Boston The Baker-Polito Administration announced today that the federal partnership launched this March to expand COVID-19 vaccine doses in the Boston area has successfully concluded after administering over 301,000 doses. The Federal Emergency and Management Agency (FEMA) and Department of Defense teams at this Community Vaccination Center (CVC) wrapped up their mission on Sunday, May 23. As part of this effort, the Commonwealth received over 6,000 additional doses from the federal government each day to administer at the Hynes Convention Center vaccination site and through mobile clinics.
While federal support from FEMA and the Department of Defense has ended, the state-run Hynes vaccination site will continue to operate into June under the continued management of CIC Health. Anyone who has received a first vaccine dose will be able to receive their second dose at the Hynes before the site closes.
"Massachusetts is a national leader in providing COVID-19 vaccines to our residents, and we are grateful for the support of the federal government in this partnership which helped contribute to those efforts, said Governor Charlie Baker. On behalf of the Commonwealth, I want to thank the Biden-Harris Administration, FEMA, the U.S. Navy, CIC Health, and the team at the Command Center and MEMA for working collaboratively to make this effort a success.
Region 1 Acting Regional Administrator and Federal Coordination Officer for New England Paul Ford said, The collaboration between the Commonwealth, its partners and the federal government provided access to the vaccine for all residents of Massachusetts. The staffing of the Community Vaccination Center at the Hynes with DOD and FEMA staff allowed the Commonwealth flexibility to bring the vaccine to some of the hardest hit communities. On behalf of FEMA and our federal partners, we are pleased to have had a role in the success of administering the vaccine. I want to thank the Naval Unit for all the wonderful work they did here.
Since opening on March 31, more than 301,000 doses have been administered at the Hynes with support from 225 Department of Defense U.S. Navy personnel, Cataldo Ambulance, and CIC-Health staff. In addition to bolstering existing efforts at the convention center, this federal support allowed the state to strengthen and expand vaccine equity efforts.
The Hynes site deployed staff for mobile clinics and pop-up vaccination sites to several communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic including Boston, Chelsea, Revere, Fall River, and New Bedford. These efforts were in addition to the Baker-Polito Administrations work to expand outreach and other mobile vaccination efforts in disproportionately impacted communities and communities with lower than state average vaccination rates.
Massachusetts is a national leader in COVID-19 vaccination rates, with more than 77% of adults having received at least one dose. COVID-19 vaccines are widely available in Massachusetts, with over 900 locations across every region of the state listed on vaxfinder.mass.gov.
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Alaska between Saturday and Monday reported 99 new coronavirus infections and no deaths linked to COVID-19, according to the Department of Health and Social Services. The state no longer updates its coronavirus dashboard over the weekend and instead includes those numbers in Mondays report.
Alaskas average daily case counts are now trending down significantly statewide. The state last week went from a high alert level to an intermediate alert level for the first time since September, indicating less spread and fewer cases overall, though some regions remain at a high alert level due to higher case rates.
Anyone 12 and older who lives or works in Alaska can now receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Alaskans can visit covidvax.alaska.gov or call 907-646-3322 to sign up for a vaccine appointment, and new appointments are added regularly. The phone line is staffed from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends.
Only Pfizers vaccine is approved for children as young as 12; the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are approved only for those 18 and older.
By Monday, about 318,530 people had received at least their first dose of vaccine. At least 278,856 people are considered fully vaccinated, according to the states vaccine monitoring dashboard.
Also by Monday, there were 20 people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in hospitals throughout the state, far below a peak in late 2020.
A geographic breakdown of the cases reported Saturday through Monday was not immediately available.
While people might get tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.
The states data doesnt specify whether people testing positive for COVID-19 have symptoms. More than half of the nations infections are transmitted from asymptomatic people, according to CDC estimates.
Posted: May 25, 2021 / 10:04 PM EDT / Updated: May 25, 2021 / 10:07 PM EDT
Hampton University mobile vaccine clinic (Photo courtesy: Hampton University)
HAMPTON, Va. (WAVY) Hampton University is holding three COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine and testing clinics through its new Hampton University Mobile Health Unit this week in Norfolk.
The clinics are for ages 12 and up. They run from 4-7 p.m. from Tuesday through Thursday and are at different locations.
Tuesdays event was at Calvert Square Envision Center Basketball Courts in Norfolk.
Wednesdays clinic will be held at Oakleaf Forest Basketball Courts in Norfolk.
Thursdays will be Young Terrace Foodbank Hub in Norfolk.
Fresh produce will be distributed by the Foodbank of Southeastern Virginia at those locations. There will be games, resources and raffle prizes. The first 100 people to get vaccinated on each day will receive a $10 gift card.
People need to bring an ID to the event, wear their masks and ensure theyre social distancing.
Second doses will be gievn June 15-17.
Registration is encouraged, although not necessary. Vaccines are limited for those who dont register ahead of time.
To register for the event, open the flyer below and scan one of the QR codes using the camera on a cell phone.
For more information, call 757-314-1533.
A booster Covid-19 vaccine for people who have already been vaccinated may be needed as soon as eight to 12 months after their second shot, according to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"We know that the vaccine durability of the efficacy lasts at least six months, and likely considerably more, but I think we will almost certainly require a booster sometime within a year or so after getting the primary," Fauci said.
As of Wednesday, there were more than 33 million cases of Covid-19 in the United States and more than 587,000 deaths.
Fauci also said Wednesday that variant-specific boosters may not be needed.
"Instead of having to play whack-a-mole with each individual variant and develop a booster that's variant-specific, it is likely that you could just keep boosting against the wild type, and wind up getting a good enough response that you wouldn't have to worry about the variants," he said.
The wild type is the non-mutated strain of the virus.
Pfizer has not yet finished its trials on a booster vaccine, Bourla said.
"I believe in one, two months we will have enough data to speak about it with much higher scientific certainty," he said.
The first dose of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine in the United States was administered December 14, 2020 -- five months ago.
"If they got their second shot eight months ago, they may need a third one," Bourla said, adding that booster shots could be coming between September and October of this year.
He said Pfizer will have to see what the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves and their recommendation on how best to protect the American people.
As vaccinations continue to increase, medical experts believe coronavirus may end up being like influenza, which requires a new vaccine every year both because the circulating strains mutate quickly and because immunity from the vaccine wears off quickly.
Nearly 130 million U.S. adults have completed their vaccine regimens, the CDC says, with another 70 million vaccine doses currently in the distribution pipeline. Here, Maryland National Guard Brig. Gen. Janeen Birckhead greets soldiers last week at a mobile vaccine clinic in Wheaton, Md. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption
Nearly 130 million U.S. adults have completed their vaccine regimens, the CDC says, with another 70 million vaccine doses currently in the distribution pipeline. Here, Maryland National Guard Brig. Gen. Janeen Birckhead greets soldiers last week at a mobile vaccine clinic in Wheaton, Md.
The U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program has gone from zero to 50% in less than six months.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Biden administration said, half of the country's adults are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
"This is a major milestone in our country's vaccination efforts," Andy Slavitt, a White House senior adviser on the COVID-19 response, said during a midday briefing. "The number was 1% when we entered office Jan. 20."
Nearly 130 million people age 18 and older have completed their vaccine regimens since the first doses were administered to the public in December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Another 70 million vaccine doses are currently in the distribution pipeline, according to the agency.
Vaccinations have risen sharply in children 12 years and older, weeks after the Food and Drug Administration said that cohort is eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech. Nearly 5 million adolescents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the CDC's latest data.
The U.S. is pushing to add millions more people to the ranks of the vaccinated. President Biden said this month that his new goal is to administer at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to 70% of U.S. adults by the Fourth of July.
Nine states have given at least one vaccine shot to 70% of their adult population, Slavitt said at Tuesday's briefing. Acknowledging the welcome return to a more normal life taking place around the country, he urged more people to get the vaccine: "Unless you're vaccinated, you're at risk."
An increasing number of states, businesses and organizations are offering incentives for people to get vaccinated, from free doughnuts to free airline flights. One of the best-known programs is in Ohio, where people who get vaccinated are entered into a $1 million lottery called the Ohio Vax-a-Million.
"Gov. Mike DeWine has unlocked a secret," Slavitt said, noting that Ohio's vaccination rate went up 55% among young adults in the days after unveiling the program. Other states have since announced similar plans.
The stunning speed of the vaccines' development and rollout has helped tame COVID-19 in the U.S., which remains the worst-hit country in the world, despite having less than 5% of the world's population. The U.S. has reported more than 33 million COVID-19 cases, and more than 590,000 people have died from the disease.
Vaccination rates vary sharply across the nation. On the state level, more than half of all adults were fully vaccinated in just 25 states, along with the District of Columbia and Guam, as NPR's Laurel Wamsley reported.
The lowest overall vaccination rates in the U.S. remain in the South, where Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas have administered the fewest doses per 100,000 adults, according to the CDC. The highest rates are in Vermont, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Connecticut.
Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine is the most prevalent in the U.S., with more than 155 million doses administered, the CDC said. Moderna is next, with nearly 122 million doses. Johnson & Johnson, whose one-dose vaccine was approved after the two messenger RNA vaccines, accounts for more than 10 million doses.
COVID-19 is a highly contagious respiratory disease first discovered in late 2019, caused by the coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2).
The majority of people with COVID-19 develop mild symptoms such as a cough, fever, and fatigue. People over age 65 and people with underlying health conditions like diabetes or obesity are at the highest risk of developing a severe case.
COVID-19 can cause nasal symptoms similar to upper respiratory infections, such as a stuffy or runny nose. Some anecdotal reports and case studies also describe people with COVID-19 developing a nose burning sensation.
Keep reading as we take a deeper look at whether a burning sensation in your nose is a common symptom of COVID-19. Well also take a look at how the symptoms of COVID-19 compare with those of other respiratory infections and allergies.
Burning in your nose can potentially be a symptom of COVID-19, but its not one of the most common symptoms. The only medical studies examining nose burning are isolated case studies. So, at this time, its not clear how frequently people experience it.
A burning sensation in your nose can be caused by inflammation in your sinuses from a sinus infection. Viruses, fungi, and bacteria can cause sinus infections.
One August 2020 study of 1,773 people with COVID-19 found that 4.1 percent developed nasal congestion and 2.1 percent developed a runny nose. These conditions can lead to a blockage of the sinuses that encourages the growth of bacteria or fungi.
Sinus infections dont seem to be common among people with COVID-19, but a few case reports have noted them.
A study published in the Journal of Surgical Case Reports in March 2021 describes a 52-year-old man with COVID-19 who developed a severe sinus infection that led to erosion of bone on the floor of his sinus and complications in his right eye.
It was unclear if COVID-19 was the only cause of or a contributing factor to the infection. However, negative fungal and bacterial cultures suggest that COVID-19 may have played a major role.
A February 2021 study examined three people with COVID-19 requiring intensive care, who developed fungal sinus infections. Fungal sinus infections have a high mortality rate among immunocompromised people. All three people in the study died from other COVID-19 complications.
Again, most people dont appear to get a sinus infection from COVID-19.
According to an April 2020 review, researchers think that COVID-19 enters your cells through an enzyme called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE-2). ACE-2 is found in as high a concentration in your nasal cavity as well as any other part of your upper respiratory or digestive tract.
ACE-2 is also found in other parts of your body, such as your gastrointestinal tract, lungs, blood vessels, and heart.
The highest concentration of ACE-2 in your nose is found in mucus-producing goblet cells and ciliated epithelial cells, which are cells that line the tract of your nasal cavity.
Researchers have also found that COVID-19 also needs a protein called TMPRSS2 to optimally enter a cell. TMPRSS2 has also been identified in the cells that line your nose, according to June 2020 research.
Mouse studies have found that reducing levels of this protein in mice led to decreased replication of the COVID-19 virus.
According to a 2021 study published in the American Journal of Otolaryngology, about 33 percent of people with COVID-19 have mild symptoms affecting the nose, such as loss of smell or taste.
Loss or reduction of taste and smell are frequently reported as early symptoms of COVID-19. One July 2020 study found that 73 percent of people reported a loss of smell prior to COVID-19 diagnosis and 26.6 percent of people reported it as the initial symptom.
Other nasal symptoms linked to COVID-19 include:
According to the World Health Organization, the most common symptoms of COVID-19 are:
Less common but still frequently reported symptoms include:
The symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to the symptoms of other upper respiratory infections and allergies.
Heres a look at how the typical symptoms of COVID-19, the flu, colds, and allergies compare.
A few key symptoms may help identify your condition:
Most people with COVID-19 develop mild symptoms. Mild COVID-19 can be treated at home by:
Its important to isolate yourself as much as possible and to avoid public areas.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), most adults can stop isolating 10 days after symptom onset and 24 hours after their fever is gone without the use of medication.
Its important to seek immediate medical attention if you or a loved one have emergency symptoms of COVID-19. Many hospitals have separate wings dedicated to treating COVID-19 and take walk-ins.
The CDCs list of emergency symptoms includes:
People with dark skin may have more difficulty noticing discoloration in their nails, lips, or skin. Discoloration in these areas suggests oxygen deprivation.
A burning sensation in your nose can potentially be a sign of COVID-19, but its not a typical symptom.
Some people with COVID-19 develop a runny or stuffy nose. These conditions can lead to a sinus infection that can cause inflammation and a burning sensation.
The symptoms of COVID-19 are similar to the symptoms of other upper respiratory infections and allergies. A fever isnt a symptom of allergies and might be a sign youre dealing with a viral infection.
If you think you have COVID-19, its important to isolate yourself from other people and seek medical attention if you develop severe symptoms.
The United States has so far made significant progress in vaccinating adults and a new milestone was achieved Tuesday.
More than 164 million people -- 49.5% of the total US population -- has received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, CDC data shows. More than 131 million people, or 39.5% of the total US population, are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.
But many experts have identified young Americans as a critical age group for inoculation success -- the key to getting the pandemic under control in the country.
Even mild illness can result in life-disrupting impacts
Children accounted for nearly 20% of the new cases reported late last week. More than 3.9 million children have tested positive since the start of the pandemic as of May 20.
Depending on the state, children made up between 6% and 19.5% of those who were tested for Covid-19 -- and 5.2% to 34.4% of children tested were positive for the coronavirus.
Children represented 1.3% to 3.2% of total reported hospitalizations for Covid-19, based on the information provided by 24 states and New York City. Only 0.1% to 1.9% of all cases of Covid-19 in children required hospitalization.
Nine states reported zero child deaths among the 43 states that provided data on Covid-19 mortality.
For young Americans who feel hesitant or even unmotivated to get vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that even mild Covid-19 illness can result in life-disrupting impacts.re
"There's a syndrome that is referred to as long Covid, which means that you get a syndrome following the clearing of the virus where it could be for months," the director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases said Monday at a town hall, adding that possible persisting symptoms include profound fatigue, muscle aches, temperature dysregulation and an inability to focus.
About 1 in 5 people between ages 18 and 34 who are infected with Covid-19 reported lingering symptoms beyond two or three weeks, according to a study last year by the CDC.
And adolescents and children still deserve protection against their risk -- however small -- of contracting a serious illness, Fauci said.
National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said Tuesday that the pandemic has been a significant challenge for children's mental health.
"People sort of shrug and say, 'well, you know, kids are resilient,' but wait a minute, this is really an incredible unprecedented challenge to their life experience," Collins told the House Appropriations committee.
Earlier research has shown that even otherwise healthy children have had some developmental setbacks and delays during the pandemic.
Protecting students returning for school in the fall
Protection for school-aged adolescents has increasingly come into focus as officials look ahead to the new school year.
Although a vaccine for younger children likely won't be available by the time school starts in the fall, Fauci told the House Appropriations committee on Tuesday that it should be safe for children of all ages to go back to in-person class then.
Given the percentage of teachers vaccinated already now and into the fall, "there should be no reason not to get children of any age back to in-person school by the time we get to the fall term," Fauci added. Several NIH leaders appeared before the committee to discuss the agency's proposed budget.
A vaccine for younger children likely won't be available until late fall, early winter, Fauci said.
"I don't have children that young, but I would not be concerned when we get to the fall," Fauci said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said children should be back in school full-time in-person statewide in September. His statement came after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that there will be no remote option for the city's public schools in the fall.
Currently, only students 12 years old and older are eligible for vaccines, though studies are underway on vaccinating younger children.
When New York City does open its public schools on September 13, students will still have to wear face masks and adhere to social distancing guidelines, NYC Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter said Monday.
"We would never take any risks with our most important assets ... our children," Porter said, adding that every school will be equipped with social and emotional support resources for students.
In California, the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that school campuses will reopen for in-person learning five days a week in the fall. Superintendent Austin Beutner recognized that not all families in the district will be ready to send their students back by then.
"We expect the vast majority of students, teachers and staff to be at school every day, but recognize that we must provide the online opportunity for those who need it," he said.
Understanding the origin of the virus could help mitigate another pandemic
Understanding how coronavirus developed could have an impact on officials' ability to respond to future pandemics, but debate around its origin has grown.
After a US intelligence report found that several researchers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in November 2019, a former commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration said on Monday that there is "growing circumstantial evidence" that Covid-19 may have come from a lab.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Monday rejected the report and accused the US of "hyping up the lab leak theory."
"Through field visits and in-depth visits in China, the experts unanimously agreed that the allegation of lab leaking is extremely unlikely," Zhao said.
"I think the challenge right now is that the side of the ledger that supports the thesis that this came from a zoonotic source, from an animal source, hasn't budged," Dr. Scott Gottlieb said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." "And the side of the ledger that suggests this could have come out of a lab has been continuing to grow,"
Whether the virus derived from an animal or a lab, it is important for health experts to know, CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen said.
"We need to understand what the origin is, if there is in fact an intermediary animal between bats and humans we need to understand because there may be a reservoir of disease we should be looking for," Wen said. "If this is indeed a lab leak, we should also understand for the purposes of securing lab safety protocols."
Among the unanswered questions are how seriously the researchers fell ill, when they got sick and if the virus was already circulating before then, Wen said.
The Chinese government has not been transparent on this issue, she said, but it is important the global community get down to the bottom of it.
"This is not the last pandemic that we are going to see and understanding the origin of this will help us to prevent something like this from happening in the future," she said.
CNN's Ryan Prior, Christina Maxouris, Holly Yan Jacqueline Howard, Lauren del Valle and Laura Ly contributed to this report.
The world has already reported more coronavirus cases in 2021 than it had in all of 2020, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.
Through Sunday, the world reported 83.62 million cases this year, up from 83.56 million cases last year.
The trajectory of the number of global cases in 2020 compared with 2021 is startling.
The early months of 2020 reflect the gradual rise and spread of the virus around the world. But since the fall of 2020, the global pace of infections hasn't abated even with 1.7 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses administered.
Confirmed coronavirus cases in India, the United States andBrazilhave outpaced the rest of the worldin 2020 and 2021, but the U.S, with half of the population at least partially vaccinated, is the only country where the number of cases have fallen this year.
India, which has seen a spike ininfections and deaths in recent weeks, has reported 60% more cases than it did in 2020 and driven a large portion of the worldwide increases. Brazil is approaching 1 million more reported infections than last year.
Of the 10 countries that have reported the most coronavirus infections, four (the U.S., Italy, the United Kingdom and Russia) have reported fewer infections this year.
A lack of widespread testing in some places, and an initial lack of testing early in the pandemic nearly everywhere, mean many infections were never reported. Many cases are asymptomatic, also, so many people would not have been tested.
The biggest increases over last year were in several island countries, southeast Asia and South America.In Southeast Asia, cases were 127 times higher in Timor-Leste than last year, 66 times higher in Cambodia, 43 times higher in Laos and 17 times higher in Thailand.
Double-digitmultiples in these countries are worrisome. But they also put India's dire predicament into perspective. The combined number of confirmed cases during 2021in these 10 countries (512,000)is just one-fifth of India's weekly average of reported cases India in duringMay.
Americans still have suffered the most confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths since the start of the pandemic, but India could surpass U.S. this summer or sooner should infection trends continue.
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Published2:24 pm UTC May. 25, 2021Updated3:28 pm UTC May. 25, 2021
Moderna says clinical trials showed its COVID-19 vaccine is effective for children from age 12 to 17, with mostly mild or moderate side effects. Here, a syringe is filled with a dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine in Wheaton, Md. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images hide caption
Moderna says clinical trials showed its COVID-19 vaccine is effective for children from age 12 to 17, with mostly mild or moderate side effects. Here, a syringe is filled with a dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine in Wheaton, Md.
Trials of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine show that it's safe and effective for teenagers, the company said Tuesday a finding that could boost supply ahead of the new school year's start this fall.
"We will submit these results to the U.S. [Food and Drug Administration] and regulators globally in early June and request authorization" for use in kids from age 12 to 17, Moderna CEO Stphane Bancel said.
The company announced the positive results roughly two weeks after the FDA said children 12 to 15 years old are now eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
At the time, Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said the expansion of Pfizer's vaccine authorization "brings us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy."
Moderna's clinical trial involved 3,732 adolescents, who were given two shots of either the vaccine or a placebo. No participants who got two doses of the vaccine developed COVID-19, compared to four cases in the placebo group.
For the above results, researchers used the same definitions of a COVID-19 case that they used in adult trials. But because adolescents have a lower incidence rate for the disease than adults, the trial also included a second, more expansive definition set by the CDC. That definition includes milder cases, as it requires only one COVID-19 symptom and also a positive test. When that definition was applied, the vaccine's efficacy rate was still 93% after the first dose.
As for potential side effects, Moderna said, "the majority of adverse events were mild or moderate in severity," listing symptoms such as headache, fatigue, muscle pain and chills.
