Dear Colleagues,
You have all seen the reports about the rapid surge of COVID cases locally and nationally as a result of the Delta variant. Duke has not been untouched by this indeed, even with91% of our employeesand95% of our studentsfully vaccinated, we have still recorded a notable increase in positive tests over the past week. Thus far,the vast majority of these positive tests have been among individuals who are fully vaccinated; the majority of those are asymptomatic, with others reporting minor cold- and flu-like symptoms.
We know that many of you are concerned about transmission on campus, and we want to take this opportunity to provide some additional information and guidance. We cannot eliminate COVID, but we can take some important steps thathave beendemonstrated to reduce the spread of the virus and protect the community:
We believe that the on-campus, in-person educational experience is important for the educational and emotional well-being of our students. Be assured that we are constantly monitoring the environment, particularly with respect to where and when COVID transmission appears to be occurring. Our uniformly high vaccination rates, robust surveillance testing, universal masking and the absence of any documented classroom transmission indicate that we can continue safely with our classroom and residential experience. Please know, though, that we are in close and regular contact with Duke infectious disease and public health experts and will take all necessary actions to protect the health and safety of our university community.
Sincerely,
SallyKornbluthProvost and Jo Rae Wright University Professor
Kyle CavanaughVice President for Administration
This message is being sent to all Duke University faculty and staff
What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and do I need one?
Vaccine passports are digital or paper documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19, and could help you get into a growing number of places.
What they look like and why you might want one depend on where you live, but more private venues, workplaces and governments are requiring proof of vaccination in public settings.
Europe and U.S. states like California and New York created official digital credentials that let you verify your COVID-19 immunization record and convert it into a scannable QR code you can pull up on your cellphone.
Most places that require vaccination proof also accept simpler options, such as the paper card noting the dates of your shots from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the U.S., showing a photo of that card on your phone will usually suffice.
Denmark, Greece, France, Italy, some Canadian provinces and the U.S. cities of New Orleans, New York and San Francisco are among the places that have vaccination requirements to get into places like indoor restaurants or theaters. Enforcement varies and many places also accept a recent negative test for the virus, a partial vaccination or proof that you previously recovered from the disease.
Even without government mandates, more businesses in countries where vaccines are readily available are starting to ask for proof that you got the shots, so long as their local governments havent blocked them from doing so.
Officials around the world were initially reluctant to mandate vaccines, but some now hope doing so will persuade more people to get the shots. Businesses requiring proof of vaccination say they are trying to make customers and employees feel safe.
Protesters in France and elsewhere have criticized vaccine mandates as invasive and restricting freedom of movement. Privacy advocates have raised concerns about getting people in the habit of having their phones scanned wherever they go, and generally favor options that wont be tracked, such as a paper record or a digital copy in your phone that can be shown at the door.
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The AP is answering your questions about the coronavirus in this series. Submit them at: FactCheck@AP.org. Read more here:
What is being done to distribute COVID-19 vaccines globally?
Do the COVID-19 vaccines affect my chances of pregnancy?
Can I get long COVID if Im infected after vaccination?
As the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus continues to spread, breakthrough infections of fully vaccinated people are ticking up in Los Angeles County, but inoculated people remain generally well-protected against hospitalizations and death.
Cumulatively, among 5.1 million L.A. County residents who are fully vaccinated, 0.53% have tested positive, 0.014% have been hospitalized and 0.0013% or 68 people have died.
Most of these deaths have happened, unfortunately, among people who were seriously ill with comorbidities and/or had immune compromised systems, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a recent briefing.
The latest data reflect the reality that the vaccines do not provide 100% protection, and that with these high rates of community transmission, more fully vaccinated people are getting post-vaccination infections, Ferrer said. However, this very same information also makes it clear how much protection vaccinated people still have. Most of us that are fully vaccinated ... dont get infected.
By far, the age group now most likely to get infected with the coronavirus in Los Angeles County is younger adults those 18 to 49. As of early August, for every 100,000 vaccinated younger adults, nearly 150 were getting infected weekly.
The coronavirus case rate was much worse among unvaccinated people. For every 100,000 unvaccinated younger adults, nearly 450 were getting infected weekly.
That means unvaccinated younger adults are three times as likely to get infected with the coronavirus as their fully vaccinated counterparts.
Those being hospitalized, however, are far more likely to be older, unvaccinated adults. The hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adults 50 and older has risen to a new summertime high: For every 100,000 unvaccinated older adults, nearly 60 were in the hospital with a COVID-19 infection.
But for every 100,000 fully vaccinated older adults, only five were in the hospital with a COVID-19 infection.
That means unvaccinated older adults are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized than their vaccinated counterparts. Unvaccinated younger adults are 25 times more likely to be hospitalized than those who are fully vaccinated in that age group.
If youre unvaccinated, youve got a lot of risk a lot of risk of being in the hospital and a lot of risk [of] dying, Ferrer said. And that includes younger people who are unvaccinated as well as older people, who always have more risk with this virus for having a bad outcome.
Those most at risk of dying from COVID-19 in L.A. County are unvaccinated residents 50 and older. Among every 100,000 residents in that age group, there were 5.9 deaths a week in early August, a death rate nearly 17 times higher than that of vaccinated residents among the same ages.
Younger unvaccinated adults, those between the ages of 18 and 49, are still fairly unlikely to die from COVID-19. But that cohorts death rate 0.9 death for every 100,000 younger adults is still more than 22 times higher than their vaccinated counterparts.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
Overall, people who are not fully vaccinated but require hospitalization tend to be younger the median age is 50, and many of those are between the ages of 35 and 63. This group is more likely to be admitted to the intensive care unit or require sedation and the insertion of a breathing tube in their windpipe than vaccinated people.
By contrast, among those who are fully vaccinated and need hospitalization, patients tend to be older; their median age is 65, with many between the ages of 54 and 78.
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Leaders from the Native Hawaiian community held a press conference today at the state Capitol to urge community members to do their part in helping to curb coronavirus infections.
According to the latest state health data as of Wednesday, Native Hawaiians represent nearly 23% of all COVID-19 cases statewide and the community only constitutes 21% of the states population. So far, state health officials report there have been 75 coronavirus-related deaths and 507 hospitalizations within the states Native Hawaiian community.
Speakers included Sen. Jarrett Keohokalole, Dr. Jerard Akaka from The Queens Medical Center, Kalehua Krug, and King Lunalilo Trust and Home Chief Executive Officer Diane Paloma. They addressed vaccination, masking indoors and outdoors, social distancing and new COVID-19 testing sites.
We are asking the Hawaiian community based on our history of disease to take charge and consider getting the vaccine, wearing a mask indoors and outdoors, and social distancing. Also, Senator Keohokalole will be pushing on new testing and VAX stations in the Hawaiian community, according to a news release.
Watch the video above or on the Star-Advertisers Facebook page.
by: Regan Porter, Nexstar Media Wire
CAMERON, Mo. (WDAF) A Missouri father got COVID-19. Then every one of the seven children living at home did, too.
The only person who didnt get sick? His wife who is fully vaccinated. The family credits the vaccine with protecting her.
Its a good reminder of the miracle we faced, Ben Anderson said about the hole in his throat. Its from the tracheotomy doctors had to do to keep him alive. The 42-year-old had COVID-19 and pneumonia.
I would think, OK my number one job is dont die, Anderson said.
Anderson went on a trip in late June. He came back with what he thought was a cold and immediately self-isolated away from his family.
After two weeks of not getting better, his wife, Tammy, took him to the emergency room. He needed a breathing tube and a higher level of care, so he was transferred to another hospital an hour away.
He spent 42 days there, most of them unconscious. For 35 days, he was on a ventilator.
I was pretty close to being dead, he said.
Anderson wasnt vaccinated. He said he intended to get the shot, but admitted he was busy and didnt make it a priority.
There was a time it appeared when he may not have survived, Dr. David McKinsey said. Receiving the vaccine should be an extremely high priority for everyone at this time.
McKinsey said 95% of the patients theyre now seeing in the ICU are unvaccinated, and only about 20% who need a ventilator survive.
Anderson was discharged from the hospital last week. Oxygen tubing now lines the familys living room floor and get well soon cards cover the door.
Its real. Its so real, Tammy warned. We almost didnt get his birthday that we celebrated in the hospital. We almost didnt have our next anniversary.
Tammy and Ben have seven children at home, ages 3-18. All of them tested positive less than a week after their dad. Its unclear where exactly the kids were exposed to the virus. Tammy said there were known positive cases out of the several activities the kids were involved in at that time.
If you were going to be home by yourself, husband in the hospital, seven kids at home with COVID would you get vaccinated? Tammy said. Yeah.
Why didnt you get vaccinated? FOX4 asked Anderson.
I was busy, he said, shaking his head.
I got COVID and almost died, he continued. She got vaccinated but did not contract it.
Andersons kids who are eligible plan to join their dad in getting the vaccine as soon as they recover.
"If they are around people who are vaccinated, everyone in the household gets vaccinated, that significantly reduces the risk to our children," Dr. Vivek Murthy said in a conversation hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
In the classroom, there are layers of protection that the CDC has laid out to keep children safe -- including wearing properly fitting masks, properly ventilating buildings and regular testing, Murthy said.
"Even though our kids do better, that doesn't mean that Covid is benign, it doesn't mean that it's harmless in our children," Murthy said. "In fact, we've lost hundreds of children to Covid-19."
The misperception that young people don't have to worry about Covid-19 may also be hindering their motivation to get vaccinated, Murthy said.
Vaccination is key to protecting against Covid-19 and the serious illness that could come with it. But for many children, vaccination still isn't an option.
Children ages 5 to 11 are the next group in line to become eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine, and an updated emergency use authorization from the FDA would make at least 28 million additional children, but the process of authorizing a vaccine may not come until the end of the year, Murthy told CNN's Briana Keilar earlier this week.
In the meantime, Murthy stressed that "there are steps we can take to keep our kids safer. It's all the more important with Delta."
Students sent back into quarantine
The stress over safety precautions in schools is growing, as many students have already faced exposure to Covid-19 in the early days of their new school year.
At least 14,746 students and 2,984 employees have tested positive for Covid-19 throughout the 15 largest school districts in Florida since the start of school, according to a CNN analysis.
Several districts in the state are at odds with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over mask mandates in the classroom after the governor banned such measures and some districts chose to implement them anyway.
In Georgia, six schools in Henry County are temporarily conducting remote learning through August 27 due to "a consistent increase in the number of the individuals required to quarantine."
With the start of school fast approaching for New York City, officials there announced a change to last year's quarantine policy based on vaccinations.
City Department of Education Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter and Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday that only unvaccinated students will be subject to quarantine if exposed to positive cases
"This is crucial to remember -- anyone vaccinated who is not symptomatic, adult or child, even if there's been contact, they're going to stay in school," de Blasio said Thursday. "I don't want people thinking of last year's model and assuming everything's the same now. It's not the same. Why? Because of vaccination."
Hospitals stretched thin as ICU beds run out
The rise in cases has overwhelmed many health care workers trying to keep up with the more than 100,000 Americans hospitalized with Covid-19.
In Georgia, many hospitals have requested ambulance transports be sent to other facilities because they're stretched thin. The Georgia Department of Public Health on Thursday asked residents to help reduce the strain on EMS and emergency departments by getting vaccinated, wearing a mask and getting tested for Covid-19 somewhere other than the state's hospitals.
And in Illinois, ICU beds are running out, particularly in southern Illinois and parts of central Illinois, Illinois Department of Public Health Dr. Ngozi Ezike said.
Nearly all of the people hospitalized with Covid-19 are unvaccinated, Gov. J. B. Pritzker said Thursday, and those hospitalizations have "multiplied" the state's ICU usage "by a factor of seven this summer."
Kentucky has also seen a steep increase in hospitalizations. On July 14, 239 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 -- on Wednesday that number had grown to 2,074, marking 42 straight days of increases, Gov. Andy Beshear said Thursday.
Some states are calling for reinforcements to support staffing at overwhelmed hospitals.
The Texas Department of State Health Services will deploy 2,500 additional medical staff to support health care facilities in the state, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced. Medical equipment such as ventilators, oxygen concentrators, heart monitors, IV pumps, feeding pumps, and hospital beds will also be provided.
In Nebraska, the shortage of nurses and spike in hospitalizations has prompted Gov. Pete Ricketts to declare a hospital staffing emergency. Ricketts announced two new measures to help address the personal strain: making it easier for health care professionals to defer continuing education or licensing requirements and limiting elective surgeries.
By limiting elective surgeries across the state, Ricketts hopes "to help free up hospital capacity, to take on some of the other patients that are coming into the hospital, both non-Covid and Covid patients," he added.
CNN's Virginia Langmaid, Jacqueline Howard, Mallory Simon, Elizabeth Stuart, Maria Cartaya, Elizabeth Joseph, Devon Sayers, Rebekah Riess, Carma Hassan, Melissa Alonso and Keith Allen contributed to this report.
COVID hospitalizations in Shelby County hits 'unfortunate milestone'
Shelby County reaches 'unfortunate milestone' with COVID hospitalizations
Nate Chute, Wochit
Memphis-area COVID-19 hospitalizations hit a new record this week when the region reached 700 people hospitalized with COVID-19 for the first time.
The Shelby County Health Department released the sobering data point Thursday. There were 515 people with COVID-19 in acute care beds and 186 in intensive care units on Wednesday, according to hospital data.Data showed 10 remaining staffed intensive care units in the Memphis metro area.
"We've reached an unfortunate milestone," Doug McGowen, the city of Memphis chief operating officer and task force member, said of the hospitalizations.
The numbers reflected single-digit growth from a week earlier when 173 people were in the ICU and 473 people in acute care beds.The rate of hospitalizations, McGowen added, is expected to increase in the weeks to come.
'We are scared': Unvaccinated COVID-19 patients bring Methodist LeBonheur system toward 'darkest days'
Unvaccinated patients: Can doctors and hospitals deny treatment for unvaccinated COVID-19 patients?
The new record comes 10 days after the heads of Memphis emergency rooms wrote local leaders a letter that said they could soon have to triage care based on the probability of survival. Their letter asked the Shelby County Health Department to enact a mask requirement and the county complied an indoor mask mandate started last Friday.
The level of hospitalizations in Memphis continues to make projections come true. Projections from the joint task force show that 1,040 people could be in the hospital on Sept. 1. To get there, Memphis would simply stay on the trajectory it is on now, according to data shared with the joint task force and obtained by The Commercial Appeal.
The projections also estimate 285 people could be in intensive care units by Sept. 1, an increase of about 100 people and reflecting more than 50% growth from Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear how much additional hospitalization growth local hospitals could sustain without being forced to implement crisis standards of care.
In the latest surge, cases among children continue to stay elevated compared to previous surges.
Currently, pediatric cases of COVID-19 make up 32.5% of all active COVID-19 infections in Shelby County, according to Shelby County Health Department Director Michelle Taylor.
The total of kids 17 and under with an active COVID-19 infection has surpassed active cases in the 18 to 24 category, another pandemic first.
COVID cases for kids: 2,500 recent COVID-19 cases among Memphis area kids, at least 4 school clusters investigated
Virtual schooling: Shelby County Schools to press state to allow return of last year's virtual learning option
The delta variant has put more children in Le Bonheur Children's Hospital than previous strains of the virus. As of Monday, 28 children are patients at Le Bonheur. Seven of those patients are receiving treatment in the intensive care unit. Two children are breathing with the assistance of a ventilator.
In mid-August, Dr. Nick Hysmith, thedirector of infection prevention at Le Bonheur, expressed some level of hope that cases among children would level-off once vaccinations increased and mask mandates in Shelby County Schools were enacted.
At the time of Hysmith's remarks, there were eight fewer children in the hospital than there are today. And since his remarks, one child has succumbed to COVID-19.
Taylor could not definitively say whether Hysmith's hopes have materialized. Raw hospitalizations numbers among children suggest it hasn't.
The current amended health directive is set to expire on Aug. 31. When asked if the county could expect to see additional restrictions in the next health directive, Taylor said it was unlikely.
Previous restrictions have included limits on crowd capacity in restaurants and bars in order to uphold physical distancing.
For now, Taylor said, the county will continue to lean on masking, urging residents to follow Centers for Disease Control and Preventionguidelines, and urging the public to get vaccinated.
As of Thursday, just 39% of the entire population of Shelby County, a figure that includes children too young to be vaccinated, are fully inoculated against COVID-19.
At least one mass vaccination site at the Pipkin building in the Mid-South Fairgrounds will now stay open until the wintertime, McGowen said.
As the delta variant of COVID-19 continues to drive record infections, more residents are seeking testing. This, McGowen acknowledged Thursday, has led to longer wait times in acquiring tests, and longer turnaround times for test results.
To meet testing demand, testing sites are increasing their capacity; it is too early to know if the measures will be sufficient for the number of Shelby County residents seeking to know their COVID-19 status.
The locations set to increase testing capacity are:
A list of all community testing locations can be found on the city's website.
Samuel Hardiman covers Memphis city government and politics for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman.
Micaela Watts is a reporter for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at micaela.watts@commercialappeal.com.
August 26, 2021 | Austin, Texas | Press Release
Governor Greg Abbott today announced that the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM), in partnership with local officials, will launch a new COVID-19 therapeutic infusion center in Nacogdoches. The infusion center will begin accepting patients tomorrow and has been provided with Regeneron's monoclonal antibodies to treat outpatient cases of COVID-19 who have a referral from a doctor. This treatment is available at no cost to the patient. Local partners include Nacogdoches County, City of Nacogdoches, and Nacogdoches Medical Center.
"The State of Texas is continuing to expand access to COVID-19 antibody therapeutics in communities across the Lone Star State," said Governor Abbott. "This new facility in Nacogdoches will ensure East Texans who contract COVID-19 have access to this free and effective treatment."
Governor Abbott, TDEM, and the Texas Department of State Health Serviceshave established and expanded antibody infusion centers in communities across the state over the past few weeks. COVID-19 antibody infusion treatment can prevent a patient's condition from worsening and requiring hospital care.These facilities also help increase bed capacity in hospitals so that resources are available for the most ill patients.The State deployedsimilar measures beginning in November 2020 to communities across Texas.
These state sponsored Infusion Centers are in addition to the antibody infusion treatment that is provided by more than 200 private health providers across the state.
Antibody infusion centers are currently operating in the following communities, with more coming online in the coming days:
The treatment is free and available to all Texans who test positive for COVID-19 and have a doctor's referral. Texans can visitmeds.tdem.texas.govto find a therapeutic provider near them.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas The Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District received notification of 11 COVID-19 related deaths.
The patients included seven males and four females with ages ranging in their 30s, 40s, 50s, 60's, 70s, 80s and 90s.
Comorbidities included diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart disease, obesity and hypothyroidism.
This new high number brings the total number of deaths in the county to 988.
Health officials also report there were 429 COVID-19 cases. This raises the total total COVID-19 count to 57,589.
Further information is not being released for privacy and confidentiality reasons.
As of Thursday, more than 889 million people had been fully vaccinated, with more than two billion shots of domestically-produced Covid-19 administered in total, an official at the National Health Commission said at a press conference Friday. That puts China on par with the United Kingdom and ahead of the United States in terms of the percentage of its population that are now fully vaccinated.
China's latest inoculation campaign has targeted the elderly, minors and residents in the country's vast rural areas hard to reach groups that had not been covered in earlier vaccination rounds.
Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the discrepancy between central government policy and its local implementation is a typical occurrence in China's top down political system, where provincial officials are placed under tremendous pressure to meet policy targets set by Beijing.
"Failure to fulfill these targets will lead to penalization, creating this incentive for local government officials to undertake heavy-handed measures to get things done," he said.
Zhong, the top respiratory expert, said China could establish "effective herd immunity" when the vaccination rate hits 80%.
But Huang with the Council on Foreign Relations said he remained skeptical, given the lower efficacy rates of Chinese vaccines and the surge of Delta variant breakthrough infections across the world.
At the press conference Friday, Zheng Zhongwei, an official at the NHC, said experts at the agency recommend high-risk groups, such as workers at customs, airports and quarantine sites, to be given a booster shot six months after they've been fully vaccinated.
On Monday, state broadcaster CCTV warned the pandemic has not ended and that people shouldn't become careless in epidemic prevention.
