SPRINGFIELD, Mo. Turning Point Church is encouraging people to get vaccinated by raffling off cash.
People who came out to its vaccination clinic Sunday were able to enter for a chance to win $1,000.
If people arent going to be motivated by money, theyre not going to be motivated by anything, said Ashanti Tate. Ashantis husband is the current pastor at Turning Point Church.
We need people vaccinated yesterday, said Tate. We need them vaccinated immediately. I realized that our COVID cases were one of the top in the country. That just didnt sit well with me.
However, when the COVID-19 vaccine first came out, the African American community was hesitant to take it.
Our history. and things that have been done to people of color, a lot of it with them not knowing what was done to them, whether it was giving them medications that they didnt know about, or withholding medications for treatment, said Michelle Williams, a registered nurse. In the 50s, there was an African American woman that was being treated for cancer, and her cancer cells were taken from her.
Now, Williams says the apprehension has gone beyond that.
The hesitancy you see now transcends color, it transcends all races, it transcends economic background, people that are hesitant to get the vaccine can no longer be lumped into a particular category, said Williams.
Jordan Valley Community Health Center administered the vaccines at the event.
The vaccine does not make you bulletproof, said Bob Stephens, coordinator of Mobile Vaccination Unit. it certainly is a very good tool for keeping you from being very critically ill, or even going in the hospital or dying from COVID.
Williams says the vaccines are not just for your protection.
This pandemic does not touch one person, said Williams. If Im not taking the vaccine for me, I need to take it for you. Everyones talking about their own freedoms, and what that means, being a hostage to this pandemic is not freedom. And with freedom comes responsibility. And we have to be responsible for each other because we are a community.
A total of 22 people received a COVID-19 vaccine at the event.
A-B Tech is rolling out vaccine incentives ahead of the upcoming school year.
Any students enrolled in Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College's academic, continuing education or workforce programs who provide proof of aCOVID-19 vaccination will receive a $150gift card to the colleges bookstore.
Students can show their government ID and proof of vaccination at the Bailey Student Services Center from Aug. 5 to Oct. 15.
We hope to encourage more students to get fully vaccinated as we prepare to return to in-person fall classes, A-B Tech Vice President of Student Services Terry Brasier said.
College and vaccines: UNCA and A-B Tech, unlike Brevard College, will not mandate COVID-19 vaccine
A-B Tech kicked off the vaccine incentive program Aug. 5 at its New Student Welcome Day. During the event, the Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services offered Pfizer and Moderna shots.
The health department also is investing in vaccine incentives. Anyone 18 and older getting their first dose can receive $100 prepaid Mastercards from the state. People driving someone to their first dose are eligible for $25 cards.
'Sense of urgency': COVID-19 surge spurs new recommendations in Buncombe
Money for the A-B Techs gift cards will come from the schools federal COVID relief funds, Brasier said. As of June 30, the school had received more than $13 million from the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund.
A-B Tech also has used federal relief funds to offer tuition assistancefor students impacted from the pandemic.
Recent high school graduates can receive as much as $2,800 from the relief funds, and students whose jobs were affected by COVID-19 could get anywhere from $1,500 to $3,000.
Shelby Harris is a reporter covering education and other topics.She can be reached at sharris@citizentimes.com oron Twitter @_shelbyharris.
Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
A nurse in Athens, Ohio, loads a syringe with a Covid-19 vaccine on March 9, 2021.
CNN
An Ohio man says he will not get vaccinated despite a judge ordering him to get a Covid-19 vaccine shot as a condition of his probation.
Judge Christopher Wagner ordered defendant Brandon Rutherford to get vaccinated within 60 days of his court appearance August 4 or face jail time, Rutherfords attorney, Carl Lewis, told CNN on Sunday.
Wagner said in a written statement to CNN that his role in the court is to rehabilitate the defendant and protect the community.
Im not taking the vaccine, Rutherford told CNN.
Rutherford said he was kind of shocked when the judge told him he had to get vaccinated as a condition of his probation. He said he wore a mask to court because hes unvaccinated. While masks are not required at the Hamilton County Courthouse, non-vaccinated individuals are encouraged to mask up inside, the courts website shows.
This defendant was in possession of fentanyl, which is deadlier than the vaccine and COVID 19, Wagner said. The defendant expressed no objection during the proceedings and stated no medical concerns, and his attorney did not object.
It isnt uncommon for judges to make decisions to protect a defendants health, Wagner added, which can include ordering various health treatments.
Lewis said that they are going to wait until the 60 days are up to see what the judge does before requesting a hearing or filing any opposition to the order. This is the first time hes heard of a person being ordered to get the vaccine as a condition of their probation, he added.
Rutherford was sentenced to two years probation for possession of fentanyl, court records show.
CNNs Raja Razek and Alaa Elassar contributed to this report.
WILMINGTON, Del. The U.S. governments top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Sunday that he was hopeful the Food and Drug Administration will give full approval to thecoronavirus vaccineby months end and predicted the potential move will spur a wave of vaccine mandates in the private sector as well as schools and universities.
The FDA has only granted emergency-use approval of the Pfizer PFE, +0.02%, Moderna MRNA, -0.61% and Johnson & Johnson JNJ, -0.33% vaccines, but the agency is expected to soon give full approval to Pfizer.
The Biden administration has stated that the federal government will not mandate vaccinationsbeyond the federal workforce, but is increasingly urging state and local governments as well as businesses to consider such mandates. Fauci, who is President Joe Bidens chief medical adviser, said mandates at the local level need to be done to help curb the spread of the virus.
I hope I dont predict I hope that it will be within the next few weeks. I hope its within the month of August, Fauci said of FDA approval of the vaccine. If thats the case, youre going to see the empowerment of local enterprises, giving mandates that could be colleges, universities, places of business, a whole variety and I strongly support that. The time has come. Weve got to go the extra step to get people vaccinated.
Faucis comments come as the Biden administration is weighing what levers it can push to encourage more unvaccinated Americans to get their shots as thedelta variant continues to surgethrough much of the United States.
Biden recently approved rules requiring federal workers to provide proof of vaccination or face regular testing, mask mandates and travel restrictions. Biden is alsoawaiting a formal recommendation from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austinon potentially requiring U.S. troops to get vaccinated.
The administration has become more vocal in its support of vaccine mandates at a moment when high-profile companies have informed employees that coronavirus vaccination requirements are in the works, and some localities have adopted or are contemplating vaccine requirements to dine indoors.
United Airlinesinformed its employeesthat they will need to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 25 or five weeks after the FDA grants full approval to one of the vaccines whichever date comes first.
Disney and Walmart have announced vaccine mandates for white-collar workers, and Microsoft MSFT, -0.02%, Google GOOGL, -0.38% GOOG, +0.07% and Facebook FB, +0.15% said they will require proof of vaccination for employees and visitors to their U.S. offices. Tyson Foods TSN, +1.40% has also announced it will require all U.S. employees to get vaccinated by November.
Theres also been pushback.
The U.S. Supreme Court last weekwas asked to block a planby Indiana University to require students and employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Its the first time the high court has been asked to weigh in on a vaccine mandate and comes as some corporations, states and cities are also contemplating or have adopted vaccine requirements for workers or even to dine indoors.
Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers union, said on Sunday that she personally supports a vaccine mandate for educators.
As a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers not opposing them on vaccine mandates, said Weingarten, who estimated about 90% of AFT members are already vaccinated.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, on Sunday all but endorsed vaccine mandates, saying, I celebrate when I see businesses deciding that theyre going to mandate that for their employees.
Yes, I think we ought to use every public health tool we can when people are dying, Collins said.
Fauci and Weingarten spoke on NBCs Meet the Press, and Collins appeared on ABCs This Week.
GREENWOOD, ArkansasMichael Lejong fully intended to get vaccinated for Covid-19, his wife said, standing in the pavilion that the prominent architect designed for his hometown.
But he was relatively young, very healthy and not overly concerned about the virus. He wanted to get his shots separately from his wife, so he could care for her if she had adverse side effects. She got hers immediately in April and he put his off.
In late June, he began feeling sick and tested positive for Covid-19. A week of mild symptoms turned into extreme fatigue. On July 3, he was admitted to a nearby hospital with low oxygen levels; on the 15th, doctors put him on a ventilator. He died four days later.
The death of the 49-year-old Greenwood native, father of two, community leader, mountain biker and outdoorsman, has rattled this western Arkansas town, where it seems like nearly everyone knew Mr. Lejong. It comes amid a spate of other recent deaths and skyrocketing hospitalizations in a region where many are deeply skeptical of the Covid-19 vaccines, and doctors and political leaders are trying everything to persuade a reluctant populace to take them.
Its personal now because he knew so many people, said his widow, Katie Lejong. Before, it was happening somewhere else.
More events continue to promote the vaccines and areas with the lowest vaccination rates are seeing the biggest jumps in people getting first doses.
DALLAS In case anyone had missed the message, a 16-foot tall video board and a panel of speakers greeted shoppers at Walmart in southern Dallas Sunday.
This vaccine is safe, a pediatrician said in a pre-recorded video message on the board.
From noon to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, the board played loops of messages in English and Spanish as a team of people with the Texas Department of State Health Services provided information at a tent set up next to the front door.
Most often people think its a concert, said Robert Santiago with the state health department. Were out here doing outreach, talking about the COVID vaccine.
Its the 18th site and 15th city theyve traveled to in Texas to share information and promote the vaccine.
We get other people who dont know the first thing, Santiago said. That you dont need an appointment and that its free.
Kassondra Vines walked up wanting to know if her grandkids could be vaccinated, but ranging from ages 3 to 10, they just miss the 12-year-old cut-off for eligibility for the Pfizer vaccine.
Im kind of sad because I want to feel safe with them going back into the schools, Vine said.
Now eight months after vaccines became available in the U.S., just 59% of those eligible are fully vaccinated.
Some people are scared, Vines said. Theyre scared of just not knowing. I think scared is not knowing.
Sunday in an interview with ABC News, NIH director Dr. Francis Collins called the 50%-mark a failing of Americans.
Its time. In fact, its past time but its not too late, Collins said. We would not be in the place where we are with this Delta surge if wed been more effective with getting everybody to take advantage.
There is good news, though. The number of people in Texas getting their first COVID vaccine dose has more than doubled from where it was a month ago, according to data from the state health department.
The biggest increases have been in surrounding Dallas-Fort Worth areas like Johnson, Parker and Rockwall counties and other areas that have remained hesitant.
In this side of town, theres a lot of people that dont know, Vines said. If they would get out and spread the information a little more, maybe more people would understand.
The popup provided a basketball hoop, gift cards and popsicles to people who stopped by if signs and a sales pitch for a free, life-saving vaccine werent enough.
We talk to the pharmacist, Santiago said. We asked them if theyre busier than normal and they absolutely say, Yes.'"
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are surging in Texas, and, in case anyone missed the message, theres a cure to stop it.
Roll up your sleeve, Collins said. Become part of the winning team.
CAIRO, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Egypt on Monday received its first shipment of one-shot Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) COVID-19 vaccines, obtaining 261,600 doses in cooperation with the African Union, the health ministry said.
The J&J vaccines will be distributed to 126 vaccination centres specifically for those who want to travel abroad, Khaled Megahed, assistant health minister for media and ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
Egypt recently began locally producing Sinovac's COVID-19 vaccines, through a deal between the Chinese company and Egypt's Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA).
The country has also received shipments of the Sputnik, Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca shots, including via COVAX, a global agreement established by the Geneva-based GAVI vaccine alliance and the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the equitable distribution of vaccines.
Egypt is reporting 54 new infections on average each day, 3% of the peak, with the highest daily average reported on June 19, according to the Reuters COVID-19 Tracker. The country has reported 284,641 infections and 16,566 coronavirus-related deaths since the pandemic began.
Egypt's prime minister said in June the government's aim was to vaccinate 40% of the population of more than 100 million against COVID-19 by the end of this year.
Reporting by Yousef SabaEditing by David Holmes
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Illinois health officials on Friday reported 16,742 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 64 additional deaths and more than 176,000 new vaccine doses administered.
COVID cases statewide have increased by more than 43% over the last week, with hospitalizations up 33%, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Intensive care unit admissions also increased by 47% and the number of COVID patients on ventilators nearly doubled in the past week, up by 95%.
In all, 1,436,353 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 23,503 confirmed COVID fatalities.
The state has administered 365,210 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 27 million tests conducted during the pandemic.
The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests rose to 5.2% from 4.7% last week which was up from 3.5% the week before, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests was up to 4.6% from 4% the week before, 3.3% two weeks prior and 1.9% three weeks ago.
IDPH noted, however, that the regional seven-day positivity rate ranges from 3.1% to 10.3%.
Over the past seven days, a total of 176,709 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents - up from around 154,000 the week prior and bringing the states average to 25,244 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.
More than 13 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 59% of adult residents in the state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 75% receiving at least one dose.
As of midnight, 1,200 patients are currently hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 246 are in ICU beds, and 121 are on ventilators. All three metrics are a reported increase since last Friday.
This week, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced that all students and teachers in schools will be required to wear masks while indoors, as state officials take steps to try to slow the spread of the delta variant of COVID-19.
Pritzker says that the new requirement will take effect immediately, and will also apply to all students and coaches participating in indoor sports and other activities.
He also announced that employees at state-run congregant care facilities, including correctional facilities, veterans homes, and psychiatric hospitals, will be required to receive COVID vaccinations, effective Oct. 4.
United Airlines said on Friday that it would require all U.S. employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus starting this fall. It was the first major airline to establish such a mandate and the latest in a small but growing number of businesses to do so.
Also on Friday, Amazon, the second-largest private employer in the country, and JPMorgan Chase revived mask mandates for vaccinated workers.
We hope this will only be required for a few weeks, Amazon, which had been allowing vaccinated employees to go without face coverings, wrote to its warehouse workers on Friday. Everyone can do their part to speed our return to normal by getting vaccinated.
JPMorgan, the nations largest bank, said unvaccinated employees must be tested at least twice a week and would not be allowed to attend indoor employee events with 25 or more people. The companys operating committee also said in a memo that the firm will continue with our previously stated return to the office schedule, even as many companies, including the financial firms BlackRock and Wells Fargo, have postponed their mandatory return plans.
Amazon had already told its corporate employees that they wouldnt be recalled to the office until January, pushing back a deadline that had been set for early September. But it has not indicated any changes to its vaccination policy, which encourages but does not mandate immunization.
Hours after Uniteds announcement, Frontier Airlines, a much smaller carrier, said it, too, would require vaccines for all employees. Frontiers mandate begins on Oct. 1.
Uniteds employees will be required to upload proof of vaccination within five weeks of a vaccines full approval by the Food and Drug Administration (not the Federal Drug Administration as was reported here earlier) or by Oct. 25, whichever comes first. Those who provide proof by Sept. 20 will receive a full days pay, excluding pilots and flight attendants who have already received a union-negotiated bonus for getting vaccinated. So far, about 90 percent of Uniteds pilots and 80 percent of its flight attendants have been vaccinated, the airline said.
We have no greater responsibility to you and your colleagues than to ensure your safety when youre at work, and the facts are crystal clear: Everyone is safer when everyone is vaccinated, Scott Kirby, the airlines chief executive, and Brett Hart, its president, said in a memo to their staff.
Employees who fail to comply with the new policy will be fired. And while United will allow exceptions for religious or medical reasons, it will require documentation.
Mr. Kirby first floated the idea of a mandate at an internal forum in January, saying United would be amongst the first wave of companies to require vaccination.
Delta Air Lines requires new employees to be vaccinated, but existing employees are exempt. American Airlines is not putting mandates in place for employees or customers, its chief executive, Doug Parker, said in an interview with the New York Times columnist Kara Swisher.
Airlines have generally dismissed the idea of mandates for customers. Mr. Parker said in the interview that doing so would create enormous delays. Deltas chief executive, Ed Bastian, said on CNBC this week that it would be very difficult to require customers to receive a vaccine that hadnt yet been fully federally approved.
Lananh Nguyen and Karen Weise contributed reporting.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 200.92 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.26 million. More than 4.32 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
Daily new COVID-19 cases have reached a six-month high in the United States, with more than 100,000 new cases reported nationwide.
Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine is about 93% effective through six months after the second dose.
China has reported 124 new confirmed COVID-19 cases for the mainland, its highest daily count during the current outbreak.
South Korea has extended its social distancing measures by two weeks, in an effort to control COVID-19 outbreaks across the country.
Restrictions have also been extended in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi until 22 August.
Reported COVID-19-related deaths in Africa reached a record peak during the week ending 1 August, the World Health Organization said yesterday.
Greece has introduced a night-time curfew and banned music on two of its popular tourist islands after a rise in COVID-19 cases.
New data in Indonesia shows that the COVID-19 death rate for unvaccinated people was more than 3 times higher than for vaccinated people.
The White House has confirmed it might require visitors from abroad to be vaccinated, as part of plans to reopen international travel, but a final decision is yet to be made.
Research suggests that children who contract COVID-19 rarely suffer long-term symptoms - so-called long COVID.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries
Image: Our World in Data
Officials have warned Sydney residents to brace for a further rise in COVID-19 cases. It comes after Australia's largest city reported a record rise in confirmed cases for the second day in a row.
"Just based on the trend in the last few days and where things are going, I am expecting higher case numbers in the next few days and I just want everyone to be prepared for that," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.
It comes despite a weeks-long lockdown to try and halt the spread of the Delta variant.
Victoria has also entered a fresh lockdown, with officials warning that the state was in a 'precarious position'.
With Brisbane, Queensland, also in lockdown it means that more than 60% of the country's population are currently under hard lockdowns.
The United Nations is concerned about COVID-19 vaccines going unused, and has offered its help - but can only do so at the request of governments.
"We are very concerned about situations where we've seen vaccines have gone unused. Either for administrative reasons, for lack of proper care, or frankly for vaccine hesitancy," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
He said the United Nations was ready to help countries with vaccine distribution - such as transportation, cold chain distribution, combating vaccine hesitancy - but "that can only be done at the request of the government."
"These are sovereign governments that have the responsibility, moral and otherwise, to ensure their populations are vaccinated once they have vaccine," Dujarric said. "We are there ready to help at the request of governments."
Written by
Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
