Category: Covid-19

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Biggest challenge to reach herd immunity is vaccinating those who had COVID-19, APH says - KXAN.com

SYDNEYAfter the coronavirus pandemic grounded air travel, many of the thousands of aircraft that were parked at storage facilities around the globe seemed destined for the scrap heap.

That hasnt happened. Instead, aircraft owners are junking fewer planes than just before the pandemic.

About 440 large commercial jetliners were scrapped in 2020, a roughly 15% decline compared with 2019, according to aviation-analytics firm Cirium. This year, the number of aircraft being junked is currently some 30% below last years volumes, said Rob Morris, Ciriums global head of consultancy.

The slow pace highlights the challenge airlines face as they navigate out of the coronavirus pandemic. Domestic travel is returning faster than international in some markets, but the pace of the recovery will differ from region to region, and airlines must retain the ability to ramp up quickly. Airlines struggling to afford new aircraft may also need to keep older models for longer.

Another factor: prices for spare parts are low because many planes are grounded and dont need extra components. Aircraft owners generate revenue from parts taken out of scrapped planes, so they may wait until demand for spares rises before junking their planes.

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Planes Grounded by Covid-19 Largely Avoid the Junkyardfor Now - The Wall Street Journal

The following are North Dakota's COVID-19 case rates, deaths and hospitalizations during the week of Saturday, May 29 to Friday, June 4.

From May 29 to June 4, North Dakota reported 285 additional positive cases, and active cases declined by 83 during the week.

As of Friday, Burleigh County had at least 80 people known to be infected with the virus the most of North Dakota's 53 counties. Following Burleigh County is Ward County with 54 cases, and Cass County with 43 known cases.

The state's rolling 14-day average positivity rate for its COVID-19 cases sits at 2.96%, the lowest since March.

ACTIVE HOSPITALIZATIONS AS OF JUNE 4: 24

DEATHS, NEWLY REPORTED: 0

TOTAL DEATHS THROUGHOUT PANDEMIC: 1,515

Hospitalizations steadily declined during the week of May 29, with 24 residents hospitalized because of COVID-19 as of Friday. The majority of those currently hospitalized in North Dakota due to COVID-19 are in their 60s and 70s.

Even though the Department of Health reported three additional COVID-19 deaths in the last week, no deaths have been reported in June so far.

FIRST DOSE ADMINISTERED AS OF JUNE 3: 294,624 (49.4% of population)

COMPLETED SERIES (TWO DOSES) AS OF JUNE 3: 275,383 (46.1% of population)

A total of 4,948 shots were administered from May 29 to June 3, the latest data available. The number of North Dakotans seeking vaccinations has stalled, and last month North Dakota sent 70,000 vaccine doses to other states because so few North Dakotans were seeking the shot.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged parents to vaccinate their teenagers, because nationwide the hospitalization rate among adolescents has increased, according to the Washington Post. In May, the CDC updated its guidance and recommended that everyone 12 and older receive the vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine, after vigorous testing, was approved for adolescents last month.

The Department of Health urges residents to seek more information at http://www.health.nd.gov/covidvaccinelocator.

Readers can reach reporter Michelle Griffith, a Report for America corps member, at mgriffith@forumcomm.com.

As a public service, weve opened this article to everyone regardless of subscription status. If this coverage is important to you, please consider supporting local journalism by clicking on the subscribe button in the upper righthand corner of the homepage.

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North Dakota saw continuing decline in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations in the last week - Jamestown Sun

The Chronicle

The Oakville School District on Tuesday said it will return students and teaching staff back to remote learning after multiple positive cases of COVID-19 affected the districts ability to teach.

This means the school will be online-only for the remainder of the school year.

Our school has faced numerous challenges this spring with COVID, wrote Superintendent Rich Staley in a letter that was posted on Facebook. There has been quite an uptick in cases in the past two months, and now we have reached a critical mass with regards to staff who have to quarantine for two weeks and we can no longer operate with enough personnel safely.

Staley wrote that the district has received many positive results of students, staff and parents within recent past weeks. The district is working with the Grays Harbor County health department closely during this time, he said.

Its not known how or if this will affect the high schools graduation ceremony, which is scheduled for Saturday, June 12, at the football stadium.

We understand the challenges this will bring to some families, which was a major part of our consideration when deciding. During this time, we can adjust staffing in preparation for students returning as well as part of supporting the stop of COVID-19 in our community, Staley wrote.

On Tuesday afternoon, the school district said it only had one bus driver on hand to transport students home. The district said it would work with families to determine what school would look like for the next two days as it begins its transition.

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Positive COVID-19 cases send Oakville back to online learning for rest of year - The Daily World

As part of an effort to Bring Back Louisiana Summer and encourage people to go Sleeves Up and get their COVID-19 shots, free admission to Louisiana state parks is being offered now for anyone who has been vaccinated, Gov. John Bel Edwards and Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser announced today. Vaccinated individuals can gain free entry into all of Louisianas 21 State Parks through July 31. This offer is available to all visitors from Louisiana and elsewhere who have been vaccinated, no matter when they got their shot. This offer does not extend to tour groups.

With new and improved facilities, there has never been a better time to take advantage of Louisianas beautiful state parks. Many sites also offer splash pads for kids. Visit LAStateParks.Com for a full list of sites. These perks are part of the Bring Back Louisiana Summer initiative, which will announce more fun rewards in the near future.

Louisianas state parks are beautiful, educational and now free for those who are vaccinated against COVID-19, which is a great way to help Bring Back Louisiana and celebrate our state this summer, Gov. Edwards said. I appreciate Lt. Governor Nungessers support of the Bring Back Louisiana campaign and for making admission free for the vaccinated, Gov. Edwards said. In addition to the offer of free entrance in Louisiana State Parks, a number of national companies are offering incentives to their customers and employees who take the COVID-19 vaccine. Today we announced some new perks for people who are vaccinated, but we have more announcements planned for the coming weeks, so people should go get their shots now so they dont miss out. Right now, nearly 32 percent of our population is fully vaccinated, and that number needs to keep growing.

"As we open our doors to tourists from across Louisiana and the world, we are glad to participate and offer this incentive, that will bring visitors to our beautiful State Parks, Lt. Gov. Nungesser said.

Originally posted here:

Louisiana State Parks Offer Free Admission to People Vaccinated Against COVID-19 as the State Works to Bring Back Louisiana Summer | Office of...

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of June 3, 2021, there have been 2,932,854 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 162,111 total cases and 2,807 deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 75-year old female from Monongalia County, a 69-year old female from Tyler County, a 66-year old male from Raleigh County, a 67-year old male from Harrison County, a 61-year old male from Tyler County, a 64-year old female from Harrison County, and a 49-year old male from Raleigh County.

We offer our deepest condolences as our state grieves more losses, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. We must stop COVID-19 by working toward increased vaccination for community immunity in West Virginia.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,499), Berkeley (12,719), Boone (2,163), Braxton (979), Brooke (2,231), Cabell (8,817), Calhoun (372), Clay (539), Doddridge (628), Fayette (3,523), Gilmer (874), Grant (1,297), Greenbrier (2,863), Hampshire (1,909), Hancock (2,839), Hardy (1,556), Harrison (6,045), Jackson (2,210), Jefferson (4,756), Kanawha (15,353), Lewis (1,269), Lincoln (1,554), Logan (3,228), Marion (4,577), Marshall (3,522), Mason (2,038), McDowell (1,602), Mercer (5,072), Mineral (2,940), Mingo (2,696), Monongalia (9,351), Monroe (1,187), Morgan (1,224), Nicholas (1,860), Ohio (4,286), Pendleton (719), Pleasants (957), Pocahontas (680), Preston (2,935), Putnam (5,289), Raleigh (6,983), Randolph (2,795), Ritchie (752), Roane (651), Summers (843), Taylor (1,254), Tucker (545), Tyler (738), Upshur (1,940), Wayne (3,168), Webster (532), Wetzel (1,377), Wirt (450), Wood (7,898), Wyoming (2,027).

Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Such is the case of Boone, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Wetzel counties in this report.

Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Hampshire, Jefferson, Lincoln, Mingo, Morgan, Putnam, and Wirt counties.

Barbour County

9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Barbour County Health Department, 109 Wabash Avenue, Philippi, WV

3:00 PM 7:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV

Berkeley County

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Ambrose Park, 25404 Mall Drive, Martinsburg, WV

Boone County

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Jeffrey Community Center, 18044 Spruce River Road, Jeffrey, WV

Hampshire County

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Hampshire County Health Department, 16189 Northwestern Turnpike, Augusta, WV

Jefferson County

10:00 AM 6:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV

12:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shepherd University Wellness Center Parking Lot, 164 University Drive, Shepherdstown, WV

Lincoln County

Mingo County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Delbarton Fire Department, County Highway 65/12, Delbarton, WV

Morgan County

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Valley Health War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV

Putnam County

Wirt County

9:00 AM 5:00 PM, Matheny Funeral Home, 448 Juliana Street, Elizabeth, WV

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COVID-19 Daily Update 6-3-2021 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

DES MOINES- Today, the Auditor released a report on a special investigation of the Step Up, Stop the Spread public service announcement campaign that occurred in November 2020, the height of the Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), or COVID-19, Pandemic in Iowa. The campaign was designed to raise public awareness in order to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Im proud of the Step Up, Stop the Spread public service announcement, Gov. Reynolds said. I felt it was important for me and other leaders to address Iowans during the height of the pandemic. And the law clearly allows it.

In his report, the Auditor claims the Governor mishandled CARES Act dollars by using those funds for video advertisements containing the likeness, voice, or name of the Governor in violation of Iowa Code section 68A.405A.

That statute reads, in part:

Except as provided in sections 29C.3 and 29C.6, a statewide elected official or member of the general assembly shall not permit the expenditure of public moneys under the control of the statewide elected official or member of the general assembly, including but not limited to

The auditors reportignores the opening clause: Except as provided in sections 29C.3 and 29C.6. That is a significant error, as 29C.6 relates to the powers and authority of the Governor during a public health disaster emergency.

The Step Up, Stop the Spread campaign promoted social distancing and mask-wearing in November 2020, which was the peak of positive cases of COVID-19 in Iowa. Hospitals and health care facilities were filling with patients being treated for COVID-19.And significantly, the Governors Public Health Proclamation of Disaster Emergency mandated (in certain situations) mask-wearing and required social distancing.

Promoting the requirements and recommendations of a disaster proclamation in a public awareness campaign is a clear example of the public-emergency exemption in Iowas image-and-likeness statute. And in case of any confusion, Section 29C.6(10)--which, again, is specifically mentioned in section 68A.405A-- provides for the use of all available resourcesof the state government as reasonably necessary to cope with the disaster emergency and of each political subdivision of the state.

Auditor Sand didnt once ask to meet with our team regarding his concern or his investigation. If he had, we would have pointed him to this essential part of the law that he clearly missed, said Chief of Staff Sara Craig.

Any competent reading of the plain language of state code would have acknowledged the role of the Governor in promoting an emergency order. Neither the Governors Office nor the Iowa Ethics & Campaign Disclosure Board were consulted prior to the issuance of Auditor Sands report. If that had happened, anyone within those offices could have directed the Auditor to the plain language of Iowas image-and-likeness statute and pointed out that, during a disaster emergency, the Governor may address Iowans in a public service announcement.

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Gov. Reynolds releases statement on COVID-19 public service announcement | Office of the Governor of Iowa - Governor Kim Reynolds

He brought his culture of innovation, Dr. Emond said. And his personal capability, his ability to work for long hours, never quitting, never giving up, no matter how difficult the situation, carrying out operations that many would deem impossible.

In his first year at Columbia, Dr. Kato and his team operated successfully on a 7-year-old girl, Heather McNamara, whose family had been told by several other hospitals that her abdominal cancer was inoperable. The surgery, which involved removing six organs and then putting them back in, took 23 hours.

More and more patients from around the country, and around the world, began seeking out Dr. Kato for operations that other hospitals could not or would not perform. He had also begun making trips to Venezuela to perform liver transplants for children and teach the procedure to local surgeons, and he created a foundation to help support the work there as well as in other Latin American countries.

As Dr. Katos colleagues struggled to save him, a waiting list of surgical patients clung to hopes that he would soon be able to save them.

Gradually, Dr. Pereira said, there were signs of recovery.

You come in early in the morning to see him, he said. The hospital hallways are empty and everybodys looking at each other, scared and anxious. You go into the intensive care unit dreading bad news, and the team is giving you a sort of hopeful thumbs-up that maybe hes looking better.

Dr. Kato spent about a month on a ventilator, and a week on ECMO. Like many people with severe Covid, he was tormented by frightening and vivid hallucinations and delusions. In one, he was arrested at the Battle of Waterloo. In another, he had been deliberately infected with anthrax; only a hospital in Antwerp could save him, but he could not get there. He saw the white light that some people describe after near-death experiences. I felt like I died, he said.

He had spent much of his adult life in hospitals, but never as a patient.

I never got sick, he said. I had never faced the reality of death.

Read more:

When a Surgeon Became a Covid-19 Patient: I Had Never Faced the Reality of Death - The New York Times

Security personnel stand guard near the Olympic rings monument during a rally by anti-Olympics protesters outside the Japanese Olympic Committee headquarters, in Tokyo, Japan May 18, 2021. REUTERS/Issei Kato/File Photo

Taiwan has pulled out of the final baseball qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics after failing to secure a training facility and because of concerns over the health of the players in Mexico.

Ranked fourth in the world, Taiwan was originally scheduled to host the tournament before a spike in COVID-19 cases in the country forced the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) to move it to Puebla, Mexico.

Mexico is still reporting thousands of new COVID-19 cases a day and health ministry data released on Wednesday said that 228,146 people had died since the start of the pandemic. read more

The surge in COVID-19 cases in Taiwan was also behind the refusal of the Yunlin County local government to let the squad prepare at training fields under their jurisdiction, the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association said in a statement.

Despite the baseball team dropping out, Taiwan's foreign minister said on Thursday that the government supported the Olympics going ahead.

"We understand that the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee have been working very hard in making sure that the Olympics can take place in Tokyo," Joseph Wu told the foreign press in Tokyo via a video conference call.

Taiwan, which competes as Chinese Taipei at the Olympics, has won only 22 medals at previous Summer Games, including a baseball silver in Barcelona in 1992.

Baseball is returning to the Games for the first time since Beijing 2008. Six nations will compete for gold in Tokyo with hosts Japan, Israel, Mexico and South Korea already qualified.

The Americas qualifying tournament, which offers one ticket to Tokyo, is ongoing in the United States with the final berth up for grabs in Puebla from June 22-26.

China pulled out of the final Olympic qualification tournament last month, leaving a five-team event now reduced to four with Taiwan's withdrawal.

Australia and Netherlands are confirmed for the tournament with the second and third-placed teams from the Americas qualifiers set to join them.

"At this stage Team Australia is still planning to attend," Baseball Australia Chief Executive Glenn Williams told Reuters by e-mail on Thursday.

"The complexity of the location change so close to the event is providing challenges but we are working on trying to meet those challenges."

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Taiwan pulls out of baseball qualifying tournament over COVID-19 fears - Reuters

Gilles Demaneuf is a data scientist with the Bank of New Zealand in Auckland. He was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome ten years ago, and believes it gives him a professional advantage. Im very good at finding patterns in data, when other people see nothing, he says.

Early last spring, as cities worldwide were shutting down to halt the spread of COVID-19, Demaneuf, 52, began reading up on the origins of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease. The prevailing theory was that it had jumped from bats to some other species before making the leap to humans at a market in China, where some of the earliest cases appeared in late 2019. The Huanan wholesale market, in the city of Wuhan, is a complex of markets selling seafood, meat, fruit, and vegetables. A handful of vendors sold live wild animalsa possible source of the virus.

That wasnt the only theory, though. Wuhan is also home to Chinas foremost coronavirus research laboratory, housing one of the worlds largest collections of bat samples and bat-virus strains. The Wuhan Institute of Virologys lead coronavirus researcher, Shi Zhengli, was among the first to identify horseshoe bats as the natural reservoirs for SARS-CoV, the virus that sparked an outbreak in 2002, killing 774 people and sickening more than 8,000 globally. After SARS, bats became a major subject of study for virologists around the world, and Shi became known in China as Bat Woman for her fearless exploration of their caves to collect samples. More recently, Shi and her colleagues at the WIV have performed high-profile experiments that made pathogens more infectious. Such research, known as gain-of-function, has generated heated controversy among virologists.

To some people, it seemed natural to ask whether the virus causing the global pandemic had somehow leaked from one of the WIVs labsa possibility Shi has strenuously denied.

On February 19, 2020, The Lancet, among the most respected and influential medical journals in the world, published a statement that roundly rejected the lab-leak hypothesis, effectively casting it as a xenophobic cousin to climate change denialism and anti-vaxxism. Signed by 27 scientists, the statement expressed solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China and asserted: We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.

The Lancet statement effectively ended the debate over COVID-19s origins before it began. To Gilles Demaneuf, following along from the sidelines, it was as if it had been nailed to the church doors, establishing the natural origin theory as orthodoxy. Everyone had to follow it. Everyone was intimidated. That set the tone.

The statement struck Demaneuf as totally nonscientific. To him, it seemed to contain no evidence or information. And so he decided to begin his own inquiry in a proper way, with no idea of what he would find.

Demaneuf began searching for patterns in the available data, and it wasnt long before he spotted one. Chinas laboratories were said to be airtight, with safety practices equivalent to those in the U.S. and other developed countries. But Demaneuf soon discovered that there had been four incidents of SARS-related lab breaches since 2004, two occuring at a top laboratory in Beijing. Due to overcrowding there, a live SARS virus that had been improperly deactivated, had been moved to a refrigerator in a corridor. A graduate student then examined it in the electron microscope room and sparked an outbreak.

Demaneuf published his findings in a Medium post, titled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: a review of SARS Lab Escapes. By then, he had begun working with another armchair investigator, Rodolphe de Maistre. A laboratory project director based in Paris who had previously studied and worked in China, de Maistre was busy debunking the notion that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was a laboratory at all. In fact, the WIV housed numerous laboratories that worked on coronaviruses. Only one of them has the highest biosafety protocol: BSL-4, in which researchers must wear full-body pressurized suits with independent oxygen. Others are designated BSL-3 and even BSL-2, roughly as secure as an American dentists office.

Having connected online, Demaneuf and de Maistre began assembling a comprehensive list of research laboratories in China. As they posted their findings on Twitter, they were soon joined by others around the world. Some were cutting-edge scientists at prestigious research institutes. Others were science enthusiasts. Together, they formed a group called DRASTIC, short for Decentralized Radical Autonomous Search Team Investigating COVID-19. Their stated objective was to solve the riddle of COVID-19s origin.

State Department investigators say they were repeatedly advised not to open a Pandoras box.

At times, it seemed the only other people entertaining the lab-leak theory were crackpots or political hacks hoping to wield COVID-19 as a cudgel against China. President Donald Trumps former political adviser Steve Bannon, for instance, joined forces with an exiled Chinese billionaire named Guo Wengui to fuel claims that China had developed the disease as a bioweapon and purposefully unleashed it on the world. As proof, they paraded a Hong Kong scientist around right-wing media outlets until her manifest lack of expertise doomed the charade.

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The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19s Origins - Vanity Fair