NEW YORK (AP) Experts are still studying how good COVID-19 vaccines are at preventing people from spreading the virus, but say the risk is low. The current vaccines are highly effective at preventing people from getting seriously sick with COVID-19. But even if vaccinated people dont get sick, they might still get infected with the virus without showing any symptoms. Given the uncertainty, experts say fully vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and social distance in public and when visiting with unvaccinated people at high risk for severe illness if infected.
The CDC now says that the UK variant accounts for 26 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
It is now looking like the UK variant of COVID-19is the predominant strain in many parts of the U.S., so what does that mean?
Lets connect the dots.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that the UK variant accounts for 26 percent of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. The variant, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom in September, did not appear in the U.S. until the very end of December. Now it is the predominant strain in at least five regions -- with Florida having the most confirmed cases.
This new data is not exactly shocking for health officials. The UK variant is believed to be much more contagious than the original virus with some estimating it is 50 to 90 percent more transmissible.
Now research in the British Medical Journal has found the UK variant comes with a greater risk of death. Something researchers had suspected but were waiting on the data.
Now U.S. health officials are in a race between vaccines and this variant.
If we can get herd immunity against coronavirus it can slow the spread of the UK variant, even if it is more contagious and potentially more deadly.
Some experts are now predicting that could happen by summertime.
Another reminder that the pandemic isn't over arrived Wednesday, when Champaign County saw its active case count rise by 34, the UI campus reported a second straight day of 22 positive tests and Carle Urbana checked in another new COVID patient.
"We have to stay the course, because we are not out of this yet," C-U Public Health Administrator Julie Pryde said Wednesday night. "While we have vaccinations, and are getting them out as fast as possible, we still only have about 28 percent of our county fully vaccinated. That is how many are protected; everyone else is susceptible to infection.
"We have the B117 variant in our community. It is more infectious, and it is causing more serious illness in younger individuals. Everyone needs to continue the tough work of masking and distancing. It is also important to get the first vaccine that you have access to."
Of 8,173 new tests, 49 came back positive Wednesday in Champaign County, bringing its pandemic total to 18,978.
Active cases increased by 34, to 323, while hospitalizations rose by two, to 12.
Active close contacts in quarantine now total 482, up by 24 overnight.
Heres an updated rundown of county ZIP codes with active cases, according to health district data:
Here's a breakdown of Champaign County positive tests by age group over the course of the pandemic:
Here's a breakdown of COVID deaths by age group over the course of the pandemic:
The countys pandemic totals, according to the health district:
As new case totals ticked upwards statewide, only two of the area's eight counties saw their seven-day positivity rates decrease Wednesday Champaign and Iroquois:
Note: Champaign County's rate, as calculated by the Illinois Department of Public Health, excludes the UI's daily saliva testing. The county's rate if UI testing were included: 0.6 percent, unchanged overnight.
Twenty-two cases emerged from 8,688 tests Tuesday on the UI campus, according to data updated Wednesday.
That makes back-to-back 22-case days, tying for the second-highest day of March. Only on March 8, when the campus reported 23 new cases, was higher.
The campus' seven-day positivity rate rose slightly, from 0.12 to 0.15 percent. The total number of cases throughout the pandemic now stands at 6,409.
Over the past week, the campus has reported 82 positive tests 54 involving undergrads, nine faculty/staff members, nine grad students and 10 classified as "other."
Heres a daily breakdown of tests and unique cases on campus since March 1:
Two of the 17 COVID patients hospitalized in Urbana is in intensive care, according to data updated Wednesday by Carle Health.
In all, 35 patients with COVID-19 were hospitalized in Carle's five facilities in the region (an increase of two overnight), with six of those in ICU (also up by two).
Carles BroMenn Medical Center in Bloomington had 15 COVID patients, with four in ICU.
Carle's Eureka Hospital, Hoopeston Regional Health Center and Richland Memorial Hospital all had one COVID patient apiece.
Below is an overview of daily totals since March 1 for Carles Urbana and Bloomington hospitals.
Since March 2020, 1,450 COVID patients have been discharged from Carle facilities and 302 hospitalized patients have died.
Clay County Public Health administrator Kathy McKay says they were expecting this with the change of seasons.
"Some of that has to do with, of course, there's spring break in March and some other gatherings," McKay said.
Looking at North Dakota's active case numbers, the state has just over 1,100 active cases, compared to 683 in the state's first peak in May of 2020.
However, the 14-day rolling average is not as bad at roughly 4.2% now, compared to 5.6% last spring.
Dr. Rich Vetter with Essentia Health says it's safe to say we're in the third wave, but we have yet to reach its peak.
"The trend line is ticking up still; it hasn't really plateaued," Vetter said.
He says it's difficult to tell how high this third wave could get, but he does not believe it will get as bad as the record-setting second peak the state saw last fall.
The vaccine is proving to be effective against serious COVID-19 infections, so there is hope there will be fewer hospitalizations during this latest wave.
"Typically the case numbers go up first and then the hospitalizations come later," Vetter said. "We're hoping that as we've tried to vaccinate as many of those high-risk people as possible, that the people who are contracting are the younger, healthier folks who hopefully won't need hospitalization."
Still, they encourage younger and healthier people to get the shot and for everyone to take the usual pandemic precautions.
"Mask up, keep your social distance and get the vaccine when you can because this virus is not going to wait, it's still circulating," McKay said.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WFLA/AP) Now that Florida is making coronavirus shots available to people age 40 and up, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis says hes going to get his vaccine.
DeSantis, 42, will join about 6 million people in Florida who have already received at least the first dose of a vaccine.
DeSantis said at a news conference Wednesday he will get the shot sometime this week, but he didnt say where or when or if hell do so in front of media.
Im not sure were going to do it on camera, well see. If you guys want a gun show, maybe we can do it, but probably better off not, DeSantis said at a news conference. We will let you know when I get the jab.
Florida will open vaccines to anyone who wants them beginning Monday.
Overall, Florida has had nearly 2.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus resulting in about 34,000 deaths.
SANTIAGO (Reuters) - Countries in the Americas could see a worse surge in coronavirus cases than the previous surge last year, with Brazil, Uruguay and Cuba already suffering more, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
FILE PHOTO: A traveller has her temperature checked at the Jose Marti International Airport amid concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Havana, Cuba, November 15, 2020. REUTERS/Alexandre Meneghini
Director Carissa Etienne said the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer, following holidays where people grouped together and spread cases, had prompted spikes. She urged citizens to stay at home and governments to think hard before lowering movement restrictions.
So far this year, over 19.7 million COVID cases and 475,000 related deaths have been reported in the Americas, she said.
Vaccines are rolling out - 124 million people have received one dose and 58 million have received two, PAHO said.
More have begun to arrive through the COVAX vaccines alliance, a total of 2.5 million in the past 30 days, with all countries in the region to receive some COVAX doses in the next week, according to PAHO assistant director Jarbas Barbosa.
Vaccine supply continues to be our greatest challenge, admitted Etienne, saying the organisation was scouring the globe for more supply, asking countries to hand over surpluses.
There have been far too many examples of vaccine nationalism, she said.
The current system is hard-wired for inequity and that is not acceptable, Etienne said.
At present Brazil, Peru, Chile, and Paraguay are reporting the highest COVID-related death rates, and the recent influx in cases is overwhelming hospitals, PAHO said.
At least one of the three COVID variants of concern have been identified in 32 regional countries, with Brazils P1 in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, the United States, Canada and Mexico.
PAHO is still studying variants impact, it said, but the incident manager Dr Sylvain Aldighieri noted reports from Brazil that young adults were filling hospital intensive care in higher numbers than in 2020.
The P1 variant is clearly contributing to the spread of cases in Brazil, he added.
Reporting by Aislinn Laing, Editing by Franklin Paul and Marguerita Choy
Heres what you need to know:Fourth graders at Alvarado Elementary, a school in Long Beach, Calif., were back in the classroom on Monday for their first day of in-person learning in more than a year.Credit...Brittany Murray/MediaNews Group/Long Beach Press-Telegram via Getty Images
Elementary students returned to classrooms in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday and campuses from Los Angeles to Boston prepared for significant expansions of in-person instruction as a majority of the nations districts have now begun to reopen school buildings, many of which have been closed for more than a year.
On Monday, Burbio, which monitors some 1,200 districts including the largest 200 in the country, reported that 53.1 percent of students were in schools offering daily, in-person classes, and that for the first time, the proportion of students attending school virtually or in hybrid classes had dropped.
The change, Burbio officials said, appeared to be driven by the return in elementary and middle schools to in-person classes, and by the new rules from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention permitting schools to allow three feet of social distance instead of six feet in elementary schools.
But a number of roadblocks to reopening remain. On the West Coast, large urban districts generally have lagged behind their counterparts across the rest of the nation. Surging infections in Southern California after the winter holidays were partly to blame for a slow rebound in the Los Angeles school system.
Part of the slow start can be traced to resistance from teachers, whose unions generally are more powerful in Democratic-led Washington, Oregon and California than in many other states, and who have been wary of returning to what they regard as a hazardous workplace, despite federal guidance that elementary schools in particular are safe when health precautions are followed.
Even some schools where teachers have agreed to return are still experiencing setbacks. Schools in Oakland and San Francisco, for example, are scheduled to reopen next month for elementary and special-needs students. But labor agreements in both of those California cities have allowed substantial numbers of teachers to opt out, leaving some schools without enough teachers to reopen and prompting others to scramble for substitutes.
Public schools in Californias top three districts by enrollment Los Angeles, San Diego and Fresno have said they will begin to allow grade-school students back onto campus later in April, as new coronavirus cases have fallen sharply statewide.
And on Monday, Long Beach the states fourth-largest district, with about 70,000 students began allowing about 14,000 elementary students back into school buildings for about 2 hours each day, five days a week.
The Long Beach school district was able to open earlier than other large California school systems because labor unions there agreed last summer to reopen as soon as health conditions permitted, and because the city was able to start vaccinating teachers earlier than other districts in the state.
Unlike most other cities in Los Angeles County, Long Beach has its own public health department, giving the city its own vaccine supplies and the power to set its own vaccine priorities, at a time when the county as a whole was making teachers wait until after other groups, like residents 65 and older, were vaccinated.
A city with its own health department has the ability to be more nimble, said Jill Baker, the citys schools superintendent, who called the return to classrooms this week exciting and momentous.
The school district is among the citys largest employers, and two-thirds of its students qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, so vaccinating school employees and reopening classrooms was viewed as economically important, Ms. Baker said.
In-person classes for older students are scheduled to resume April 19, with grades 6 to 8 getting the option to return on April 20 and grades 9 to 11 on April 26. The last day of school will be in mid-June.
transcript
transcript
When I first started at the C.D.C. about two months ago, I made a promise to you: I would tell you the truth, even if it was not the news we wanted to hear. Now is one of those times when I have to share the truth, and I have to hope and trust you will listen. Im going to pause here. Im going to lose the script. And Im going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom. We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now, Im scared. We have come such a long way: Three historic scientific breakthrough vaccines, and we are rolling them out so very fast. So Im speaking today not necessarily as your C.D.C. director, and not only as your C.D.C. director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on a little while longer. I so badly want to be done. I know you all so badly want to be done. We are just almost there, but not quite yet. We can change this trajectory of the pandemic, but it will take all of us recommitting to following the public health prevention strategies consistently while we work to get the American public vaccinated. We do not have the luxury of inaction. For the health of our country, we must work together now to prevent a fourth surge.
President Biden, facing a rise in coronavirus cases around the country, called on Monday for governors and mayors to reinstate mask mandates as the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned of impending doom from a potential fourth surge of the pandemic.
The presidents comments came only hours after the C.D.C. director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, appeared to fight back tears as she pleaded with Americans to hold on a little while longer and continue following public health advice, like wearing masks and social distancing, to curb the viruss spread. The nation has so much reason for hope, she added.
But right now, she said, Im scared.
The back-to-back appeals reflected a growing sense of urgency among top White House officials and government scientists that the chance to conquer the pandemic, now in its second year, may slip through its grasp. According to a New York Times database, the seven-day average of new virus cases as of Sunday was about 63,000, a level comparable with late Octobers average. That was up from 54,000 a day two weeks earlier, an increase of more than 16 percent.
Public health experts say that the nation is in a race between the vaccination campaign and new, worrisome coronavirus variants, including B.1.1.7, a more transmissible and possibly more lethal version of the virus that has been spreading rapidly. While more than one in three American adults have received at least one shot and nearly one-fifth are fully vaccinated, the nation is a long way from reaching so-called herd immunity the tipping point that comes when spread of a virus begins to slow because so many people, estimated at 70 to 90 percent of the population, are immune to it.
The warnings come at the same time as some promising news: A C.D.C. report released Monday confirmed the findings of last years clinical trials that vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer were highly effective against Covid-19. The report documented that the vaccines work to prevent both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections in real-world conditions.
The seven-day average of vaccines administered hit 2.76 million on Monday, an increase over the pace the previous week, according to data reported by the C.D.C. On Sunday alone, nearly 3.3 million people were inoculated, said Andy Slavitt, a senior White House pandemic adviser.
Mr. Biden said on Monday that the administration was taking steps to expand vaccine eligibility and access, including opening a dozen new mass vaccination centers. He directed his coronavirus response team to ensure that 90 percent of Americans would be no farther than five miles from a vaccination site by April 19.
The coronavirus vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech are proving highly effective at preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infections under real-world conditions, federal health researchers reported on Monday.
Consistent with clinical trial data, a two-dose regimen prevented 90 percent of infections by two weeks after the second shot. One dose prevented 80 percent of infections by two weeks after vaccination.
The news arrives even as the nation rapidly broadens eligibility for vaccines, and the average number of daily shots continues to rise. The seven-day average of vaccines administered hit 2.76 million on Monday, an increase over the pace the previous week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But the virus may be gaining renewed momentum. According to a New York Times database, the seven-day average of new virus cases as of Sunday was 63,000, an increase of more than 16 percent over the past two weeks.
Similar upticks over the summer and winter led to major surges in the spread of disease, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a news briefing on Monday. She said she had a sense of impending doom about a possible fourth surge of the virus.
The nation has so much reason for hope, she said. But right now Im scared.
Scientists have debated whether vaccinated people may still get asymptomatic infections and transmit the virus to others. The new study, by researchers at the C.D.C., suggested that since infections were so rare, transmission was likely rare, too.
There also has been concern that variants may render the vaccines less effective. The studys results do not confirm that fear. Troubling variants were circulating during the time of the study from Dec. 14, 2020, to March 13, 2021 yet the vaccines still provided powerful protection.
The C.D.C. enrolled 3,950 people at high risk of being exposed to the virus because they were health care workers, first responders or others on the front lines. None had previously been infected.
Most participants 62.8 percent received both shots of the vaccine during the study period, and 12.1 percent had one shot. They collected their own nasal swabs each week, which were sent to a central location for P.C.R. testing, the most accurate type of test. The weekly swabs allowed the researchers to detect asymptomatic infections as well as symptomatic ones.
The investigators asked participants about symptoms associated with infection, including fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, diarrhea, muscle aches, or loss of smell or taste. They also analyzed patients medical records to detect illnesses.
Fifty-eight percent of the infections were detected before people had symptoms. Just 10.2 percent of infected people never developed symptoms.
Among those who were fully vaccinated, there were .04 infections per 1,000 person-days, meaning that among 1,000 persons there would be .04 infections in a day.
There were 0.19 infections per 1,000 person-days among those who had had one dose of the vaccine. In contrast, there were 1.38 infections per 1,000 person-days in unvaccinated people.
Dr. Walensky urged Americans to continue taking precautions and to waste no time getting the shots as soon as they are eligible.
I am asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when you can, so that all of those people that we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends, she said.
HOUSTON As Texas joined several other states on Monday in opening eligibility for coronavirus vaccines to millions of healthy adults, anticipation for the shot could be seen in the long line that snaked outside Booker T. Washington High School in Houston.
This is a good sign, said Nelson Garcia, 48, who waited more than two hours with his two young children before he was finally within reach of protection from a disease that could be deadly for people with diabetes like himself. It looks like everyone wants to get vaccinated. I want my children to see that this is a good thing and that the vaccine may finally help us get back to normal.
On Monday, Texas became the largest state to expand vaccination eligibility to anyone 16 or older, or about 22 million people. Long lines were replicated across the state and appointments were difficult to snag online. Vaccination spots at HEB.com, the website for the most popular supermarket chain in Texas, were few and far between.
The spike was expected. Virtually anyone can get a vaccine now, said Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat who represents the Houston region.
Five other states, including neighboring Oklahoma and Louisiana, as well as Kansas, Ohio and North Dakota, also opened their doors for all adults on Monday. Several reported increased interest in the vaccine, but the numbers did not overwhelm the system of vaccine providers.
Also on Monday, officials in New York State, once the center of the pandemic with about 31,000 deaths in New York City alone, announced that beginning on Tuesday, all adults 30 and older would be eligible for the vaccine. At least 36 other states have vowed to offer shots to every adult who wants one by mid-April.
Six states Colorado, Connecticut, Indiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire and South Carolina plan to expand eligibility this week, officials in those states said.
Canada has become the latest country to suspend the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine for people 55 and under, over concerns that it might cause rare, dangerous blood clots, particularly in middle-aged and younger women.
The country joined France and the nordic European countries in taking a precautionary approach to the vaccine, even after the European Unions top drug regulator cleared it as safe earlier this month.
More study needs to be done, Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh, the chair of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, said at a video news conference on Monday. Given alternative vaccines are available in Canada, N.A.C.I. feels it is very important to study the risks and benefit as a precautionary measure.
The decision was made after reviewing evidence emerging from Germany, where the Paul-Ehrlich Institut reported that one in 100,000 people receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine developed blood clots, resulting in a condition called thrombocytopenia, which can be fatal in approximately 40 percent of cases, panel members said. This came after the European Medicines Agency reported a lower rate: one in one million.
No cases have been reported in Canada.
The countrys health authority continues to recommend the AstraZeneca vaccine for the countrys older population, who are much more susceptible to serious cases of Covid-19, and have not appeared to develop blood clots in the studies conducted in Europe, the panel members said.
We want to prevent hospitalizations and severe disease for those over 55, Dr. Quach-Thanh said.
The vaccine, created by Oxford University, was approved in late February for use in Canada but has suffered setbacks. Soon after its approval, N.A.C.I. recommended it not be administered to people 65 and older, because of a lack of data about the vaccines efficacy in that age group. Two weeks later, N.A.C.I. waived its initial concerns and approved the vaccine for all adults.
Health Canada has asked AstraZeneca for more data on the vaccine by age and gender, in the Canadian context, said Dr. Howard Njoo, the countrys deputy chief public health officer.
The vaccine was the third approved in the country, two months after Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. Just over 300,000 AstraZeneca doses have been administered about 6 percent of the total doses given out in the country. Twelve percent of the population has received at least one dose of any of the vaccines.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration promised to loan Canada 1.5 million doses of the vaccine, which still has not been approved for use in the United States.
New York can begin vaccinating anyone 30 or older on Tuesday and will make all residents 16 or over eligible on April 6, beating President Bidens goal of making every adult eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by May 1, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Monday.
New York was one of only a few states that had not yet set a timeline for universal adult eligibility. Five states had already expanded eligibility fully by the end of last week; six did so on Monday; seven more will follow later this week, and another six on April 5. At least 11 states have said they will wait until May 1.
Though Mr. Cuomo has gradually loosened vaccine eligibility criteria over the last month, he expressed reluctance last week to set a specific target date for doing away with the states requirements. The governor said he did not want to outline a timeline for more widespread vaccination until he was more confident that New York would have adequate vaccine supply on hand for its population.
I just want to make sure that the allocation projections that were getting from the feds are right, frankly, Mr. Cuomo said at a news conference last week. I dont want to say, Were going to open up to 30-year-olds in three weeks, and then something happens with the allocation.
Mr. Cuomos announcement comes as New York has been adding new virus cases at one of the highest rates among U.S. states. As of Monday, the state had a seven-day average of 49 new virus cases a day for every 100,000 residents, according to a New York Times database, second only to New Jersey. (The nation as a whole was averaging 19 new cases per 100,000 people.)
Even as the number of new cases continues to mount, the state has not faced anywhere near the level of devastation that it experienced a year ago, when hospitals were overwhelmed with patients and morgues were overflowing.
Eligible only in some counties
Eligible only in some counties
Eligible only in some counties
Buoyed by its vaccination progress, the state has also been gradually reopening businesses in the last several weeks. Mr. Cuomo allowed sporting events and concerts to resume at large venues last month and movie theaters to bring back audiences this month. Restaurants in New York City are now allowed to serve diners indoors at 50 percent capacity, their highest level of indoor dining since Mr. Cuomo closed them last year at the onset of the pandemic.
As of Monday morning, 29.6 percent of people in New York State had received at least one shot of a vaccine, while 16.8 percent were fully vaccinated, according to the states data.
Currently, all people 50 and over are eligible to receive the vaccine in New York, in addition to teachers, some essential workers and people with certain medical conditions that make them more susceptible to serious illness from the virus.
Massachusetts on Monday expanded a new state-financed coronavirus testing program to allow every public school in the state to test all students and staff members weekly for the rest of the school year, using a pooled testing approach that could be a model for school districts nationwide.
More than 1,000 schools in Massachusetts, representing nearly half the districts in the state, are already participating in the program.
Since February, the program has analyzed 22,679 pooled samples from students, teachers and staff members, reporting on Monday a positivity rate of less than 1 percent, considered low. Since the pooled samples typically include swabs from seven different people, state officials said the individual positivity rate is probably much lower.
In a phone interview on Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker said that the state had been able to scale up the program by vetting testing labs and signing contracts with them, instead of leaving each district to do that work on its own. He estimated that the program, which is using federal Covid relief funds to pay for the tests, could cost $30 million to $40 million.
We started doing it on a demonstration basis with a few school districts just to test it and see if the logistics could work, Mr. Baker said. We now have a working model that is operating at a pretty big scale and in a pretty big state.
The pooled testing program collects nasal swabs from students, faculty and staff members and then tests them in batches, a process that saves time and lab resources. Last week, about 63,000 students and staff members were tested.
If a batch tests negative, everyone in the pool is considered to have a negative result. If a batch tests positive, each person in the pool is then tested.
Massachusetts, which had initially planned to pay for the tests for schools until mid-April, now plans to cover the costs through the end of the school year. It is also encouraging other school districts in the state to sign up.
Mr. Baker said he planned to promote the Massachusetts model to other states. Some districts, like Montgomery County Public Schools, Marylands largest system, are planning to introduce pooled testing in April.
Theres enough money in the various federal bills that have been passed, including the most recent one, to make it possible for states or municipalities both to pay for a program like this, Mr. Baker said.
The state of New York must immediately begin to offer Covid-19 vaccines to all incarcerated people in the states prisons and jails, a judge ruled on Monday, making the state one of few in the nation to provide doses to such a broad population behind bars.
The order, the first involving any of the countrys largest correctional systems, comes as the coronavirus continues to roar through facilities in New York. At least 1,100 people living behind prison walls have tested positive for the virus since the start of last month, and five have died.
But even as corrections staff and many other groups, including some who live in close-contact settings like group homes and homeless shelters, have gained access to the vaccines in recent weeks, most incarcerated people in New York have remained ineligible to receive doses.
Justice Alison Y. Tuitt of State Supreme Court in the Bronx wrote in her ruling on Monday afternoon that people in prisons and jails had been arbitrarily left out of the rollout and that doing so was unfair and unjust and an abuse of discretion.
State officials, she said, irrationally distinguished between incarcerated people and people living in every other type of adult congregate facility, at great risk to incarcerated peoples lives during this pandemic.
She added: There is no acceptable excuse for this deliberate exclusion.
Epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists widely agreed, even in the earliest stages of vaccination efforts when supply was more limited, that the roughly 50,000 people in correctional facilities across the state should be made eligible because of their uniquely high risk for contracting and spreading the virus. A disproportionate number of them are also Black and Latino, groups that have been hit hard by the pandemic.
But vaccinating incarcerated people has proved politically fraught across the country, and states grappling with the same ethical, logistical and legal questions have drawn up drastically different timelines for offering doses. In some states, officials have backtracked from plans to vaccinate prisoners because of political headwinds.
In New York, most of those behind bars had been left out, though correctional officers were included and other high-risk groups like restaurant workers, public-facing government employees and essential building service workers have recently become eligible.
State officials announced on Monday that all adult residents would be eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine by April 6, which might have led more people behind bars to soon be offered doses even had the ruling not been issued.
Vermont is reporting a sharp spike in coronavirus cases, reaching highs that have not been seen since January.
This is a concerning number of new cases and should not be dismissed, Dr. Mark Levine, the states health commissioner, said at a news conference on Friday.
Vermont hit a single-day case record with 283 new confirmed cases on Friday, according to a New York Times database, making it the first state to set a case record since Jan. 18. (Its seven-day average, 154, is still lower than its peak in January.) Half of the cases reported in the past two weeks were in people under the age of 30, officials said.
The renewed surge has been driven by a number of factors, including pandemic fatigue and the spread of more contagious variants, Dr. Levine said in an interview on Monday. As older people get vaccinated and deaths start to drop, younger people have been more willing to gather in groups, he said.
The University of Vermont has reported a significant increase in confirmed cases among students, climbing to 80 last week from 41 two weeks before. The statewide surge, though, does not appear to be driven largely by college students, Dr. Levine said, since there have not been widespread increases on other campuses.
Cases across the United States have started to rise in recent weeks, after infections began to drop following a post-holiday surge. Scientists have warned for weeks about another increase, as more contagious variants spread and states lift restrictions. States in the Northeast have accounted for about 30 percent of the nations new cases over the past two weeks, up from 20 percent in early February.
Still, Vermont state officials defended the recent lifting of restrictions, citing a continued drop in deaths and hospitalizations. The state loosened restrictions last week, reopening bars at a limited capacity and allowing restaurants to seat up to six people from different households together. The state still has a mask mandate.
Anne Sosin, a policy fellow at Dartmouth College who has been tracking Vermonts Covid-19 response since the pandemics start, said the lifting of restrictions combined with the spread of new variants could be dangerous. If we create the conditions for transmission, variants will just exacerbate the impacts of that, she said.
Vermont opened vaccinations to adults ages 50 and older on Monday, and will expand eligibility to all adults on April 19. About 33 percent of the states population has received at least one dose, according to a New York Times vaccine tracker.
The rate of positive COVID-19 tests has increased in Pennsylvania for the second consecutive week and more counties are showing substantial spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Tom Wolfs office said Monday.
The positive test rate rose to 7.6% for the week of March 19-25, up from 6.5% the previous week. Pennsylvanias positive test rate had dropped for 12 consecutive weeks before holding steady at 5.7% for two weeks and then rising to 6.5%.
For context, the rate of positive coronavirus tests remains well below the peak of 16.2% in December, but health officials have said a positive test rate higher than 5% is a source of concern.
There are now 35 counties showing substantial spread of the coronavirus, the Wolf administration said. Last week, the state reported 25 counties showing substantial transmission, so 10 more counties are now seeing high spread of COVID-19 over the past week. The Wolf administration uses three categories to gauge the transmission of COVID-19: low, moderate and substantial.
The rise in the positive rate and the growing number of hospitalizations comes a week before the state rolls back some restrictions on restaurants and other businesses. Beginning April 4, restaurants and entertainment venues will be able to serve more customers.
Throughout this reporting period, we reached over one million COVID-19 cases to date in Pennsylvania as well as an uptick on our statewide percent positivity, Wolf said in a statement. The warmer weather brings with it opportunities to be outdoors, but we must still unite against COVID-19 by wearing a mask, practicing social distancing and washing your hands frequently until the virus is no longer a threat in our communities.
Overall, the number of counties with high transmission of the virus has dropped steadily in recent weeks. There had been substantial spread in every county of the state through much of December and January.
A closer look
Statewide, 1,916 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals, according to the health departments online dashboard. Thats well below the peak of more than 6,300 in December, but more people have been hospitalized over the past several days.
State officials have urged school districts to evaluate the spread of COVID-19 in determining whether students should be in school, educated remotely or with a mix of distance learning and face-to-face instruction. The majority of school districts are offering at least some in-person instruction but some schools continue to operate remotely.
Both Philadelphia and Allegheny counties are showing substantial transmission of the coronavirus. In central Pennsylvania, Dauphin, Lancaster and York counties are among those showing substantial spread, while Cumberland County is reported as having moderate transmission.
Heres the full breakdown of COVID-19 transmission levels in each county.
Low: Cameron, Forest, Fulton, Potter, Sullivan and Venango
Moderate: Armstrong, Beaver, Bedford, Blair, Butler, Cambria, Clarion, Crawford, Cumberland, Erie, Fayette, Greene, Huntingdon, Indiana, Jefferson, Juniata, Lawrence, McKean, Mercer, Snyder, Somerset, Tioga, Union, Warren, Washington and Westmoreland
Substantial: Adams, Allegheny, Berks, Bradford, Bucks, Carbon, Centre, Chester, Clearfield, Clinton, Columbia, Dauphin, Delaware, Elk, Franklin, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lebanon, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Mifflin, Monroe, Montgomery, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Perry, Philadelphia, Pike, Schuylkill, Susquehanna, Wayne, Wyoming and York
Vaccine rollout
As supplies have improved, the state is making progress with the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, though many remain frustrated in their quest to get appointments for a shot.
So far, more than 3.3 million people have had at least one shot and more than 1.6 million are fully vaccinated, according to the Pennsylvania Health Department. The state figures dont include the city of Philadelphia, which gets its own vaccine supply and is handling its own rollout.
In Philadelphia, more than 490,000 people have had at least one shot and more than 200,000 are fully vaccinated, according to the city health Department.
Combining the Philadelphia and state data, heres the full picture in Pennsylvania: more than 3.8 million have had at least one shot and more than 1.8 million are fully vaccinated. Most of those who have been vaccinated in Pennsylvania have been given the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, which require two shots.
Teachers, school employees and child care center workers are getting the first batch of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which require only one shot. The governor has said the vaccination of teachers is ahead of schedule and should be finished by the end of the week.
The governor has said the next batch of Johnson & Johnson vaccines will go to front-line workers, including law enforcement, firefighters, grocery store employees and food and agricultural workers.
The Wolf administration, which has been criticized for the pace of the rollout, notes that Pennsylvania is 12th in the nation in getting its residents at least partially vaccinated, according to federal data. But lawmakers and county officials in some areas, including southeastern Pennsylvania, have said the state should work more closely with local and regional partners. Critics also note the state needs to do better in vaccinating people from minority groups.
More than 1 million people have contracted the coronavirus and more than 25,000 deaths are tied to COVID-19, according to the Pennsylvania Health Department.
Most of those who are infected suffer relatively mild symptoms and many dont even get sick, health officials say. But doctors say the virus poses serious risks to everyone, particularly for seniors and those with chronic medical conditions.
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News6 p.m. New vaccination site will be dedicated to essential union workers A woman receives a Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine from registered nurse Gina Reed at a vaccination center established at the Hilton Chicago OHare Airport Hotel in Chicago, Illinois, on March 5, 2021. Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI/AFP via Getty Images
Mayor Lori Lightfoot on Monday announced a new vaccination site in partnership with the Chicago Federation of Labor that will help get doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of essential union workers.
The announcement on Monday comes as the city expands eligibility requirements to whats called Phase 1C. That expansion includes residents ages 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions, such as chronic kidney disease or cancer.
It also will allow the vaccination of other essential workers who had not previously been eligible.
You all know this, but it bears repeating. Chicago is 100 percent a union town, the mayor said in making the announcement at the vaccination site, the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, 2260 S. Grove St.
Its our union workers who make up the backbone of this city.
The vaccination site is at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 399, 2260 S. Grove St. It is believed to be the first site in the nation run by the labor movement.
Read Manny Ramos full story here.
An Associated Press analysis of state data reveals that the coronavirus pandemic has ripped away several systemic safety nets for millions of Americans. It found that child abuse reports, investigations, substantiated allegations and interventions have dropped at a staggering rate, increasing risks for the most vulnerable of families in the U.S.
In the APs analysis, it found more than 400,000 fewer child welfare concerns reported during the pandemic and 200,000 fewer child abuse and neglect investigations and assessments compared with the same time period of 2019. That represents a national total decrease of 18% in both total reports and investigations.
The AP requested public records from all 50 state child welfare agencies and analyzed more than a dozen indicators in 36 states, though not every state supplied data for total reports or investigations. The analysis compared the first nine months of the pandemic March to November 2020 with the same time period from the two previous years.
And there are signs in a number of states that suggest officials are dealing with more urgent and complex cases during the pandemic, according to the analysis, though most child welfare agencies didnt provide AP thorough data on severity.
A loss in reports means greater potential for harm because there has not all of the sudden been a cure for child abuse and neglect, said Amy Harfeld, an expert in child abuse deaths with the Childrens Advocacy Institute.
Keep reading this story here.
The U.S governments first look at the real-world use of COVID-19 vaccines found their effectiveness was nearly as robust as it was in controlled studies.
The two vaccines available since December Pfizer and Moderna were 90% effective after two doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday. In testing, the vaccines were about 95% effective in preventing COVID-19.
This is very reassuring news, said the CDCs Mark Thompson, the studys lead author. We have a vaccine thats working very well.
The study is the governments first assessment of how the shots have been working beyond the drugmakers initial experiments. Results can sometimes change when vaccines are used in larger, more diverse populations outside studies.
Read the full story here.
A joint WHO-China study on the origins of COVID-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is extremely unlikely, according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.
The findings offer little new insight into how the virus first emerged and leave many questions unanswered, though that was as expected. But the report does provide more detail on the reasoning behind the researchers conclusions. The team proposed further research in every area except the lab leak hypothesis.
The report, which is expected to be made public Tuesday, is being closely watched since discovering the origins of the virus could help scientists prevent future pandemics but its also extremely sensitive since China bristles at any suggestion that it is to blame for the current one. Repeated delays in the reports release have raised questions about whether the Chinese side was trying to skew its conclusions.
Weve got real concerns about the methodology and the process that went into that report, including the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped to write it, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a recent CNN interview. China rejected that criticism Monday.
Read the full Associated Press story here.
If a cruise ship had been quarantined in the early days of a pandemic a generation ago, wed have only still photographs and perhaps some choppy and grainy videotape recording of events as they played out in real time.
But when the Diamond Princess liner was put on quarantine in February of 2020 with some 2,666 passengers and 1,045 crew members aboard, just about everyone had a cell phone handy and recorded untold hours of video and select footage from a number of those passengers and ship employees is utilized by director Hannah Olson in the compelling if incomplete-feeling documentary The Last Cruise, premiering Tuesday on HBO.
Spanning just 40 minutes, The Last Cruise opens with title cards explaining the Diamond Princess set sail from Japan on Jan. 20, 2020, when only a few cases of the coronavirus had been reported worldwide. It certainly wasnt a concern for the passengers and crew of the Diamond Princess, as evidenced by the home video we see at the outset of the story.
Keep reading Richard Roepers review of The Last Cruise here.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - With the sharp winter decline in Ohio coronavirus cases over, there has been a spring uptick - with newly reported cases up about 10% in the last week.
The Ohio Department of Health through Monday has now reported 1,013,119 coronavirus cases, 52,817 hospitalizations and 18,526 deaths.
This includes 11,925 newly reported cases in the last week.
Vaccinations, meanwhile, have sharply increased with 35% of the states 16 and older population now having received at least one shot.
Heres a closer look at the latest trends.
Newly reported coronavirus cases in Ohio have edged up in March after months' of declines.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
A total of 963 coronavirus patients were reported in Ohio hospitals on Monday. Though marking a significant improvement from a few months ago - there were a record 5,308 patients Dec. 15 - there has been little change this month.
The patient count has stayed within a range of 823 to 963 since March 5, according to daily surveys by the Ohio Hospital Association. The number is up from 854 a week ago.
Among Mondays patients were 251 in intensive care units, up from 224 a week ago. The high was 1,318 on Dec. 15.
As vaccines started, with initial targeting of older Ohioans, younger people have made up a larger share of the hospitalizations. In January, those age 70 and older accounted for 49% of the admissions. In March, this age group accounts for 32%.
About 33% of the states hospital beds were vacant Monday, as well as 33% of the ICU beds - little change over recent weeks.
Coronavirus hospitalizations in Ohio remain above early fall levels.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
The state reported starting vaccines for 454,155, people in the last week, up from 431,824, 393,144, 309,434 and 236,727 and the previous four weeks.
The 3,276,391 vaccinations started through reporting on Monday means about 35% of Ohios population age 16 and up has received at least one shot. Younger people are not approved to receive vaccines.
These are estimates in part because the Ohio data for vaccines includes some people from other states such as those who work in Ohio - at least 78,931 so far - yet some Ohioans may have received vaccinations in other states.
Ohio reported an average of 1,704 cases a day in the last week.
This compares with averages of 1,551, 1,516, 1,550, 1,928, 2,016, 2,732, 3,295, 4,346 and 5,370 the last several weeks, and down from close to 6,700 a day at the end of December.
The counties with the most cases are Ohios three largest counties - Franklin (117,227 cases), Cuyahoga (101,402) and Hamilton (76,137). Case rates per 100 residents, hospitalizations and deaths for every county in Ohio can be found in the chart at the bottom of this story.
Here are the number of coronavirus cases reported in Ohio by day over the last three weeks.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
The state has now reported 18,526 deaths caused by the coronavirus, though the total likely is an undercount by hundreds, if not thousands.
The Ohio Department of Health announced on March 2 that it was dropping efforts to track deaths in a timely manner, saying the change would delay death reporting by up to six months in some cases. The health department is now awaiting details from the federal Centers for Disease Controls for all deaths, and updates are now being made just twice a week.
Illustrating how far the paperwork now lags, the state is not yet reporting any deaths that occurred in the last week, and just 20 since mid-March.
To date, the state has reported 205 deaths in March, 1,260 in February, 3,616 in January and 5,442 in December.
The counties for which the most deaths have been reported are Cuyahoga (1,991), Franklin (1,316) and Hamilton (1,142).
Among the dead are at least 7,055 patients of nursing homes and other long-term facilities statewide, according to the the states last update on Wednesday. This was down from 7,462 earlier this month, as the state removed hundreds of deaths in changing the way fatalities are reported. Most of these will be added back later once the paperwork is processed by the CDC.
Though death reporting by the Ohio Department of Health lags by months, it appears December was the deadliest month.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
Three-in-four of the deaths have been to people age 70 and older, breaking down this way: under age 20 (5), in their 20s (22), in their 30s (93), in their 40s (251), in their 50s (903), in their 60s (2,641), in their 70s (4,977) and at least 80 years old (9,634).
Those age 80 and up have accounted for 52% of the known coronavirus deaths, in comparison to 44% of all known Ohio deaths in 2018. Those in their 70s have accounted for 27% of the coronavirus deaths, in comparison to 21% of all Ohio deaths in 2018 ahead of the virus.
But for hospitalizations, the cases are more spread out age-wise: under age 20 (1,273), in their 20s (2,064), in their 30s (2,707), in their 40s (4,134), in their 50s (7,540), in their 60s (11,357), in their 70s (12,486) and at least 80 years old (11,256).
For the deaths in which race was reported, 86% of the people are white, and 12% are Black. For total cases, 75% are white and 13% Black.
Ohios overall population is 82% white and 13% Black. But among Ohioans at least 70 years old - the age group accounting for three-quarters of the deaths - Ohio is 89% white and 9% Black.
Here are the number of Ohio coronavirus hospitalizations and deaths by age group.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
The first three cases were confirmed on March 9. The total topped 100,000 on Aug. 9, 250,000 on Nov. 8, 500,000 on Dec. 8, and 1 million on March 22.
Among the cases reported to date are 153,696 listed as probable, those cases included by a wider variety of tests or identified through non-testing evidence. This total is up from 149,946 last week.
The state reported 10,938,593 tests to date, including 214,267 in the last week, in comparison to 216,174 the previous week.
The chart below is based on the most recent case data from the Ohio Department of Health. Cleveland.com calculated the cases per 100 rates based on 2019 census population estimates.
Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See other data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.
Some mobile users may have to use this link instead to see the county-by-county details in the chart above.
Previous coverage
See case rates by ZIP code
See coronavirus cases by day for each Ohio county, including per capita and cases in last seven days
Ohio deaths in 2020 increased by nearly 20,000, latest data shows
Ohio reports 34 coronavirus cases to vaccinated individuals among 400,000 cases statewide since shots began
