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APPLETON - After theFox Cities COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic closed last week, the health department will offer vaccines to those in need at a new location: The Appleton Public Library.
City health department staff members will administerwill offer both the two-dose Pfizer vaccineand the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine five days during the summer at the library, 225 N. Oneida St., according to a Tuesday news release. The Pfizer vaccine is approved for those 12 years and older.
First-dose Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccine appointments can be made for the following dates and times:
Second-dose Pfizer appointments will be scheduled at the time of check-in for the first shot for at least 3 weeks out, the release says.
Those eligible for vaccines can book appointments online at covid-19-appleton.hub.arcgis.com/pages/vaccine-site, or by calling the health department at 920-832-6499.
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Contact reporter Samantha West at 920-996-7207 or swest@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @BySamanthaWest.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) A growing number of North Carolinas counties didnt report any new cases of COVID-19 over the past week.
And public health experts point to one simple explanation.
Its a sign that our community has embraced being vaccinated overall, said Dr. Lisa Pickett, a trauma surgeon at Duke University Hospital.
From May 21-27, four counties Hyde, Pamlico, Mitchell and Swain each reported zero new cases. Another 15 averaged one or fewer new cases each day during that span.
Both numbers grew noticeably after the Memorial Day weekend, with the state Department of Health and Human Services update late Tuesday afternoon that spans May 25-31, showing seven counties including Granville and Northampton in the CBS 17 viewing area with no new cases.
And nearly a quarter of the states 100 counties now average one new case per day or fewer.
One of the things that tells us is that vaccination works, said Dr. Erica Pettigrew of the UNC Family Medicine Center and the medical director of the Orange County Health Department.
Vaccination doesnt tell us this whole story because our vaccination rates, as we stand now in the state, would not explain this type of decline. So were still trying to figure out exactly whats going on.
Almost 90 percent of counties reported fewer cases now than they did in mid-April. Of the ones with more, those increases are mostly modest with Watauga County the only one with more than 15.
Orange County, which has one of the states highest vaccination rates, showed just seven new cases in seven days from May 21-27, though it ticked up to nine cases after the latest update.
Its amazing when you think about it now, said county spokesman Todd McGee. But I think it just shows the effectiveness of the vaccines.
But its hard to ignore another potential explanation: Fewer tests.
A total of 20 counties including the four mountain counties reporting zero new cases didnt perform enough tests over the past two weeks for DHHS to calculate a reliable percent positive.
I think that can be a piece of it. I dont think thats the main driver of this, Pettigrew said. I do think that mostly this is good news. But theres an element of people letting their guard down in terms of testing.
Pickett says the number of COVID-19 patients at Dukes hospitals have dropped and the patients who do wind up there tend to have one thing in common: For one reason or another, they arent vaccinated.
And that really leda me to think that this is really, by and large, reflective of vaccination, Pickett said.
COVID-19 restrictions on businesses, large gatherings officially lifted in southern Nevada News3LV
The daily average of new cases dropped to about 17,248 as of Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. However, that number might be lower than reality, as some cases from the weekend and the Memorial Day holiday might not have been reported yet. But now, the US is heading in the right direction, thanks to a powerful ally in the battle against the pandemic: Covid-19 vaccines.
"Cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining because of the millions of people who have stepped forward and done their part to protect their health and the health of their communities to move us out of this pandemic," US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a recent White House briefing.
"This is ... another clear piece of evidence that New York City is coming back strong," the mayor said. "Let's drive Covid out of New York City once and for all."
The US can push its Covid-19 numbers lower and help prevent Covid-19 outbreaks if more Americans are inoculated.
"We all have more work to do," White House Covid-19 Response Team senior adviser Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith said recently. "We have to continue to ensure everyone who is a 'yes' does not face barriers to vaccination."
Moderna seeks full FDA approval for its emergency authorized vaccine
While new Covid-19 cases keep dropping as more Americans get vaccinated, Moderna said Tuesday it's seeking full approval for its vaccine from the US Food and Drug Administration.
Since December, Moderna's two-shot vaccine has been distributed under an FDA emergency use authorization for Americans 18 and older.
On April 13, the company announced its vaccine maintained over 90% efficacy six months out -- the length of follow-up time needed to apply for FDA approval.
Moderna is the second company to seek such approval in the US. On May 7, Pfizer announced it was starting its own application for people 16 and older, following an April 1 announcement that its clinical trials showed over 91% efficacy after six months.
Experts say they expect vaccine protection will last much longer than six months, to be confirmed as more data comes in.
Moderna said it will keep submitting trial data "on a rolling basis over the coming weeks with a request for a Priority Review." A priority review asks the FDA to take action within six months, compared to the 10 months designated under standard review.
Both Pfizer and Moderna are also studying their vaccines in children as young as 6 months. Last month, the FDA granted Pfizer's vaccine an emergency use authorization for children 12 to 15.
Full FDA approval could motivate some vaccine-hesitant Americans to roll up their sleeves, according to research released Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
"Frankly, the only real difference was in length of follow-up" for efficacy, Offit said.
"The effectiveness and efficacy data in the Phase 3 trials and now in the real world ... is excellent," Offit said.
The first big holiday with millions fully vaccinated
Meanwhile, for the first time in more than a year, millions of vaccinated Americans safely enjoyed close holiday gatherings without masks on Memorial Day.
In California, "it feels very, very close to normal," Santa Monica resident Bob Alfera said. "And it's nice to see people really all in a good mood."
Health experts hope vaccinations will blunt a post-holiday spike this year. But vaccines only work if people take them.
"It's great news that people can see their friends, they feel comfortable to travel because they're vaccinated," former Harvard Medical School professor William Haseltine said.
"The bad news is if you are not vaccinated, you are still at risk, and your risk is about as high as it was before."
Vacationers also enjoyed Miami Beach, Florida, over the weekend, but the mayor said he worried "too many people are coming" to the scenic city.
"The virus is still here," Mayor Dan Gelber said. "The volume of people that have been coming here is very unprecedented."
US sees lowest child case numbers in months
As of May 27, nearly 4 million children had tested positive for the virus since the pandemic's start.
Children made up between 6% and 19.6% of those who were tested for Covid-19, according to the states that reported numbers, and between 5.2%-34.6% of children tested were positive for the virus, depending on the state.
"At this time, it still appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children," the report said. "However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects."
CNN's Michael Nedelman, Jen Christensen, Laura Ly, Rebekah Riess, Naomi Thomas, Sahar Akbarzai, Pete Muntean and Greg Wallace contributed to this report.
Coronavirus variants get Greek names but will scientists use them? Nature.com
Samples from a study suggesting the coronavirus was circulating outside China by October 2019 have been re-tested at the World Health Organization's (WTO) request, two scientists who led the Italian research said.
There is growing international pressure to learn more about the origins of the pandemic that has killed more than 3 million people worldwide and U.S. President Joe Biden last week ordered his aides to find answers.
The WHO said on Friday experts were preparing a proposal on the next studies to be carried out into the origins of the virus, but that there was no set timeline. [nL2N2ND20N] read more
The UN body reacted to Biden's announcement that intelligence agencies were pursuing rival theories, including the possibility of a laboratory accident in China, by saying the search was being "poisoned by politics". read more
COVID-19 was first identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in December 2019, while Italy's first patient was detected on Feb. 21 last year in a small town near Milan.
However, a study published last year suggested antibodies to either the virus or a variant were detected in Italy in 2019.
That prompted Chinese state media to suggest the virus might not have originated in China, although the Italian researchers stressed the findings raised questions about when the virus first emerged rather than where.
"The WHO asked us if we could share the biological material and if we could re-run the tests in an independent laboratory. We accepted," Giovanni Apolone, scientific director of one of the lead institutions, the Milan Cancer Institute (INT), said.
The WHO's request has not previously been reported.
"WHO is in contact with the researchers that had published the original paper. A collaboration with partner laboratories has been set up for further testing," a WHO spokesman said.
The spokesman said the WHO was aware that the researchers are planning to publish a follow-up report "in the near future".
He said the UN agency has contacted all researchers who have published or provided information on samples collected in 2019 that were reported to have tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, but does not yet have the final interpretation of the results.
The Italian researchers' findings, published by the INT's scientific magazine Tumori Journal, showed neutralising antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in blood taken from healthy volunteers in Italy in October 2019 during a lung cancer screening trial.
Most of the volunteers were from Lombardy, the northern region around Milan, which was the first and hardest hit by the virus in Italy.
"None of the studies published so far have ever questioned the geographical origin," Apolone told Reuters.
"The growing doubt is that the virus, probably less powerful compared to later months, was circulating in China long before the reported cases," Apolone added.
DUTCH TEST
The WHO chose the laboratory of the Erasmus University in Rotterdam for the re-test, Emanuele Montomoli, co-author of the original study and professor of Public Health at the Molecular Medicine Department in the University of Siena, said.
The Erasmus University did not reply to requests for comment.
Italian researchers sent the team in Rotterdam 30 biological samples from October-December 2019 that they had found positive, 30 samples from the same period they had tested negative and 30 samples from as far back as 2018, negative.
"We sent them blind, that means our colleagues did not know which samples were positive and which negative," Apolone said.
"They rechecked our samples with commercial tests, which are much less sensitive than the ones we devised and validated," Montomoli said.
Despite the differences in the two detection methods, both Italian scientists said they were satisfied with the results, delivered to them in late February, adding that they could not comment further until the team of Italian and Dutch scientists have published their findings.
"We did not say in our study that we could establish without a doubt that the coronavirus, later sequenced in Wuhan, was already circulating in Italy in October," Montomoli said.
"We only found the response to the virus, namely the antibodies. So we can say that this coronavirus or a very similar one, perhaps a less transmissible variant, was circulating here in October," he added.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
A sharp rise in coronavirus cases from new variants in parts of Southeast Asia that had been less affected by the pandemic has prompted new restrictions, factory closures and attempts to rapidly scale up vaccination programmes across the region.
The number of daily new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia has soared past India's on a per capita basis, while total cases in Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and East Timor have all more than doubled in the past month.
Thailand, which was the second country to record infections after China, had won plaudits for containing its first wave of cases, but its death toll has risen ten-fold over two months - though at just over 1,000 is still low by global standards.
Adding to concerns, Vietnamese officials revealed the discovery over the weekend of a "very dangerous" combination of Indian and UK COVID-19 variants, which spreads quickly by air.
"COVID-19 infection rates are very alarming in countries across Southeast Asia," Alexander Matheou, Asia Pacific Director, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters. "The more dangerous and deadly variants highlight the urgent need for much faster global sharing and manufacture of vaccines to contain this outbreak and to help avoid huge mass casualties."
In the absence of vaccines, containment is the priority.
Vietnam crushed earlier waves - and the country of 98 million has still suffered fewer than 50 deaths - but new distancing measures started in its business hub Ho Chin Minh City on Monday. read more
In the north of the country, factories supplying global tech firms such as Apple and Samsung are operating below capacity because of outbreaks, industry sources said.
Thailand's largest agribusiness, Charoen Pokphand Foods Pcl closed a poultry factory for five days after workers tested positive for COVID-19. Thousands more cases have been found at factories, construction sites and prisons.
As Malaysia ordered a "total lockdown" from Tuesday to stem the spread, officials said some factories could keep operating at reduced capacity. read more
SLOW VACCINATION
Malaysia has tried to step up its vaccination campaign, but fewer than 6% of people have received at least one dose of a vaccine - barely half the proportion in India.
Some Southeast Asian countries had placed less emphasis on vaccine procurement than Western countries or simply could not afford them and now have limited access.
"With a smaller segment of the population that is protected from vaccination, the vast majority of the population remains susceptible," said Teo Yik Ying, dean of the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore.
"The healthcare systems in several Southeast Asian countries are either at risk of being or already have been completely overwhelmed."
Only the wealthy city state of Singapore has comparable vaccination rates to Western countries with over 36% getting at least one injection, but the appearance of cases from new variants there has also prompted new closures this month.
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was due to outline a stragegy for opening up the country, whose economy depends on its place as a regional business and transport hub.
"The solution: testing, contact tracing, and vaccinating, all faster, and more," Lee said.
Health officials are also watching closely for any resurgence in Indonesia and the Philippines, the region's two most populous countries, which were both hit hard by the pandemic last year.
The Philippines recorded its highest number of daily infections in four weeks on Friday. Indonesia's seven-day average of new cases reached its highest in more than two months on Sunday.
A surge of cases has also been reported near Myanmar's Indian border - raising concerns about a health system that has collapsed since a Feb. 1 coup. read more
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
As of Tuesday, June 1, the California Department of Public Healths vaccine dashboard showed about 46.2 million doses have been shipped throughout the state (1 million more than a week ago) and of those, 37.5 million have been administered.
Vaccinations in California
According to Bloombergs dashboard tracking vaccine distribution, 57% of Californias population has received at least one shot and 44.3% of residents are fully vaccinated (up from 41.7% a week ago). California has the highest daily rate of doses administered in the country at 163,850 down from 258,249 a week ago). The second-highest rate belongs to Texas with 97,462. California was administering about 350,000 doses per day a month ago.
Los Angeles (9.52 million), San Diego (3.42 million) and Orange (3.1 million) counties have administered the most doses to date in California.
Fully vaccinated by county
The chart below compiled by George Karbassis on the website ncovtrack.com shows the percentage of residents in each California county who have had at least one shot or are fully vaccinated. State, nation and world data is compiled on the site as well.
According to ncovtrack.com these are the percentages at which Southern California counties are fully vaccinated:
Los Angeles: 42.8%
San Diego: 47.11%
Orange: 44.09%
Riverside: 34.69%
San Bernardino: 31.56%
The map below is from the California Department of Public Healths COVID-19 vaccinations dashboard and shows vaccinations by ZIP code. Click on the image to go to the site. It may take a few minutes to load.
Vaccinations by age in California:
Data is update once a week on Wednesdays.
Tier assignments as of June 1
On April 6, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan to fully reopen Californias economy on June 15 if current COVID-19 trends hold. California would end its four-colored tier system at that point. Newsom has since said Californias mask mandate might be lifted on June 15 as well.
Until then, the state continues to make weekly adjustments to its tier system and, based on Tuesdays update changes take effect Wednesday none of Californias 58 counties remain in the purple tier (considered widespread risk). There will be 4 counties in the red tier (four less than a week ago); 35 counties in the orange tier (moderate risk, the same as week ago); and 19 in the yellow tier (minimal risk, four more than a week ago). There were just seven counties in the yellow tier a month ago.
On Nov. 24, the state had 41 counties in purple, 11 counties in red, four in orange, two in yellow.
Counties are assigned to a tier based on metrics showing the speed and the spread of the virus in their borders.
The states progression in tiers since Sept. 22:
Here are the California county vaccination totals as of June 1:
Here are the California county vaccination totals as of May 25:
Here are the California county vaccination totals as of May 4:
Here are the California county vaccination totals as of April 13:
Here are the California county vaccination totals as of April 6:
Here are the California county vaccination totals as of Feb. 22:
Sources: covid19ca.gov, California Department of Public Health, U.S. Census, U.S.D.A, California State Association of Counties
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Coronavirus tracker: Orange County reported 50 new cases and no new deaths as of June 1 OCRegister
The final step out of lockdown in England is set for 21 June, when the government will remove all legal limits on social contact although some social distancing and mask-wearing rules will remain.
However, a senior government minister has said that it is too early to speculate about whether this will go ahead as planned, amid concern about increasing cases of the Delta variant, first detected in India and known as B.1.617.2.
The Guardian spoke to a number of experts about whether the planned 21 June lockdown lifting should be delayed and if so, why.
John Bell, regius chair of medicine at the University of Oxford, said that he had looked at the numbers on Tuesday and that he was not concerned with hospitalisations, which are pretty flat, or mortality, which is very flat.
He puts this down to the rapid rate of vaccinations, saying that the most important thing is that among those who would get sick and die from the virus, around 80-90% of people are now vaccinated.
He said that vaccines would, undoubtedly, prevent hospitalisations and deaths. He says trying to get rid of the virus entirely from the UK is foolish and will never happen.
If, on the other hand, you are trying to manage the disease and are aware of the fact there will be other variants and a certain amount of disease activity in the background but low hospitalisation and deaths, then that is another question. You need different strategies for the two approaches, he said.
I think we have to watch the figures and at the moment I dont see anything that makes me anxious, there are more cases but not that many.
Susan Michie, professor of health psychology and director of the centre for behaviour change at UCL, said that she wished there had been more focus on data and not dates.
But the emphasis has been on dates rather than data, and it would have been good if this was not the case, she said.
She added that what was happening now was similar to the spread of the Alpha variant, first detected in Kent and known as B.1.1.7, in terms of increasing transmission, adding that we should be concerned.
We all suffered the consequences of not acting soon enough with another lockdown, she said. No one wants that to happen again so the starting point in communication should be focusing on preventing another wave. The key thing is to learn from the past and the mistakes we made and one thing we learned about the virus is that you cannot wait until you are certain of another wave. You have to act when there is the possibility of it or you lose control over the virus rising exponentially.
Michie added that an increasing number of epidemiologists and public health experts, who had knowledge about the pandemic, were saying it would be extremely unwise to lift more restrictions.
President-elect of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, Fiona Donald, said that her views on the easing of restrictions came from the viewpoint of the millions of patients on waiting lists for operations. She worries that if restrictions are lifted too soon, hospitals will struggle once more and there is already a huge backlog of people waiting for non-Covid related surgery.
If hospitals get busy or even overwhelmed by Covid cases then they are unlikely to get surgery in a timely fashion and that is my main concern really, she said.
Donald added that we should be guided by what the science shows and there is a timeframe for that, but whatever decision should be made on the basis that the NHS can cope.
She said it was not just about hospitals filling up but also when there were lots of infected patients in hospital you use up disproportionate amounts of space and personnel and resources.
Kate Nicholls, whose organisation represents pubs, restaurants, bars and clubs across the country, said the government delaying its roadmap for easing Covid restrictions in England would be hugely damaging for the industry.
Its critical we move ahead to step four of the roadmap. Weve still got a quarter of premises that cant open at all. Those that can open are trading under such severe restrictions theyre not profitable. Leaving restrictions in place is not viable. Every day restrictions are in place businesses are losing money and jobs are in jeopardy.
Any delay would require the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, to bring forward a package of fresh economic support measures to prevent a fresh wave of job losses, she said. More than 3m jobs were furloughed at the start of May, according to the latest official figures, with almost half of staff in the hospitality sector receiving emergency wage support.
The support is critical. For those businesses that cant open yet its been 16 months without revenue at all. Particularly nightclubs, music venues, wedding venues and the events business that support them, those businesses are clinging on by their fingertips, Nicholls said.
She said any reintroduction of tougher controls would be devastating for hospitality firms. It would be a catastrophic, retrograde step. Businesses would close their doors for good almost immediately.
We see no reason why there should be a delay. There is nothing coming out in the epidemiological research or case numbers to suggest the roadmap is not on track.
Jagjit Chadha said there would be costs from delaying, but that the economic fallout would be much less than during previous lockdowns.
The good news is that it looks like the economy has shown more resilience in the face of every successive lockdown. Weve kind of learned how to deal with them, he said. Britains economy shrank by about a quarter during the first lockdown from March 2020. However, GDP fell by about 10% in the second lockdown last autumn and by less than 5% at the start of this year during the third, he said. The direct economic cost of lockdown seems to be less.
Chadha said there was a strong case for delaying reopening because the economy had adapted over the past year, and that containing the virus was key for the countrys long-term economic recovery.
So its got to depend on the growth of the infections and the virus. We should not stop ourselves from doing these things because of the impact on the economy. Its a secondary question, he said.
Research by the International Monetary Fund shows the economic impact from lockdown is about equal to the effects from people voluntarily social distancing when worried about higher rates of infection. This could strengthen the argument for keeping some restrictions in place, he said.
People are so aware now of the infection and where its hitting. If we didnt control it, you would see a reduction in expenditure in any case, as people wont go out. Getting the virus under control is also the only way you can get back to normality on the economy.
