PALMER, Mass. (WWLP) Some say we are nearing the end of this pandemic, but the fight is still far from over.
Coronavirus has pushed back in Massachusetts, a state that saw a spike in red communities, going from 20 to 32 in the last week.
From Tuesday to Wednesday, Baystate Wing Hospital in Palmer went from 7 to 11 COVID-19 patientsand this comes as Palmer, Monson and Lee join Chicopee and Southwick as the only western Massachusetts red communities.
Going back into the red is concerning for Palmer businesses, that have overcome a lot, just to get to this point.
Weve been in business since July of 2001 and weve never seen anything this bad before, said Fabio Montefusco, Kitchen Manager of Apollo Pizzeria Restaurant. But we are doing the best we can, thats it. We just have to adapt to what the world brings us these days.
Health officials are urging residents to double down on mask wearing, and social distancing, to stop the spread and evolution of the virus.
Whatever decision you make right now, is also a decision that affects the people around you, said Dr. Armando Paez, Chief of Baystate Medical Centers Infectious Diseases Division. If you let it slide, and let the variants become the dominant strain thats circulating, theres a chance the vaccines may not work.
Dr. Paez also said recent data indicates that the virus is spreading more through younger residents.
The City of Somerville Office of Veterans Services, in partnership with the Revere Office of Veterans Services and the VA Boston Healthcare System, have announced a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for Veterans of all ages. The clinic will take place on Saturday, April 3, from 10 a.m to 1 p.m. at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Beachmont Post 6712 located at 150 Bennington Street, Revere, MA 02151.
To be eligible, Veterans must be enrolled in the VA Healthcare. Veterans currently not enrolled can enroll by calling the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare at 877-222-8387, or they can enroll on-site the day of the vaccination clinic. There are no additional eligibility criteria. Vaccines will be distributed on a first come, first serve basis and no registration or sign-up is required.
It was imperative that we create a multi-faceted strategy to reach the Veterans population by bringing vaccinations directly into impacted communities and offering an exclusive COVID-19 clinic for Veterans of all ages, said Somerville Director of Veterans Services Ted Louis-Jacques. This partnership is indicative of the fundamental changes that can happen when you provide access, break down barriers, and close equity gaps for the people who need it most.
Marc Silvestri, Director of Veterans Services for the City of Revere, added, I know firsthand how challenging the last year has been, but now with the vaccine, there is light at the end of the tunnel. I am proud to be working in collaboration with the VA Boston and VFW post 6712 in Beachmont to bring a vaccination clinic to Revere. We have been working diligently to make this happen, and its an honor to work together in vaccinating our Veterans. As leaders and trusted members of the community, we need to lead by example and get vaccinated. I am excited for April 3rd and hope to see you there!
The Moderna and Janssen (Johnson and Johnson) vaccine will be offered at the clinic. Individuals who receive the Moderna vaccine will be scheduled to receive the second dose on May 1, 2021. A second dose is not needed for the Janssen vaccine.
For further details or questions, contact Ted Louis-Jacques, City of Somerville Director of Veterans Services at [emailprotected]. The City of Somerville is also available to help those who face barriers to accessing vaccines including needing transportation or language assistance. If you are currently eligible to receive a vaccine and need help accessing the vaccine, please call 311 (617-666-3311).
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. (WFLA) Health officials are warning residents of a spike in coronavirus cases in Hillsborough County.
The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County released a statement Thursday saying the area has seen both the average number of COVID-19 cases per day and the percent positivity climb over the past two weeks.
Between March 14 and March 20, Hillsborough health officials identified 2,360 new cases, a 12.5% increase from the previous week when they reported 2,097 new cases. The percent positivity also increased to 7.8%.
Health leaders said the largest increase in cases was in the 25 to 34 age group.
Hospitalizations only ticked up slightly, 0.5% from the week before.
The spike in cases comes as testing rates remain stable statewide and Florida opens vaccine eligibility to more adults.
According to the health department, more than 296,000 people in Hillsborough County have already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
We want to get this over with, we want to stay safe and stay protected and still get our shots at the same time, a local grandmother told 8 On Your Side.
Im often asked are we turning the corner? My response is more like we are at the corner. Whether or not we are going to be turning that corner still remains to be seen, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nations top infectious disease expert and director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
To track the number of coronavirus cases in your county, visit the Florida Department of Healths COVID-19 dashboard.
Spores of the fungus Aspergillus can be deadly if they enter the lungs of a person with a compromised immune systemor a COVID-19 infection.
By Nathaniel ScharpingMar. 22, 2021 , 12:05 PM
Sciences COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Heising-Simons Foundation.
COVID-19 brings thousands of people into hospitals every daybut their coronavirus infections are not always the direct reason they die. Dangerous secondary infections by opportunistic pathogens are common in intensive care units, and physicians are raising the alarm about a particular microbial threat to COVID-19 patients: a common fungus known asAspergillus.
Emerging evidence suggests that infection with SARS-CoV-2and possibly the drugs used to treat itmakes COVID-19 patients especially vulnerable toAspergillus. The threat, which also surfaced during the 2009 flu pandemic, is leading some researchers to urge more careful fungal surveillance of the sickest COVID-19 patients and treatment with antifungal drugs.
Aspergillus is ubiquitousyou cant avoid it, says George Thompson, an infectious disease physician at the University of California, Davis. Members of its genus produce spores that can float in the air, and we breathe in hundreds to thousands or more [of them] per day, he says.
Those spores normally dont harm us. Aspergillus infections were typically considered a threat only to immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing cancer treatments or bone marrow transplants. But in 2009, doctors saw a spike in previously healthy people who succumbed to Aspergillus. They had all first become sick with a new, pandemic strain of the influenza virus H1N1.
For reasons scientists still dont completely understand, influenza infections appear to make the fungus more deadly in people with a seemingly normal immune system. In a 2016 review of 57 cases of Aspergillus infections in influenza patients reported since 1963, Nancy Crum-Cianflone, an infectious disease specialist at Scripps Mercy Hospital, found that about half of the co-infected patients died.
Now, something similar may be happening with COVID-19. Just as H1N1 was a severe strain of influenza, the SARS-CoV-2 virus is an especially dangerous form of coronavirus, Crum-Cianflone says. That could help explain why it leaves COVID-19 patients vulnerable to new threats.
Data on Aspergillus infections in people with COVID-19 are still sparse, but case reports point to worrying trends. One study from Germany found that one-quarter of critically ill COVID-19 patients also had Aspergillus infections. Another study of COVID-19 patients on ventilators found probable Aspergillus in one-third of them.
It's not uncommon for COVID-19 patients to be infected with other harmful microbes. But Aspergillus may be the deadliest threat among them, says Adilia Warris, a medical mycologist at the University of Exeter. She points to a recent study of 186 COVID-19 patients from around the world who also had Aspergillus. It found that slightly more than 50% of them died, and roughly one-third of those deaths were linked to Aspergillus infections.
Thompson estimates that anywhere between 2% and 10% of severely ill COVID-19 patients at his hospital also have an Aspergillus infection. Its obviously a minority of patients, he says. But the complications of a secondary infection are generally pretty substantial.
Doctors say there are a few reasons why having COVID-19 might be an especially strong risk factor for an Aspergillus infection. One is that while COVID-19 can send parts of the immune system into overdrive, it also depletes certain immune cells, leaving a patient less able to fight off other infections. The extreme damage to cells lining the lung also impairs the organs ability to clear out respiratory pathogens like Aspergillus, Thompson says.
The way physicians treat COVID-19 could also heighten the risk of an Aspergillus infection. The steroid dexamethasone, shown to improve survival rates among severely ill COVID-19 patients, calms an overactive immune response that can lead to dangerous inflammation and organ damage. But immunosuppressive steroids are a double-edged sword, Crum-Cianflone says, leaving the door open to other infections. A recent observational study of four COVID-19 patients with likely Aspergillus infections noted that three of them had received higher steroid doses than was recommendedall of them died.
If doctors could easily identify Aspergillus infections, available antifungal drugs could fight them. But because the fungus can cause nonspecific symptoms such as coughing and shortness of breath that are already common in COVID-19 patients, doctors don't always look for it. A bronchoscopy, in which doctors snake a tube from the nose or mouth into the lungs, is the best way of taking lung samples for analysis. But the procedure isnt typically done on COVID-19 patients for fear of spreading viral particles. And even a positive test may not mean the fungus is doing damage; Aspergillus can also be present in the lungs as a harmless colonizer.
As a preventive measure, Crum-Cianflone has begun giving severely ill COVID-19 patients antifungal drugs after their third week of hospitalization, even if they havent tested positive for Aspergillus. But even that strategy has risks. Overusing these compounds could lead to drug-resistant strains of Aspergillus becoming more common, Warris notes.
Recently, in The Lancet, an international group of physicians and medical mycology societies laid out recommendations for diagnosing Aspergillus infections in COVID-19 patients, including doing lung imaging scans and taking samples from the lungs at regular interval for testing. The hope is that the guidelines will help COVID-19 doctors know whether theyre battling one deadly pathogen, or two.
Womens immune systems are different for a variety of reasons, Dr. Kelly-Jones explained. We think it boils down to two X chromosomes. The X chromosome has a lo tof immune responsive areas on it. Usually, when you have two Xes, some of those immune responses get inactivated, but in many women they dont. So, their immune response is more robust compared to mens immune response.
How COVID-19 will change retail, home sales, travel and working from home The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Instruction
Here's what you need to know about COVID-19 vaccines in Washington state on Friday, March 26.
Vaccine hesitancy is the next big issue in Washington's fight against COVID-19
As COVID-19 vaccine supplies are expected to ramp up in the state, Washington will shift focus to a new problem: people refusing to get vaccinated.
I am terribly concerned about that, and everyone in public health is concerned about that as well, said state Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah.
Approximately 21% of Washingtonians don't want the COVID-19 vaccine or are unsure if they want it, according to the IHME.
Still, Washington state has less hesitancy than most other states.
New study aims to find out if COVID-19 vaccines prevent transmission
A new study involving thousands of college students in the United States aims to determine whether someone can still carry and transmit thecoronavirusafter theyve received ModernasCOVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 Prevention Network (CoVPN), headquartered at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, announced the Prevent COVID U study Friday. The study will involve monitoring an estimated 12,000 students ages 18-26 at 21 universities across the U.S. over a five-month period.
The Prevent COVID U study is designed to determine if Modernas vaccine can prevent symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 infection, limit the virus in the nose and reduce transmission of the virus from a vaccinated person to their close contacts.
VERIFY: Will chemotherapy limit effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine?
People with cancer should consult their personal physician and oncologist. But, in general, anyone with cancer should still get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, doctors say.
Doctors say that experience with other infectious diseases has shown that chemotherapy could reduce or eliminate that immunity from the vaccine. But there's still a chance of having at least partial immunity.
That means, while chemotherapy might limit the vaccine's effectiveness, there is still a reason to get it. And because people fighting cancer are at high risk, they will not be depriving it from someone who needs it more.
'Loophole' allowed ineligible people to get COVID-19 vaccine in Washington
Some people in Washington who are not yet eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine have been able to bypass the process by accessing a web appointment link intended for people signing up for their second dose, according to public health departments in the state.
The Washington Department of Health confirmed that such instances have been seen in the state and are highly discouraged.
How to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Washington
The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) released an online portal to check your eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine. Use the Phase Finder tool to input personal information like age, health conditions and essential worker status to determine if it's your turn.
As of March 17, Washington is in Phase 1B, tier 2 of vaccination. Eligible people include:
If you are eligible, find a list of vaccine providers on the DOH website and information on how to make an appointment.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - While coronavirus cases are surging in many states, especially just to the north in Michigan, the bad news in Ohio is merely that they have leveled off or just inched up a bit over the last couple of weeks.
This raises some important questions.
Why arent case numbers continuing to shrink in Ohio with so many more people being vaccinated each week? Are there pockets of big increases geographically in the state waiting to spread? What role are the more contagious variants of the virus playing? And could this somewhat modest increase in case numbers statewide of late just be the lull before the storm - the return of a fall-like surge in cases across Ohio?
There are indications that the vaccine is beginning to have a real impact in limiting the spread of the virus, yet even with vaccinations started on about 3 million people across the state, 3-in-4 Ohioans have not received a single shot.
Its literally a race between how fast we can get people vaccinated and how fast people are willing to take the vaccine versus the variant. It now looks like we have enough fire power to keep going and going, Gov. Mike DeWine said Thursday, expressing confidence that the worst of the pandemic is within weeks of coming to an end.
Dr. Amy Edwards, infectious disease physician at University Hospitals in Cleveland, said that with 25% of the Ohioans vaccinated so far, thats clearly not enough to turn back variants of the virus beginning to spread.
If Ohio could hold steady in the number of new coronavirus cases for about four to six weeks, the state could get closer to 60% of the population vaccinated and a fourth wave of the virus will be averted, Edwards said.
I dont think anybody thinks thats actually going to happen, and so I think the fourth wave will be driven by these variants, she said.
The good news is that even if those who have been vaccinated contract a variant of the virus, their chances of dying or even ending up in the hospital are extremely rare, Edwards said.
There was a rare jump in cases for Ohio on Friday, as the state reported 2,742 new cases - the highest number for any day since Feb. 23.
Vaccinated individuals who get exposed to the variant, as opposed to the regular variant of COVID, they are more likely to get sick the vaccine is not as effective but it does still appear to protect against severe disease and death, even with a variant, she said.
It has become apparent in recent weeks that the vaccines are making a difference in Ohio. The first groups targeted were older Ohioans.
Close to 70% of those age 70 and up have now received at least one dose, in comparison to less than 20% of Ohioans under the age of 50. And older Ohioans are now accounting for smaller and smaller shares of both cases overall and those severe cases that have resulted in hospitalizations.
With an early focus on vaccinating older Ohioans, those people have begun to account for a smaller share of all known coronavirus cases. This chart is based on the month each case was reported by the Ohio Department of Health.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
For example, Ohioans age 70 and up accounted for 10.9% of the cases reported in January, yet just 5.8% of the March cases through Thursday.
Meanwhile the share of cases for those under the age of 30 has grown from 33.1% in January to 37.9% of all Ohio cases reported to date in March. Children under the age of 16 have not been approved to receive vaccines by the federal government, and vaccinations for young adults just recently opened up in Ohio.
More dramatic than the age change in cases has been the shift in hospitalizations. Among all coronavirus patients admitted in January, 49.5% were at least 70 years old. The share of hospitalizations for this age group has dropped to 32.4% for March.
Meanwhile, every other age group - Under 29, age 30 to 49 and age 50 to 69 - now take up larger shares of the hospitalizations.
Hospitalizations by age group in Ohio show a sharp drop for older Ohioans since they became the first group approved to receive vaccines.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
Increases sharper than Ohios are being reported in more than 20 states across the county, with perhaps no better example than neighboring Michigan - going from close to 1,050 cases a day in mid- to late-February to about 3,900 a day recently, according to tracking by Johns Hopkins University.
Is the rapid spread in Michigan starting to show up in Ohio? So far, it does not appear so.
In a comparison of seven-day case totals from March 11-17, when Ohio hit its low for the year, to the seven days through Thursday with slightly larger numbers overall, the county-by-county changes were fairly sporadic across the state - not concentrated in a single region or two.
At least 100 cases were reported in the last week for 23 Ohio counties, offering a large enough sample for a better comparisons than in smaller places with just a handful of cases.
The change in case rates for these counties were generally within a range of plus or minus 20% over the last seven days versus March 11-17. And those with the largest swings were not clustered geographically.
Cases were up 72.6% in Hancock County, the sharpest increase among these 23 counties, while they were down 31.3% in Medina County, representing the biggest drop.
As for Ohios three large counties, cases were up 6.9% in Franklin and 6.6% in Cuyahoga, but down 2.3% in Hamilton County.
Ohio counties with at least 100 newly reported cases in the last week, and how their rate changes compare to the statewide average.Rich Exner, cleveland.com
That leaves the question: beyond new variants, what else could be causing Ohios recent, modest increase?
Dr. Andy Thomas, Ohio State University Wexler Medical Centers chief clinical officer, said COVID-19 fatigue may also be a factor in cases these days, with people taking fewer precautions.
There are certainly people who, as the weather has gotten nicer, have gotten out more. Ive gotten the sense of that COVID fatigue that we talked about in the fall has returned this spring, he said.
Thomas believes variants will also become the predominant form of COVID-19, but he doesnt have a timeline for when that will occur. Hes seen predictions for mid-April or the end of April, but he said he cant be certain, since Ohio seems to be lagging in the spread of variants.
We are nowhere near where Florida is or Southern California in terms of the percent of variants, he said. Its certainly not a secret the variants are coming, and theyre more contagious.
Thomas believes Ohios vaccine strategy in which older Ohioans were prioritized because they are more at risk of hospitalization and death could be key if Ohio has an uptick of infections.
Even though were at risk of seeing an increase in the number of cases, my hope is we are not at risk of seeing a rapid increase in hospitalizations and deaths, he said.
All of which has the governor speaking optimistically, but with caution.
It is going to take all of us, DeWine said. Everybody in every community to encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Were going to move pretty quickly from the point where we didnt have enough vaccine to we do have plenty of vaccine.
Previous coverage
Ohios coronavirus case rate increases; 55 counties on red alert this week
Ohio officials report 1,501 new coronavirus cases: Thursday update
Ohio nursing home coronavirus cases decline again; state now reporting 7,055 deaths
Even as President Biden on Thursday announced a more ambitious target of vaccinating 200 million Americans during his early months in office, the United States is once again experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases, leading experts to warn the country has not yet defeated the novel coronavirus.
Webinar series: 'Stay Up to Date' with the latest vaccine news and more
The United States last week administered an average of 2.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses per dayup from an average of 2 million vaccine doses per day at the beginning of March, according to Bloomberg's Vaccine Tracker.
If the United States continues to administer vaccine does at this pace, the country would surpass President Biden's new goal of administering 200 million doses before his 100th day in officean increase from the 100 million dose target that Biden had announced at the time of his inauguration.
Biden announced the updated goal during a news conference Thursday, the New York Times reports.
According to CDC data, about 133.3 million doses of the vaccines had been administered in the United states as of Thursday morning. About 87.3 million Americans had received at least one dose, and about 47.4 million had been fully vaccinated, the data shows.
Overall, 26% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 14.3% have been fully vaccinated as of Thursday morning, the data shows. When broken down by age groups, the data shows 71% of Americans ages 65 and olderwho are among the most vulnerable to severe cases of Covid-19have received at least one dose of a Coivd-19 vaccine, and more than 44% have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Although vaccinations have accelerated, recent data indicates the number of coronavirus cases is climbing once again after declining for months.
According to data compiled by the Times, the United States' average daily number of newly reported coronavirus cases over the past week was 58,579up by 3% compared with the average from two weeks ago.
The Times' data showed that, as of Friday morning, the rates of newly reported coronavirus cases were "staying high" in 25 states that have reported a daily average of at least 15 newly reported cases per 100,000 people over the past week. Those states are Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In addition, the rate of newly reported coronavirus cases was "going up" as of Friday morning in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, which have had comparatively lower case rates, the Times reports.
Even as cases are increasing, new hospitalizations and deaths are continuing to decline. According to the Times' data, 39,439 Americans with Covid-19 were hospitalized on Thursdaydown by 10% from the average from two weeks ago. Further, 1,270 new deaths were linked to the coronavirus on Thursday, down 31% from the average two weeks ago.
Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics sciences at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), said the latest data indicates the United States is experiencing "a localized surge" in coronavirus cases, "but we could see it everywhere [i]f we are not quick to dialing back or imposing mandates to slow down the surge." Mokdad added, "We are not out of danger."
Experts have said the recent uptick in coronavirus cases likely stems from two key factors: states easing coronavirus-related restrictions, and the spread of more transmissible coronavirus variants.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said she's concerned eased restrictions coupled with spring break could hurt the progress the United States has made in containing the coronavirus epidemic.
"What concerns me is the footage of what's happening in spring breakers, in people who are not continuing to implement prevention strategies while we get fully scaled up," Walensky said during a White House Covid-19 briefing. "We need to hang in there for just a little while longer because we can see a time in the next couple of months where we will have a lot more people vaccinated and we will really be able to blunt infection rates," she added.
Meanwhile, IHME attributed the increase in cases in the northern half of the United States in part to "the spread of the B.1.1.7 variant." CDC is currently studying the spread of more contagious variants in the United States, Roll Call reports.
Health officials are urging states to not ease measures aimed at containing the coronavirus until a larger share of the U.S. population is vaccinatedand they're asking Americans to continue to wear face masks and follow other precautions.
"I'm often asked, 'Are we turning the corner?' My response is really more like, 'We are at the corner. Whether or not we turn the corner remains to be seen,'" Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical advisor for the White House's Covid-19 response, said at a press briefing. "We do have a lot of challenges in front of us with regard to the high level of daily infections" (Stolberg, New York Times, 3/25; Watson/Johnson, Associated Press, 3/26; Gorman, Reuters, 3/25; Querolo/Court, Bloomberg, 3/25; Sullivan, The Hill, 3/24; Baker/Witherspoon, Axios, 3/25; Caldwell, CNN, 3/26; Kopp, Roll Call, 3/24; Maxouris/Colbert, CNN, 3/26;
