Category: Corona Virus

Parts of southern Illinois are continuing to see increases in COVID test positivity and hospitalization rates, with one region having just seven intensive care unit beds available to help treat an influx of coronavirus patients.

According to the latest data released by the Illinois Department of Public Health, Region 5, comprised of 20 of Illinois 102 counties and located in the southern tip of the state, has just seven, or 8.3%, of its 84 ICU beds currently open.

The region is seeing the highest test positivity rate in the state, at 11% as of Monday and still rising, and has seen increases in COVID hospitalizations on nine of the last 10 days, according to IDPH data.

The ICU metric is still a slight improvement from a week ago, when the region was down to just one open ICU bed, but challenges remain ahead for the area as COVID cases and hospitalizations rise.

Several other health care regions in central and southern Illinois are also feeling the squeeze. In Region 6, located in east-central Illinois and including cities like Champaign, Effingham and Watseka, the positivity rate has risen to 8.4%, and hospitalizations have increased nine of the last 10 days.

The region does have 25 ICU beds available, making up 17.5% of the total ICU beds in the region.

In Region 3, located in western Illinois in an area that includes Springfield, ICU bed availability has ticked upward in recent days, but still remains low, with 21, or 13.8%, of its beds available for critically ill patients.

One part of southern Illinois that is seeing progress is Region 4, located adjacent to St. Louis. The regions positivity rate is decreasing, dropping to 8.1%, and its COVID hospitalization rates have either dropped or remained steady on seven of the last 10 days.

The region has 21 of its 109 ICU beds available, according to IDPH data.

These metrics come as the state continues to cope with its worst COVID numbers since the beginning of the year. Wednesday saw the state record 5,178 new confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus, its highest single-day increase since Jan. 22, and 4,224 more cases were reported on Thursday.

The state currently has 2,254 hospitalized COVID patients, the most reported in a day since early February, and 537 of those patients are in ICU beds, also a high watermark since February.

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Coronavirus by the Numbers: Southern Illinois Reporting Dwindling Availability of ICU Beds - NBC Chicago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) The Ohio Department of Health held a press conference Thursday on the spread of COVID-19 in the state.

On Wednesday, 7,102 new coronavirus cases were reported by ODH.

That included 1,021 cases that were delayed because of a lab reporting issue between Aug. 15 to Aug. 25 that has since been resolved.

As of Wednesday afternoon, 2,566 people in Ohio are hospitalized with COVID-19.

The Ohio Hospital Association says 1 in 8 hospitalized patients are being treated for coronavirus.

In intensive care that number is 1 in 5.

Ohio hospitals have 1,114 ICU beds available currently.

That includes both adult and pediatric hospitals.

ODH Director Bruce Vanderhoff, MD, MBA spoke at the press conference with Brian Taylor, MD, Inpatient Medical Director at Central Ohio Primary Care Hospitalists and Hector Wong, ICU Physician, and Head of Critical Care at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital.

Hospital staff is exhausted, Dr. Wong shared.

We can no longer say kids arent getting sick from COVID, Dr. Taylor said, comparing this stage of the coronavirus pandemic to 2020.

Were starting to see kids in the hospital, including the ICU, because of COVID, he shared.

Everyone in the ICU is seriously ill, and some of them are going to die, said Dr. Vanderhoff.

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1 in 8 people in Ohios hospitals treated for COVID-19 - WJW FOX 8 News Cleveland

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 218.4 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.54 million. More than 5.34 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Australian doctors have warned that hospitals are not ready to cope with reopening plans even with higher vaccination rates as some states prepare to move from suppression to living with COVID-19.

Moderna has asked the US Food and Drug Administration to allow the use of a third booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine.

New Zealand has reported a fall in new COVID-19 infections, with authorities saying it was a sign that nationwide restrictions were working.

India has reported its biggest single-day rise in new COVID-19 cases for two months, with the state of Kerala worst hit.

A Reuters/Ipsos poll has shown that most vaccinated Americans want a booster COVID-19 vaccine dose.

It comes as the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said yesterday there was no urgent need for vaccine booster doses.

Spain has reached a goal set by the government of vaccinating 70% of its population against COVID-19.

Turkey's new confirmed daily COVID-19 cases have hit a three-week high of 23,946.

Pfizer and Merck have announced new trials of their experimental oral antiviral drugs for COVID-19.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries

Image: Our World in Data

As many as 1-in-7 children might have symptoms linked to COVID-19 months after testing positive for the disease, according to an English study of long COVID in adolescents.

The study, led by University College London and Public Health England, found that 11- to 17-year-olds who tested positive for the virus were twice as likely to report three or more symptoms 15 weeks later than those who had tested negative.

The researchers said that while the findings suggested as many as 32,000 teenagers might have had multiple symptoms linked to COVID-19 after 15 weeks, the prevalence of long COVID in the age group was lower than some had feared last year.

"Overall, it's better than people would've guessed back in December," Professor Terence Stephenson of the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health told reporters.

The research is yet to be peer-reviewed.

The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is a coalition of 85 global leaders, hosted by the World Economic Forum. Its mission: Join hands in support of social entrepreneurs everywhere as vital first responders to the pandemic and as pioneers of a green, inclusive economic reality.

Its COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda, outlines 25 concrete recommendations for key stakeholder groups, including funders and philanthropists, investors, government institutions, support organizations, and corporations. In January of 2021, its members launched its 2021 Roadmap through which its members will roll out an ambitious set of 21 action projects in 10 areas of work. Including corporate access and policy change in support of a social economy.

For more information see the Alliance website or its impact story here.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and World Health Organization Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus inaugurated the new WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence yesterday.

The Berlin-based hub will work to build partnerships and develop technology that uses data to detect and tackle disease and future outbreaks.

The world needs to be able to detect new events with pandemic potential and to monitor disease control measures on a real-time basis to create effective pandemic and epidemic risk management, said Dr Tedros. This Hub will be key to that effort, leveraging innovations in data science for public health surveillance and response, and creating systems whereby we can share and expand expertise in this area globally.

Written by

Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 2 September - World Economic Forum

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) More than 500 new COVID-19 cases were announced in Thursdays update from theSouth Dakota Department of Health.

There were 535 new total cases reported on Thursday. The states total case count is now at 133,372, up from Wednesday (132,837).

Active cases are now at 5,688, up from Wednesday (5,370).

The death toll from COVID-19 is now at 2,071, up from Wednesday (2,069). The new deaths were two men; one wasin the 70-79 age group and the other is in the 80-89 age group

Current hospitalizations are at 218, down from Wednesday (229). Total hospitalizations are now at 6,870, up from Wednesday (6,835).

Total recovered cases are now at 125,613, up from Wednesday (125,398). The latest seven-day PCR test positivity rate for the state is 15.2% for Aug. 25 through Aug. 31.

The state health department has removed the total persons negative column from its COVID-19 Dashboard Tables tab. DOH spokesman Daniel Bucheli told KELOLAND News the department will providea Total Persons Tested and Total Tests Reported table each month.South Dakota Department of Health to report persons tested, total tests for COVID-19 in monthly report.

The DOH currently reports total tests each day. Theres been 1,377,384 total tests reported as of Thursday, up 4,793 from Wednesday (1,372,591).

57 of South Dakotas 66 counties are listed as having high community spread. High community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.

The total number of cases of the Delta variant (B.1.617.2, AY.1-AY.3) detected in South Dakota is at 140.

There have been 172 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), 16 cases of B.1.429 and B.1427 variants (Epsilon variant), 3 cases of P.1. (Gamma variant) and 2 cases of the B.1.351 (Beta variant).

As of Thursday, 62.08% of the population 12-years-old and above has received at least one dose while 56.5% have completed the vaccination series.

There have been 416,523 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered, 310,663 of the Moderna vaccine and 26,653 doses of the Janssen vaccine.

There have been 149,663 persons who have completed two doses of Moderna and 198,087 who have received two doses of Pfizer.

The number of people who completed the Pfizer vaccine went up by 465 patients; 150 people completed the Moderna vaccine series.

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 535 total new cases; Death toll rises to 2,071; Active cases at 5,688 - KELOLAND.com

This week in coronavirus: Tennessee climbs to the top of the worst list  Tennessean

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This week in coronavirus: Tennessee climbs to the top of the worst list - Tennessean

'Trying to catch every case': Are cheap home COVID-19 tests the delta antidote?  USA TODAY

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'Trying to catch every case': Are cheap home COVID-19 tests the delta antidote? - USA TODAY

The European Medicines Agency said Thursday that there is no urgent need for COVID-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated people and suggested instead the emphasis should remain on primary vaccination and getting shots into the arms of the one out of three adults in the European Union who are still not inoculated.

The news, made in a statement, offers the latest stance from a regulator on the issue, which has stirred controversy among public health experts in the U.S. after President Joe Biden said last month that Americans would start getting boosters from Sept. 20. That sparked concerns that the White House was getting ahead of the science and data on vaccine boosters.

For more on the booster debate: COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are more complicated than they appear. Heres why.

The EMAs statement aligns with the World Health Organizations view on boosters: namely, that none should be offered by developed countries while the rest of the world is still hampered by a shortage of supply after wealthier countries laid claim to most of the earliest available shots.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for a moratorium on boosters on Aug. 4 to ensure poorer countries get access to first doses.The agency has said there is still not sufficient data to show that boosters are needed by people who have had both shots of a two-dose vaccine in reining in the spread of the virus.

Dont miss: WHO warns of possible 236,000 new COVID-19 deaths in Europe by December, and Fauci says U.S. could see another 100,000

The WHO has pushed to get vaccines to 10% of the populations of all countries by September, arguing that as major swaths of a population are unvaccinated, variants may emerge, with the risk that one might prove fully vaccine-resistant.

On Wednesday, the WHO said it had identified a new variant of interestcalled B.1.621, and assigned the Greek letter mu. For now, further studies are needed to evaluate its ability to resist the vaccines that have been authorized or approved for use around the world.

Dont miss: WHO identifies new coronavirus variant of interest and experts urge caution on boosters

A number of countries are already giving boosters to some of their vaccinated populations, including Israel, Germany and France. The U.K. has pledged to give them to people with severely weakened immune systems who are at high risk of severe illness, but it has not yet decided on the remaining population. Those shots are considered to be third shots and part of primary vaccination.

The EMAs statement makes clear that it would also classify shots for the immunocompromised as part of primary vaccination.

Evidence on vaccine effectiveness and duration of protection shows that all vaccines authorized in the EU/EEA are currently highly protective against COVID-19-related hospitalization, severe disease and death, said the EMA statement.

Moderna Inc. MRNA, +1.98%, meanwhile, submitted its booster data to the FDA late Wednesday. BioNTech BNTX, -1.19% and Pfizer PFE, +1.74% said last week thatthey had submitted datafor their booster shot to the FDA. That data examined antibody levels in adults who got a third dose between four and eight months after initial vaccination.

There was promising news in a study published on Wednesday in the medical journal the Lancet, which found that the risk of so-called long COVID drops nearly in half after a person receives two doses of a vaccine.

Researchers found that the odds of having symptoms for 28 days or more after post-vaccination infection were approximately halved by having two vaccine doses.

The study also found almost all symptoms were less common in vaccinated people, that more people in the vaccinated than in the unvaccinated groups were completely asymptomatic and that COVID-19 was less severe (both in terms of the number of symptoms in the first week of infection and the need for hospitalization) in participants after their first or second vaccine doses compared with unvaccinated participants.

The study was based on 1.2 million people who used a COVID symptoms app in the U.K.

In the U.S., the vaccine program, which has gained some traction in recent weeks as more employers mandate vaccination for workers returning to offices and schools return to session, continued to edge up. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions tracker is showing that 174.6 million people are now fully vaccinated, equal to 52.6% of the overall population. That means they have had two shots of Pfizer and German partner BioNTechs vaccine or of the one developed by Moderna, or one shot of Johnson & Johnsons JNJ, +0.68% single-dose vaccine.

Among U.S. adults 18 and older, 63.6% are fully inoculated and 74.4% have received at least one dose.

But cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to climb to their highest levels since winter as the delta variant shows no sign of slowing its spread. A New York Times tracker is showing that hospitalizations remain above 100,000 a day on average and average daily deaths are at 1,418.

Since the start of August, the number of daily deaths has more than quadrupled and most are among unvaccinated people.

See: Joe Rogan says he has COVID-19, took kitchen sink approach to treatment including ivermectin

Elsewhere, Bulgaria is tightening restrictions to combat the spread of the virus and will close restaurants and bars at 10 p.m. from Sept. 7 and host indoor sports without spectators, the Guardian reported. Bulgaria has the lowest vaccination rate in the EU, according to Reuters, at just 16.7% of its population, and the highest mortality rate, losing some 18,950 people to COVID since the start of the outbreak.

India recorded 47,092 new COVID cases on Thursday, to mark the biggest one-day tally in two months, India Today.com reported. The last time cases were higher than this was 63 days ago, on July 1, when India reported 48,786 cases. On Wednesday, 41,965 COVID-19 cases were recorded.

Hawaii is struggling to transport tanks of oxygen from the mainland as it grapples with a surge of COVID cases, the New York Times reported. Medical officials are asking Hawaiians to postpone elective surgeries as intensive-care-unit beds are being used for COVID patients. The seven-day hospitalization average peaked at 427 on Monday, driven by the delta variant and a relatively low vaccination rate.

See now: EU recommends restrictions on Americans amid rise in COVID. Read this before you travel to Europe

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 218.6 million on Thursday, while the death toll rose to 4.54 million, according todata aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with a total of 39.4 million cases and 642,096 deaths.

India has the second highest death toll after the U.S. at 439,529 and is third by cases at 32.9 million, the Johns Hopkins data shows.

Brazil has second highest death toll at 581,150 and has had 20.8 million cases.

In Europe, Russia has recorded 181,560 deaths, followed by the U.K. with 133,066.

China,where the virus was first discovered late in 2019,has had 107,102 confirmed cases and 4,848 deaths, according to its official numbers, which are widely held to be massively underreported.

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European regulator sees 'no urgent need' for COVID-19 boosters, aligning with WHO view and not the U.S. - MarketWatch

A third shot of the Moderna vaccine boosts protection across age groups, notably in older adults, the company says. Juana Miyer/Long Visual Press/Universal Imag hide caption

A third shot of the Moderna vaccine boosts protection across age groups, notably in older adults, the company says.

A third dose of the Moderna vaccine given six months after the initial two doses significantly boosts immunity, according to data the company submitted to the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday.

The data comes from 344 volunteers who got an additional dose of the vaccine as part of a clinical study. Antibodies had waned six months after vaccination, the company said, but the third shot boosted antibodies to an even higher point than was seen after the initial shots, even though the booster was just half the original dose. The increased protection was "achieved across age groups, notably in older adults (ages 65 and above)," the company said.

Moderna made the announcement in a press release, but the research has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Pfizer-BioNTech has also asked for authorization for a booster dose of its vaccine. The FDA has scheduled a meeting for September 17th to discuss the need for boosters for the general population.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have already recommended a third dose of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for some immunocompromised people.

Meanwhile, health officials are already preparing to roll out COVID-19 boosters, according to a plan announced by the white House on August 18th. The plan calls for all adults who received a two-dose vaccine to be eligible for an additional jab eight months from when they got their second shot.

But that decision isn't actually final yet. The FDA and the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) first need to OK the move.

Johnson & Johnson issued a press release on August 25th with preliminary results of a small study suggesting a second shot of its vaccine could rapidly increase antibody levels in recipients. A separate booster recommendation for J&J is expected soon, health officials say.

But as poorer countries lag way behind on vaccine distribution, the World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on booster shots and urged richer countries to do everything they can to help the rest of the world get vaccinated.

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Moderna Has Asked The FDA To Authorize A Booster Of Its COVID-19 Vaccine - NPR

12.04pm EDT 12:04

Jessica Glenza

An unvaccinated teacher in a California elementary school infected half her students and 26 people in total when she contracted the Covid-19 Delta variant, researchers for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found.

The researchers said the teacher attended school for two days despite displaying symptoms of Covid-19, and read aloud to her class without a mask during that time. Infections corresponded to the classrooms seating chart, with the students sitting closest to the teacher the most likely to be infected.

11.54am EDT 11:54

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been 156,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.As of 9am today, there had been a further 32,406 lab-confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK, the Government said.

11.51am EDT 11:51

Government data up to August 27 shows that of the 90,466,529 Covid jabs given in the UK, 47,958,928 were first doses, a rise of 43,160 on the previous day. Around 42,507,601 were second doses, an increase of 128,248.

11.48am EDT 11:48

The Government has said a further 133 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of today, bringing the UK total to 132,376, reports PA.

11.11am EDT 11:11

Thats it from me, Lonie Chao-Fong, for today. Heres a quick roundup of whats been happening so far:

Updated at 11.16am EDT

10.53am EDT 10:53

Tennis fans aged 12 or over will be required to show proof of Covid vaccination in order to attend the US Open, tournament officials have confirmed.

The tournament did not originally require any proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for fans to enter. Attendees were also not required to wear a mask.

Stricter protocols were only introduced after tournament officials came under pressure from New Yorks mayor, Bill de Blasio, and other city leaders.

On Friday evening, the tournament announced on Twitter that proof of at least one vaccine shot would now be required for entrance to the grounds for all fans aged 12 and older. Masks will not be required.

Updated at 11.13am EDT

10.40am EDT 10:40

As September approaches, employers are increasingly asking workers to come in, with many offices adopting hybrid systems after months of working from home prompting mixed emotions. Commuting can be both expensive and polluting. UK workers pay more of their salary in commuting costs than their EU counterparts, and before the pandemic, two-thirds of people travelled to work by car. Despite the costs, which also include time, some value the commute for separating their home and work lives.

Seven people speak about how their commutes and their perspectives on travelling to work have changed since the onset of the pandemic.

Updated at 11.11am EDT

10.23am EDT 10:23

Government scientific advisers have warned universities about hosting freshers weeks next month, saying they could lead to very large spikes in coronavirus cases.

Universities across the country are planning to hold in-person events for first-year students next month for the first time since 2019.

Professor Susan Michie, director of the centre for behaviour change at University College London, as well as a member of the governments Covid-19 behavioural science team and part of the Independent Sage group of scientists, said that even if freshers events were held outdoors, there would still be a high risk associated with them.

She said:

Freshers fair week will have the potential for being a superspreader event, and however much universities pay attention to making it as safe as possible, its the behaviour of people that wont be known.

Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London and a member of the Sage immunology taskforce, echoed Michies predictions. He said that despite the vaccine rollout, the UK was in a way, way worse situation than we were last August heading into autumn as schools and universities prepared to go back.

He said:

So if I imagine vast numbers of kids getting together in halls of residence and in freshers week parties, I think how can one not predict that will lead to very large spikes in numbers?

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Updated at 10.45am EDT

10.10am EDT 10:10

Heres some more detail on the story that Japan is investigating the death of two men who received jabs from batches of Modernas Covid-19 vaccine that were suspended from use due to contamination.

Agence France-Presse reports:

The men aged 30 and 38 died earlier this month after getting their second Moderna doses from one of three manufacturing lots suspended by the government on Thursday after several vials were found to be contaminated, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said the cause of death was still being investigated and currently, causal relations with the vaccinations are unknown.

Both men contracted fever after receiving their vaccinations and neither had underlying health conditions or allergic history, the ministry said.

Updated at 10.35am EDT

9.51am EDT 09:51

The Italian island region of Sicily will soon be placed under coronavirus restrictions the first time in two months that such measures have been reimposed on a regional level.

Italys health minister, Roberto Speranza, announced he had signed a new ordinance bringing Sicily under yellow zone restrictions, meaning people must wear a mask indoors and outdoors and restaurant diners will be limited to groups of four. The rule change is expected to take effect from Monday.

Since the start of summer, all regions in Italy had been classed at the lowest risk level white, but the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant has sparked concern. Sicily currently has the highest number of people in hospital and in intensive care.

Updated at 10.46am EDT

9.27am EDT 09:27

Sudan has received a shipment of 218,400 doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid vaccine as a donation from France, the health ministry and Unicef said.

The vaccines were delivered through the UN-backed Covax facility. In March, Sudan received an initial 820,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through Covax and Unicef.

Sudan received 606,700 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines as a donation from the US earlier in August, Reuters reports. The country has also received a number of doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

In a statement, Unicef said:

The vaccinations come at a critical time as the infection numbers are climbing while the country is preparing to re-open schools after three years of numerous interruptions.

As of Thursday, Sudan, with a population of 42 million, has officially recorded 37,699 infections and 2,831 deaths since the start of the pandemic. However, this is widely believed to reflect only a fraction of the actual numbers.

A study published late last year by scientists from Imperial College Londons Covid-19 response team in Sudan found that only about 2% of Covid deaths in the capital, Khartoum, had been reported.

Updated at 9.56am EDT

9.07am EDT 09:07

Megan, a 30-year-old from rural Nebraska in the US, feels torn. She hasnt been vaccinated against Covid-19, but if left to her own devices, things would be different. She worries about what would happen if she caught the virus and passed it on to her toddler daughter, whose history of health complications includes hospitalisation for lung problems.

Megan feels a responsibility to protect her child. But she also doesnt want to keep secrets from her husband who, along with his mother, is adamantly against the vaccine for political reasons.

As she figures out how to protect herself and her daughter without inciting major family conflict, Megan admits that her husbands reliance on conspiracy theories he learns from like-minded friends or social media posts has made it difficult to trust him. Especially now.

Had we been dating during the pandemic, this may have been a dealbreaker, she says.

Though the percentage of Americans who have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine is slowly climbing amid the rise of the Delta variant, some have firmly made up their minds not to get the shot. Reasons for refusing the vaccine may vary, but one common byproduct has become clear: seriously strained relationships with loved ones on the other side of the heated moral and ideological debate.

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Updated at 9.56am EDT

8.48am EDT 08:48

The US government confirmed the worlds first case of coronavirus in deer on Friday, adding to the list of animals known to have tested positive for the disease.

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) reported infections of Sars-CoV-2 in wild white-tailed deer in the state of Ohio, according to a statement on Friday.

A USDA spokesperson told Reuters:

We do not know how the deer were exposed to Sars-CoV-2. Its possible they were exposed through people, the environment, other deer, or another animal species.

The USDA has previously reported coronavirus in animals including dogs, cats, tigers, lions, snow leopards, otters, gorillas and mink.

Updated at 9.55am EDT

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Coronavirus live news: return to school could lead to sharp rise in cases, UK expert warns; Vietnam reports 352 deaths as it happened - The Guardian

Inmates do a deep cleaning in a cell pod to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the San Diego County Jail in April 2020. A new study says crowded jails may have contributed to millions of COVID-19 cases across the United States. Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images hide caption

Inmates do a deep cleaning in a cell pod to prevent the spread of COVID-19 at the San Diego County Jail in April 2020. A new study says crowded jails may have contributed to millions of COVID-19 cases across the United States.

If the U.S. had done more to reduce its incarceration rate, it could have prevented millions of COVID-19 cases.

That's the conclusion of researchers who conducted what they say is the first study to link mass incarceration rates to pandemic vulnerability. Many of those preventable cases, they add, occurred in communities of color.

The U.S. jail and prison system acts as an epidemic engine, according to the study from researchers at Northwestern University and the World Bank.

That engine is driven by a massive number of people who, despite some counties' efforts to trim jail populations, have been cycling between cramped detention facilities and their home communities.

After analyzing data from 1,605 counties, the researchers linked an 80% reduction in the U.S. jail population to a 2% drop in the growth rate of daily COVID-19 cases.

Such a substantial drop in the incarceration level could have been achieved by instituting alternatives to jail for nonviolent offenses, according to the researchers Dr. Eric Reinhart of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Daniel Chen of the Toulouse School of Economics and the World Bank.

That 2% reduction is a conservative estimate, but it still represents a dramatic potential shift, Reinhart told NPR.

When compounded daily, Reinhart said in a Northwestern news release about the study, "even just a 2% reduction in daily case growth rates in the U.S. from the beginning of the pandemic until now would translate to the prevention of millions of cases."

Tens of thousands of deaths could also have been prevented, he said.

A red tag on a cell door signifies an active COVID-19 case for its inhabitants. The first medically vulnerable inmates in Minnesota were vaccinated at Faribault Prison in January. Aaron Lavinsky/Star Tribune/Getty Images hide caption

A red tag on a cell door signifies an active COVID-19 case for its inhabitants. The first medically vulnerable inmates in Minnesota were vaccinated at Faribault Prison in January.

The U.S. has long had the world's highest incarceration rate among industrialized countries reporting such statistics. During the pandemic, it has also reported more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country despite having less than 5% of the global population.

The new research, published Thursday in the journal JAMA Network Open, suggests those circumstances are directly related.

On average, U.S jails currently host some 650,000 detainees every day, according to Reinhart. The dynamic also includes more than 220,000 full-time jail staff, who commute back and forth from their homes each day, the study said.

Many of those detainees are held in custody for only short periods of time as they either await trial or serve short sentences. The U.S. jail population has a 55% weekly turnover rate, according to the study.

"This jail churn effectively produces epidemic machines that seed outbreaks both in and beyond jails, undermining public safety for the entire country," Reinhart said.

Citing crowded conditions and poor health care in jails and prisons, a summary of the study from Northwestern said the U.S. facilities "have effectively become infectious disease incubators," putting the country at a higher epidemiological risk.

The link between prisons and public health is one of the reasons Black and Hispanic communities have been disproportionately harmed by the coronavirus, the study's authors said.

The spread of the coronavirus between jails and communities "likely accounts for a substantial proportion of the racial disparities we have seen in COVID-19 cases across the U.S.," Reinhart said.

"Ultimately, this also harms all U.S. residents regardless of race, class or partisan affiliations, as disregarding the health of marginalized people inevitably causes harm albeit unevenly to everyone else in a society, too," he added.

The benefits of cutting the jail population would be magnified, Reinhart and Chen wrote, in counties with high proportions of Black residents as well as in urban areas with above-average population density.

The study's findings are based on data from jails that reduced their populations at rates from 20% to 50% during the pandemic in response to health risks from COVID-19.

The researchers sought to predict what the results would look like if the U.S. dropped its jail population by 80%, which would bring the country closer to the average rates seen in peer nations.

The study relied on data gathered at the county level from January 2020 to November, representing 72% of the U.S. population.

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Crowded U.S. Jails Drove Millions Of COVID-19 Cases, A New Study Says - NPR