Category: Corona Virus

Many Israelis, confused by changing restrictions and inconsistent enforcement, are unclear what rules the government currently has in place to contain the novel coronavirus.For more stories from The Media Line go to themedialine.org

On June 25, the masks were again required in public places indoors and on public transport, but not in eateries. And on July 29, the Green Pass restrictions were partially reimposed.

Under the latest restrictions, everyone over the age of 12 must present a Green Pass certificate of vaccination or recovery or show a negative COVID-19 test to access indoor events and restaurant venues where more than 100 people are present. Moreover, everyone over the age of 12 years must do the same to enter all hotels, restaurants, gyms, cafes, bars, pubs, and cultural and sporting events.

People without a Green Pass may present one of the following documents: a PCR test (result valid for 72 hours) or a rapid test (result valid for 24 hours).

Prof. Ora Paltiel of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Healths Department of Hematology told The Media Line, I think there is definitely some confusion. I think theres a message to be careful, but there is not a clear message that regulations are being enforced.

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Paltiel is pleased with the governments approach to vaccinating people, and with Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts clear message that to refuse vaccination is to endanger fellow Israelis.

One message that I think is clear is that he does say that he wants to keep the economy open, and he wants schools to open, and that there is an issue of individual responsibility, but I think that the issue of what is individual responsibility or social responsibility, that has to be made a little bit clearer, she said.

Some Israelis remain bewildered by what they see as the inconsistency of the governments message.

Asher, a 58-year-old Jerusalemite, explained his predicament to The Media Line.

The government says last week that the vaccine is not good against the delta [variant of the] virus, and now they say that everybody must go and get vaccinated [for a third time, because of the delta variant]. We dont know what to do, he said.

As of August 1, all Israelis over the age of 60 who are not currently or were previously ill with the novel coronavirus, and who received their second inoculation against COVID-19 more than five months ago, can make an appointment to receive a third inoculation, or booster shot, consisting of Pfizer vaccine.

Asher continued that the apparent irregularity of the governments messaging has made him distrustful.

Im not really believing the government. They say one thing, and the next day they say another thing. It has confused most people.

However, Devora, 33, another Jerusalem resident, said she has no problems finding out what the current government guidelines are.

First of all, theres the website of the Health Ministry. Second of all, they have a Telegram [social media] group, and there you get the formal indications right away, she told The Media Line.

Other Israelis appear to be suffering what has come to be known as coronavirus fatigue. Many of these people strictly adhered to regulations during the first year of the pandemic but have since become disillusioned, losing hope that the virus is going away.

Chai, a 38-year-old man living just outside Jerusalem, told The Media Line on Sunday, I dont know if Im taking it seriously anymore. I believe whats happening is true; Im not believing conspiracies. Im just not so afraid, and Im not so concerned about doing what the government tells you.

Chai had not heard anything about the renewed Green Pass regulations.

Paltiel expressed concern over the diminishing regard for government restrictions.

I think what happened was that we had a real honeymoon in May, beginning of June, when there were really almost no cases, she said. I think thats natural, but people need to take into account that things [new infections] seem to be doubling every week.

The government appears to have recognized this shift in public sentiment. On Thursday, Bennett released a statement saying that the hiring of 400 inspectors had been approved by the Finance Ministrys Budget Division, to enforce coronavirus regulations on public transportation.

Paltiel is skeptical of this approach.

I think people should enforce one another. People shouldnt be shy about telling one another, even socially, to wear masks. I think that making it a criminal matter never really worked. I would put more stock in social pressure, she said.

Aron Rosenthal is a student at the University of Edinburgh and an intern in The Media Lines Press and Policy Student Program.

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Coronavirus: What do Israelis think of the current restrictions? - The Jerusalem Post

The Food and Drug Administration claims to follow the science. So why is it attacking ivermectin, a medication it certified in 1996?

Earlier this year the agency put out a special warning that you should not use ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19. The FDAs statement included words and phrases such as serious harm, hospitalized, dangerous, very dangerous, seizures, coma and even death and highly toxic. Any reader would think the FDA was warning against poison pills. In fact, the drug is FDA-approved as a safe and effective antiparasitic.

Ivermectin was developed and marketed by Merck & Co. while one of us (Mr. Hooper) worked there years ago. William C. Campbell and Satoshi Omura won the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering and developing avermectin, which Mr. Campbell and associates modified to create ivermectin.

Ivermectin is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines. Merck has donated four billion doses to prevent river blindness and other diseases in Africa and other places where parasites are common. A group of 10 doctors who call themselves the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance have said ivermectin is one of the safest, low-cost, and widely available drugs in the history of medicine.

Ivermectin fights 21 viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, the cause of Covid-19. A single dose reduced the viral load of SARS-CoV-2 in cells by 99.8% in 24 hours and 99.98% in 48 hours, according to a June 2020 study published in the journal Antiviral Research.

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Why Is the FDA Attacking a Safe, Effective Drug? - The Wall Street Journal

Her dad, Mark McCall, 60, died early Friday morning in the Covid ward of a Jacksonville, Florida, hospital where her mom, Sherry McCall, 58, was also being treated for the virus.

The family was already reeling after her brother, Britt McCall, 35, died on Monday.

"It has been one of the most, roughest and hardest experiences that I have ever had to go through in my whole life and I would never, ever wish this on anybody in their family," McCall told CNN. "I mean, I wish it wasn't me, but I sure wouldn't wish it on anybody."

She said her mom was well enough to come home on Friday night but is heartbroken after losing her oldest son and her husband of more than 38 years.

The family was scared to get the vaccine, McCall said, because they have health conditions and didn't know how their bodies would react to the shots.

"We weren't trying to convince anyone not to get it," she said. "We didn't care what choices people made, but unfortunately we made the wrong one."

Last visit with dad

McCall said she tested negative for Covid-19 and has gotten her first vaccination dose since her parents were hospitalized.

She and her fianc were able to suit up in double masks and full PPE on Thursday for one last visit with her dad.

McCall said her dad was tired and on a lot of medication, but he fought hard to remain coherent while she held his hand and rubbed his head.

"I didn't get to hug him and I didn't get to kiss him, but I rubbed him and let him know that I was there and that I was proud of him for pushing as far as he did," she said. "I got to tell him that I loved him and that it was OK and that I got vaccinated. He said he knew and he loved me too."

She said her brother Britt got sick around the Fourth of July and was taken directly to the ICU when he went to the emergency room for treatment.

She said her brother seemed to be doing OK up until he had to go on a ventilator.

"After a couple days, he wanted to go home, so he was trying to do anything he could to get home," she said. "He fought for three weeks to come home and he suffered from complications of Covid and he didn't make it."

She said her mom was immediately hospitalized, but her dad's symptoms weren't as severe so he was told to quarantine at home. He got worse and had to be admitted nine days later.

'People envied how good of a daddy he was'

McCall said her dad was her hero and that he did everything in his power to make sure that she didn't want or need anything -- he'd go and fill her car up with gas even after she was an adult."Oh my God, we were so tight," she said. "We literally had one of the best relationships a father and daughter could have."

Mark was a foreman in the mill shop for Duval County Public Schools and worked with Britt. Sherry is a media specialist in the district.

"Daddy could do anything. He could fix your car -- he wouldn't know anything about it, but he could fix it -- and he was the best craftsman I've ever seen," she said. "I don't know how anybody could ever fill the shoes my dad left. He was loved by so many people, and he still is."McCall said she and her brother, Cason McCall, 31, grew up in Britt's shadow because he was a great athlete with "the most beautiful blue eyes" and was "the kindest, most giving person I've ever met in my life."

She said Britt was their leader and he always knew what to say, "especially in situations like this.""Cason and I are finding it hard to manage because Britt was good at everything and he was good at things like this," she said. "I love Cason, and I feel for him because he's got to be the leader and he's got to protect us. It's just me, him and my momma."

McCall said she has so many regrets and wishes that she could go back in time and make different decisions.

She said her dad was "supposed to be there for so many things," including her wedding next May.

"I wanted him so badly to walk me down the aisle and he won't be there," she said. "And it's all because we were scared. We were scared to get the vaccine and we were scared about everything."

She wants people who think it can't happen to them to know that she thought that too until her family got sick.

"All the people who are scared to get vaccinated, do it!" she said. "Do it for the people you care about because I don't think you want to see them suffer the way we're suffering right now."

Read more:

'Do it for the people you care about': Florida woman urges people to get vaccinated after losing her dad and brother to Covid-19 the same week - CNN

By Susan Canfora

The Delaware Division of Public Health is reporting a total of 111,275 positive cases of the coronavirus, bringing the seven-day average of new positive cases to 89.9.

The seven-day average for the percent of positive tests was 3.5 percent by the end of last week, an increase from the 2.5 percent reported on July 20, according to a news release issued by the Delaware Division of Public Health.

Also at the end of last week, 1,830 Delaware residents had died from the virus, including 545 from Sussex County, 903 from New Castle County and 382 from Kent County.

Thirty-two Delaware residents were hospitalized with the virus, four less than last week. Three were critically ill, a decrease of one from last week.

Those who have died ranged from younger than 5 to 104 years old. There were 927 women and 903 men.

So far, 72.3 percent of Delaware residents 18 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine to protect against the virus and as of July 30, 1,055,977 doses had been administered, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has consistently stated vaccines are the best protection against COVID-19 and variants. See de.gov/covidvaccine.

The Division of Public Health, partnering with the Delaware National Guard, have launched mobile units to offer vaccinations in underserved communities. Medically trained staff will give the Pfizer vaccine to those 12 and older and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to those 18 and older. Mobile units are scheduled to visit Sussex, New Castle and Kent counties next week. See de.gov/getmyvaccine.

As of Friday, July 30, the Division of Public Health has identified several variants in Delaware, through test specimens. They include the United Kingdom variant, South Africa, Brazil, India, New York, California and UK/Nigeria, which was formerly a New York strain.

Virus mutation is common but because these variants may spread more easily, those not vaccinated who are more susceptible to getting the virus and should wear a face mask, wash their hand frequently and be careful when attending large gatherings.

Vaccination reduces the chance of developing the virus or becoming seriously ill from it. So far, 469,873 Delaware residents have been fully vaccinated and of those, there have been 567 breakthrough cases of COVID-19.

As of July 29, there have been 2,785 positive cases of the coronavirus involving long-term care residents, with 825 residents dying, an increase of 65, between mid-May 2020 and late June 2021, according to the news release.

Even those who are fully vaccinated should get tested if they develop symptoms including fever, cough, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle aches, fatigue, chills, shaking with chills, loss of smell or taste, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea, headache, congestion or runny nose without a known cause such as allergies. Other symptoms can include abdominal pain or lack of appetite. For information about testing, see de.gov/gettested.

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Seven day average for positive cases of the coronavirus jumps from 2.5 to 3.5 percent - Coastal Point

We are in an evolutionary arms race with SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19, biologists at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom have warned.

Writing in the journal Virulence, they say that relaxing control measures while the majority of the worlds population remains unvaccinated risks the evolution of more transmissible, more virulent variants.

These variants may be more dangerous for children and certain vulnerable groups, such as transplant patients with compromised immune systems, they argue. They may also escape the protection afforded by existing vaccines.

Even in countries where vaccination has reduced the numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, high case numbers and large numbers of unvaccinated individuals provide a mixing vessel in which new variants can emerge.

Relaxing restrictions boosts transmission and allows the virus population to expand, which enhances its adaptive evolutionary potential and increases the risk of vaccine resistant strains emerging by a process known as antigenic drift, they write.

Antigenic drift refers to the continual random mutations in a viruss genome that change the proteins on the virus particles surface.

These are the foreign proteins, or antigens, that antibodies recognize. For SARS-CoV-2, the most important is the spike protein that allows the virus to invade cells.

Every change in this protein has the potential to interfere with the immune systems ability to recognize and disrupt the virus, which will reduce the protection provided by a past infection or vaccination.

Like repeatedly rolling dice, a larger number of individuals who have had the virus are more likely to generate a mutation that allows it to evade its future hosts immune defenses.

By the same token, a greater number of cases is also more likely to lead to changes that allow a variant to spread more easily, giving it a competitive edge over all the other strains.

The authors point out that during the course of the pandemic, a succession of more transmissible variants have become the dominant strains within populations.

My main concern is about the high case numbers right now, said co-lead author Dr. Cock Van Oosterhout, Ph.D., who is a professor of evolutionary genetics at the University of East Anglia.

Because these remain high, this allows for continued evolution of [the] virus, and that comes at a risk, including the evolution of more virulent variants, or variants that can escape the vaccine, he told Medical News Today.

He pointed out that although vaccines have reduced the COVID-19 mortality rate in some countries, there remain many clinically vulnerable people at high risk of severe disease or even death if they contract the disease.

This shows we still have a battle on our hands, he said. For that reason, we must not let our guard down in the middle of a co-evolutionary arms race.

In their article, the scientists write:

Children, the clinically extremely vulnerable, such as patients on immunosuppressants, and those who choose not to be vaccinated (or are unable to receive a vaccine) are all placed at an increased risk when relaxing COVID-19 restrictions.

They recommend that control measures such as the mandatory wearing of face masks in indoor public places remain in place until most of the population has received a vaccine.

In addition, the authors believe that relaxing restrictions while children are unvaccinated risks inadvertently promoting the evolution of variants that are better able to infect this group.

This is because natural selection will favor the spread of variants through populations that are not protected by vaccination.

[T]he risks of a more virulent strain spreading into an under-vaccinated population could be more severe. In other words, a policy of not vaccinating children in an otherwise largely vaccinated population could place them at increased risk, they argue.

The scientists conclude:

Slowing down the rate of virus evolution requires us to act fast and decisively, reducing the number of [people with the infection] through the use of vaccines, in combination with other public health policies. [] Relaxing these measures now would be letting our guard down in the middle of the battle, and it would place [us] at a significant disadvantage in the arms race with the virus.

In the U.K., following an exponential rise in cases of the Delta variant in July 2021, case numbers have begun to fall in recent days. This has led to optimism in the British press that the fight against COVID-19 is all but over.

Our point though is that unfortunately the virus isnt a stationary target, it is adapting, producing new variants [that] are better able to transmit in the spaces left available to it, said co-lead author Dr. Kevin Tyler, Ph.D., of Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia and the University of Minnesota Twin Cities in St. Paul.

Based on what has happened so far and the huge amount of virus transmission worldwide, it is unlikely that this Delta will be the last wave, he told MNT.

We should be proactive in keeping transmission rates low with all means available and anticipate new waves better able to transmit through unvaccinated and partially immune populations, he added.

For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.

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COVID-19: Are we creating ideal conditions for new variants? - Medical News Today

PHOENIX New numbers from health officials show a dramatic increase in the number of people getting tested for the coronavirus.

Additionally, more people are testing positive for the disease.

On Sunday, the state reported more than 2,000 new cases for the second day in a row.

So COVID-19 numbers in Arizona continue to be on the rise, said Data Analyst Garrett Archer.

Theres no question that the number of COVID-19 infections in the community is rising at a pretty rapid rate, Archer added.

Embry Womens Health which operated dozens of testing sites said they were previously testing 1,000 people a day.

However, in July, the company tested about 4,000 a day.

"And if we follow the same type of curves as places like Japan or Florida, this is only the beginning, said Embry CEO Raymond Embry.

Embry said people not social distancing, not wearing a mask, low vaccine rates and the delta variant may be playing a factor.

Unfortunately, what we're consistently hearing is that people are being exposed to others who have come back for COVID-19 or they've been around somebody who has been sick, said Embry.

Both Embry and the state offer COVID-19 testing at no cost.

Read more:

Valley company sees major increase in COVID-19 tests, positive results - ABC15 Arizona

A batch of early coronavirus data that went missing for a year has emerged from hiding.

In June, an American scientist discovered that more than 200 genetic sequences from Covid-19 patient samples isolated in China early in the pandemic had puzzlingly been removed from an online database. With some digital sleuthing, Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, managed to track down 13 of the sequences on Google Cloud.

When Dr. Bloom shared his experience in a report posted online, he wrote that it seems likely that the sequences were deleted to obscure their existence.

But now an odd explanation has emerged, stemming from an editorial oversight by a scientific journal. And the sequences have been uploaded into a different database, overseen by the Chinese government.

The story began in early 2020, when researchers at Wuhan University investigated a new way to test for the deadly coronavirus sweeping the country. They sequenced a short stretch of genetic material from virus samples taken from 34 patients at a Wuhan hospital.

The researchers posted their findings online in March 2020. That month, they also uploaded the sequences to an online database called the Sequence Read Archive, which is maintained by the National Institutes of Health, and submitted a paper describing their results to a scientific journal called Small. The paper was published in June 2020.

Dr. Bloom became aware of the Wuhan sequences this spring while researching the origin of Covid-19. Reading a May 2020 review about early genetic sequences of coronaviruses, he came across a spreadsheet that noted their presence in the Sequence Read Archive.

But Dr. Bloom could not find them in the database. He emailed the Chinese scientists on June 6 to ask where the data went but did not get a response. On June 22, he posted his report, which was covered by The New York Times and other media outlets.

At the time, a spokeswoman for the N.I.H. said that the authors of the study had requested in June 2020 that the sequences be withdrawn from the database. The authors informed the agency that the sequences were being updated and would be added to a different database. (The authors did not respond to inquiries from The Times.)

But a year later, Dr. Bloom could not find the sequences on any database.

On July 5, more than a year after the researchers withdrew the sequences from the Sequence Read Archive and two weeks after Dr. Blooms report was published online, the sequences were quietly uploaded to a database maintained by China National Center for Bioinformation by Ben Hu, a researcher at Wuhan University and a co-author of the Small paper.

On July 21, the disappearance of the sequences was brought up during a news conference in Beijing, where Chinese officials rejected claims that the pandemic started as a lab leak.

According to a translation of the news conference by a journalist at the state-controlled Xinhua News Agency, the vice minister of Chinas National Health Commission, Dr. Zeng Yixin, said that the trouble arose when editors at Small deleted a paragraph in which the scientists described the sequences in the Sequence Read Archive.

Therefore, the researchers thought it was no longer necessary to store the data in the N.C.B.I. database, Dr. Zeng said, referring to the Sequence Read Archive, which is run by the N.I.H.

An editor at Small, which specializes in science at the micro and nano scale and is based in Germany, confirmed his account. The data availability statement was mistakenly deleted, the editor, Plamena Dogandzhiyski, wrote in an email. We will issue a correction very shortly, which will clarify the error and include a link to the depository where the data is now hosted.

The journal posted a formal correction to that effect on Thursday.

It is not clear why the authors did not mention the journals error when they requested that the sequences be removed from the Sequence Read Archive, or why they told the N.I.H. that the sequences were being updated. Nor is it clear why they waited a year to upload them to another database. Dr. Hu did not respond to an email asking for comment.

Dr. Bloom could not offer an explanation for the conflicting accounts, either. Im not in a position to adjudicate among them, he said in an interview.

On their own, these sequences cant resolve the open questions about how the pandemic originated, whether through a contact with a wild animal, a leak from a lab or some other route.

In their initial reports, the Wuhan researchers wrote that they extracted genetic material from samples from outpatients with suspected Covid-19 early in the epidemic. But the entries in the Chinese database now indicate that they were taken from Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University on January 30 almost two months after the earliest reports of Covid-19 in China.

While the disappearance of the sequences appears to be the result of an editorial error, Dr. Bloom felt that it was still worthwhile looking for other sequences of coronaviruses that might be lurking online. It definitely means we should keep looking, he said.

More:

Those Virus Sequences That Were Suddenly Deleted? Theyre Back - The New York Times

The U.S. government will cover the costs of regular coronavirus testing for unvaccinated federal workers, one component of the Biden administrations new vaccination requirements.

President Biden announced new rules Thursday that amount to a two-tier system for the countrys four million federal employees. Those who do not get vaccinated against coronavirus will have to social distance, wear face coverings and face limits on official travel. Those who do get vaccinated will not fall under such requirements.

Unvaccinated workers will also need to be regularly tested for the virus. Each federal agency will come up with a plan for testing its unvaccinated work force, Karine Jean-Pierre, the deputy White House press secretary. The costs and procedures for testing will depend on how many unvaccinated individuals there are at each agency.

The agencies are going to be implementing this program themselves so theyll be in charge of how that moves forward, she said.

The federal decision to cover coronavirus testing for unvaccinated workers could set a benchmark for state governments and companies now grappling with the same issue.

New York and California rolled out similar testing requirements for unvaccinated state workers this week, but neither has specified who will pay for the service. Some companies and universities have already announced that unvaccinated workers themselves will have to pay for their own tests.

Many states and cities still have free coronavirus testing sites that they started earlier in the pandemic. But many Americans also get tested at doctor offices and pharmacies, which will typically bill patients and their insurance for the service.

Federal law requires insurers to fully cover coronavirus tests ordered by health care providers, meaning the doctor cannot apply a deductible or co-payment to the service. Routine workplace testing, however, is exempt from that requirement and it is legal to charge patients for that service.

Some patients have faced surprise medical bills for coronavirus tests, which can range from a few dollars to over $1,000.

A number of employers, particularly large ones, may just offer on-site testing to unvaccinated workers, said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown Universitys Center on Health Insurance Reforms. But they dont have to. They can require employees to pick up the tab.

Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting.

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U.S. Will Pay for Unvaccinated Federal Workers' Coronavirus Tests - The New York Times

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 196.6 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.19 million. More than 4.01 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

300 Australian army personnel are being lined up to help Sydney police door-knock those who've tested positive to check that they are self-isolating.

Britain's UN ambassador has warned that half of Myanmar's 54 million people could be infected with COVID-19 within the next two weeks.

The Philippines is set to introduce lockdown restrictions in its capital region.

China has reported 64 new COVID-19 cases in the mainland, compared with 49 the day before.

Almost 690,000 people in England and Wales were told to isolate by the official COVID-19 health app in the week to 21 July, official data shows.

The Federated States of Micronesia - a Pacific island nation - has mandated its adult population to be inoculated against COVID-19.

Thailand has received 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine donated by the US government.

Meanwhile, Phuket will ban travel from the rest of Thailand from 3-16 August in a bid to stop cases from spreading. However, overseas visitors will remain largely unaffected.

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

Image: Our World in Data

US President Joe Biden has asked local governments to pay people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. New rules requiring federal workers to provide proof of vaccination or face regular testing and mask mandates. Travels restrictions are also set to be introduced.

The measures are part of attempts to encourage reluctant Americans to get vaccinated as the Delta variant continues to surge across the United States. The US lags behind other developed countries in vaccination rates, despite having plenty of free vaccines on hand.

"Right now too many people are dying or watching someone they love dying," Biden told reporters at the White House.

"With freedom comes responsibility. So please exercise responsible judgment. Get vaccinated for yourself, the people you love, for your country."

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.

India has reported 44,230 new COVID-19 cases, its biggest daily increase in 3 weeks. The southern state of Kerala announced a new lockdown yesterday, while movement restrictions are also in place in some other states.

The country has had more than 31.5 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, with 423,217 deaths.

Health experts are calling for faster vaccinations to prevent another big surge like the country saw in April and May, reports Reuters.

Government data shows that nearly 38% of the 944 million adults in India have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.

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 30 July - World Economic Forum

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 11,682 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 39 additional deaths and more than 154,000 new vaccine doses administered.

COVID cases statewide have increased 46% over the last week, with hospitalizations up 35%, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health. Intensive care unit admissions also increased by 24% and there was a 41% increase of COVID patients on ventilators.

In all, 1,419,611 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 23,440 confirmed COVID fatalities.

The state has administered 289,433 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 26 million tests conducted during the pandemic.

The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests rose to 4% from 3.3% the week before and 1.9% two weeks prior. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate on individuals tested rose to 4.7%, up from 3.5% last week, officials said.

IDPH noted, however, that the regional seven-day positivity rate ranges from 2.8% to 9.5%.

Over the past seven days, a total of 154,447 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents. That brings the states average to 22,064 daily vaccination doses over the last week, down from the figures reported last Friday, per IDPH data.

State officials in Illinois have administered more than 13 million vaccine doses since vaccinations began in December. More than 58% of adult residents in the state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with 74% receiving at least one dose.

As of midnight, 903 patients are currently hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 167 are in ICU beds, and 62 are on ventilators. All three metrics are a reported increase since last Friday.

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Coronavirus in Illinois: 11,682 New COVID Cases, 39 Deaths, 154K Vaccinations in the Past Week - NBC Chicago