Texas Pastor Danny Reeves plans to share his own dire experience with COVID-19 with his congregation and encourage everyone who's eligible to get vaccinated. Courtesy of Danny Reeves hide caption
Texas Pastor Danny Reeves plans to share his own dire experience with COVID-19 with his congregation and encourage everyone who's eligible to get vaccinated.
Last month, Pastor Danny Reeves was fighting for his life in the ICU at Dallas' Baylor Medical Center. He had COVID-19 and he wasn't vaccinated.
Now, the senior pastor at First Baptist Corsicana in North Central Texas regrets not getting the shot earlier, and he plans to tell his congregants his story on Sunday when he returns to the pulpit.
"I was falsely and erroneously overconfident," Reeves told NPR's Morning Edition.
Reeves says he isn't against vaccines, and he encouraged certain people in his community mostly seniors to get vaccinated before he contracted coronavirus. But he thought since he's in his 40s and generally healthy, getting the virus wouldn't be a big deal.
"Unfortunately, that was the attitude that I had: That if I did get it, I thought it would just be a nothing issue. And in that I was deeply, deeply wrong."
Pastor Danny Reeves, on why he didn't get a COVID-19 vaccine
Reeves describes his experience at the hospital as "harrowing." At one point during his two night stay at the ICU, a doctor told Reeves he might die.
Weeks later, Reeves is still recovering.
"It ravaged my healthy body," he said. "There's no doubt."
COVID-19 cases are surging across North Texas and projections indicate they may soon reach last winter's peak.
Of his first service back, Reeves says, "We're going to praise God together for his rescue. I'm going to lay out lessons that I've learned ... And certainly I'm going to talk straight to our people about who we can and should be as God's people and what it really means to love our neighbor."
Reeves says he plans to get vaccinated once his doctor tells him it's safe to do so.
This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) Maryland reported 1,067 new COVID-19 cases and twelve new deaths, according to state health department data released Sunday morning.
This marks the fifth consecutive day of more than a thousand new cases.
Doctors say the new cases are fueled by dangerous strains targeting the unvaccinated. During an August press conference, Gov. Larry Hogan said the Delta variant, a strain that is reportedly two to four times more contagious than the original virus strain, accounts for nearly every new confirmed case in Maryland.
Hogan also saidless than 0.01% of vaccinated Marylanders have been hospitalized with COVID-19, and less than 0.001% of vaccinated Marylanders have died from the virus.
The vaccines are without a doubt our single most effective tool to mitigate the threat of COVID-19 and the surging Delta variant, and Marylands vaccination rate continues to outpace the nation, Hogan said.
Equally as important as getting a vaccine yourself is helping someone you know to get a vaccine. The vaccines are very safe, they are very effective, they are completely free, and they are widely available nearly everywhere.
More than 3.8 million Maryland adults are fully vaccinated. State officials also reported that the state positivity increased by 0.05 to 4.9%.
Hospitalizations decreased by 11 to 679. Of those hospitalized, 505 remain in acute care and 174 remain in the ICU.
Since the pandemic began, there were 494,982 total confirmed cases and 9,772 deaths.
There are 3,714,076 Marylanders fully vaccinated. The state has administered 7,518,231 doses. Of those, 3,804,155 are first doses with 7,737 administered in the past 24 hours. They have given out 3,430,557 second doses, 7,534 in the last day.
The state began to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again in April after the CDC and FDA lifted their pause on the vaccine due to a rare blood clot found in some women.
A total of 283,519 Marylanders have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, 308 in the last day.
The state reported 80.7% of all adults in Maryland have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
In August, the state launched a post-vaccination infections dashboard that is updated every Wednesday. There have been 9,079 total cases among fully vaccinated Marylanders as of last Wednesday, August 25.
Of those cases, 733 vaccinated Marylanders were hospitalized, representing 5.6% of all Covid cases hospitalized in the state. 76 fully vaccinated Marylanders have died, representing 5% of lab-confirmed Covid deaths in the state.
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES:
Heres a breakdown of the numbers:
By County
By Age Range and Gender
By Race and Ethnicity
However, as Fauci told host Martha Raddatz, there's still a lot that can be done in the meantime to tackle the surge in Covid cases across the country.
"We still are in a situation where there's a lot we can do about it," Fauci said. "We have now about 80 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who have not yet gotten vaccinated. We need to get those people vaccinated. We have the highly effective and safe tool to really get those numbers down."
Recent data shows that the daily new case average is up 153 percent over the last month, with hospitalizations surpassing 100,000 for the first time since January and Covid-related deaths on the rise.
"Those are numbers that are really quite startling," Fauci said. "We are still in an upsurge. The numbers that you [Raddatz] gave are very, very alarming. But we can do something about it. If it was a situation in which we had no recourse or no tools, you could see how frustrating it would be."
"But it's even more frustrating when you have this situation where we do have a vaccine that's highly effective, highly safe, accessible, free and it works," he continued. "We've really got to get those people are are not vaccinated in that group, vaccinated."
The Delta variant, Fauci explained, is highly transmissible more so than prior variants and is affecting both adults and children, especially those who cannot be vaccinated, such as children under 12. Fauci also mentioned that FDA hopes to have enough data by mid-September or early October to assess the safety and effectiveness of vaccinations for younger children.
On CNNs State of the Union, host Jake Tapper noted that the campaign committee of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been offering Dont Fauci My Florida merchandise even as the state has been hit hard by the Delta variant surge. Fauci said such attacks on him were misguided and unfortunate.
Its just a reflection of the politicization of what should be a purely public health issue, Fauci said.
COVID-19 biomarker research may help doctors better understand condition that hits kids LA Daily News
COLUMBUS, Ohio There were more than 5,000 new COVID-19 cases reported in the state today, according to the Ohio Department of Health, continuing the trend of rising COVID-19 cases across the state.
A total of 5,204 cases were reported today.
Cases have been on the rise since July with numbers spiking over 5,000 on Thursday as well.
The number of new cases today is higher than the rolling 21-day average of daily cases, which is 3,191. These numbers include both cases confirmed by a viral test and cases that meet the CDC's definition of probable.
While cases are on the rise, hospitalizations have remained low relative to the current surge of COVID-19.
The ODH reported 115 new hospitalizations today, lower than the rolling 21-day average of 134, while reporting 12 new ICU admissions.
There are currently 2,157 COVID-19 patients in Ohio's hospitals, and 638 COVID-19 patients in the ICU.
Non-COVID patients are currently occupying 66.8% of the state's hospital beds, according to ODH. COVID-positive patients account for 8.1%, leaving 25.1% of beds currently available. COVID patients make up 13.39% of the state's ICU beds, non-COVID patients are occupying 61.70% of ICU beds, and 24.91% of ICU beds are currently open.
There have now been 20,799 coronavirus-related deaths across the state; no new deaths were reported today as the state changes the frequency in which mortality is reported.
As other states do not send the death certificates for Ohioans who die out of state to ODH's Bureau of Vital Statistics on a regular schedule, the mortality data provided by Ohio will continue to fluctuate and those deaths will be assigned to their appropriate dates.
Vaccinations
Here's how Ohio's vaccination rate compares to other states:
To date, the COVID-19 vaccine has been started in 6,047,494 people in Ohio, which is 51.74% of the state's population. The vaccine has been started in 12,448 people in the last 24 hours.
Oho Department of Health
The COVID-19 vaccination has been completed in a total of 5,585,621 people, which is 47.78% of the state's population. In the last 24 hours, the vaccine has been completed in 11,285 people.
Ohio Department of Health
This chart shows the vaccination rates of each Ohio county:
Testing
There were 40,849 tests done on Aug. 26, the latest day this data from the ODH was available. Of those tests, 11.3% were positive, compared to the rolling 7-day average positivity rate, which is 10.4%. Click here for details on where to get a COVID-19 test in your area.
Note: The charts above are updated from a variety of sources, and may or may not reflect the latest COVID-19 data released by the state. These charts are regularly updated with new data and may not reflect the statistics in the text of this story at the time it was published.
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Vaccinating Ohio - Find the latest news on the COVID-19 vaccines, Ohio's phased vaccination process, a map of vaccination clinics around the state, and links to sign up for a vaccination appointment through Ohio's online portal.
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More than three-quarters of the largest U.S. companies reported higher revenue than before Covid-19, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis, indicating that many have adapted to changing business conditions caused by the pandemic.
Among the companies in the S&P 500, 213have reported revenue for the calendar years second quarter above 2019 levels after a drop in 2020. Another153have hadsecond-quarter revenue in each of the past two years that exceeded 2019.
Meanwhile,101companies remain below their 2019 figures, and10saw a drop this year after a rise last year.
The numbers are based on a Journal analysis of FactSet data for the 477 S&P 500 companies that have reported results for the second quarter through Friday.
The consumer-services sector had the largest decline in second-quarter 2021 revenues from the same period of 2019. The charts below show percentage change in median second-quarter revenue since 2019, by sector.
There are many concerns about the vaccine. Thats the first thing, said Rashad Gibson, a 40-year-old Shelton resident, in a recent interview. But then also, Im a middle-aged man, Im in pretty good health, I dont take any medications, and I know that people my age the odds of succumbing to COVID is extremely low.
LIHUE The Hawaii State Department of Health Kauai District Health Office announced 49 new cases on Saturday.
Saturdays cases are three visitors and 46 residents. Of the 49 new cases, 15 are children and 34 are adults. Six of the cases are related to travel five mainland and one interisland. The remaining 43 cases are considered community-acquired. Thirty-four of the community-acquired infections are close contacts of previously announced cases or are tied to one of our active clusters. The remaining nine community-acquired cases have no known source of infection, including two cases whom investigators have been unable to reach after repeated attempts or who have refused to provide information. We currently have the following active clusters: two social gatherings, two places of worship, one shelter, one correctional facility, one educational, and one occupational cluster in a construction/industrial company.
All active cases are in isolation, and close contacts are being identified, offered testing, and directed to quarantine. Investigations are ongoing.
As of today, we have exceeded our capacity for case investigation and contact tracing on Kauai despite bringing on new staff daily. This means that you may not hear from us in the same timeframe our community has become accustomed to. If you test positive, please isolate yourself at home immediately and notify your close contacts, said Lauren Guest, Public Health Preparedness Planner for the Kauai District Office. I would like to take this opportunity to thank our entire Kauai District Health Office team for their tireless efforts to protect our community by controlling the spread of disease on our island. It can be a difficult and, at times, thankless job. Please know that your efforts have made an enormous difference and are greatly appreciated by the majority of our community.
Mayor Derek S. K. Kawakami also thanked the Kauai District Health Office team for their work to protect the health and safety of the community.
Words cannot express my infinite gratitude to our team at the Kauai District Health Office, said Mayor Kawakami. Mahalo to your families and loved ones for their sacrifice and patience as you have and continue to keep our island safe.
Dr. Janet Berreman, Kauai District Health Officer, emphasized that at this point, island-wide or statewide restrictions will be required to bring this surge under control.
Until such measures are in place, each of us can do our part. If you test positive, isolate at home immediately, and let your contacts know they have been exposed, said Dr. Berreman.
Todays cases bring the number of active cases to 276, with six hospitalized, and 1,322 cumulative cases. Kauais cumulative case count includes 1,265 confirmed locally, eight probable, and 49 positive cases diagnosed elsewhere, as they received their pre-travel test results after arriving on island.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) The rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in South Carolina has the Department of Motor Vehicles changing how it gives road tests for drivers licenses.
The agency started requiring masks for both new drivers and examiners on Wednesday.
On Monday, they will again require appointments for driving tests and on Sept. 7 they will go back to how they handled testing at the start of the pandemic where the examiner is outside the car, the DMV said in a statement.
The modified skills test evaluates the same abilities as the regular test with the examiner scoring the test from outside, the DMV said.
The agency is encouraging masks, but not requiring them in its branches. Officials also said many basic services, like drivers license renewal, can be done online.
"All referees must be fully vaccinated unless they have a religious or medical exemption. The referees have also agreed to take any recommended boosters," the league said in a statement Saturday. "Any referee who does not get vaccinated and is not exempt will be ineligible to work games."
The NBA said it had reached an agreement with the National Basketball Referees Association on the vaccination requirement.
