Category: Corona Virus

In a matter of just six minutes, a factory worker from a Mexican border city stepped off a bus in Texas last week, received the Covid-19 vaccine and was heading back home across the international bridge to Mexico.

The vaccination took place near El Paso, the west Texas city where the coronavirus was raging so relentlessly nine months ago that jail inmates were being used to load bodies into mobile morgues because funeral homes were overflowing.

After a hard pandemic and with concerns over continued infections in Texas and northern Mexico, vaccination efforts are being stepped up.

El Paso now has one of the highest vaccination rates among US cities, according to government data progress which prompted outreach across the border and an international initiative.

As of 2 August, 69.7% of El Pasos population aged 12 and up were fully vaccinated and 81.4% were partially vaccinated.

To go from one of the top Covid-19 infected cities in the nation last fall, to fifth among all cities in the country [for vaccinations] is nothing short of phenomenal, El Pasos Democratic mayor, Oscar Leeser, said last month. This demonstrates once more the incredible spirit of our community.

In one outreach effort, El Paso county judge Ricardo Samaniego launched a program to vaccinate workers from the many maquiladoras or factories in Juarez, El Pasos Mexican sister city, where hundreds of thousands toil for US-owned companies with operations there.

Lines of coaches came trundling across the border throughout July, bringing Mexican workers and their families to the US to get vaccinated at a specially designated site at the Tornillo port of US entry, just east of El Paso.

Up to 50,000 one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines were requested, and supplies were channelled through the Texas department of health and human services. That brand was chosen so that visitors could avoid a second trip.

Many people on both sides of the border are eager to see peoples health protected but also to see the international boundary reopened for non-essential travel, because pandemic restrictions continue to stifle the normal bustle of commerce between El Paso and Juarez.

Texan Yuriko Ibarra received her vaccination some time ago as a healthcare worker she was one of the first groups eligible. Her brother and sister-in-law, who live in Juarez and work for a US company, had to wait longer, but recently received the shot through the maquiladoras program.

They asked me a lot about vaccination and of course I motivated them to do it, Ibarra said, adding: They had a little fever and fatigue, a little sore arm, but nothing more.

During Covid surges, maquiladora industry workers were among the hardest hit in Juarez.

Right now, they feel safer, Ibarra said of her relatives. But they continue to take care of themselves, the use of masks and [hand sanitizer] remains the same, without going out so much, only for necessary things.

While many workers flocked to the vaccination site, others resisted vaccination, so registration was opened to the general public in Mexico. People could call to sign up for a spot on a bus to Tornillo.

We were one of the worst [counties] in the country then when the numbers [of infections] went down, we couldnt get people to [take a] test, Samaniego said. He went on: Same thing is happening with the vaccine.

Although the situation in El Paso county is much better than at the height of the pandemic, the border remains closed to non-essential travel, although Samaniego had hoped that initiatives like his would raise the vaccination rate to the point where reopening would be possible.

We dont know what levels theyre looking for, Samaniego said of the federal authorities. But were doing everything we can to [try to achieve] herd immunity.

On Monday the Biden administration extended the controversial Trump-era Title 42 policy that allows the authorities to summarily expel undocumented migrants arriving in the US, in an attempt to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in holding facilities.

Meanwhile, the Maquiladora Index Association, a workers organization in Mexico, paid for the employees and their families to come to the American vaccination site in El Paso county, while the US government funded the vaccine, equipment and personnel on the US side.

Fabiola Luna Avila, Index president, told Mexican media outlets last week that most of the employees in the factory sector in the region have now been vaccinated.

Coronavirus cases are increasing again in El Paso, a pattern that is repeating reaping across the United States.

But, as elsewhere, the county judge explained that the vast majority of positive cases in the area were coming from one population: unvaccinated El Pasoans.

That tells you the story of how powerful the vaccine is, Samaniego said.

The maquiladora vaccination program wrapped up on 30 July, with almost 30,000 shots administered.

Its incredible, Samaniego said on the final day. We were worried about the hesitancy, but when you say its the last day, now buses are lining up.

Last minute vaccinations started at 8.30am and in just three hours more than 2,000 doses had been administered.

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El Paso: how one Texas city is beating the coronavirus - The Guardian

Hospitalizations due to coronavirus in North Texas have increased 292% over the past month, according to data from UT-Southwestern Medical Center. Chief State Epidemiologist Jennifer Shuford said she and others at the Texas Department of State Health Services are concerned.

We've been living this pandemic now for a year and a half, Shuford said. We thought we had seen the worst of it with those first two pandemic waves that we experienced. This third wave that we're having right now in Texas is showing a very steep increase in cases and hospitalizations, as great or even steeper than what we were seeing with those first two waves.

So What Does Coronavirus In Texas Look Like Right Now?

Shuford said the case counts are increasing at an astonishing rate. UT-Southwestern estimates there will be more than 1,500 new COVID-19 infections per day by mid-August.

We are about 90% more cases this week than we were even last week, and almost 10 times as high as we were just a month ago, Shuford said.

Hospitalizations are also increasing. Across the state, more than 7,600 people are currently hospitalized due to coronavirus, and in North Texas its more than 400. For comparison, last years summer surge in July saw nearly 700 people hospitalized in North Texas, and the more recent winter surge was close to 1,200 people.

The issue with more and more people being hospitalized, Shuford said, is the potential issues with staffing and medical equipment.

The problem with that is that hospitals usually get prepared when they think flu and pneumonia season is coming up, Shuford said. They make sure their staffing is ready, and that their ICUs are ready. And with this steep increase in cases and hospitalizations that were seeing, people just weren't prepared.

A big reason is new variants of coronavirus, like delta, that are more easy to transmit. Another factor is the number of people who are unvaccinated. In Dallas this week, Dallas County Health and Human Services Director Phillip Huang said around 90% of people hospitalized have been unvaccinated.

That is the primary thing that we need to not lose track of, its this high percentage of people that are still unvaccinated that are important," Huang said. "Virtually all hospitalizations and death continue to be among the unvaccinated.

Keren Carrin / KERA News

In Dallas County, 52% of people 12 and older are fully vaccinated, which is on par with 53% statewide.

We know that this pandemic is spreading more readily through people who are not fully vaccinated, Shuford said. But there's pockets of unvaccinated people all across the state, and so we are seeing spread of this disease all across the state.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported the first case of delta variant in the United States in March. Since then, its become the dominant coronavirus strain in both Texas and the U.S. as a whole.

Viruses mutate, Shuford said. Thats just what they do. If they have a mutation that somehow makes them a little more aggressive or more easily spreadable, than those things can help that one mutant strain or that variant become the one that increases in proportions.

As coronavirus variants mutate, Shuford said she and other health officials have seen the way the virus spreads from one person to another, also known as transmissibility, continue to increase. One of the first coronavirus variants called alpha was found in the United Kingdom last winter. It was 50% more transmissible than the original coronavirus strain (called SARS-CoV-2). Shuford says the delta variant is 50% more transmissible than alpha.

"People who get infected [with the delta variant], on average, they just have more virus in their respiratory tract than people did when they were infected with previous strains of this virus," Shuford said. "When there's more virus sitting in the respiratory tract, you can expel more of that virus with every breath or sneeze or a cough or nose blow.

Most likely, said Shuford, because thats how viruses stay alive.

We expect that delta is not the last chapter in this book, said Shuford. We will continue to see ongoing mutations in this virus. Were just going to have to work to keep up with it and keep changing whatever we need to the guidance, any vaccines, therapeutics.

Shuford said COVID-19 vaccines highly decrease the likelihood of severe symptoms and hospitalizations, even with more transmissible variants like delta. Although its important to note the CDC said no vaccines are 100% effective at preventing illness in vaccinated people.

In terms of new recommendations, back in May, the department said fully vaccinated people dont need to wear masks indoors. In July, the CDC then recommended people in counties with substantial or high transmission wear a mask indoors, which means 50 or more cases per 100,000 people in a week. More than 230 of Texas 254 counties fall within the substantial or high transmission threshold.

While kids 12 and older are approved to get the Pfizer vaccine, and trials are underway for kids under 12, that still leave a lot of kids unvaccinated.

It's something that we're also concerned about, Shuford said. Anytime that we gather people together in a setting where a lot of them aren't vaccinated, there's chances for outbreaks. It's not just in schools, it's in any sort of public setting.

LM Otero

New CDC guidelines for kids returning in-person to school recommend anyone who isnt fully vaccinated wear a mask indoors, students stay 3 feet apart in the classroom and that schools practice other safety measures like frequent cleaning and handwashing.

Some school districts in other states have reintroduced mask mandates for schools to prevent community spread. A recent executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott prevents school districts, county governments and other state agencies in Texas from implementing mask mandates.

For Shuford, she continues to recommend people who arent fully vaccinate wear a mask and physically distance from people not in their household. She also emphasized the importance of getting everyone vaccinated who is able.

For children who are in that 0 to 11 age range and can't get the vaccine, it'll be important for the people in their lives who surround them to make sure that they're fully vaccinated, so that they can help protect those vulnerable populations," Shuford said. "Thats true not only for the kids, but also for people who are immunocompromised.

Shuford said this third pandemic wave is a little different than the first two, mostly because of the availability of vaccines, but the same prevention steps still apply.

Physically distancing from people who are outside of your household, wearing masks when you're around people who are outside of your household, making sure that you wash your hands or clean them on a regular basis and improving the air circulation or the ventilation in your living spaces or working spaces all of those things work now, even with the new variants, Shuford said.

Texas Department of State Health Services is also monitoring cold and flu season, which starts in the fall.

Last year, so many people were wearing masks, and they were socially distancing, that we didn't really have a flu season, Shuford said. Now we're at a different place where people are mixing a little bit more. We are worried about not only COVID-19, but also influenza and any number of other respiratory viruses that circulate in the fall and winter months.

Texas Health and Human Services has information about vaccine eligibility and where to find a vaccine appointment across the state.

Got a tip? Email Elena Rivera at erivera@kera.org. You can follow Elena on Twitter @elenaiswriting.

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Texas COVID Cases Are Surging At An 'Astonishing Rate.' Here's What You Need To Know. - KERA News

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 200.92 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.26 million. More than 4.32 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Daily new COVID-19 cases have reached a six-month high in the United States, with more than 100,000 new cases reported nationwide.

Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine is about 93% effective through six months after the second dose.

China has reported 124 new confirmed COVID-19 cases for the mainland, its highest daily count during the current outbreak.

South Korea has extended its social distancing measures by two weeks, in an effort to control COVID-19 outbreaks across the country.

Restrictions have also been extended in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi until 22 August.

Reported COVID-19-related deaths in Africa reached a record peak during the week ending 1 August, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

Greece has introduced a night-time curfew and banned music on two of its popular tourist islands after a rise in COVID-19 cases.

New data in Indonesia shows that the COVID-19 death rate for unvaccinated people was more than 3 times higher than for vaccinated people.

The White House has confirmed it might require visitors from abroad to be vaccinated, as part of plans to reopen international travel, but a final decision is yet to be made.

Research suggests that children who contract COVID-19 rarely suffer long-term symptoms - so-called long COVID.

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

Image: Our World in Data

Officials have warned Sydney residents to brace for a further rise in COVID-19 cases. It comes after Australia's largest city reported a record rise in confirmed cases for the second day in a row.

"Just based on the trend in the last few days and where things are going, I am expecting higher case numbers in the next few days and I just want everyone to be prepared for that," New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.

It comes despite a weeks-long lockdown to try and halt the spread of the Delta variant.

Victoria has also entered a fresh lockdown, with officials warning that the state was in a 'precarious position'.

With Brisbane, Queensland, also in lockdown it means that more than 60% of the country's population are currently under hard lockdowns.

The United Nations is concerned about COVID-19 vaccines going unused, and has offered its help - but can only do so at the request of governments.

"We are very concerned about situations where we've seen vaccines have gone unused. Either for administrative reasons, for lack of proper care, or frankly for vaccine hesitancy," U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

He said the United Nations was ready to help countries with vaccine distribution - such as transportation, cold chain distribution, combating vaccine hesitancy - but "that can only be done at the request of the government."

"These are sovereign governments that have the responsibility, moral and otherwise, to ensure their populations are vaccinated once they have vaccine," Dujarric said. "We are there ready to help at the request of governments."

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 6 August - World Economic Forum

Florida officials reported 134,506 coronavirus cases over the seven-day period from July 30 to Aug 5. At more than 19,000 infections per day, its the states highest infection rate since the start of the pandemic.

The latest tally brings the total number of cases up to 2,725,450 since the pandemics first two cases in Florida were reported 17 months ago on March 1, 2020.

The state added 616 deaths since the previous weeks report, bringing the total statewide number of pandemic deaths to 39,695. The report indicates that 175 deaths occurred in the past seven days, but it can take officials up to two weeks to confirm and report a coronavirus-related death.

The Florida Department of Health announced last month that it would no longer release daily COVID-19 data. Instead, it is now releasing a weekly report every Friday, but withholds information that was publicly available before.

As of June 4, the state no longer reports non-resident vaccinations, coronavirus cases and fatalities. The state has declined repeated requests to provide non-resident data to the Tampa Bay Times.

Florida is transitioning into the next phase of the COVID-19 response, and has shifted reporting to parallel this, the agency said in a June 18 email to the Times. Among reportable diseases monitored by the department, such as HIV and Hepatitis, it is not typical to calculate cases for non-Florida residents.

Florida is the only state that updates its coronavirus caseloads and data once a week. Although weekly reports can be more reliable than daily updates, experts warn that infrequent data updates may delay identifying emerging trends.

Vaccinations: Florida administered 380,576 doses of vaccine in the past week, nearly 50,000 more than the week before. Included in the count are 278,375 who received their first dose of the vaccine.

So far 63 percent of Florida residents age 12 and up have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the state. About 53 percent of eligible residents have been fully vaccinated.

That still leaves 64 percent of Floridas total population not fully protected, including children 11 and under who are not eligible to receive the vaccine.

Vaccination rates are highest among Floridas older adults. Eighty-five percent of Floridians over the age of 65 have been vaccinated, and 78 percent of those ages 60 to 64 have been vaccinated, according to state data.

The largest vaccination gains was among teens and young adults for the second week in a row: 41 percent of those 12 to 19 are vaccinated, and 43 percent of those 20 to 29 and 49 percent of those 30 to 39 have received the vaccine.

In Hillsborough County, 58 percent of residents age 12 and up have been vaccinated; in Pinellas, 61 percent; in Pasco, 58 percent; in Manatee, 60 percent; in Polk, 55 percent; in Hernando, 52 percent; and in Citrus, 54 percent.

Positivity: Floridas positivity rate rose to 18.5 percent in the past week, up from 18.1 percent the week before.

Before reopening, states should maintain a positivity rate of 5 percent or less for at least two weeks, according to the World Health Organization. A positivity rate of 5 percent or less indicates testing is widespread enough to capture mild, asymptomatic and negative cases.

Positivity rates increased for the fifth week in a row in the Tampa Bay area, where the positivity rate was 22.8 percent in Hillsborough, 18 percent in Pinellas, 24.3 percent in Pasco, 18.5 percent in Manatee, 26.3 percent in Polk, 27.2 percent in Hernando, and 23.1 percent in Citrus.

Hospitalizations: Florida had 12,864 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the hospital as of Friday, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. Its the highest level of hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 12,227 confirmed COVID-19 patients were admitted to Florida hospitals from July 29 to Aug 4. Thats an increase of about 3,300 new hospitalizations compared to the prior seven-day reporting period.

The Tampa Bay area saw 2,569 hospital admissions. Hillsborough county hospitals had 782 admissions, Pinellas had 635 admissions, Pasco had 303 admissions, Manatee had 126 admissions, Polk had 518 admissions, Hernando had 141 admissions, and Citrus had 64 admissions.

Local numbers: Tampa Bay added 26,962 cases in the past week, bringing the area total up to 483,058 cases.

As of Thursdays count, Hillsborough added 8,853 new cases, Pinellas had 5,125 cases, Pasco had 3,404 cases, Manatee had 1,985 cases, Polk had 5,703 cases, Hernando had 1,346 cases, and Citrus had 816 cases.

The state no longer reports deaths by county. According to CDC data, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Manatee, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties each recorded fewer than 10 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in the past week. The federal agency does not report exact deaths by county when the count is under 10.

DELTA VARIANT: COVID-19 is resurgent and school is starting. Heres what parents and kids need to know about the fourth coronavirus wave.

VACCINES Q&A: Have coronavirus vaccine questions? We have answers, Florida.

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Florida adds 134,506 coronavirus cases, 616 deaths in the past week. - Tampa Bay Times

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Texas A&M Universitys new president M. Katherine Banks said this spring that she anticipated a fall [semester] of joy when the university reopens after 15 months of lockdowns and remote learning.

She wasnt alone. As coronavirus case numbers dropped throughout the spring, higher education leaders across the state excitedly announced the return of in-person classes, 100% capacity at football games and an end to social distancing requirements for the fall.

But just a few weeks before students are expected to return to campus, university leaders are faced once again with uncertainty as the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus spreads throughout the state and country. This time, public university administrators are tasked with trying to mitigate the virus on campus without the ability to reinstitute mask mandates or require vaccines due to Gov. Greg Abbotts executive order banning such directives. Theyll be limited in how they can respond even as the Centers for Disease Control has advised fully vaccinated people to wear masks indoors to prevent the spread of the virus and some students and faculty have expressed worry about how safe their return to campus will be.

As the fall semester approaches, I have a feeling of dj vu, albeit an unwelcome one, wrote University of Texas at Austin President Jay Hartzell in a letter to the university community on July 30. I recall last summer and winter, as we prepared to start semesters in the face of a COVID-19 virus that has an uncanny ability to time increasing threats to coincide with the academic calendar.

While universities say they are monitoring the delta variant and whether theyll need to pivot, many are moving ahead with previously decided reopening plans, including full football stadiums and in-person classes, while encouraging everyone to wear a mask and get vaccinated. Yet faculty and some students say they are increasingly worried about how they can effectively protect themselves and others on campuses where leaders cant prevent unmasked or unvaccinated students and employees from entering and unknowingly spreading the virus.

Positive cases in Texas have not risen this high since the mask mandate was rescinded in March, while hospitalizations across the state have reached levels not seen since February, right after Texas experienced its largest spike in cases. Meanwhile, 44% of the eligible Texans are fully vaccinated.

Its almost feeling a little bit of helplessness in the sense that, What can we actually do to make the situation better in the fall? said UT-Austin senior Steven Ding, who is president of the Senate of College Councils. Theres a little more hope because there is a clear answer to resolving a lot of this mess: to get vaccinated. But Im going to be a senior next year and [for] other students at this age, its the frustration that its this all over again.

At least one school made a slight change to its reopening plan this week. Banks, A&Ms president, announced that everyone must participate in COVID-19 testing within the first two weeks of returning to campus regardless of their vaccination status. The school is also starting a drawing to incentivize students to get the vaccine. Winners could get some educational expenses covered.

The University of Texas at Arlingtons leaders said while they are moving forward with reopening as announced, they have started to discuss what to do if the university is forced to scale back operations this fall, including hybrid classes and telework options.

Weve got 40,000 students on the campus that we need to serve, said John Hall, vice president for administration and campus operations, at UT-Arlington. [We] didnt have that a year ago.

Meanwhile, some smaller private universities in Texas have made more drastic changes in response to increased cases, including mask requirements indoors and weekly testing for unvaccinated students and employees.

Much of the frustration among faculty, staff and students is due to Abbotts executive orders limiting masks and vaccine mandates. The faculty senate at A&M is scheduled to vote next week on a resolution calling on the state to allow universities to make their own decisions and follow the science in their efforts to combat COVID-19.

There are heavy concerns when you think about the fact that institutions like A&M, the University of Texas ... have a rich history based on the study of scientific principles, said Dale Rice, speaker of the Texas A&M Faculty Senate. And now theyre being constrained from following the science.

Last week, a group of student leaders at UT-Austin slammed the governor for not allowing universities to make decisions on their own campuses, but also urged UT-Austin to do more.

[I]t is also irresponsible for the University of Texas to plan for a full re-opening with little to no virtual classes available, the letter from student leaders across various colleges read. We have been made witness to the vast benefits of virtual learning for students, faculty, and staff who are disabled, have to work 2-3 jobs to keep up with the rising living costs in Austin, or have adapted to working or learning from home.

UT-Austin did not respond to requests for comment.

While some faculty say they are sympathetic to administrators, others said there has been much less communication about how to handle this semester compared to last fall. As cases increase, faculty leaders on campuses across the state said they have heard from increasingly anxious professors, especially those with young children or immunocompromised family members at home who cannot get a vaccine.

Its not one person rocking the boat. It's not one person expressing concern, said Gina Nuez-Mchiri, professor and faculty chair at the University of Texas at El Paso, who said shes been inundated with texts and phone calls from fellow professors seeking guidance. That fear is real, that anxiety is real, its palpable. And I think leaders in higher education need to be listening, need to be aware and not ignore these concerns.

Public universities in multiple states across the country, including California, Minnesota, Missouri and Michigan, have reinstated mask mandates in recent weeks. Indiana University instituted a vaccine mandate for students and employees, which an appeals court upheld after it was challenged by some students.

Recently, a group of nearly 30 national higher education organizations, including the NCAA, released a joint statement condemning states that have banned mask and vaccine mandates in higher education.

These restrictions undermine the ability of all organizations, including colleges and universities, to operate safely and fully at a time of tremendous unpredictability, the statement read. Furthermore, these restrictions prohibit higher education institutions from taking responsible and reasonable public health measures and ultimately threaten the health and safety of students, faculty, staff, and neighboring communities.

In a statement, Abbotts spokesperson defended the governors decision to end the mask mandate.

Governor Abbott has been clear that the time for government mandating of masks is overnow is the time for personal responsibility, said Renae Eze. Every Texan has the right to choose whether they will wear a mask, or have their children wear masks.

In messages to university communities, officials say they encourage, but dont require masks and vaccines. Many universities are continuing to offer free COVID-19 testing and will continue contact tracing efforts, mandatory reporting of a positive COVID-19 test and quarantine requirements for students who become infected.

UTEPs leaders said they feel they can reopen safely due to high vaccination rates in the surrounding community, citing in a note to the school community that more than 80% of El Paso residents 12 years or older have had at least one dose of the vaccine. The school has also ended testing for faculty and staff, encouraging them to use community testing centers, but will provide testing for students throughout the fall semester.

UTEP, along with some other Texas public and private universities, has asked students to voluntarily share their vaccine status.

Officials at UTEP estimated two-thirds of students and 90% of employees are fully vaccinated. Texas Tech University in Lubbock estimated about 75% of students and 90% of faculty are vaccinated, based on a voluntary spring survey. Baylor University said in a note that 47% of the campus community is vaccinated. Texas Christian University is also asking students to share their vaccine status ahead of the fall semester, but are not requiring vaccines and has said masks are expected but not required for unvaccinated students.

Other university officials said they have shied away from voluntary surveys because they often have low response rates that dont provide enough data to draw conclusions about the entire school community. For instance, at Texas Tech, the spring survey had just a 21% response rate out of the entire university population.

Some private universities across the state have reacted to the increase in positive cases with stricter measures, though vaccines remain optional. On Tuesday, Rice University in Houston announced masks will be required indoors in group settings. Rice is also asking all students and employees to share their vaccination status. Those who are fully vaccinated must get tested every two weeks. Unvaccinated members coming to campus must test two times per week.

Trinity University in San Antonio is also requiring masks indoors and weekly tests for those who are unvaccinated. Baylor told students it will require weekly COVID-19 testing for the first part of the fall semester for students and employees, except for fully vaccinated students and students who have had a positive test within the last 180 days. St. Edwards University in Austin initially said it would require a vaccine for all students, but later stated students could be exempt from that requirement under the governors executive order.

Last year, much of the spread among college students occurred off campus as most schools required masks for in-person classes. Rice, the faculty leader at A&M, anticipates a similar situation with students attending parties and events that lead to the spread of the virus, especially at the start of the academic year. He worries how that will contribute to the situation this fall, despite the fact that people can get vaccinated now.

So many people have a strong desire to get back to normal, they will treat the opening of the semester as a normal academic year, he said. And I think its anything but. Its incredibly far from a normal academic year. We can pretend that it is to some degree. But thats whats going on. Were pretending.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University, Baylor University, Rice University, St. Edward's University, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech University, University of Texas at Arlington, University of Texas at Austin and University of Texas at El Paso have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Texas universities, committed to full returns, face fall terms with surging COVID-19 numbers and no mask mandates - The Texas Tribune

CNN has fired three employees for going to work without being vaccinated against COVID-19. Ric Feld/AP hide caption

CNN has fired three employees for going to work without being vaccinated against COVID-19.

NEW YORK CNN has fired three employees who violated company policy by coming to work unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus.

CNN chief Jeff Zucker told staff members of the firing in a memo sent Thursday that reminded them that vaccines were mandatory if they report to the office or out in the field where they come into contact with other employees.

"Let me be clear we have a zero tolerance policy on this," wrote Zucker, chairman of news and sports for WarnerMedia.

The memo was obtained by The Associated Press after its contents were first tweeted by CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy. CNN offered no details on the firings, or where the employees were based.

Most of CNN's offices are already open on a voluntary basis, and Zucker said more than a third of news staff members have returned. Proof of vaccination has been left to the honor system, he said, but that may change in coming weeks.

The CNN leader said that masks will be required in Atlanta, Washington and Los Angeles offices when people aren't eating, drinking or in an enclosed private space. Even in offices where mask-wearing is not mandated, people should do what feels comfortable to them "without any fear of retaliation or judgment from co-workers," he said.

The CNN memo also said a planned Sept. 7 company-wide return to the office will be delayed until at least early to mid-October. Other media companies have been making similar decisions because of the rise in COVID cases; the AP told employees on Thursday that an expected Sept. 13 return is also be delayed.

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CNN Fires Three Employees For Coming To Work Unvaccinated - NPR

A student wears a face mask while at the Post Road Elementary School in White Plains, N.Y., last October. A recent study found the number of children contracting the coronavirus is on the rise. Mary Altaffer/AP hide caption

A student wears a face mask while at the Post Road Elementary School in White Plains, N.Y., last October. A recent study found the number of children contracting the coronavirus is on the rise.

As coronavirus cases climb worryingly across the United States, a recent study shows that the number of children contracting the virus "steadily increased" in July.

In the last week alone, according to the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association, nearly 72,000 cases were reported in children, roughly 19% of the total number of new cases nationwide. And while hospitalizations and deaths remain low, the number of child coronavirus infections increased by 3% over the last two weeks of the month after declining earlier in the summer.

Since the pandemic began a year and a half ago, approximately 4.2 million children have tested positive for the coronavirus. The good news is that severe illness and death are still uncommon for children who contract the virus. In states reporting, children accounted for fewer than one-quarter of 1% of all COVID-19 deaths. Seven states reported no child deaths, while other states reported 0-0.03% of all child coronavirus cases resulting in death. As of July 29, a total of 358 children have reportedly been killed by COVID-19 in the U.S.

"However, there is an urgent need to collect more data on longer-term impacts of the pandemic on children, including ways the virus may harm the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its emotional and mental health effects," the report reads.

That said, the report acknowledged that the figures could be inaccurate for a handful of reasons. The ages designated as a "child" vary from state to state, ranging from newborns to 20, and some states altered their definition of a child during the pandemic.

Further complicating things, the most up-to-date numbers include testing figures from only 11 states, according to the report. Only 23 states and New York City reported hospitalizations and 43 states along with New York City, Puerto Rico and Guam reported mortality rates. Florida stopped reporting child hospitalizations in late June and Iowa stopped updating child testing data shortly after. And in Nebraska, the COVID-19 dashboard has been unavailable since the end of June.

Parts of the country are considering reimplementing protective measures as cases climb. With the start of the school year just around the corner, the same organization that conducted the report is recommending that students over the age of 2 and all staff vaccinated or not mask up.

Some states though, including Arkansas, Florida, South Carolina and Texas, have implemented laws prohibiting mask mandates in schools.

With cases running rampant across his state, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is caught in a bind. The governor is still not in favor of a statewide mandate, but he wants the law banning state and local mask mandates overturned to give schools the opportunity to implement mask mandates.

"In hindsight, I wish that it had not become law," Hutchinson said at a news conference Tuesday. "But it is the law, and the only chance we have is either to amend it or for the courts to say that it has an unconstitutional foundation."

To date, the coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than 612,000 people. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently walked back its previous message that most vaccinated persons could engage in nearly all activities mask-free. It is now recommending that everyone, regardless of vaccine status, return to wearing masks indoors in areas where transmission rates are high.

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Serious Cases Remain Rare, But Coronavirus Infections In Children Are On The Rise - NPR

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) Florida hospitals slammed with COVID-19 patients are suspending elective surgeries and putting beds in conference rooms, an auditorium and a cafeteria. As of midweek, Mississippi had just six open intensive care beds in the entire state.

Georgia medical centers are turning people away. And in Louisiana, an organ transplant had to be postponed along with other procedures.

We are seeing a surge like weve not seen before in terms of the patients coming, Dr. Marc Napp, chief medical officer for Memorial Healthcare System in Hollywood, Florida, said Wednesday. Its the sheer number coming in at the same time. There are only so many beds, so many doctors, only so many nurses.

Coronavirus hospitalizations are surging again as the more contagious delta variant rages across the country, forcing medical centers to return to a crisis footing just weeks after many closed their COVID-19 wards and field hospitals and dropped other emergency measures.

The number of people now in the hospital in the U.S. with COVID-19 has almost quadrupled over the past month to nearly 45,000, turning the clock back to early March, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Thats still nowhere close to the nearly 124,000 people who were in the hospital at the very peak of the winter surge in January. But health experts say this wave is perhaps more worrying because it has risen more swiftly than prior ones. Also, a disturbingly large share of patients this time are young adults.

And to the frustration of public health experts and front-line medical workers, the vast majority of those now hospitalized are unvaccinated.

Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi alone account for more than 40% of all hospitalizations in the country.

Mississippi has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the nation, with less than 35% of its population fully inoculated, and Louisiana and Georgia arent much better, at around 38%. Florida is closer to the national rate at 49%, but none of the four Southern states comes close to the New England region, where most states are well over 60%.

The variant has sent new U.S. cases surging to 94,000 a day on average, a level not seen since mid-February. Deaths per day have soared 75% in the past two weeks, climbing from an average of 244 to 426. The overall U.S. death toll stands at more than 614,000.

Across Florida, more than 12,500 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, over 2,500 of them in intensive care. The state is averaging nearly 18,000 newly confirmed infections per day, up from fewer than 2,000 a month ago. In all, Florida has recorded more than 39,100 coronavirus deaths.

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken a hard line against mask rules and other compulsory measures, saying it is important to keep Floridas economy moving.

Florida is a free state, and we will empower our people. We will not allow Joe Biden and his bureaucratic flunkies to come in and commandeer the rights and freedoms of Floridians, DeSantis, who has been exploring a possible bid for president in 2024, said in a fundraising email Wednesday.

The reversal in fortune at some hospitals has been stark.

In central Florida, AdventHealth hospitals had 1,350 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday, the most ever. The health care system has postponed non-emergency surgery and limited visitors to concentrate on treating coronavirus patients.

Less than two months ago, Miamis Baptist Hospital had fewer than 20 COVID-19 patients and was closing down coronavirus units. By Monday, hospital officials were reopening some of those units to handle an influx of more than 200 new virus patients.

As fast as we are opening up units, theyre being filled with COVID patients, said Dr. Sergio Segarra, the hospitals chief medical officer.

In Georgia, more than two dozen hospitals said this week that they have had to turn away patients as the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 has risen to 2,600 statewide.

Mississippi reported that its hospitals were overwhelmed with nearly 1,200 COVID-19 patients as of Thursday. State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the delta variant is sweeping across Mississippi like a tsunami with no end in sight.

In Louisiana, with roughly 2,350 coronavirus patients in hospitals, any non-emergency surgery that might require an overnight stay is being delayed at the states largest hospital system. Dr. Robert Hart, chief medical officer at Ochsner Health, said an organ transplant involving a live donor was postponed.

You can imagine the expectations both the recipient and the donor had leading up to the surgery, and then to have to put that off, he said, declining to disclose the type of transplant.

The swift turn of events has been disheartening for health care workers who just weeks ago thought the battle was in its final stages. The crisis is also making it harder for hospitals to provide other crucial types of medical care.

If you dont get vaccinated, you are taking resources from people who have diseases or injuries or illnesses, said Dr. Vincent Shaw, a family physician in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. COVID doesnt call people who have had strokes, who have had heart attacks, who have had other horrific or traumatic things happen and say, Yall take the week off. I am going to take over the ER and the ICU.

In Florida, Judi Custer said she and her husband did everything they were told to do to ward off the virus. The Fort Lauderdale retirees got vaccinated and wore masks, even when the rules were lifted. Still, they fell ill with COVID-19 a few weeks ago, and 80-year-old Doug Custer was hospitalized for five days.

Judy Custer said she still believes more people need to get vaccinated.

Weve had it long enough to know it is helping people, even if they get sick with it, she said. Youre less likely to be put on a ventilator. Youre less likely to be hospitalized.

__

Marcelo reported from Boston. Associated Press reporters Leah Willingham in Jackson, Mississippi; Kevin McGill and Melinda Deslatte in Louisiana; Adriana Gomez Licon and Frieda Frisaro in Miami; and Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas, contributed to this story.

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'There are only so many beds': COVID-19 surge hits hospitals - Associated Press

Crowds on Bourbon Street in New Orleans in late July. The Delta coronavirus variant is driving record-breaking case counts in Louisiana and other states.

By Meredith WadmanAug. 4, 2021 , 6:50 PM

The United States is standing at a dire inflection point, with pandemic coronavirus cases surging and only 50% of the population fully vaccinated. Driving the latest wave is the highly contagious Delta variant, which according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) caused between 80% and 87% of all U.S. COVID-19 cases in the last 2 weeks of Julyup from 8% to 14% in early June. The variants exceptional infectiousness has driven cases from a 7-day average of 13,500 daily cases in early June to 92,000 on 3 August. At the same time, an internal CDC document that leaked last week says the variant may make people sicker, citing published reports from Singapore and Scotland and a preprint from Canada.

The good news is that severe disease and death are highly unlikely among the vaccinatedand U.S. vaccination rates are beginning to increase once again, if modestly.

How bad will the U.S. surge become, and how long will it take to recede? Anyone saying they know exactly what is happening is overconfident, says Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at Emory University. There is a lot of uncertainty about what will happen in the future, even on a relatively short time scale. With that proviso, here is what Dean and other scientists closely following the pandemic told Science they foresee.

Many computer models predict case counts will peak sometime between mid-August and early September. That peak may bring as many as 450,000 daily cases, according to forecasters at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. IHMEs models have drawn controversy throughout the pandemic and other groups are more conservative: The COVID-19 Forecast Hub predicts the daily case count on 21 August will be somewhere between 29,000 and 176,000, using a range of estimates from 41 different models.

But all projections rely on assumptions that are moving targetssuch as mask wearing and vaccination behaviorand accuracy quickly diminishes the further out the forecast. We can probably expect to see cases continue to rise for the next 2 or 3 weeks at least. Beyond that, I think its challenging to predict, says David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Hospitalizations and deaths will lag behind cases by several weeks and, given the number of people who are now vaccinated, deaths are expected to be lower than their peak of more than 3400 per day in January. Still, IHME researchers forecast a peak of about 1000 deaths a day in mid-September, and a total of 76,000 additional deaths by 1 November. But if 95% of the people in the United States wore masks, their model predicts, 49,000 of those lives would be saved. Americans, including young and healthy people, should not underestimate this variant, warns Ali Mokdad, an IHME epidemiologist. Delta is a nasty one, he says.

In India, where the Delta variant was first identified, a massive, Delta-driven wave began in late March and receded by late June, even though mask wearing was spotty and less than 1% of the population was vaccinated as the wave began. In the United Kingdom, a surge that began in early June peaked in mid-July and is now rapidly receding, although daily cases are still many times what they were before the Delta variant took over.

But assuming the U.S. surge will recede as quickly as the one in the United Kingdom did may be a mistake. In that country, vaccine uptake has been much higher than in the United States. Former CDC Director Tom Frieden, president of the nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives, cautioned yesterday in a tweet that the number of unvaccinated Americans could make the U.S. surge much deadlier than the United Kingdoms.

The national case count obscures the record-breaking infection rates in U.S. states with low vaccination rates such as Florida and Louisiana. In Alabama, where just 35% of the population is fully vaccinated, hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past 10 days to nearly 1700the same number of full beds as at the end of November 2020. The difference: Back then, the doubling took 6 weeks. The amount of time you need to be exposed to someone who has the Delta variant is much less than what it was with that ancestral strain, says epidemiologist Russell Griffin of the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB). Whats more, he says, the median age of patients at the UAB hospital has fallen from 65 to 52 since January, and healthy young adults are starting to turn up in the intensive care unit.

Yes, although vaccination still protects extremely well against severe disease and death.A studyof a recent Delta-driven outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, published in CDCsMorbidity and Mortality Weekly Reportlast week, was pivotal to the agencys decision to reverse itself and advise fully vaccinated people to wear masks in indoor public places in areas where transmission is high, agency Director Rochelle Walensky said. In the Massachusetts outbreak, fully vaccinated people accounted for 74% of nearly 469 COVID-19 cases. (Four of the five people hospitalized in the outbreak were fully vaccinated; no one died.)

Strikingly, the study found that fully vaccinated people carried just as much virus in their noses and throats as the unvaccinated. Since then, a new, not-yet-peer-reviewedpreprintfrom the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has reported similar findings.

Its not surprising that, at the time theyre diagnosed, fully vaccinated people might carry a large nasal load of a variant thats known to replicate rapidly, says Sixto Leal, who directs medical microbiology at UAB hospitals. Thats because although vaccines are excellent at generating blood-borne antibodies, they are not as good at generating a form of antibody that occupies the lining of the nose and throat. Theres a window of time when fast-replicating virus can enter [the cells lining the nose], replicate like crazy in a very high amount, and [cause] symptoms, Leal says.

But in vaccinated people, the replication soon alerts the immune system to send blood-borne antibodies that neutralize the virus in the nose and throat, Leal says. Anothernew preprintfrom scientists in Singapore found that although vaccinated and unvaccinated patients infected with Delta had similar viral loads when diagnosed, those loads declined more rapidly in the vaccinated. Based on basic immunology, thats exactly what we would expectthat vaccinated individuals would clear the infection much faster, says Kristian Andersen, an infectious disease researcher at Scripps Research.

Theres every reason to suspect that SARS-CoV-2 infection rates will be worse in winter as opposed to summertime, because thats the path we see with other respiratory viruses, Dowdy says. [But] we dont have evidence yet. And with so much Delta circulating in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, we are unwittingly exerting selection pressure for new, more dangerous variants to evolve, Andersen cautions. This fall and winter I am not sure we will be dealing with Delta. I think we will probably be dealing with a variant we havent heard about yet, he says. From a viral evolution perspective, it would be foolish not to expect that.

Scientists generally agree on the need for immunocompromised people to receive boosters soon, although a go-ahead from U.S. regulators will be needed. Israel is moving ahead with administering a third vaccine dose to people ages 60 and older, and the United Kingdom may soon follow with boosters for older people.

But experts disagree on whether Deltas emergence calls for an urgent focus on boosters in the general population. Pfizer added fuel to the conversation last week, when itposted a preprintshowing the efficacy of its vaccine declined from 96.2% to 83.7% more than 4 months after full vaccination.

But because the available U.S. vaccines are still highly effective against Delta and the vast majority of serious illness and death is occurring in people who are unvaccinated, I would strongly prioritize getting more people fully vaccinated than getting booster shots in people, Dowdy says.

Dean adds that a global view is important: We live in a world where so many people remain unvaccinated. How do you justify that boost to individuals that [already] have a certain amount of protection?

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus threw the organizations moral authority behind that viewpoint today,calling for a moratoriumon booster vaccinations through at least September. Confronted with the Delta variant, he said, We cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it, while the worlds most vulnerable people remain unprotected.

But Andersen, who is calling for rapid development and distribution of Delta-specific boosters, calls the booster-versus-vaccine question a false choice. We need to do both, he says. And that requires warlike efforts which we are not doing right now.

Although the reasons for Delta receding in India and the United Kingdom remain unclear, increasing population immunityfrom either infection with the virus or vaccinationshould give the variant increasingly fewer new opportunities to spread. Human behavior plays a role, too. As cases start to climb [people] start to think twice about that big party they were going to go to, Dowdy says. Another factor that may bend the U.S. curve is CDCs revisedrecommendationlast week that fully vaccinated people again wear masks in public, indoor spaces in areas of high transmission. The decline will take time. People need to recognize that things are going to get worse before they get better, Dowdy cautions. But its not time to panic in thinking that this is going to be December [2020] and January all over again.

I started wearing a mask again at the grocery store, says Dean, who lives in Gainesville, Florida. I feel confident in the vaccine. I just am not going out to a bar. But I wasnt doing that a ton [anyway].

In San Diego, Andersen, who never stopped wearing a mask in indoor settings with other people, now says he is not frequenting crowded outdoor spaces eitherincluding restaurants. We get take-out instead.

At UAB, Leal required masks for his labs employees 3 weeks ahead of a new campuswide mandate. We had experienced 2 months of happiness and [a] return to normal, he says. Now, we are much more cautious again.

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What does the Delta variant have in store for the United States? We asked coronavirus experts - Science Magazine

Another 152coronavirus cases have been reported across the state, Maine health officials said Thursday.

Thursdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 70,996,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 70,844 on Wednesday.

Of those, 51,743have been confirmed positive, while 19,253were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

No new deaths were reported Thursday, leaving the statewide death toll at 900.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 1,216. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats up from 1,170 on Wednesday.

The new case rate statewide Thursday was 1.14 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 530.45.

Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 107.6, up from 102.9 a day ago, up from 69 a week ago and up from 20 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases and deaths have been recorded in women than men.

So far, 2,162 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 44 people are currently hospitalized, with 18 in critical care and seven on ventilators.

The total statewide hospitalization rate on Thursday was 16.15 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (8,530), Aroostook (2,010), Cumberland (17,661), Franklin (1,426), Hancock (1,439), Kennebec (6,774), Knox (1,204), Lincoln (1,132), Oxford (3,712), Penobscot (6,579), Piscataquis (613), Sagadahoc (1,491), Somerset (2,356), Waldo (1,189), Washington (966) and York (13,907) counties. Information about where an additional seven cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

An additional 890 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Wednesday, 770,905 Mainers have received a first dose of the vaccine, while 818,713 have received a final dose.

New Hampshire reported 122 new cases on Thursday and one death. Vermont reported 52 new cases and no deaths, while Massachusetts reported 1,032 new cases and five deaths.

AAs of Thursday morning, the coronavirus had sickened 35,347,582 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 614,858 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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152 more coronavirus cases have been reported across Maine - Bangor Daily News