Category Archives: Corona Virus

WASHINGTON Vice President Kamala Harriss coronavirus infection is raising questions that some in the nations capital wish would remain unspoken: Is it safe for President Biden to attend the so-called nerd prom, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents Dinner? Should the dinner even be held?

The flashy event, where journalists, politicians and policy wonks mingle with celebrities, is returning in person on Saturday after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. It will be the first time a president has attended since 2016. Expected attendance: 2,600.

As the nation lurches out of the acute phase of the pandemic and into what some are calling the new normal, the dinner like so much of American life is prompting a good deal of risk-benefit calculation. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Bidens top medical adviser for the coronavirus, said on Tuesday that he had decided not to attend because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.

But Mr. Biden, who at 79 is two years younger than Dr. Fauci, will be there, as will his wife, Jill Biden. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters on Tuesday that Ms. Harriss diagnosis had not changed the presidents thinking about the dinner, which she described as an opportunity to talk about the importance of journalism in the world.

Just like many Americans, he makes risk assessments, Ms. Psaki said, adding, Thats an event hes attended many times in the past, and he made a decision through consultations that it was an event he could attend and wanted to attend again.

On Wednesday, after this article was published online, the White House made a slight shift in course; Ms. Psaki told reporters that the president might wear a mask at the dinner when he was not speaking, and would not attend the eating portion so he could attend in a safe way.

In interviews, public health experts were largely, though not entirely, supportive of Mr. Bidens choice. The organizers of the dinner are taking precautions, including requiring all attendees to be vaccinated and to provide proof of a negative Covid test taken that day. With vaccines and antiviral drugs available, some experts said, the time for shunning large gatherings is in the past, at least for most healthy people.

The dinner, in a cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton, is not the only large-scale event the president was scheduled to attend this week. On Wednesday, he delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Madeleine K. Albright, the former secretary of state an event that drew an estimated 1,400 mourners, most of them masked. On Sunday, Mr. Biden will travel to Minnesota to speak at a memorial service for former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Many public health experts are making calculations of their own. Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, said he had just returned from Lisbon, where he was among 8,000 attendees of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. It was a risk that, with precautions, he was willing to take.

Everybody was vaccinated, everybody was masked except when speaking, he said. But we also went to restaurants and did other things, and I didnt get infected, so I feel very good about that.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist who is leading a new program on pandemic preparedness at Brown Universitys School of Public Health, said she recently attended a large indoor conference and was one of the few wearing masks. She has not gotten Covid-19 and does not want to, but, she said, I am also not completely rearranging my life trying to dodge it.

Everyone has a different risk tolerance, and experts say it is important not to judge other peoples choices. But the president, being the president, has an obligation to the public to not get sick, said Dr. Arthur L. Caplan, the director of N.Y.U. Langones division of medical ethics. He said Mr. Biden should not attend the dinner, ticking off the reasons in an email.

He is high-risk and occupies a very high office at a time of war, Dr. Caplan wrote, adding: He must be hypersafe. The correspondents dinner is highly optional. With the V.P. sick, he really needs to protect himself. His office imposes a duty of precaution.

Ms. Psaki conceded that Mr. Biden could contract Covid, adding that if he did, the White House would be very transparent about it. She said the White House took numerous precautions beyond those of most workplaces to protect Mr. Biden, including social distancing, regular testing and wearing masks during meetings.

Yet she also noted that the president was traveling more lately, having concluded that getting out into the country was vitally important to him, to his presidency, to the American people.

Still, there is an uneasy feeling here and a worry that maybe a gathering of 2,600 people, including journalists and politicians who have spent more than two years warning about the dangers of the pandemic, may not be the best look.

Well, there is a question of whether its EVER appropriate to engage in an exercise in gaudy, celebrity-drenched self-adulation, David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote in an email, but thats a separate question.

However, Mr. Axelrod added, The country plainly is eager to move on, and people are regularly gathering in public places stadiums, theaters, restaurants and, as a political matter, Im sure the president is eager to embrace the sense that the siege is largely behind us.

Yet there is no shortage of reminders that the siege may not, in fact, be largely behind us.

The Gridiron Dinner, another gathering of A-listers in the capital, turned into a superspreader event this month. More than 70 attendees later tested positive for the coronavirus, including three members of Mr. Bidens cabinet Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as well as Mayor Eric Adams of New York.

The Gridiron freaked everybody out, Sally Quinn, the Washington journalist, socialite and widow of Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, told Axios. I know a number of people who are not going because they are not wanting to chance it, she added, referring to the correspondents dinner.

The annual gala, hosted by the White House Correspondents Association, has been a fixture of Washington political life for decades.

Accompanied by a long weekend of spinoff parties, the event raises money for scholarships and honors journalists for distinguished White House coverage. It typically features celebrity entertainment this years featured guest is Trevor Noah and a roast of the president. But the gala has drawn criticism for coming across as an unseemly bacchanal in which journalists cozy up to the people they cover. The New York Times has not allowed its reporters to attend since 2007.

President Donald J. Trump shunned the dinner during his four years in office. The pandemic kept Mr. Biden away last year.

The correspondents association is clearly aware of the sensitivities. Youve had lots of questions, its president, Steven Portnoy of CBS News, wrote to members in an email this month. So heres an update from me on our Covid-19 mitigation strategy.

Citing advice from Dr. Fauci, who suggested same-day testing in addition to a vaccination requirement when asked if large-scale events should proceed, Mr. Portnoy said guests would be required to provide proof of vaccination and a same-day negative antigen test via Bindle, a verification app.

He also added some advice of his own, telling members that if they were eligible for a fourth dose of vaccine, they should consider getting one.

As for Mr. Biden, Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore city health commissioner who has been a vocal proponent of returning to pre-Covid routines, said the president must ask what is important to him. The mitigation measures at the dinner mean Mr. Biden is likely to avoid severe disease if he gets infected, she said. If he wants to avoid infection entirely, she added, he should not go.

However, that is not what living with Covid looks like, and I think that it is very important for him to model that ultimately what Americans should care about is avoiding severe disease, Dr. Wen said, adding, Especially if there are precautions such as testing and vaccination, he needs to show that we can resume our prepandemic lives.

Dr. Wen said she would not be attending the dinner for a different reason: I was not invited.

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Fauci clarifies that the pandemic isnt over, after saying the U.S. is out of the pandemic phase. - The New York Times

Racial disparities in Connecticuts COVID-19 deaths gaping in the early days of the pandemic narrowed over time as the crisis spread outward from urban to rural areas, a new Yale School of Public Health study has found.

Though Black and Hispanic people in Connecticut have remained more likely to die from COVID-19 than white residents, the narrowing of those disparities may suggest the success of campaigns to boost testing and vaccination among those communities, researcher Margaret Lind said.

In general we saw that, over the course of the pandemic in Connecticut, there has been a decline in the disparity of COVID-19 related mortality, said Lind, who led the study. We are moving in the right direction, and [equity] is something that could be achieved if we keep moving forward.

According to the study, Black and Hispanic people in Connecticut were more than four times as likely as non-Hispanic white people to die from COVID-19 between March 1 and Aug. 25, 2020, when the disease hit poor, under-resourced, urban communities hardest.

But over time, the study found, the COVID-19 mortality rate decreased only slightly among white Connecticut residents while falling much more sharply among Black and Hispanic residents. From July 13 to Dec. 13, 2021, the most recent period the study analyzed, Hispanic people were still about twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as white people, but the gap between Black and white residents had nearly disappeared.

This trend appears to mirror a national pattern in which the burden of COVID-19 gradually shifted over time from urban centers to whiter, more rural areas, which often had lower rates of vaccination and fewer control measures.

Racial disparities in Connecticut's COVID-19 deaths have diminished over the course of the pandemic, a new Yale study has found.

Despite the narrowing of disparities in Connecticut, the pandemic has remained, on balance, more significant for some groups than for others. Dating back to March 2020, state data shows, Black and Hispanic people have been substantially more likely to catch COVID-19 and about twice as likely to die from the disease, after adjusting for age.

We did see this attenuation overall, but there is still room to get better, Lind said. We can reduce these inequities, but we are not there yet.

As it happens

Get the latest updates on Coronavirus and other breaking news events happening across Connecticut

Disparities in COVID-19s impact in Connecticut were apparent from the earliest days of the pandemic, as state data almost immediately showed Black and Latino people catching and dying from the disease at higher rates than white people.

Experts say some groups were hit harder than others for several reasons. For one thing, Black and Latino people in Connecticut are more likely to live in densely populated areas and work front-line jobs that put them in direct contact with coworkers and customers. For another, decades of discrimination mean they are more likely to have underlying conditions like asthma and diabetes, which exacerbate the effects of COVID-19.

Though Linds team did not specifically study why these disparities shrunk over time, she guesses it was a result of state and federal programs aimed at distributing resources more evenly, combined with evolving attitudes toward COVID-19 among different groups. Throughout much of the pandemic, survey data has shown that people of color in Connecticut were more likely than white people to, for example, wear masks in public.

Whereas Black and Latino people in Connecticut were initially far less likely than white people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, those gaps have narrowed over time, state numbers show, which each racial and ethnic group now showing relatively high levels of vaccination.

Lind says her findings underscore the importance of measures aimed at reducing health inequities a lesson she says could be useful ahead of the next health crisis.

These measures such as trying to get testing equitably distributed, trying to get prevention measures ... widely utilized [helped], she said. The utility of education around that is something we should really think about and continue to move forward with, recognizing that this will not be our last global pandemic.

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Racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths decreased in Connecticut over time as pandemic shifted from urban to rural, Yale study finds - Hartford Courant

In the middle of last year, the World Health Organization began promoting an ambitious goal, one it said was essential for ending the pandemic: fully vaccinate 70 percent of the population in every country against Covid-19 by June 2022.

Now, it is clear that the world will fall far short of that target by the deadline. And there is a growing sense of resignation among public health experts that high Covid vaccination coverage may never be achieved in most lower-income countries, as badly needed funding from the United States dries up and both governments and donors turn to other priorities.

The reality is that there is a loss of momentum, said Dr. Isaac Adewole, a former health minister of Nigeria who now serves as a consultant for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only a few of the worlds 82 poorest countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal have reached the 70 percent vaccination threshold. Many are under 20 percent, according to data compiled from government sources by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.

By comparison, about two-thirds of the worlds richest countries have reached 70 percent. (The United States is at 66 percent.)

The consequences of giving up on achieving high vaccination coverage worldwide could prove severe. Public health experts say that abandoning the global effort could lead to the emergence of dangerous new variants that would threaten the worlds precarious efforts to live with the virus.

This pandemic is not over yet far from it and its imperative that countries use the doses available to them to protect as much of their population as possible, said Dr. Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the nonprofit that runs the global vaccine clearinghouse Covax.

Countries in different parts of the world, including some in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, have seen their vaccination rates stagnate in recent months at a third or less of their populations. But Africas vaccination rate remain the most dismal.

Fewer than 17 percent of Africans have received a primary Covid immunization. Nearly half of the vaccine doses delivered to the continent thus far have gone unused. Last month, the number of doses injected on the continent fell by 35 percent compared to February. W.H.O. officials attributed the drop to mass vaccination pushes being replaced by smaller-scale campaigns in several countries.

Some global health experts say the world missed a prime opportunity last year to provide vaccines to lower-income countries, when the public was more fearful of Covid and motivated to get vaccinated.

There was a time people were very desperate to get vaccinated, but the vaccines were not there. And then they realized that without the vaccination, they didnt die, said Dr. Adewole, who wants to see countries continue to pursue the 70 percent target.

What momentum remains in the global vaccination campaign has been hindered by a shortfall in funding for the equipment, transportation and personnel needed to get shots into arms.

In the United States, a key funder of the vaccination effort, lawmakers stripped $5 billion meant for global pandemic aid from the coronavirus response package that is expected to come up for a vote in the next few weeks. Biden administration officials have said that without the funds, they will be unable to provide support for vaccine delivery to more than 20 under-vaccinated countries.

Some public health experts point to reasons for optimism that the global vaccination campaign still has steam. Despite the drop off from the February peak, the number of Covid vaccinations being administered each day in Africa is still near a pandemic high. And Gavi earlier this month drew a significant new round of funding pledges, securing $4.8 billion in commitments, although it fell short of its $5.2 billion goal.

There is also hope that a global Covid summit the White House plans to co-host next month could be an opportunity to generate momentum and funding.

But the drop in public demand has led some health officials and experts to quietly, and in some cases outright, question whether the 70 percent vaccination target is feasible or even sensible.

Reported fatalities from Covid-19 remain comparatively low in sub-Saharan Africa, although there is debate about how much of this reflects poor data tracking. The perception, however, in many countries in the region is that the disease does not pose a serious threat, certainly not as much as other pervasive health problems that demand attention with scarce health care resources.

Many lower-income governments are turning their focus to their economies and other health issues like H.I.V., said Fifa Rahman, a civil society representative to a W.H.O.-launched group coordinating the global Covid response. Theres a sense of a lot of competing priorities, but thats a symptom of the momentum being gone. Because when the momentum was there, everyone was like, Where are our vaccines?

In rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where the reported Covid death rate is very low, there is a surge in measles cases threatening 20 million children. Yet the government says it cannot spare the resources to provide supplementary measles vaccinations this year, said Christopher Mambula, medical manager for Doctors Without Border in East Africa. In this kind of context, it makes little sense to continue to divert resources to widespread vaccination against Covid, he said.

As African governments have received more vaccines donated from wealthy countries and struggled to distribute even those supplies, their interest in ordering more doses has dropped.

The African Union still aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the end of 2022. But with countries slow to use up donated vaccines, the bloc has not exercised its options to order more doses of the shots from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.

The South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare earlier this year finalized a deal to bottle and market the Johnson & Johnson vaccine across Africa, a contract that was billed as an early step toward Africas development of a robust vaccine production industry. Aspen geared up for production, but no buyers, including the African Union and Covax, have placed orders yet, said Stephen Saad, Aspens chief executive.

The Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker, stopped its production of Covid shots in December last year, when its stockpile grew to 200 million doses; Bharat Biotech, another Indian firm that was a major producer, also stopped making vaccines in the face of low demand. The companies say they have no further orders since their contracts with the Indian government ended in March.

After the W.H.O. began promoting the 70 percent vaccination goal, many lower-income governments adopted the target for their own populations. The Biden administration also endorsed it last September, setting a deadline of September 2022.

At the time, two doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were understood to offer very strong protection against even mild disease, and there was still hope that achieving high levels of vaccination coverage would tame the virus. But the emergence of new variants and the spread of the virus in Africa changed the calculus.

The vaccine regimens that had been planned for the developing world offered little protection against infection with the Omicron variant. And as sub-Saharan African countries were shut out of vaccine distribution for much of last year, more and more Africans gained protection against the virus from natural infection, which studies have shown works as well as two mRNA doses in preventing infection. New data from the W.H.O. shows that at least two-thirds of Africans had been infected with the virus before the Omicron wave.

Given these factors, some public health experts in Africa say the broad 70 percent goal no longer makes sense. Theres very little value to it. In fact, we will gain much more by getting to more than 90 percent of people above the age of 50, said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and the dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. About two-thirds of South Africans above age 50 are currently fully vaccinated.

Dr. Madhi said that South Africa could close down mass vaccination sites and instead redouble its efforts to seek out the most vulnerable at church services and at government offices that pay out monthly pension benefits.

Katherine OBrien, who directs the W.H.O.s work on vaccines and immunizations, said the agency encourages countries to focus on its most vulnerable citizens rather than vaccinating a random set of 70 percent of their populations. The aspiration she said, has always been 100 percent of health workers, 100 percent of older adults, 100 percent of pregnant women, 100 percent of the people who fall into those highest risk groups.

Countries can of course make decisions about what health goal they wish to prioritize, Dr. OBrien said, but finite resources should not be the obstacle to vaccinating against the coronavirus. The world has enough resources to do this, if countries want to do it, she said. And that should be really the North Star.

Some public health experts said that while the 70 percent vaccination threshold is clearly not achievable by its original deadline, it would be unwise and unethical to give up on that target over a longer time horizon. They expressed frustration about the growing gulf between wealthy countries vaccinating young children and offering healthy adults fourth vaccine doses, and the regions where the majority of people still do not have one dose.

Why are we making it one target for high-income countries and one target for low income? said Dr. Ayoade Alakija, a co-chair of the African Unions vaccine delivery program.

She said that even though many people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected, there is still need for the additional protection that would come from a high level of vaccination coverage.

Modest vaccination coverage, she said, is not considered a good enough level of protection in England, its not a good enough level of protection in America. How is it OK not to be aiming for the very maximum, maximum we can? Aim for the sky and get to the top of the tree.

April 23, 2022

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the chief executive of Gavi. He is Dr. Seth Berkley, not Berkeley.

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Covid Live Updates: Testing, Lockdowns, and More News - The New York Times

Mask mandates returning to some college campuses

The final weeks of the college school year have been disrupted yet again by COVID-19 as universities bring back mask mandates. (April 22)

AP

New York's COVID-19 case tally surged 37% last week while hospitalizations spiked 24%, promptinghealth officials to expand recommendations to wear masks indoors in public spaces across 23 counties.

New York reported 49,500 cases in the week ending Sunday, up from36,180 new cases the prior week. COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals statewide last week totaled 3,219, up from 2,603.

New York ranked second among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

The uptick in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations stemmed in part from the spread of highly contagious omicron subvariants, health officials noted, with recent holiday gatherings held indoorsoffering potentialvenues for fuelingoutbreaks.

Nationally, coronavirus casesincreased about 57% from the week before, with 351,599 cases reported.Across the country, 42 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Indoor mask wearingrecommendations for 23 "high-risk" countiesnow covered large sections of upstate New York, including much of the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier, according to the Centers for Disease Control guidelines based on COVID-19 infection rates and the strainon local hospitals. That's up from 10 counties on April 18.

Here are the "high-risk" NY counties:

Another 16counties across the state, including Westchester, currently fall under the "medium-risk" category, meaning recent case and hospitalization trends could soon warrant masking in public spaces.

While still well below the initial omicron strain's peak in earlyJanuary, when New York reported90,000 new cases in one day, the rise in infections and hospitalizations over the past month illustratedthe virus' ability to keep mutatingand spreading.

Some prior waves of infections during the pandemic, however, have receded as weather conditions improved and people spent more time outdoors where the virus struggles to spread.

Yet therise of the omicron subvariants has fueled the current uptick in cases, as authorities tried to balance the push to reduce pandemic-related disruptions to daily life against the need to renew calls forpeople to take steps to limit the virus' spread, such as mask wearing.

Further, New York'smask mandate for all public transit settings statewide will remain in place for the "short term" despite a Florida judge voiding a federal mask mandate for public transportation, Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 deaths have begun to increase in New York after lagging behind infections and hospitalizations. A total of117 people were reported deadof COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday, up from59 deaths the prior week.

MASKS:Hochul: NY's mask mandate for public transit remains in place despite federal court ruling

Within New York, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in:

The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week. Weekly case counts rose in 61 of 62 counties across New York from the previous week.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

New York ranked 7th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 90.1% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 77.5%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Sunday, New York reported administering another 193,193 vaccine doses, including 25,351 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 245,669 vaccine doses.

A total of 5,123,612 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 68,231 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 80,984,914 people have tested positive and 991,254 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, April 24.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Hospitals in 37 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 25 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 42 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

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NY COVID cases surge 37%. CDC urges wearing masks in these 23 counties - The Journal News

Mike Stucka USA TODAY NETWORK| Bluffton Today

New coronavirus cases leaped in South Carolina in the week ending Sunday, rising 67.9% as 1,496 cases were reported. The previous week had 891 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

South Carolina ranked 40th among the states where the coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 57.1% from the week before, with 351,599 cases reported.

With 1.55% of the country's population, South Carolina had 0.43% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 42 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Beaufort County reported 74 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 48 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 43,130 cases and 376 deaths.

Jasper County reported four cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported one case and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 5,893 cases and 93 deaths.

Within South Carolina, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in McCormick County with 85 cases per 100,000 per week; Kershaw County with 69; and Allendale County with 46. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Charleston County, with 180 cases; Greenville County, with 158 cases; and Richland County, with 154. Weekly case counts rose in 37 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Richland, Greenville and York counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

South Carolina ranked 34th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 67.3% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 77.5%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Sunday, South Carolina reported administering another 1,078 vaccine doses, including 1,346 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 1,096 vaccine doses, including 1,627 first doses. In all, South Carolina reported it has administered 7,389,108 total doses.

Across South Carolina, cases fell in five counties, with the best declines in Abbeville County, with 2 cases from 5 a week earlier; in Greenwood County, with 11 cases from 13; and in Bamberg County, with 0 cases from 1.

In South Carolina, 36 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 48 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,472,093 people in South Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 17,734 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 80,984,914 people have tested positive and 991,254 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, April 24.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Hospitals in 37 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 25 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 42 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

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74 new COVID-19 cases reported last week in Beaufort County, 4 in Jasper County - Bluffton Today

According to the state Department of Public Health, the average age of those dying from coronavirus is now 79.

And the statistics DPH presents bear it out.

Currently, 91% of all deaths are among those 60 and up and 54% of all deaths are among those 80 and up.

The latest two-week period between April 3 and April 16 showed a surge of 8,697 cases to 13,113, which was an increase of 51%.

During that time there were 6,086 cases among those from the age of 0 to 19 and no deaths.

There were 16,166 cases among those from the age of 20 to 59 and just four deaths.

Those from the age of 60 to 80 and above had 4,496 cases and 57 deaths.

Those 80 and over suffered the most deaths, with 35, or 57%, of the 61 deaths during that period.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, those 80 and over have suffered 54% of all deaths, which is 10,943 out of 20,208 total deaths.

And during that time, that age group has had the fewest number of cases at 54,853, which is 3% of all 1,733,156 cases as of April 16.

Meanwhile, those from the age of 70 to 79 have suffered 4,678 deaths, which is 23% of the 20,208 total deaths as of April 16.

That groups percentage of deaths is less than half the 80 and over group, but their percentage of cases is slightly more at 4%.

Those from the age of 20 through the age of 59 account for 60% of all cases and 9% of all deaths.

Those numbers are 1,048,158 and 1,851, respectively.

Those 1,851 deaths is a death percentage of just 0.17%, or just under two-tenths of one percent, for the number of cases which afflicted the group.

And the youngest group of those afflicted with coronavirus, those from the age of 0 through 19, account for 24% of all cases and 0.11%, or one-tenth of 1%, of all deaths; those numbers are 416,395 and 23, respectively.

Meanwhile, as the number of cases rose, the number of those being cared for in intensive care units, or ICUs, fell.

On Friday, when the number of cases for the week ending April 22 hit 13,198, the number of those in ICUs fell from 37 to 25 since the week ending April 15.

And the number of those intubated with breathing apparatus declined from 15 to 12.

The numbers of those in ICUs and on breathing apparatus indicates this latest surge is less deadly.

On Friday, there were 389 people hospitalized statewide with 12 on breathing apparatus and 25 in an ICU.

The last time there were that many people hospitalized (391) on Feb. 28, about two months ago, there were 39 patients on breathing apparatus and 71 patients in ICUs.

George W. Rhodes can be reached at 508-236-0432.

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Elderly continue to be hardest hit by coronavirus - The Sun Chronicle

As the fear of getting fined for not wearing masks set in after the DDMA order, people in the national capital have again started masking up in public places, especially at busy markets, railway stations, Metro, buses and ISBTs. The inspection by the Delhi Police and authorities at these places has also intensified again.

Delhi on Sunday reported 1,083 fresh COVID-19 infections with a positivity rate of 4.48 per cent, while one person died due to the disease, according to the health department. The infection tally in the national capital now stands at 18,74,876 and the death toll at 26,168. The capital had reported 1,094 COVID-19 infections on Saturday, highest since February 10, with a positivity rate of 4.82 percent and two deaths.

Meanwhile, Mumbai on Sunday reported 73 new coronavirus positive cases, which took its overall infection count to 10,59,286, according to PTI. The death toll in the metropolis remained unchanged at 19,562 as nobody succumbed to the infection during the day. On Saturday, the city had reported 72 cases.

A common anti-inflammatory drug has been found to be an effective antiviral agent in the treatment of mild and moderate Covid-19 patients. The drug, indomethacin, is widely used to treat various types of inflammation-related conditions. The study on Covid patients, by IIT Madras, has been published in Nature Scientific Reports.

THE DRUG: Indomethacin is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug available as capsules and a liquid suspension, to be taken orally. According to the US National Library of Medicine, indomethacin works by stopping the bodys production of a substance that causes pain, fever, and inflammation. It is used to relieve moderate to severe pain, tenderness, swelling, and stiffness caused by various kinds of arthritis, and pain in the shoulder caused by inflammation.

The findings: A randomised clinical trial was conducted by IIT Madras researchers at Panimalar Medical College and Research Institute, Chennai. Out of 210 patients admitted, 107 were randomly allocated to a control group and treated with paracetamol and standard care, while 103 patients were administered indomethacin along with standard care of treatment, a media release from IIT Madras said.

Also read | New Research: Common drug found effective against mild and moderate Covid

A UK patient with a severely weakened immune system had Covid-19 for almost a year and a half, scientists reported, underscoring the importance of protecting vulnerable people from the coronavirus. Theres no way to know for sure whether it was the longest-lasting Covid-19 infection because not everyone gets tested, especially on a regular basis like this case.

But at 505 days, it certainly seems to be the longest reported infection, said Dr. Luke Blagdon Snell, an infectious disease expert at the Guys and St. Thomas NHS Foundation Trust.

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Coronavirus News Live Updates: India reports 2,541 fresh Covid-19 cases, slightly lower than yesterday; active cases over 16,500 - The Indian Express

BROOKVILLE, N.Y., April 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Results of a newly released Long Island University Steven S. Hornstein Center for Policy, Polling and Analysis national poll revealed what Americans think about wearing masks on planes and public transportation in light of a federal court order, that stated as of April 18, 2022, the CDC's Order requiring masks on public transportation conveyances and at transportation hubs was no longer in effect.

MIXED SUPPORT (42%) ON THE REMOVAL OF MASK MANDATES ONBOARD AIRLINE FLIGHTS

Americans were asked if they supported the removal of mask mandates onboard airline flights to reduce the likelihood of contracting the coronavirus; 42% of respondents said yes. Respondents with the highest support of the mask mandate removal were Republicans (73%), followed by Independents (41%) and Democrats (21%). Support of the mask mandate removal was higher in the Midwest (48%) and South (47%) than other regions in the Northeast (33%) and Pacific (35%). Respondents age 60 and older supported the mask mandate removal at a lower rate (34%) than other age brackets. Males supported the mask mandate removal at a higher rate (46%) than females (39%).

6 OUT OF 10 AMERICANS WOULD STILL WEAR A MASK WHILE TRAVELING

National poll results found that 64% of respondents said they would still wear a mask today if traveling by plane; 63% of respondents said they would still wear a mask today if traveling on public transportation. Political beliefs played a factor in respondents' choices: 87% of Democrats said they would still wear masks on planes; 84% of Democrats said they would still wear masks on public transportation; 61% of Independents said they would still wear masks on planes; 59% of Independents said they would still wear masks on public transportation; 38% of Republicans said they would still wear masks on planes; 41% of Republicans said they would still wear masks on public transportation.

71% OF AMERICANS BELIEVE WEARING MASKS REDUCES THE LIKELIHOOD OF CONTRACTING THE CORONAVIRUS

Respondents were asked if they believe wearing face masks reduces the likelihood of contracting the coronavirus: 71% of Americans said yes; 92% of Democrats said yes; 68% of Independents/Other said yes; 46% of Republicans said yes.

HALF OF AMERICANS (53%) SAID THE WORST OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IS OVER

Respondents were asked if they believe the worst of the pandemic is over. Overall, 53% of respondents said yes, the highest since June 2021 through national polls conducted by the Long Island University Steven S. Hornstein Center for Policy, Polling and Analysis. Respondents with the highest confidence level that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic is over are Republicans (70%), followed by Independents (51%) and Democrats (43%).Respondents age 18-29 believe the worst is over at the highest belief rate (58%) compared to respondents age 60 and older (47%) at the lowest belief rate. Males believe the worst is over at a higher rate (57%) than females (49%).

53% OF AMERICANS SAID THEY CURRENTLY WEAR A MASK TO AVOID CONTRACTING THE CORONAVIRUS

Respondents were asked if they were currently wearing a mask in general to reduce the likelihood of contracting the coronavirus: 53% of Americans said yes; 73% of Democrats said yes; 48% of Independents/Other said yes; 34% of Republicans said yes.

62% OF AMERICANS REMAINED CONCERNED OVER RISK OF FAMILY CONTRACTING THE CORONAVIRUS (DOWN SLIGHTLY FROM 69% IN NOVEMBER 2021)

Americans were asked how concerned they are about someone in their family becoming seriously ill from the coronavirus: 62% of respondents said they are somewhat or seriously concerned as compared to 69% in an earlier November 2021 Hornstein Center national poll.78% of Democrats, 59% of Independents/Other, and 43% of Republicans said they are somewhat or seriously concerned.

75% OF AMERICANS ARE FULLY VACCINATEDAGE 12 AND OVER (UP FROM 69% IN NOVEMBER 2021)

76% OF AMERICANS ARE FULLY VACCINATEDAGE 18 AND OVER (UP FROM 71% IN NOVEMBER 2021)

90% OF AMERICANS ARE FULLY VACCINATEDAGE 65 AND OVER (UP FROM 86% IN NOVEMBER 2021)

According toCDC data, 75% of Americans age 12 and over are fully vaccinated as of April 24, 2022 (up from 69% on November 16, 2021). 76% of Americans age 18 and over are fully vaccinated (up from 71% on November 16, 2021). 90% of Americans over age 65 are fully vaccinated (up from 86% on November 16, 2021), indicating a promising way forward for the most at-risk population.

CDC AUTHORIZED COVID-19 BOOSTER VACCINES

CDC guidance on COVID-19 Booster Vaccines stated that Americans eligible for a second booster shot include adults ages 50 years and older, people ages 12 years and older who are moderately or severely immunocompromised, and people who received 2 doses (1 primary dose and 1 booster) of Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine. Currently, the three vaccines that are authorized and recommended to prevent COVID-19 by the CDC arePfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,Moderna COVID-19 vaccineandJohnson & Johnson's Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine.

METHODOLOGYThis Long Island University Steven S. Hornstein Center for Policy, Polling, and Analysis online poll was conducted through SurveyMonkey from April 21 22, 2022 among a national sample of 1,584 adults ages 18 and up. Respondents for this survey were selected from over 2.5 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. Data for this week have been weighted for age and gender using the Census Bureau's American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States. The modeled error estimate for this survey is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

ABOUT THE LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY STEVEN S. HORNSTEIN CENTER FOR POLICY, POLLING, AND ANALYSISThe Long Island University Steven S. Hornstein Center for Policy, Polling, and Analysis conducts independent polling, empirical research, and analysis on a wide range of public issues. Our studies inform the public and policy makers about critical issues, attitudes, and trends shaping the world. Visit liu.edu/Hornstein for more information and results from this national poll.

ABOUT LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITYLong Island University, founded in 1926, continues to redefine higher education, providing high quality academic instruction by world-class faculty. Recognized byForbesfor its emphasis on experiential learning and by the Brookings Institution for its "value added" to student outcomes, LIU has a network of over 285,000 alumni, including industry leaders and entrepreneurs around the globe. Visit liu.edu for more information.

SOURCE Long Island University

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Where Americans Stand on Coronavirus and Mask Mandates on Planes: Long Island University Hornstein Center National Poll - PR Newswire

A checkpoint in Ningbo, China. A growing number of Chinese cities are requiring truck drivers to take daily Covid P.C.R. tests.Credit...Agence France-Presse Getty Images

BEIJING Chinas mounting Covid-19 restrictions are creating further disruptions to global supply chains for consumer electronics, car parts and other goods.

A growing number of Chinese cities are requiring truck drivers to take daily Covid P.C.R. tests before allowing them to cross municipal borders or are quarantining drivers deemed to be at risk of infection. The measures have limited how quickly drivers can move components among factories and goods from plants to ports.

Shanghai and other major Chinese cities have imposed lengthy, stringent lockdowns to try to control Covid outbreaks. Previous interruptions in the supply of goods from Chinese factories to buyers around the world mainly involved the temporary closure of shipping ports, including in Shenzhen in southeastern China in May and June last year and then near Shanghai last summer.

The problem is not ships its that theres no cargo coming because there are no trucks, said Jarrod Ward, the chief East Asia business development officer in the Shanghai office of Yusen Logistics, a large Japanese supply chain management company.

The testing of truck drivers has been held up because some cities are doing mass testing of residents. Shanghai tested essentially all 25 million people within its borders in a single day on Monday and detected another 21,000 cases on Thursday.

Now, there is an acute shortage of truck drivers in Shanghai and in nearby cities like Kunshan, a center of electronics production. Many electronics components manufacturers are shutting down in Kunshan.

The key electronics suppliers to Apple, to Tesla, theyre all based there, said Julie Gerdeman, the chief executive of Everstream, a supply chain risk management affiliate of DHL that is based in San Marcos, Calif.

Apple declined to comment, and Tesla had no immediate reply to questions.

Many factories have tried to stay open by having workers stay on site instead of going home. Employees have been sleeping on mats on the floor for as long as four weeks in some cities in northeastern China. Companies have been storing goods in nearby warehouses while waiting for normal truck traffic to resume.

But as lockdowns stretch on in cities like Shanghai, Changchun and Shenyang, factories are starting to run out of materials to assemble. Some are sending their workers home until further notice.

Making car seats, for example, requires different springs, bolts and other materials. Mr. Ward said car seat producers had run out of components. Volkswagen said it had closed a factory outside Shanghai.

While Shanghais cases increase, its main rival in electronics manufacturing, Shenzhen, has emerged from lockdown. That is freeing workers and factories there to resume full-speed production.

Retailers and manufacturers in the West tried to adapt to previous supply chain difficulties in China by switching from ships to airfreight, but airfreight rates have more than doubled from last year.

The near-total suspension of passenger flights in and out of Shanghai has roughly halved the airfreight capacity there, said Zvi Schreiber, the chief executive of Freightos, a freight booking platform. The war in Ukraine has forced many airlines to schedule longer flights around Russia and Ukraine, which means each plane can make fewer trips in a week and often can carry less weight on each flight.

The war in Ukraine is also starting to hurt the availability of Soviet-era Antonov freighters, Mr. Schreiber said. These workhorses of the airfreight industry have been kept going in recent years almost entirely by Ukrainian maintenance bases that are now closed.

For companies, any additional disruptions to the global supply chain would come at a particularly fraught moment, on top of rising prices for raw materials and shipping, along with extended delivery times and worker shortages.

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Covid News: At Least 53 People Test Positive After A-List Dinner in Washington - The New York Times

Arthur Allen| Kaiser Health News

In March 2020, Dr. Joseph Vinetz left the contemplative world of his Yale University infectious-disease laboratory and plunged into the COVID ward at Yale New Haven Hospital, joining an army of health care workers who struggled to treat the deadly viral disease.

There were no drugs against COVID-19, and no way to predict which infected patients would develop pneumonia or fall into an inflammatory tailspin leading to severe illness or death. In desperation, Vinetz and countless other doctor-scientists trawled the literature for existing medicines that might help.

We were in the hospital. We had nothing, Vinetz said. I was one of tens of thousands of doctors around the world who said, We gotta figure out what to do.

On April 16, 2020, Vinetz saw an article in the journal Cell about a drug called camostat, licensed in Japan in 1985 to treat inflammation of the pancreas. Research during the first SARS epidemic, in 2004, had shown the drug had a plausible biochemical mechanism for slowing coronavirus infections, so Vinetz and his colleagues quickly organized a small clinical trial on outpatients with mild to moderate symptoms.

In those days, before COVID vaccines and COVID-specific treatments appeared on the market, Vinetzs experiment was one of thousands conducted by doctors who hoped older vaccines and drugs, usually cheap and off-patent, might provide them with options.

Mostly, the drugs were too toxic or had no clear effect. Of the more than 1,500 trials for potential COVID drugs listed on the website of the National Institutes of Health including antivirals, anti-inflammatories, and drugs used for cancer, asthma, heart disease, and dozens of other conditions few have produced helpful medicines.

In fact, only one older drug is routinely used to fight COVID. Thats the steroid dexamethasone, proven by British scientists to help keep hospitalized patients from requiring supplemental oxygen or intubation.

Drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin showed hints of value initially but failed in clinical trials only to remain in circulation, at least partly because their use symbolized affinity in the culture war for some of President Donald Trumps followers.

A few old drugs still show promise, but theyve had trouble getting traction. The ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine fiascoes soured doctors on repurposed medications, and the pharmaceutical industry has shown little interest in testing them, especially when it can earn billions from even mediocre new ones, scientists tracking the field say.

American and European scientists have confirmed the theoretical basis for camostats impact on COVID. But evidence for its effects is weak; last year the drug was dropped from a big NIH trial comparing various treatments.

A more promising story emerged with fluvoxamine, licensed under the brand name Luvox in 1994 to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder. The drug is in the same class as common antidepressants such as Prozac, Lexapro, and Zoloft.

A child psychiatrist noticed fluvoxamine might be good for COVID. In March 2020, while recovering from a bout of COVID, Dr. Angela Reiersen of Washington University in St. Louis saw a 2019 study in mice that showed how fluvoxamine could activate a protein similar to one missing in patients with Wolfram syndrome, a genetic disease that causes diabetes, neurological issues, and, eventually, death.

Reiersen and her colleague Dr. Eric Lenze, a geriatric psychiatrist, began a clinical trial of the drug in people with symptoms of COVID. Of the 80 in the fluvoxamine group, none suffered a serious decline, while six of 72 patients given sugar pills got pneumonia, and four were hospitalized.

In a follow-up 1,500-patient trial in Brazil, people who took at least 80% of their fluvoxamine pills were 66% less likely to require emergency care or hospitalization than those who got sugar pills. Only one died, compared with 11 in the placebo group.

Since October, when the Brazilian study was published, fluvoxamines future has dimmed. Neither the NIH nor the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommends fluvoxamine to prevent respiratory distress. The NIH panelists noted that the better outcomes in the Brazilian trial were only statistically significant among those who remained in the trial. (Because of nausea and other side effects, only 74% of trial participants in the fluvoxamine wing took all their pills, compared with 82% in the placebo wing.)

The NIH panel also was put off by the fact that the Brazilian trial counted hospitalizations as well as people put under a doctors care for six hours or more not a standard measure. Trial organizers said that was necessary because Brazilian hospitals were so packed with COVID patients that many people got their care in makeshift outdoor shelters.

Regulators and experts are awaiting results from two other big trials, one organized by a consortium of universities and hospitals, the other by the NIH. But both studies are using doses of 100 milligrams of fluvoxamine a day, compared with 200 or 300 milligrams in the successful trials.

I have concerns that they are not using a high-enough dose, Reiersen said, given that fluvoxamine operates on a different biochemical pathway to fight COVID than the one involved in psychiatric treatment.

The concern is shared by Craig Rayner, a former drug company scientist who worked on the Brazilian trial and other big tests of repurposed drugs. You can do the largest, most well-funded study in the world, he said, but if you choose the wrong dose, its rubbish in, rubbish out.

The team overseeing NIHs trial opted for a lower dose because higher doses had already been used in the earlier trials and often caused side effects, said Sarah Dunsmore, a program director at NIHs National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

On Dec. 21, David Boulware, a University of Minnesota infectious-disease expert, petitioned the FDA to approve a change in fluvoxamines label stating it can be used to prevent respiratory distress in at-risk patients with mild to moderate COVID. He hasnt received a response yet.

Its a different story for big drug companies. Two days after Boulwares submission, FDA authorized Merck to market its drug molnupiravir, which in its clinical trial showed about as much effectiveness as fluvoxamine, and also had side effects like nausea and dizziness. Fluvoxamine also can cause insomnia and anxiety; molnupiravir is not recommended for pregnant women or anyone, male or female, having unprotected sex, because it caused genetic and fetal damage in test animals.

Still, federal guidelines recommend molnupiravir in certain settings, and the government has bought more than 3 million doses for about $2.2 billion, or $733 per dose. Fluvoxamine, a generic, goes for less than $5 a pill.

You hate to say that Big Pharma has a lot of influence, but clearly they do, Boulware said. The molnupiravir data was not that great, but were spending billions on the drug and it got fast-track emergency use authorization while fluvoxamine remains in a gray area.

With the arrival of effective vaccines and the trickle of antiviral treatments, the urgency of rehabilitating old drugs for U.S. patients has ebbed. But the need remains high in lower- and middle-income countries where vaccines and new COVID treatments remain unavailable.

Its not rare for a pharmaceutical company to synthesize or study a drug for one purpose, only to discover it works better for something else. The classic instance is sildenafil, or Viagra, which was being developed as a drug for hypertension when scientists noticed a remarkable side effect. Remdesivir, now a front-line drug against COVID, was aimed at treating Ebola.

Its less common for a drug marketed for one use to acquire an entirely different purpose, but the pandemic drove scientists to try. They tested thousands of compounds in petri dishes for their virus-killing power, but the journey from test tube to human remedy is long, said Rayner, who is also a professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.

If fluvoxamine were a new drug, the company sponsoring it would have spent the money needed to get the drug approved and to show the FDA it has the means to monitor the drugs safety and efficacy. Since its an old drug, it will be up to independent scientists, or perhaps a reluctant generics manufacturer, to sponsor safety monitoring should the FDA provide an emergency use authorization, Rayner said.

An EUA or approval comes with strings. You have to continue to monitor the safety, to make sure no signals pop up when you move it from thousands to millions of patients, he said. Thats very expensive.

U.S. physicians can prescribe drugs off label, but most are leery of doing so until a drug has won approval for the new use. Thats especially true now.

Definitive answers on some repurposed drugs were slow in coming because there were too many small, poorly designed studies by every man and his dog, Rayner said. He calculates up to $5.6 billion has been wasted on hydroxychloroquine clinical trials alone.

A recent World Health Organization resolution called for better coordination and information-sharing among those organizing trials so that definitive answers can be obtained quickly with big pots of data.

As for camostat, Vinetz said those who took the drug felt better than those who got a placebo. It basically prevented loss of smell and taste, which people really bitterly care about, he said. That means theres a real biological effect. That merits further exploration.

But will that happen? Vinetzs team has sought publication of their research for five months with no success. Hed like to see whether camostat can prevent long COVID, but such investigations cost millions. Camostats Japanese manufacturer apparently lost interest in it as a COVID drug after its own small, unsuccessful trial.

When theres no profit motive, its tough, Vinetz said. Meanwhile, hes resumed his research into controlling a neglected tropical disease: leptospirosis.

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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Why cheap, older drugs that might treat COVID never get out of the lab - Great Falls Tribune