Category: Covid-19

Haiti's success is not due to some innovative intervention against the virus. Most people have given up wearing masks in public on the streets of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. And Haiti hasn't yet administered a single COVID-19 vaccine. Valerie Baeriswyl /AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Haiti's success is not due to some innovative intervention against the virus. Most people have given up wearing masks in public on the streets of Port-au-Prince and elsewhere. And Haiti hasn't yet administered a single COVID-19 vaccine.

Haiti has one of the lowest death rates from COVID-19 in the world.

As of the end of April, only 254 deaths were attributed to COVID-19 in Haiti over the course of the entire pandemic. The Caribbean nation, which often struggles with infectious diseases, has a COVID-19 death rate of just 22 per million. In the U.S. the COVID-19 death rate is 1,800 per million, and in parts of Europe. the fatality rate is approaching 3,000 deaths per million.

Haiti's success is not due to some innovative intervention against the virus. Most people have given up wearing masks in public. Buses and markets are crowded. And Haiti hasn't yet administered a single COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Jean "Bill" Pape says a combination of factors have kept the death rate so low.

Pape played a role similar to Dr. Anthony Fauci's in the U.S. The 74-year-old Haitian doctor served as the co-chair of a national commission in Haiti to deal with COVID-19, leading the country's effort to deal with the crisis. But the commission was dissolved earlier this year.

"The reason mainly is because we have very, very few cases of COVID," Pape says. The local health agency Pape heads, known as GHESKIO, actually shuttered its COVID-19 units last fall due to a lack of patients.

Last June, the country of 11 million was hit with a significant wave of infections. Hospital wards filled with COVID-19 patients. At the time, the country only had two places that could test for the virus, so the actual number of infections is unknown. Now, testing is far more available, but Pape says very few cases are detected each day.

"Sometimes it's two, sometimes zero, sometimes it's 20 cases," he says. "But we are not seeing a second wave, as we had thought would happen."

Pape says the country has pretty much gone back to the way life was pre-pandemic. Schools are open. Thousands of people packed the northern coastal Port-de-Paix for Carnival in February.

"Most people don't wear a mask," he says.

Not only have outdoor markets reopened; they were never completely closed.

Sheltering in place and working from home are luxuries most Haitians can't afford. As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haitians on average earn less than $2,000 per year according to the U.N. And most, Pape says, have gone back to work.

"Because if they don't work, they don't eat, their family doesn't eat," he says.

Concern about the pandemic is so minimal that this April, when the World Health Organization-led COVAX program offered Haiti a shipment of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines, the government rejected it.

Dr. Jacqueline Gautier is on the national technical advisory group on COVID-19 vaccination.

She says ordinary Haitians and people in the medical community have heard reports of rare but severe side effects from the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe, and they're in no rush to get that shot.

"Because COVID did not impact us as badly," she says, "people don't think it [the vaccine] is worth it actually."

Gautier is also the director of the St. Damien Pediatric Hospital on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince.

The pandemic may have had less of an impact in Haiti, she says, because it's a young country. The average age is 23. COVID-19 infections tend to be less severe in younger people. It's also possible, she says, that a significant number of people were infected by the virus last summer, showed no symptoms and built up immunity. Also houses tend to be open with plenty of ventilation air flow can knock the pathogen out of the picture.

Whatever the reason, she says, COVID-19 hasn't become a daily concern for most Haitians.

"Also there are many other major problems the country is facing," she says. "So people don't see COVID as our major as a major problem for us. And who can blame them?"

The daily problems facing Haiti are many. There's poverty, political instability, wild fluctuations in the value of the local currency, corruption, armed gangs. Diarrhea remains a major killer of children.

"And kidnappings!" Gautier exclaims. "They are really a huge problem for the country."

So Gautier was fairly sure that Haiti had dodged the COVID-19 bullet.

Then she saw the catastrophic COVID-19 wave in India, coming after a span of time when it seemed the country had been spared the worst of the virus. Now she worries that a deadly surge may be in Haiti's future, too.

"We don't know," she says. "This disease, it is full of surprises."

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NPRCOVID-19 Death Rates Are Impressively Low In Haiti : Goats and Soda - NPR

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Empty vials of the Pfizer COVID19 vaccine at the Woods Cross High School pop-up clinic by Nomi Health, April 27, 2021. County and regional health districts are setting up vaccination clinics in high schools, to get the COVID-19 vaccine to 16- and 17-year-olds.

| May 5, 2021, 7:05 p.m.

| Updated: 10:35 p.m.

Editors note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.

Even as the number of Utahns fully vaccinated against COVID-19 approaches a million, the number of new cases jumped to nearly 500 on Wednesday and two more people died.

The number of Utahns hospitalized because of the coronavirus increased by 10, and there were eight more COVID-19 patients in intensive care than on Tuesday.

Vaccine doses administered in past day/total doses administered 18,687 / 2,223,511.

Utahns fully vaccinated 986,146.

Cases reported in past day 480.

Deaths reported in past day Two: A woman between the ages of 45-64 in Millard County, and a man 45-64 in Weber County.

Tests reported in past day 7,190 people were tested for the first time. A total of 15,569 people were tested.

Hospitalizations reported in past day 153. Thats 10 more than on Tuesday. Of those currently hospitalized, 62 are in intensive care units, up eight from Tuesday.

Percentage of positive tests Under the states original method, the rate is 6.7%. Thats about the same as the seven-day average of 6.6%.

The states new method counts all test results, including repeated tests of the same individual. Wednesdays rate was 3.1%, lower than the seven-day average of 3.5%.

[Read more: Utah is changing how it measures the rate of positive COVID-19 tests. Heres what that means.]

Totals to date 398,979 cases; 2,219 deaths; 16,278 hospitalizations; 2,582,182 people tested.

One of the states leaders in the fight against COVID-19 Dr. Rich Bullough, director of the Summit County Health Department is retiring in August.

Bullough announced his retirement this week at a meeting of the countys board of health.

Bullough, who has worked in public health for 30 years and led the Summit County Health Department since September 2010, had been considering retirement earlier. But, he said in a statement that he was not able to move on to the next phase of my life until the pandemic was well along the continuum of being controlled in Summit County.

The county, he said, has made remarkable progress toward knocking this disease back in our community and towards a safe, gradual return to normal.

On March 14, 2020, state health officials announced that a doorman in a Park City bar had the first case of community spread of COVID-19 a case not explained by someone bringing the virus into Utah from out of state. Within hours, with the urging of Summit County health officials that visitors stay home, Park Citys two major ski destinations, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort, announced they would end their seasons early to prevent further spread.

Bullough is a Utah native, and a longtime Summit County resident. Before taking the job of leading the countys health department, he worked as director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-funded programs for the Utah Department of Health, as a research fellow for the National Institutes of Health, and an adjunct professor at the University of Utah.

Public health is about a lot more than pandemic response, it is a foundation of equity in society, Bullough said in his statement. Clean air, water, food, and important behavioral and clinical programs are for everyone. A strong public health department will help us continue down the path of achieving equity in Summit County.

Excerpt from:

After 3 days in the 200s, the number of new COVID-19 cases jumps to almost 500 - Salt Lake Tribune

We recently estimated that the U.S. was close to its COVID-19 vaccine tipping point that is, the point at which vaccine supply may start to outstrip demand. We also noted that national averages may mask important differences by state. We therefore sought to understand where states fall along this spectrum; such differences are important for understanding how best to target efforts to increase vaccine coverage throughout the country.

To do so, we looked at the share of adults with at least one vaccine dose by state, daily rates of first doses administered (using a 7-day rolling average), and how this rate has changed in the last week (see methods). We were particularly interested in identifying states that may still have relatively low vaccine coverage (i.e., below 50% of adults 18 or older) coupled with evidence of a decline in the uptake of first doses, as these states may present the biggest challenges for achieving sufficient vaccine coverage in the U.S.

As of April 29, among the 50 states and DC, we find that:

The share of adults who had received at least one vaccine dose was 55% overall, and ranged significantly across the country from a low of 41% (Alabama) to a high of 74% (New Hampshire). In addition, there is evidence of a decline in the pace of new uptake in most states. The daily rate of first dose administration at the national level is 451 per 100,000, ranging from 136 per 100,000 (Mississippi) to 889 (Rhode Island). Most states (31 of 51) are vaccinating below the national rate, reflecting the fact that vaccination rates are generally higher in larger states (e.g., California and Pennsylvania). Furthermore, the rate of first dose administration per 100,000 in the last week dropped for the U.S. overall (-27%) and for almost every state (45 of 51) (see Table 1).

At the higher end of the vaccine coverage spectrum, more than 60% of the adult population has received at least one dose in 12 states. These states are primarily in the Northeast (8 of 12). Seven have vaccination coverage of at least 65% and all but 2 (New Hampshire and New Mexico) are administering first doses at well above the U.S. rate. Eight of the 12 states have seen declines in first dose administration rates over the past week, suggesting that these states may be approaching or have reached demand saturation, albeit at relatively high vaccination coverage levels and rates of administration.

At the lower end of the vaccine coverage spectrum, less than 50% of the adult population has received at least one dose in 13 states, including 6 that are below 45%. Nine of these states are in the South and in all, the daily rate of first vaccination per 100,000 is below the national rate. Moreover, most are experiencing declines in the rate of first doses administered. This suggests that these states may not only be approaching or have reached their tipping points, they have done so at relatively low levels of vaccine coverage.

The remainder of the states, which fall in between these two extremes, are primarily in the Midwest and, to a lesser extent, the South and West. In about half of these states, between 55% and 60% of adults have received at least once dose. All but one experienced declines in the rate of first doses administered in the last week.

States that demonstrate a combination of low overall vaccination coverage along with slow and declining vaccine uptake raise the greatest concerns. There are the 13 states with less than 50% coverage with at least one dose, all of which are vaccinating their adult populations below the national rate. Twelve of these states also saw declines in the rate at which they were vaccinating adults over the past week. These include 3 states (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) with vaccination coverage at or below 42%, the lowest in the nation, each of which is vaccinating at about half the rate of the U.S. overall. These are the states that are potentially the greatest distance from reaching sufficient levels of vaccine coverage and might be at risk for future outbreaks if levels are not increased significantly.

As with the U.S. overall, most states appear to be at or near their COVID-19 vaccine tipping points the point at which their supply is outstripping demand. While this may not be as big a concern for states that have already vaccinated large shares (> 60%) of their adult populations with at least one dose, about one in four states have not yet reached 50%, which is well below coverage levels likely to be needed to drive down the risk of outbreaks going forward. Furthermore, in these states, the pace of vaccination is below the national rate. The fact that most of these states are also seeing declines in the rate of first dose administration suggests that they will be important targets for focused efforts to generate increasing vaccine demand.

See original here:

Supply vs Demand: Which States are Reaching their COVID-19 Vaccine Tipping Points? - Kaiser Family Foundation

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) Ninety-nine new total COVID-19 cases and three additional deaths were announced by theSouth Dakota Department of Healthon Wednesday.

According to the latest update, there are 102 current hospitalizations, compared to Tuesday (103). Total hospitalizations are at 7,417.

Active cases are now at 1,385, down from Tuesday (1,445).

The states total case count is now at 123,073, up from Tuesday (122,974).

Total recovered cases are now at 119,712 compared to 119,556 on Tuesday.

Three new deaths were reported by the Department of Health on Wednesday, bringing the death toll to 1,976. The new deaths were two women and one man in the following age ranges: 60-69 (1) and 80+ (2) in Kingsbury, Lake and Todd counties.

As of Wednesday, there have been 97 cases of B.1.1.7 variant found in South Dakota. There are two cases of the B.1.351 variant and 13 cases of B.1.429. One case of B.1.427 and two cases of P.1 have been reported.

Total persons who tested negative is now at 345,925, up from Tuesday (345,347).

There were 677 new persons tested in the data reported Wednesday for a new persons-tested positivity rate of 14.6%.

The latest seven-day PCR test positivity rate reported by the DOH is 6.2%. The latest one-day PCR test positivity rate is 5.9%.

According to the DOH, 319,609 doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered with 17,387 doses of the Janssen vaccine and 267,907 of the Moderna vaccine given out to a total number of 331,863 persons.

There have been 123,149 persons who have completed two doses of Moderna and 149,869 who have received two doses of Pfizer, according to the DOH.

As of Wednesday, 55.23% of the population eligible for the vaccine in South Dakota has received at least one dose while 47.96% have completed the vaccination series.

Vaccines are currently being given to anyone 16-year-old and above in South Dakota.

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 99 total new cases; Death toll at 1,976; Active cases at 1,385 - KELOLAND.com

There is one new COVID-19 related death in Oregon, raising the states death toll to 2,509, the Oregon Health Authority reported at 12:01 a.m. today.

Oregon Health Authority reported 808 new confirmed and presumptive cases of COVID-19 as of 12:01 a.m. today, bringing the state total to 188,417.

Vaccinations in Oregon

Today, OHA reported that 30,994 new doses of COVID-19 vaccinations were added to the state immunization registry. Of this total, 21,621 doses were administered on May 4 and 9,373 were administered on previous days but were entered into the vaccine registry on May 4.

The 7-day running average is now 31,644 doses per day.

Oregon has now administered a total of 1,687,447 first and second doses of Pfizer, 1,334,561 first and second doses of Moderna and 99,793 single doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines. As of today, 1,331,526 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series. There are 1,885,466 who have had at least one dose.

Cumulative daily totals can take several days to finalize because providers have 72 hours to report doses administered and technical challenges have caused many providers to lag in their reporting. OHA has been providing technical support to vaccination sites to improve the timeliness of their data entry into the states ALERT Immunization Information System (IIS).

To date, 2,062,125 doses of Pfizer, 1,680,800 doses of Moderna and 241,900 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered to sites across Oregon.

These data are preliminary and subject to change.

OHA's dashboards provide regularly updated vaccination data, and Oregons dashboard has been updated today.

COVID-19 hospitalizations

The number of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 across Oregon is 330, which is 15 fewer than yesterday. There are 83 COVID-19 patients in intensive care unit (ICU) beds, which is four more than yesterday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive patient bed-days in the most recent seven days is 2,371, which is a 12.1% increase from the previous seven days. The peak daily number of beds occupied by COVID-19 positive patients in the most recent seven days is 351.

The total number of patients in hospital beds may fluctuate between report times. The numbers do not reflect admissions per day, nor the length of hospital stay. Staffing limitations are not captured in this data and may further limit bed capacity.

Cases and deaths

The new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases reported today are in the following counties: Baker (4), Benton (17), Clackamas (119), Clatsop (2), Columbia (6), Crook (16), Curry (1), Deschutes (81), Douglas (12), Grant (2), Hood River (5), Jackson (40), Jefferson (3), Josephine (18), KIamath (37), Lake (3), Lane (43), Lincoln (1), Linn (36), Malheur (7), Marion (59), Morrow (2), Multnomah (164), Polk (15), Tillamook (2), Umatilla (8), Union (1), Wallowa (2), Wasco (1), Washington (84) and Yamhill (17).

Oregons 2,509th COVID-19 death is a 41-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive on Nov. 18, 2020 and died on Jan. 1, 2021 at his residence. He had underlying conditions.

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Oregon reports 808 new confirmed and presumptive COVID-19 cases, 1 new death - Tillamook Headlight-Herald

People wait in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai, India, on 29 April.

By Priyanka PullaMay. 4, 2021 , 12:10 PM

Reporting for this story was supported by a journalism grant from the Thakur Family Foundation, which has not influenced the contents of this report.

Indian researchers say they urgently need better access to data collected by government agencies to help them understand and fight the countrys devastating second pandemic wave. An open letter published on 29 April that has 740 signatories so far asks the government for access to databases on COVID-19 testing and genomic sequencing and urges it to remove other obstacles to research.

There are currently so many hurdles and so much paperwork around accessing these data, says Partha Pratim Majumder, a genetic epidemiologist at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in West Bengal and one of letters signers.

The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, K. VijayRaghavan, released a note the next day acknowledging the problems and promising to increase access. Our broader research community needs to be much more facilitated by our research agencies, the letter said. But some scientists are skeptical that the situation will improve quickly; the note was low on details and previous requests for data from government agencies have often gone unanswered, they say. Why the Indian government is so reticent to share data is unclear.

The government has collected detailed data on some aspects of the pandemic. For example, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the countrys top medical research agency, captures demographic details such as age, location, and health status of everyone who submits a sample for a COVID-19 test. The data could help answer key questions, such as whether people with certain concurrent illnesses are more likely to have worse outcomes and whether vaccines are working, says Gagandeep Kang, a public health microbiologist at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, who also signed the letter. Lots of people want to know, for instance, what mortality is by location, and whether it differs between rural and urban areas, she says. This speaks to the kind of care people are getting.

But so far, scientists say, ICMR and other government agencies have dragged their feet on responding to requests for access. That has forced several groups building computer models of the epidemic to rely on public domain data, which are aggregated by state but lack granular details such as breakdowns by district, age, or gender, says L. S. Shashidhara, a developmental biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Even modeling groups advising the Indian government on its COVID-19 response policy often dont have these data, Shashidhara says.

Scientists also want access to more viral genome sequences generated by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG). Established in December 2020, the consortiums stated goal is to sequence 5% of all new SARS-CoV-2 cases in the country, which is important to keep up with the spread of new virus variants. INSACOG has had a slow start, with just over 15,000 samples sequenced by late April, out of about 5.9 million new cases India has seen since January. And just 6200 sequencesfewer than halfhave been deposited in GISAID, an international database, during this period.

In February, INSACOG identified a variant, later christened B.1.617, which was growing in frequency in Maharashtra at a time when that state was experiencing a massive outbreak. B.1.617 has spread to several other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. But INSACOG has yet to share its analyses of whether the variant is more transmissible or more virulent. We need multiple pairs of eyes need to look at this data, instead of just one, Majumder says.

The authors also ask the government to remove obstacles that prevent INSACOG from stepping up the sequencing pace. INSACOG scientists currently have to jump through several bureaucratic hoops to import reagents, plastics, and other key materials. The measures, designed to protect Indian industry, are ill-advised during the coronavirus surge, says Rakesh Mishra, a genomicist at Hyderabads Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, one of 10 INSACOG labs. Its like taking a blanket away from a person in winter because the blanket is imported, he says.

The note released by VijayRaghavans office says government agencies will immediately highlight mechanisms of research access to already available datasets and put in place access to new datasets as they are formed. It also says the government will remove import bottlenecks and INSACOG will involve more teams in data analysis, bioinformatics, and decision-making.

Although some scientists welcomed the quick response, others say the letter is too little, too late. The note only says that government agencies will facilitate data access, Majumder says. The question is: when? Time is of the essence. And promises made in the past by important government functionaries have often not been fulfilled on time.

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'There are so many hurdles.' Indian scientists plead with government to unlock COVID-19 data - Science Magazine

To the relief of cash-strapped restaurants and residents desperate for a return to normalcy despite a fourth wave of COVID-19 cases, Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday announced that by the end of the week shell lift a set of extreme risk restrictions that have stifled businesses in 15 counties across Oregon.

Whats more, Brown said she doesnt expect to restore those restrictions again during the pandemic.

The extreme risk restrictions have been in place in the 15 counties only since last Friday, but the governor said Tuesday they will be removed this Friday because one of her pre-set metrics had not been met: The seven-day average of hospitalized COVID-19 patients statewide grew by only 14.9% -- not the necessary 15%. The state wont implement extreme risk conditions on new counties because of this missed metric, either.

If the number of hospitalized patients had increased by just two more people over the past week, the 15% requirement would have been met and all 15 counties -- plus at least two new ones -- would have fallen under extended extreme risk public safety measures by the end of the week.

Based on todays numbers, I am keeping my commitment to Oregonians, Brown said in a statement Tuesday. ... I know this will bring relief to many across the state.

Brown and public health officials linked the strictest business restrictions to three metrics: high coronavirus case rates at the county level; statewide COVID-19 hospitalizations above 300; and COVID-19 hospitalizations increasing weekly by at least 15%.

Until Tuesday, it appeared restrictions would remain in counties identified last week as well as a few others based on their increasing local case rates.

But a slight dip in reported hospitalizations Tuesday -- to 345 COVID-19 patients -- slowed Oregons overall growth rate, meaning one of Browns criteria had no longer been met.

Browns decision to initially place counties in extreme risk last week drew intense criticism from many Oregonians, even though hospitalizations at the time had climbed by 37% in a week. Tuesday, she appeared to struggle with her decision to remove the designation starting this Friday.

She didnt announce her decision until after 5 p.m. Tuesday -- several hours later than she typically has announced changes to county risk levels and restrictions in the past. Officials had declined throughout the afternoon to address what changes would be made.

Asked if Brown considered keeping restrictions in place or extending them, Charles Boyle, a spokesman for the governor, would not directly answer.

I think its fair to say there were internal discussions to review the data and discuss what that would mean for county risk level changes, he said in a text message.

Multnomah and Clackamas counties now will be among the 15 counties allowed to reopen indoor dining rooms at 25% capacity come Friday, among other loosening restrictions, as the counties drop into a high risk designation. Washington County, which would have moved into extreme risk because of its rising cases of COVID-19 over the past two weeks, will remain at high risk.

Brown said she doesnt expect any counties to be designated as extreme risk again because of the growing number of Oregonians getting vaccinated. Tuesday, that stood at about 32% fully vaccinated and 46% at least partially vaccinated, roughly in line with the national averages.

Let me be clear: Across the state, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are still high, and Oregon is not out of the woods yet, the governor said. ... Vaccinations are still our best path to protecting our loved ones, and staying on track to fully reopen our economy by the end of June.

Oregons fourth surge in coronavirus cases began in March, like much the rest of the nation. But Oregon is among a minority of states bucking a national trend of declining coronavirus cases in the past few weeks.

Last week, new known cases grew faster in Oregon than anywhere else in the country. And while Oregon has had the third lowest number of known infections per capita since the beginning of the pandemic, it ranks 12th highest over the past two weeks. New infections have increased 16% over that time period.

But over the past four days, the seven-day rolling average of new infections has dropped and officials are hopeful the tide is turning in the state.

Under the extreme risk designation, restaurants and bars in counties representing nearly 70% of Oregonians were prohibited from offering indoor dining. Gyms, movie theaters, concert halls, bowling alleys and indoor swimming pools were allowed up to six patrons at a time. But businesses could service up to 100 customers outdoors at a time, a number some businesses such as restaurants said didnt help because they dont have the outdoor space.

The affected counties are: Baker, Clackamas, Columbia, Crook, Deschutes, Grant, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Linn, Marion, Multnomah, Polk and Wasco. At least two other counties -- Washington and Benton -- would have moved to extreme risk if hospitalizations had grown by 15%.

Under the more lenient high risk restrictions, businesses -- including restaurants, bars, gyms, bowling alleys, movie theaters, concert halls and indoor pools -- are allowed to operate at a maximum of 25% capacity or 50 people indoors, whichever is smaller. (See the full list of restrictions here.)

Jason Brandt, president of the Oregon Restaurant & Lodging Association, said Browns loosening grip on the dining industry is a huge relief to thousands of business owners and tens of thousands of workers in our industry. Some owners, he said, had been tracking the number of hospitalizations and percentage increases daily.

Brandt added that with the busiest day of the year in the restaurant industry falling on Sunday, May 9, the changes will come in the nick of time.

Just in time, he said, for Mothers Day.

Coronavirus in Oregon: Latest news | Live map tracker |Text alerts | Newsletter

-- Aimee Green; agreen@oregonian.com; @o_aimee

Continue reading here:

Oregon to lift indoor dining restrictions because hospitalized COVID-19 patients increased by 14.9%, not 15% - OregonLive

ST. PAUL, Minn. (KTTC) -- Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz is set to announce plans to dial back COVID-19 restrictions in the state.

According to an emailed statement from Walz's spokesperson, Teddy Tschann, the governor will announce a timeline to end COVID-19 restrictions in the state in a live address at noon on Thursday. The plan will also include "doubling down on vaccination efforts."

According to the state's COVID-19 Vaccine Data, as of Monday, 46.7% of all Minnesotans have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, including 36.1% of Minnesotans who have completed the vaccine series.

"The vaccine is here and it has proven to be our best tool to control the virus," the statement said. "Its time to roll up our sleeves, get vaccinated, and crush the virus.

KTTC will be carrying the announcement live on air and streaming it online.

Read the original post:

Walz to discuss timeline to end COVID-19 restrictions in live address Thursday - KTTC

As COVID-19 continues to spread, KOMU 8 will continue to update you about impacts in the community.

Layered bar/line charts with the daily change in newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in each county and a 14-day rolling average of the changes in new cases areavailable here.

Previous coverage:

5:15 p.m.: Callaway County reports zero new cases

Callaway County added zero newcases over the last week, marking a total of 20active cases. There have been a total of 3,993cases in Callaway County since the start of the pandemic.

According to the Callaway County COVID-19 dashboard, there are an additional 12 cases in the Callaway County Department of Corrections and 1 in the Fulton State Hospital.

There have been a total of 45 deaths in the county since the start of the pandemic.

According to the Missouri vaccine dashboard, an estimated 29.9% of Callaway County's 44,743 residents have received at least one vaccine dose.

According to New York Times data, which is on a two-day delay, the 14-day rolling case average in the county is 3.14.

5:42 p.m.:CPS 14-day case rate sits at 9.1

The Columbia Public Schools 14-day case rate per 10,000 people is at 9.1.

The updated CPS student tracker shows 326 students in the district currently in quarantine and 12 active student cases.

The district has seen 3,341quarantined student cases and 684positive student cases since June 2020.

The updated CPS staff tracker also shows 2 staff members currently in quarantine and 1 active staff cases. 1 staff members are out due to EFMLA laws.

The tracker also shows 61.6% of CPS staff members have been vaccinated.

5:21 p.m.: Cole County reports zero new cases

The Cole County Health Department will now show positive case totals by day, which reflects the date the specimen was collected instead of the date the results were received by the Health Department.

This change will cause a delay in the daily totals being reported for the current day. The county is also no longer reporting active or isolated cases.

There have been 7,848cases in Cole County, an increase of zero cases over 24 hours. There have been 270 cases in long-term care facilities.

Zero new positive cases were reported Wednesday. In the updated graph below, you can see the number of cases added by specimen collection date for the month of March thus far.

There have been 65 deaths in Cole County and 54 deaths due to COVID-19 within long-term care facilities.

According to the Missouri vaccine dashboard, an estimated 35.8% of Cole County's 76,745 residents have received at least one vaccine dose.

According to New York Times data, which is on a two-day delay, the 14-day rolling case average in the county is 4.14.

5:13 p.m.:ices reported 12 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of active cases to 59.

According to the Missouri vaccine dashboard, an estimated 44.5% of Boone County's 180,463 residents have received at least one vaccine dose.

The county also reported 20 hospitalizations, 2 of which are Boone County residents. There are currently 4 COVID-19 patients in the ICU and 1 on a ventilator.

The hospital status is currently at green.

Each hospital in Boone County will provide a daily report of either green status, yellow status or red status.

According to New York Times data, which is on a two-day delay, the 14-day rolling case average in the county is 12.

3:34 p.m.: Vaccination clinic to be hosted at Derby Ridge Elementary

The Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services will host a vaccination clinic on Saturday May 8 at Derby Ridge Elementary.

The clinic itself will be held in the school gymnasium where doses of the Moderna vaccine will be distributed.

All are encouraged to schedule an appointment for the clinic, but walk-ins are welcomed for anyone aged 18 and over.

Second does will be available June 5.

The clinic will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will last until noon.

8:40 a.m.: Boone County announces vaccinationclinics in Harrisburg, Hallsville

The Columbia/Boone County Public Health and Human Services will host two vaccination clinics throughout the county this week.

The Pfizer vaccine will be given so anyone 16 years or older may receive a vaccine during the walk-in clinics.

No appointment is necessary, and vaccines are free with no health insurance required.

Harrisburg

Hallsville

7:25 a.m.: State surpasses 4 million doses

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services added 454 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours. The total number of cases in Missouri now stands at 504,069.

DHSS reported four new deaths in the last 24 hours. The total number of COVID-19 related deaths since the pandemic began is 8,818.

DHSS started reportingvaccination dataon Jan. 27. Numbers will update as providers report data to the state. According to the dashboard, differences between the states data and theCDC datais due to timing.

Hospitalizations and hospital bed capacity data is on a two-day delay. There are 667 total hospitalizations in the state with 34% remaining total hospital bed capacity.

In the last seven days, there have been 2,628 positive cases of the virus. The single-day case average now stands at 375.

As of Nov. 19, DHSS has moved to report only the CDC method positivity rate. As of April, over 4.9 million Missourians have already been tested by PCR at least once. As a result, if they test negatively again, they will not be counted in the latest 7-day state-method positivity rate.

Missouri currently has a 5% 7-day positivity rate with the CDC method.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends positivity rates in testing should remain at5% or lower for at least 14 days.

Link:

Wednesday COVID-19 coverage: Harrisburg vaccination clinic offering walk-ins today - KOMU 8

What is NOWCast?

It is difficult to reliably estimate COVID-19 trends for most of the 95 counties in Tennessee. Most counties are small and changes of only a few cases a day can mean dramatic changes in disease rates. Additionally, overworked labs and public health staff mean that data may not be updated every day. NOWcast uses modern statistical methods to estimate the trends that describe all these noisy data. The NOWcast groups together similar counties, then estimates recent changes in disease rates, and projects those changes forward. In nation-wide validation, the NOWcast accurately describes county-level trends one week into the future.

When the TN Department of Health needs to make corrections to a previous days data, they do it by putting a correcting entry in a later days numbers. For instance, if they overcount tests by 6,000 on Tuesday, then on Wednesday theyll put in -6,000 tests to correct the total. That can make it appears as though there were -6,000 tests administered on Wednesday, which obviously isnt possible. Its like correcting entries in financial accounts.

This indicates that data is not available or to mask divide by zero errors. This should only occur in counties with very few cases.

Per capita figures are derived by dividing a metrics value by the US Census Bureaus 2019 estimate of population in the area. Percent change per capita figures are an expression of the difference between today and last weeks values divided by last weeks value. This metric gives you a sense of how much a metric is changing in a way that controls for population.

Aggregate of students, faculty, and staff. Students counts are from the official Fall 2019 census based on home addresses and only include in-state students. Faculty and staff are any active employees that worked during the 2019 fiscal year (July 2018 June 2019) based on home addresses.

UT pop. residing in county last fall is also known as the UT Home Population (see question above). UT pop. in county at campus last fall is the aggregate count of students, faculty, and staff that were learning or working at the respective campus in the selected county (including out-of-state and international).

UT pop. residing in county last fall includes only students, faculty, and staff who have a permanent address in Tennessee. UT pop. in county at campus last fall includes students, faculty, and staff that were learning or working at the respective campus in the selected county (including out-of-state and international).

The Tennessee Department of Health does not provide testing and outcome metrics at a county level.

Hospitalizations are included in the active case counts as provided to the Tennessee Department of Health (recoveries, active, hospitalizations, and death cases are not exclusive categories).

Total case positivity rate is calculated over the past seven (7) days and therefore excludes any tests prior. Hovering over the total case positivity rate visual will give you a rolling trend of the positivity rate.

Total case positivity rate is calculated over the past seven (7) days and therefore excludes any tests prior. Tested per 100K and percent of population metrics include all data since data collection began for that county.

Cases of COVID-19 are reported to the Tennessee Department of Health (TDH) by clinicians and laboratories across the state. Initially, public health has fairly limited information about each person that has tested positive, such as their name, date of birth, and address. Public health professionals contact every case of COVID-19 statewide to interview them and learn more about their illness, exposures and contacts.

The information that TDH receives from clinicians and laboratories is sometimes incomplete or occasionally incorrect. As we work to publish updated case counts and basic information on our website as quickly as possible, sometimes this information changes as it is updated, and correct information is learned during the investigation. This may mean that a case can move from one county to another once the patients county of residence is confirmed during their interview.

If someone had COVID-19 when they died, they will be counted as a COVID-19 death. An exception to this is when a case died of something completely independent to COVID-19, like due to a car wreck.

Hospitalization data reflect the cumulative (total) number of cases that were ever hospitalized from COVID-19. It does not reflect the number of people currently hospitalized. Cases among Tennessee residents are counted by their county of residence. Residents of other states who were tested at Tennessee healthcare facilities or laboratories are counted as Out of TN.

Laboratory reports of positive cases are reported to metro and local health departments as soon as results are available. State numbers are updated at 2 p.m. CDT daily. There may be a lag in the reporting of cumulative numbers at the state level. Metro Health Departments may also include individuals from out of Tennessee in their localized counts if the case is remaining in that county throughout the course of their illness.

COVID-19 is a reportable condition in Tennessee. This means that clinicians and laboratories are required to report known cases to the Department of Health within 24 hours.

The Department of Health receives lab results (both positive and negative) from laboratories daily, and data from healthcare providers within 24 hours of identifying a case of COVID-19.

All Tennessee population figures used as comparisons in this dashboard are obtained from the U.S. Census Bureaus 2019 Vintage Housing and Population Estimates.

See more here:

COVID-19 Dashboard Q&A UT Business Intelligence