To combat vaccine hesitancy among Christian evangelicals, First Baptist Church in Dallas will have a COVID-19 vaccination clinic May 16.
Senior pastor Robert Jeffress said he hopes the move will encourage people to get shots so more of his 14,000 congregants can come and worship in person.
Our church will never be what it needs to be until youre back. The greater risk is the spiritual danger of staying isolated, Jeffress said in a recent sermon. Im not forcing anybody to get the vaccine. Thats your choice. But what I am saying is if you are not back yet, and would like to come back, one option is to take the vaccine, and therefore you dont have to worry about what other people do or dont do here in the church.
Ben Lovvorn, First Baptists executive pastor, said the church is partnering with Dallas County Health and Human Services and will distribute as many Moderna doses as needed based on advanced registrations.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the clinic is one of many efforts the county is using to target groups of people who may be hesitant to get the vaccine. In Deep Ellum, for example, he said the county is partnering with local businesses to target younger bar patrons.
Jenkins said he hoped Christians who attend other churches would be more likely to sign up for the vaccine at First Baptist.
That may change minds, he said. Were just trying to get to every community... What we can all identify is that were stronger together. We all need to do our patriotic duty and get the vaccine.
The clinic at First Baptist will be focused on first doses, with a follow-up clinic in a few weeks for second doses, Lovvorn. People can register online at firstdallas.org/vaccine.
We wanted to do this as a resource and an opportunity for our church family, Lovvorn said. We are not pressuring anyone to get the vaccine, but if you are one of those individuals who desire to get the vaccine and you have not had the opportunity to do so yet, you will.
Lovvorn said he and Jeffress have been fully vaccinated.
Jeffress is among a group of high-profile evangelical pastors who are supporting vaccine efforts. Earlier this year on a Fox News appearance, he compared getting the vaccine to his stance against abortion.
We talk about life inside the womb being a gift from God, he said. Well, life outside the womb is a gift from God, too.
According to the Pew Research Center, white evangelicals are among the least-likely demographic groups to get the vaccines. In a March poll, 45% of evangelicals said they would not get the shots.
Those numbers have fueled concern even within evangelical circles. The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents more than 45,000 local churches, is part of a new coalition that will host events, work with media outlets and distribute various public messages to build trust among wary evangelicals.
The pathway to ending the pandemic runs through the evangelical church, said Curtis Chang, a former pastor and missionary who founded ChristiansAndTheVaccine.com, the cornerstone of the new initiative. With white evangelicals making up an estimated 20% of the U.S. population, resistance to vaccination by half of them would seriously hamper efforts to achieve herd immunity, Chang contends.
Chang said that as a former pastor, he understands why some whose congregations are mistrustful of the government and the vaccines may muzzle themselves rather than risk backlash if they urge their flocks to get vaccinated.
Theres going to be some courage required, Chang said.
His initiative includes a toolkit for pastors offering suggestions for how to address within a Christian framework the various concerns of skeptical evangelicals. They range from the extent of the vaccines link to abortion to whether they represent the mark of the beast, an ominous harbinger of the end times prophesized in the New Testaments Book of Revelation.
Partnering in the initiative is the Ad Council, which is known for iconic public service ad campaigns such as Smokey Bear and Friends Dont Let Friends Drive Drunk.
We know the important role faith plays in the lives of millions of people throughout the country, Ad Council president Lisa Sherman said, expressing hope that the campaign could boost their confidence in the vaccines.
Some large Dallas-area churches, like the Potters House in southern Dallas, have served as vaccination sites. Others dont have plans to do so.
Gateway Church, an evangelical church with eight locations across North Texas, isnt planning to host vaccine drives any time soon, said the churchs executive director of media, Lawrence Swicegood.
Because vaccines are relatively accessible across North Texas, the church wasnt planning to start one. But we certainly would consider it and would be available if any circumstances change, Swicegood said.
He also said church leaders arent concerned that the evangelical community is wary of vaccines. He said the church has been proactive about implementing protocols recommended by health and government officials to protect their congregants against coronavirus. Many pastors and staff members at the church have been fully vaccinated, Swicegood said.
Were very much supportive of whatever helps rid our communities of the pandemic, he said.
Staff writer Mariana Rivas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A Decision Tree for UT System Administration employees
Contact within 6 feet for 10 minutes or more with a person with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
Examples include:
If Yes, proceed to next question.
If Yes, proceed to next question.
If No, then self-isolate/quarantine for 14 days before returning to work and get tested. Continue to wear a mask, socially distance and wash your hands.
If Yes, proceed to next question.
If COVID-19 test is positive, you may return to work 10 days from onset of symptoms only if you are fever-free (without use of fever-reducing medication) and have improvement of symptoms for at least 24 hours.
If COVID-19 test is positive, you may return to work 10 days from onset of symptoms ONLY if you are fever-free (without use of fever-reducing medication) and have improvement of symptoms for at least 24 hours.
You may return to work 10 days from onset of symptoms ONLY if you are fever-free (without use of fever-reducing medication) and have improvement of symptoms for at least 24 hours.
Tennessee Department of Health Resources for Colleges and Universities. (Aug. 6, 2020)
Tennessee Department of Health: What to Do If Your Test Results are Negative. (April 2020)
What is NOWCast?
It is difficult to reliably estimate COVID-19 trends for most of the 95 counties in Tennessee. Most counties are small and changes of only a few cases a day can mean dramatic changes in disease rates. Additionally, overworked labs and public health staff mean that data may not be updated every day. NOWcast uses modern statistical methods to estimate the trends that describe all these noisy data. The NOWcast groups together similar counties, then estimates recent changes in disease rates, and projects those changes forward. In nation-wide validation, the NOWcast accurately describes county-level trends one week into the future.
When the TN Department of Health needs to make corrections to a previous days data, they do it by putting a correcting entry in a later days numbers. For instance, if they overcount tests by 6,000 on Tuesday, then on Wednesday theyll put in -6,000 tests to correct the total. That can make it appears as though there were -6,000 tests administered on Wednesday, which obviously isnt possible. Its like correcting entries in financial accounts.
This indicates that data is not available or to mask divide by zero errors. This should only occur in counties with very few cases.
Per capita figures are derived by dividing a metrics value by the US Census Bureaus 2019 estimate of population in the area. Percent change per capita figures are an expression of the difference between today and last weeks values divided by last weeks value. This metric gives you a sense of how much a metric is changing in a way that controls for population.
Aggregate of students, faculty, and staff. Students counts are from the official Fall 2019 census based on home addresses and only include in-state students. Faculty and staff are any active employees that worked during the 2019 fiscal year (July 2018 June 2019) based on home addresses.
UT pop. residing in county last fall is also known as the UT Home Population (see question above). UT pop. in county at campus last fall is the aggregate count of students, faculty, and staff that were learning or working at the respective campus in the selected county (including out-of-state and international).
UT pop. residing in county last fall includes only students, faculty, and staff who have a permanent address in Tennessee. UT pop. in county at campus last fall includes students, faculty, and staff that were learning or working at the respective campus in the selected county (including out-of-state and international).
The Tennessee Department of Health does not provide testing and outcome metrics at a county level.
Hospitalizations are included in the active case counts as provided to the Tennessee Department of Health (recoveries, active, hospitalizations, and death cases are not exclusive categories).
Total case positivity rate is calculated over the past seven (7) days and therefore excludes any tests prior. Hovering over the total case positivity rate visual will give you a rolling trend of the positivity rate.
Total case positivity rate is calculated over the past seven (7) days and therefore excludes any tests prior. Tested per 100K and percent of population metrics include all data since data collection began for that county.
Cases of COVID-19 are reported to the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) by clinicians and laboratories across the state. Initially, public health has fairly limited information about each person that has tested positive, such as their name, date of birth, and address. Public health professionals contact every case of COVID-19 statewide to interview them and learn more about their illness, exposures and contacts.
The information that TDH receives from clinicians and laboratories is sometimes incomplete or occasionally incorrect. As we work to publish updated case counts and basic information on our website as quickly as possible, sometimes this information changes as it is updated, and correct information is learned during the investigation. This may mean that a case can move from one county to another once the patients county of residence is confirmed during their interview.
If someone had COVID-19 when they died, they will be counted as a COVID-19 death. An exception to this is when a case died of something completely independent to COVID-19, like due to a car wreck.
Hospitalization data reflect the cumulative (total) number of cases that were ever hospitalized from COVID-19. It does not reflect the number of people currently hospitalized. Cases among Tennessee residents are counted by their county of residence. Residents of other states who were tested at Tennessee healthcare facilities or laboratories are counted as Out of TN.
Laboratory reports of positive cases are reported to metro and local health departments as soon as results are available. State numbers are updated at 2 p.m. CDT daily. There may be a lag in the reporting of cumulative numbers at the state level. Metro Health Departments may also include individuals from out of Tennessee in their localized counts if the case is remaining in that county throughout the course of their illness.
COVID-19 is a reportable condition in Tennessee. This means that clinicians and laboratories are required to report known cases to the Department of Health within 24 hours.
The Department of Health receives lab results (both positive and negative) from laboratories daily, and data from healthcare providers within 24 hours of identifying a case of COVID-19.
All Tennessee population figures used as comparisons in this dashboard are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureaus 2019 Vintage Housing and Population Estimates.
Powered by Watson:
Our COVID Q&A with Watson is an AI-powered chatbot that addresses consumers' questions and concerns about COVID-19. It's built on the IBM Watson Ads Builder platform, which utilizes Watson Natural Language Understanding, and proprietary, natural- language-generation technology. The chatbot utilizes approved content from the CDC and WHO. Incidents information is provided by USAFacts.org.
To populate our Interactive Incidents Map, Watson AI looks for the latest and most up-to- date information. To understand and extract the information necessary to feed the maps, we use Watson Natural Language Understandingfor extracting insights from natural language text and Watson Discovery for extracting insights from PDFs, HTML, tables, images and more.COVID Impact Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago for the Data Foundation
Walk-ins Accepted Daily at State Health Departments
I Want To Find... Search Site:
Find COVID-19 Resources For:
COVID-19 Vaccines are now widely available to all Tennesseans 16+ in all 95 counties across our state. Check COVID-19 vaccine appointment availability at any of the state health departments on the map below, or browse all vaccine providers and find a location close to you at VaccineFinder.org.
Percentage of Appointments Available
VaccineFinder helps you find clinics, pharmacies, and other locations across Tennessee that offer COVID-19 vaccines. Their interactive map lets you find a location close to you and segment by vaccine availability and manufacturer.
Safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 have arrived in Tennessee. Lets set the record straight on myths circulating about the COVID-19 vaccine.
COVID19 Informational Video
Ashley Moore is a Business Immigration Associate in Wiggin and Danas Labor, Employment and Benefits Department in the New Haven office.
Prior to joining Wiggin and Dana, Ashley worked for a boutique immigration firm in St. Louis, MO, as an associate immigration attorney. She has experience with advising and counseling clients on immigration benefits and consequences and has worked on a wide range of immigration cases, including family-based immigrant visas, removal of conditions, naturalization, asylum, removal defense, employment-based visas...
Last winter, health experts worried about COVID-19 variants spreading quickly across the state, further overwhelming already crammed intensive care units. While health officials remain concerned about the potential for a wider outbreak fueled by more contagious variants, new case averages, hospitalizations and deaths are still trending down in Texas as the number of people fully vaccinated statewide has passed 25%.
Nationwide, the average weekly number of new COVID-19 cases has dropped in more than half of states as 29% of Americans are now fully vaccinated.
While COVID-19 started out as one strain, it has since spawned dozens of recorded mutations, said Benjamin Neuman, a virologist and professor at Texas A&M University.
Variants are a concern because some spread more easily, may cause severe illness in more people and could be resistant to current treatments for COVID-19. Some experts worry that as more mutations pop up, hospitalizations and deaths may rise as well. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says vaccines and other preventive measures like social distancing and mask-wearing should protect people from variants.
Heres what you need to know about COVID-19 variants in Texas:
Which variants are being tracked by the state?
The most dominant strain in Texas and the country is currently the B.1.1.7 variant from the United Kingdom, first detected in the United States in December. The CDC has also listed mutations first discovered in California, South Africa and Brazil as variants of concern. So far in Texas, cases of the five CDC variants of concern have slowly increased since the winter: more than 2,000 variant cases have been reported to the Department of State Health Services as of April 29, though the actual number may be higher, said Jennifer Shuford, the chief state epidemiologist. In early March, Houston became the first city in the state to report at least one case of each variant of concern.
The first variant to be publicly identified and reported out of Texas, the Brazos Valley variant, was discovered by Texas A&M scientists in mid-April. Neuman said they identified three Brazos Valley mutations BV-1, BV-2 and BV-3 of which only five cases have been reported.
Neuman said while BV variants have gotten wide attention, others have been present in the state as well. From a public health standpoint, its important to keep watching for new variants while case numbers are still low, he said.
Texas is a gold mine, Neuman said. The COVID strains we have in Texas are largely unexplored at the moment, and the virus is out there changing and evolving every day, whether were paying attention to it or not. I would imagine there are quite a few other surprises lurking out there in places where were just starting to look.
How do they test for variants and how much testing is the state doing?
Checking for COVID-19 mutations starts with the typical PCR or antigen test, usually in the form of nose or mouth swabs tens of thousands of which are conducted every day in the state. However, not every test gets put through the rigorous genomic sequencing required to find a mutation, which can cost labs around $50 to $100 and on average takes a week or more. Shuford said many universities are sequencing all of their positive tests, but many public health labs prioritize certain types of cases for example, if an otherwise healthy child were hospitalized with COVID-19 and do additional random sampling.
More populous regions of the state, like the Dallas-Fort Worth area and southeast Texas, are reporting higher numbers of variant cases but this could be a reflection of more widespread testing in urban areas.
Houston Methodists genomics lab has sequenced every positive test from patients in its health care system roughly 50,000 genomes across 40,000 patients since the pandemic began, said James Musser, the networks chair of pathology. Musser said Houston Methodists sequencing effort may be the largest of its kind in the nation and the scale of its sequencing database allows it to have more detailed information about the progression of variants in Texas.
Musser estimated that up to 80% of new COVID-19 cases in Houston Methodists network have been the UK variant, peaking in April. Higher proportions of variants have not substantially impacted Houstons general case ranges, he said.
Will Texas do more testing for variants in the future?
Shuford said Texas needs to ramp up its genomic sequencing efforts, and once that happens, she said reported variant cases may increase as well.
Currently, the state is waiting on more federal funding to improve testing capacity for variants at public labs and help those labs better report and share data. Whether Texas sees a rise in variants is going to be dependent on testing, and testing was cut in half by the big freeze at the end of February, Neuman said. You cant find what you dont test for.
Can vaccination prevent more COVID-19 mutations?
Multiple experts said vaccination is one of the strongest ways to combat the spread of variants and reduce the chance that the virus will keep mutating. But vaccine rates have decreased in Texas, and rates among Black and Hispanic residents have lagged behind white and Asian Texans in part because of barriers like lack of transportation and distance from vaccine providers.
Because the state is far from herd immunity, transmission of more contagious variants will continue to increase, said Bhavna Lall, assistant professor of adult medicine at the University of Houston College of Medicine. No matter how much progress the United States makes toward testing and vaccinating residents, Lall said global inequities in vaccine distribution will continue to impact everyone, including Texans.
Pointing to Indias recent crisis the countrys seven-day average of new cases has passed 370,000 while hospitalizations and deaths have skyrocketed and new variants continuing to pop up worldwide, Lall said until the United States and other developed countries help vaccinate other parts of the world, we will always be in this pandemic."
Just because we vaccinate our population in America does not mean that we are going to be safe from other variants that are forming in other countries, Lall said.
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Event Venues
Congregate commercial and social events in New Yorksuch as those at venues that host sports competitions, performing arts and live entertainment, and catered receptionscan exceed the social gathering limits of 500 people outdoors or 250 people indoors if all attendees over the age of four present either proof of full vaccination status or recent negative COVID-19 test result and the required social distancing can be accommodated.
Starting May 19, large-scale indoor event venues willoperate at 30 percent capacity, which is an increase from the current 10 percent capacity limit.Large-scale outdoor event venues will operate at 33 percent.Social distancing, masks, and other applicablehealth protocols will still apply, including the requirement of attendee proof of full vaccination or recent negative COVID-19 test result.
Industry Reopening Requirements
While most industry capacity restrictions will be lifted, industry-specific requirements will remain in effect for a longer period of time, including state or local health authority event notification, health screening, contact information for tracing, enhanced air handling and building system standards, hand hygiene, and environmental cleaning and disinfection protocols. The State will continue to provide additional guidance on these provisions as they apply to each industry.
Today's announcement builds on GovernorCuomo's recent measures to further reopen the economy amid a steady decline in New York's COVID-19 positivity and hospitalization rates. On April 30, Governor Cuomo announced thatNew York City indoor diningwill expand to 75 percent capacity beginning May 7, bringing New York City in line with the rest of New York. The Governor also announced that hair salons, barber shops and other personal care services will expand to 75 percent capacity beginning May 7. New York City gyms and fitness centers will expand to 50 percent capacity beginning May 15. On April 28,Governor Cuomo announcedthat thefood and beverage service, and catered event, curfewswould end this month.
Connecticut Previously Announced:
WASHINGTON (KTVZ) -- Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., issued a statement Monday calling on Governor Kate Brown to end the recently reinstituted COVID-19 restrictions.
Here's the statement, in full:
"In the normal course, as a United States Representative, I would not enter debates regarding state-level politics. However, the Governors most recent response to the COVID-19 situation is not only historically broad in impact, but an action that causes far more serious damage than benefit.Additionally, in recent days, the Oregon Health Authority actually invited public input from Oregons congressional delegation.
"Governor Kate Browns decision to again lock down huge parts of Oregon has caused incredible frustration for many in my district, and I share their frustration. In a recent letter by Governor Brown, she commended Oregonians for helping make our state among the lowest COVID-19 case rates, hospitalizations, and deaths in the nation, to which she gave creditinlarge part to the actions of Oregonians to take seriously the health and safety measures.
"And indeed,today, nearly 70 percent of Oregons older population is fully vaccinated and many communities across our state were well on their way to safely returning to some sort of normal. However, Governor Brown has now done completely the opposite of many other states: imposing yet another lockdown.
"Sadly, Governor Browns proposed $20 million safety net for those harmed by this most recent lockdown is woefully inadequate for those Oregon businesses struggling to survive. I believe Oregon must reopen and stay open.
"The reinstatement of the Governors shutdown solution will do more harm than good to our loved ones, communities, and our state especially as risk drops with an ever increasing number of Oregonians being vaccinated.I am calling upon Governor Brown to reverse this unfortunate decision and focus her attention instead on vaccinations and making sure that COVID aid sent to Oregon by the Federal Government be quickly allocated to those in need."
Meanwhile, Sandy Mayor Stan Pulliam, who's exploring a possible Republican run for governor, says a lawsuit is being filed in federal court against Gov. Kate Brown, on behalf of several businesses and a union.
Pulliam, who says it's time to end the restrictions, said the suit will challenge Brown's authority to extend the state of emergency by executive order
This is a significant decline in active daily cases from the past two weeks. Last Monday, Boone County had 106 active cases, marking the third week in a row the total hovered around 100.
The number of deaths because of COVID-19 remained at 86. The last death was recorded April 22.
Hospitals in Boone County were in the green status zone Monday, which means they were operating within licensed bed capacity and were accepting patient transfers. There were 13 total inpatients positive with COVID-19 in Boone County hospitals. Of those, there was one patient in the ICU and one on a ventilator.
MU Health Carehad eight inpatients positive with COVID-19 and 43 pending test results.
Truman Veterans Hospital had one veteran inpatient with COVID-19, spokesperson Jeffrey Hoelscher said Monday.
MU reportedeight active student cases and zero staff cases Monday, showing a steady decline since the beginning of April.
The Health Department continues to push vaccine rollout and appointments. In Boone County, 44.3% of residents have received a COVID-19 vaccine and 32.4% have received all doses, according to the Missouri COVID-19 Dashboard. Both percentages are the highest in the state.
MU Health Care will holdanother vaccine eventfrom 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. May 14 at the Walsworth Family Columns Club at Faurot Field.
