Category: Corona Virus

BISMARCK A plan to spend nearly all of North Dakota's hundreds of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid cleared the House chamber on Thursday evening, Nov. 11, all but finalizing state investments in an array of one-time infrastructure, energy, health care and higher education projects.

The appropriations for North Dakota's total $1 billion out of the American Rescue Plan Act was split between two bills for the Legislature's special session, with one proposal outlining $571 million in new project investments passing the House by a 79-14 vote on Thursday night. The bill has already gone through the Senate once and is expected to receive concurrence from the upper chamber on Friday.

That move would finalize the Legislature's plans to invest all but about $63 million of the federal aid package, leaving the untouched portion for next session.

North Dakota has until 2026 to burn through all of its American Rescue Plan funds, but Gov. Doug Burgum and top Republican lawmakers pushed to spend the money quickly rather than allow it to sit through a period of rising inflation.

Legislative budget writers mapped out a spending plan for the money over a series of October meetings leading up to this weeks special session. The House and Senate Appropriations committees fielded pitches for how to spend the money from lawmakers and state agencies that clocked in at over $9 billion dollars, with most projects missing the cut for funding.

Several hundred million of the total $1 billion would go towards fulfilling appropriations made during the legislative session earlier this year. The bill outlining those appropriations passed the House on Thursday in an 83-10 vote after getting unanimous approval in the Senate earlier in the day. Both American Rescue Plan bills will also need signatures from Burgum.

The single largest item in the spending plan would put $150 million in starter funding towards a trans-state pipeline to deliver natural gas from the Bakken oil fields to eastern North Dakota. That proposal has the backing of Burgum, who has pushed for the pipeline to help preserve North Dakotas oil output and to attract industrial businesses in need of natural gas hook-ups to the eastern part of the state.

Many details about the pipeline are still being hashed out, but its route would run from the western North Dakota Oil Patch to Grand Forks. The plan is intended to attract major agribusiness investments to the east, including a $750 million wet corn mill whose commitment to Grand Forks is contingent on access to more natural gas. State officials have said that the mill's alternative is in Iowa, which already draws on Bakken natural gas.

Other big-ticket items include $75 million for water infrastructure, over $25 million for long-term care facilities and tens of millions of dollars for higher education renovations. The package would also put an extra injection of $20 million into a newly created state fund aimed at financing low-emissions energy projects, to be used as grants for hydrogen projects.

The allocations of the federal coronavirus aid have found broad support in the Republican-dominated Legislature, though they have drawn some push-back from several lawmakers skeptical of the big spending plan and others who suggested that some money could have gone to small businesses or critical-access hospitals. On the Senate side earlier this week, a last-minute attempt to axe more than $100 million in higher education funding projects from the bill failed on the floor.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Adam Willis, a Report for America corps member, at awillis@forumcomm.com.

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North Dakota plan to spend hundreds of millions in federal coronavirus aid on verge of passing - INFORUM

New Jersey on Thursday reported another 1,561 COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths as the state nears 7.5 million people who have gotten at least one vaccine dose.

The Garden States seven-day average for confirmed positive tests increased to 1,165, up 10% from a week ago but down 18% from a month ago.

The statewide rate of transmission remained 0.97 for the second straight day. Any transmission rate above 1 indicates that each infected person is passing the virus to at least one other person.

There were 676 patients hospitalized with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across New Jerseys 71 hospitals with COVID-19 as of Wednesday night. Thats 20 more than the night before.

There were 66 patients discharged in the 24 hours leading up to Wednesday night. Of those hospitalized, 138 were in intensive care (the same as the night before), with 60 on ventilators (one less than the night before).

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Saturday, the most recent day available, was 5.35%.

New Jerseys daily coronavirus numbers have gradually improved in recent weeks after a late-summer surge. But officials warn the figures might spike again as cooler weather forces more people inside and people gather for the holidays.

New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic, has now reported 28,146 total COVID-19 deaths 25,328 confirmed and 2,818 considered probable in the more than 20 months since the start of the outbreak.

The state has the third-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S., behind Mississippi and Alabama.

New Jersey has reported 1,054,137 total confirmed cases out of the nearly 16 million PCR tests conducted since it announced its first case March 4, 2020. The state has also reported more than 159,109 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases.

The delta variant of the virus, which is more contagious than previous variants, now represents 100% of all cases circulating, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli has said.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

More than 6.1 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey a state of about 9.2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated.

Nearly 7.5 million people in the state have received at least one dose, and about 830,000 people have received third doses or boosters.

Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday there were 9,116 New Jerseyans between the ages of 5 to 11 have so far gotten their first dose.

The governor said increased vaccinations among younger students could ultimately make it safe to drop mask mandates in schools.

There have been 160 in-school outbreaks across New Jersey among students and staff this academic year leading to 860 cases. Those numbers are cumulative and do not reflect active infections.

In-school outbreaks, which are reported weekly by the state, are defined as three or more cases that are determined through contact tracing to have been transmitted among staff or students while at school. They do not include total cases among staff and students.

As of Monday, the state reported a total of 44,955 cases among fully vaccinated people leading to 1,002 hospitalizations and 258 deaths, though those represent a small percentage total cases.

From Oct. 17 to 24, the state had 11,615 positive tests. Of those, 1,924 were from fully vaccinated people and those cases led to 29 hospitalizations (out of 762 total) and no deaths (out of 132 total).

Ten of New Jerseys 21 counties are listed as having high rates of coronavirus transmission, while 11 are listed with substantial transmission, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is recommending that all people in the high and substantial transmission counties wear masks for indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.

At least 8,657 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data. There are active outbreaks at 126 facilities, resulting in 655 current cases among residents and 535 among staffers.

As of Thursday, there have been more than 251 million positive COVID-19 cases reported across the world, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 5 million people having died due to the virus. The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 46.8 million) and deaths (more than 759,000) of any nation.

There have been more than 7.3 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @johnsb01.

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N.J. reports 1,561 COVID cases, 12 deaths. Nearly 7.5M have received at least 1 vaccine dose. - NJ.com

MOSCOW (AP) Russias COVID-19 cases hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections and deaths that has persisted for more than a month.

The national coronavirus task force on Saturday reported 41,335 new cases since the previous day, exceeding the previous daily record of 40,993 from Oct. 31. The task force said 1,188 people with COVID-19 died, just seven fewer than the daily death record reported Thursday.

Officials cite Russias low vaccination rate as a major factor in the sharp rise in cases that began in mid-September. The task force reported about 57.2 million full-course vaccinations, or less than 40% of the countrys 146 million people.

Last month, President Vladimir Putin ordered many Russians to stay off work between Oct. 30 and Nov. 7. He authorized regional governments to extend the number of nonworking days, if necessary.

Several regions, including Novgorod in the northwest, Tomsk in Siberia, the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains and Kursk and Bryansk regions southwest of Moscow, have extended the nonworking period through the end of next week.

Moscows mayor said the situation in the capital had stabilized sufficiently for people to return to work there on Monday. People in the Russia-annexed Crimea region also will resume working next week.

Certain restrictions will remain in place in the Russian capital, such as a stay-at-home order for older adults and a mandate for businesses to have 30% of their staffs work from home. Access to theaters and museums is limited to those who either have been fully vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 within the last six months or can present a negative coronavirus test.

Russia has recorded more than 8.75 million confirmed virus cases and 245,635 deaths in the pandemic, according to the national task force, which counts only deaths directly attributed to the virus.

Figures from the state statistical service, which also counts deaths in which the virus was a contributing factor or was suspected but not confirmed, indicate the virus impact is significantly more severe; its most recent report tallied about 462,000 virus-connected deaths through the end of September.

___

Follow all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com.hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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New infections hit record as Russia's COVID-19 wave persists - Associated Press

Vaccination clinics in hard hit areas for children over 5 could help boost the Latino communitys shot numbers and close the persisting gap.

Masks can only do so much and social distancing can only do so much so we do have something in our control and that is deciding to protect ourselves and our loved ones with the vaccine, said Dr. Jay Lee, chief medical officer at Share Our Selves a local community health clinic.

Lee and his colleagues have been focused on vaccinating some of Orange Countys hardest hit areas from Costa Mesa to Santa Ana.

In a phone interview last week when the vaccinations for children 5 and up were first approved Lee said the more people there are vaccinated, the chances of a new COVID-19 variant emerging lessen because the virus is spreading less.

The best way to squash the cycle is the vaccine, Lee said.

Now, Santa Ana Unified School District officials are hoping to make getting vaccinations easier on some of Orange Countys hardest hit residents by launching shot clinics for children 5 and up.

Theres a lot of different schools that actually have that going on, said Dr. Regina Chinsio-Kwong, pediatrician and deputy OC health officer, in a Wednesday news briefing.

She also said schools are partnering with numerous organizations from pharmacies to state health officials to roll out the vaccine clinics.

Most of the schools that are actually offering the vaccines are in the areas that were hit the hardest so there are several in Santa Ana, Orange, then even southern Orange County, Chinsio-Kwong said.

She said she didnt have the names of the schools readily available during the news briefing

The idea of vaccinating children has raised concerns among many parents throughout OC, while others welcome the idea especially following the announcement early last month of expected shot mandates from state officials.

State public health officials said the mandates could kick in either January or July, depending on when federal officials fully authorize the vaccines for children.

Since Gov. Gavin Newsoms vaccine announcement, scores of parents have been showing up to local school board meetings to oppose the expected mandate.

Many expressed concerns about the safety of the vaccine, while others welcomed the shots and the incoming mandate.

Some parents argued that children arent at high risk of the virus.

And other parents have been threatening to pull their kids out of school if the mandate goes into effect.

[Read: Debates Over the COVID-19 Student Vaccine Mandate Flare Up at OC School Districts]

UC Irvine epidemiologist and public health expert, Sanghyuk Shin, said its rare for children to experience extreme side effects of the vaccine.

The pandemic is new, the vaccine development all of that is new. But from all of the data I have seen, the data strongly shows that its highly effective in preventing COVID -9 and that it is also very safe, Shin said in a phone interview last week.

He also said myocarditis heart inflammation is very rare in children who receive the vaccine.

Myocarditis can occur after the COVID-19 disease, which can be very severe. With all that said, the benefits outweigh the risks substantially, Shin said.

While school districts are rolling out vaccination clinics, Chinsio-Kwong said county public health officials are focused on mobile pods in Latino communities and hard hit communities allowing other partners to help schools with the vaccine clinics.

Orange Countys Latino community has the largest vaccination gap, while also struggling with the highest number of cases and deaths.

We know that the Latino and low socio economically populations have not had the same access to vaccines as other groups in the past, when they were first rolled out for COVID, Leal said.

It is not just in Santa Ana.

Latinos across the county have been hit hardest by the pandemic and have the lowest vaccination rates across the state and in OC a persisting gap since COVID vaccines first started going into arms.

[Read: Santana: A Chance to Cheat Death For Dia de Los Muertos]

In Orange County, the Latino community makes up 35% of county residents, while experiencing 44% of overall cases and 38% of the deaths, according to the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Latinos also make up a little over 35% of OCs vaccine-eligible residents, but only 22% have received at least one shot, according to state data.

At the same time, hospitalizations have slowly increased, and positivity rates have somewhat stabilized in recent days as public officials fear a potential virus spike this winter.

[Read: OCs Latino Community Still Behind on COVID-19 Vaccinations as Fears of a Winter Wave Surface]

Santa Ana Unified School District officials hope the clinics will create easy access to the vaccine across their community.

Close to 200 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for kids were administered at Willard Intermediate School Tuesday.

The community around Willard was heavily impacted by COVID. So thats why that school is one of our target schools for clinics and we are hosting clinics at other schools that are also kind of strategically placed in communities that are the hardest hit, said District Spokesperson Fermin Leal in a phone interview Tuesday morning prior to the clinic.

That clinic also offered the regular dose of the vaccine for kids 12 and older. The district has been hosting clinics for teenagers 16 and older at school sites since February and for kids 12 and older since May.

In Orange County, almost 7,800 doses of the pediatric vaccine for kids five to 11 have been administered since their emergency use authorization over 3,000 of which were administered Tuesday, according to Chinsio-Kwong.

Yesterdays numbers reflect a very healthy demand in our community for vaccines, Chinsio-Kwong said Wednesday. I expect though, that as we get closer to the weekend, like on Thursday or Friday, and if the kids are off Thursday, Im expecting that the numbers will be much higher.

She also said the countys health care agency will also update their website to reflect pediatric vaccine percentages this week.

The next Santa Ana Unified clinic will be held Today at Heroes Elementary School for kids five and up.

Santa Ana whose population is 77% Latino has been the hardest hit city in OC when it comes to the pandemic.

Nearly 90% of the districts student population come from low income families and 96% are Latino, according to the district website.

Because the city was so impacted by the virus, the district was one of the last in the county to reopen classrooms to students.

State public health officials said theyve been working with local health departments and school districts to plan for vaccination clinics ahead of the Food and Drug Administrations emergency use authorization of the shot in late October.

But some of the other OC districts and the Countys department of education have said they have no plans of hosting vaccine clinics at schools.

[Read: OC School Vaccine Clinics Could Be On the Way After Feds OK Shots for Kids 5 and Up]

Chinsio-Kwong, pediatrician and deputy OC health officer, encouraged concerned parents to speak to their childs pediatricians about getting the vaccine and ask them questions in a private setting.

There are also other resources she said

We have a lot of different organizations who are hosting town halls. A lot of pediatricians in the community are also posting information sessions. CHOC is posting a lot of information sessions, theres a lot of different resources for everyone, Chinsio-Kwong said.

Meanwhile, Leal said the district plans host as many clinics as possible.

Our goal is to have them in as many of our sites as possible, going forward, so everyone in our community has equal access to vaccines, so you dont have to travel or go across town or whatever. It would be in your neighborhood, he said.

Hosam Elattar is a Voice of OC Reporting Fellow. Contact him at helattar@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @ElattarHosam.

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Will School Vaccination Sites Help Close the Latino COVID-19 Gap? - Voice of OC

by: ECU News Services, Emily Cervarich

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) Researchers at East Carolina Universitys Brody School of Medicine have found a new way to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 by testing the air passing through building ventilation systems.

The study could lead to earlier detection of the virus, improved quarantine protocols, reduced transmission and fewer outbreaks.

Two people spearheaded the effort. Dr. Sinan Sousan is an assistant professor in Brodys Department of Public Health and Research Faculty at North Carolina Agromedicine Institute who is also an expert of environmental and occupational airborne exposure. Dr. Rachel Roper is a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology with an extensive background studying coronaviruses. Together, they have been working to learn whether SARS-CoV-2 could be detected through the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in student dorms.

The team collected a total of 248 air samples from two large student dormitories as well as an isolation suite housing COVID-positive students during the 2021 spring semester.

Roper and Sousan recently published their findings in The American Journal of Infection Control, representing a possible quantum leap when it comes to early detection of COVID-19 before an individual even tests positive.

The challenge was to collect enough virus and have it concentrated enough. And also to keep it intact until we got it into the lab because we couldnt detect the RNA if it was already degraded and then we had to extract it enough in a compatible way so it would work in the PCR. So we were really excited we were able to get it to work, Roper said.

The professors told 9OYS there is still further research to be done to better utilize this study on larger scales. They believe their findings could be used in hotels, prisons, dorms and other larger buildings for surveillance to test for COVID and other air spread viruses.

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East Carolina University researchers discover new way to detect coronavirus through building ventilation systems - WAVY.com

People in Singapore mask up to take a mass rapid transit train on Friday. Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As of Sunday, 85% of its population was fully vaccinated. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

People in Singapore mask up to take a mass rapid transit train on Friday. Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As of Sunday, 85% of its population was fully vaccinated.

Singapore's government has been covering the medical bills of COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic. But it says unvaccinated people will soon be on their own.

Those who are "unvaccinated by choice" will have to start paying for their own COVID-19 treatment starting Dec. 8, the Ministry of Health announced on Monday, citing the strain they are putting on the nation's health care system.

"Currently, unvaccinated persons make up a sizeable majority of those who require intensive inpatient care, and disproportionately contribute to the strain on our healthcare resources," it said in a statement.

Until now, the government has been covering the cost of COVID-19 care for all Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term pass holders, excluding those who tested positive after returning from overseas travel.

"This was to avoid financial considerations adding to public uncertainty and concern when COVID-19 was an emergent and unfamiliar disease," it explained, adding that this system will continue to apply to "the majority who are vaccinated ... until the COVID-19 situation is more stable."

The policy change means the government will start charging all unvaccinated COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals and designated "COVID-19 Treatment Facilities" on or after Dec. 8. Those patients can still use their regular health care financing arrangements to pay their bills where applicable.

There are a few exceptions. People who aren't eligible for vaccination like children under 12 and people with medical exemptions will still have their medical bills covered by the government. And people who are partially vaccinated won't be charged until Dec. 31, to give them time to complete the full series.

Specifically, starting on Jan. 1, the government will only foot the bill for those Singaporeans (including permanent residents and long-term pass holders) who are fully vaccinated and have not recently traveled.

"Our hospitals really much prefer not to have to bill these patients at all, but we have to send this important signal, to urge everyone to get vaccinated if you are eligible," Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday.

Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As of Sunday, 85% of its population was fully vaccinated, and 18% had received booster shots, according to health ministry data.

The health minister credited the hard work of vaccination teams with reducing the number of unvaccinated seniors from 175,000 in early August to below 64,000.

"If not for this reduction, our hospitals and ICUs today would have been already overwhelmed," he added.

Singapore had 1,725 recorded hospitalizations as of Monday, with an intensive care unit utilization rate of 68.5%. The health ministry also looked at the difference in cases between those who are fully vaccinated and those who are partially or not at all vaccinated.

Over the last seven days, it said, the number of critically ill cases who were fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated were at 0.5 and 5.2 per 100,000 population, respectively. Over that same period, the number of fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated cases who died were 0.1 and 0.9 per 100,000 population, respectively. Those numbers were considerably larger for seniors.

Singapore has seen a surge in cases over the last few months and decided in October to abandon its "zero COVID strategy" in favor of learning to coexist with the virus.

Officials said on Oct. 20 that they would extend their plan for another month, with a midpoint review. Their Monday announcement about COVID-19 medical coverage also said that the growth in new cases had slowed and that certain restrictions have been eased as a result.

For example, it will allow up to five fully vaccinated people from the same household to eat together at a dining establishment and take steps to simplify travel protocols.

The government also said it would "pilot the resumption of more activities" like sports, meetings and conferences for those who are fully vaccinated, subject to additional rapid testing requirements.

Unvaccinated people are not offered those same options.

"As for individuals who do not want to take any of the vaccines, we will need to have Safe Management Measures which differentiate between the vaccinated and unvaccinated," the health ministry explained. "This is in order to protect the unvaccinated, and also to preserve our healthcare capacity."

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog.

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Singapore will stop covering the medical bills of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients - NPR

People queue to receive a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), during a night of vaccinations with music, at the Arena Treptow vaccination centre in Berlin, Germany, August 9, 2021. John Macdougall/Pool via REUTERS

FRANKFURT, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Germany's coronavirus infection rate has risen to its highest level since the start of the pandemic, public health figures showed on Monday, and doctors warned they will need to postpone scheduled operations in coming weeks to cope.

The seven-day incidence rate - the number of people per 100,000 to be infected over the last week - rose to 201.1, higher than a previous record of 197.6 in December last year, the figures from the Robert Koch Institute showed on Monday.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 4,782,546 from 4,767,033 a day earlier. The number of deaths increased by 33 to a total of 96,558.

Christian Karagiannidis, scientific director at the DIVI association for intensive and emergency medicine, said an expected rise in coronavirus cases in coming weeks meant some scheduled operations would have to be postponed.

"We will only be able to cope with the burden of all emergencies if savings are made somewhere else, though definitely not with surgical cancer treatments," he told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.

Germany has already had to relocate some patients from regions with overburdened hospitals.

The three German parties in talks to form a coalition government by early December have agreed not to extend a nationwide state of emergency.

Instead, they presented a draft law late on Monday that would amend existing legislation to allow for measures such as compulsory face masks and social distancing in public spaces to continue to be enforced until March next year.

The draft law is due to be presented to the Bundestag lower house of parliament on Thursday and voted on in a special session a week later.

Bavaria state premier Markus Soeder earlier called for more decisive action in view of the new peak in the incidence rate. More needs to be done "than a little compulsory testing in old people's homes", he told Deutschlandfunk radio.

He called for tests to be offered free of charge again, vaccination centres to be reactivated and for states and the federal government to coordinate their strategies. Germany has abolished free testing to incentivise people to get vaccinated.

Writing by Vera Eckert, Paul Carrel and Sarah Marsh, Additional Reporting by Alexander Ratz; editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Mark Heinrich and Alex Richardson

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German coronavirus infection rate hits highest since pandemic began - Reuters

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

There are continued concerns that California could see a resurgence of COVID-19 over the coming weeks and months.

What that might look like, and how severe it may ultimately turn out to be, remains an open question.

Officials and experts largely agree that California is unlikely to see a surge that reaches the grim heights of last winters which overloaded hospitals with COVID-19 patients and killed tens of thousands statewide largely because many residents are already vaccinated.

But a spike in cases during the winter months, when temperatures fall and a packed holiday calendar might tempt residents to travel and mingle without taking appropriate precautions, is still a real possibility.

With cases ticking up in most parts of the state, we cannot let our guard down, and we cannot underestimate this deadly virus, Dr. Toms Aragn, director of the California Department of Public Health and the states public health officer, said in a statement Monday.

Heres a breakdown of where we are.

Health officials have been warning about a potential new rise in COVID-19 cases in California as seniors who got their shots last winter and havent received a booster shot may start to see their immunity wane, leaving them exposed to greater risk for infection and hospitalization, and as people gather indoors more with cooling weather and approaching holidays.

Demand for booster shots has fallen below expectations in California. And each infected Californian is increasingly spreading the coronavirus to more people.

As of Saturday, computer models estimated that every infected Californian was spreading the virus on average to 0.96 other people. If that number rises above 1, that will set the stage for further growth of the pandemic.

Officials are hopeful that strict vaccination requirements in some of Californias most populated areas will help slow the spread of cases in the winter. In Los Angeles, a new city rule generally requiring patrons to show proof of full vaccination to enter venues such as indoor restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, and hair and nail salons went into effect Monday but wont be enforced until after Thanksgiving.

Statewide, infections and COVID-19 hospitalizations have plateaued following months of decline.

But in some areas with lower vaccination rates, hospitalizations for COVID-19 have risen significantly since mid-October: by 35% in San Bernardino County and 27% in Fresno County. Even in Orange County, where vaccination rates are relatively high, COVID-19 hospitalizations are up by 29% over the same time period.

The San Joaquin Valley is reporting the states highest rate of COVID-19 hospitalizations; for every 100,000 residents, the region has 25 people hospitalized with COVID-19, compared with 15 per 100,000 in rural Northern California, 14 in the greater Sacramento area, eight in Southern California and four in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Some experts say a rate of five or greater is concerning.

In Southern California, San Bernardino and Riverside counties are reporting the worst hospitalization rates per 100,000 residents: 15 and 10, respectively. San Diego County is at eight, Orange County seven, L.A. County six and Ventura County four.

On Nov. 8, 2020, California reported a seven-day average of 6,200 new coronavirus cases a day. One month later, the state was reporting 26,000 new cases a day. In early January, the number jumped to more than 45,000. Daily reported caseloads didnt consistently fall back below 10,000 until mid-February.

Current case rates are roughly the same as last year at this time. For the seven-day period that ended Monday, California was reporting 5,720 new coronavirus cases a day, according to data compiled by The Times.

Roughly 69% of Californians have received at least one dose, and nearly 63% are fully vaccinated.

However, there are millions of residents statewide who have less protection against the coronavirus. Given the evidence that vaccine immunity can wane over time, officials stress that its important for everyone eligible particularly those who are at high risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms to get a booster shot.

Unvaccinated Californians continue to be disproportionately affected by the pandemic, state data show. Unvaccinated individuals are roughly seven times more likely to get COVID-19, nearly 10 times more likely to require hospitalization and 18 times more likely to die than those who are vaccinated.

The biggest concentration of coronavirus cases has expanded from Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming and is spreading farther south, through Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Arizona.

States with low vaccination rates, such as Wyoming, where only 44.5% of residents are fully vaccinated, are seeing among the nations highest case rates, as are several states with vaccination rates similar to Californias 61.9%, such as Colorado at 62.1%, New Mexico at 62.6% and Minnesota at 61.6%, Rutherford said.

Even in highly vaccinated places like New Hampshire and Vermont, you can see how these northernmost tiers of counties are starting to develop outbreaks and more transmission, as is Alaska, Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist and infectious diseases expert, said recently at a campus forum.

Thats why Colorado, New Mexico and Minnesota could be warning signs of Californias future, Rutherford said. Those three states have weekly coronavirus case rates that are triple what California is reporting now. Wyomings is more than 3 times worse than Californias.

Rutherford said that relatively speaking, L.A., Orange and Ventura counties are doing well. But he warned that San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties have a fairly high level of cases.

These factors all suggest that unvaccinated people should get their shots, including children ages 5 to 11 who just became eligible last week, Rutherford said.

People who have recovered from COVID-19 still need to get immunized, too. A study published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said COVID-19 survivors who remained unvaccinated were five times more likely to get a new coronavirus infection compared with fully vaccinated people who had never been infected.

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Should California worry about another winter COVID-19 surge? - Los Angeles Times

GREENVILLE, N.C. Researchers at East Carolina Universitys Brody School of Medicine have found a new way to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 by testing the air passing through building ventilation systems.

The discovery could lead to earlier detection of the virus, improved quarantine protocols, reduced transmission and fewer outbreaks.

Dr. Sinan Sousan, an assistant professor in Brodys Department of Public Health and Research Faculty at North Carolina Agromedicine Institute, and expert of environmental and occupational airborne exposure, and Dr. Rachel Roper, a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology with an extensive background studying coronaviruses, spearheaded the effort to learn whether SARS-CoV-2 could be detected through the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in student dorms.

Their research was recently published in The American Journal of Infection Control and represents a breakthrough in the way the virus can be detected before an individual tests positive.

Read more here.

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ECU researchers discover new way to detect coronavirus through building ventilation systems - WNCT