TOKYO, July 4 (Reuters) - A member of Serbia's Olympic rowing team tested positive for the new coronavirus on arrival in Japan, an official said on Sunday, the third COVID-19 infection confirmed among Olympic team members visiting for the Tokyo Games starting this month.
A member of Uganda's Olympic squad tested positive for the virus on arrival in June and a second member was confirmed as having the virus a few days later.
One of Serbia's five-member rowing team tested positive during a screening at Haneda airport on Saturday night, said Takashi Ikeda, an official at the sports section of the central Japan city of Nanto, which had been scheduled to host the Serbians' training camp.
The man in his 30s was sent to a medical facility, while the other four were isolated in a separate facility in Tokyo, Ikeda told Reuters by phone.
"Since they are expected to be isolated for two weeks, the Serbian rowing team is unlikely to come to Nanto for training before the Games," he said.
The group was to have travelled to Nanto in Toyama prefecture on Sunday to hold their training camp through July 18, ahead of the June 23 start of the Games.
Rowing teams from Greece, South Africa and Russia arrived in Nanto earlier this month for training camp, he said.
The Tokyo Games, delayed by a year because of the pandemic, are proceeding amid concern that the influx of thousands of people from around the world could unleash another wave of COVID-19 infections in the country.
Foreign spectators are banned, and the government is considering what limits to place on domestic spectators.
Tokyo reported 716 new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, its highest in more than five weeks, as the nation considers extending pandemic restrictions in the capital just weeks. read more
Cases totalled 518 on Sunday, up 132 from last Sunday, marking the 15th consecutive days of increases from week-earlier levels, said public broadcaster NHK.
Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
by: Jenny Ivy, Rachel Skytta
DENVER (KDVR) Colorado has reached President Bidens goal of vaccinating 70% of Americans 18 and older by July 4.
According to Gov. Jared Polis, 70.04% of Colorado adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
That means about 3.1 million state residents have been immunized with at least one vaccine dose.
Colorado is ticking up in COVID vaccinations versus the nation as a whole, with 67% of the national adult population receiving a COVID vaccine first dose.
I am excited that our state has reached the goal of 70% of adults with at least their first vaccination by Independence Day. This is an exciting milestone for the people of our state, it is a testament to our resilience and united commitment in the fight against this deadly virus. The vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect ourselves and enjoy the life we love in Colorado, said Polis. Our country has a simple tool to stop the loss in the form of a safe, highly effective, and free vaccine so get your vaccine to safeguard yourself and your family.
Only about a dozen individual counties in Colorado have reached the 70% goal for vaccinations. Counties with low vaccination rates are also seeing higher numbers of the Delta variant.
The Delta variant is scary because its the most infectious version of the virus weve seen and it makes people the sickest, said Dr. Anuj Mehta, a pulmonologist with Denver Health.
Mehta says an increased spread in counties where people are not vaccinated could eventually lead to a divide between communities.
Where you have vaccinated communities doing well, schools open and you have unvaccinated communities with ongoing stresses on their healthcare systems and potentially schools and businesses may have to shut down again, said Mehta.
There is much those 18th century inventors would have appreciated. U.S. companies developed or co-developed three vaccines at breakneck speed. Government officials approved them in record time. Taxpayers helped fund them directly and indirectly. (Note there were vaccine attempts that failed in trial, too, and dropped, mostly without recrimination. This is good. This is science.) City services went digital overnight so that building permits could be secured and unemployment benefits applied for. States found new ways to communicate with residents. In many instances, governors followed the data and closed and opened as new information suggested they could. Yellow school buses were re-wired with Wi-Fi to keep students digitally connected. Autonomous ones were even repurposed to keep people fed. Citizen inventors made it easier to find PPE and get vaccines. Frontline medical personnel and those that supported them innovated every day just to survive and then innovated to help millions of others. In many ways, science and ingenuity and entrepreneurship were marshaled to combat a society-threatening moment. The founders would be proud of that.
Along the way though, there was also dithering and delusion. Tests were too few. Tracing at scale was too late. The digital divide languished. The summer of 2020 should have seen hundreds of efforts piloted to get more kids safely into school buildings in the fall. The fall of 2020 should have welcomed creative ideas for getting vaccines into arms in the winter. We should ask ourselves on that front why ideas like Vax-a-Million deployed only this May and what other opportunities we missed to promote vaccinations to skeptical populations earlier in the year. Moreover, all that we did to help, helped inequitably, delaying efforts to make this countrys promise that everyone is created equal a reality.
The history books will say that we invented our way out of this pandemic, but not quickly enough to save more lives and avoid more damage. How do we do better come July 5th?
First, we need to be more candid about the weaknesses of todays status quo. This will be the time to make a realistic assessment of which of our public services are really working and which we are just pretending are. Thomas Paine began his Common Sense that helped birth the nation, A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. There will be champions for custom in the coming months, but when it comes to public education, infrastructure, sustainability, public safety and workforce readiness, custom in so many instances isnt cutting it. New York Citys rickety Board of Elections made itself known in recent days as but one tired example.
Second, well need to try new and novel programs and services in prudent ways. There is more than two times as much relief money for cities and states in the American Rescue Plan than there was in the post-2008 stimulus. The $350 billion in funding is meant to be used to respond to both the public health emergency and the economic one it gave rise to, and ARPAs eligible uses are wide-ranging. The federal guidelines this time use the word flexibility two dozen times. Mayors and governors have wide latitude in how to spend this chest of money. They should embrace novelty.
This is not an invitation to foolhardiness. Quite the contrary, there is a set of skills for possibility government the pursuit of new programs and services that by virtue of their novelty may only possibly work that minimize waste while maximizing learning. Public leaders should in this moment of all moments, use them: Invite in more ideas. Try new ideas out in partial ways before building them fully. Scale them by harnessing government as a platform, i.e. building a foundation for others to innovate on top of or connect across. GPS was one government project that unleashed unending private innovation, much of it for public good. We are ready for our generations version.
Not all of these attempts to bring about the future will succeed. Most new efforts dont. The idea is that a few giant transformative successes more than make up for smaller failures. On transforming public safety in his city of Saint Paul, Minn., Mayor Melvin Carter has said, Most likely, we wont get everything right our first time around. Hes right, and theres nothing inherently wrong with that, as long as leaders are willing to acknowledge failures, learn from them and move on.
Finally, we should contour our public investments to the kinds of programs that pave the way to a better future. This means federal agencies should move quickly to deploy the $1 billion for tech modernization in the American Rescue Plan. It means cities and states should grow their digital service teams, leveraging their relief funds (yes, tech and data investments are allowed) and other funding streams. Making America future-ready means supporting efforts like Code for America, Coding it Forward, The Tech Talent Project, and the U.S. Digital Response for the services they help deliver and because they attract a new generation into public service.
For too many years now, a crisis is a terrible thing to waste has been the operating maxim of governments. Left unsaid, but not unmeant is that change is impossible afterward. Today we hear with fingers crossed a different utterance, Our agility will stay when Covid is gone.I hope so. Its not inevitable, but it would be utterly American.
On this 4th of July, people in New Britain and around the state celebrated our countrys independence as the nation now emerges from the pandemic.
Its great to be back outside, feels good to be around people, enjoying festivities and be able to eat some good food and just hanging out, said Stephon Adams of Waterbury.
In Waterbury, families grabbed dinner at the Food Truck & Fireworks Extravaganza.
Many were excited the trucks were back after being canceled last year because of the pandemic.
There is a huge financial impact to all of the trucks. You know, most of the trucks here are small businesses so they rely on every event. And this is the busiest event of the year for most of them. So losing this last year was huge, said Jillian Perez of Connecticut Specialty Events.
This year, the trucks were spaced out more to allow for social distancing.
Some festival-goers traveled from neighboring states just to take part.
Just something to do. Its kind of limited the stuff to do. And this is one option to actually come out here and give it a try and spend time with the family, said Hector Delgado of Springfield, Mass.
People come out for Waterbury's food truck and firework extravaganza on the 4th of July.
With the fight against COVID-19 not over, there was a pop-up vaccine clinic. And in New Britain, people had to buy passes and stay near their car during the show.
As skies across the state lit up, they were a hopeful sign as the country welcomes brighter days.
Its amazing they are all here spending time here, spending with the crowd together. Its awesome, said Delgado.
Just because Independence Day is almost over doesnt mean the fireworks are done. More are scheduled for later this month.
It was a night two years in the making as The Enfield Fourth of July Town Celebration fireworks returned.
City offices closed for holiday
City of Waco offices are closed on Monday in observance of Independence Day.
The landfill will be open during normal business hours. Mondays trash collection will be serviced Wednesday.
The Waco-McLennan County Library system will close all branches Sunday and Monday.
Waco Transit buses and Medicaid trips will run as scheduled Monday, as will the La Salle-Circle Shuttle.
The Cameron Park Zoo, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, the Waco Mammoth National Monument and Cottonwood Creek Golf Course will remain open Sunday and Monday.
City reminder: Dont leave dogs in cars
The city of Waco is reminding residents it is against the law to leave dogs in cars unattended. Animals in yards must have access to water and shelter.
Violations can be reported to 254-750-1765.
Buffalo Cornhole Tournament RSVP
The Buffalo Cornhole Tournament will be Friday and Saturday at the Leon County Expo Center. Online registration is open through Monday and will be available at the door Friday.
Public admission is $10. Following Fridays competition, there will be a dance for competitors and spectators from 9 p.m. to midnight, featuring live music by Fly By Nighters band.
CNN
Twenty states have reached the Biden administrations goal to partially vaccinate 70% of American adults by the Fourth of July as the Delta variant spreads and people gather for holiday celebrations across the country.
White House officials acknowledged last month that they would fall short of their goal, which was set in early May when the US was vaccinating people at a much faster pace than it is now.
The US reached its highest vaccination rate in mid-April when the seven-day average of doses administered daily topped 3.3 million. At that time, 1.8 million new people became fully vaccinated each day.
But that rate was not sustained, dropping to a seven-day average of 1,121,064 doses given per day as of Saturday. About 685,472 people are becoming fully vaccinated daily.
However, the administration did come close to its goal of vaccinating 160 million adults by the holiday 157 million adults were fully vaccinated as of Saturday, federal data shows.
As a nation, as a whole, we are doing very well, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBCs Meet the Press Sunday.
Health experts have been sounding the alarm on the risk low vaccination rates pose in some areas as the Delta variant of the coronavirus is now detected in all 50 US states and Washington, DC.
The Delta variant, which is highly contagious and causes even more severe illness, has been spreading so rapidly in some areas that officials brought back their mask guidance even if people are fully vaccinated.
There are some states where the level of vaccination of individuals is 35% or less, Fauci said. Under those circumstances, you might expect to see spikes in certain regions, in certain states, cities or countries. I dont think you are going to be seeing anything nationwide, because fortunately we have a substantial proportion of the population vaccinated. So its going to be regional.
Health officials in Los Angeles County suggested last week that people in the county should wear masks while in public indoor spaces, regardless of their vaccination status.
After California relaxed most of its Covid-19 restrictions on June 15, the states Covid-19 test positivity rate doubled from 0.7% at the time to 1.5% on July 2, state health data shows. The Delta variant represents 36% of all new Covid-19 cases in California, and that number is expected to rise, a state health officer said Friday.
Health experts and studies have said the Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are highly effective in protecting people from severe illness and hospitalizations related to Covid-19 and some of its dangerous variants.
Yet Barbara Ferrer, who heads Los Angeles Countys Public Health Department, told CNN Saturday the countys new mask guidance is an extra precaution against the rise of Covid-19 cases there.
There are lots of settings where even though we know that the vaccines provide powerful protection to those who are vaccinated, the slight risk that a vaccinated person could shed enough virus to infect somebody else, coupled with just creating less and less risk in those settings where there are many unvaccinated people, makes it a prudent tool that I think has its place in this full reopening that weve done in LA County, Ferrer said.
She added that the county is not requiring people to wear masks.
We just made a strong recommendation, if youre indoors, in a setting where you dont know everybody elses vaccination status it is best at this point to prevent another surge here in LA County by having everyone in those settings, where it could be crowded and youre indoors, often with poor ventilation, to keep those face coverings on, she said.
California is one of 19 states to have fully vaccinated more than half its population. The other 18 are: Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state, as well as Washington, DC.
Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency physician at Brown University and CNN medical analyst, said Saturday that full approval of vaccines from the US Food and Drug Administration will help get more people vaccinated.
I think that getting full approval will make a big difference. It will overcome that hesitancy or lack of confidence of a segment of our population, she said.
Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have begun their applications for full approval from the FDA. Johnson & Johnson has said it intends to file a Biologics License Application, but had not yet done so as of Friday.
Pfizer and Moderna requested priority review, which asks the FDA to take action within six months, compared to the 10 months under standard review. Goal dates have not yet been announced.
I wish the FDA would move faster, Ranney said, referring to the approval process. Full FDA approval process normally does take months, but theyve already looked at the preliminary data. Its not that much more.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey shows 31% of adults who have yet to get vaccinated would be more likely to get a vaccine that is fully approved by the FDA. About 20% of adults who have not been vaccinated said its because they believe the vaccine is too new.
Fauci said during a White House Covid-19 briefing on Thursday it would be most unusual for the FDA to refuse full approval for coronavirus vaccines being used under emergency use authorization.
You never want to get ahead of the FDA, but it would really be a most unusual situation not to see this get full approval, Fauci said. I believe its going to happen.
The number of people traveling by air hit a new pandemic-era record Friday as people are on the move for the Fourth of July weekend.
The Transportation Security Administration said it screened 2,196,411 people at airports across the country, the highest number since the start of the pandemic.
According to the TSA, that number is higher than the same day in 2019 before the pandemic, when the TSA screened 2,184,253 passengers.
AAA anticipates 47.7 million people will travel by road and air from July 1 to July 5, a 40% increase over Independence Day travel last year and the second-highest travel volume on record.
CNNs Nadia Kounang, Pete Muntean, Deidre McPhillips, Jamie Gumbrecht, Cheri Mossburg, Natasha Chen, Kevin Conlon, Deanna Hackney and Maggie Fox contributed to this report.
When it came to coronavirus vaccination, the third time was the charm for Esther Jones, a dialysis nurse in rural Oregon. After two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine failed to jolt her immune system into producing antibodies, she sought out a third, this time the Moderna shot.
It worked. Blood tests revealed a reasonable antibody response, although lower than what would be detected in healthy people. She received a fourth dose last month in hopes of boosting the levels even more.
Ms. Jones, 45, had a kidney transplant in 2010. To prevent rejection of the organ, she has taken drugs that suppress the immune response ever since. She expected to have trouble responding to a coronavirus vaccine, and enrolled in one of the few studies so far to test the utility of a third dose in people with weak immune systems.
Since April, health care providers in France have routinely given a third dose of a two-dose vaccine to people with certain immune conditions. The number of organ transplant recipients who had antibodies increased to 68 percent four weeks after the third dose from 40 percent after the second dose, one team of French researchers recently reported.
The study in which Ms. Jones enrolled has turned up similar results in 30 organ transplant recipients who procured third doses on their own.
Being vulnerable to infection even after inoculation is very scary and frustrating for immunocompromised people, said Dr. Dorry Segev, a transplant surgeon at Johns Hopkins University who led the study. They have to continue to act unvaccinated until we figure out a way to give them better immunity.
But in the United States, there is no concerted effort by federal agencies or vaccine manufacturers to test this approach, leaving people with low immunity with more questions than answers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health in fact recommend even against testing to find out who is protected. And academic scientists are stymied by the rules that limit access to the vaccines.
There should be already a national study looking at post-transplant patients getting booster shots, said Dr. Balazs Halmos, an oncologist at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, who led a study showing that some cancer patients did not respond to the vaccines. It shouldnt be our little team here in the Bronx trying to figure this out.
An estimated 5 percent of the population is considered to be immunocompromised. The list of causes is long: some cancers, organ transplants, chronic liver disease, kidney failure and dialysis, and drugs like Rituxan, steroids and methotrexate, which are taken by roughly 5 million people for disorders from rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis to some forms of cancer.
These are the people being left behind, said Dr. Jose U. Scher, a rheumatologist at NYU Langone Health who led a study of methotrexates effect on the vaccines.
Not everyone who has one of these risk factors is affected. But without more research, its impossible to know who might need extra doses of the vaccines, and how many. Besides the risk of Covid-19, there is also evidence that low immunity may allow the virus to continue to replicate in the body for long periods, potentially leading to new variants.
An infusion of monoclonal antibodies may help some people who dont produce antibodies on their own but again, the idea is not being thoroughly explored, said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
Use of monoclonal antibodies makes great sense for this group of people, so I would like to see the companies be more active in this area, he said. Government support or pressure would also help.
July 4, 2021, 4:20 p.m. ET
The third-dose approach has widespread support among researchers because there is clear precedent. Immunocompromised people are given booster doses of vaccines for hepatitis B and influenza, for example. And discontinuing methotrexate after getting a flu vaccine is known to improve the vaccines potency evidence that compelled the American College of Rheumatology to recommend pausing methotrexate use for one week before being immunized against the coronavirus.
Several studies have indicated that a third coronavirus vaccine dose might succeed in patients who did not have detectable antibodies after the first or second dose. But research has lagged.
Moderna is gearing up to test a third dose in 120 organ transplant recipients, and Pfizer which produces some immunosuppressant medications is planning a study of 180 adults and 180 children with an immune condition.
The companies turned down at least two independent teams who hoped to study the effects of a third dose.
The N.I.H. is recruiting 400 immunocompromised people for a trial that would track their levels of antibodies and immune cells for up to 24 months but has no trials looking at a third dose.
It takes time, unfortunately, especially as a government agency, said Emily Ricotta, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. We have to go through a lot of regulatory and approval processes to do these sorts of projects.
But that explanation does not satisfy some researchers. Many medical centers already have groups of patients who did not respond to the vaccines, so federal agencies could organize a clinical trial without too much difficulty, Dr. Scher noted. Its a very simple study, he said. Theres no rocket science here.
Earlier studies suggested that many people with cancer would not respond to the vaccines, but those analyses were done after the patients had received a single dose. A new study published this month by Dr. Halmos of Montefiore Medical Center and his colleagues laid some of those fears to rest. The vaccines seem to work well in patients with a wide range of solid and liquid tumors, according to the large analysis.
But 15 percent of those who had blood cancers and 30 percent of those who took drugs that suppress the immune system had no detectable antibodies after the second dose. Dr. Halmos said he and his colleagues were eager to test whether a third dose could benefit those individuals, but have not yet been able to gain access to the vaccines.
Dr. Segevs team found in an earlier study that less than half of 658 organ transplant recipients had measurable antibodies after both doses of an mRNA vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna. But to follow up on the finding, they had to resort to recruiting volunteers like Ms. Jones who had obtained third doses on their own.
The scientists found that a third dose amped up antibody levels in all 30 organ transplant recipients who had low or undetectable levels of antibodies.
Ms. Jones said many people like her felt they had been abandoned by the federal government especially with the threat of more contagious variants circulating in the United States.
Some members of a Facebook group for immunocompromised people desperate for protection have gotten a third dose at mass vaccination sites where providers dont check records, or have even crossed state lines, she said. Even so, most continue to wear masks to protect themselves and have sometimes had to endure harassment as a result.
It really saddens me that so many people in this world have made masking like, this super political thing when it should never have been, she said. It makes it so its harder for us to take care of ourselves.
(WXYZ) Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and several other organizations announced the "MI Shot to Win" sweepstakes, which is a lottery drawing for those who got or are getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Under the plan, there will be scholarship drawings, daily drawings and two drawings one of $1 million and one of $2 million.
REGISTER HERE FOR THE SWEEPSTAKES
The daily drawings are for $50,000 and open to all eligible residents who got the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccination on the date corresponding to the $50k Daily Drawing.
On top of that, there is a $1 million drawing that you can enter between July 1-10 and is open to those who have gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine between Dec. 1, 2020 and July 10, 2021.
Also, there is a $2 million drawing with entry between July 1 and Aug. 3 that is open to those who got a vaccination between Dec. 1, 2020 and July 10, 2021.
There are nine scholarship drawings that consist of a 4-year MET Charitable Tuition Program which is valued at $55,000 each. It may be used for tuition at a college or university in accordance with MET terms and conditions.
Jeddy Johnson
You can see the rules below.MIShotToWin Rules by WXYZ-TV Channel 7 Detroit on Scribd
Additional Coronavirus information and resources:
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Visit our The Rebound Detroit, a place where we are working to help people impacted financially from the coronavirus. We have all the information on everything available to help you through this crisis and how to access it.
Alert: Click here for information regarding free vaccination clinics for West Virginians.
Please always check with your local venue for last minute changes.
Any West Virginian age 65 and older who is still waiting on an appointment is urged to call the West Virginia Vaccine Info Line: 1-833-734-0965 to be scheduled for an appointment to be vaccinated. The info line is open Monday-Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
All West Virginians 12 years of age and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccines are available in all 55 counties through community vaccination clinics, community health centers, pharmacies, schools, workplaces, and/or other locations.
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Coloradans reached a milestone during the holiday weekend 70% of adults have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
More than 3.2 million people in the state are at least partially inoculated against the coronavirus, with 2.95 million fully immunized, according to state data.
The Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment announced Saturday that seven out of 10 adults have been vaccinated.
Gov. Jared Polis put the number of adults vaccinated at 70.4%, congratulating Coloradans for meeting President Joe Bidens aspirational goal of vaccinating 70% of Americans age 18 and up by July Fourth.
This is an exciting milestone for the people of our state, it is a testament to our resilience and united commitment in the fight against this deadly virus. The vaccine is a safe and effective way to protect ourselves and enjoy the life we love in Colorado, Polis said in a news release. Our country has a simple tool to stop the loss in the form of a safe, highly effective and free vaccine. So get your vaccine to safeguard yourself and your family.
For information on where to get a vaccine here.
To date, 3,154,395 Coloradans 18 and older, and 3,344,512 total Coloradans have been immunized with one dose, according to the governors office. Fully immunized Coloradans number 2,957,758. Everyone 12 and older can get a COVID-19 vaccination. Colorado is ahead of the national inoculation rate, which sits at 67%.
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