Daily Archives: February 9, 2022

Avery County Government would like to share that Avery County Emergency Management and the Health Department are working with local officials, Cannon Hospital, Avery County School System, 911 Communications, EMS Ambulance Services, and fire and rescue to ensure and protect the health and well-being of Avery County citizens.

For the latest updates click here for the NCDHHS state web site, for information.

Health officials continue to encourage good respiratory etiquette and hand hygiene. These are the best preventive measures for this virus. These include covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands frequently with soap and water, staying home when you feel sick or when you have a fever and cleaning surfaces with sanitizing cleaners.

The Avery Health department began vaccines on 1/12/2021 98547 first doses administered as of February 4,2022 9217 (52.0%) fully vaccinated Avery citizens as of of February 4,2022

The County of Avery's top priority is and always will be the safety and security of the county while providing the best service available. While it has been necessary to make some changes to the county's services please know that we will resume all regular services as soon as possible.Update 7/30/2021Governor Roy Cooper and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. announced that state government would begin verifying vaccination status of its workers. Employees not vaccinated are required to wear a mask and be tested at least once a week. Todays announcement comes as North Carolinas latest upswing in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations is driven by unvaccinated North Carolinians.

Until more people get the vaccine, we will continue living with the very real threat of serious disease, and we will continue to see more dangerous and contagious variants like Delta, said Governor Cooper.Click Here for the FAQ Document

Update 6/29/2021Declaration Of A Local State Of Emergency - This is an update of the original Emergency Ordinance

Update 5/14/2021Today, Governor Roy Cooper and North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Mandy K. Cohen, M.D. shared an update on the states COVID-19 progress. Following yesterdays guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that fully vaccinated individuals can safely do most activities without wearing a mask or the need to social distance from others, the state will remove its indoor mask mandate for most settings. Additionally, the state will lift all mass gathering limits and social distancing requirements. These changes are now in effect as of 1:30 PM today.Click Here for the FAQ Document

Update 5/14/2021 Avery County governmental offices are now open, except the senior center they will resume regular services soon.Senior Center Schedule

The Avery County Senior Center will continue offering Drive-Thru Meal Service at the Center.; Clients can drive to the side door of the dining area and pick up a hot meal. Clients must be registered to receive meal, and are asked to call and RSVP (not required) to help with headcount. Home delivered meals will continue as scheduled. For more information, call 828-733-8220

Filing For Unemployment Insurance Benefits Due To COVID-19

This is a link to an adobe document from the office of NC Senator Thom Tillis.Reboot Your Small Business During COVID-19Avery County Chamber Of Commerce Disaster Relief InformationNew website available from VISIT NC and others to assist in the re-opening of hospitality type business and industry for North Carolina. Please share with any and all. Spread the word!!https://countonmenc.org/ [countonmenc.org]NC COVID-19 Rapid Recovery for Small Business WebsiteNew Grant Program Accepting Applications to Help Businesses and Nonprofits Hurt by COVID-19

Visit link:

Corona Virus Update, Currently There Are 308 active ...

Unknown lineages of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been found in New York City's sewage, raising new concerns that the novel coronavirus is finding ways to escape immunity.

The lineages don't seem poised to break out and cause a new surge at this point. Their proportion has risen and fallen along with New York's case rates, and there's no sign that these versions of the virus are becoming more common over time. But the mutations seen in the mystery lineages are similar to those that allow the omicron variant to partially escape immunity from vaccination and previous infection, said John Dennehy, a virologist at The Graduate Center at City University New York, who co-led the research.

"The fact that the omicron variant came from somewhere unknown and that it shares quite a few of its mutations with the unknown variant we see in New York City, that does pose a pretty serious concern that whatever we're seeing could find the right combination of mutations that would make it highly transmissible," Dennehy told Live Science.

Related: Coronavirus variants: Here's how the SARS-CoV-2 mutants stack up

Also troubling: The researchers don't know where the new viral lineages come from. The lineages are found only in limited areas of the city, and they don't seem to be spreading from neighborhood to neighborhood. They might arise from chronically infected humans or perhaps from an animal reservoir but what animal? So far, there's no firm evidence for any option.

"Nothing makes perfect sense," said Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri School of Medicine.

Many cities monitor wastewater to try to track the amount of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in the community. Because people begin shedding virus in fecal material before they feel sick or get tested, wastewater levels of the virus precede rises in cases that show up from testing by about three weeks, Johnson said.

But relatively few places do genetic sequencing of the virus material found in wastewater. Dennehy started working on genetic sequencing in New York after the alpha variant made clear that coronavirus mutations were going to be a force to be reckoned with. After Dennehy and his colleagues Monica Trujillo, also at CUNY, and Davida Smyth, now at Texas A&M San Antonio, appeared on an episode of the popular podcast This Week in Virology in April 2021, Johnson got in touch. He'd been doing similar sequencing in Missouri and was losing sleep at night over viral RNA sequences that didn't match anything in global databases of coronavirus variants.

"I was going crazy," Johnson told Live Science.

The Missouri variants disappeared in late April 2021, never to be seen again. But the researchers began to collaborate on more thorough sequencing of viral RNA found in New York City, wondering if they'd find the same sequences they'd seen in Missouri. They didn't. But they did find a cluster of completely new unknown sequences.

The researchers expanded their efforts, testing wastewater from all of the city's 14 wastewater treatment plants two times a month, ultimately building a record spanning from January 2021 to the present.

The researchers use a technique that doesn't allow them to sequence an entire viral genome, but which focuses on about half of the spike protein that the virus uses to get into cells.This region contains a key area called the receptor-binding domain (RBD). Many of the mutations that allow omicron to evade antibodies from vaccines or non-omicron infections sit on the RBD. So, too, do the mutations seen in the lineages found in the New York City wastewater. (The researchers use the word "lineages" to avoid confusion with the term "variants of concern" as used by the World Health Organization. But, Dennehy said, genetically speaking, they're the same concept: Sequences representing unique replicating populations of virus that are genetically related to one another.)

Related: 11 surprising facts about the immune system

The researchers studied four of these mystery lineages, dubbed WNY1, WNY2, WNY3 and WNY4. They found that all had abilities to partially or completely evade antibodies that easily snag the original SAR-CoV-2 virus. While blood plasma from vaccinated people or people with previous infections could partially neutralize all four lineages, this neutralization was reduced compared with the original virus.

"They were mutations exactly where you'd expect to find mutations if the virus were trying to evade an immune response," Johnson said.

So where are these mystery linages coming from? The researchers checked 5,000 other wastewater samples from around the globe and found the lineages only in seven samples, all from New York State. Whatever they are, they're homegrown.

There are a few hypotheses, none of them entirely satisfactory. The first is that they're coming from unsampled human infections. Only between 2.6% and 12.9% of New York City cases are sequenced at any given time, so it's entirely possible that rare variants of the virus could sneak under the radar. Perhaps the lineages are versions of the virus that infect the gut and aren't often found in the nose or throat, where PCR swabs go.

But there are problems with these possibilities. A few studies have compared virus from the gut with virus from the nose and throat, and so far, no one's seen a difference between the two, CUNY's Trujillo told Live Science. Also, the geographical range of the viral lineages is limited they're found in the catchment areas of only three of the 14 wastewater treatment plants in the city. If the source of the virus is humans, they're humans who don't move around much.

"We were thinking about humans that might be bedridden," Smyth told Live Science. "So long-term facility patients that are perhaps not mobile."

But that would be strange too. "It would be weird that it would spread within a local population and not go anywhere else," Johnson said.

Another possibility is that the carrier of these cryptic lineages isn't human. The mutations seen in the clusters are seen in a region of the genome associated with the virus becoming more adept at infecting rodents (which aren't easily infected by the original coronavirus). New York City's rats would be an appealing target for blame. There are a lot of them, they live in the sewers, and they don't travel far.

But the researchers could find no smoking gun linking rats to the variant. The team sequenced the wastewater for animal genes, essentially looking to find out who poops in the sewers besides people. Other than genes from the animals people eat for food (cows, pigs, chickens), the researchers found evidence of cat, dog and rat genetic material in the sewers. But none were highly prevalent. And the wastewater treatment plant with the highest proportion of mystery coronavirus had the lowest proportion of rat genes some weeks, rat genes weren't even detectable.

Meanwhile, the stray cat population probably isn't big enough to sustain the amount of transmission the researchers inferred from the wastewater, and pet cats don't interact often with other pet cats either, Johnson said. Dogs are known to get COVID-19, but these mutations haven't been seen in dog virus cases before. And it would be very strange if a version of COVID-19 were circulating in dogs but not humans, Smyth said, given how close New Yorkers are to their pups.

The answer to the mystery may lie in sequencing more viral genomes from more animals on a regular basis. Smyth, in Texas, is working to get access to petting zoos to see if she can find new viral variants in different species. Testing the sewage upstream from the wastewater treatment plant in order to narrow down the source to a smaller area would also be helpful, Dennehy said, but much of that work is now moving into the purview of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), so Dennehy and his team will no longer have much access to upstream wastewater sources.

The omicron variant seemed to appear out of nowhere: It evolved from an earlier lineage than the delta variant that was, at the time, dominant. Its origin is a mystery. To Dennehy, Johnson and their colleagues, the origin of the next variant will remain a mystery, too, unless a more robust effort is put into place to understand where variants come from. Scientists already take regular samples of influenza from bird populations and raise the red flag when new strains that could potentially jump to people start circulating. Something similar may be possible with wastewater and regular animal sampling for SARS-CoV-2 if research agencies prioritize funding that kind of science.

"What we are looking at here is the mechanism or potential mechanism through which different variants arise," Trujillo said. "This is where we should be doing the research."

The findings appeared Feb. 3 in the journal Nature Communications.

Originally published on Live Science.

See original here:

Mystery lineages of coronavirus are popping up in NYC sewage - Livescience.com

A wave of polls taken as the Omicron variant crested across much of the United States shows new signs that the publics resolve to combat the coronavirus pandemic is waning.

The surveys depict an increasingly frustrated and pessimistic nation that is as worried by the specter of an endless pandemic as it is fearful of the disease. While a majority of voters remain concerned about the coronavirus, the balance of recent polling suggests that the desire to return to normalcy has approached or even overtaken alarm about the virus itself.

A recent Yahoo News/YouGov survey found that 46 percent of respondents thought Americans should learn to live with the pandemic and get back to normal, while just 43 percent thought we need to do more to vaccinate, wear masks and test.

A Republican firm, Echelon Insights, had similar findings, reporting that 55 percent of voters thought Covid-19 should be treated as an endemic disease that will never fully go away, like the flu, while 38 percent said it should be treated as a public health emergency.

The results are especially striking at a time when coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and even deaths are near record highs. Indeed, the same polls showed that the publics concern about the virus increased during the Omicron wave. But in a telling indication of the publics attitudes toward the pandemic, greater worry about the virus has not translated to greater support for measures to stop its spread.

Instead, fears of the virus apparently have been outweighed by mounting frustration with the inconveniences of a pandemic that has stretched into its second year. Three-quarters of adults described themselves as tired or frustrated with the pandemic in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

Fully 70 percent of Americans agreed with the statement that its time we accept Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives in a recent poll by Monmouth University. That survey found that support for vaccine mandates has dropped to just 43 percent from 53 percent in September, while support for masking and social distancing guidelines dropped to 52 percent from 63 percent over the same period.

The findings come at a possible turning point in the pandemic, as several Democratic governors announced intentions to ease some mask mandates over the next month. The growing frustration with pandemic restrictions may help explain some of those early announcements even as cases reach record levels.

The polls create a delicate challenge for the Biden administration, which never regained its political standing since the rise of the Delta variant dashed last summers hopes of a return to normalcy. The growing unease with the pandemic seems to have added to the presidents political woes, and may help explain why the public disapproves of Mr. Bidens handling of the coronavirus for the first time.

But a majority of Democratic-leaning voters continue to support a more vigorous response to the pandemic, potentially limiting how quickly the administration can readjust to public opinion. Many Americans harbor serious concerns about the health risks presented by the virus; the Biden administration may not find it easy to bring them along, at least as long as cases and deaths remain at elevated levels.

Feb. 8, 2022, 10:31 p.m. ET

And while a majority of voters may be itching for a return to normalcy, the public does not necessarily want an immediate end to pandemic-related measures. While a new Axios/Ipsos poll found that a majority of voters wanted to move toward opening up, less than half of those respondents or just 21 percent of all Americans said they supported going back to life as usual with no coronavirus mandates or requirements.

With cases now declining across most of the country, it is possible that the publics tolerance for virus restrictions may wane along with the virus in the weeks ahead.

But for now, the public is not optimistic about Mr. Biden or anyone bringing the pandemic to an end. Even though many of the most onerous pandemic restrictions, like shutdowns or remote schooling for children, have largely come to an end, only 18 percent of Americans say their lives have returned to normal, according to another Axios/Ipsos poll. In the same survey, just 13 percent of people expected to get back to their normal pre-Covid lives within the next six months, down from 36 percent in June.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The company quietly paused vaccine productionat a key factory, raising concern over whether it can meet commitments to developing nations. It is not clear whether the halt has had an impact on vaccine supplies yet, thanks to stockpiles.

Only 15 percent of adults believed that the disruptions to travel, school and work would end this year, according to Gallup. And 28 percent of those polled by Monmouth believed that the country would never return to normal again, up from 9 percent a year earlier.

At the same time, the publics fears of the virus have gradually abated. Overall, 38 percent said they were very concerned about someone they know becoming seriously ill, according to the Monmouth poll. Thats up slightly from 30 percent in December, before the Omicron variant spread, but beneath the 45 percent who said the same at the peak of the Delta surge in September, or the 60 percent who said they were very concerned before the vaccination campaign last spring.

The polls show that the public is, at best, divided on whether the virus itself is the most significant problem facing the nation. Many surveys show that the economy and inflation are now rated as the most important issue, and only about one-third of Americans say the pandemic is the most serious challenge.

The long-term decline in concern about the coronavirus likely relates to rising vaccination rates, but it may also reflect the diminished severity of the Omicron variant. Overall, 69 percent of adults said they were less worried about how Omicron will affect them personally than in prior waves of variants, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Instead, a majority of Americans said they were more worried about the effect of Omicron on the economy and local hospitals.

Apparently, those societal concerns have not been enough to spur individuals to take action to check the pandemic. The Kaiser poll found that a majority of adults said they were no likelier to wear a mask, avoid large gatherings, get a vaccine or a booster shot as a result of Omicron.

Continue reading here:

Polls Show How Frustrated Americans Are With Covid Restrictions - The New York Times

As the Omicron variant of the coronavirus drives new waves of COVID infections around the world, some early studies appear to show the risk of reinfection has risen.

According to an analysis by the United Kingdoms Office for National Statistics (ONS), the risk of reinfection is 16 times higher when Omicron was the dominant variant, compared with the period when Delta was dominant.

The analysis also showed that unvaccinated people were twice as likely to be reinfected than those who had their second dose of vaccine in the previous 14 to 89 days.

With infection rates continuing to surge across most regions around the world and as the number of reinfections also climbs, experts have said that protection from previous infections or vaccines declines over time.

A reinfection is a medical condition that usually occurs when a person becomes infected with COVID-19, recovers, and then gets infected again. It could happen with any of the variants of the coronavirus.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a reinfection is considered such if the patient tests positive again 90 days or more after their first positive test. The same standard has been established by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).

The 90-day period has been chosen because some patients continue to have the virus in their systems for longer than the average of about two weeks, making it difficult to distinguish between an infection or a reinfection within this time frame.

The majority of patients with normal immunity do not have the virus beyond 10-14 days, but some harbour it for a longer time and therefore the time has been extended to three months, Dr Pere Domingo, currently senior consultant and HIV/AIDS programme director at the Infectious Diseases Unit of the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, told Al Jazeera.

According to a report published by the UKs ONS in June 2021, reinfections were considered rare, but the rate of reinfections has increased since the Omicron variant became the dominant strain in late 2021.

An analysis published last week by the news agency Reuters, citing data collected by the UKHSA, suggested that suspected reinfections accounted for approximately 10 percent of confirmed cases in England in January. Suspected reinfections made up fewer than 2 percent of cases in the six months prior to December 6. A total of 588,000 possible reinfections have been registered in England.

Meanwhile in Italy, 3 percent of the new cases were reinfections, up from about 1.5 percent before Omicron, a spokesperson for Italys National Institute of Health said last week.

Dr Domingo noted that the Omicron variant has mutated significantly compared with other variants, meaning that protection developed against previous variants could be less effective against Omicron.

Omicron has mutated many times, Dr Domingo said. These mutations have changed the antigens, the proteins are no longer the same as they were in Delta, nor the strain that came out in Wuhan.

Therefore, the antibodies that one could develop against the original strain or against Delta, are no longer useful for Omicron, he added.

According to the research by Imperial College London, the protection afforded by the past infection may be as low as 19 percent.

Viruses are constantly evolving and these changes naturally lead to the emergence of new strains that can lead to new infections.

There is always a struggle between the forces of the individual and immunity on the one hand and the virus on the other, Dr Domingo said.

And the way the virus fights is by changing, by making mutations that will allow it to avoid the patients antibodies, he added.

According to research from South Africa, people infected with Omicron developed an antibody response to the current and previous strains. However, according to the Gavi vaccine alliance, the immunity from a Delta infection provides limited protection against Omicron.

Previous infections or vaccines will provide protection, and the greater the exposure to the virus leads to greater protection, but the immunity is not complete and it declines over time, Dr Domingo said.

And if the virus changes, the protection generated by infection, is overwhelmed.

According to early research, reinfections are generally mild. A study done in the state of Qatar found that reinfections have 90 percent lower odds of resulting in hospitalisation or death than primary infections.

Dr William Schaffner, professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the severity of a reinfetion depends on the patients immune system.

If you are immuno-compromised, or if you are a person who is frail, or sick, then I would think a second infection could potentially be serious enough to put you in the hospital, but if you have a normal immune system, the second infection is not likely to be severe, he added.

Experts said a reinfection would provide some level of immunity against any potential reinfection in the future, but the best immunity is the result of a hybrid immunity.

Hybrid immunity is the result of having been both infected and vaccinated against the virus. According to research, this could generate a super-immune response.

However, there is a risk in the long term effects of the infection.

Anyone who recovers from COVID stands or risk of developing so-called Long COVID, Dr Schaffner said.

[And so far] we have no information, on whether second infections are more likely to result in Long COVID than first infections, he added.

Experts have said the current guidance in place to combat COVID-19 are still effective. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended people get vaccinated.

It also advised people to maintain physical distance, avoid crowds and close contacts, wear a properly fitted mask, clean your hands frequently, and cover your mouth and nose when coughing or sneezing.

We need people to keep [following] all these measures, Dr Ali Fattom said.

Precautions are very important, not only for the person itself, but you dont want to transmit the virus to others and put them at risk, he added.

Excerpt from:

Catching COVID more than once: What we know about reinfections - Al Jazeera English

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 397.7 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.75 million. More than 10.24 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

India has approved Russia's one-shot Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine for people who have not yet received a vaccine, the shot's Indian manufacturer said on Monday. India currently uses AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine in tandem with local firm Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and has inoculated more than 75% of its 950 million adult population.

Australia's COVID-19 hospital cases and people admitted to intensive care continued to trend lower on Tuesday as authorities urged people to get their vaccine boosters to prevent serious illness and deaths from the coronavirus.

Hong Kong SAR will limit public gatherings to two people and close sites such as churches and hair salons, leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday, as the Asian financial hub battles a growing coronavirus outbreak that has caused record infections.

Nigeria has received 2 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine from Finland, Greece and Slovenia, with more EU donations set to arrive. The delivery is part of a donation pledge by the European Union to African countries via the COVAX initiative launched by the World Health Organization in 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic will not end with the Omicron variant and New Zealand will have to prepare for more variants of the virus this year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday in her first parliamentary speech for 2022.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Monday advised against travel to six countries including Japan, Cuba, Libya, Armenia, Oman and the Democratic Republic of Congo over COVID-19 cases. The CDC now lists more than 130 countries and territories with COVID-19 cases as 'Level Four: Very High'.

Malaysia's coronavirus recovery council on Tuesday said it has recommended a full reopening of borders as early as 1 March without mandatory quarantine for travellers, as part of plans to accelerate economic recovery.

Disruptions in basic health services such as vaccination programmes and treatment of diseases like AIDS were reported in 92% of 129 countries, a World Health Organization (WHO) survey on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic showed on Monday.

The survey, conducted in November to December 2021, showed services were "severely impacted" with "little or no improvement" from the previous survey in early 2021, the WHO said in a statement sent to journalists.

"The results of this survey highlight the importance of urgent action to address major health system challenges, recover services and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic," the WHO said.

Emergency care, which includes ambulance and ER services, actually worsened, with 36% of countries reporting disruptions versus 29% in early 2021 and 21% in the first survey in 2020.

Elective operations such as hip and knee replacements were disrupted in 59% of the countries and gaps to rehabilitative and palliative care were reported in about half of them.

The survey's timing coincided with surging COVID-19 cases in many countries in late 2021 due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant, piling additional strain on hospitals.

The first human trial of a COVID-19 vaccine was administered this week.

CEPI, launched at the World Economic Forum, provided funding support for the Phase 1 study. The organization this week announced their seventh COVID-19 vaccine project in the fight against the pandemic.

The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched in 2017 at the Forum's Annual Meeting bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines against emerging infectious diseases and to enable access to these vaccines during outbreaks.

Coalitions like CEPI are made possible through public-private partnerships. The World Economic Forum is the trusted global platform for stakeholder engagement, bringing together a range of multistakeholders from business, government and civil society to improve the state of the world.

Organizations can partner with the Forum to contribute to global health solutions. Contact us to find out how.

Ironman, Captain America, puppeteers and performers on stilts entertained children at a vaccination centre in the Philippines on Monday, part of a drive to boost its COVID-19 inoculation campaign among its youngest citizens.

Artists made swords and models from balloons as 'superheroes' posed for pictures with children age 5 to 11 after they received their shots in the capital Manila.

The Philippines has vaccinated about half of its 110-million population, but many areas outside urban centres are still lagging far behind, complicating efforts to suppress fresh outbreaks of the novel coronavirus.

Children have been particularly affected by containment measures in the Philippines, which kept schools closed for nearly two years and required young people to stay indoors under some of the world's strictest lockdown rules.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: Top news stories about the pandemic on 8 February - World Economic Forum

Good evening. Im Karen Kaplan, and its Tuesday, Feb. 8. Heres the latest on whats happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.

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Thousands of unvaccinated Californians are hoping that divine intervention will spare them from having to comply with their employers COVID-19 vaccine mandates. As some have discovered, divine intervention can be had for $195.

Thats what it costs to get an official-looking letter stating that any rule forcing a worker to get vaccinated is an affront to a Christian. The same goes for coronavirus testing requirements and even policies that say employees must wear face masks, the pastor of True Hope Ministry in San Clemente explained.

An employee of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power gave the letter to his bosses to justify his request for exemption from the agencys vaccine mandate. Granting the exemption is the only way to comply with federal laws against religious discrimination in the workplace, the pastor wrote.

My colleagues Laura J. Nelson and Connor Sheets obtained the letter through public records requests to the DWP and other public employers. The more than 2,200 pages of letters, emails and other records they received make clear that a cottage industry has sprung up to help people evade the COVID-19 vaccine by citing their religious beliefs.

The tactic works because both state and federal laws have created strong protections for religious freedom in the workplace. As weve discussed, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says employers should take reasonable steps to eliminate a conflict between religion and work if doing so wont create an undue hardship. The laws apply even if an employee isnt devout and isnt associated with a mainstream faith. All that really matters is that their religious belief is sincere.

Thats what makes things tricky. Even if a professed religious belief isnt sincere and it often isnt, legal experts say proving that can be tricky and expensive. Skeptical employers may conclude that challenging a workers claim isnt worth the hassle.

The result is a giant loophole that plenty of organizations are happy to exploit.

It is ripe for abuse, and it is being abused, said Nancy Inesta, a labor and employment partner at the BakerHostetler law firm in Los Angeles.

Calvary Chapel Chino Hills took just 13 minutes to respond to a teacher who sought help requesting a religious exemption. The church sent a link to a sample letter, an invitation to pick up a signed exemption form from its office, and contact information for a lawyer with the conservative Pacific Justice Institute. The church declined to discuss its response.

An email from Liberty Counsels Horatio Mihet with advice about requesting a religious exemption to a COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

Horatio Mihet, vice president of legal affairs with Liberty Counsel, sent a five-paragraph statement to a vaccine-resistant hospital worker the day after he reached out for help.

Cut and paste the statement below, assuming it correctly states your religious beliefs, Mihet wrote. Do not put anything on it that identifies me or that the statement came from me. It needs to be YOUR statement.

Mihet told my colleagues its normal for lawyers to draft statements that clients can claim as their own.

David Hall, the pastor from True Hope Ministry, said the letter obtained by the DWP employee wasnt for sale. The $195 fee covers a package of services that includes weekly group calls. The church also offers a class that advises students how to respond if they say, You got this off the internet, among other topics.

Some form letters cite objections that arent rooted in religion. And some include arguments that arent factually correct. Among the false claims: that COVID-19 vaccines are a form of gene therapy, and that they contain animal parts or the DNA of a male aborted baby.

To be sure, there are people who find form letters a useful tool for articulating their complicated yet sincere religious beliefs. But Dorit Reiss, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law who studies legal issues related to vaccines, said theres little doubt that many of the people submitting cut-and-paste exemption requests see them as a means to an end.

They didnt want to vaccinate and went looking for something that sounds convincing as a way to get out of it, she said.

California cases and deaths as of 5:40 p.m. Tuesday:

Track Californias coronavirus spread and vaccination efforts including the latest numbers and how they break down with our graphics.

Los Angeles Countys public health order includes a 17-page document focused entirely on K-12 schools. It details the steps schools must take to protect students, teachers and other staffers, including rules about vaccination, testing, physical distancing, air filtration and disinfection, among many other topics. Theres also an entire page devoted to rules about masks.

All students 2 and older are required to wear face masks at all times while indoors on school property except while eating, drinking, or carrying out other activities that preclude use of face masks, the order reads. All students 2 and older are also required to wear masks while outdoors on campus when in crowded settings, and in other outdoor spaces where distancing is not possible or practical.

So when an L.A. County health inspector spotted unmasked students at Trinity Classical Academy in Santa Clarita, the school was fined $500. The financial penalty was surely intended to coerce the school into following the rules. But it looks like Trinity simply treated it as a cost of doing business, my colleague Emily Alpert Reyes reports.

On three subsequent occasions, health inspectors returned to the private school to see whether it was complying with COVID-19 rules. Instead of giving them a chance to find out, the school refused to let them on campus. Each snub triggered an additional $500 fine, but those fines havent had any apparent deterrent effect. Neither has a cease-and-desist letter sent to the school in December.

In fact, the countys attempts to enforce its health order may have spurred greater resistance. On its website, Trinity acknowledges that its required to ask both students and employees to follow rules regarding masks, but it also assures people that the school will aim not to exclude any student from in-person learning for a failure to mask.

Its also in the market for a lawyer.

Trinity Classical Academy is one of three private schools in Santa Clarita cited for students or staffers failing to wear masks as required under county orders.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Trinity isnt the only school challenging the health departments authority to protect the children (and workers) in its jurisdiction.

Legacy Christian Academy, also in Santa Clarita, has racked up a dozen citations for disregarding the county health order, the health departments records show. In a September visit, multiple school employees were seen without face coverings. On two subsequent visits, the inspector couldnt tell whether any improvement had been made because the school wouldnt allow the inspector on campus.

And at Santa Clarita Christian School, administrators wouldnt let an inspector look around unless the school could have a lawyer on hand. Santa Clarita Christian racked up seven fines by mid-January, county records show.

The three schools are all part of the Assn. of Christian Schools International, a group that supports its members in challenging health regulations they believe are not in their students best interests or that infringe on their rights.

Apparently, the schools have made their own determination that mask mandates do more harm than good. The COVID-19 protocols issued by Santa Clarita Christian in August say the wearing of face coverings will not be enforced. In the schools view, the authority of the parents to make the decision regarding face coverings trumps the authority of the public health department.

This despite the fact that studies show masks reduce coronavirus spread, including in schools. For instance, a team led by members of the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions COVID-19 Response Team found that when kids went back to school last fall, coronavirus cases among children rose less in counties where districts had masking requirements. Results like these are why the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends universal masking in school, with an emphasis on indoor masking.

The current standoff makes it impossible to ignore the fact that theres not much L.A. County can do to enforce its health order. It took a year for officials to file suit against a Westlake Village restaurant that refused to comply with health rules and racked up tens of thousands of dollars in citations.

In theory, the L.A. County Sheriffs Department could take an aggressive stance, but Sheriff Alex Villanueva has been very clear that he wont expend our limited resources on enforcing the countys health order and would instead ask for voluntary compliance. (In related news, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors took steps Tuesday to relieve Villanueva of his responsibility for enforcing the countys COVID-19 vaccine mandate since he wont fire deputies who refuse to comply.)

County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, whose district includes Santa Clarita, is on record saying she thinks the health department should relax its mask rules. But she said as long as the rules are there, they ought to be enforced.

There are laws that are on the books that lots of people dont like, Barger said, but that doesnt mean you can just ignore them.

See the latest on Californias vaccination progress with our tracker.

Californias Omicron wave is solidly on the decline, and state officials are acknowledging this hard-won progress by allowing their universal mask mandate for indoor public places to expire next week.

The rule will remain in place through Feb. 15, as previously scheduled. After that, people who are fully vaccinated will be allowed to shed their masks in many indoor settings in counties that dont have mask orders of their own. That list includes Orange, San Diego, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, as well as much of the San Joaquin Valley.

You may have noticed that L.A. County isnt on that list. The county has its own indoor mask mandate, and it wont be lifted until its coronavirus transmission falls to moderate levels as defined by the CDC and remains there for two consecutive weeks.

To meet that threshold, the countys case rate will need to fall below 50 new cases per 100,000 residents per week. As of Tuesday, its just above 824 new cases per 100,000 people per week, according to the CDCs COVID Data Tracker. (The county will also have to keep its positive test rate below 8% for two weeks in a row; as of Monday, it was 5%.)

Nor has L.A. County announced plans to relax its mask rules for schools. Currently, everyone on a school campus is required to wear a mask both indoors and outdoors. Some district superintendents are eager to change that, if the science says its safe to do so.

This would be welcome news to many students and families, said one of them, Supt. Alex Cherniss of Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District. Those students and staff who would want to continue to wear masks could, of course, do so.

The governors of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon announced Monday they would lift their statewide mask requirements for schools by late February or March. The four governors, all of them Democrats, cited the rapid easing of the Omicron surge.

But there are still signs of hesitation in Los Angeles. Many people, including L.A. Unified school board member Jackie Goldberg, suggested that mask rules could be eased for outdoor activities before considering changes for indoor settings.

Nobody likes masks, Goldberg said, but COVID-19 is not disappearing, and there is no way to avoid close contact in most classrooms.

And lets not forget: Retiring the states universal indoor mask mandate doesnt mean masks will become obsolete, even in the more permissive counties. Theyll still be required for everyone in hospitals and other healthcare settings; in long-term-care facilities; on buses, trains and other forms of public transport; and in shelters and correctional facilities. Plus, people who are unvaccinated will still have to wear them inside restaurants, stores, theaters and other public venues.

When the rules change on Feb. 16, the state will also change the thresholds for mega events like concerts, conventions and baseball games. Indoor events will trigger rules about coronavirus testing and vaccination verification when they have at least 1,000 attendees (up from 500), and outdoor events will do so when they have 10,000 attendees (up from 5,000).

Heres some more good news from Sacramento: State lawmakers passed a package of bills Monday that will provide most workers with up to two weeks of paid sick leave if they come down with COVID-19 or are caring for a family member with the disease. The paid time off can also be used to get a COVID-19 vaccine and to ride out any short-term side effects.

The sick leave policy applies to all workers at companies with at least 26 employees, and is intended to slow the virus spread by making it easier for people to stay home when they might be contagious. Other bills in the package will restore some tax credits for businesses that were suspended and capped two years ago, at the start of the pandemic. Newsom will also get $1.9 billion to spend on coronavirus testing, vaccinations, hospitals and other COVID-19 emergency needs.

The governor is expected to sign the bills this week. Once that happens, the sick leave policy will remain in effect through Sept. 30.

On to Canada, where thousands of people have paralyzed downtown Ottawa to protest the countrys COVID-19 restrictions. The so-called freedom truck convoy, which began more than a week ago, got a huge boost over the weekend, prompting Ottawas police chief to describe the demonstration as a siege.

Residents of the capital city are fed up with the traffic disruption, blaring horns and generally un-Canadian behavior. Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson declared a state of emergency Sunday and requested nearly 2,000 additional police officers to help deal with the mess.

The Canadian protesters have become a cause clbre for former President Trump and other prominent Republican politicians in the U.S., including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton. Among other things, they blasted the crowdfunding site GoFundMe after it said it would return millions of dollars raised by demonstrators because its platform cant be used to engage in unlawful activity.

Canadian officials asked the Americans to butt out of their domestic affairs.

It is certainly not the concern of the Texas attorney general as to how we in Canada go about our daily lives in accordance with the rule of law, said Canadian Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino. Whatever statements may have been made by some foreign official are neither here nor there. Were Canadian. We have our own set of laws. We will follow them.

Farther afield, many Asian countries are experiencing a spike in coronavirus cases in the wake of their Lunar New Year celebrations and considering how transmissible Omicron is, they expect things to get even worse in the coming weeks.

Indonesia recorded 36,057 new cases on Sunday, up from just 533 a month earlier. Daily deaths also climbed to 57, nearly four times higher than they were a week before.

Singapore has seen cases triple since the holiday, with a total of 13,000 on Friday. After new restrictions were put in place, that figure dipped to 7,752 by Sunday.

Hong Kong set a new record for local infections Monday, with 614. More than 600 additional cases were reported Tuesday as the citys leader announced the toughest social-distancing restrictions seen since the start of the pandemic.

Starting Thursday, public gatherings will be restricted to two people, and gatherings on private premises will be limited to two families. Hair salons and places of worship will be closed until Feb. 24; on that date, the city will implement a system to require proof of vaccination to enter shopping malls, markets and restaurants.

The strict new rules will remain in place until vaccination rates rise and the Omicron wave subsides, said Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam. Then of course we will continue to revisit our strategy, she said. But nothing will change our commitment to safeguard the life and the safety of the people of Hong Kong.

Todays question comes from readers who want to know: Are there any special COVID-19 rules for Super Bowl visitors?

Football fans who travel here from Cincinnati or anywhere else for Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood wont have to jump through any extra hoops in the name of pandemic safety. But they will have to follow all local laws while theyre here.

If theyre attending the game itself, theyll need to show proof that theyre fully vaccinated that is, they got the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine or their second dose of Pfizers Comirnaty or Modernas Spikevax at least two weeks earlier or else present a recent negative coronavirus test. The rule applies to everyone age 5 and up.

At-home tests wont cut it; authorities require a PCR test (which can be taken up to 48 hours before the game) or an antigen test from a lab or official testing clinic (which must be taken up to 24 hours prior to the game). SoFi will run an on-site testing clinic on Saturday that promises results within 30 minutes. The fee is $59.

The stadium will also require all attendees age 2 and older to wear a mask whenever they are not actively eating or drinking. No mask? No problem. SoFi will hook you up with a high-quality KN95 when you enter the stadium.

The mask rule applies to everyone, regardless of their vaccination status. It even applies to governors, mayors and fans who happen to be in the NBA Hall of Fame.

When visitors are out and about in L.A. County before and after the game, theyll also need to wear their masks if they enter businesses or other public indoor settings; if they take public transit (including taxis and ride-hailing services); if they attend other gatherings or large outdoor events; if they have to visit a healthcare facility; if they swing by a school or other youth setting; or if their trip goes terribly awry and they wind up in a prison, jail or shelter.

Proof of vaccination will be required for service inside breweries, wineries, distilleries, nightclubs, lounges and gambling establishments like card rooms throughout the county. Unvaccinated patrons may be served outdoors.

In the city of Los Angeles, proof of vaccination is also required for indoor service at restaurants, fitness centers, and personal care establishments like salons and tattoo shops.

We want to hear from you. Email us your coronavirus questions, and well do our best to answer them. Wondering if your questions already been answered? Check out our archive here.

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Practice social distancing using these tips, and wear a mask or two.

Watch for symptoms such as fever, cough, shortness of breath, chills, shaking with chills, muscle pain, headache, sore throat and loss of taste or smell. Heres what to look for and when.

Need to get a test? Testing in California is free, and you can find a site online or call (833) 422-4255.

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Coronavirus Today: To evade the shot, simply 'cut and paste' - Los Angeles Times

Washington, DC The Districts reported data for February 4-6, 2022 includes 627 new confirmed positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing the Districts overall confirmed positive case total to 132,170. The District also reports 74 new probable tests, bringing the overall positive probable tests since October 15, 2021 to 9,154.

The District reported that eleven additional residents lost their lives due to COVID-19.

Tragically, 1,304 District residents have lost their lives due to COVID-19.Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/data for interactive data dashboards or to download COVID-19 data.Below is the Districts current Key Metrics Summary Table.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by age and gender.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by ward of residence.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by neighborhood of residence.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by race.

Below is the Districts Hospital Census and hospital bed availability at District hospitals.

Below is the ventilator use and availability at District hospitals.

The District currently has 53 intensive care unit (ICU) beds available in hospitals out of 345 total ICU beds.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by race.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by sex.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by age.

Below is the Districts total lives lost due to COVID-19, sorted by ward of residence.

Guidance has been published for healthcare providers, employers and the public to provide information on what to do if you have been diagnosed with or are a contact of someone who has COVID-19. Residents are encouraged to get vaccinated at one of our free walk-up vaccination sites located throughout the District. For more information, please visit vaccines.gov.

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Coronavirus Data for February 4-6, 2022 | mayormb - Executive Office of the Mayor