LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) A Lafayette man battling COVID-19 nearly died twice after spending two months in a coma.
When 57-year-old Bobby Moore woke up from the coma, doctors told him they had to amputate his leg to save his life, but they were hopeful he would survive.
After three months of being confined to his hospital bed, Bobby pulled through, and Friday he was discharged from Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center.
In his final moments in the hospital, dozens of doctors and nurses who helped save his life surprised him when he left the hospital, cheering him on as he reunited him with his family.
At the end of the hallway, he hugged his daughters for the first time in three months.
Hey baby. I made it out, Bobby told his daughter with tears in his eyes. Dont make me cry. Im already crying enough.
When he went outside for the first time since he was hospitalized in November, he was reunited with his wife.
Hey baby. You see that? That was crazy, he told her.
It was right before Thanksgiving, when Bobby was hospitalized with COVID-19.
Only three days after being hospitalized, he was put into a coma for two months. While in that coma, he was on a respirator, his kidneys nearly failed, and doctors had to amputate his leg.
Doctors told Bobby and his family to prepare for the worst, but in February, things turned around.
Friday he was able to see the sunlight and his family for the first time again when he was discharged.
Its been a road, a crazy road, Bobby said.
He says it was a crazy road but not an easy one.
We cried from sun up to sundown every day, his youngest daughter told News 10.
Thats one of the hardest things, when I realized the heartbreak these guys saw. Bobby told his family.
That heartbreak soon turned into joy though, and now Bobby is looking forward to getting back out into the world.
I havent seen my parents for three months, so I hope to see them soon, he said.
Even though Bobby lost his leg in his battle, hes just excited to be alive and is most excited for the little things in life, like being outside again.
Oh, its wonderful. It feels great, fantastic, he said smiling. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.
The first thing bobby says he wanted to do was head to Popeyes.
We are going to go to Popeyes and getting a fish sandwich. Then my wife took something out of the freezer she thinks is gumbo, so well probably have that tonight, he said, cracking a joke with his wife.
With a smile on his face and a new passion for life, Bobby hugged his doctors, got in his car, and headed home, excited to get that fish sandwich.
Bye guys. Thanks for everything, he told his doctors, waving them goodbye as he left the hospital.
March 5, 2021
Chair Deborah Kafoury delivered the 2021 State of the County address Friday, March 5, almost one year since the first Multnomah County resident tested positive for COVID-19. In a multimedia presentation hosted by the City Club of Portland, the Chair outlined how the pandemic forced the County to tackle a once-in-a-century combination of public health, social and economic crises.
On March 11, 2020, Chair Kafoury declared a state of emergency in Multnomah County. The Board of Commissioners has now extended it four times to help the County rise again and again in its response to the pandemic. Along the way, the County witnessed widespread protests against racism and systemic injustice, and devastating wildfires that threatened the health of residents and displaced communities.
Looking back at the extraordinary challenges of 2020, Chair Kafoury said, its clear that Multnomah Countys recovery from the pandemic must take into account the historic inequities and injustices that the previous year exposed.
As we stand at the edge of a post-pandemic world, we have the opportunity to reflect and ask ourselves, Who can, and should, we become as a community after navigating a year like this? Chair Kafoury said. Our recovery from the pandemic, and the years that follow, must move Multnomah County toward a new place of strength, health and hope.
The COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the need for stable, safe housing. Multnomah Countys homelessness response system on any given night helps 12,000 residents stay in homes of their own through a combination of rent assistance and supportive services. Thousands more people stay in shelters over the course of a year. Yet too many people continue to sleep outside, Chair Kafoury said.
In May, voters approved a measure that will dramatically expand the Countys response system. The investment will significantly increase access to rent assistance and wraparound services, including behavioral health supports, that help someone stay in their housing after theyve regained it. Meanwhile, the Countys Behavioral Health Resource Center will bring 24-hour shelter, peer-led behavioral health services, and transitional housing to the downtown core.
We are on our way toward becoming a community that is fully prepared and able to support every neighbor experiencing chronic homelessness, Kafoury said.
The pandemic has shined a spotlight on the Countys public health responsibilities. That work must continue once Multnomah County emerges from the throes of the pandemic. It involves health education, outreach, harm reduction, and more.
Looking ahead, Chair Kafoury said, Multnomah County Public Health will play a central role in the Countys response to housing instability, climate change, gun violence and racism. All of those challenges are legacies of systems that werent designed to serve or benefit people of color.
Because health isnt just about keeping the community safe from viruses and treating wounds, Chair Kafoury said. As weve seen over and over again this past year, our communitys health depends on addressing all the inequities that put peoples health and lives at risk.
The County has already begun building the framework for that future, Chair Kafoury said working closely with communities of color to co-create the plan for spending the Countys supportive housing services funding, the service model for the Behavioral Health Resource Center, and the Countys COVID-19 response for Black, Indigenous and other people of color.
Multnomah Countys recovery from the pandemic must prioritize equity, inclusion and justice, Chair Kafoury said.
Racial justice is the bedrock of the Countys Preschool for All initiative, which prioritizes communities who historically have had the least access to high-quality early education. The Countys Transforming Justice initiative is envisioning a public safety system decoupled from institutionalized racism. Equity also guides budget decisions across every department across Multnomah County.
In fall 2017, Multnomah County adopted the Workforce Equity Resolution after employees voiced concerns over barriers related to race, ethnicity, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, and other protected classes. That plan must continue to be fully supported, Chair Kafoury said, as the County seeks a just and equitable post-pandemic future.
I know that we are eager to leave behind the events of the last year, Chair Kafoury said. But at Multnomah County, were using the lessons of this unique moment in our communitys story to build the just and equitable community that I know we can be. And I hope youll join us as we build it together.
For the first time in the history of the State of the County speech, the Chair invited her Board colleagues Commissioners Sharon Meieran, Susheela Jayapal, Jessica Vega Pederson, and Lori Stegmann to reflect on their own priorities.
That involves investing further in safety and stability for people experiencing homelessness; filling in gaps in the behavioral health system; re-envisioning law enforcement; and solving the root problems that cause people to enter hospitals, shelters and jails.
Our work is not just about getting through COVID, she said. Its about moving forward with renewed determination, and ensuring that our entire community will thrive.
That requires focusing on an equitable response to the pandemic; implementing the Supportive Housing Services Measure; and preventing and responding to community violence.
Im honored to serve with this dedicated Board of Commissioners, to lead us through these challenging times, Commissioner Jayapal said.
Commissioner Vega Pederson said she will ensure the program is successful and enrolling children by fall 2022.
The values and community-centered process of Preschool for All is reflected in the work I do on the other critical issues facing our community public safety reform, housing instability and environmental justice, Commissioner Vega Pederson said.
As we begin to recover from this pandemic, I am optimistic, Commissioner Stegmann said, because I know that by working together, our values, not our circumstances, will define us and set us on the path forward.
Following her remarks, Chair Kafoury fielded questions moderated by Dr. Rachel Solotaroff, president and CEO of Central City Concern. The questions came from City Club and members of the public. Here are some of the highlights.
Are there plans to treat the mental crisis in Multnomah County, and if so, what are they?
Chair Kafoury: One of the ways that we are going to address and are addressing the crisis of mental health in our community is the supportive services ballot measure weve talked a lot about. But I'll give another example and that is . . . the Behavioral Health Resource Center. And this is what our community has asked for for years: a place where people can go to come off the street and be safe, and be surrounded by people who have been through or who are going through what they are going through.
What specifically is the Countys role in setting vaccine strategy? And what have you done with that role that you have?
Chair Kafoury: Multnomah Countys role is to fill in the gaps in a larger vaccine strategy. We dont make the decisions regarding the vaccine allocation. Thats a decision thats handled at state level. Through our local public health authority, we are aggressively using the small share of vaccine we receive to reach people at the highest risk of getting sick and dying. So were focusing on communities of color; on people who have been disproportionately hit by the virus. . . . We use the data and overlay zip codes where people have been hardest hit and were setting up clinics in those communities with community-based organizations so that we have those trusted relationships and those community partners.
We also run clinics. We have the largest federally-qualified health clinic system in the state of Oregon. Sixty thousand people in Multnomah County use the county health clinics for their healthcare. As of March 3, 67 percent of the vaccines we had went to BIPOC individuals, and 51 percent of them were non-English speakers. The clinics are trusted community partners as well and they're able to get vaccine out to their folks.
Theres an economic cliff coming that huge numbers of people may face when the statewide eviction moratorium expires in June. How do you see the county supporting or partnering to help with folks who are going to be experiencing that really terrifying moment?
Chair Kafoury: From the beginning of the crisis, Multnomah County moved very quickly to ensure we had an eviction moratorium here and to push the state to do one at the state level. Because the last thing you need during a pandemic is for people losing their homes. And weve been saying this for years that housing is health. . . . We know that the federal government is going to allocate additional resources for rent assistance, which is crucially needed. But were going to need time to get the money and to get it out to the people who need it. And thats going to take longer than June 30.
You can watch the entire State of the County program, including the full Q and A, here.
In just a matter of weeks, two variants of the coronavirus have become so familiar that you can hear their inscrutable alphanumeric names regularly uttered on television news.
B.1.1.7, first identified in Britain, has demonstrated the power to spread far and fast. In South Africa, a mutant called B.1.351 can dodge human antibodies, blunting the effectiveness of some vaccines.
Scientists have also had their eye on a third concerning variant that arose in Brazil, called P.1. Research had been slower on P.1 since its discovery in late December, leaving scientists unsure of just how much to worry about it.
Ive been holding my breath, said Bronwyn MacInnis, an epidemiologist at the Broad Institute.
Now three studies offer a sobering history of P.1s meteoric rise in the Amazonian city of Manaus. It most likely arose there in November and then fueled a record-breaking spike of coronavirus cases. It came to dominate the city partly because of an increased contagiousness, the research found.
But it also gained the ability to infect some people who had immunity from previous bouts of Covid-19. And laboratory experiments suggest that P.1 could weaken the protective effect of a Chinese vaccine now in use in Brazil.
The new studies have yet to be published in scientific journals. Their authors caution that findings on cells in laboratories do not always translate to the real world, and theyve only begun to understand P.1s behavior.
The findings apply to Manaus, but I dont know if they apply to other places, said Nuno Faria, a virologist at Imperial College London who helped lead much of the new research.
But even with the mysteries that remain around P.1, experts said it is a variant to take seriously. Its right to be worried about P.1, and this data gives us the reason why, said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
P.1 is now spreading across the rest of Brazil and has been found in 24 other countries. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recorded six cases in five states: Alaska, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota and Oklahoma.
To reduce the risks of P.1 outbreaks and reinfections, Dr. Faria said it was important to double down on every measure we have to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Masks and social distancing can work against P.1. And vaccination can help drive down its transmission and protect those who do get infected from severe disease.
The ultimate message is that you need to step up all the vaccination efforts as soon as possible, he said. You need to be one step ahead of the virus.
Dr. Faria and his colleagues started tracking the coronavirus when it exploded in Brazil last spring. Manaus, a city of two million in the Brazilian Amazon, was hit particularly hard. At its springtime peak, the cemeteries of Manaus were overwhelmed by the bodies of the dead.
But after a peak in late April, Manaus seemed to have gotten past the worst of the pandemic. Some scientists thought that the drop meant Manaus had gained herd immunity.
Dr. Faria and his colleagues looked for coronavirus antibodies in samples from a Manaus blood bank in June and October. They determined that roughly three-quarters of the residents of Manaus had been infected.
But near the end of 2020, new cases began surging again. There were actually far more cases than in the previous peak of cases, which had been in late April, Dr. Faria said. And that was very puzzling to us.
To search for variants, Dr. Faria and his colleagues started a new genome sequencing effort in the city. While B.1.1.7 had arrived in other parts of Brazil, they didnt find it in Manaus. Instead, they found a variant no one had seen before.
March 5, 2021, 7:20 p.m. ET
Many variants in their samples shared a set of 21 mutations not seen in other viruses circulating in Brazil. Dr. Faria sent a text message to a colleague: I think Im looking at something really strange, and Im quite worried about this.
A few mutations in particular worried him, because scientists had already found them in either B.1.1.7 or B.1.351. Experiments suggested that some of the mutations might make the variants better able to infect cells. Other mutations let them evade antibodies from previous infections or produced by vaccines.
As Dr. Faria and his colleagues analyzed their results, researchers in Japan were making a similar discovery. Four tourists returning home from a trip to the Amazon on Jan. 4 tested positive for the coronavirus. Genome sequencing revealed the same set of mutations Dr. Faria and his colleagues were seeing in Brazil.
Dr. Faria and his colleagues posted a description of P.1 on an online virology forum on Jan. 12. They then investigated why P.1 was so common. Its mutations may have made it more contagious, or it might have been lucky. By sheer chance, the variant might have shown up in Manaus just as the city was getting more relaxed about public health measures.
It was also possible that P.1 became common because it could reinfect people. Normally, coronavirus reinfections are rare, because the antibodies produced by the body after infection are potent for months. But it was possible that P.1 carried mutations that made it harder for those antibodies to latch onto it, allowing it to slip into cells and cause new infections.
The researchers tested these possibilities by tracking P.1 from its earliest samples in December. By early January, it made up 87 percent of samples. By February it had taken over completely.
Combining the data from genomes, antibodies and medical records in Manaus, the researchers concluded that P.1 conquered the city thanks not to luck but biology: Its mutations helped it spread. Like B.1.1.7, it can infect more people, on average, than other variants can. They estimate it is somewhere between 1.4 and 2.2 times more transmissible than other lineages of coronaviruses.
But it also gets an edge from mutations that let it escape antibodies from other coronaviruses. They estimate that in 100 people who were infected with non-P.1 lineages in Manaus last year, somewhere between 25 and 61 of them could have been reinfected if they were exposed to P.1 in Manaus.
The researchers found support for this conclusion in an experiment in which they mixed P.1 viruses with antibodies from Brazilians who had Covid-19 last year. They found that the effectiveness of their antibodies dropped sixfold against P.1 compared with other coronaviruses. That drop might mean that at least some people would be vulnerable to new infections from P.1.
Dr. Faria said an increasing body of evidence suggests that most cases in the second wave were the result of reinfections.
Dr. Faria and other researchers are now looking across Brazil to observe P.1s spread. Dr. Ester Sabino, an infectious disease expert at the University of So Paulo School of Medicine, said that one of the new outbreaks arose in Araraquara, a Brazilian city of 223,000 people that did not have high rates of Covid-19 before P.1 arrived.
If people in Araraquara did not have high levels of antibodies before P.1s arrivals, she said, that suggests that the variant may be able to spread in places without Manauss extreme history. This might happen in any other place, she said.
Michael Worobey, a virologist at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research, said it was time to pay attention to P.1 in the United States. He expected it would become more common in the United States, although it would have to compete with B.1.1.7, which may soon become the predominant variant in much of the nation.
At the very least, its going to be one of the contenders, Dr. Worobey said.
In their experiments, Dr. Faria and his colleagues also tested antibodies from eight people who received CoronaVac, a Chinese-made vaccine that has been used in Brazil. They found that the vaccine-generated antibodies were less effective at stopping the P.1 variant than other types.
Dr. Faria cautioned that these results, derived from cells in test tubes, dont necessarily mean that vaccines will be less effective at protecting real people from P.1. Vaccines may very well provide strong protection from P.1 even if the antibodies they generate arent quite as potent. And even if the variant manages to infect vaccinated people, they will most likely remain shielded from a severe bout of Covid-19.
For Dr. Sabino, the ultimate importance of P.1 is the threat that concerning variants pose when they can pop up anywhere in the world.
Its just a matter of time and chance, she said.
COLUMBUS, Ohio Ohio's top doctor said during a Zoom news conference Friday that he does not expect the state to remove COVID-19 health orders in the next few weeks.
Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff said he does not expect the state to meet the benchmark to lift restrictions because of the state's current COVID-19 case numbers. He said he is also unsure about the potential for variants, like B117, to impact the number of Ohio's cases.
During a statewide address Thursday, Gov. Mike DeWine said he will remove COVID-19 related health orders when Ohio has below 50 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period. This would include ending Ohio's mask mandate.
RELATED: DeWine says health orders will be removed when Ohio drops to 50 cases per 100,000 over 2 weeks
Vanderhoff explained that when Ohio reaches this benchmark, there is only a "moderate" level of the virus circulating, so it will be less of a threat. He said Ohio has not seen case numbers at those levels since last June.
While he refused to speculate about when Ohio will hit the marker, Vanderhoff said the state is on the right path.
I am optimistic that when we achieve this level that it will be a signal to us that we are acquiring enough immunity as a result of vaccination, that it is this vaccination process that is beginning to push this virus into the corner," he said.
Vanderhoff said when there are less than 50 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period in Ohio, it does not mean the pandemic is over. He said Ohioans will still need to get vaccinated. He also said social distancing and wearing masks will still be recommended in certain settings.
Jayashree Krishnan's "Caring for Humanity," at the Columbia City Gallery in Seattle, features portraits of people on the frontlines of COVID-19.
SEATTLE Seattle artist Jayashree Krishnan's Seattle studio is filled with beautiful landscapes and portraits. She has an ability to capture human emotion in her portrait work.
After the coronavirus pandemic, her work took an unexpected turn. Last May, Krishnan decided to switch to painting portraits of family members and a few friends in the medical industry healthcare workers who were battling the pandemic day in and day out.
Her portraits quickly attracted attention online and her portrait work became a full-time effort.
Doctors, nurses and the cleaning staff have been immortalized in an ever-expanding collection. Many of the faces are local and work at various Puget Sound area hospitals. Others were made for healthcare workers in other states and throughout the world.
It's now a collection that's grown to more than 150 portraits. She says a few are perhaps more special to her because they feaure medical workers who lost their lives fighting COVID-19.
Many of the portraits are on display at the Columbia City Gallery in Seattle, but not all of them. Some of the healthcare workers received their own portraits. Local hospitals also have put Krishnan's work on display.
You may even spot a famous doctor in the collection. Krishnan painted top White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci a few months ago. She recently got the invitation to send that portrait to him.
Its a tremendous effort of service that Krishnan says is the most important work shes ever done.
Just being seen is so powerful to these healthcare workers and if my work can have that effect on people I must keep going, she said.
The entire Caring For Humanity collection is currently on display at the Columbia City Gallery and runs through March 21. The Gallery is open to the public Friday through Sunday noon to 5 p.m. and you can also admire most of the collection outdoors from the street side gallery window.
Ive grown accustomed to conflicting views when it comes to the pandemic.
We can gather in the library, but our kids cant go to school. I can finally get my hair done, but a facial is not allowed. You shouldnt wear a mask, you have to wear a mask, you really should be wearing two masks.
I understand the inconsistency. This virus is so new that all of us from CDC scientists to supermarket cashiers are still trying to navigate a steep learning curve.
And I like to think that nothing surprises me anymore. But then something comes along that shocks me all over again. Last week, it was the news about how many people locally already carry antibodies to the virus.
According to some estimates, as reported in The Times and elsewhere, as many as half of Los Angeles Countys 10 million people have already been infected. And thats even though tests for COVID-19 have confirmed fewer than 1.2 million local infections.
The prospect of that many millions of uncounted infections seemed mind-boggling to me. How could more than 3 million people slip through our testing apparatus?
I wanted to know how those numbers were calculated, so I called L.A. Countys chief prognosticator, Dr. Roger Lewis. His job is to quantify and model the spread of COVID-19, to help make sure that the countys hospital system is prepared to meet pandemic healthcare needs.
He is not surprised by the high immunity estimates, but he noted that calculations vary. Ive seen different estimates, from 1 in 4 to more than 50%, he said.
The countys official immunity estimate is near the middle of that spread, at approximately 3 in 8 people, or 37.5% of county residents. And that does not take into account the almost 2 million people who have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Measuring immunity, it turns out, is more sophisticated that just counting positive tests and vaccinations. When the virus first emerged last year, California researchers began antibody surveillance tests of random people to check for COVID-19 antibodies.
They found that the fraction of people with antibodies was much larger than the fraction of people who knew theyd been sick or people whod tested positive, Dr. Lewis said. Many people with evidence of having been infected had never experienced symptoms of the illness; others may not have had access to tests.
Projecting that forward suggests there are now millions of uncounted COVID-19 survivors who were never tested, or at least not at a point when they would register as positive.
That early antibody testing clued researchers in to the phenomenon of asymptomatic infection and surreptitious spread. Further study of virus replication, infection demographics, hospitalizations, deaths and more led them to believe that approximately 40% of COVID-19 carriers will have no symptoms and may not show up in testing statistics.
That information established a baseline for measuring how many people might be immune and, by extension, how many others are still vulnerable to the disease.
But immunity estimates are also influenced by what assumptions researchers make and what trajectory they expect.
If you talk to enough people, youre bound to get a mix of opinions, said Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco. Some might [estimate] conservatively, and some are more gung-ho, he told me.
In other words, they all use the same basic formula, but the ingredients and measurements might differ a bit.
We know the natural progression of this disease, explained David Conti, a USC professor of preventive medicine and specialist in data science integration. We can describe that with a mathematical model.
But in real life the number of new cases each day bounces around a lot, Conti said. So as soon as we come up with a model, its out of date.
The USC researchers recent model offers a wide range of estimated cumulative infections, concluding that between 3 million and 5.5 million people in Los Angeles County have likely already been infected by COVID-19.
That translates to between 30% and 55% of the countys population. Its the higher number painting us as a hotbed of infection but also as a region drawing closer to herd immunity that has caught peoples attention.
But that doesnt mean that half of the people you know have already been infected with COVID-19.
Our model is on the level of the entire L.A. County, where infection rates vary drastically by neighborhood, USC researcher Abigail Horn said. People want to take a number and make a statement about it. But it really is about the local communities and how this [pandemic] has amplified healthcare disparities.
That is a message we cant afford to forget. The burden of disease is distributed unevenly and a 50% immunity rate looks different depending on where you live.
Its a worrying reflection of the dismal job weve done protecting working-class families from infection or its an encouraging prospect, because the remaining pool of prospective virus spreaders is smaller than presumed.
Considering that sort of ambiguous messaging, I couldnt help but wonder how vested we should be in the barrage of statistics that accompanies our journey through COVID-19.
I put that question to Dr. Rutherford, who specializes in the study of infectious diseases. He thinks a break from tracking the stats may be just what people like me need. When youre listening to all these statistics and opinions, he said, people may lose the forest for the trees.
The forest, to him, is the rapid creation of effective COVID-19 vaccines, which he sees as the greatest miracle of modern molecular biology since the discovery of DNA, he says. Thats the overwhelming good news right now the culmination of 70 years of [scientific] advances.
The trees are the numbers were being bombarded with. There were 64,000 [research] papers published about COVID-19 by the end of October, he said. Theres a lot of information to digest.
We are not going to find the reassurance we seek in the minutiae of statistics. A vaccine that is 90% effective, is the same as one that is 85%, Dr. Rutherford said. Youre not being cheated out of that 5%. Yet people are obsessing about which vaccine to get.
He reminded me that our health rests not on the numbers, but on the precautions we take. We may not know what number equals herd immunity, but we do know how to protect ourselves, the doctor says:
Wear a mask, keep your distance from people outside your pod, avoid crowded indoor spaces. Dont go to Costco on a Saturday afternoon. And get vaccinated as soon as your turn comes.
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This week, Governor Tom Wolf and the COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force announced that beginning next week Pre-K to 12 public and non-public school staff will have an opportunity to be vaccinated with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The Wolf administration is collaborating with Intermediate Units (IUs) and other education partners to equitably vaccinate all school employees and contracted staff as quickly as possible.
Those working with elementary education students, students with disabilities, and English Learners will be the first eligible to register.
The plan has received support from education groups:
Pennsylvania School Boards Association CEO Nathan Mains
We appreciate that the governor and task force have prioritized these essential roles in receiving the vaccine and see this as a step in the right direction toward getting students back into their classrooms safely. We thank all who were involved in working towards this outcome, recognizing the critical role that education and the school system serves in our state. Thank you also to the National Guard for their assistance with effective distribution.
Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Anthony Hamlet
The vaccinations of our teachers and school staff will add additional layer to the mitigation strategies we have in place to welcome students back for hybrid learning.We are grateful for the advocacy of Mayor Peduto, who has consistently shared his voice to support the safe reopening of schools.
Norristown Area School District Superintendent Christopher Dormer
We thank Governor Wolf and the bipartisan legislative task force for dedicating the newly available Johnson & Johnson vaccine supplies to get all educational staff vaccinated in an expedited manner. This vaccine program announcement is exactly what superintendents have been advocating for and requesting. Adding staff vaccinations to declining community spread and outstanding mitigation plans, we have full confidence that we can provide in-person learning opportunities for students while continuing to prioritize our commitment to health and safety. I am sure that our entire staff will have greater peace of mind as we begin our transition to in-person learning here in the Norristown Area School District.
Scranton School District Superintendent Missy McTiernan
On behalf of the Scranton School District Community, I would like to thank Governor Wolf for his leadership and his efforts regarding the Vaccine for Educators initiative. This is a major step towards getting our students back to in-person learning. Our district is grateful for Governor Wolfs continued support of public education.
Luzerne Intermediate Unit #18 Executive Director Dr. Anthony Grieco
We are grateful and appreciative that Governor Wolf and the Legislative Task Force have prioritized teachers and all public and non-public school personnel to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. These vaccination efforts provide another mitigation strategy within our respective school Health and Safety plans to increase the level of in-person instruction across Pennsylvania. This positive step forward will accelerate a greater numbers of staff and students safely back to their school communities for regular and sustained educational opportunities.
Iroquois School District Superintendent Shane Murray (Erie County)
The decision by Governor Wolf and the legislative task force to direct this new vaccine to school personnel will enable schools that have been teaching in person to do so more safely, and give the opportunity for other schools to return their students to in person learning.We are extremely grateful for this opportunity.
Central Dauphin School District Superintendent Norman J. Miller, Ed.D.
We are very pleased that teachers and school staff are being prioritized with respect to receiving the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Over the past year, the Central Dauphin School District has implemented comprehensive health and safety protocols, and these vaccinations will provide an additional layer of protection to everyone in our buildings. Having students and teachers in their classrooms is critically important to our education system, and we are excited about this meaningful and significant development for our school community.
Pennsylvania State Education Association President Rich Askey
This is an incredibly important step toward returning Pennsylvanias schools and communities to in-person instruction and ensuring that students, school staff members, their families, and their communities are better protected from COVID-19. This is good for everyone, and we thank Gov. Wolf and lawmakers for their leadership and their commitment to getting this done.
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers PresidentNina Esposito-Visgitis
On behalf of the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, I would like to thank Governor Wolf for prioritizing vaccinations for teachers and school staff in Pittsburgh and across the state. The additional layer of protection that full vaccination will provide will make a meaningful and measurable difference in the lives of our educators, school staff, students and school communities.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto
Governor Wolfs wise decision to immediately vaccinate teachers will speed up the return ofstudents toschool, provide students the in-person attention they need after a full year away, andgive teachersconfidence that they can return to classrooms safely. The City of Pittsburgh stands ready to help the Commonwealth with this effort in any way it can.
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of March 4, 2021, there have been 2,207,676 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 132,677 total cases and 2,309 total deaths.
There were no deaths reported to DHHR over the last 24 hours.
CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,234), Berkeley (9,741), Boone (1,595), Braxton (781), Brooke (2,016), Cabell (7,861), Calhoun (231), Clay (379), Doddridge (468), Fayette (2,692), Gilmer (718), Grant (1,077), Greenbrier (2,416), Hampshire (1,548), Hancock (2,601), Hardy (1,274), Harrison (4,862), Jackson (1,673), Jefferson (3,656), Kanawha (12,176), Lewis (1,048), Lincoln (1,233), Logan (2,711), Marion (3,696), Marshall (3,025), Mason (1,778), McDowell (1,354), Mercer (4,232), Mineral (2,594), Mingo (2,140), Monongalia (8,106), Monroe (955), Morgan (934), Nicholas (1,191), Ohio (3,662), Pendleton (622), Pleasants (802), Pocahontas (596), Preston (2,553), Putnam (4,243), Raleigh (4,776), Randolph (2,403), Ritchie (624), Roane (499), Summers (705), Taylor (1,095), Tucker (506), Tyler (619), Upshur (1,703), Wayne (2,627), Webster (325), Wetzel (1,098), Wirt (360), Wood (7,114), Wyoming (1,749).
Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Such is the case of Barbour and Roane counties in this report.
