A year ago this week Kansas had just dropped out of the NCAA Tournament. One problem, no one had bothered to tell Kansas.
They say truth is the first casualty of war. In those confusing final hours before sports went dark last March, Jayhawks' coach Bill Self was in reassurance mode. The Big 12 Tournament one of the biggest conference tourney parties in the country went from starting on time to being played before family only to being canceled because of COVID-19.
"Then there was this report that Duke and Kansas pulled out of the [NCAA] tournament," Self said. "I'm going, 'What the hell is this?' So all the players saw this. I convinced all the guys on the bus, it's not true."
Not that it mattered. What had been a misinterpretation was moot within hours. There was no tournament to pull out of. For the first time in its 82-year history the NCAA Tournament was canceled.
Friday marks the anniversary of COVID-19 turning the lights out on One Shining Moment. On March 12, 2020 all sports in the U.S. ceased but the pandemic hit college hoops especially hard.
The NCAA Tournament is stitched into our sporting hearts. Despite the rent-a-player aspect of one-and-dones, the cheating, some the pompous bloviating coaches, there is still an innocence for those of us who ever tried to touch the rim or dunk on an eight-foot goal.
We missed the tournament last year like we missed a limb. The answer to "what if?" has now had 12 months to simmer.
Teams that had forever seasons will never get them back. Cinderellas will never know if the slipper fit. Turns out 2020 was the ultimate mock bracket. The tournament ended any way you wanted it to. All you needed was a Twitter feed and an opinion.
That only ramped up the hurt.
"We were going to be a 1-seed and maybe an overall No. 1 seed," Self recalled this week. "We're all excited. We go from that to we may not play to 'All right guys, everybody needs to be out of here in 48 hours. Take everything with you cause you're not going to be back until at least the summertime.' There were hugs in our meeting room."
College basketball gathers itself again this week at conference tournaments around the country for what it hopes to be a full, if socially-distanced, completion of the season beginning next week in Indianapolis.
This week also marks a grim milestone. The idea here is not so much as to assess the damage but celebrate a return. The game has made it through this upended season. Almost.
Dan Gavitt is naturally sanguine. Early on last March the NCAA's medical advisors were positive about the tournament. Then, for the NCAA's senior vice president of basketball, it felt like fine china dropped out of a third-story window. A precious thing shattered. What had once been would never be again.
"Maybe I was a little nave in some ways," said Gavitt who oversees the day-to-day operation of the tournament. "I'm optimistic by nature because our medical folks were telling us over the weekend we could have fans. Along about Tuesday it was, 'OK fans are being restricted now.' That's when I started to get more nervous and anxious."
It was all gone in a blink. On that Tuesday (March 10) the Ivy League canceled its tournament. On Wednesday night Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg got sick and was rushed to the hospital with what some naturally thought to be COVID-19. (It was the flu.) Michigan and Rutgers were pulled off the floor moments before the Big Ten Tournament opener. In the ACC, Florida State was hastily awarded the championship trophy on the floor after that league's tournament was cancelled.
This is a story that involves doctors and commissioners and coaches and fans. But what registered the deepest in that moment was the players. In the Big 12, press row phones blew up that Wednesday night as Kansas State played TCU with the news the Utah Jazz' Rudy Gobert tested positive. The NBA quickly shut down. Gavitt and other college administrators began getting texts from coaches about their players.
"If you get hesitation and fear in the very people that are playing these games that you're doing this for, then all could be lost," Gavitt said. "You wouldn't put them in that position to begin with. But once they saw their peers and who they want to be someday not being able to play then I think that concern had to creep in."
The NCAA Tournament was canceled the next day.
"That really hit our basketball players hard," Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby said. "Once they saw the NBA canceling games all the sudden this became real to them. I remember that vividly [College players] think they're bulletproof. They don't think about a virus that could kill somebody."
History will ultimately reflect what tipped the tournament toward cancellation. The measure of COVID-19 is that it took one helluva lot. The first NCAA Tournament was in 1939 played 2 years before Pearl Harbor. It continued through World War II. Dan Gavitt's dad Dave was on the NCAA basketball committee March 30, 1981 when John Hinckley shot President Ronald Reagan the day of the championship game.
"That committee had to wrestle with, 'Do you play the game? Do you not play the game?' Dan Gavitt said. "I wonder if my dad would have flashed back to that. As much as he loved the game, there was always a bigger picture to everything."
The NCAA eventually decided to play that championship game that saw Bobby Knight win his second national championship. Dave Gavitt, who passed in 2011, remains a towering figure in basketball. Most famous as the first Big East commissioner, he was also coach of the 1980 U.S. Olympic basketball team that was part of the boycott of the Moscow Olympics.
'"That really hit our basketball players hard. Once they saw the NBA canceling games all the sudden this became real to them. I remember that vividly."
"He was an American, first and foremost," Dan Gavitt said. "He accepted that was the president's decision. He would have been practical around this. If it's not safe and healthy for everybody involved we can't do it. But he would have been heartbroken too."
In the run up to the 2003 tournament, the selection committee was in contact with the Defense Department. The U.S. invaded Iraq on March 19, a day after the tournament started citing Saddam Hussein's "weapons of mass destruction." The tournament hung on.
"What we heard from [the government] was, 'People are going to be uncomfortable enough, scared enough, uncertain enough. We don't need something like the NCAA Tournament to be cancelled to send everyone into a tizzy," said Bowlsby, a member of the committee that year.
Seventeen years later Bowlsby's eyes were turning red. The still-fit 69-year old former college wrestler was getting emotional facing a packed media house in the bowels of the Sprint Center. This time last year the Big 12 commissioner's basketball tournament had already been canceled by COVID-19. In the moments that followed the cancellation of the NCAA Tournament the only available sentiment was March Sadness.
"It was kind of surreal," Bowlsby said this week. "I recall sitting at that press conference. It was a little bit of an out-of-body experience. You just don't feel like that's the sort of thing you're going to [do] -- get in front of the media and say, 'Yeah we're serious. We're not playing.' "
That week, baseball's boys of spring quietly left their training facilities in Arizona and Florida. The NBA had already quickly canceled. Hockey paused with just a month's worth of regular-season games remaining.
But the biggest shock came in college basketball. Three days before Selection Sunday COVID-19 had done what wars and a presidential assassination attempt couldn't cancel the tournament. A giant hole formed in America's sports calendar.
That hole will never be filled in.
Not only was the tournament cancelled but the remainder of the NCAA's winter and spring sports. The NCAA faced blowback for acting so early to take out the College World Series, the traditional end to the college sports/academic year.
"It wasn't like, 'Hey, well, we're only talking about a couple of weeks and we'll be back to normal.' It was bleak and there was no chance," said Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione.
"Joe C" as he is known in the business, like a lot of ADs, had to stand up in front of all of his school's athletes and relay the bad news.
"It was surreal when the words were coming out of my mouth," he said. "It was heartbreaking to see the response. You're looking at any number of student-athletes who worked not just that year but they had worked their life for that moment.
"Some of them were on the precipice of competing for a national championship. Some were about to have the best year of their career. Some of them knew they were having last year of their career."
What if?
"I haven't really thought about it much," Self said. "I wish those guys would have had a chance to make a run at it, but the reality of it is, there's been so much stuff going on it's not anything I focus on. There are things more important than ball."
After one of Kansas best regular seasons, the Jayhawks responded with a second-place finish in the Big 12 in the 2020-21 follow up (19-8, 12-6 in the Big 12).
"The luckiest teams in the country are probably the ones that had a pause as long as nobody got sick," Self said. "The ones that could be unlucky are the ones that did a really good job [avoiding the virus] all year long. You come across a classmate, visit with them for five minutes. Next thing you know you can infect your whole team."
"What if?" is now almost a year old.
Like Kansas, Baylor was a projected No. 1 seed a year ago. A 26-4 season was flushed when the tournament was cancelled. Several Bears faced decisions on whether to turn pro. Every one of substance returned and No. 2 Baylor (21-1) might be better than last season's team.
But COVID-19 had its say. The Bears were forced to pause for three weeks in February. In their second game back they won at West Virginia clinching the program's first outright regular-season conference title in 71 years.
"What if?" has turned into "how far?" Gonzaga is undefeated. The Big Ten might have four teams on the top-two seed lines. Apparently, Alabama can play basketball too.
Just don't celebrate. Not yet. The first NCAA Tournament in two years isn't over until One Shining Moment plays. Again.
"Part of it seems like a year ago," Bowlsby said of the past 12 months. "Part of it seems like 10 years ago. There isn't any way to put a good face on it. If there was someone I could ask, I would ask for a refund on 2020."
Currently in Washington, cancer alone is not a qualifier for the vaccine. The states tells KING 5 it will be in Phase 2.
SEATTLE The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists cancer as one of the conditions putting people at increased risk of severe cases of COVID-19.
Experts say the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for most people battling cancer. But not all patients will get access to it right away.
Currently, in Washington state, cancer alone is not a qualifier for the vaccine. In Phase 1B Tier 3, which the state predicts will begin in mid-April, people 50 and older with two underlying health conditions will be eligible, but cancer only counts as one.
Steve Crawford is a cancer patient who had been eager to get the vaccine.
"I was fortunate to have found my prostate cancer early," Crawford said.
Doctors diagnosed Crawford with prostate cancer in March 2019. He went through proton therapy at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and is doing well.
Then came 2020, and along with it, the coronavirus pandemic. Crawford reached out to Dr. Jing Zeng, the medical director for Seattle Cancer Care Alliance Proton Therapy Center.
"I contacted Dr. Zeng, I said, 'Technically I have cancer,' even though I'm not undergoing treatment at this time, do I need to be concerned about this? And her answer to me was, 'You need to go get vaccinated as soon as you can,'" Crawford said.
Zeng works with cancer patients every day and knows the risks that COVID-19 poses for people whose bodies are already fighting off cancer.
"Cancer takes a toll on your body and takes a toll on your immune system and then all of the anti-cancer treatments take a toll on your immune system, as well. If a patient with cancer is actively going through treatment and they were to catch COVID, theyre at a much higher risk of having serious complications and becoming critically ill from the virus," she said. "The recovery period also often means delays in cancer treatment because your body is busy fighting the virus, its busy recovering from the virus and so were forced to take a break from treating the cancer and thats never ideal.
She said the vaccine is crucial.
"For all the patients who I treat who ask me the question, I've said, 'Yes please, absolutely go ahead and get the vaccine as quickly as you're able to, said Zeng. It is indeed safe for them to be vaccinated. Even patients who are actively undergoing treatment, actively receiving radiation treatment, actively receiving chemotherapy, as long as their blood counts are above a certain threshold, it is safe for them to be vaccinated.
Crawford got his COVID-19 vaccine, not because of his cancer diagnosis, but because he's in the 65 and older crowd.
"It was a no-brainer for me to get myself vaccinated to try to minimize my chance of getting sick, he said.
In a statement to KING 5, the Washington State Department of Health said, People who have two or more medical conditions on the CDCs list are eligible for vaccine in Phase 1B Tier 3. That means if someone has cancer plus another co-morbidity then their projected eligibility date is either April 12 or April 26, depending on their age."
People with cancer and who have no other medical conditions will be eligible in Phase 2 and no date has yet been set, the Department of Health said.
Zeng said that cancer patients should be prioritized sooner than that.
"You count cancer as an underlying condition and so, they should be becoming eligible with tier 3 as well. So, yes, it's a priority that patients with cancer should be vaccinated," Zeng said.
"So, If I can keep myself from getting sick, it's a win for everybody. Absolutely, yes, I think people need to get vaccinated, cancer patients shouldn't hesitate, Crawford said.
There are many different COVID-19 vaccines in development worldwide. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has so far authorized three COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use.
Two of these vaccines are the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, which use mRNA technology to help your immune system generate immunity to SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
Both of these vaccines require two doses. Its after receiving your second dose that your immunity to the virus fully kicks in. You may be wondering how long after the second dose you have full immunity.
In this article, well take a deeper dive into what you need to know about immunity with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines work by introducing your immune system to a part of the new coronavirus called the spike protein. This protein is found on the viral surface. Its used to help the virus bind to and enter host cells in your body.
Because your immune system has a memory, it can use the vaccine to analyze and store information about the spike protein. It can then draw upon this information to protect you if youre exposed to the actual virus in the future.
However, immunity doesnt happen immediately after vaccination. In fact, it typically takes about 2 weeks for your body to build up immunity. Because of this, you can still become ill during this time frame.
Now that weve discussed how long it generally takes to have immunity, lets take a look at the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in the weeks after the second dose.
The Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trial evaluated vaccine effectiveness 1 week after participants had gotten their second dose. Researchers found that the vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 at this point.
The Moderna clinical trial looked at vaccine effectiveness 2 weeks after participants had received their second dose. At this point, the vaccine was found to be 94.1 percent effective at preventing COVID-19.
The time period between the two doses depends on which of the two vaccines you get:
During early testing, researchers found that both vaccines produced a weak immune response after just one dose. However, a much stronger immune response was observed following the second dose.
This is why two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are needed. Think of it like this: The first dose starts building protection, while the second dose reinforces that protection.
There are some vaccines that only require one dose. An example of this is the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson.
This vaccine uses a different type of technology than the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. After reviewing safety and effectiveness data from clinical trials, the FDA authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for emergency use.
Some immunity is generated following the first dose of the vaccine. How this information has been reported is also different for the two vaccines.
For the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, an effectiveness of 52 percent was reported between the time of the first and second doses. However, vaccine effectiveness after the first dose may actually be higher than this.
A separate analysis by scientists in the United Kingdom estimated that vaccine effectiveness was closer to 89 to 91 percent 15 days or more after the first dose.
Additionally, a 2021 study of the vaccination campaign in Israel observed significant reductions in COVID-19 cases after one dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
A report submitted to the FDA detailed the effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine after only one dose. In this case, researchers found that vaccine effectiveness was 50.8 percent up to 14 days later and was 92.1 percent beyond this period.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends that you get your second dose as close to the 3-week (Pfizer-BioNTech) or 4-week (Moderna) waiting period as possible.
But sometimes, delays in the vaccine supply chain or unforeseen weather events may prevent you from getting your second vaccine right on time. Fortunately, theres some wiggle room with this, and getting your second dose a little later than anticipated shouldnt affect your immunity.
According to the CDCs guidelines, its best not to receive your second dose more than 6 weeks after you received your first dose.
The impact of delaying the second dose any longer is unknown at this time.
You may have also heard discussion about intentionally delaying or even eliminating the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. Whats the thought process behind this?
We know that one dose of either vaccine can give some level of immunity. So, the idea here is that delaying or eliminating the second dose would allow more people to receive some protection while helping to stretch limited vaccine supplies.
However, the truth is that we currently dont know what impact this would have on immunity. Its possible, but not known, that vaccine effectiveness could be lower in this scenario.
Overall, further research into this topic is needed. Until we have further information, the FDA strongly recommends sticking to the dosing schedule that was tested within the clinical trials and authorized for emergency use.
All COVID-19 vaccines have only been around for a very short amount of time. Because of this, its not known exactly how long immunity lasts after being vaccinated. This is true for both one-dose and two-dose vaccines.
Going forward, scientists will continue to study the different COVID-19 vaccines and how long their immunity lasts.
Even though we dont know how long protection from COVID-19 vaccines lasts, its still very important to receive your vaccination when its available to you.
This is because getting vaccinated can prevent you from getting COVID-19. Even if you do get the disease, youll have a much lower risk for developing a serious or life threatening illness.
Over the past several months, new strains, or variants, of SARS-CoV-2 have been identified. There have been concerns about about how effective the vaccines are against these new variants. Two new strains you may have heard a lot about are:
Laboratory (test tube) studies have been performed with these strains and the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. Initial data indicates that these vaccines may be less effective against the South African strain.
One report tested antibodies generated by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against a test virus containing the spike protein mutations found in the South African variant. When compared to an early strain of the novel coronavirus, antibody neutralization of this virus was two-thirds weaker.
A similar report looked at the ability of antibodies generated by the Moderna vaccine to neutralize test viruses. While viruses from the U.K. variant were neutralized, researchers saw a 6.4-fold drop in neutralization for the South African strain.
Its important to note that this is still a developing area of study. Researchers will continue to investigate the impact that emerging strains have on current and future COVID-19 vaccines.
If youve received both doses of the vaccine, its important to still continue to take precautions, including:
These precautions are important because we currently dont know whether people whove been vaccinated can still spread the virus to others, even if they themselves dont develop symptoms.
If you get the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, youll need two doses. You generally have full immunity about 2 weeks after getting your second dose. Its currently unknown exactly how long this immunity lasts.
While you get some immunity from the first dose, receiving the second dose greatly reinforces that immunity. Because of this, its important to get your second dose within the appropriate timeframe.
Its unknown whether people whove been vaccinated can pass the virus to others. Thats why its important to continue to take precautions even after youve gotten both doses of the vaccine.
A new COVID-19 mass vaccination site is opening in Alexandria, Virginia, and officials said Tuesday it will be able to administer thousands of doses a day.
A new COVID-19 mass vaccination site is opening in Alexandria, Virginia, and officials said Tuesday it will be able to administer thousands of doses a day.
The site, located at 5001 Eisenhower Avenue, is a joint partnership between Alexandria, Fairfax County and Inova Health System, which is based in Falls Church. Its slated to open by the end of March.
The headline for today is partnership and capacity, Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson said at a Tuesday news conference.
This has been a difficult year for this region. This has been a difficult year for our community. But for one of the first times in the last year, there is a palpable hope. There is palpable excitement. We can feel that we are turning the corner.
Wilson called the facility opening the beginning of the end for the coronavirus pandemic. It has the ability to vaccinate thousands of Alexandria and Fairfax County residents every day, officials said.
We have the capacity here to deliver at least 6,000 vaccinations every single day and the ability to expand to 12,000 a day if we make certain adjustments, which we will consider as we move forward, said Dr. Stephen Jones, president and CEO of Inova Health System.
Jeff McKay, chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, emphasized the importance of vaccinations.
This is not just about us as individuals, he said. This is about every single person we interact with on a daily basis. This is about protecting our grocery store workers. This is about protecting our transit drivers, our home health care workers, our children, their teachers and everyone we interact with. And so this is a necessary act of charity for your community, do this, get vaccinated help us get through this pandemic and help us make the progress that weve been making.
As of Tuesday, there are 67,945 reported cases of coronavirus in Fairfax County. More than 3,500 residents have been hospitalized. And 1,025 people have died.
Lets do this for them, if nothing else, McKay said. And as we see more vaccines come in every week, my commitment will continue to be to put every resource we have, stretch every partnership we have with trusted partners like Inova, into administering vaccines as quickly and as efficiently as we possibly can.
Jones noted that vaccine scarcity continues to be an issue.
Chairman McKay mentioned its about 19,000 that Fairfax is getting, Jones said. I think the mayor said 3,000 that Alexandra is getting. Our hope is that thatll come up a lot in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, our predictions on vaccine availability have not been particularly accurate nationwide. And so I think the answer will be, when we know the number, well be able to deliver that number.
The new Inova Stonebridge Vaccination Center is just off the Beltway in Alexandria and is accessible by the Van Dorn Metro Station. A precise opening date was not specified.
More Coronavirus news
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Photo: Doug Gray
The Cincinnati Reds just announced that first baseman Joey Votto has been placed on the injured list. There is no injury specified. Manager David Bell, earlier today when asked why Votto hadnt played recently said he had no update.
Update at 2:50pm ET
Mark Sheldon of Reds.com confirms that Joey Votto has COVID-19.
Per MLB protocols, Joey Votto will be out of camp for at least 10 days. Anyone who has been in close contact with him will have to quarantine for 7 days.
Original article continues below:
Joey Votto last played on Sunday and hasnt been seen since. Now we know why he has been absent from camp, though in the current times no one really even noticed until he wasnt in the lineup again on Wednesday.
Hopefully Joey Votto can return quickly and be healthy. He was having a good spring thus far, hitting .444/.500/.556 in his four games played while taking a different approach than he usually has in the spring and being more aggressive at the plate instead of taking pitches just to see more of them to try and prepare for the season.
Joey Votto
Theyre being put in units before the test results come in. Once the test results come in and the inmate is positive, then they pull them out and then they quarantine them. That individual has already exposed everyone in the unit before hes tested or quarantined, she said. We are not identifying her publicly, because she fears it would be held against her relative.
NOTE: This story has been updated for clarity on Lifespans vaccine eligibility.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) Rhode Islanders ages 16 and older who are immunocompromised are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at clinics run by Lifespan, a spokesperson confirms to 12 News.
Qualified individuals include those with certain health conditions that weaken their immune system and increase their risk of hospitalization due to COVID-19:
In addition to those individuals, Lifespan is also vaccinating all people ages 65 and older, as well as those on the transplant waiting list.
People with underlying conditions must fill out an attestation form while registering for the vaccine but documentation is not required.
Lifespan: Schedule a vaccine appointment
SCOOP: Lifespan spox confirms its vaccine clinics are open to individuals 16+ who are immunocompromised. They are going off of RIDOHs list of eligible medical conditions. @RIHEALTH has *not* opened up eligibility to this group yet, but a spox tells me its TBA soon. @wpri12 pic.twitter.com/uQU5sVxcNK
Joseph Wendelken, a spokesperson for the Health Department, said Lifespan was able to expand eligibility because it has extra doses this week, noting that its not reflective of a statewide policy change.
People ages 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions are included in the next eligibility group, and Wendelken said the Health Department expects to update the statewide distribution plans later this week.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rhode Island opened its third mass vaccination site at a former Bennys store in Middletown.
On Thursday, K-12 teachers, school employees and child care workers statewide will become eligible to make an appointment at a city- or town-run clinic. However, theyre not yet eligible for the state-run clinics unless theyre 65 or older.
The rush is on to vaccinate educators before the end of the school year. To speed up the process, some districts are organizing their own clinics.
ISSAQUAH, Wash. The rush is on to vaccinate teachers and staff before the end of the school year. To speed up the process, some districts are organizing their own clinics.
The Issaquah School District launched a vaccine clinic at Issaquah Middle School Tuesday. The district plans to vaccinate 1,200 teachers and staff this week. They hope to give another 1,200 shots next week.
It's a relief, it's definitely a relief, said Toni Osotio, a kindergarten teacher who returned to her classroom to resume teaching in-person last month.
I hesitated whether I should come back or not, but for the kids I'd do it, she said after receiving her first shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
The district says it hopes the vaccine events will help them vaccinate most of their employees, including bus drivers, custodians and anyone working around kids.
These are the most positive emails I've gotten from staff in a while, people are thrilled, said Lesha Engels, the districts executive director of communications.
The Washington Department of Health said districts across the state, including in Puyallup, Spokane, Highline, Eatonville and Olympia, are organizing similar clinics, as schools try to get kids back into their classrooms for at least part of the week.
The Issaquah School District says its events could be a model for others.
We're happy to collaborate with other districts and our hope also is to be able to start offering vaccines to our community once we're able to get most of our teachers vaccinated, Engels said.
Teachers and school staff who don't have access to a clinic organized by their employer are mainly getting vaccinated at pharmacies, which the federal government supplies with doses.
The Issaquah School District says it hopes to bring middle schoolers and high schoolers back to their classrooms by the end of the month.
The districts kindergartners and first graders returned to school buildings in February. Second and third graders returned last week.
All appointments made available onFriday, March 5 at 9:00 a.m.have been booked. Thank you for your patience.
For District residents who are 16 or 17 years of age and have a qualifying medical condition, not an existing patient of Children's National Hospital or HSC, please pre-register for a vaccination at Childrens National Hospital by clicking here.
If you previously attempted to get an appointment and you did not receive a notification with a confirmation code, date and location, you must re-register. We appreciate your patience as we work together to get Washingtonians across all eight wards vaccinated.
Currently demand for the vaccine in DC is much higher than the supply we are receiving from federal government. Mayor Bowser and DC Health continue to advocate for the federal government to send more vaccine so that we can meet the high demand for it and protect the lives of our residents and our workforce.
If you are not 65 years old or older; have a qualifying medical condition (18 and older); or are a member of an eligible workforce, pleasesign up for alerts via email or text for future announcements.
Thank you again. Together, we will save lives and end this pandemic.
The District of Columbia Department of Health (DC Health) continues to make progress with our COVID-19 vaccine distribution planning. We are working with the federal government and local partners within the District to plan for the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine as doses become available. Periodically check this page to learn more about COVID-19 vaccines and the plans for the District.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) required all states and territories to turn in an interim plan for COVID-19 vaccine distribution on Oct. 16, 2020. These plans are living documents and will change over time as we learn more about the vaccines and determine the most equitable way to distribute them.
The COVID-19 Clinician Champion Program (DC CCCP) is a partnership between DC Health and MSDC to provide a cadre of medical experts who can serve as speakers during meetings and events focused on COVID-19 and the importance and science behind the COVID-19 vaccine.Request for speakers can be made through the DC Health Community Outreach Request Form.
For Providers
3 things to know:
More than 1 million state residents have at least one vaccine dose
More than 10 percent of Minnesotans have completed vaccinations
Nearly 64 percent of Minnesota seniors have at least one dose
Minnesota passed more COVID-19 vaccination milestones over the weekend.
On Saturday, the state Health Department reported that more than 1 million residents had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
And on Sunday, it reported that more than 10 percent of Minnesota residents had completed their vaccinations whether two shots of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Nearly 19 percent of Minnesotans have now received at least one dose including nearly 64 percent of state residents 65 and older.
That last figure is a particularly important one, because state officials have said Minnesota will expand vaccination eligibility when 70 percent of seniors get a first dose.
Officials expected to meet that goal by the end of March. But on the current trajectory, it could happen much sooner which would accelerate the timeline for when any Minnesotan can get a shot.
As vaccinations continue, there has been a slight uptick in newly confirmed cases in recent days. Averaged over the past week, Sundays update showed Minnesota is seeing about 786 new cases each day. Thats up from about 753 on Friday.
Sundays update showed a slight decrease in COVID-19 deaths and hospital admissions reported each day, averaged over the past week.
Here are Minnesotas current COVID-19 statistics:
6,550 deaths (4 new)
490,011 positive cases (897 new); 97 percent off isolation
18.8 percent of Minnesotans with at least 1 dose
63.9 percent 65 and older with at least 1 dose
Projections by MPR News data reporter David Montgomery.
The pace of vaccinations fell slightly in Sundays update. Averaged over the past week, Minnesota is now administering just over 39,000 shots a day down from a record high of more than 41,000 a day as of Saturdays report. Thats in part because of an unusually high number of vaccinations reported the previous Sunday, as weather-delayed vaccine doses made their way around the state.
The Health Department on Sunday reported 570,038 people more than 10 percent of the states population have completed their vaccinations. More than 1 million Minnesotans more than 18 percent had received at least one dose.
Minnesota currently ranks 16th among states in doses administered per 100,000 people, according to data collected by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As more Minnesotans are vaccinated against COVID-19, the states pandemic metrics show disease conditions are fairly stable.
There were 7,406 known, active cases as of Sunday, continuing a trend that stayed fairly stable through February and remains down dramatically from late November and early December, when active cases hovered around 50,000.
Four newly reported deaths raised Minnesotas toll to 6,550. Among those whove died, about 62 percent had been living in long-term care or assisted living facilities; most had underlying health problems. Average daily death counts had ticked up in recent days before falling on Sunday.
The state has recorded 490,011 total confirmed or probable cases so far in the pandemic, including 897 reported Sunday. About 97 percent of Minnesotans known to be infected with COVID-19 in the pandemic have recovered to the point where they no longer need to be isolated.
People in their 20s still make up the age bracket with the states largest number of confirmed cases more than 92,000 since the pandemic began, including more than 48,000 among those ages 20 to 24.
The number of high school-age youth confirmed with the disease has also grown, with more than 38,000 total cases among those ages 15 to 19 since the pandemic began.
With kids increasingly returning to school buildings and sports, Minnesota public health officials are urging Minnesota families with children to get tested every two weeks for COVID-19 now until the end of the school year.
Although young people are less likely to feel the worst effects of the disease and end up hospitalized, experts worry youth will spread it unknowingly to older relatives and members of other vulnerable populations.
People can have the coronavirus and spread COVID-19 when they dont have symptoms.
Regionally, most parts of Minnesota are down significantly from the late November and early December spike, as well as a smaller January uptick.
In Minnesota and across the country, COVID-19 has hit communities of color disproportionately hard in both cases and deaths. Thats been especially true for Minnesotans of Hispanic descent for much of the pandemic.
Even as new case counts continue to track well below their late November, early December peaks, the data shows Latino people continue to be hit hard.
Distrust of the government, together with deeply rooted health and economic disparities, have hampered efforts to boost testing among communities of color, officials say, especially among unauthorized immigrants who fear their personal information may be used to deport them.
Walz has acknowledged that distrust by communities of color has been a problem during the pandemic. Officials on Friday offered up some data on vaccinations broken down by race and ethnicity.
Minnesota Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm said the state was committed to doing more to expand vaccine access to people of color, including getting more doses to community pharmacies, partnering with local groups and deploying mobile vaccination clinics.
Data in these graphs are based on the Minnesota Department of Health's cumulative totals released at 11 a.m. daily. You can find more detailed statistics on COVID-19 at theHealth Department website.
Minnesota health officials on Friday warned of a rapidly growing outbreak of the U.K. COVID-19 strain tied to youth sports in Carver County. They are recommending a two-week suspension of youth sports in the county amid the outbreak.
Since late January, the Health Department says there've been at least 68 cases of COVID-19 cases linked to school and club sports in the metro-area county. Among those cases, 24 have been confirmed as the B.1.1.7 U.K. variant.
Epidemiologists have also seen an uptick of the U.K. variant cases in Carver County gyms and fitness centers with many of those linked to the youth sports cases.
Health officials say youth sports in the county should be paused starting Monday. They also recommend weekly testing of athletes and coaches elsewhere in the state, strict masking and no gatherings before or after games.
B.1.1.7. is more transmissible than other coronavirus variants. While researchers don't believe it's more deadly on its own, its ease of spread may lead to more deaths.
Matt Sepic | MPR News
COVID vaccinations take center stage in long-standing program to address health care inequities: For 15 years, an M Health Fairview program has worked to address inequities in health care. That effort is now focused on getting the COVID-19 vaccine to communities that have often not had equal access to health care.
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