(Update: Weekly report shows more cases, fewer deaths, hospitalizations)
Outdoor capacity limits revised; state reports 3 more deaths, 239 cases
PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- Oregon Health Authority Director Patrick Allen said Wednesday that that all Oregonians 16 and older will be eligible to seek vaccines on May 1.
"In Oregon, every single adult will be eligible for a vaccine on May 1 -- which does not mean they will get a vaccine on May 1, but they will be eligible," Allen said during a Wednesday interview with OPB.
KGW obtained this statement from the governor's office:
It is welcome news for all Oregonians that the Biden-Harris administration has secured the vaccine production agreements needed for everyone 16 and over in the United States to be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine by May 1.
We look forward to partnering with the federal government to ensure that Oregon and our local health partners have the vaccine supplies and federal support necessary to implement this directive.
We are following up with the administration for more specifics about when vaccine shipments to states will increase, but in a briefing with governors earlier this week, it was clear the White House has worked hard to secure additional vaccine supplies for states in the coming weeks.
We will continue to center equity in all of our vaccine distribution efforts, whether that means ensuring that seniors, people with underlying conditions, frontline workers, and the Oregonians most vulnerable to COVID-19 have the opportunity for vaccinations prior to May 1or after May 1, working with local health partners to ensure these priority groups continue to have access to appointments.
Meanwhile, OHA reported three new COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, raising the state's death toll to 2,349. It also reported 239 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19, bringing the state's total to 160,259.
Under the direction of Governor Kate Brown, outdoor capacity limits are now updated for outdoor recreation and fitness, and outdoor entertainment for Oregon counties.
As of Wednesday, outdoor entertainment establishments and outdoor recreation and fitness establishments in all Oregon counties may allow the following:
Previously, there were numerical capacity limits for all four risk levels, from 75 to 300 people for High, Moderate and Lower Risk. Oregon restaurants and bars recently also asked to move to percentage occupancy guidelines, but no such changes were announced for those facilities.
For updated outdoor capacity limits, please refer to theSector Risk Level Guidance Chart.
OHA reported that 15,289 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added Wednesday to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 7,849 doses were administered on Tuesday and 7,440 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on Tuesday.
Wednesday's vaccine totals are lower than usual due to an outage in the ALERT IIS system that affected several states. It is anticipated that the number of doses from March 15 and 16 will increase over the coming days as providers catch up on submitting data to ALERT IIS.
Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the states ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).
Oregon has now administered a cumulative total of 1,363,311 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccines. To date, 1,777,145 doses of vaccine have been delivered to sites across Oregon.
These data are preliminary and subject to change. OHA'sdashboardsprovide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregons dashboard has been updated Wednesday.
St. Charles Health System reported having given 33,270 COVID-19 vaccinations as of early Wednesday.
The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 108, which is 11 fewer than Tuesday.There are 29 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four more than Tuesday.
The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.
More information about hospital capacity can be found here.
St. Charles Bend reported 11 COVID-19 patients as of 4 a.m. Wednesday, two of whom were in the ICU but not on a ventilator.
The Oregon Health AuthoritysCOVID-19 Weekly Report, released today, shows increased daily cases and declines in hospitalizations and deaths from the previous week.
OHA reported 2,272 new daily cases of COVID-19 during the week of Monday, March 8 through Sunday, March 14. That represents a 31% increase from the previous week.
New COVID-19 related hospitalizations also dropped to 130, down from 139 last week.
Reported COVID-19 related deaths dropped to 26, down from 86 last week.
There were 94,079 tests for COVID-19 for the week of March 7 through March 13 a 27% drop from last week. The percentage of positive tests was sharply higher, at 3.6%.
People 70 years of age and older have accounted for 40% of COVID-19 related hospitalizations and 77% of COVID-19 related deaths.
WednesdaysCOVID-19 Weekly Outbreak Reportshows 37 active COVID-19 outbreaks in senior living communities and congregate living settings, with three or more confirmed cases and one or more COVID-19 related deaths.
OHA is now providing access to download the data that powers our vaccination dashboards as a CSV or Excel file. OHA currently posts summary tables for all existing COVID-19 case dashboards that are featured on weekdays, and OHA will now do the same for the vaccine dashboard.
The vaccine summary table is availablehere.
The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported Wednesday are in the following counties: Baker (1), Benton (5), Clackamas (15), Clatsop (7), Columbia (2), Coos (10), Crook (1), Curry (1), Deschutes (7), Douglas (8), Grant (6), Jackson (25), Jefferson (2), Josephine (16), Klamath (2), Lane (16), Lincoln (3), Linn (6), Malheur (3), Marion (26), Morrow (1), Multnomah (24), Polk (1), Tillamook (3), Umatilla (13), Union (1), Washington (28), Wheeler (2) and Yamhill (4).
Oregons 2,347th COVID-19 death is an 86-year-old man in Lane County who tested positive on March 5 and died on March 14. Location of death is being confirmed. He had underlying conditions.
Oregons 2,348th COVID-19 death is an 89-year-old man in Washington County who tested positive on Feb. 28 and died on March 13 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.
Oregons 2,349th COVID-19 death is a 90-year-old woman in Josephine County who tested positive on March 8 and died on March 16 at her residence. Presence of underlying conditions is being confirmed.
To learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine situation in Oregon, visit ourweb page, which has a breakdown of distribution and other useful information.
Note: The news conference can be watched live in the video player above beginning at around 1 p.m.
Chicago's top doctor on Wednesday is expected to deliver an update on the city's COVID-19 data and announce the next steps and phases of the vaccination rollout.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot and Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady is scheduled to hold a news conference to deliver the update at 1 p.m. from City Hall, according to CDPH. The event can be watched live in the video player above.
The news conference will include "an update on COVID-19 data and the continued vaccine distribution in Chicago, including planned next steps and phases," CDPH said.
Arwady hinted at the announcement in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday, saying Chicago is expected to move ahead to its next phase of vaccinations, Phase 1C, at the end of the month, with details to be released Wednesday.
The city is slated to move to Phase 1C, which opens up eligibility to people with certain underlying health conditions and other essential workers not already eligible under Phase 1B, on March 29, Arwady said Tuesday.
"We are intending March 29 to move ahead with 1C, which means moving ahead to the people who have the list of the underlying conditions as well, to be clear, as the frontline workers who are unable to work from home," Arwady said.
She hinted that the move will expand eligibility not only to those currently qualified under the state's 1B Plus plan, but also to other essential workers.
"I feel pretty strongly about making sure that people who are working in restaurants and people who are, you know, clergy and people who are working in, you know, doing your hair and the nails, people who have trouble keeping the distance, who can't work from home... We want to make sure that they have the opportunity to get vaccinated," Arwady said. "We have plans to be vaccinating particularly in some of the settings that may have a lot of lower wage workers, that may have more difficulty accessing vaccine, and so we are planning to move ahead."
She noted, however, that much like previous phases, the rollout for Phase 1C will take time as eligible residents work to get appointments.
"Not everybody's going to be able if we open March 29," Arwady said. "You know, there's nowhere near enough vaccines to vaccinate all those people on March 29, but people will be able to get vaccinated in April and May, just like when we moved from 1A to 1B, we said - that was at the very end of January - we said most people are going to get vaccinated in February or March in 1B. That's exactly what's happened and that's going to be the same thing and 1C will open up at the end of March, most people in 1C will get vaccinated in April and in May."
Chicago remains under Phase 1B, which includes frontline essential workers and residents age 65 and older, as well as health care workers and long-term care facility staff and residents who were eligible under Phase 1A of the city's rollout.
The city opted out of expanding to Phase 1B Plus alongside the state, which made those with certain underlying medical conditions eligible, due to what it said was a lack of supply.
For a full look at who's eligible to get vaccinated in Phase 1B Plus,click here.
Phase 1C would expand vaccine eligibility to all other essential workers not already eligible as well as Chicagoans over the age of 16 with underlying medical conditions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Phase 1C includes:
The CDC notes, however, that Phase 1B and Phase 1C can overlap in some cases, such as underlying medical conditions.
Already, many residents eligible under Phase 1B Plus of the state's rollout can get vaccinated at the federally-run United Center mass vaccination site.
For a complete look at where and how you can make an appointment in Illinois or where you can receive vaccine information for your area, clickhere.
(WKBN) - The Pennsylvania Department of Health will give an update on COVID-19 in the state Thursday.
As of Wednesday, more than 3.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in the state. The health department has reported a statewide total of 973,721 cases and 24,689 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
Covid-19 paused climate emissions but they're rising again
(Image credit: Getty Images)
The world's sudden launch into lockdown a year ago had an interesting effect on carbon emissions now they're returning back to normal far quicker than society is.
T
The planet had already warmed by around 1.2C since pre-industrial times when the World Health Organization officially declared a pandemic on 11 March 2020. This began a sudden and unprecedented drop in human activity, as much of the world went into lockdown and factories stopped operating, cars kept their engines off and planes were grounded.
There have been many monumental changes since then, but for those of us who work as climate scientists this period has also brought some entirely new and sometimes unexpected insights.
Here are three things we have learned:
1. Climate science can operate in real time
The pandemic made us think on our feet about how to get around some of the difficulties of monitoring greenhouse gas emissions, and carbon dioxide in particular, in real time. When many lockdowns were beginning in March 2020, the next comprehensive Global Carbon Budget setting out the year's emissions trends was not due until the end of the year. So climate scientists set about looking for other data that might indicate how CO2 was changing.
You might also like:
We used information on lockdown as a mirror for global emissions. In other words, if we knew what the emissions were from various economic sectors or countries pre-pandemic, and we knew by how much activity had fallen, we could assume that their emissions had fallen by the same amount.
While emissions may have dropped because airlines halted flights, the lack of air traffic may have actually caused a slight warming in temperatures (Credit: Getty Images)
By May 2020, a landmark study combined government lockdown policies and activity data from around the world to predict as much as a 7% fall in CO2 emissions by the end of the year, a figure later confirmed by the Global Carbon Project. This was soon followed by research by my own team, which used Google and Apple mobility data to reflect changes in 10 different pollutants, while a third study again tracked CO2 emissions using data on fossil fuel combustion and cement production.
The latest Google mobility data shows that although daily activity hasn't yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, it has recovered to some extent. This is reflected in our latest emissions estimate, which shows, following a limited bounce back after the first lockdown, a fairly steady growth in global emissions during the second half of 2020. This was followed by a second and smaller dip representing the second wave in late 2020/early 2021.
Meanwhile, as the pandemic progressed, the Carbon Monitor project established methods for tracking CO2 emissions in close to real time, giving us a valuable new way to do this kind of science.
2. No dramatic effect on climate change
In both the short and long term, the pandemic will have less effect on efforts to tackle climate change than many people had hoped.
Despite the clear and quiet skies, research I was involved in found that lockdown actually had a slight warming effect in spring 2020: as industry ground to a halt, air pollution dropped and so did the ability of aerosols, tiny particles produced by the burning of fossil fuels, to cool the planet by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth. The impact on global temperatures was short-lived and very small (an increase of just 0.03C), but it was still bigger than anything caused by lockdown-related changes in ozone, CO2 or aviation.
Looking further ahead to 2030, simple climate models have estimated that global temperatures will only be around 0.01C lower as a result of Covid-19 than if countries followed the emissions pledges they already had in place at the height of the pandemic. These findings were later backed up by more complex model simulations.
Closing down a global economy is not a practical way to clamp down on carbon emissions (Credit: Getty Images)
Many of these national pledges have been updated and strengthened over the past year, but they still aren't enough to avoid dangerous climate change, and as long as emissions continue we will be eating into the remaining carbon budget. The longer we delay action, the steeper the emissions cuts will need to be.
3. This isn't a plan for climate action
The temporary halt to normal life we have now seen with successive lockdowns is not only not enough to stop climate change, it is also not sustainable: like climate change, Covid-19 has hit the most vulnerable the hardest. We need to find ways to reduce emissions without the economic and social impacts of lockdowns, and find solutions that also promote health, welfare and equity. Widespread climate ambition and action by individuals, institutions and businesses is still vital, but it must be underpinned and supported by structural economic change.
Colleagues and I have estimated that investing just 1.2% of global GDP in economic recovery packages could mean the difference between keeping global temperature rise below 1.5C, and a future where we are facing much more severe impacts and higher costs.
Unfortunately, green investment is not being made at anything like the level needed. However, many more investments will be made over the next few months. It's essential that strong climate action is integrated into future investments. The stakes may seem high, but the potential rewards are far higher.
Piers Forster is a professor of physical climate change and director of the Priestley International Centre for Climate at the University of Leeds.
--
Join one million Future fans by liking us onFacebook, or follow us onTwitterorInstagram.
If you liked this story,sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called "The Essential List". A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife, and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.
17 Mar 2021
PAHO Director reports 728,000 doses will be delivered to five countries in the Americas in coming days.
Washington, D.C., March 17, 2021 (PAHO) Deliveries of COVID-19 vaccines are picking up speed across the Americas as more countries prepare for the imminent arrival of doses procured through COVAX, the global mechanism for equitable distribution of vaccines, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa F. Etienne reported today.
During her weekly media briefing, Dr. Etienne said that over the next few days, PAHOs Revolving Fund will deliver 728,000 COVAX-procured COVID-19 vaccines to five regional countries. In total, PAHO has placed orders for more than 3.4 million doses, she said.
For all these countries even those which received small donations earlier this month these COVAX deliveries will enable the start of steady vaccination efforts, Dr. Etienne said. We are happy that vaccines through COVAX are being delivered but we recognize that the need for more vaccines and sooner is great in the Americas.
She said only two vaccine manufacturers are dispatching millions of doses to dozens of countries around the world. This is a bottleneck that still prevents us from getting vaccines to every country at the same time, she said. But shipments will become more regular as more doses are available to COVAX in the next few months.
The upcoming shipments to five nations follow delivery of 400,000 doses of COVAX-procured vaccines to regional countries, including Peru, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Jamaica. Colombia received COVAX-procured doses through a pilot program earlier this month.
COVAX is a global effort between the Coalition for the Promotion of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Gavi Vaccine Alliance (Gavi), and the World Health Organization (WHO), working in partnership with UNICEF as key implementing partner. In the Americas, the PAHO Revolving Fund is the recognized procurement agent for the COVAX facility. Thirty-six countries in the Americas are participating in COVAX.
With COVID vaccination campaigns underway throughout our region, were at the beginning of the end of this pandemic. But while theres reason for hope, we must also remember that doses are limited, and it will be several months before we can rely on vaccines to control this virus.She said that as vaccinations are administered, our goal must be to save as many lives as possible by prioritizing early doses for those who are at highest risk of infection. The health workers who are treating COVID patients, the elderly and those living with existing conditions must come first. In total, nearly 1.3 million people were infected with COVID-19 in the Americas in the past week, and almost 31,000 died because of the virus.
Caribbean nations are also looking forward to arrivals of vaccines. Fifteen Caribbean countries will receive just over 2.1 million doses of COVAX-procured vaccines by May, according to allocation figures provided for the first round of deliveries. Next week, we expect that many countries in the Caribbean will start to see the first COVAX shipments arrive on their shores, Dr. Etienne said.
A fourth vaccine, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, has been authorized by WHO, which issued an Emergency Use License (EUL) last week. COVAX has secured over 100 million doses of the vaccine for 2021 and up to 500 million through 2022, with doses expected to start arriving in July. The vaccine, which provides protection with a single dose, promises to accelerate vaccination efforts.
So far, 28 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered to Latin American and Caribbean populations while nearly 138 million doses have been provided throughout the Americas.
Dr. Etienne cautioned that countries must maintain public health measures hand washing, social distancing, and mask wearing. Even people who have been vaccinated should adhere to the measures. Stopping this pandemic will require both that we limit new infections and that we expand access to vaccines, she said. So, we must not let our guard down now. Lets keep hope alive.
Even as vaccines arrive, Dr. Etienne pointed out, COVID-19 is accelerating its spread in about half of the countries in the Americas.
The number of cases is rising in many South American countries, including Uruguay, Ecuador and Venezuela. In the last week, Paraguays health system issued an urgent warning as hospitals have filled with COVID patients, Dr. Etienne said. Major cities like Lima and Rio de Janeiro have imposed curfews and lockdowns to control recent spikes.
In Brazil, several areas are experiencing record-high infections and hospital beds are nearing capacity in more than half of states. The country is reporting the second highest COVID daily death toll in the world.
New infections are declining in the U.S. and Mexico while cases are increasing in Canada, particularly among young adults. In the Caribbean, new infections are declining but many islands are reporting a rise in COVID 19-related deaths.
ContactsDaniel EpsteinNancy NusserSebastin Olielmediateam@paho.org
The COVID-19 Vaccines Are Here: The Ethical Challenges for... : Neurology Today LWW Journals
HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) Department of Health Acting Secretary Alison Beam and Executive Deputy Secretary Keara Klinepeter will host a press conference Thursday to provide an update on the COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts in the state.
As of Wednesday, March 17, there have been over 3.8 million Pennsylvanians vaccinated. 1.3 million of those have been fully vaccinated.
The press conference is set to begin at 11:30 AM and the video will be available above.
Pfizer made headlines last month when its chief financial officer said the company would look to raise COVID-19 vaccine prices after the pandemic wanes. The company is doubling down on that stance, and it now believes annual vaccinations are "increasingly likely."
Add those two things together, and you get a hefty long-term revenue stream.
During a recent virtual investor conference (PDF) hosted by Barclays, Pfizer Chief Financial Officer Frank DAmelio said the company sees significant opportunity for its COVID-19 vaccine once the market shifts from a pandemic situation to an endemic situation.
Right now, the market is clearly not being driven by what I'll call normal market conditions, D'Amelio explained to Barclays analyst Carter Gould during the virtual event. Instead, its been driven by kind of the pandemic state that we've been in and the needs of governments to really secure doses from the various vaccine suppliers.
Eventually, Pfizer expects normal market forces will start to kick in, DAmelio said.
At that point factors like efficacy, booster ability, clinical utility will basically become very important, and we view that as, quite frankly, a significant opportunity for our vaccine from a demand perspective, from a pricing perspective, given the clinical profile of our vaccine, DAmelio told the analyst.
RELATED: What does it take to supply COVID-19 vaccines across the globe? Here's how the leading players are working it
Plus, Pfizer believes there will be demand for shots even after the current crisis. Citing variant concerns, Pfizer believes its "increasingly likely that an annual revaccination is going to take place and that those revaccinations will be needed for the foreseeable future, the CFO said.
Pfizer has said it expects $15 billion in revenue from the mRNA vaccine this year, and that number could grow as the company negotiates new supply deals. At the Barclays event, DAmelio said his company expects return after taxes of around 25% on the $15 billion figure, or around $3.75 billion. The CFO previously said he expects margins for the vaccine to grow over time.
On the manufacturing front, Pfizer and BioNTech have made several upgrades to their supply chains and now plan to produce 2 billion doses this year. The company is working to improve upon that number as well, DAmelio said.
RELATED: Pfizer eyes higher prices for COVID-19 vaccine after the pandemic wanes: exec, analyst
In the wake of AstraZenecas recent supply shortfalls in Europe, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to deliver 200 million doses there in the second quarter. Pfizer also expects to ship 300 million doses to the U.S. during the first half of the year.
Aside from its COVID-19 vaccine work, Pfizer sees an opportunity to improve on current flu vaccines with mRNA technology as well as to grow the market with a higher efficacy product, DAmelio said at the event.
Despite early stumbles in the logistics of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, Oregon health officials say the state is ready, willing and able to double the rate of shots going into Oregonians' arms.
Currently, about 24,000 vaccinations a day are being given in Oregon. The Oregon Health Authority says it would increase that pace by distributing doses to local public health authorities, hospitals and pharmacies in March and April.
That plan matters because Oregon expects to start receiving vaccine doses at a far greater rate than it has so far this year. Whether the state can rapidly deliver that supply into armswithout the spectacular snafus that plagued Oregon's distribution to seniorswill determine when most adults get shots and when some semblance of normal life resumes.
AsWWfirst reported last week, the Oregon Health Authority projects it could have doses for 70% of the adult population by April 21, if vaccine manufacturers keep to their promised schedule.
That matches the timeline of President Joe Biden, who has called on states to make everyone eligible for a vaccine by May 1.
As of press deadlines,Oregon Gov. Kate Brown had declined to do so, instead taking a wait-and-see approach. Nor has she moved up the dates of eligibility for people younger than 65, including those with specific health conditions, farmworkers and manufacturing workers, who all become eligible March 29.
State health officials say that isn't because of any jitters over its ability to distribute a huge glut of shots. Instead, OHA says it is prepared to distribute whatever the feds provide.
"We are still on track to meet the projected April goal of receiving enough prime doses of the vaccines to vaccinate 70% of adults," says OHA spokesman Jonathan Modie. "We've been clear we want to advance our timelines, and we can move them up, if we receive enough doses from the federal government."
The date the Oregon Health Authority expects prime doses of COVID-19 vaccine to arrive in Oregon.
Oregon's plan to double the doses currently being distributed would give the following places this many doses each week.
Drive-thru COVID-19 vaccinations will be available without an appointment from 2 to 8 p.m. Friday at the Dempsey Anderson Ice Arena in Anchorage.
Anyone 16 and older who lives or works in Alaska is currently eligible for a shot. The vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech is approved for use by people 16 and older, while Moderna and Johnson & Johnsons vaccines have been approved for adults 18 and older.
The vaccine available Friday at the Dempsey Anderson Ice Arena will be Pfizers.
That location has additional, appointment-based openings this week and next. To book a vaccine appointment at other times and in locations across the state, visit covidvax.alaska.gov or call 907-646-332; new appointments are added to the site regularly.
The phone line is staffed from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends.
