WELLINGTON, New Zealand New Zealand on Friday suspended its quarantine-free travel bubble with Australia for at least eight weeks due to a growing COVID-19 cluster in Sydney.
New Zealand recently imposed quarantine restrictions on travelers from New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia states, where lockdowns have been introduced to contain delta variant clusters.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said quarantine-free travel would be suspended from anywhere in Australia from 11:59 p.m. New Zealand time.
Ardern said she hoped to have all New Zealanders who wanted to return flown home from Australia with managed flights within a week.
The travel bubble has existed since April and has provided both countries with their only quarantine-free international flights.
Both Australia and New Zealand have been among the most successful in the world in containing coronavirus outbreaks. But Sydney is failing to contain a cluster of the highly contagious delta variant, which has spread across the country.
On Friday, New South Wales state declared an emergency over the Sydney outbreak. Authorities reported one fatality and 136 new infections in the latest 24-hour period, the biggest daily jump since the outbreak began in mid-June.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of July 23, 2021, there have been 3,090,636 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 165,702 total cases and 2,936 deaths.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of an 84-year old male from Grant County and an 80-year old male from Cabell County. These two deaths reported on todays dashboard are a result of the Bureau for Public Healths continuing data reconciliation with the official death certificate.
As we send sympathies to these families, I urge everyone in West Virginia to do their part to reduce the spread of this virus and prevent further loss of life, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. Please schedule your COVID-19 vaccine today.
CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,522), Berkeley (12,980), Boone (2,190), Braxton (1,035), Brooke (2,257), Cabell (9,011), Calhoun (400), Clay (544), Doddridge (649), Fayette (3,600), Gilmer (891), Grant (1,322), Greenbrier (2,919), Hampshire (1,935), Hancock (2,860), Hardy (1,588), Harrison (6,281), Jackson (2,283), Jefferson (4,829), Kanawha (15,594), Lewis (1,325), Lincoln (1,613), Logan (3,318), Marion (4,707), Marshall (3,565), Mason (2,094), McDowell (1,656), Mercer (5,248), Mineral (3,006), Mingo (2,797), Monongalia (9,464), Monroe (1,229), Morgan (1,256), Nicholas (1,936), Ohio (4,340), Pendleton (726), Pleasants (961), Pocahontas (683), Preston (2,971), Putnam (5,415), Raleigh (7,141), Randolph (2,879), Ritchie (768), Roane (670), Summers (869), Taylor (1,304), Tucker (549), Tyler (754), Upshur (2,011), Wayne (3,206), Webster (588), Wetzel (1,405), Wirt (468), Wood (8,005), Wyoming (2,085).
Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Grant, Jefferson, Lincoln, Logan, Marshall, Mineral, and Monongalia counties.
July 23
Barbour County
9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Barbour County Health Department, 109 Wabash Avenue, Philippi, WV
Berkeley County
10:00 AM 5:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV
Grant County
Jefferson County
12:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shepherd University Wellness Center Parking Lot, 164 University Drive, Shepherdstown, WV
Lincoln County
Logan County
Marshall County
Mineral County
Monongalia County
9:00 AM 12:00 PM, WVU Recreation Center, Lower Level, 2001 Rec Center Drive, Morgantown, WV
Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is also available on Sunday in Preston County.
July 25
Preston County
9:00 AM 5:00 PM, Valley District Fair, 291 Kingwood Street, Reedsville, WV
After weeks at some of the lowest levels of COVID-19 since last year, the number of COVID-19 cases and the size of outbreaks in King County have begun to rise again. An uptick is not unexpected as restrictions on activities are relaxed, but the rising numbers should prompt all of us vaccinated as well as unvaccinated to take extra precautions.
COVID-19 has been on the rise in King County since June 29, when King Countys indoor mask Directive ended. At that time, Public Health was reporting an average of 61 new cases daily. Since then, our average daily case counts have swelled to 141 a 130% increase in just over three weeks.
Hospitalizations and deaths have remained relatively low compared to past peaks, which is what we would expect in a county with relatively high rates of vaccine coverage. But recently, hospitalizations are also on the rise. Over the last seven days, 45 people were admitted to the hospital in King County for COVID-19, a 32% increase over the previous week, and the hospitalization rate has doubled from 1 per 100,000 per week on July 7 to 2 per 100,000 per week on July 17.
A number of recent outbreaks have occurred in indoor settings where people have prolonged contact with one another, such as gyms and social gatherings.These outbreaks, like others reported nationally, include indoor public settings where unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people are in contact with each other and are not masking. There are some instances of infection even among vaccinated people engaging in indoor activity in a poorly ventilated space without masks.
The best way to stem this increase is for everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated. The large majority of recent cases, hospitalizations and deaths are among unvaccinated residents. Over the past 30 days in King County, 94% of hospitalizations and 94% of deaths due to COVID-19 occurred among people who arent fully vaccinated.
While the share of COVID-19 cases among fully vaccinated people has increased over the last month, illness rates among vaccinated people are low compared with unvaccinated people. About 14% of people who tested positive for COVID-19 between June 9 July 6 were fully vaccinated, compared with 86% who were not. The hospitalization rate is 34 times higher among unvaccinated residents compared to vaccinated residents, and the death rate due to COVID-19 is 43 times higher among unvaccinated residents compared to vaccinated residents.
COVID-19 vaccines provide very high-level protection against whats most important: serious infections with hospitalization and deaths. Since no vaccine is 100% effective, its not surprising that some vaccinated people may develop COVID-19 and be able to pass the infection to others, although that is much less likely than for unvaccinated people.When vaccinated people do become infected, their illness is typically mild and not serious.Unfortunately, the Delta variant may increase the risk of vaccinated people developing mild breakthrough infections compared to earlier strains, but our vaccines still offer excellent protection.
When youre exposed to COVID-19 today in King County, its most likely that youre being exposed to a highly contagious variant of the virus. Of the recent COVID-19 test samples genetically sequenced in King County, about 90% represent a variant of concern and not the original strain of the virus, and about 60% of these are the Delta variant. This is concerning because the Delta variant is so contagious.
Nailing down exactly where people are being exposed is complicated. Contact tracers ask people who test positive for COVID-19 about where theyve spent time during their contagious period. Comparing the most recent 30 days with the month prior, an increasing share of people with COVID-19 report having attended a social event (36% vs 28%), visited a bar or restaurant (15% vs 10%), or and to have travelled out-of-state (17% vs 9%).
This virus will is getting better and better at finding people who are unvaccinated, and that is what we are seeing in the recent data from King County, said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Health Officer, Public Health Seattle & King County. While we would all like to have COVID-19 completely in the rearview mirror, and although our vaccines are greatly diminishing the threat, we remain vulnerable to continuing COVID-19 spread impacting our community, especially for those who remain unvaccinated and those who arent able to be protected, including children under 12 and people who are immunocompromised.
The most important way to protect yourself and your community is to get vaccinated. Vaccines provide strong protection against the original strain of COVID-19 and variants of concern.
The increasing numbers mean that all of us, even people who are fully vaccinated, should consider taking extra precautions, especially in indoor settings with other people. Unvaccinated people are currently required to continue wearing masks in public, indoor spaces and should continue to do so.
Public Health Seattle & King County now recommends that all residents five years of age and older, regardless of vaccination status, wear face coverings in indoor public settings. This extra layer of protection will help us all stay safer, including those who are unvaccinated, such as the 300,000 children in King County who arent able to get vaccinated yet, and the many thousands of people who have immune systems that are weakened or suppressed.
Washington State already requires unvaccinated people to wear masks in indoor public settings, although in stores and other public spaces, there is no practical way to know who is vaccinated and who isnt. For this reason, universal masking in indoor public spaces provides a more reliable way to ensure everyone is safer as we monitor the current increasing disease trends.
Masking in public spaces is also beneficial for those who are in close contact with someone at increased risk, to model mask-wearing for children, and to protect from other respiratory illnesses or allergens.
Originally published July 23, 2021
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COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations kept ticking upward this week as Alaska health officials anticipated that the states latest virus surge will continue based on current trends.
On Friday, Alaska reported 447 infections, two virus-related deaths and a continued rise in hospitalizations over the last two days, with much of the state remaining at a high alert level.
Other states with similar mitigation strategies and vaccination rates including Missouri, Arkansas and Florida are reaching their fall and winter case loads, Dr. Anne Zink, Alaskas chief medical officer, told reporters on a Thursday call.
In Alaska, I dont see any reason to think this is the top as of right now, Zink said. I think we have a chance to learn from other states, and really encourage people to get vaccinated, like today. ... We have a chance, but that window is narrowing quickly.
By Friday, roughly 57% of Alaskas population age 12 and older had received at least their first dose of the vaccine while 52% of all residents 12 and older were considered fully vaccinated. Among all states, Alaska ranked No. 29 in the country for most vaccinated residents per capita.
Health officials have said that higher vaccination rates in the range of 70-80% of the total population are needed to prevent widespread outbreaks, but vaccinations in Alaska have plateaued since spring.
In Sitka, the worst outbreak the community has suffered since the pandemic began continued with another 64 cases reported Thursday and Friday. The average case rates in the community of just over 8,500 remained among the highest in the country at the county level.
By Friday, there were 80 people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 hospitalized around the state up from 70 on Wednesday. In the second half of June, that number hovered between 10 and 19.
According to a New York Times tracker updated Friday, Alaskas 163% increase in hospitalizations over the last two weeks was the highest among U.S. states over that time period. Local hospitals say theyre feeling the strain.
Weve been running pretty close to full capacity for the last 10 days, said Dr. Michael Bernstein, chief medical officer at Providence Alaska Medical Center.
The hospitalization surge, however, remains significantly below what it was during the states worst spike last fall and winter. At the peak, coronavirus hospitalizations statewide hovered around 160 more than double the current count.
The vast majority of hospitalizations in the state right now involve people who arent vaccinated and trending younger than the patients seen earlier in the pandemic, Bernstein said.
Were seeing more patients under the age of 50 at Providence, he said. And we believe thats because we have higher vaccination rates in the older parts of our population, because theyre more susceptible. But these younger patients are still getting very sick at times.
The two deaths reported Friday occurred recently and involved an Anchorage man in his 60s and a Petersburg man in his 70s. In total, 377 Alaskans and seven nonresidents with COVID-19 have died since the pandemic reached the state last spring.
Alaskas death rate per capita remains among the lowest in the country, though the states size, health care system and other factors complicate national comparisons.
Health officials continue to encourage Alaskans to get vaccinated against the virus, noting that the vaccines have been shown to be highly effective at preventing severe illness from the virus, including the more contagious variants.
The recent rise in cases can likely be attributed in part to the highly contagious delta variant first identified in India in December and in Alaska in May, health officials have said. The newer strain has been linked to higher hospitalization rates, and is considered the most transmissible variant yet.
Of the 427 new resident cases reported Thursday and Friday, there were 137 in Anchorage, 64 in Sitka, 30 in Wasilla, 23 in Juneau, 19 in Fairbanks, 15 in Soldotna, 10 in Eagle River, 10 in Kenai, 10 in Nome, 10 in Seward, seven in Cordova, seven in Kodiak, five in North Pole, five in Palmer, five in Tok, five in Valdez, four in Chugiak, four in Unalaska, two in Bethel, two in Delta Junction, two in Hooper Bay, and one each in Chevak, Douglas, Healy, Sterling and Wrangell.
Among smaller communities, there were 17 in the Bethel Census Area, 10 in the Copper River Census Area, four in the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough, three in the Dillingham Census Area, three in the Kusilvak Census Area, two in the Aleutians East Borough and one each in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, northern Kenai Peninsula Borough, Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Kodiak Island Borough, Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Northwest Arctic Borough and Prince Of Wales-Hyder Census Area.
There were 20 nonresident cases also identified: five in Anchorage, two in Fairbanks, two in Ketchikan, two in Kodiak, two in the Northwest Arctic Borough, two in Unalaska, one in Sitka, one in Juneau and three in unidentified regions of the state.
Of all the coronavirus tests completed in the state over the last week, 5.42% came back positive.
Note: The health department now updates its coronavirus dashboard on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays excluding holidays.
Opponents of government restrictions on personal freedoms during the COVID-19 pandemic argue that lockdowns have taken a greater toll on the publics health than the disease itself.
They cite factors, such as missed opportunities to screen for illnesses and provide vaccinations, lengthening waiting times for consultations and surgical procedures, and the mental health toll of loneliness and isolation.
People sometimes sum these up as the cure is worse than the disease.
Writing in BMJ Global Health, public health experts emphasize that it is challenging to disentangle the health effects of lockdowns from the health effects of the pandemic.
However, their own analysis suggests that it is unlikely that government interventions have been worse for public health at least in the short term than the pandemic itself.
They considered not only overall mortality rates but also disruptions to health services, mental health effects, and the number of suicides.
The research was an international collaboration between scientists in Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
To tease apart the health effects of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions, the researchers turned to the World Mortality Dataset.
The dataset includes figures for excess mortality in 94 countries between the start of the pandemic in 2020 and the middle of 2021.
It defines excess mortality as the difference between the actual number of deaths and the predicted number, given trends before the pandemic.
In Australia and New Zealand, which imposed several lockdowns but experienced relatively few COVID-19 cases, the researchers found no excess mortality during 2020.
If it were true that the cure is worse than the disease, lockdowns would have increased death rates in these countries compared with previous years, even in the absence of severe outbreaks.
The researchers found a similar story in South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand, which imposed lockdowns despite having few or no COVID-19 cases.
These countries either recorded no excess mortality or relatively small increases.
On the flip side, countries that imposed few restrictions, including Brazil, Sweden, and Russia, have recorded large numbers of excess deaths throughout the pandemic.
[I]f areas that locked down but had low COVID-19 cases did not see deaths from other causes rise, lockdowns themselves cannot be the cause of deaths per se, said lead author Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an epidemiologist at the School of Health and Society at the University of Wollongong in Australia.
It is possible that they have had mixed benefits, but the evidence is not consistent with a situation where lockdowns cause large numbers of deaths in the short term, he told Medical News Today.
The authors emphasize that the possibility remains that lockdowns have detrimental effects on health, both in the short and long term.
For example, a U.K. study found an increase in heart attacks within the community during the first wave of COVID-19. However, the research was unable to determine whether government restrictions or COVID-19 caused this growth.
Another study suggested that missed cancer screenings could lead to a large increase in cancer deaths in the U.K. But reduced screening could also result from the reallocation of healthcare staff to pandemic-related work.
Commenting on the new analysis for the Science Media Centre in London, Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh in the U.K., said:
The authors reach the unsurprising conclusion that the short-term impact of lockdown on mortality rates is considerably less than the impact of COVID-19, while correctly acknowledging that it is extremely difficult to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of either. This is a useful exercise but falls far short of demonstrating that the cure will not prove to be worse than the disease in the long term.
Other researchers are concerned that the long-term consequences of the disease could be far ranging, particularly with potentially lasting effects on the brain.
The authors report that there is consistent and robust evidence that government measures to control COVID-19 have not led to increased deaths from suicide.
They acknowledge that there is also abundant evidence that mental health has declined since the onset of the pandemic.
But they emphasize that it is challenging to disentangle the effects of lockdown and the pandemic itself, which has led to anxiety about infection and a high burden of bereavement.
Dean Burnett, Ph.D., honorary research associate at Cardiff Psychology School in the U.K., told MNT that the focus on case numbers, death rates, and hospital occupancy risked sidelining the pandemics toll on mental health.
Dr. Burnett, who was not involved in the new research, lost his own father to COVID-19 in 2020.
The raw numbers are useful for tracking the progress and pattern of the pandemic, but every one of those numbers is actually a complex individual human, with all the emotional connections and relationships that entails, he said.
As a result, their sickness or death will have a wide range of negative consequences for the well-being of those around them.
It is important to note that the study was unable to include information about the impact of long COVID due to the lack of comparable data across countries.
Long COVID, or post-COVID syndrome the persistence of symptoms for 3 months or more affects around 1 in 10 people with COVID-19.
The fewer people who develop COVID-19, the fewer people will be affected by long COVID, therefore pushing the balance further towards the disease being worse than lockdowns.
For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.
CDC: Delta variant accounts for 83% of US cases
Health officials say the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to surge and accounts for an estimated 83% of U.S. COVID-19 cases. (July 20)
AP
The delta variant, a more contagious and deadly strain of the COVID-19 virus, is spreading quickly throughout Indiana and is now the most dominant strain.
Heres what you need to know:
In general viruses mutate as they spread. Some of these mutations fizzle out and others become more prevalent for various reasons, according to the Indiana Department of Health.
The United States and Indiana have seen a number of variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 in the past 16 months. At first, the most common variant was the alpha variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, known as the B.1.1.7 variant.
More recently the delta variant, first identified in India and known as the B.1.617.2 variant, has become more dominant.
COVID-19 and travel:The delta variant is spreading. Should travelers be concerned?
Some are known as variants of interest, which means the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention scientists are monitoring them. Others are variants of concern, which means they may be more transmissible, cause more severe disease, or be less vulnerable to vaccines and therapeutics. Both the alpha and delta variants are considered to be variants of concern.
A variant could also be labeled a variant of high consequence, meaning it has increased capacity to cause severe disease and or is more impervious to drugs or vaccines. At this point the CDC has not deemed any COVID-19 strains a variant of high consequence.
The delta variant is thought to be far more transmissible than the original strain of coronavirus. The variant is about 60% more transmissible than the alpha variant, which was already more readily transmitted from person to person than the original variant, according to the American Medical Association.
Some studies have suggested that this variant may also cause more severe disease than other strains.
About 70% of the positive COVID-19 samples tested this month have been the delta variant, according to the states COVID-19 dashboard. This represents an increase of nearly 40% from the previous month.
Only about 15% of samples tested have been the alpha variant, a decrease of nearly 40% from the percentage one month ago.
State health officials declined in an email to provide county-level specifics about the delta variant. The variant has been found in samples sequenced from almost every county, state health officials said.
Because only a small percentage of samples are sent for sequencing, a breakdown by county level does not accurately reflect the prevalence of a variant in a given county, said spokeswoman Jeni OMalley in an email. For public health purposes, it is more useful to understand what percentage of samples is testing positive for a variant and that the variant is present.
Nationwide, the delta variant is responsible for nearly 62% of all COVID cases, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 in general can cause a variety of symptoms, ranging from respiratory to gastrointestinal distress.
A British app that encourages people who have COVID to report their symptoms online has seen a shift in the most common symptoms among those infected who are unvaccinated.
The ZOE COVID Symptom study now lists headache, sore throat, runny nose, and fever with persistent cough coming in fifth as the top symptoms now that the delta variant has become the dominant strain circulating. Loss of smell was ranked number nine and shortness of breath, once a very common symptom, number 30.
Studies suggest that three vaccines currently in the United States offer some protection against the delta variant, according to the CDC, but it is not yet known just how effective they are.
In addition, some of the studies have offered conflicting views. A study performed in Scotland suggested that the Pfizer vaccines effectiveness might decrease slightly when faced with the delta variant and be about 79% effective.
Another study performed in Israel found the Pfizer vaccine was about 64% effective when it came to preventing infection against the delta variant but 93% effective in preventing serious illness and hospitalization.
Earlier this week, a study appeared online, suggesting that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine may not be as effective against the delta variant as the other two. The author said that his study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, open the door for booster shots for those who received the J&J shot.
This is the population that has public health officials most worried. Because the delta variant is far more easily transmitted than other variants, those who are exposed and have no protection are more likely to contract the variant.
The majority of people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in Indiana and the country as a whole are those who are unvaccinated.
There have been 152 people fully vaccinated people in Indiana hospitalized for whats known as breakthrough infections, about 0.005% of all fully vaccinated people, according to the states dashboard.
Recently the World Health Organization added the lambda variant, first identified in Peru, as a variant of interest. This variant is thought to be contributing to increased COVID spread in Latin America and has now been found in at least 29 countries, according to the World Health Organization.
In the United States, the lambda variant has been implicated in fewer than 700 cases.
It's unclear whether or how much that strain is infecting people in Indiana. Because the lambda variant is not yet a variant of concern in the United States, Indiana does not include a listing for it on the state dashboard.
Contact IndyStar reporter Shari Rudavsky atshari.rudavsky@indystar.com. Follow her on Facebook and on Twitter: @srudavsky.
The bodys first encounter with SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, happens in the nose and throat, or nasopharynx. A new study in the journal Cell suggests that the first responses in this battleground help determine who will develop severe disease and who will get through with mild or no illness.
Building on work published last year identifying cells susceptible to the virus, a team of collaborators at Boston Childrens Hospital, MIT, and the University of Mississippi Medical Center comprehensively mapped SARS-CoV-2 infection in the nasopharynx. They obtained samples from the nasal swabs of 35 adults with COVID-19 from April to September 2020, ranging from mildly symptomatic to critically ill. They also got swabs from 17 control subjects and six patients who were intubated but did not have COVID-19.
Why some people get more sick than others has been one of the most puzzling aspects of this virus from the beginning, says Jos Ordovs-Montas, PhD, of Boston Childrens, co-senior investigator on the study with Bruce Horwitz, MD, PhD of Boston Childrens, Alex Shalek, PhD, of MIT and Sarah Glover, DO, of the University of Mississippi. Many studies looking for risk predictors have looked for signatures in the blood, but blood may not really be the right place to look.
To get a detailed picture of what happens in the nasopharynx, the researchers sequenced the RNA in each cell, one cell at a time. (For a sense of all the work this entailed, each patient swab yielded an average of 562 cells.) The RNA data enabled the team to pinpoint which cells were present, which contained RNA originating from the virus an indication of infection and which genes the cells were turning on and off in response.
It soon became clear that the epithelial cells lining the nose and throat undergo major changes in the presence of SARS-CoV-2. The cells diversified in type overall. There was an increase in mucus-producing secretory and goblet cells. At the same time, there was a striking loss of mature ciliated cells, which sweep the airways, together with an increase in immature ciliated cells (which were perhaps trying to compensate).
The team found SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a diverse range of cell types, including immature ciliated cells and specific subtypes of secretory cells, goblet cells, and squamous cells. The infected cells, as compared with uninfected bystander cells, had more genes turned on that are involved in a productive response to infection.
The key finding came when the team compared nasopharyngeal swabs from people with different severity of COVID-19 illness:
Everyone with severe COVID-19 had a blunted interferon response early on in their epithelial cells, and were never able to ramp up a defense, says Ordovs-Montas. Having the right amount of interferon at the right time could be at the crux of dealing with SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
As a next step, the researchers plan to investigate what is causing the muted interferon response in the nasopharynx, which evidence suggests may also occur with the new SARS-CoV-2 variants. They will also explore the possibility of augmenting the interferon response in people with early COVID-19 infections, perhaps with a nasal spray or drops.
Having the right amount of interferon at the right time could be at the crux of dealing with SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
Its likely that, regardless of the reason, people with a muted interferon response will be susceptible to future infections beyond COVID-19, Ordovs-Montas says. The question is, how do you make these cells more responsive?
Carly Ziegler, Vincent Miao, Andrew Navia, and Joshua Bromley of MIT and Harvard; Anna Owings of the University of Mississippi; and Ying Tang of Boston Childrens Hospital were co-first authors on the paper. Funders include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, the National Institutes of Health, the New York Stem Cell Foundation, the Richard and Susan Smith Family Foundation, the AGA Research Foundation, the Food Allergy Science Initiative, The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Crohns and Colitis Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard.
Explore COVID-19 research at Boston Childrens Hospital
Members of the Ugandan boxing team tested positive for Covid-19 after landing in Tokyo back in June. In early July, a Serbian rower did too. The weekend before the Games began, the first people in the Tokyo Olympic Village tested positive for Covid-19; first, two South African soccer players, then a Czech volleyball player.
American tennis player Coco Gauff had to drop out of her first Olympics because of a positive test, and an alternate gymnast for Team USA though fully vaccinated tested positive for Covid-19, and is now spending the Games in her hotel room, under quarantine. A US mens beach volleyball player, testing positive, will likely be disqualified from a weekend match.
Since July 1, more than 75 people associated with the Olympics have gotten back positive Covid-19 results.
Then again, what do you expect when you host a mass sporting spectacle during a pandemic?
The International Olympic Committee postponed the 2020 Tokyo Summer Games last year as the coronavirus spread around the globe, shutting down international travel and leaving countries on strict lockdowns.
If the delay was intended to push the Olympics into a post-pandemic world, the opposite happened. The pandemic evolved, and is now in one of its most dangerous phases, fueled by variants specifically delta and global inequity around vaccinations.
But the Olympics are still trying to be, well, the Olympics. Yes, there is a pandemic playbook, and safety protocols, like frequent testing. Yes, the stadiums will be largely empty of fans. Yes, there are vaccines, but the International Olympic Committee did not mandate them, though it worked to help teams access shots, saying about 80 to 85 percent of those in the Olympic Village would be vaccinated.
The Olympics were always going to be extraordinarily difficult to pull off in a pandemic, but some of the mess was foreseeable, and maybe even avoidable though it might have meant pulling off a different sort of Olympics than the one were used to.
Its fingers crossed, hopeful, magical thinking without really thinking about the risks, and what could they have done to lower those risks for everyone involved, Lisa Brosseau, a public health expert and research consultant with the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, who has written, along with her colleagues, on how the Olympics could have mitigated some of these Covid-19 risks.
So much of the debate focused on whether to cancel the Olympics altogether, something that was supposedly still a possibility in recent days. The course of the pandemic is beyond the control of the Olympic officials, of course, but the question is whether the planning or protocols around the Games should have changed, too. And now, with the Games already on, it is nearly impossible to change course.
Covid-19 disruptions are likely to be a defining feature of this 2020 Olympiad. It will not be a moment, as some hoped, of a world showing solidarity amid the toll and tragedy of the pandemic. Instead, it will be a showcase for just how far the world still has to go to defeat Covid-19 and the very real risks of not facing up to that reality.
The pandemic is worse now than when the 2020 Games were first postponed. More than 191 million Covid-19 cases have been detected as of July 2021, and more than 4 million people have died, according to the World Health Organization. Japan, the Olympic host, is seeing another surge of Covid-19 cases, low compared to US levels but almost double the caseload around this time in 2020. Tokyo recorded more than 1,900 new cases on July 22 a 155 percent increase from the previous weeks average.
The burden of the pandemic is now largely on unvaccinated people, split into two groups. The first is people who are reluctant to or refuse to get a shot, though its generally easily available to them, as in the United States. Then theres the much larger group: the rest of the world, the majority of whom live in places were vaccines arent readily available. About 26 percent of the worlds population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but just a little more than 1 percent of them are in low-income countries.
Still, even countries that sought to vaccinate their way out of the pandemic Israel and the United States, for example are seeing a troublesome uptick in cases. The delta variant is driving up cases everywhere; daily global coronavirus infections are up more than 40 percent compared to a month ago, according to the New York Times.
Though the vaccines largely protect against severe illness and death, the high numbers of still-unvaccinated people make it an imperfect firewall one that could grow weaker if the virus continues to spread and continues to change.
Olympic officials, back in 2020, couldnt have predicted these exact circumstances. Yet experts said that it became clear months ago that the existing protocols were going to be insufficient to fully prevent the spread of Covid-19 at the Olympics. And while the Olympic organizers made changes to their pandemic playbook on the margins, the commitment to a safe and secure Olympics wasnt as agile or flexible as it might have been.
This isnt a pandemic of 2020, and so the Olympics cant be, either, said Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California San Francisco. The old rules dont count anymore.
For one, theres a lot of hygiene theater, as Chin-Hong called it. These are things like temperature checks for athletes returning to the Olympic Village, though these have serious limitations, and things like restricted seating and plexiglass barriers in the dining room, which arent going to do much and may even give people a false sense of security.
Chin-Hong even suggested handing out N95 masks, or something more protective, for athletes as they interact with people, rather than just surgical or cloth masks. Experts have also raised concerns about the ventilation systems in the hotels, venues, and the Olympic Village. Updating those could do a lot more to protect athletes than, say, spacing those cardboard beds.
And then theres the so-called Olympic bubble. Only athletes are permitted to stay in the Olympic Village, and theyre supposed to follow Covid-19 protocols, like wearing masks and social distancing. Theyre not supposed to leave for a reason other than attending a competition, and they can face penalties if they break those rules.
But athletes arent required to stay in the Olympic Village; they could stay at hotels, for example. Also staying at hotels are media and coaches and support staff. All those people will be traveling to and interacting with each other and with volunteers and staff at events. In other words, the bubble very quickly bursts.
Daily saliva tests will help catch infections, but once someone has a positive Covid-19 test, its already too late the call is coming from inside the house, so to speak.
The issue with surveillance systems like that is that you are detecting exposure that already happened. And from there, you try to [pick] out whoever got exposed, potentially, and isolate those folks, said Tomoko Udo, assistant professor in the department of health policy, management, and behavior at the School of Public Health at University at Albany. But once its in, and it starts to spread really fast, you cant really do much. Its catch-up.
Tracking down close contacts could also get complicated. Tokyo organizers are having Olympic participants download a contract tracing app for mobile devices, except athletes probably dont have their cellphones on them when they compete. And how those contacts are treated varies on a case-by-case basis, which is exactly the kind of thing that always goes well when youre trying to maintain fair standards of competition.
With the Olympics starting now, officials cant entirely change course. Olympic officials could try to tighten the bubble a little bit, they could hand out more effective masks, but these are improvements on the edges. As Chin-Hong said: You cant take the elephant out of the room.
The cracks in some of the Olympic Covid-19 protocols seem easy to spot now. The Games organizers, like everyone else, were betting on vaccines. That, as Brosseau said, is more Olympic magical thinking.
It has always its been about were going to get everybody vaccinated, its going to be fine, Brosseau said. And we dont need to really worry about these other things all these other things are more for show really, the Plexiglas barriers and people bringing their face masks.
Its not just the Olympics. Entire countries engaged in this magical thinking, hoping to rely on herd immunity brought about by vaccines. But that strategy wasnt ever really practical for the Olympics, either.
Most obviously, the IOC did not mandate vaccination to participate in the Olympics. The IOC made a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech to help countries get vaccines, and many countries prioritized the vaccination of athletes.
But experts said that even though the overall figure of 85 percent provided by the IOC seems quite high, its more complicated on closer inspection. Different countries might have different vaccines, which have different levels of effectiveness, and also have different guidelines on who can get the vaccine (say, people under 16, who can compete in the Olympics). The level of vaccination may vary for specific delegations or teams, and they may be coming from a place where, even if theyre vaccinated, Covid-19 cases are high. Some athletes were always going to refuse vaccination if it wasnt required.
And so far that seems to be the case. According to the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee medical chief, about 100 out of Americas 613 athletes are unvaccinated and there is no question that shots were available to them. On top of that, Japans rate of vaccination is only about 23 percent, and most of those shots have gone to elderly people and health care workers. Japan planned to vaccinate its Olympic volunteers, but what of taxi drivers or hotel workers or others whom Olympic participants may come in contact with? Among those who have tested positive in recent days (though their vaccination status is unclear) were a volunteer, six contractors, and one Games staffer, according to Reuters.
Vaccines seemed like a safety net in pulling off the Olympics, but its clear that safety net was not enough if the goal was to stop any spread of the virus. In a way, the Olympics are a reflection of a broader dilemma at this stage of the Covid-19 pandemic. Vaccinations are astonishingly effective at preventing severe illness and death, and they are helping places get back to a version of normal. People are also tired and fatigued of additional restrictions, even as the virus is roaring back, or surging in places it never left. You see this pressure and conflict and tension arise, Udo said.
That same tension exists in the Olympics. Tokyo faces restrictions on business and restaurants, but athletes are coming from all around the world to the city. Covid-19 is sidelining athletes, and the leaderboards and gold medal tallies will have a permanent caveat.
Then again, its the Olympics, were doing it! Well watch world records being broken, and witness these incredible feats of human speed and agility, and it will look and feel to many of us watching from afar like the Olympics weve always known.
But it maybe shouldnt have been the Olympics weve always known.
The protocols and vaccinations are important, and they will help create a barrier against Covid-19. But maybe the most effective way to minimize the risks at the Olympics might have turned the spectacle into something entirely different. Brosseau and her colleagues, for example, suggested potentially spacing out the Olympics over many weeks, with different sports competing at different times, to eliminate the number of people in Tokyo all at once.
Maybe different athletes or sports should have followed different protocols whether they play indoors or outdoors, whether people play on teams or compete solo rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Its not that perfect everyone-is-together-enjoying-this-amazing-event, Brosseau said. But its a pandemic, for goodness sake. Its still the Olympics. But no they really wanted to have the Olympics be as much as possible like it is.
And maybe Olympic fans do, too. Except, a year and change into the pandemic, the one constant of the pandemic has been that no amount of magical thinking can will it away.
The Bootleg Fire glows in the distance, near Beatty, Oregon, U.S., July 13, 2021. Picture taken July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Mathieu Lewis-Rolland/File Photo
July 23 (Reuters) - Strike teams making headway against a mammoth wildfire in southern Oregon faced a resurgence of combustibly dry, windy weather on Friday, even as an outbreak of COVID-19 among the firefighters posed a new complication in battling the 3-week-old blaze.
Hundreds of miles to the northeast, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management reported that five firefighters in Montana were injured on Thursday when a sudden shift in the wind blew flames over their position on the edge of a much smaller wildfire there.
Both developments came as the National Weather Service posted red-flag warnings for south-central Oregon, most of Montana and a portion of eastern Idaho. More than 80 major wildfires are raging across those three states and 10 others in the West, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
The advisory in Oregon abruptly ended the relatively favorable weather conditions that have helped firefighters gain ground in recent days against the Bootleg fire that has been burning since early July in and around the Fremont-Winema National Forest.
The region faces a weekend of newly elevated fire risk from lower humidity and strong, gusty winds that "can fan the flames and spread embers," Sarah Rogowski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City, told Reuters.
As of Friday, the Bootleg had blackened more than 400,000 acres (162,000 hectares) of drought-parched brush and timber and destroyed at least 67 homes near the California border. At its peak, an estimated 2,000 people were displaced by evacuations.
U.S. Forest Service investigators determined the blaze was ignited by a lightning strike but smoldered for about five days before it was detected and reported on July 6. read more
At last report, ground crews backed by water-dropping helicopters and airplane tankers had managed to carve containment lines around 40% of the fire's perimeter, up from just 7% a week ago.
While the fire's spread has been slowed in recent days, the blaze still ranks as Oregon's third-largest on record since 1900 and remains, by far, the most massive among scores of wildfires that have flared across the western United States this summer.
Incident commanders have had to confront yet another challenge - a coronavirus outbreak that has forced them to quarantine at least nine firefighters who tested positive after exhibiting mild symptoms of COVID-19, officials reported.
All were expected to make a full recovery.
"They have to perform on a daily basis, and that does lead to the possibility for exposure," incident spokesman Stefan Myers said, adding that COVID safety measures, including social distancing at all four fire camps, appeared to be working for the most part.
The number sidelined was a small share of the 2,300-plus personnel assigned to the Bootleg fire. But the outbreak has prompted an Oregon Health Authority investigation and will lead to heightened precautionary measures.
In east-central Montana, another lightning-sparked blaze that has scorched fewer than 400 acres - a tiny fraction of the Bootleg's footprint - injured five firefighters while they worked to establish a defensive line on its perimeter.
The Bureau of Land Management gave no information about their condition but said the five were "undergoing further medical evaluation to determine the extent of their injuries" after they were evacuated from the fire zone.
Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta and Keith Coffman in DenverEditing by Mark Potter and Sonya Hepinstall
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
STRUTHERS, Ohio (WKBN) Some vaccinated people are still contracting thecoronavirus.
Brandy Brabant-Eisenbraun, aStruthersresident, received the Pfizer vaccines in January and February through her employer.
Seven weeks after her second dose, she thought she had a sinus infection, but got a COVID-19 test to ensure she didnt have the virus.
Her positive test result came as a surprise.
People didnt believe me. Like, theres no way you tested positive. You know, youve had the vaccine, and youve had it for over a month now,' Eisenbraun said. They said, Why did you even get tested, like what was the point? and I said Well, I just didnt feel right.'
Eisenbraunsaid her symptoms were very mild, unlike the symptoms people had early on in the pandemic.
No shortness of breath, no cough, nothing like that. I felt like it wasnt the normal COVID symptoms, Eisenbraun said.
According to the CDC, nearly 6,000 patients with COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough infection were hospitalized or died.
Luckily,Eisenbraundidnt have that severe of a breakthrough case and she still encourages people to get the vaccine if they have not yet done so.
Adults for sure, especially if you have an underlying health condition. I think it would definitely benefit you, if not for anything else, for peace of mind, she said.
