The European Union took the U.S. off its "safe list" this week, meaning individual countries may impose quarantine and testing restrictions in order to visit. Be sure to check the requirements of the country you're travelling to as well as the CDC's list of countries not to travel to.
While the CDC doesn't officially recommend testing after you're back home] if you're vaccinated, "if you have risk factors or around folks who may be frail or unvaccinated, I don't think it's a bad thing to be extra careful and get tested," Wu says.
What if you're not vaccinated?
Like most activities involving other people, travelling while unvaccinated is a lot riskier. In fact, this week the CDC asked all unvaccinated people to avoid travel over the Labor Day holiday.
"If you're going to travel anyway and not be vaccinated, then really do your best and follow protocols [masking and physical distancing] for your own safety and those around you," Wu says. And, he says, quarantine or get tested after your trip!
A simpler solution? Weatherhead and Wu say if you're eligible, get vaccinated.
Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a freelance health journalist in Minneapolis. She's written about COVID-19 for many publications, including Medscape, Kaiser Health News, Science News for Students and The Washington Post. More at sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com. On Twitter: @milepostmedia.
More than 78% of Illinois adults have received at least one vaccine dose and more than 61% are fully vaccinated
SPRINGFIELD The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) today reported 30,319 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Illinois, including 178 additional deaths since reporting last Friday, August 27, 2021. More than 78% of Illinois adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose and more than 61% of Illinois adults are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Currently, IDPH is reporting a total of 1,538,324 cases, including 24,067 deaths, in 102 counties in Illinois. The age of cases ranges from younger than one to older than 100 years. Since reporting on Friday, August 27, 2021, laboratories have reported 609,585 specimens for a total of 29,177,890. As of last night, 2,286 individuals in Illinois were reported to be in the hospital with COVID-19. Of those, 551 patients were in the ICU and 302 patients with COVID-19 were on ventilators.
The preliminary seven-day statewide positivity for cases as a percent of total test from August 27-September 2, 2021 is 5.0%. The preliminary seven-day statewide test positivity from August 27-September 2, 2021 is 5.4%.
A total of 14,005,857 vaccines have been administered in Illinois as of last midnight. The seven-day rolling average of vaccines administered daily is 26,431 doses. Since reporting on Friday, August 27, 2021, 185,014 doses were reported administered in Illinois.
*All data are provisional and will change. Additional information and COVID-19 data can be found at http://www.dph.illinois.gov/covid19.
Vaccination is the key to ending this pandemic. To find a COVID-19 vaccination location near you, go to www.vaccines.gov.
Joe Rogan tests positive for COVID-19
Podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan revealed in an Instagram post that he has tested positive for COVID-19. His show in Nashville has been postponed until October 24.
unbranded - Entertainment, unbranded - Entertainment
Joe Rogan contractedCOVID-19 after previously downplaying vaccines and announced that among the medicines hes taking is ivermectin, a veterinary drug which is used to deworm horses. Health experts have warned against taking it to treat the virus.
The irony is off the charts. So is the danger. You cant censor people like Rogan, but you canignore them, and you should.
Millions wont, alas. People listen to him. Rogan hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, the most popular podcast in the U.S. He is absurdly influential, a big voice in the Im free to make really bad decisions and you cant stop me camp.
Hes not alone, and there is a much darker irony at work here. At least four conservative radio hosts who spoke out against the vaccine have died of COVID-19. Think about that. Some made deathbed conversions and encouraged their listeners to get vaccinated. But it was too late for them.
This is maddening, but its also incredibly sad, not just for the hosts who have died but for the many people influenced by their words. How many of their listeners have died or gotten sick, or will because they tookadvice from a media figure they trusted? How many will start taking ivermectin thanks to Rogan, despite the Food and Drug Administrations stance against its use in humans to fight the virus? Its memorable tweet in August spoke volumes:
You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, yall. Stop it.
Truth and facts have been devalued to the point that a major government agency has to tweet colloquial common sense just to try to convince people to do the right thing failing that, at least not doing the wrong thing. Why arent the people with powerful voices in media doing the same?
Fact check: Ivermectin is not a proven treatment for COVID-19
Words matter.
Its that simple. That phrase has been bandied about forever, but with a special urgency in the last five years. When you have a powerful platform it comes with responsibility. And yet responsibility has become something that hosts like Tucker Carlson on Fox News scoff at.
Some of it plays like a game, an obvious attempt to get attention, not some deeply held belief. Its almost like a joke. Except that the joke is on the audience, and its not funny at all.
Marc Bernier, a radio host in Florida, said the government was acting like Nazis by trying to get people vaccinated. He died of COVID-19. So did Dick Farrel, also a host in Florida, as well as Phil Valentine and Jimmy DeYoung in Tennessee. All encouraged coronavirus vaccine skepticism. Now all are dead.
Getting COVID-19 doesn't make you a bad person. Telling people not to worry about it, or convincing them they shouldn't take precautions, on the other hand ...
Whenever anyone questions such irresponsible behavior, the cries of censorship begin. Oh, so anyone you disagree with should be silenced?
Regeneron: What is the monoclonal antibody treatment Gov. Greg Abbott received?
No. Censorship isnt the answer. Doing the right thing is. The First Amendment is necessary and crucial to the survival of democracy, and that is not hyperbole. Yet it is also easily taken advantage of by unscrupulous showoffs who believe it is their job just to make you just a little bit madder than you were yesterday. Its a power trip, and far too many people fall for it.
Getting vaccinated or wearing a mask doesnt take any of your freedoms away. It grants you more freedoms, like the freedom to open the world back up in a safe way. Yet for some, fighting against science and common sense has become a kind of badge of courage, a show of patriotism, as if not doing the least little thing you can for your community somehow wraps you in the flag.
Thats ridiculous.
But people predisposed to that sort of thinking are being egged on by voices like Rogans. Thats not freedom, either. Its foolishness.
Rogan is lucky, relatively speaking. Hes said that he feels fine now.Bernier, Farrel, Valentine and DeYoung werent so lucky. Its likely that their deaths could have been prevented. Its also likely that their broadcasts have endangered others.
Words matter. Use them wisely and use them responsibly. If you cant, maybe dont use them at all.
Words matter:Kari Lake tweets like Trump: Irresponsibly and dangerously
Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com. Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm. Twitter: @goodyk. Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter.
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WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday shipped more than 2 million doses of Moderna's (MRNA.O) COVID-19 vaccine to Kenya and Ghana on Thursday through the COVAX global distribution program, a White House official said.
The United States sent 880,320 doses to Kenya, bringing the total number of doses sent to the African country to just over 1.76 million, the official said. It sent 1,229,620 doses to Ghana, the first shipment to that country.
Thursday's shipments were the latest installments in a U.S. vaccine diplomacy push that has sent vaccines to dozens of countries.
The doses are being delivered through COVAX, jointly run by the World Health Organization and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
Africa has lagged sharply behind other regions in vaccinating its citizens, with most countries reporting single-digit vaccination rates, compared with much higher double-digit rates in advanced economies such as the United States.
Reporting by Andrea ShalalEditing by Robert Birsel and Gerry Doyle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
COLUMBIANA, Ohio (WKBN) In case COVID-19 wasnt enough for schools to worry about, now one local school is having to deal with another illness.
Its call hand, foot and mouth disease.
Crestview Schools have had an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease. Right now, about 13 students have gotten it.
A few students had the disease before the school year started.
We started with that, and later in the week, the first week of school, which was last week, we started to get some cases that were here, said Matthew Manley
Hand, foot and mouth disease is spread by a virus through sneezing, coughing and surfaces. Someone can show symptoms within 48 hours, which can be minor or severe, depending on the person.
Kids may start with some red spots on their feet and on their hands. They may actually have a fever a couple of days before you even see that, said Janet Leipheimer.
Spots can even form in or around the childs mouth that can be painful. If bad enough, the red spots can become blisters.
You can be contagious before you even know.
If the blisters are open, we ask that you stay home until they scab up, cover over, Leipheimer said.
If the childs symptoms are bad enough, they may be asked to stay home.
Commonly hand, foot and mouth disease is found in younger children, but this isnt the case here.
Its not blaming one party or another. Its just the reality of the situation. If we have something here, it might spread to the community or vice versa, Manley said.
Since hand, foot and mouth disease is a viral infection, some of the safety protocols weve learned since the start of the pandemic can help with this sickness.
Frequent hand washing, masking is a way to prevent it, Manley said. Were outside right now, and in the building, I would have my mask on.
Hospitals officials warn that the worsening outbreak could overwhelm the state's health care system if more residents don't buy into vaccination, mask-wearing and social distancing.
NEW CASES REPORTED THURSDAY, SEPT. 2: 535
ACTIVE CASES*: 2,763
DAILY POSITIVITY RATE: 6.7%
TOTAL KNOWN CASES THROUGHOUT PANDEMIC: 118,491
TOTAL RECOVERED THROUGHOUT PANDEMIC: 114,116
*The Department of Health often amends the number of active cases after they are first reported.
North Dakota's active cases shot up 331 over the previous day as infections climb at a steep rate.
Cass County, which encompasses Fargo, has the most known active cases in the state with 527. Burleigh County had 510 known cases as of Thursday, and Stark County, which encompasses Dickinson, had 234. Stark County also leads the state in active cases per capita, followed by several other low vaccination counties in central and western North Dakota.
The state's 14-day rolling average positivity rate was 6.7% the highest rate since December.
Hospitalizations fell slightly over the previous day, but health care providers have struggled lately to keep up rising admissions amid staffing shortages. Unlike last fall's COVID-19 peak, hospitals are dealing with many noncoronavirus patients on top of high-maintenance COVID-19 patients.
North Dakota had 15 staffed intensive care beds available throughout the state as of Wednesday, along with 195 staffed inpatient beds. Bismarck and Minot hospitals had no available ICU or inpatient beds, while Fargo's three hospitals had a combine nine ICU beds and 12 inpatient beds.
The state reported one death in rural Golden Valley County on Thursday. The department no longer provides information the gender or age of deceased residents.
The department began releasing data last week about "breakthrough" cases in fully vaccinated residents. During the week of Aug. 22, the state reported 22 hospitalizations where the person was fully vaccinated and 80 hospitalizations where the person was not fully vaccinated.
FIRST DOSE ADMINISTERED*: 349,154 (52.7% of population ages 12 and up)
FULL VACCINE COVERAGE*: 321,663 (48.5% of population ages 12 and up)
*These figures come from the state's vaccine dashboard, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which includes vaccinations performed at federal sites, reports slightly higher vaccination rates.
North Dakota ranks in the bottom ten states in vaccination rate, though fear of the delta variant has spurred a slight increase in vaccination rate over the last few weeks, state immunization coordinator Molly Howell said.
Even though a person can be infected with COVID-19 after they are fully vaccinated, health officials emphasize that those who are immunized often experience less severe symptoms and are less likely to be hospitalized.
More information about vaccines can be found at www.health.nd.gov/covidvaccinelocator.
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ATLANTA Georgia currently has the highest number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 since the pandemic began.
The Georgia Department of Health reported Thursday that 6,003 patients are hospitalized with the virus across the state.
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The previous high was 5,700 cases on Jan. 13.
Nearly 34% of patients who are hospitalized statewide are COVID-19 patients, but that number is much higher in some regions.
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In far southeast Georgia, nearly 60% of hospitalized patients are COVID-19 patients. In far north Georgia, 50% of patients in the hospital have the coronavirus. The innermost parts of metro Atlanta are the only areas of the state with less than 30% of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
Just over 95% of intensive care unit beds in Georgia are occupied. Of Georgias 14 regions, the only region below 90% ICU capacity was the metro Atlanta region. Five regions were at capacity or over capacity.
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According to Wellstar Health System, which runs 12 hospital facilities in metro Atlanta, of the 734 patients they are treating, only 57 of them are vaccinated. Of the 163 patients in the ICU, 155 are unvaccinated. Of the 122 patients on ventilators, 116 are unvaccinated.
There were 126 new COVID-19 deaths reported across the state on Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are advising people who are not vaccinated to not travel over the Labor Day holiday weekend.
Dr. Felipe Lobelo with Kaiser Permanente Georgia said even vaccinated people need to be careful if theyll be gathering with friends and family this weekend.
Do you have small children that have not been vaccinated? Do you have immunocompromised family members? In general, we know gatherings outdoors are much better than indoors, Lobelo said.
Lobelo said there are some signs cases are leveling out slightly, but a lot will depend on how people behave this weekend and what happens in schools. Hes encouraging people who have not been vaccinated to spend some time this weekend getting their shots.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to increase infections in Ohio, all 88 counties have reached high transmission of the virus, the highest level according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ashtabula County in far northeastern Ohio had been the only county still a level below with substantial coronavirus transmission, but Ashtabula turned red on the CDCs map on Thursday.
Ohio joins neighbors West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana in seeing red in every county. As for other border states Pennsylvania and Michigan, just 10 counties across the two are still orange with substantial transmission. 3,029 U.S. counties are at the highest level of transmission, more than 94% of the nations counties.
The CDCs color code system uses COVID-19 case rates and percent test positivity over seven-day periods. The case rate period currently reflects Thursday, Aug. 26, through Wednesday, Sept. 1, while percent positivity reflects Tuesday, Aug. 24, through Monday, Aug. 30.
Over those periods, Ashtabula County has seen 102 cases and 7.35% of tests result in positives. Franklin County, for comparison, has seen 3,100 cases over the past seven days and 8.07% of its tests be positive for the virus.
Antibody treatment for COVID-19 becoming more widely available in Georgia Atlanta Journal Constitution
Health Department clinics, Environmental Health offices, and Coastal Health District offices will be closed for a state holiday on Friday, Sept. 3 and Monday, Sept. 6, 2021. However, COVID-19 vaccination and testing services will be offered at several locations. See a list of locations, dates, and times below.
To pre-register for a COVID-19 test, visit gachd.org/covidtest/. To schedule an appointment for vaccination, visit chdcovidvax.org.
Our Call Centers for testing and vaccination will be operational with normal hours, Friday, 8 a.m. 2 p.m. and Monday, 8 a.m. 5 p.m. For assistance with scheduling a COVID-19 test, call 912-230-9744. For assistance with vaccination, call 912-230-5506.
Friday, September 3:
Monday, September 6:
Please note mobile clinics cannot give third doses for immunocompromised individuals. First and second doses only.
Friday, September 3:
Saturday, September 4:
Sunday, September 5:
Monday, September 6:
Friday, September 3:
Saturday, September 4:
Monday, September 6:
