DETROIT The number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in Michigan has risen to 683,793 as of Friday, including 16,161 deaths, state officials report.
Fridays update includes a total of 5,498 new cases and 20 additional deaths. On Thursday, the state reported 678,295 total cases and 16,141 deaths.
Testing has been steady around 35,000 diagnostic tests reported per day on average, with the 7-day positive rate above 13% as of Thursday, the highest since early December. The state has reported an up-tick in hospitalizations over the last several weeks.
Related: Michigan COVID hospitalizations: Concerns grow as more younger adults are in ICU
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Michigans 7-day moving average for daily cases was 5,061 on Thursday -- the highest since December. The 7-day death average was 26 on Thursday and has been flat for several weeks. The states fatality rate is 2.4%. The state also reports active cases, which were listed at 94,500 on Thursday. More than 569,000 have recovered in Michigan.
Michigan has reported more than 4.2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine administered as of Wednesday, with 34.5% of residents having received at least one dose.
More: Whitmer says Michigan plans to combat rising COVID cases with masks, vaccines -- not new restrictions
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According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 30.4.5 million cases have been reported in the U.S., with more than 553,200 deaths reported from the virus.
Worldwide, more than 129.8 million people have been confirmed infected and more than 2.8 million have died. More than 73 million have recovered, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments.
Michigan COVID-19 vaccinations: How to find appointments, info on phases
Coronavirus headlines:
VIEW: Tracking Michigan COVID-19 vaccine doses
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VIEW: Tracking coronavirus cases, outbreaks in Michigan schools
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released a statement Tuesday after White House officials announced that there will increase COVID-19 vaccine doses available for Michigan starting next week.
According to a press release, next weeks shipment will increase by 66,020 bringing the total number of doses to 620,040 -- a weekly record for the state. Officials said the allocation includes 147,800 doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
This comes after Whitmer recently requested for more vaccines as the state is seeing a rise in COVID numbers.
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The CDC said that Michigan is leading the country in new cases of COVID-19 per population.
On Tuesday, officials reported 5,177 new COVID cases and 48 additional deaths, including 20 from a Vital Records review. On Monday, the state reported 660,771 total cases and 16,034 deaths.
Local 4s Dr. Frank McGeorge said hes seen a very clear increase in COVID patients at the hospital where he works.
Many of them need to be hospitalized. I would honestly say, this feels worse to me here in Southeast Michigan than it was during the wave that started in November. Now, the most concerning trend is the number of middle-aged people with severe COVID, McGeorge said.
All Detroiters 16 and older are now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, the city announced Monday.
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Any Detroit resident age 16 or older can now call to schedule an appointment to be vaccinated at the TCF Center.
Appointments can be made by calling 313-230-0505. Anyone living outside of the city of Detroit, but reporting to work each day in the city, also are eligible to schedule an appointment.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine site opened at Northwest Activities Center 9-1 this Saturday.
Chief Public Health Officer Denise Fair also announced that the Detroit Health Department has been informed it will receive its first allocation of Johnson and Johnson vaccine this week. Detroiters wanting the one dose J&J vaccine can call 313-230-0505 for an appointment to receive at the Northwest Activities Center, located at 18100 Meyers from 9-1 this Saturday.
The state of Michigan announced Friday that all residents age 16 and up will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on April 5, nearly a month before the May 1 date pledged by President Joe Biden.
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People age 16 to 49 with certain medical conditions or disabilities will qualify starting March 22, when 50- to 64-year-olds can begin getting shots under a previous announcement. Two days later, March 24, a federally selected regional mass vaccination site will open at Detroits Ford Field to administer an additional 6,000 doses a day for two months.
Learn more here.
MORE: Michigans updated COVID-19 vaccination schedule: Who is eligible and when
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced that the first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.351 has been identified in a child in Jackson County.
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The health department did not say how the boy was infected but a case investigation is underway to determine close contacts and if there are additional cases associated.
This new variant was originally detected in South Africa in October 2020 and shares some mutations with the B117 variant. The first case of the B117 variant -- originally detected in the United Kingdom -- was identified in Washtenaw County.
The state of Michigan has loosened its COVID-19 restrictions on bars and restaurants, including the capacity limit and nightly curfew.
On Tuesday, March 2, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced the restrictions on indoor dining have been revised.
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Starting Friday, March 5, Michigan restaurants and bars will be allowed to fill up to 50% capacity, with a maximum of 100 people, according to the state.
Im proud that we are able to take this positive step without compromising public health, Whitmer said.
Since Feb. 1, restaurants had been capped at 25% capacity. From mid-November through the end of January, no indoor dining was allowed at bars or restaurants.
The number of the confirmed cases of a more contagious COVID-19 variant in Michigan increased by more than 100 this week, suggesting there is undetected spread in the community.
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the chief medical director for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said the state has confirmed 422 cases of the COVID-19 B117 variant.
That number increased from 314 cases identified as of six days prior (Feb. 24).
Through a partnership with SMART, Macomb County is offering a new vaccination location in Sterling Heights.
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The vaccination site is at the Sterling Heights Senior Center on Utica Road, between Schoenherr and Van Dyke roads.
Appointments are required. Eligible residents and workers can call the SMART Macomb Vaccine line at 586-421-6579.
Wayne County announced it will open several vaccination clinics for residents 65 and older.
According to county Executive Warren Evans, the vaccination clinics will begin Feb. 23.
Im pleased Wayne County is now in a position to begin vaccinating seniors, Evans said. I know everyone is eager to safely get back to normal. Our team is working hard to ensure all of our residents can get their COVID shot as quickly as the vaccine is available.
There are no walk-up appointments and seniors must make an appointment by calling the number for the site in their communities.
The full list of clinics and how to register can be found here.
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Michigan COVID-19 daily reported cases since March 1:
March 1 -- 785 new cases
March 2 -- 1,067 new cases
March 3 -- 1,536 new cases
March 4 -- 1,526 new cases
March 5 -- 1,486 new cases
March 6 -- 1,289 new cases
March 7 -- 980 new cases
March 8 -- 980 new cases
March 9 -- 954 new cases
March 10 -- 2,316 new cases
March 11 -- 2,091 new cases
March 12 -- 2,403 new cases
March 13 -- 1,659 new cases
March 14 -- 1,571 new cases
March 15 -- 1,572 new cases
March 16 -- 2,048 new cases
March 17 -- 3,164 new cases
March 18 -- 2,629 new cases
March 19 -- 3,730 new cases
March 20 -- 2,660 new cases
March 21 -- 2,400 new cases
March 22 -- 2,401 new cases
March 23 -- 3,579 new cases
March 24 -- 4,454 new cases
March 25 -- 5,224 new cases
March 26 -- 5,030 new cases
March 27 -- 4,670 new cases
March 28 -- 4,101 new cases
March 29 -- 4,101 new cases
March 30 -- 5,177 new cases
March 31 -- 6,311 new cases
April 1 -- 6,036 new cases
April 2 -- 5,498 new cases
Michigan COVID-19 daily reported deaths since March 1:
March 1 -- 6 new deaths
March 2 -- 24 new deaths (12 from vital records)
March 3 -- 5 new deaths
March 4 -- 37 new deaths (29 from vital records)
March 5 -- 10 new deaths
March 6 -- 56 new deaths (48 from vital records)
March 7 -- 2 new deaths
The COVID-19 vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are highly effective at preventing COVID-19 cases in real-world conditions, and research suggests they should maintain their effectiveness over time.
What remains unclear, however, is exactly how long the vaccines prevent COVID-19, if booster shots may be needed down the road, or if vaccines will need to be tweaked to fight against emerging variants of the virus.
In an April 2 report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied almost 4,000 vaccinated healthcare personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers.
They found that the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines developed by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna prevented 80 percent of cases after the first dose and 90 percent after the second dose.
The frontline workers in the study were tested for COVID-19 every week for 13 weeks.
Researchers said the dearth of positive COVID-19 tests in the study group indicates that the vaccines reduce the risk of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 by vaccinated individuals to others.
Reducing the risk for transmissible infection, which can occur among persons with asymptomatic infection or among persons several days before symptoms onset, is especially important among healthcare personnel, first responders, and other essential and frontline workers given their potential to transmit the virus through frequent close contact with patients and the public, the report noted.
Theres more and more evidence showing that the transmission of the virus after vaccination is likely very low, Dr. Susan Bailey, an allergist and immunologist and president of the American Medical Association, told Healthline.
Separately, Pfizer-BioNTech said that the ongoing phase 3 clinical trial of its mRNA vaccine shows that strong immunization persists for at least 6 months among vaccinated individuals.
Researchers found that the vaccine was 100 percent effective against severe disease as defined by the CDC, and 95.3 percent effective against severe COVID-19 as defined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The vaccine was also found to be 100 percent effective against one of the main COVID-19 variants (known as B.1.351) currently circulating widely in South Africa.
A study that included 12,000 vaccinated individuals also found no serious safety concerns with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the companies announced.
The good news is that in the 6-month status report from Pfizer, immunity stays very strong, and we anticipate that it will continue to stay strong, said Bailey.
These people [in the study] have had the vaccine the longest, and it tells us it lasts at least 6 months, added Bailey. But its definitely longer than that its not just going to drop off after 6 months. I would have been concerned if efficacy had dropped by a third or half.
The fact that COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness remained almost unchanged over the span of the study period is an indication that protection will be enduring.
Bailey noted that some vaccines, such as those for measles, mumps, and rubella, generally confer lifetime immunity. Others, such as the flu vaccine, require a new shot every year.
We dont know which camp the COVID-19 vaccine will fall into, she said. If we do need a booster shot for COVID-19, we do know that it will be easy to produce thanks to the new mRNA technology, she added.
Bailey said that the vaccines now in use appear to be effective against the COVID-19 variants circulating in the United States. But as the coronavirus continues to mutate, variants could emerge that are more resistant.
My prediction is that a situation in which we would need to have a booster shot in the future is not because the first dose of vaccine faded but because there is a new variant that might emerge, she said.
As noted in the research, vaccines dont completely eliminate the risk of developing COVID-19.
A recent report on 100 COVID-19 cases that occurred in vaccinated people in the state of Washington raised some public alarm.
But experts said such breakthrough cases are expected and represent just a fraction of the more than 1 million Washington residents who have been vaccinated.
Finding evidence of vaccine breakthrough cases reminds us that, even if you have been vaccinated, you still need to wear a mask, practice socially distancing, and wash your hands to prevent spreading COVID-19 to others who have not been vaccinated, said Dr. Umair A. Shah, secretary of health for the state of Washington.
MOSCOW Russias state veterinary service said on Wednesday that it had become the first regulator in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine for animals, intended for use on fur farms or for pet cats and dogs.
The agency said it had developed the vaccine for animals in part as a public health tool, lest the virus spread from animals to humans or in a worst-case scenario mutate in animals and then spread back to humans in a more virulent form. It could also revive fur farming after infections on mink farms devastated the business last year, it said.
The agency, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Supervision, said it did not recommend routine vaccination of animals, for now. The World Health Organization has found no instances of infections in humans caused by pets, the agency said. Though cats and dogs do rarely catch the coronavirus, neither species gets very sick. Lions, tigers and snow leopards can also catch the coronavirus.
The Russian agency noted four reports of pet infections just in the last week, in Italy and in Mexico. It that said a vaccine for pets was needed as insurance against variants that might spread more easily.
We did this work for the future, the agencys deputy director, Konstantin Savenkov, said in a statement. We should be prepared to prevent a situation rather than deal with it later if it takes a negative turn.
The vaccine, called Karnivak-Kov, is intended for carnivores. The agency said it had carried out clinical trials on arctic foxes, cats, dogs, mink and other animals. The agency said it would begin industrial-scale production in Russia at a plant that manufactures veterinary drugs.
Fur farmers in Russia, as well as in Austria, Canada, Greece, Poland and the United States, have inquired about buying the vaccine, the agency said. The statement did not say when or if the vaccine would become available for pets.
The problem of animal infections came into focus last year when mink farms culled millions of the creatures because of infection.
Denmark killed all farmed mink some 17 million animals after the virus spread from a mink to a human. Separately, a farmed mink in Utah seemed to have passed the virus to at least one wild mink. Scientists have raised alarms about the virus establishing a reservoir in wild animals that could later spread back to people.
Russia last August also claimed to be the first country to approve a human vaccine, Sputnik V, though other candidates were in fact further along in clinical trials at the time. It has since promoted Sputnik V to countries around the world, bolstering the Kremlins soft power.
(April 4 ,2021) Two new coronavirus cases were reported on Nantucket Sunday, increasing to 1,393 total cases on the island since the start of the pandemic last March.
The results also included 51 negatives. Two-hundred-two new COVID-19 cases have been reported on the island since March 1, and 60 in the past week.
Health director Roberto Santamaria attributed the recent spike to the probable presence on the island of more contagious coronavirus variants, and community spread.
More powerful variants of the COVID-19 virus have been recently confirmed in Massachusetts, and last Friday evidence of the U.K. variant turned up in island sewage tested for coronavirus (Click herefor story).
We have to assume this spread is being caused by variants, Santamaria said. And now we are seeing with the nice weather and coming into the shoulder season people are getting lax in their safety measures like mask-wearing and distancing.
The latest spread cant be pinned to any specific group or section of the island, he added.
Its not coming over from the Cape, its not day-trippers, its people that live here that are primarily spreading this, he said.
Two patients were transported off-island for a higher level of care last week, and two were hospitalized at Nantucket Cottage Hospital, NCH president and CEO Gary Shaw said.
"We're seeing more people sicker, and more people in our emergency room now presenting with symptoms more severe than just what we'd been seeing at the drive-through testing," he said.
Click hereto read Shaw's full statement on the recent surge.
Shaw also attributed the recent spike in part to new arrivals on the island.
"We're seeing a greater number of people coming from other parts of the country for seasonal work, not knowing they are infected, getting tested and testing positive," he said last Thursday.
"We are not out of the woods by any means. A good part of the country and the world are not vaccinated at a time when people really want to travel. Levels of decline have plateaued within the state. Thats a bad sign. A ramp-up in caseload is going to be coming," he continued..
"We all need to be vigilant to cross this hurdle. Its a race to get vaccines into arms. We are havinganother surge, and we need to be careful."
The 60 new cases reported in the past seven days represent a 9.4 percent weekly positivity rate.
"Our biggest line of defense is you working together with us to help prevent the spread of this heinous virus. We are in the 24th mile of a full marathon. The end is near, but we cant quit now," Santamaria said in a recent Twitter message.
There have been four COVID-19 Nantucket deaths since the start of the pandemic, the most recent Dec. 22, 2020, a man in his mid-80s.
The second round of Phase 2 vaccinations began in early March, and vaccination of the general public is scheduled to begin April 19. (Click herefor story).
As of Monday, 4,979 first doses and 2,138 second doses of vaccine have been administered on Nantucket.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on March 8 issued its first set of guidelines for fully-vaccinated people.Click herefor more.
Starting Monday, April 5, all COVID-19 testing will be conducted at the hospital's drive-through portico to free up additional vaccination space at the VFW. Testing hours for those with symptoms and close contacts will be held from 7 a.m.-10 a.m. Monday-Friday at the drive-through portico.
COVID-19 elective testing for asymptomatic patients (those with no symptoms) will be held from 10 a.m.-noon Monday-Friday and 8 a.m.-10 a.m. Saturdays.
Click here to read more.
Free asymptomatic testing under the state's "Stop the Spread" program is administered indoors at the VFW on New South Road from 8-10 a.m. Monday-Saturday, but is limited to 75 tests per day.
Symptomatic testing is provided at the hospital's drive-through portico on Prospect Street from 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.
Hospital staff have collected 29,652 nasal swabs for testing since the start of the pandemic. In addition to the 1,391 positive tests 4.69 percent of the total number returned 28,245 have come back negative, and 16 are awaiting results.
The Board of Health on Dec. 11, 2020 established a COVID-19 task force to better enforce and raise awareness of coronavirus regulations (Click herefor story).
Gov. Charlie Baker in late Februry lifted the 9:30 p.m. statewide restaurant closing time, and in early March increased capcacity limits for restaurants, theaters, museums and other indoor locations. Additional capacity increases took effect March 22 (Click herefor story).
Part-time in-class learning for Nantucket public-school students resumed Jan. 14 after being remote only since before Christmas. State officials are targetting April 5 for a full return to in-class learning for elementary-school students, and later in April for middle- and high-school students.
"I ask everyone on Nantucket to take personal responsibility and do all you can to reduce the potential for transmission in our community. That means wearing masks, staying physically distant, washing your hands, and not hosting or attending gatherings with people outside your immediate households," Shaw said recently.
"Most of all, we want our community to stay healthy, we want our economy to remain open, we want our public schools to be able to return to in-person learning. To that end, we must work together and apply the simple preventive measures that will keep this situation from spiraling out of control."
There have been 1,328 coronavirus cases confirmed on Nantucket in the past six and a half months, beginning Sept. 9, 2020 with a spike linked to workers in the trades, followed by a second surge in late September tied to a church function in which a communal meal was shared.
A third spike in early November was again tied to workers in the trades, followed by significant surges related to holiday gatherings and travel at Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.
Prior to Sept. 9, Nantucket had one of the lowest COVID-19 rates in the state per 100,000 population, and the fewest confirmed cases of any county in Massachusetts.
The Board of Health on Oct. 6, 2020 voted to require all people on publicly-accessible property across the island to wear a mask, not just downtown and in Sconset, as was previously mandated.
It decided in mid-November against tightening restrictions to limit the total number of workers on a job site to six in an attempt to stop the spread (Click herefor story).
Nantucket Cottage Hospital does not have an intensive-care unit and only five ventilators. Shaw has said patients in need of acute respiratory care would be transferred to mainland hospitals if at all possible.
The criteria for symptomatic drive-up testing at the hospital includes at least one of the following signs or symptoms consistent with a viral respiratory syndrome: subjective/documented fever, new sore throat, new cough, new runny nose/nasal congestion, new shortness of breath, new muscle aches or anosmia (new loss of sense of smell). Close contacts of COVID-19 positive patients and pre-procedure patients can also be tested.
For more information about symptomatic and asymptomatic testing,click here.
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LONDON/CHICAGO (Reuters) - The rapid rise in different parts of the world of deadly, more infectious coronavirus variants that share new mutations is leading scientists to ask a critical question - has the SARS-CoV-2 virus shown its best cards?
FILE PHOTO: National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins holds a model of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus, as he testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 2, 2020. Graeme Jennings/Pool via REUTERS/
New variants first detected in such far-flung countries as Brazil, South Africa and Britain cropped up spontaneously within a few months late last year. All three share some of the same mutations in the important spike region of the virus used to enter and infect cells.
These include the E484k mutation, nicknamed Eek by some scientists for its apparent ability to evade natural immunity from previous COVID-19 infection and to reduce protection offered by current vaccines - all of which target the spike protein.
The appearance of similar mutations, independent of one another, springing up in different parts of the globe shows the coronavirus is undergoing convergent evolution, according to a dozen scientists interviewed by Reuters.
Although it will continue to mutate, immunologists and virologists said they suspect this coronavirus has a fixed number of moves in its arsenal.
The long-term impact for the virus survival, and whether a limit on the number of mutations makes it less dangerous, remains to be seen.
It is plausible that this virus has a relatively limited number of antibody escape mutations it can make before it has played all of its cards, so to speak, said Shane Crotty, a virologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego.
That could enable drugmakers to stay on top of the virus as they develop booster vaccines directly targeting current variants, while governments struggle to tame a pandemic that has killed nearly 3 million people.
The idea that the virus could have a limited number of mutations has been circulating among experts since early February, and gathered momentum with the posting of a paper showing the spontaneous appearance of seven variants in the United States, all in the same region of the spike protein (bit.ly/3wdqy57).
The process of different species independently evolving the same traits that improve survival odds is central to evolutionary biology. The vast scope of the coronavirus pandemic - with 127.3 million infections globally - allows scientists to observe it in real time.
If you wanted to sort of write a little textbook about viral evolution, its happening right now, Dr. Francis Collins, a geneticist and director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, said in an interview.
Scientists saw the process on a smaller scale in 2018 as a dangerous H7N9 bird flu virus in China appeared to begin adapting to human hosts. But no pathogen has evolved under such global scrutiny as SARS-CoV-2.
Wendy Barclay, a virologist and professor at Imperial College London and a member of a scientific advisory panel to the UK government, said she is struck by the amazing amount of convergent evolution were seeing with SARS-CoV-2.
There are these infamous mutations - E484K, N501Y and K417N - which all three variants of concern are accumulating. That, added together, is very strong biology that this is the best version of this virus in the given moment, Barclay said.
Its not that this coronavirus is especially clever, scientists said. Each time it infects people it makes copies of itself, and with each copy it can make mistakes. While some mistakes are insignificant one-offs, the ones that give the coronavirus a survival advantage tend to persist.
If it keeps happening over and over again, it must be providing some real growth advantage to this virus, Collins said.
Some specialists believe the virus may have a limited number of mutations it can sustain before compromising its fitness - or changing so much it is no longer the same virus.
I dont think its going to reinvent itself with extra teeth, said Ian Jones, a professor of virology at Britains University of Reading.
If it had an unlimited number of tricks...we would see an unlimited number of mutants, but we dont, said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York.
Scientists remain cautious, however, and say predicting how a virus will mutate is challenging. If there are limits on how the coronavirus can evolve, that would simplify things for vaccine developers.
Novavax Inc is adapting its vaccine to target the South African variant that in lab tests appeared to render current vaccines less effective. Chief Executive Stan Erck said the virus can only change so much and still bind to human hosts, and hopes the vaccine will cover the vast majority of strains that are circulating.
If not, Novavax can continue matching its vaccine to new variants, he said.
Researchers are tracking the variants through data-sharing platforms such as the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Flu Data, which houses a huge trove of coronavirus genomes.
Scientists recently identified seven U.S. coronavirus variants with mutations all occurring in the same location in a key portion of the virus, offering more evidence of convergent evolution.
Other teams are conducting experiments that expose the virus to antibodies to force it to mutate. In many cases, the same mutations, including the infamous E484K, appeared.
Such evidence adds to cautious optimism that mutations appear to share many of the same traits.
But the world must continue tracking changes in the virus, experts said, and choke off its ability to mutate by reducing transmission through vaccinations and measures that limit its spread.
Its shown a very strong set of opening moves, Vaughn Cooper, an evolutionary biology specialist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said of this coronavirus. We dont know what the end game is going to look like.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) The Department of Human Services has announced that it will once again partner with The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee to provide support to help keep the states child care agencies open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a news release, $15 million in grant assistance will be available to licensed agencies. The grants will be used for cleaning and sanitation, and operating expenses.
The state Department of Education is planning to take a deep dive into the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on learning and teaching.
Acting Secretary of Education Noe Ortega announced recently that the state will spend nearly $1 million in federal grant funding to study the impact of COVID on students across the state and create recommendations for helping students and schools.
"Our school communities and families have remained resilient during the pandemic, and we are thankful for their ability to pivot throughout the challenges we have faced," Ortega said in a statement announcing the plan. "The ability for us to examine inequities in education will help us create responsive teaching and learning opportunities in future years."
Pennsylvania is one of seven states awarded the two-year federal grant. The state is working with the data analysis companyMathematica to conduct the research and plans to release a report late next year.
The goal of the study is provide state policymakers with an understanding of the challenges faced by students due to the pandemic and to provide insight on how to better respond to future epidemics.
It will look at whether some remote-learning strategies are more effective than others; at recruitment and retention strategies for teachers; and at ways to better identify students at risk of dropping out of school.
Last week, the state reported 9,342 new confirmed cases, up from 7,835 the week before and7,019 threeweeks ago. Last week, that average rose to 167.1.
COLUMBUS Ohio has lost footing in its fight against the coronavirus, and the state's pandemic finish line is getting farther away.
Gov. Mike DeWine has said Ohio can reopen when it reports an average of 50 new cases per 100,000 people for two weeks. Two weeks ago, the state reported 146.9 new cases per 100,000 people. Last week, that average rose to 167.1.
Last week, Ohio reported 9,342 new confirmed cases, up from 7,835 the week before and7,019 threeweeks ago.
Three highly infectious variants of the novel coronavirus are responsible for most of the hundreds of genetic changes to the virus medical experts have recorded lately, state officials said.
"Ohio remains in a race against a virus that is now more contagious and is right back on our heels," said the state health department's Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff.
More than half of the state's detected coronavirus variants have been found in counties inside the state's northern zone, which includes the Mahoning Valley on its southeast corner.
TheOhio Public Health Advisory System mapshowed improvement on a county-by-county basis. This week,32 counties are orange, up from 32 last week. Four counties are yellow, up from two last week. The rest are red.
ColumbianaCounty remained orange.Mahoning andTrumbull counties remained red and are both considered to have a high incidence of coronavirus spread. Thenumber of new cases per capita has increased for all threecounties.
All threecounties meet the indicators fornew cases per capita andthe proportion of new cases occurring outside group settings such as long-term care or correctional facilities.
Mahoningand Trumbull counties also meetthe indicator for increasing number of new cases.
Mahoning County is abovethe statewide rate, with 33.22 percent of county residents having received the first dose of the vaccine. In Trumbull County, 31.21percent of residents have started to receive the vaccine, and 27.41 percent of Columbiana Countyresidents have started to receive the vaccine.
Here's a breakdown of how each complete week of the pandemic has looked like in Ohio so far. Data in bold reflect the peaks in new cases, deaths, hospitalizations and ICU admissions.
March 15 to March 21
March 22 to March 28
March 29 to April 4
April 5 to April 11
April 12 to April 18
April 19 to April 25
April 26 to May 2
May 3 to May 9
May 10 to May 16
May 17 to May 23
May 24 to May 30
May 31 to June 6
June 7to June 13
June 14to June 20
June 21 to June 27
June 28 to July 4
July 5 to July 11
July 12 to July 18
July 19 to July 25
July 26 to Aug.1
Aug.2 to Aug.8
Aug. 9 to Aug. 15
Aug. 16 to Aug. 22
Aug. 23 to Aug. 29
Aug. 30 to Sept. 5
Sept. 6 to Sept. 12
Sept. 13 to Sept. 19
Sept. 20 to Sept. 26
Sept. 27 to Oct. 3
Oct. 4 to Oct. 10
Oct. 11 to Oct. 17
Oct. 18 to Oct. 24
Oct. 25 to Oct. 31
Nov. 1 to Nov. 7
Nov. 8 to Nov. 14
Nov. 15 to Nov. 21
Nov. 22 to Nov. 28
Nov. 29 to Dec. 5
Dec. 6 to Dec. 12
Dec. 13 to Dec. 19
Dec. 20 to Dec. 26
Dec. 27 to Jan. 2
Jan. 3 to Jan. 9
Jan. 10to Jan. 16
Jan. 17 to Jan 23
Jan. 24 to Jan. 30
Jan. 31 to Feb, 6
Feb. 7 to Feb. 13
Feb. 14 to Feb. 20
Feb. 21to Feb. 27
Feb. 28 to March 6
March 7 to March 13
March 14 to March 20
March 21 to March 27
March 28 to April 3
This week, as Minnesota expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to everyone over at 16, parents with younger kids find themselves in a predicament: suddenly a vaccination is in sight for them. But with no vaccine yet approved for those under age 16, its likely to be a while before their whole family has the protective immunities conferred by COVID-19 vaccines.
That makes the prospect of going out to eat, going on vacation or spending time with other families a little more complex. We talked to experts about what families with kids under 16 need to know.
The Pfizer vaccine is approved for people as young as 16, and Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are for those 18 and older. Why isnt there one for younger kids?
Were just not there yet. Both Moderna and Pfizer are actively doing clinical trials on kids as young as 6 months old. J&J is also planning trials in younger people.
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So far, the results of trials in younger people are encouraging. Data arent formalized yet, but on Wednesday, Pfizer announced preliminary data from its trials in 12-to-15-year olds found the vaccine appears to work extremely well in that age group, with no serious side effects.
Most trials go down to kids as young as 6 months because in many cases, kids dont tend to develop strong antibodies from vaccines when theyre younger, said Dr. Frank Rhame, Allina Health infectious disease specialist. Thats why most vaccinations, except pertussis, start at 6 months. Plus, if their moms are vaccinated, very young babies should get protective antibodies in the womb and/or from breast milk.
Because trials are still ongoing, experts are saying itll be months, and the availability timeline is likely to vary based on age, with older kids possibly eligible as early as fall and younger kids in early 2022.
Why is this taking so long?
All this vaccine stuff is actually happening remarkably fast, it just might not feel like it right now as we hurry up and wait. But one reason its not happening faster is because the bodies that make recommendations for vaccines are really careful about them, Rhame said.
People seem to be more reluctant to take a vaccine, so in the vaccine world, they dont ever make a recommendation without really really solid data in hand, and that takes time, so theyre probably not going to recommend it until they get a done trial, he said.
There is some possibility that a COVID-19 vaccine could be recommended for kids in accelerated fashion based on whats called a bridge study, said Dr. Mark Schleiss, a professor of pediatrics and a vaccine researcher at the University of Minnesota.
If you have an idea of what a kids immune response needs to be for the vaccine to work, this can be a shortcut.
If you prove that its safe, prove that it induces an immune response thats protective, you may not need the third piece of the puzzle, to prove it reduces transmission and prevents disease, he said.
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Is the vaccine likely to be safe in kids?
Yes.
I dont anticipate that there will be any problems, Scheiss said. Theres no biomedical basis to believe that any of the vaccines that we currently have licensed in the U.S. are risky in any way.
There are short-term side effects fever, headache, sore arms, fatigue but those go away quickly, and may present less frequently in children.
Is there a way to somehow get my kid vaccinated before then?
Potentially. Schleiss encouraged parents to enroll their children in clinical trials for the vaccines. Trials recruiting participants can be found on clinicaltrials.gov, and theres a filter for trials recruiting children.
What does a likely monthslong wait for a vaccine mean for school in the fall?
Given where trials are at, its likely safety measures will have to remain for a while certainly into the fall when the 2021-22 school year starts.
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That includes masking children over the age of 2, that includes strategically designing their school day in such a way to minimize large group assemblies, having small, focused groups of children, distance of at least three feet, downsized from 6 feet, Schleiss said. That also means investing in infrastructure for schools, including ventilation, shields and cleaning supplies.
Do kids really need to take precautions in the meantime? Theyre less likely to get sick or die of COVID-19.
Its true kids are less likely than older adults to get very sick or die from COVID-19: 3 percent of people who have been in the ICU with COVID-19 in Minnesota are 19 and under, and there have been just two deaths in anyone under 20.
The younger they are the less likely they are to be symptomatic, and the rate of hospitalizations is very low in young children, but its not zero, said Dr. Elyse Kharbanda, senior investigator at HealthPartners Institute who studies vaccines. Furthermore, kids may be unlikely to get sick, but they are more likely to have asymptomatic infections, which means they can spread COVID-19 to others without it being obvious.
Vaccine coverage is more than 80 percent for Minnesotans 65 and older, but many adults in other age groups are still waiting to get the vaccine. Kids, particularly older children and adolescents can be conduits for transmitting the virus to people who arent fully protected.
If people were to become more lax, wed have less testing and wed be less likely to pick up these asymptomatic infections, she said. Currently, the best tools we have are symptom monitoring and frequent testing to find asymptomatic infections, and those are really important.
Is it okay to take my kid out to a restaurant before theyre vaccinated?
Its probably fine if youre careful.
I think you can go out to eat if youre disciplined about the way you do it, Rhame said.
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Soon, itll be easier to eat outdoors, and thats the safest. But if a restaurant is adhering to distancing and masking guidelines, and if a kid isnt around vulnerable people, plus the adults are vaccinated, your risks are considerably diminished, he said.
What you really dont want to do is have the kids visiting granny and grandpop who for some reason refused the vaccine, Rhame said.
If I, fully vaccinated, go out to a bar with my fully vaccinated friends, is it likely Ill bring COVID home to my kid?
We dont know yet. Studies have found the vaccines prevent severe illness and death, and data on the Pfizer vaccine out of Israel suggest it also prevents people who are vaccinated from transmitting the virus, but its early to know to what extent, exactly, thats the case. This week, officials who made bullish statements on the vaccines ability to prevent transmission have had to walk them back because we dont have enough data to know for sure yet.
Thats one of the reasons (but not the only one) people still need to be careful. Once we know more about whether vaccinated people can transmit the virus even if they dont get sick (which we should soon), well have a better sense of how safe activities like this are.
What about spending time with their friends or other families with young, also unvaccinated kids?
Again, care is key, Rhame said. Keeping groups small is a good idea.
My daughters who have small kids have developed a couple of friends who they like and their kids like and they try to do their playdates with a small number of people who also try to restrict the number of people that they see, Rhame said. So again, discipline allows you to do a lot of stuff safely enough to do it.
Any other advice for parents?
Kharbandas advice for the adults in kids lives, including parents, coaches and teachers, is to be good role model.
A lot of their behaviors regarding wearing masks and social distancing is really modeled on the behaviors that they see and the messages theyre getting from the people around them, she said.
