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The number of new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. has more than doubled in the last two weeks, as the delta variant continues to race across the nation, infecting both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, who account for more than 99% of recent fatalities.
The average case tally on Wednesday was 26,513, according to a New York Times tracker, up 111% from two weeks ago. Hospitalizations have climbed 22% and deaths are up 5% in the same time frame, albeit they remain at far lower levels than at the peak of the crisis in the spring of 2020. Overall, 47 states are showing new cases up 10% from a week ago, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Experts are increasingly describing two Americas, divided between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, with the latter group putting themselves and others at risk of infection as the vaccine program grinds to a halt.
See also: Delta variant drove COVID-19 cases higher across the globe last week including in the U.S.
Despite national, regional, and global efforts, the pandemic is nowhere near finished. The pandemic continues to evolve with four variants of concern dominating global epidemiology. The Committee recognized the strong likelihood for the emergence and global spread of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern that may be even more challenging to control.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Infections vaccine tracker is showing that 160 million Americans are fully inoculated, equal to 48.2% of the overall population. That means they have had two shots of the vaccines developed by Pfizer PFE, +0.16% and German partner BioNTech BNTX, +4.31% and Moderna MRNA, +4.97%, or one shot of Johnson & Johnsons JNJ, -0.79% one-dose regimen. The AstraZeneca AZN, -4.21% AZN, -3.73% vaccine has not been granted emergency use authorization in the U.S.
Among adults 18-years-and-older, 59.1% are fully vaccinated, while 67.8% have received at least one dose, still short of President Joe Bidens goal of having 70% of the adult population receive at least one shot by the July 4 holiday. The numbers are barely budging day-to-day now, despite concerns expressed by healthcare experts.
Were losing time here. The delta variant is spreading, people are dying, we cant actually just wait for things to get more rational, Dr. Francis Collins, director of theNational Institutes of Healthtold CNN Wednesday.
The World Health Organizations emergency committee warned that with delta and three other variants of concern still circulating, the pandemic is nowhere near finished.
Instead, there is a strong likelihood for the emergence and global spread of new and possibly more dangerous variants of concern that may be even more challenging to control, the committee said in a statement.
Elsewhere, Indonesia set another daily case record of 54,517 and has overtaken India as the Asian epicenter of the pandemic, CNN reported. At least 991 fatalities were recorded in the nation of about 170 million people on Wednesday to push the total to 69,210.
Russia had 25,293 new cases and a record death toll of 791 on Thursday, according to The Moscow Times, raising the overall death toll to 146,069, the highest official number in Europe.
In China, local governments are moving aggressively to push residents to get vaccinated and some are planning to bar them from accessing public venues if they refuse, The Wall Street Journal reported. Roughly a dozen counties and cities in the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian and Jiangxi have set late-August deadlines for people 18 years or older to complete a two-shot vaccine regimen, according to similarly worded online statements.
Many of them also set dates in late July by when unvaccinated people would be barred from entering schools, libraries, prisons, nursing homes and inpatient facilities at hospitals without a valid medical exemption, the paper reported. China has fully vaccinated more than 40% of its population of 1.4 billion so far.
A cluster of COVID cases at a hotel hosting Olympic athletes is raising concerns coming just over a week before the opening ceremony, Reuters reported. Adding to the gloom, Tokyo has just recorded its highest number of new COVID cases in six months.
Singapore reported its highest case number in 10 months, after uncovering a cluster among hostesses and customers at Karaoke bars, Reuters reported. Singapore has yet to reopen KTV lounges and clubs and authorities said the places where the virus spread were operating as food and beverage outlets.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Unicef agency and the World Health Organization said about 23 million children missed out on other basic vaccinations during the pandemic and warned of the potential for outbreaks of diseases including polio, measles and meningitis.
Multiple disease outbreaks would be catastrophic for communities and health systems already battling COVID-19, making it more urgent than ever to invest in childhood vaccination and ensure every child is reached, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesussaid in a statement.
This is a wake-up call we cannot allow a legacy of COVID-19 to be the resurgence of measles, polio and other killers, said Dr. Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. We all need to work together to help countries both defeat COVID-19, by ensuring global, equitable access to vaccines, and get routine immunization programs back on track.
Dont miss:Pfizer is making the case for COVID-19 boosters. Health officials say we dont need a third dose yet. Whos right?
See also:WHO head slams countries for ordering millions of COVID booster shots, when much of the world has not even vaccinated the most vulnerable
The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 188.5 million on Thursday, while the death toll climbed further above 4.06 million, according todata aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. leads the world with a total of 33.9 million cases and in deaths with 608,135.
India is closing in on the U.S. in cases at 30.9 million but is third in deaths at 411,989, while Brazil is second in deaths at 537,394 but is third in cases at 19.2 million.
Mexico has the fourth-highest death toll at 235,507 but has recorded just 2.6 million cases, according to its official numbers.
In Europe, the U.K. has 128,797 deaths the second highest in Europe after Russia.
China,where the virus was first discovered late in 2019,has had 104,157 confirmed cases and 4,848 deaths, according to its official numbers, which are widely held to be massively underreported.
For the seventh consecutive day, more than 200 infections were reported in San Diego County on Wednesday. Four new deaths were reported in the past week.
SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. The number of new COVID-19 cases continued to increase, with more than 200 infections reported for the seventh consecutive day, San Diego County public health officials announced Wednesday. Medical experts say the Delta variant is spreading rapidly in California and throughout the rest of the country.
In Wednesday's report, 275 San Diego County residents were infected with the virus, increasing the total to 285,268.
Four new deaths were reported in the past week, increasing the region's total to 3,786. Three men and one woman died between July 2 and Saturday, according to the county's weekly report.
Three of the deceased were in their 80s and one was in their 70s. All had underlying medical conditions.
Dr. Wilma Wooten, county public health officer, said on Tuesday the county is "now seeing about double the number of cases that were being reported a month ago," which has led to a 46% increase in hospitalizations and a 10% increase in intensive care unit admissions in the past few weeks.
"We expect further increases in ICU admissions since they lag behind the trend in cases and hospitalizations," Wooten said.
More than 40 states are reporting a daily increase in COVID-19 cases. Nearly half of all eligible Americans have received their second shot butvaccine hesitancy is still holding millions of people from getting their shots, even as the Delta variant spreads.
Any variant that emerges concerns us because of the possibility that it's more transmissible. It may change the severity of illness," said CDC Director Dr. Jay Butler. "It could affect treatment options."
The number of San Diego County residents hospitalized with COVID-19 was 116 as of Wednesday's report, an increase of eight from the previous report. There are 27 people in intensive care unit beds, an increase of five from the previous report. There are 50 available, staffed ICU beds in San Diego County.
The CDC is monitoring a surge in COVID-19 cases in states across the South and West, especially in under-vaccinated areas.
Everyone wants this to be over and a lot of the behavior that I think driving spread of infection is people wanting it to be over and acting as though it's over and really abandoning most modest of protections like mask-wearing that would help," said Dr. Andrew Pavia with the University of Utah School of Medicine.
California officially lifted its mask mandate on June 15 and capacity restrictions for most businesses.
Records show that in San Diego County, 61 new cases of COVID-19 were reported on June 14. Just one month later, data shows that there are 275 new cases of coronavirus, most of them caused by the Delta variant.
Close to 4.15 million vaccine doses have been administered in San Diego County, and more than 2.22 million or 79.5% of county residents 12 and older are partially vaccinated. Close to 1.92 million or 68.4% of that age cohort are fully vaccinated.
San Diego County's case rate is 3.7 cases per 100,000 residents as of Wednesday's report, up from 2.5% last week.
A total of 7,097 tests were reported to the county, and the percentage of new positive cases was 3.9%. The 14-day rolling percentage of positive cases among tests is 2.9%, nearly double last week's 1.5%.
Ten new community outbreaks were confirmed in the past seven days: six in restaurant/bar settings, one in a business setting, one in an emergency services setting, one in a government setting and one in a retail setting.
WATCH RELATED: With variants on the rise, San Diego leaders want you to get vaccinated
NEW DELHI, July 15 (Reuters) - A rise in India's COVID-19 infection rate is worrying authorities who are concerned that pilgrimages and tourism could prove to be "superspreader" events in the battle to douse a devastating second wave of infections that has killed thousands.
In a pilgrimage this month, thousands of Hindus are set to walk hundreds of miles across northern cities, carrying pitchers of water from the Ganges, a river they consider sacred.
The pilgrims could act as "super spreaders" and set off a third wave of infections, a top medical body has warned. read more
The Supreme Court this week questioned federal and state authorities in the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh why the mass religious gathering should be allowed.
The home ministry flagged the increase in the infective rate as a cause for concern in some states, urging officials nationwide to enforce social distancing and clamp down on overcrowding at tourist sites.
"We must guard ourselves against complacency and laxity, which creep in as positivity declines," Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla told them in a letter on Wednesday, at a time when most cities have lifted strict lockdowns.
INFECTIVITY JUMPS
The effective reproduction rate of the disease, which health experts call the "R" factor, now stands at 0.86 in the world's second most populous nation, online publication Our World in Data shows, a jump of more than 25% in a month.
Bhalla warned of the risk of a faster spread of infection when the rate exceeds 1.
"You may be aware that any increase in 'R' factor above 1.0 is an indicator of spread of COVID-19," he added.
Still, the website showed the 0.86 figure is off an April 9 peak of 1.47.
By May, that had propelled India's daily cases to a staggering 400,000, leaving thousands in cities, including the capital New Delhi, scrambling for oxygen, hospital beds, ambulances and ultimately, morgues.
Bodies washed up on the banks of the Ganges.
States had largely lifted curbs as infections slowed, but the second wave has not yet ended, top officials have warned. read more
India's tally of 30.99 million infections is second only to the United States, with 411,989 deaths.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has warned against overcrowding and called for vigilance against new variants, saying vaccination efforts needed to be sped up. read more
India is trying to inoculate all 950 million adults by year-end, but vaccine shortages and logistics hurdles have meant just 8% have received both doses.
Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru and Neha Arora in New Delhi, additional reporting by Suchitra Mohanty ; Editing by Clarence Fernandez
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
CNN
Children will likely pay the price for adults in the US not getting vaccinated at high enough rates to slow or stop the spread of Covid-19, which has been surging in most states, a vaccine expert said.
If vaccination rates among adults and kids 12 and older keep lagging amid increased spread of the Delta variant, the youngest members of the population will be most affected, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.
Transmission will continue to accelerate and the ones who will also pay the price, in addition to the unvaccinated adolescents, are the little kids who depend on the adults and adolescents to get vaccinated in order to slow or halt transmission, he said.
In 46 states, the rates of new cases this past week are at least 10% higher than the rates of new cases the previous week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In Los Angeles County, the countrys most populous, there has been a 500% increase in cases over the past month, according to the countys latest health data.
Every single patient that weve admitted for Covid is not yet fully vaccinated, County Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.
The health department runs four hospitals, including those affiliated with the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, along with 19 health care centers throughout the region.
As cases increase nationally, only 48.2% of the population is fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And though many may brush off the risk of low vaccination rates to children, citing their low Covid-19 mortality rates, Hotez said they are still at risk for serious complications.
In Mississippi, seven children are in intensive care with Covid-19, and two are on ventilators, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Tuesday evening. Many more adolescents could be hospitalized, Hotez said, adding that up to 30% of children infected will develop long-haul Covid-19.
Nationwide, the overall number of new daily Covid-19 hospitalizations will likely increase over the next four weeks, an ensemble forecast published Wednesday by the CDC projects. There will likely be 2,100 to 11,000 new confirmed Covid-19 hospital admissions on August 9, the forecast says. Hospitalizations had been on a steady decline since late April, US Department of Health and Human Services data shows.
Scientists also are now learning about neurological consequences to long-haul Covid-19, Hotez said. Some studies have shown impacts on the brain of people who have been infected with the virus. One study in April found 34% of Covid-19 survivors received a diagnosis for a neurological or psychological condition within six months of their infection.
What youre doing is your condemning a whole generation of adolescents to neurologic injury totally unnecessarily, Hotez said. Its just absolutely heartbreaking and beyond frustrating for vaccine scientists like myself to see this happen.
With experts stressing the importance in vaccinating a majority of Americans against the virus, some officials are debating whether to mandate vaccinations at the local level. Some schools and employers have already implemented measures requiring students and employees to be vaccinated before returning.
Last month, Morgan Stanley announced unvaccinated employees, guests and clients would be banned from its New York headquarters. In April, Houston Methodist, a network of eight hospitals, said it would require all of its employees to get vaccinated. Of the 26,000 employees, 153 resigned or were fired as a result of refusing the vaccine.
That same month, the American College Health Association issued a policy statement recommending Covid-19 vaccination requirements for all on-campus college and university students for the upcoming fall semester, where state law and resources allow.
But many states are moving to block such requirements.
At least seven states Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Montana, Oklahoma and Utah have enacted legislation this year that would restrict public schools from requiring either coronavirus vaccinations or documentation of vaccination status, a CNN analysis found.
Such legislation can hurt the nations 48 million Americans under the age of 12, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said Tuesday. Currently, Covid-19 vaccines are only available in the US to people 12 and older. Vaccine trials are underway for children 6 months through 11 years old.
If we start with a lens on the children and wanting children to get back to school, which is what we all say is the priority, then we have to get more serious about employers and schools and universities stepping up and saying, Its great if you dont want to be vaccinated. But if you dont, you really cant have access to places that will put you in contact with folks who cant get vaccinated, Sebelius said.
The CDC announced last week it prioritizes in-person learning, even if all Covid-19 safety measures arent in place. As K-12 schools will have a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated people, its necessary to layer strategies such as masking, physical distancing and, most importantly, vaccinations for everyone eligible people age 12 and older, the agency said.
The federal government can support vaccine use by expediting the full approval of available vaccines, Sebelius said. Vaccines are now available in the US under emergency use authorization.
Getting full approval getting out of the emergency use authorization and into full approval is something that will clear up any legal questions that private employers may have, she said.
The Delta variant might spread faster than other strains of the novel coronavirus because it makes more copies of itself inside peoples bodies quicker than other strains of the coronavirus.
In research posted online last week, Chinese scientists detected on initial positive tests Delta viral loads that were about 1,260 times higher than earlier strains. They compared 62 Delta cases with 63 cases from the early epidemic wave in 2020.
Moreover, the amount of time it took quarantined people to test positive for coronavirus on PCR also shortened from about six days with the earlier infections to four days with Delta.
These data highlight that the Delta variant could be more infectious during the early stage of the infection, the researchers wrote.
According to Public Health England, a number of analyses have shown Delta to be more transmissible, including lab studies that suggest increased replication in biological systems that model human airway, and evidence of optimised furin cleavage a process that activates the virus entry into the human cell. The variant has also been observed to spread faster in real-world epidemiological studies.
According to the World Health Organization, Delta is estimated to spread roughly 55% faster than the Alpha variant first identified in the UK, and roughly twice as fast as variants that do not rise to the level of interest or concern.
Heath officials have said that cases caused by the Delta variant in fully vaccinated people are rare and the strain is for the most part only causing severe disease and death in unvaccinated people.
And health officials arent just concerned about the Covid-19 risks for people who are unvaccinated, but also the risks for a significant number of people who are partially vaccinated especially those who are overdue for their second dose or skipped their second-dose appointments.
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines are administered as two doses, 21 and 28 days apart, respectively. Studies have shown that those vaccines are much more effective against the Delta variant after completion of the two-dose series. People who have received one dose should still follow Covid-19 mitigation steps, such as wearing masks, until they are fully vaccinated.
CNNs Jacqueline Howard, Michael Nedelman, Naomi Thomas, Alexandra Meeks, Lauren Mascarenhas, Deidre McPhillips, Holly Yan, Laura Ly, Cheri Mossburg and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.
So far, the coronavirus vaccines available in the United States provide strong protection against coronavirus, including the Delta variant that now dominates in the US. As of right now, there isn't evidence that immunity is beginning to wear off among people who got Covid-19 vaccines in December or January, or that they're at higher risk for breakthrough infections, Dr. Jay Butler, the deputy director for infectious diseases at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a briefing Tuesday.
And for the fully vaccinated, the CDC guidance around testing, quarantine and isolation after exposure to someone with Covid-19 is different.
"What they are saying is that if you're fully vaccinated, the chance of you becoming infected with (coronavirus) is much lower, and the chance of you being an asymptomatic carrier is also much reduced, because even if you were to be infected, you're carrying much less virus and therefore are less able to pass it on to others," said CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
"The issue, though, is with the Delta variant," Wen added. "The Delta variant seems to be present in larger quantities in infected (unvaccinated) people."
What's not yet fully known is how much the Delta variant could affect the transmission-blocking capacity of the coronavirus vaccines, said Dr. Albert Ko, the chair of and a professor in the department of epidemiology and microbial diseases at the Yale School of Public Health.
If you're fully vaccinated but were exposed to Covid-19 or are experiencing related symptoms, here's what you should consider in regard to monitoring symptoms, testing, quarantining and more.
When vaccinated people should get tested
If an asymptomatic fully vaccinated person has a known or suspected exposure to Covid-19 but doesn't get tested, they should still watch for symptoms in the two weeks after.
But testing is widely available and generally easy to access. In contrast to the CDC's guidance, Wen advises vaccinated people who spend extended periods of time around an infected, symptomatic person to get tested and quarantine for seven days before getting another test if the first test was negative.
"The CDC guidance, at the moment, lacks nuance -- as in, there is a difference between if you have a passing interaction with a colleague at work who then turns out to have Covid versus if you are living at home and caring for somebody who has Covid. That's just very different," Wen said. "Even if people are not symptomatic but they have prolonged, close contact with somebody, it is prudent for them to quarantine and be tested, too."
Wen encourages vaccinated people to carefully consider any interactions they might have after being exposed to someone who has Covid-19.
"I think we need to use some common sense here. I don't want someone coming into work, who then tells me that they just spent the entire night caring for their spouse who's ill from Covid," Wen added. "Should that person really be in a crowded conference room with a whole bunch of other people? Does that sound right? It doesn't meet the common sense test."
For the vaccinated or unvaccinated, symptoms should trigger a test, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said on CNN's New Day on Tuesday.
"We have seen that many people are actually not getting tested around the country, even though they have symptoms," Murthy told CNN's Brianna Keiler. "Many people are thinking, 'Oh Covid's over. Why do I really need to get tested?' and this is particularly happening in areas, unfortunately, where the vaccination rates are low, which is exactly where we want to be testing more."
But before vaccinated people -- including US citizens -- board a flight from anywhere abroad to the US, they must have a negative coronavirus test result or documentation of recovery from Covid-19, the CDC has said. Alternative documentation includes proof of antibodies or the absence of symptoms, Ko said. The CDC has also recommended that international travelers arriving in the US get a coronavirus test three to five days after travel regardless of their vaccination status. After traveling internationally, vaccinated people don't need to quarantine unless they are showing symptoms.
What to do if you're vaccinated and test positive
If you're exposed to Covid-19, asymptomatic and living with people who are unvaccinated or immunocompromised, you should get tested as soon as possible, Wen said. "Even if that test were negative, I would continue to quarantine from those vulnerable family members for seven days and then get another test," she said.
If that test result is negative, you can consider ending your quarantine and just watching for any symptoms for another week, Ko said.
"The current vaccines certainly are very protective against death and hospitalizations," he added, but "we want to err on the (side of) caution."
What to expect if you're infected
If you develop symptoms from a coronavirus infection, you'll be less sick than if you weren't vaccinated, Wen said. There may be uncomfortable symptoms, but it's not likely to progress to hospitalization, and extremely unlikely to lead to death. US health officials have reiterated that more than 99% of US Covid-19 deaths in June were among unvaccinated people, and with plenty of vaccines available, death from Covid-19 is preventable.
"If you had not gotten vaccinated, you might have ended up in the hospital," Wen added. "But because you got the vaccine, you have muscle aches and a fever that go away within a few days. I mean, that's (a) testament to the power of the vaccine."
This happens because coronavirus vaccines reduce the viral load an infected person has in their nose, mouth and eyes, Ko said.
"That's important because that viral load is a key determinant in transmitting to other people," Ko said. "Overall, there's really good evidence that these vaccines are protective against transmission or have transmission-blocking capacity. The question now here is how effective that is against these new variants like Delta, and how long that will last us for."
CNN's Jamie Gumbrecht and Maggie Fox contributed to this story.
The UK has recorded the highest number of daily coronavirus cases since the height of the countrys second wave in January.
A total of 48,553 cases were reported on 15 July, the highest tally since 15 January. A further 63 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were also recorded - the largest since 26 March.
The growing number of cases come ahead of Englands so-called freedom day on 19 July, when most of the remaining coronavirus will be lifted.
Boris Johnson has urged the public to continue to show caution ahead of the unlocking, warning against throwing caution to the wind and insisting the government still expected shoppers to wear masks.
The prime minster was careful to warn the public that the arrival of Freedom Day next week is only possible because of the success of the vaccine rollout and by begging individuals to get their jab and to exercise caution to prevent the reinstatement of lockdown measures becoming necessary.
Despite the governments strong emphasis on the vaccine rollout as the catalyst for removing almost all the restrictions, other countries had gone down this path before the UK and failed, writes Ahmed Aboudouh.
Here is what happened to other countries after their decision to do the same:
Liam James15 July 2021 17:56
Northern Ireland will move the Balearic Islands from the green list to the amber list for travellers, the department of health has said after the other nations of the UK announced changes yesterday.
Among the changes which come into effect from 4am on 19 July, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Croatia and Taiwan have been added to the green list, while the Balearic Islands and British Virgin Islands will be moved to the amber list.
Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sierra Leone will be added to the red list.
Check which countries are on the green list here:
Liam James15 July 2021 17:42
More than one-third of young adults in England have not had a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, new figures suggest.
Some 64 per cent of people aged 18 to 29 had received a first dose as of 11 July, according to estimates from NHS England - meaning 36 per cent are still likely to be unjabbed.
A breakdown of this age group by gender shows vaccine take-up continues to be lower among males than females.
Liam James15 July 2021 17:27
There have been 81,438,892 Covid jabs given in the UK so far, according to the latest government data.
46,097,464 were first doses, a rise of 60,374 on the previous day. Some 35,341,428 were second doses, an increase of 185,661.
The NHS has plans to speed up the vaccination process ahead of reopening. Text messages will be sent to 650,000 people this week encouraging them to bring forward their second dose.
Liam James15 July 2021 17:09
Robin Swann, Northern Irelands health minister, said the increase in cases in the region was among younger age groups, and urged all to take up the coronavirus vaccine.
We have seen the numbers climb in recent weeks but todays spike in cases is cause for concern, he said.
This is the first time since January that were reporting a daily change of over 1,000 positive cases, and while we are in a more fortunate position with a large proportion of the population now vaccinated we must remain cautious.
He added: Our advice remains the same, stick to guidelines and regulations, all adults aged 18 and over should get vaccinated, and ensure you and your close contacts self-isolate if you test positive.
Unfortunately, we are seeing an increase in cases in the younger age group so I would make a particular appeal to this group to get vaccinated.
Liam James15 July 2021 16:51
The number of new coronavirus infections in Northern Ireland has almost doubled in one day.
Some 1,083 cases were reported by the department of health on Thursday, up from 636 on Wednesday.
This is the first time the daily case number has been higher than 1,000 since the peak of the third wave of the pandemic in mid-January.
The average seven-day incident rate per 100,000 people across the province was 234 on Thursday.
Jon Sharman15 July 2021 16:37
UK sees highest daily Covid case numbers in six months
The UK has seen the highest number of daily positive coronavirus test results since the height of the second wave in January.
In total, 48,553 cases were reported on 15 July, the highest tally since 15 January. A further 63 deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test were also recorded - the largest since 26 March.
Tom Barnes15 July 2021 16:28
PM denies accusations of ambiguity over mask wearing
Jon Sharman15 July 2021 16:27
University and college students are less positive than ever about their educational experience following the Covid-19 crisis, figures suggest.
The latest National Student Survey (NSS) found less than half of students in the UK believed their university or college had taken steps to support their mental health during the pandemic.
Three-quarters of 332,500 respondents said they were satisfied with the quality of their course down from 83 per cent the previous year.
That suggests overall student satisfaction has dropped to the lowest ever level recorded by the survey, though there have been changes to the questionnaire since it was introduced.
The previous low was 80 per cent in 2006.
Pollsters found the pandemic had revealed issues with the availability of learning resources, with about three-quarters of students (74 per cent) agreeing they were able to access course-specific resources, down from 87 per cent in 2020.
Additional reporting by PA
Jon Sharman15 July 2021 16:17
The main question on all would-be married couples lips who have faced cancellations and disruptions to their big day at the moment is "should celebrants be given the power to legally marry couples to help with the backlog of weddings", which was discusssed at The Independents virtual event on how the pandemic has changed weddings, held on 14 July.
For our panel, made up of head storyteller from wedding planners, The Stars Inside, Sarah Allard, Editor of Hitched.co.uk and wedding photographer, Lucie Watson, it was a unanimous yes, writes Emma Henderson.
Valentina even said that some registrars are currently doing up to a staggering 25 weddings a day at the moment, in a bid to help get through the huge backlog of postponed nuptials, which has mounted up over the past 15 months during the pandemic.
Jon Sharman15 July 2021 15:58
A COVID-19 vaccine clinic is 10:30 a.m.-2 p.m. Wednesday, July 21, at the Burnet Community Center, 401 E. Jackson St. Vaccinations are free. The Texas Department of State Health Services is hosting.
The clinic is open to ages 12 and older. Currently, only the Pfizer vaccine is authorized for use in ages 12-17. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are only authorized for adults.
You can register on site the day of the clinic or pre-register by using the QR code in the image above. Medical insurance is not necessary.
Federal, state, and local health officials advise getting vaccinated to protect against the virus that causes COVID-19. According to the state, about 51 percent of Texans ages 12 and older roughly 12.3 million are fully vaccinated as of July 14. In Burnet County, 43 percent of that age group are fully vaccinated; in Llano County, 44 percent.
For more information on the vaccine or to find a clinic, visit the Texas Department of State Health Services COVID-19 vaccine webpage.
editor@thepicayune.com
The Tennessee Department of Health is suspending outreach for all types of childhood and adolescent vaccinations, the Tennessean reported this week. Along with stopping COVID-19 vaccine events at schools, the department will no longer do outreach for the HPV vaccine, isnt planning for flu shot clinics at schools, and is taking the departments logo off of back-to-school vaccination information sheets. The shift in policy came after Republican lawmakers in the state got upset that the department was promoting COVID-19 shots for teenagers.
Its a strong signal that the politicization and backlash around the COVID-19 shots, driven by conservative politicians and right-wing commentators, is spilling over to other types of vaccinations. Its not the first time politics has impacted unrelated public health work during the pandemic over a dozen states have proposed limiting public health powers as part of backlash to pandemic-related restrictions. But its the first time the target has been standard vaccines.
Its insane, says Seth Kalichman, a professor of psychology at the University of Connecticut whos studied anti-vaxxers. Its exactly the kind of overgeneralization that can occur with misinformation.
The initial trouble in Tennessee started when conservative lawmakers criticized Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey for recommending COVID-19 vaccines to teenagers. The health department also fired Michelle Fiscus, the states top vaccine official, after she circulated a memo to doctors explaining a state law that allows minors to get medical care without parental consent. Fiscus said she was a scapegoat, fired to mollify the angry lawmakers.
Around the same time that Fiscus was fired, the department also stopped all vaccine outreach targeting teens or children. Health department spokesperson Sarah Tanksley told the Tennessean that the state has high childhood vaccination rates. We are simply mindful of how certain tactics could hurt that progress. She said the department is planning to research vaccine hesitancy and that the changes are in response to an intense national conversation that is affecting how many families evaluate vaccinations in general.
The jump from COVID-19-specific rollbacks to generalized rollbacks concerns Adriane Casalotti, chief of public and government affairs at the National Association of County and City Health Officials. This is a very clear case of COVID-19 vaccination policy impacting other vaccinations, she says. Were really concerned about the news thats coming out of Tennessee.
Carryover from concerns around one vaccine to others has happened before, particularly with the HPV vaccine, Kalichman says. Theres widespread misinformation around the cancer-preventing shot, and parents turn it down for their kids at high rates. The vaccine for HPV was politicized, and the politicization and misinformation absolutely undermined vaccine confidence for a new segment of people who were not necessarily vaccine hesitant before, he says.
The situation in Tennessee isnt unique. At least 15 state legislatures are considering or have passed laws to restrict public health powers, according to an analysis from the National Association of County and City Health Officials. In Kansas, a new law would prevent the governor from closing businesses during a public health emergency. In Ohio, the legislature would be able to override any actions by the state health department taken to control infectious diseases.
The fact that traditional, day-to-day public health activities have been impacted in such a blunt way squarely due to politics is really concerning, Casalotti says.
In Tennessee, at least, the law hasnt changed: the state still has laws requiring that kids get vaccinated before school. Instead, the policy changes could make it harder for families to get the information they need to keep track of vaccine schedules and make sure their kids are ready for school in the fall, says Jennifer Reich, a sociologist who studies vaccine hesitancy at the University of Colorado. Right now I just see a chilling climate for public health officers who are trying to do their best to inform people of how to stay safe during the pandemic, and also how to protect their children from life threatening and disabling illnesses, she says.
The COVID-19 pandemic isnt the first time lawmakers have tried to limit public health authority or challenge things like vaccine mandates. Those proposals usually dont go far, says Casalotti. The real difference that were seeing recently is this traction that so many of them are getting.
It shows that the messaging and misinformation from anti-vaxxers and others on that spectrum are having more of an impact. The most frightening thing to people like me, and people in public health is when the denialists, the anti-vaxxers, and the anti-science people get the ear of the highest levels of government, Kalichman says.
Kalichman says he wouldnt be surprised to see what happened in Tennessee happen in other states, particularly in places with heavy resistance to COVID-19 vaccination. Its easy to predict what could happen next: if state health departments stop promoting or helping people get childhood vaccinations, those vaccination rates could drop.
Youre going to have outbreaks. Its inevitable that there will be outbreaks of measles, rubella, whatever else if vaccines take a dip, he says. Its just how it works.
Will COVID-19 vaccines work if I have a weak immune system?
Probably not as well as they do in healthy people, but the shots should offer some protection.
Its why vaccinations are still recommended for people with immune systems weakened by disease or certain medications. Its also important that your family, friends and caregivers get vaccinated, which will make it far less likely that they pass on the virus.
About 3% of U.S. adults have weakened immune systems. Among them are people with HIV or AIDS, transplant recipients, some cancer patients and people with autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and lupus.
COVID-19 shots werent studied in large numbers of people with weak immune systems. But limited data and experience with flu and pneumonia vaccines suggest they wont work as well as they do in others. That means people with weakened immune systems should keep taking precautions like wearing masks and avoiding large crowds.
Its prudent to use all the precautions you were using before you were vaccinated, said Dr. Ajit Limaye, a transplant expert at University of Washington Medicine in Seattle.
Although most cancer patients should get vaccinated as soon as they can, people getting stem cell transplant or CAR T-cell therapy should wait at least three months after treatment to get vaccinated, according to guidance from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. That delay will make sure the vaccines work as well as they can.
For transplant recipients, researchers are looking at whether an extra dose might make the vaccines more effective.
French guidelines recommend a third COVID-19 dose for the immunocompromised, including organ recipients. Israel recently began giving an extra dose of the Pfizer vaccine to transplant patients and others with weak immune systems. Some U.S. transplant recipients seek out a third dose on their own in hopes of more protection even though the federal government hasnt authorized extra vaccinations.
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