A passerby looks on while wearing a protective face covering inside an empty Olympic Stadium, host to the Athletics competition, at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Thursday. Patrick Smith/Getty Images hide caption
A passerby looks on while wearing a protective face covering inside an empty Olympic Stadium, host to the Athletics competition, at the Tokyo Olympic Games on Thursday.
Organizers at the Tokyo Summer Olympics have reported one of the highest daily increases of coronavirus cases since they started keeping records on July 1.
Since Wednesday, 24 people linked to the Games have tested positive including three athletes. That brings the total of Olympic-related officials to catch the virus to 193 people, including 20 athletes.
The increase comes the same day government officials in Tokyo reported the highest-ever number of daily cases (3,865) in the capital since the pandemic began last year.
Health experts in Japan warn that the surge is straining local hospitals. But organizers of the Tokyo Olympics are downplaying the danger. "We've been trying to minimize the impact to the local medical system. And in that respect, we've been absolutely right on track to deliver the safe and secure games for both perspectives," said Takaya Masa, a spokesman for Tokyo 2020.
Speaking during a news conference at the Olympic media press center, Masa did say that two non-Japanese people who tested positive during the Games are now in the hospital, but their cases are not serious.
The Summer Olympics are being held without spectators in Tokyo as the city remains under a state of emergency because of the coronavirus.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky said such breakthrough infections are rare, and stressed that Covid-19 vaccines generally prevent hospitalizations and deaths even if vaccinated people are infected.
But "with prior variants, when (vaccinated) people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn't see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others," Walensky, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's director, told CNN's "New Day."
That realization came only "in the last several days," and more information will be published in the coming days, she said.
Still, she said the "vast majority" of transmission is through unvaccinated people.
The CDC also recommended that everyone in and around K-12 schools wear masks, even if they are fully vaccinated.
The US averaged more than 61,300 new daily cases over the last week -- an average that's generally risen since the country hit a 2021 low of 11,299 daily on June 22, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
As of Wednesday, cases have risen in all but one state in the past seven days compared to the week before, according to Johns Hopkins.
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said the US is seeing just how dangerous the variant is. "This is actually what you want to happen with science. You want science to be dynamic, you want recommendations to reflect the latest science, and that's what you see in the recommendations that were issued today," Murthy told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday.
Almost three-quarters of US residents live in counties where indoor masking is recommended for everyone
About 48% are in "high" transmission counties, and 23% are in counties with "substantial" transmission.
This is up from a week ago, when 50.5% of Americans lived in such counties.
Only 1% of the population lives in areas with "low" transmission.
The CDC considers a county to have "high" transmission if there have been 100 or more cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 residents in the past week, or a test positivity rate of 10% or higher during the same time frame.
For "low" transmission, those numbers must be fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 or a test positivity rate under 5%.
Vaccinated people don't yet need a booster, surgeon general says after Pfizer news
The data, which included 23 people, has not yet been peer-reviewed or published.
But Murthy told CNN on Wednesday that fully vaccinated people don't need to get a booster at this point, if ever. And any decision on whether that will change will be made by agencies such as the CDC and the US Food and Drug Administration, he said.
"This data from Pfizer, we've been in talks with them about what they're seeing with regard to their studies related to boosters," Murthy told CNN's "Newsroom" when asked about the data release. "But at this point, I want to be very clear: People do not need to go out and get a booster shot."
Murthy also said whether it'd be ethical to recommend a third shot while there is a major vaccine supply shortage in the developing world was a "critical question." The ability to reduce the likelihood of future variants developing depends on tamping down spread around the world, he said.
Pfizer anticipates submitting data on a third dose of its coronavirus vaccine to the FDA as soon as next month, one of its research and development leaders said during a company earnings call Wednesday.
Vaccinations are still the 'bedrock' of ending the pandemic
While masking up will help reduce the spread of Covid-19 in the US, getting vaccinated is still "the bedrock" of ending the pandemic, Murthy said.
"Vaccines still work. They still save lives. They still prevent hospitalizations at a remarkably high rate," he added.
Over the past seven days, the rate of Americans getting their first vaccine shots has gone up. It was 35% higher than the previous seven-day period and the highest it has been in three weeks, according to CNN analysis of CDC data.
But vaccination rates are still not so high as to get enough of the US inoculated against the virus to slow or stop its spread, experts have said. Many experts have advocated for vaccine requirements as one way to increase vaccination rates in the US.
Los Angeles officials announced Tuesday that the city will require all of its employees to show proof of vaccination or submit to weekly testing.
"The fourth wave is here, and the choice for Angelenos couldn't be clearer -- get vaccinated or get Covid-19," Mayor Eric Garcetti said. "We're committed to pursuing a full vaccine mandate. I urge employers across Los Angeles to follow this example."
The move comes after the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus in Los Angeles County nearly doubled in the past two weeks. There are currently 745 people hospitalized with the virus, compared to 372 people two weeks ago, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
Such requirements by local entities are "very reasonable," Murthy said Tuesday.
Some US hospitals and federal agencies are mandating that employees get vaccinated against Covid-19 or submit to regular testing. Murthy noted that many private institutions are considering following suit.
"Those are decisions the federal government is not going to make," Murthy said. "It's going to be institutions that make them, but I do think that they are very reasonable, because this is a time when we've got to take all steps possible to protect not just ourselves, but the people around us, from Covid-19."
CNN's Jacqueline Howard, Naomi Thomas, Lauren Mascarenhas, Sarah Moon, Jen Christensen, Raja Razek and Jennifer Feldman contributed to this report.
Companies are rushing to revisit their coronavirus precautions, with some mandating vaccines and pushing back targets for when employees are expected to return to the office, as cases rise across the United States, fueled by the Delta variant and slower pace of vaccinations.
Lyft said on Wednesday that it would not require employees to return to the office until February, while Twitter said it would close its newly reopened offices in San Francisco and New York and indefinitely postpone other reopening plans.
Their actions follow announcements by authorities in California and New York City that they will require hundreds of thousands of government workers to get inoculations or face weekly testing. And President Biden is set to announce that all civilian federal workers must be vaccinated or submit to regular testing, social distancing, mask requirements and restrictions on most travel.
Apple will start requiring employees and customers to wear masks regardless of their vaccination status in more than half of its stores in the United States, it said on Wednesday, a new sign that shopping in the country may soon resemble earlier days of the pandemic.
Google will require employees who return to the companys offices to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. It also said it would push back its official return-to-office date to mid-October from September. Google has more than 144,000 employees globally.
Netflix will require the casts of all its U.S. productions to be vaccinated, along with anyone else who comes on set. Its the first studio to establish such a policy.
Facebook will require employees who work at its U.S. campuses to be vaccinated, depending on local conditions and regulations. Facebook, which has roughly 60,000 workers, said in June that it would permit all full-time employees to continue to work from home when feasible.
The Durst Organization, one of the largest private real estate developers in New York City, is requiring all of its employees in nonunion positions to be vaccinated by Sept. 6 or face termination. Durst has about 350 nonunion employees and about 700 union workers.
The Walt Disney Company said Wednesday that it would require cast members and guests older than 2 to wear face coverings in all indoor locations at its Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort, effective July 30.
Citigroup is reinstating mask requirements in common areas for employees across its U.S. offices, a person familiar with the situation said.
New York Citys daily average cases passed 1,000 for the first time in almost three months, though hospitalizations remain relatively low. Diners soon will be required to be vaccinated to eat indoors at some of the citys most famous restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Caf.
President Joe Biden called on Congress to extend a moratorium on home evictions that is set to expire on July 31 as the delta variant continues to spread throughout the U.S.
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Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 195.9 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.18 million. More than 3.97 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
New South Wales, Australia, has recorded its largest one-day increase in COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began.
Johnson & Johnson said yesterday the US Food and Drug Administration has extended the shelf life of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine from 4.5 to 6 months.
American pole vaulter Sam Kendricks has been ruled out of the Olympics after testing positive for COVID-19, which has, in turn, led to members of the Australian team being put into isolation.
It comes as a Tokyo 2020 spokesperson confirmed that two people attending from overseas have been hospitalized with COVID-19. Neither case was said to be serious.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has told his government to open the country's COVID-19 vaccination programme to anyone who wants a vaccine.
Federal agencies across the US have mandated masks at federal buildings in COVID-19 hotspots, following new instructions issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget.
It comes as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that two-thirds of US counties had COVID-19 transmission rates high enough to warrant indoor mask-wearing.
Cambodia is set to introduce a lockdown in eight provinces bordering Thailand from midnight tonight. It's hoped the measure will prevent the spread of the Delta variant in the country.
New Zealand's health regulator has given provisional approval for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. It's only been using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in its inoculation programme so far.
Alberta, Canada, is dropping its quarantine requirement for close contacts of COVID-19 cases. It comes as the neighbouring state of British Columbia reintroduces mandatory mask-wearing.
Restrictions could be tightened in Viet Nam's major cities in response to rising COVID-19 cases, authorities said yesterday.
Daily COVID-19 vaccine doses administered per 100 people in selected countries.
Image: Our World in Data
Fully vaccinated arrivals to England from the European Union and United States will not need to quarantine from next week. Devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales said they would follow suit.
The move is seen as a major boost for airlines and travel companies, although some warned that more was needed and criticised the move as coming too late.
"It's the right thing, it should be done, but like I said it is little bit too late," easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren told LBC.
France is not included in the exemption, with the UK government citing the presence of the Beta variant there.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) has warned that COVID-19 continues to hit the Americas hard. Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador and Paraguay are all among the countries with the world's highest weekly death rates.
The last week saw more than 1.26 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 29,000 deaths reported in the region.
"As COVID continues to circulate, too many places have relaxed the public health and social measures that have proven effective against this virus," PAHO Director Carissa Etienne told a briefing.
And with just 16.6% of the population of Latin America and the Caribbean fully vaccinated against COVID-19, there are significant hurdles still to overcome.
"The good news is that vaccines work against the variants, including Delta, in terms of preventing severe disease and death. The bad news is that we do not have yet enough vaccines to stop community transmission," Etienne added.
The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is a coalition of 85 global leaders, hosted by the World Economic Forum. Its mission: Join hands in support of social entrepreneurs everywhere as vital first responders to the pandemic and as pioneers of a green, inclusive economic reality.
Its COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda, outlines 25 concrete recommendations for key stakeholder groups, including funders and philanthropists, investors, government institutions, support organizations, and corporations. In January of 2021, its members launched its 2021 Roadmap through which its members will roll out an ambitious set of 21 action projects in 10 areas of work. Including corporate access and policy change in support of a social economy.
For more information see the Alliance website or its impact story here.
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.
July 29 (Reuters) - Thailand's Phuket will ban travel from the rest of the country from Aug. 3-16 to try to stop a surge in coronavirus cases from spreading to the resort island, but overseas visitors will be largely unaffected, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.
Phuket is at the heart of efforts to revive Thailand's tourism industry, a major revenue earner that has been devastated by the pandemic.
Since July 1, tourists fully vaccinated against COVID-19 have been allowed to move freely on the island, with no self-isolation on arrival, an initiative dubbed the "Phuket sandbox". read more
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanee Sangrat said the new travel rules will restrict movement to Phuket from elsewhere in Thailand, meaning foreign visitors who stay on the island will not be affected.
Tourists who have stayed on Phuket for more than 14 days will be allowed to leave for other parts of Thailand and can re-enter Phuket only if they have international flights booked from the island's airport, Tanee said.
An order signed by Phuket's provincial governor said exceptions would also be made for medical supplies and personnel and supplies of fuel, money and food.
Operating hours have been restricted for some venues on Phuket and some have been ordered to close as authorities try to limit any impact from the rise in infections across the country.
Thailand has in the last few months been struggling with its worst COVID-19 outbreak since the start of the pandemic, driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, first detected in India.
The national COVID-19 task force reported 17,669 coronavirus cases and 165 deaths on Thursday, both record highs. It said 21 of the fatalities had died at home.
Hospitals in Thailand's capital Bangkok and the surrounding provinces are running out of capacity due to the surge in infections. More than 1,200 people are waiting for hospital beds and over 6,000 have called a hotline in the last week requesting treatment, health authorities said.
"We don't know where to put the sick people anymore, the ER (emergency room) units in many hospitals have to be temporarily closed because they no longer have bed spaces," Department of Medical Services head Somsak Akksilp told a news conference.
There are more than 37,000 hospital beds, including in makeshift field hospitals, in Bangkok and surrounding provinces, according to the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration.
Thailand won plaudits for containing the coronavirus for most of last year, but authorities have struggled to halt the wave of cases starting in April that has taken total infections to 561,030, with 4,562 fatalities.
Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Editing by Ed Davies and Catherine Evans
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
(Washington, DC) - The Districts reported data for Tuesday, July 27, 2021 includes 40 new positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing the Districts overall positive case total to 50,268.
The District reported that one additional resident lost her life due to COVID-19.
Tragically, 1,148 District residents have lost their lives due to COVID-19.
Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/data for interactive data dashboards or to download COVID-19 data.
Below is a summary of the Districts current ReOpening Metrics.
Below is the Districts aggregated total of positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by age and gender.
Patient Gender
Total Positive Cases
%
Female
%
Male
%
Unknown
%
All
50,268*
100
26,195
100
23,900
100
173
100
Unknown
64
<1
21
<1
38
<1
5
3
0-18
6,546
13
3,261
13
3,260
14
25
15
19-30
13,588
27
7,476
28
6,055
25
57
33
31-40
10,024
20
5,145
20
4,843
20
36
21
41-50
6,422
13
3,228
12
3,179
13
15
9
51-60
5,891
12
2,900
11
2,977
13
14
8
61-70
4,234
9
2,129
8
2,097
9
8
5
71-80
2,122
4
1,151
5
966
4
5
3
Laurence Kesterson/AP
Four Washington Nationals players, including Trea Turner, and eight staff members have tested positive for the coronavirus. Turner was pulled from Tuesday's game after he tested positive for Covid-19.
CNN
The Washington Nationals game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday has been postponed due to a dozen Covid-19 cases within the Nationals organization.
Nationals manager Dave Martinez said on a video news conference that four players and eight staff members had positive tests results for the coronavirus.
The manager said some people had symptoms and some were asymptomatic. None appeared to be very sick, he added.
Im very concerned. We all took rapid tests today, he said. Well follow up. Well get some additional results tomorrow. Hopefully, no one else will test positive.
MLB postponed the evening game in Philadelphia to allow for continued testing and contact tracing for members of the Nationals. Martinez said he sent the team back to the hotel.
On Tuesday, Martinez pulled shortstop Trea Turner from their game against the Phillies, after testing positive for Covid-19.
Martinez told reporters after the game Turner was in isolation, but did not reveal whether the shortstop had been vaccinated. He said Wednesday he couldnt name the other players who had tested positive. Martinez said he thought most of the people involved were vaccinated.
This is the second instance involving Covid cases within the team this season.
In April, the Nationals season-opening series against the New York Mets was postponed. At the time, Washington placed nine players on the teams Covid-19 injured list as a result, with four of those being from positive tests, while the others being deemed close contacts.
MLB has rescheduled the game as part of a doubleheader on Thursday.
COVID-19 breakthrough infections: Can vaccinated people get infected?
People who are fully vaccinated can get COVID, but experts say they're unlikely to get severely ill.
Staff video, USA TODAY
Nearly 3% of medical workers in a new Israeli study contracted COVID-19 even though they were vaccinated, and 19%of them still had symptoms six weeks later.
Although the vaccines were never expected to be perfect, the findings raisequestions about theirprotectionand suggest that evenvaccinated people could experience long-term symptoms such as such as fatigue, brain fog and shortness of breath.
Dr. Ashish Jha,dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said he finds it concerning though not conclusive that people had lingering symptoms weeks after getting sick.
"There really may be a risk here, but we don't know how big a risk and how much of a problem it is," he said.
Most of the people in the study who got sick had mild symptoms, and none were hospitalized.
But Jha said he was troubled that young, healthy people would get so-called breakthrough infections within a few months of vaccination. Scientists expectedprotection towane over time, and they expected the vaccines to be less effectiveamong older people and those with pre-existing health conditions.
But that's not who got sick in this study.
Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, said she's not surprised that a number of health care workers would become infected after being vaccinated because they're constantly exposed to sick people.
"It makes sense to me that health care workers would be particularly susceptible to breakthrough infections," she said via email, "making mitigation procedures (universal masking) even more important in health care settings."
The good news is that none of the 39 people who got infected passed the coronavirus on to anyone else, according to the study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Coronavirus vaccines were never designed to perfectly protect people against all infections, noted Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who foundedand directsthe Scripps Research Translational Institutein California.
He said current vaccines are great at preventing serious infection deep in the lungs, but not at blocking infection in the upper airways. What's needed, he said, is a nasal-spray vaccine that would stop the coronavirus from taking hold at all.
Topol said he wishes the federal government had prioritized a nasal vaccine along with shots.
"It would have been the perfect combination," he said.
Some researchers believed vaccines would reduceviral loads, and people with lower viral loads would be less likely to have lingering symptoms.Topol said the new study brings thatinto question.
"Those who are vaccinated did everything right, but some are going to go on to long-COVID, and that's really unfortunate," he said.
The study followed about 1,500 Israeli health care workers for four months after they received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Anyone who tested positive more than 11 days after thesecond dose was considered a breakthrough case.
Thirty-nine people 2.6% of the total were diagnosed with the virus. One was immunosuppressed;the rest were healthy, including nurses, maintenance workers and a few doctors.
All 37peoplefor whom data was available were infected by an unvaccinated person, usually within their homes.
Two-thirds had mild symptoms; the rest had none at all.
Six weeks after their diagnosis, 19% reported they still had at least one symptom: loss of smell, cough, fatigue, weakness, difficulty breathing, ormuscle pain.Nine employees 23% weren't healthy enough to return to work after 10 days of required quarantine. One hadn't gone back after six weeks.
Most had thealpha variant of the virus, which is more contagious than the original version, but less infectious than the delta variant that now accounts for most cases in the United States.
Whether delta is more dangerous in addition to being more contagious remains unclear, Jha said.
"The evidence really, reallyis mixed on whether delta is more virulent," he said."I can point you to some studies that argue that it is and other studies that argue that it isn't, but none of them are particularly definitive."
Topol said the best protection is to get vaccinated and practice social measures like wearing a mask.
"Don't take the delta stress test. Keep a mask on," he said. "With the vaccine, you can be confident, but you can't be100% confident."
ContactKaren Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.
Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.
COVID vaccine mandates: Could private businesses help curb new surge?
More than 50 health care and medical groups called for employers of health and long-term care workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccines.
Staff video, USA TODAY
