Category: Covid-19

Young men play a game of rugby at sunset in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on April 10, 2019. The island nation of Tonga has reported its first-ever case of COVID-19 on Oct. 29, 2021 after a traveler from New Zealand tested positive. Mark Baker/AP hide caption

Young men play a game of rugby at sunset in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on April 10, 2019. The island nation of Tonga has reported its first-ever case of COVID-19 on Oct. 29, 2021 after a traveler from New Zealand tested positive.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) The island nation of Tonga on Friday reported its first-ever case of COVID-19 after a traveler from New Zealand tested positive.

Tonga is among the few remaining nations in the world that have avoided outbreaks of the virus. Like many of its neighbors, Tonga's isolation has helped keep it safe but it faces big challenges should the virus take hold due to its under-resourced health system.

The nearby nation of Fiji avoided significant outbreaks until April, when the delta variant ripped through the island chain, infecting more than 50,000 people and killing at least 673.

Tonga's Prime Minister Pohiva Tu'i'onetoa said in a radio address that the traveler was among 215 passengers who had arrived on a flight from the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Wednesday and had been isolating at a quarantine hotel.

A pig wonders around a house in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on April 7, 2019. Tonga on Friday reported its first-ever case of COVID-19 after a returning resident caught the virus while in New Zealand. Mark Baker/AP hide caption

A pig wonders around a house in Nuku'alofa, Tonga, on April 7, 2019. Tonga on Friday reported its first-ever case of COVID-19 after a returning resident caught the virus while in New Zealand.

The prime minister planned on Monday to make an announcement about any future lockdowns, according to news website Matangi Tonga.

Christchurch had been free from the virus for months until this week, when four community cases were reported after a returning resident caught the virus while in Auckland, where an outbreak has been growing since August.

New Zealand health officials said the traveler to Tonga was fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine and had returned a negative test before leaving for Tonga. The officials said they would be working with their Tongan counterparts to confirm the case and provide more details in the coming days.

Tongan Health Ministry chief executive Dr. Siale 'Akau'ola said it was unfortunate the plane had already left Christchurch before the news came of the community cases there, Matangi Tonga reported.

'Akau'ola said all frontline workers including health staff, police officers and airport staff who were on duty when the plane arrived had also been put into quarantine after the positive case was confirmed. He added that all those working near the flight had been vaccinated.

Located northeast of New Zealand, Tonga is home to about 106,000 people. About 31% of Tongans are fully vaccinated and 48% have had at least one dose, according to research group Our World in Data.

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Tonga reports its first-ever COVID-19 case - NPR

Forgetfulness, an inability to concentrate, a feeling that something is just off. COVID-19 survivors often describe an array of disquieting and disabling neurologic symptoms after their acute illness abates. The term brain fog was coined to encompass these neurologic complaints that patients felt were too oftendismissed or ignored.

Now, newresearchconfirms what they are telling us: 24 percent of COVID-19 survivors experience significant cognitive impairment that affects memory, executive function and processing speeds.

Of course, patients arent looking for affirmation. They need a solution and, until that day arrives, support. Unfortunately, we are even less prepared to meet these needs than we were their acute illness, no matter how sick they were and how stretched our health system has been.

Their recovery will require multisector collaboration between practitioners in health, education and industry.But this does not yet exist at any kind of meaningful scale.

To Long COVID, add the fact that assuminghistorical dataon severe respiratory failure holds,40 percent of COVID-19s critically ill patients will be out of work one yearfollowing their illness. Not by choice, but by consequence.

It has been almost a quarter century since researchersfirst publisheddata showing 75 percent of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) suffered from measurable cognitive impairment one year after illness. Follow-up research has shown thatpsychiatric distress,financial stress, physicaldeconditioning and isolation are also frighteningly common. Even pre-COVID, we werent adequately rehabilitating and supporting the vast majority of these patients, who struggled to return to normal both at work and home.

Heres the dirty secret: If we define success by whether a severely ill patient survives to hospital discharge asmost clinical trials do our health system is improving every year. If we define it as a full recovery were failing. To fix this, the health system needs to play a far more active role in these patients survivorship, but its efforts will be ineffective without collaboration with private and public entities in other fields.

Too many patients find their illness provokes a cascade of crises, like one I recently discharged from the ICU to a rehabilitation center. He hadnt walked in months and felt unrecognizable to his former self. He had been the sole source of income for his family, and now had no idea how to cover their mortgage. He wouldnt soon if ever be returning to his previous work in construction.We both understood his future was precarious.

These problems lie far beyond the scope of most of the health care workforces training or comfort. Multidisciplinaryclinicsandcollaborativesdedicated to easing the challenges of critical illness and COVID-19 survivors are growing rapidly, in part due to the attention COVID-19 has brought to the challenges of survivorship. But because of funding shortages and siloed programs, the challenge of integrating non-medical needs with clinical services at scale persists.

I recently spoke with a leader in the vocational rehabilitation program at the Texas Workforce Commission, a program designed to help individuals with disabilities obtain and retain jobs. The program is just what someone with new health-related disabilities needs, and its located less than a mile from our hospital. But she told me that most patients only found it years after discharge from severe illness because there are no systematic efforts to connect patients from our hospital with her institution.

Reform must focus on both culture and funding. Culturally, the U.S. has long siloed its social services, both in practice and in budget, so we frequently face awrong pocketproblem: Investing in people via the health care system provides long-term benefits, but the health care system isnt the financial beneficiary, so funding is difficult to obtain.

Despite burgeoning evidence that multidisciplinary programs following critical illness mightreduce readmissionsandimprove employmentprospects, these programs rely on the benevolence of institutions or research grants for their survival because remuneration does not cover expenses.

An overhaul is long overdue, and there has never been a better time. During the Delta variant COVID-19 wave, our hospital beds filled withadultsin their 40s, not vulnerable seniors. These patients arent being discharged to an assisted living facility and a waiting retirement account. They are returning to face rent, dependents and responsibilities. And they will be struggling.

Helping our critically ill COVID-19 population resume life as they knew it will require both a commitment from federal, state and local governments and new methods of collaboration among those working in education, industry and disability advocacy. Arguments over vaccines are far less productive than preventing illness and supporting its survivors.

We have long understood that recovery means more than discharge. Its time to turn that insight into action and help build the ramp to get our patients back to something they would call a normal life.

MarissaWagnerMery, MD, MBA is a critical care physician, anesthesiologist and assistant professor at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, and a public voices fellow with The OpEd Project.

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Patients aren't equipped for cognitive impacts of COVID-19 neither are their doctors | TheHill - The Hill

JUST A FEW months after Indias public-health systems collapsed under a tsunami of covid-19 infections, the country is starting to feel it has something to celebrate. In good time for the season of Hindu holidays now under way, on October 21st Narendra Modi, the prime minister, declared that India had administered its billionth dose of vaccine. In cities such as Delhi and Mumbai the dedicated covid-19 wards are virtually empty (smaller towns struggled to open any in the first place). A doctor at a major government hospital quipped that it must now be harder to contract the virus in Delhi than anywhere abroad. Indias economy is still wonky, but for most of the summer stockmarket indices have been reaching new heights. Yet this palpable sense of relief is hard to square with the recent memory of mass death, when fields of bodies were buried hastily along the Ganges. How did India manage to beat covid-19?

The plain fact is that, instead, covid-19 beat India. The world watched anxiously in April and May, when the caseloads were climbing almost vertically. The terror was justified. India was gripped by the first outbreak of the Delta variant (briefly called the Indian variant, until the WHO insisted on switching to Greek letters). Its ferocity taught lessons that some parts of the world are still learning. Indians died in untold numbers. To judge by the number of excess deaths, something like 2.3m lost their lives to the disease. Those who survived rued the governments failure to procure vaccines earlier, when India had positioned itself as a pharmaceutical factory for the world. The rate of vaccinations went from a trickle to an erratic drip, as systems of every kind shut down. And then in June, almost exactly as fast as the wave of infections had shot up, it shot down again. Not 10% of the population had been vaccinated (see chart). Within two weeks it was back down to pre-Delta levels. No thanks to any medical intervention.

A survey of blood samples published this week shows that more than 90% of Delhis residents have antibodies against covid-19 coursing through their veins. Having weathered the crisis at its worst, Indians are kept safe by natural immunity. The campaign to vaccinate India, slow and sometimes wobbly, has been making steady progress nonetheless. Sometimes it gets a fillip, as when a one-day jabbing extravaganza was organised to celebrate Mr Modis 71st birthday. During the darkest days of Indias pandemic, he had hidden himself out of view. Now Mr Modi is eager to put his portrait on every official vaccination certificate. On October 21st a private airline, Spicejet, emblazoned three of its planes with the prime ministers face to congratulate him on immunising so many of his countrymen. But the immunisation that mattered had happened months earlier.

More than half of all Indians have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and almost 25% are considered to be fully vaccinated. That is a fine thing, as even natural immunity wanes. The government is now vaccinating a solid 6m or more every day, while monitoring a caseload of about 150,000 covid-positive patients. At the current rate of progress, India ought to have safeguarded itself against a third wave (really, a second wave of Delta) by the time one might recur on a cyclical basis. There is no more discussion of containing or extirpating the coronavirus. For most people who managed to hold on to their health and livelihood through this grim year, life is getting back to normal (though the nations schoolchildren and their parents, still reeling from the worlds longest school closures, would like to have a word). Once again India may be stumbling into the leadas the rest of the world adjusts itself to endemic covid-19.

More from The Economist explains:Why official covid-19 deaths do not capture the pandemics true tollWhat are DNA vaccines?Why Hong Kongs zero-covid strategy could backfire

More here:

How did India beat covid-19? - The Economist

By Julian Grace, WRAL anchor/reporter

Raleigh, N.C. A local health expert is pushing back against claims made at a medical freedom summit in Raleigh on Saturday.

During the event, 12 panelists from various backgrounds across medical, scientific and legal professions took aim at the coronavirus response in North Carolina.

Speakers made unverified claims including the provided COVID-19 vaccine is causing injuries.

"The FDA panel admitted they have no idea of the side effects," one of the speakers told the crowd.

The speakers also touted use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as safe and effective treatments for the virus.

But, Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease specialist at UNC Health, said the research doesn't support those drugs as being a better option than the COVID-19 vaccine.

"It comes to, show me the data and show me the really big data. I can show you the really big data on where it Remdesivir -- where it works and where it doesnt," Wohl said. "That's all we as providers want. We don't want wishful thinking."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has also previously warned medical professionals and the public about using ivermectin to treat coronavirus. In August, the CDC said there was an increase in reports of severe illness reported to drug centers after using ivermectin, which is used to treat parasites such as worms and lice in humans and by veterinarians to de-worm large animals.

Overdosing on ivermectin can cause stomach problems, nerve damage, seizures, disorientation, coma and death, according to the CDC.

Parts of the medical freedom summit in Raleigh focused on people suffering injuries after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine.

"Half of humanity, right now, have had at least one COVID-19 vaccine ... with that kind of number, if there was a side effect leading people to get sick [and] to get hospitalized, we would know it. It would not be a secret," countered Wohl.

WRAL Investigates searched through the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's database of reported adverse reactions in April and found issues from blood clotting to heart and respiratory issues.

Out of the 216 million doses of the vaccine that had been administered from December to April, 68,000 adverse reactions were reported to the FDA.

Wohl said that he respects people's rights, but he also wanted to stress the importance of getting the vaccine.

He added that if you want to be conscious about your health, and protect others, get the shot.

See the rest here:

Health experts push back on claims of COVID-19 vaccine injury, other statements made at medical freedom summit - WRAL.com

The three-judge panel in the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit also sent the two court cases back to the lower courts to continue.

The ongoing court cases stem from former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's order that all hospital and long-term care facility workers were required to get at least one dose of the vaccine by September 27.

CNN has reached out to the New York State Department of Health for comment, and details of how many exemptions the state has already provided.

An attorney for plaintiffs in one of the cases vowed to take the case to the US Supreme Court Friday.

"New York's mandate forces an abominable choice on New York healthcare workers: abandon their faith or lose their careers," said attorney Cameron Atkinson, who represents three nurses. "They have committed their futures to God's hands, and we remain optimistic that the United States Supreme Court will strike down New York's discriminatory mandate as violating the First Amendment."

In the second case, 17 health care workers, many of them unnamed doctors, residents and nurses, filed a lawsuit last month objecting to the New York State Department of Health's vaccine mandate, which didn't allow for religious exemptions. A judge issued a temporary restraining order on September 14 related to the religious exemptions.

CNN reached out to an attorney representing these health care workers for reaction.

Gov. Kathy Hochul praised the court's decision.

"On Day One, I pledged as Governor to battle this pandemic and take bold action to protect the health of all New Yorkers," Hochul said in a statement. "I commend the Second Circuit's findings affirming our first-in-the-nation vaccine mandate, and I will continue to do everything in my power to keep New Yorkers safe."

Religious exemptions granted to almost 16,000 workers before ruling, official said

Nearly 16,000 health care employees in New York State have been granted religious exemptions by their employers prior to Friday's court ruling, the state's health department confirmed to CNN Friday night.

That's 15,844 employees of hospitals, nursing homes, adult homes, Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHA), Licensed Home Care Service Agencies (LHCSA) and hospice facilities, said Jeffrey Hammond, deputy director of communications for the New York State Department of Health.

Hammond provided a breakdown of the data, including the number of employees and percentages of staff impacted in each health care group.

Hospitals (as of October 26): 6,433 employees (1.3%)

Certified Home Health Agencies (as of October 26): 505 employees (4%), of which, 365 are direct care staff

Licensed Home Care Service Agencies (as of October 26): 5,573 employees(2.1%), of which, 5,070 are direct care staff

Hospice (as of October 26): 94 employees (2%), of which, 70 are direct care staff

Nursing Homes (as of October 29): 2,684 employees (1.8%), of which, 1,935 are direct care staff

Adult Homes (as of October 29): 555 (2%), of which, 309 are direct care staff

See the rest here:

New York state health care workers will no longer have religious exemption to Covid-19 vaccine mandate, court rules - CNN

Many Americans now have the green light to get a COVID-19 vaccine booster and the flexibility to receive a different brand than the original vaccine they received.

On the heels of the Food and Drug Administrations Sept. 22, 2021, emergency use authorization of a third dose or booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine for certain Americans, on Oct. 20, the agency also gave emergency authorization to a third Moderna shot and a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

READ MORE: Is it time to get a COVID-19 booster? Which one?

On Oct. 21, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommended these vaccinations in light of the FDAs authorization. The CDCs signoff will make the Moderna booster shot available to people 65 and older, younger adults at higher risk of severe COVID-19 due to medical conditions and those who are at increased risk due to their workplace environment. People are now eligible for the Moderna booster six months after completion of their original series as is already the case for the third Pfizer shot. The authorization made all Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients eligible for a second shot two months after the initial dose.

Notably, the FDA and CDC also authorized a mix-and-match strategy, enabling eligible Americans to get a booster shot from a brand different from their original vaccine.

As an infectious disease expert, I have closely followed the development of the COVID-19 vaccines and the research on how immunity and vaccine efficacy shift over time.

With the swirling mass of news around how effective the COVID-19 vaccines are and who needs booster shots and when, it can be challenging and confusing to make sense of it all. But understanding how the immune system works can help bring clarity to the reasons some people could benefit from the authorized shots.

The discussion and perceived urgency around booster shots has partially been driven by the occurrence of breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated people. The term breakthrough misleadingly implies that the vaccines failed, but this is not the case. The intention of the vaccine is to reduce hospitalizations and deaths, a goal that the COVID-19 vaccines continue to meet.

While the Pfizer mRNA vaccine shows decreasing efficacy against asymptomatic and mild infections over the first six months after vaccination, studies show that it continues to be highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths, including against the delta variant, in the first six months.

A clinical study of the Moderna vaccine showed that antibody levels remain strong after six months as well. But studies after the six-month mark have been mixed, with reports of waning antibody levels leaving some researchers concerned that a booster shot strategy is essential. However, the limited data left too many questions for the FDA and CDC to approve a booster shot for all Americans, at least at this time.

Still, the overwhelming majority of intensive care admissions and deaths from COVID-19 continue to be in unvaccinated people. The rare deaths from COVID-19 in vaccinated people are mostly in people with immune systems weakened either by age or underlying conditions, which is why booster shots have been authorized for these groups. While boosters clearly help the individual, it is just as important for everyone to get fully vaccinated to protect vulnerable people by reducing the overall number of cases in the community.

All three of the authorized vaccines in the U.S. work by giving the body instructions for making the spike protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The spike protein, which resembles a stem with three buds on the end, is what enables the actual virus to invade cells and cause infection. The mRNA vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna provide the blueprint for the spike protein in the form of mRNA in a drug-delivery system called a lipid nanoparticle. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine gives DNA instructions inside the coat of a different virus, called a viral vector.

WATCH: CDC says the definition of fully vaccinated may change as more people get boosters

The immune system quickly recognizes that these foreign proteins do not belong, and it generates an immune response to fight them off. These newfound defenses gear the body up to protect against the real virus. During this primary immune response, immune cells encounter spike proteins and, as a defense, they produce antibodies, memory cells and T-cells that can kill infected cells to prevent the virus from multiplying. Some of these antibodies and T-cells from the primary immune response persist over time, though they decrease during the first month after vaccination, while memory cells last much longer.

Then, when someone gets an additional dose of vaccine, the immune system goes through a secondary immune response. Thanks to the memory cells, the secondary immune response activates more rapidly, triggering lots of antibody production and T-cell activation. More mature antibodies are produced as well, and they are even better at trapping the spike proteins. And T-cells proliferate, helping to stop the intruder in its tracks. This type of secondary immune response can be activated again and again when repeat exposures to a vaccine or booster doses occur. Each time, the immune response mounts a stronger and more effective defense.

Multiple studies, including preliminary research from the National Institutes of Health that is not yet peer-reviewed, have shown that the mix-and-match strategy is safe and effective at providing a significant immune boost.

Additionally, mixing vaccine types may be most beneficial in those who initially received a non-mRNA vaccine. The NIH data suggests that people who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine had a bigger increase and achieved a higher antibody concentration after receiving an mRNA booster than if they received the Johnson & Johnson booster. For people who first received one of the mRNA vaccines, Pfizer or Moderna, followed by a third shot with Johnson & Johnson, the antibody response was similar to that seen in those who got a third, or homologous, mRNA dose.

Studies exploring why the mix-and-match strategy is more effective with some initial vaccines and not others are underway. Understanding this and the effectiveness of different vaccine combinations, including using vaccines that are authorized in other countries, will help improve vaccination strategies all over the world.

Interchanging vaccine types may have greater advantages in some people than in others, which will become clearer as more data is gathered. But the good news is that the immune response seems to get a solid boost from booster shots, regardless of which vaccine combination is used.

Editors note: Johnson & Johnson is a funder for the PBS NewsHour.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How mix and match COVID-19 booster shots work, according to an infectious disease expert - PBS NewsHour

As of October 26, the number of total coronavirus cases reported in Louisiana increased by 460 and there have been 16 new deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The total number of cases reported to the state as of Tuesday is 756,969. The current total death count is 14,496.

LDH reports that not fully vaccinated Louisiana residents accounted for 83 percent of cases and 76 percent of deaths from October 7 to October 13, 2021. Those not fully vaccinated also accounted for 85 percent of current COVID hospitalizations.

LDH is reporting an additional 15,455 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since the last update. The state has now administered 4,482,319 doses, including 2,189,636 completed two-dose series. The data will be updated every Monday and Thursday. In LDH Region 4, which includes Acadiana, 285,269 vaccine series have been initiated and 259,272 (42.78%% of the population) have been completed.

On Monday, March 29, all Louisiana residents 16 and older became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents wanting to receive a vaccine can find more information, here.

323 individuals are hospitalized with COVID across the state (down 9 from Monday) 54 of those patients were on ventilators (up 4 from Monday)

Across Acadiana, there were 127 new cases and 0 new deaths reported since Monday.

Parishes in Acadiana (probable and confirmed cases and deaths)

See the full breakdown from the Louisiana Department of Health, here.

-FROM MONDAY:

As of October 25, the number of total coronavirus cases reported in Louisiana increased by 878 and there have been 18 new deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The total number of cases reported to the state as of Monday is 756,509. The current total death count is 14,480.

LDH reports that not fully vaccinated Louisiana residents accounted for 83 percent of cases and 76 percent of deaths from October 7 to October 13, 2021. Those not fully vaccinated also accounted for 85 percent of current COVID hospitalizations.

LDH is reporting an additional 15,455 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since the last update. The state has now administered 4,482,319 doses, including 2,189,636 completed two-dose series. The data will be updated every Monday and Thursday. In LDH Region 4, which includes Acadiana, 285,269 vaccine series have been initiated and 259,272 (42.78%% of the population) have been completed.

On Monday, March 29, all Louisiana residents 16 and older became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents wanting to receive a vaccine can find more information, here.

332 individuals are hospitalized with COVID across the state (down 10 from Friday) 50 of those patients were on ventilators (up 2 from Friday)

Across Acadiana, there were 186 new cases and 0 new deaths reported since Friday.

Parishes in Acadiana (probable and confirmed cases and deaths)

-FROM FRIDAY:

As of October 22, the number of total coronavirus cases reported in Louisiana increased by 681 and there have been 16 new deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The total number of cases reported to the state as of Friday is 755,631. The current total death count is 14,462.

LDH reports that not fully vaccinated Louisiana residents accounted for 83 percent of cases and 76 percent of deaths from October 7 to October 13, 2021. Those not fully vaccinated also accounted for 89 percent of current COVID hospitalizations.

LDH is reporting an additional 15,387 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since the last update. The state has now administered 4,466,864 doses, including 2,181,459 completed two-dose series. The data will be updated every Monday and Thursday. In LDH Region 4, which includes Acadiana, 284,575 vaccine series have been initiated and 258,393 (42.64%% of the population) have been completed.

On Monday, March 29, all Louisiana residents 16 and older became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents wanting to receive a vaccine can find more information, here.

342 individuals are hospitalized with COVID across the state (down 12 from Thursday) 48 of those patients were on ventilators (down 4 from Thursday)

Across Acadiana, there were 176 new cases and 2 new deaths reported since Thursday.

Parishes in Acadiana (probable and confirmed cases and deaths)

FROM THURSDAY:

As of October 21, the number of total coronavirus cases reported in Louisiana increased by 923 and there have been 22 new deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The total number of cases reported to the state as of Thursday is 754,950. The current total death count is 14,446.

LDH reports that not fully vaccinated Louisiana residents accounted for 83 percent of cases and 76 percent of deaths from October 7 to October 13, 2021. Those not fully vaccinated also accounted for 86 percent of current COVID hospitalizations.

LDH is reporting an additional 15,387 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since the last update. The state has now administered 4,466,864 doses, including 2,181,459 completed two-dose series. The data will be updated every Monday and Thursday. In LDH Region 4, which includes Acadiana, 284,575 vaccine series have been initiated and 258,393 (42.64%% of the population) have been completed.

On Monday, March 29, all Louisiana residents 16 and older became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents wanting to receive a vaccine can find more information, here.

354 individuals are hospitalized with COVID across the state (down 26 from Wednesday) 52 of those patients were on ventilators (down 3 from Wednesday)

Across Acadiana, there were 275 new cases and 4 new deaths reported since Wednesday.

Parishes in Acadiana (probable and confirmed cases and deaths)

-FROM WEDNESDAY:

As of October 20, the number of total coronavirus cases reported in Louisiana increased by 502 and there have been 36 new deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The total number of cases reported to the state as of Wednesday is 754,027. The current total death count is 14,424.

LDH reports that not fully vaccinated Louisiana residents accounted for 83 percent of cases and 76 percent of deaths from October 7 to October 13, 2021. Those not fully vaccinated also accounted for 83 percent of current COVID hospitalizations.

LDH is reporting an additional 18,926 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since the last update. The state has now administered 4,451,477 doses, including 2,173,032 completed two-dose series. The data will be updated every Monday and Thursday. In LDH Region 4, which includes Acadiana, 283,698 vaccine series have been initiated and 257,340 (42.46%% of the population) have been completed.

On Monday, March 29, all Louisiana residents 16 and older became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents wanting to receive a vaccine can find more information, here.

380 individuals are hospitalized with COVID across the state (down 19 from Tuesday) 55 of those patients were on ventilators (down 6 from Tuesday)

Across Acadiana, there were 87 new cases and 5 new deaths reported since Tuesday.

Parishes in Acadiana (probable and confirmed cases and deaths)

-FROM TUESDAY

As of October 19. the number of total coronavirus cases reported in Louisiana increased by 581 and there have been 38 new deaths, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.

The total number of cases reported to the state as of Tuesday is 752,951. The current total death count is 14,350.

LDH reports that not fully vaccinated Louisiana residents accounted for 84 percent of cases and 80 percent of deaths from September 30 to October 6, 2021. Those not fully vaccinated also accounted for 83 percent of current COVID hospitalizations.

LDH is reporting an additional 18,926 COVID-19 vaccinations administered since the last update. The state has now administered 4,451,477 doses, including 2,173,032 completed two-dose series. The data will be updated every Monday and Thursday. In LDH Region 4, which includes Acadiana, 283,698 vaccine series have been initiated and 257,340 (42.46%% of the population) have been completed.

On Monday, March 29, all Louisiana residents 16 and older became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Residents wanting to receive a vaccine can find more information, here.

399 individuals are hospitalized with COVID across the state (down 22 from Monday) 61 of those patients were on ventilators.

Parishes in Acadiana (probable and confirmed cases and deaths)

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COVID-19: State Update - 756,969 cases, 14,496 deaths

United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool reached an agreement with Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics allowing MPP to license the manufacture of molnupiravir to pharmaceutical companies across the globe. Christopher Occhicone/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool reached an agreement with Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics allowing MPP to license the manufacture of molnupiravir to pharmaceutical companies across the globe.

U.S.-based pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co. said it will license drugmakers worldwide to produce its potentially lifesaving antiviral pill for treatment of COVID-19 in adults.

The drug, known as molnupiravir, has shown promise in treating the disease, and the agreement to license its production could help millions of people in the developing world gain access to it.

Merck said earlier this month that a recent study of molnupiravir showed that it cut hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 in half.

United Nations-backed Medicines Patent Pool said Wednesday that it had reached an agreement with Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics. Under the pact, the U.S. drugmakers will allow MPP to license the manufacture of molnupiravir to qualified pharmaceutical companies across the globe.

"This agreement will help create broad access for molnupiravir use in 105 low- and middle-income countries following appropriate regulatory approvals," Merck and the patent pool said in a news release.

MPP Executive Director Charles Gore said in a statement. that the interim results for molnupiravir "are compelling and we see this oral treatment candidate as a potentially important tool to help address the current health crisis.

"This transparent, public health-driven agreement is MPP's first voluntary license for a COVID-19 medical technology, and we hope that Merck's agreement with MPP will be a strong encouragement to others," Gore added.

Under the agreement, Merck and Ridgeback will receive no royalties as long as COVID-19 is considered a global emergency by the World Health Organization. Makers of coronavirus vaccines have yet to make similar agreements, despite pressure from governments and the WHO.

Molnupiravir, which is awaiting authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was originally developed by scientists at Emory University. It works by blocking the ability of the coronavirus to replicate.

If authorized, the drug would be the first COVID-19 treatment in pill form. Until now, all FDA-approved therapies have been administered by IV or injection.

Read more:

Merck will allow drugmakers in other countries to make its COVID-19 pill - NPR

By: KDKA-TV News Staff

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) The Allegheny County Health Department is reporting 408 new COVID-19 cases and 12 additional deaths.

Of the newly reported cases, the Health Department says 265 are confirmed cases and 143 are probable cases.

There have been 8,761 total hospitalizations and 131,032 total coronavirus cases in Allegheny County since the pandemic started.

The county-wide death toll stands at 2,299.

The 12 newly-reported deaths range from Oct. 2-26. One patient was in the 19-24 age group and the other 11 were in the 65+ age group.

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As cases, hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19 trend downward across the country, Maine and some other New England states are still seeing high and sustained levels of all three.

A significant increase in the number of Mainers getting vaccinated in recent days is reason for hope, health officials said Wednesday, but the continued spread of the delta variant is concerning, and difficult to fully explain.

Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said one likely explanation is simply that these states have largely avoided the major spikes that other states already have experienced.

Up until recently, rural parts of these states were relatively protected from COVID for a number of reasons, Shah said during a media briefing Wednesday. With (the delta variant), the virus is being introduced to parts of the state where there had been virtually no exposure to COVID.

Dr. James Jarvis, COVID-19 incident commander for Northern Light Health, said some of the explanation for the current trend is human nature. Mainers have mostly followed safety protocols throughout the pandemic but may be letting their guard down.

People may not be wearing masks indoors as much as they should, he said. Weve seen an increase in gathering. Travel is another thing, people are traveling more.

The CDC reported 620 new cases on Wednesday and seven additional deaths. The seven-day case average has fluctuated somewhat but is largely unchanged from this time last month, about 460 cases each day.

Across the United States, cases have fallen by 42 percent during that same time, according to the U.S. CDC.

Hospitalizations, meanwhile, have increased by 24 percent in Maine over the last two weeks. As of Wednesday, 209 individuals were in the hospital, including 74 in critical care and 34 on ventilators.

By comparison, hospitalizations have fallen nationally by 20 percent in that time.

Since the pandemic began, there have been 102,469 confirmed or probable cases of COVID-19 in Maine and 1,154 people have died, according to data from the Maine CDC. Both remain among the according lowest per capita of any state.

Despite the recent worrisome trends in Maine, both Shah and Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeanne Lambrew said there are positive signs, too.

The biggest of those is a recent increase in vaccination, not just among those who are receiving booster shots but those who are receiving their initial series.

Over the last two weeks, the average number of second doses of Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, have increased from 1,180 per day to 2,600 per day, or 120 percent.

The recent data prove that people do learn, they do listen, they can change their minds, and thats very encouraging, Lambrew said.

Shah said he doesnt know exactly whats driving the recent increase in vaccinations but said its likely a combination of factors, including the severity of the delta variant and also existing and future vaccine mandates by employers.

Overall, Maine has administered 915,325 final doses of vaccine, which accounts for 68.1 percent of all residents and 77.3 percent of those 12 and older who are eligible, according to Maine CDC data. Maine ranks fourth overall in vaccination rate. The top five states are all in New England.

State officials also sometimes cite federal vaccination data, which indicates a slightly higher rate for Maine based on differences in the counting methodology.

A total of 78,998 people have gotten third doses thus far, according to the Maine CDC. Boosters are recommended for older adults and those with immunodeficiencies, and also for those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

By next week, the Pfizer vaccine could be approved for children 5 to 11. Shah said there are nearly 80,000 children in that category

This provides a tangible opportunity for children to return to a more normal way of life, he said.

Although Maines overall vaccination rate is high, there are still pockets of the state with large numbers of unvaccinated individuals and that has contributed to high transmission, hospitalizations and deaths.

Those hospitalized with COVID-19 have overwhelmingly been unvaccinated or vaccinated but older and with other serious health conditions.

Within Northern Light Healths system, there were 46 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Wednesday, half of them at Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Of those hospitalized, 37, or 80 percent, are unvaccinated.

Health care providers have been forced to adapt to not only an increased number of COVID patients but ongoing workforce challenges.

On Tuesday, officials with MaineHealth, the parent organization of Portlands Maine Medical Center and other hospitals, said roughly one-third of all elective surgeries are being delayed, and there is a backlog of 1,500 procedures. Other hospitals also have cut back on some services temporarily.

It will get worse in terms of some of those delays. Theres not an easy solution, or easy end in sight, said Dr. Joan Boomsma, MaineHealths chief medical officer.

Jarvis said Northern Light hospitals are in a similar position.

Its no secret we continue to be in one of the most difficult phases of the pandemic, he said during a media briefing Wednesday.

Although facilities have not reached capacity, Jarvis warned that some patients, may need to wait a little longer for care if your needs are not urgent.

Exacerbating the problem for hospitals has been lack of space in nursing home and skilled rehab facilities, many of which have halted admissions due to staffing shortages. Jarvis said there are 111 patients in Northern Lights system currently who have been cleared to leave the hospital but dont have a nursing home or skilled nursing bed to go to.

Although its only a small factor, the vaccine mandate for health care workers has exacerbated the staff shortages. A small number of employees have left their jobs rather than get vaccinated and more could be terminated when the state begins enforcing the mandate on Friday.

Lambrew said DHHS will enforce the mandate the same way it enforces other vaccine requirements for health care workers that have been in place for years through random audits and complaint-driven investigations mostly.

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Maine remains a hot spot for COVID-19 and the explanations vary - Press Herald