Category Archives: Corona Virus

New Jersey on Tuesday reported another 32 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 1,211 cases, as the number of residents with at least one dose of a vaccine against the coronavirus is at nearly 7 million.

The states seven-day average for confirmed positive tests rose slightly to 1,159. But the average is still down 9% from a week ago and 35% from a month ago.

The statewide rate of transmission inched back up to 0.83, from 0.82 on Monday. Even so, the rate of transmission still suggests transmission is slowing. Any transmission rate below 1 indicates that each infected person is passing the virus to less than one other person and the outbreak is no longer expanding.

There were 812 people hospitalized with confirmed or suspected coronavirus cases across New Jerseys 71 hospitals as of Monday night, according to state data. Thats six fewer patients than the night before.

There were 44 patients discharged in the 24 hours leading up to Monday night. Of those hospitalized, 212 were in intensive care (19 fewer than the previous night), with 118 of them on ventilators (14 fewer).

The statewide positivity rate for tests conducted Thursday, the most recent day available, was 3.67%.

The delta variant of the virus, which is more contagious than previous variants, now represents 100% of all cases circulating, state Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said last week.

New Jerseys numbers are steadily improving, though officials have warned that weather keeps getting colder and the holiday season is approaching, which will force more people to gather indoors and could cause another bump in the numbers.

CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage

More than 6 million people who live, work or study in New Jersey a state of about 9.2 million residents have now been fully vaccinated. Gov. Phil Murphy has said more than 75% of those eligible in the state have been fully vaccinated.

More than 6.9 million people in the state have received at least one dose, and about 430,447 people have received third doses or boosters. That number is likely to go up after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced an expansion in the eligibility for COVID-19 booster shots last week.

Thirteen of New Jerseys 21 counties are listed as having high rates of coronavirus transmission, according to the CDC.

Mercer County was upgraded to high transmission Saturday. Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Morris, Passaic, and Somerset counties have all been downgraded to substantial transmission, while Essex County has dropped to moderate transmission and Union County to low transmission.

The CDC is recommending that all people in the high and substantial transmission counties wear masks for indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status. In Essex and Union counties, the recommendation is indoor masking for those who are not vaccinated.

Through the first several weeks of the school year, districts in New Jersey have reported at least 126 in-school outbreaks, for a total of 658 cases as of Oct. 19. Thats an increase of 30 outbreaks and 137 total cases from the previous week.

In-school outbreaks are defined as three or more cases that are determined through contact tracing to have been transmitted among staff or students while at school. They do not include total cases among staff and students.

New Jersey, an early epicenter of the pandemic, has now reported 27,896 total COVID-19 deaths in nearly 20 months 25,082 confirmed and 2,814 considered probable, according to the state dashboard. The probable fatalities, which are revised weekly, increased by four deaths on Monday.

The state had the second-most coronavirus deaths per capita in the U.S. as of Tuesday. Mississippi tops the list.

New Jersey has reported 1,036,496 total confirmed cases out of the more than 15.8 million PCR tests conducted since it announced its first case March 4, 2020. The state has also reported 155,416 positive antigen or rapid tests, which are considered probable cases.

At least 8,614 of the states COVID-19 deaths have been among residents and staff members at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to state data. There are active outbreaks at 161 facilities, resulting in 723 current cases among residents and 651 among staffers.

As of Tuesday, there have been more than 244 million positive COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University, with more than 4.9 million people having died due to the virus. The U.S. has reported the most cases (more than 45.5 million) and deaths (more than 737,600) of any nation.

There have been more than 6.8 billion vaccine doses administered globally.

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Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @johnsb01.

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N.J. reports 32 COVID deaths, 1,211 cases. Nearly 7 million have received at least one dose. - NJ.com

A look at some of the top headlines trending online today around the world including the latest on negotiations in Washington, extreme weather conditions in parts of the country, coronavirus updates and much more.

From atmospheric river to tornadoes to noreaster, extreme weather strikes coast to coast (CBS News)

Noreaster could bring 60 mph winds, 20-foot waves, 6 inches of rain to Massachusetts Tuesday and Wednesday (MassLive)

Noreaster set to soak NYC area just weeks after Hurricane Ida damage (NY Post)

Biden rejects Trumps latest claim of executive privilege over Jan. 6 documents (NBC)

The Facebook Papers: What you need to know about the trove of insider documents (NPR)

Biden administration unveils new Covid vaccine, testing requirements for travel into U.S. (NBC)

Cases dropping across US, rising in parts of Midwest, Northeast (ABC)

U.S. CDC extends conditional sailing order for cruises to January next year (Reuters)

Are Vaccine Boosters Widely Needed? Some Federal Advisers Have Misgivings (NY Times)

Moderna to supply Africa with up to 110 million COVID doses (AP)

Rust crew members reportedly used guns with live ammunition hours before deadly shooting on set (CNN)

Chappelle is unapologetic in his first public statement on The Closer controversy (NPR)

Sudan coup: Protests continue after military takeover (BBC)

Brendan Fraser is joining DCs Batgirl movie as a villain (Polygon)

Read the rest here:

Coronavirus news, extreme weather & more: Whats trending today - cleveland.com

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: The number of deaths was corrected in the headline.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) There were 718 new total COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday, bringing the states total case count to 153,321, up from Monday (152,603).

Data from Saturday and Sunday is included in the Tuesday report.

Eight new COVID-19 deaths were reported in Tuesdays update from the South Dakota Department of Health.

The death toll from COVID-19 is at 2,228, up from Monday (2,220). The new deaths include five men and three women in the following age groups: 60-69 (4); 70-79 (2); 80+(2). Deaths were reported in the following counties:Beadle (1), Butte (1), Fall River (1), Harding (1), Hyde (1), Minnehaha (2) and Pennington (1)

The number of active cases reported on Tuesday is at 5,392, down from Monday (5,625).

Current hospitalizations are at 193, up from Monday (179). Total hospitalizations are at 7,785, up from Monday (7,757).

Total recovered cases are now at 145,701, up from Monday (144,758). The latest seven-day PCR test positivity rate for the state is 12.8% for October 1824.

The DOH currently reports total tests each day. There have been 1,591,439 total tests reported as of Tuesday, up 6,430 from 1,585,009 total tests reported as of Monday.

Of South Dakotas 66 counties, 56 are listed as having high or substantial community spread. High community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.

There have been 640 Delta variant cases (B.1.617.2, AY.1-AY.25) detected in South Dakota through sentinel monitoring.

There have been 172 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), three cases of P.1. (Gamma variant) and two cases of the B.1.351 (Beta variant).

The DOH announced changes to how it reports vaccinations on the COVID-19 dashboard as of Monday, October 14. It now includes a breakout of how many people have received booster doses. Due to data clean-up efforts, the percentages of people whove received one dose or completed the series have changed.Find the DOH explanation in this story.

As of Tuesday, 66.97% of the population 12-years-old and above has received at least one dose while 57.76% have completed the vaccination series.

There have been 504,080 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered, 341,822 of the Moderna vaccine and 30,144 doses of the Janssen vaccine.

There have been 158,137 persons who have completed two doses of Moderna, down 933 from Monday. There have been 182,729 persons who have received two doses of Pfizer, down 1,449 from Monday.

As for booster doses, 39,208 people have received a 3rd Pfizer shot and 4,559 have received a 3rd Moderna dose.

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COVID-19 in South Dakota: 718 total new cases; Death toll rises to 2,228; Active cases at 5,392 - KELOLAND.com

The nocturnal intermediate horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus affinis), lives in caves and collect many diseases. Chinese researchers said they have found a batch of new coronaviruses in bats including one that may be the second-closest yet, genetically, to the virus that causes Covid-19 virus. (Shutterstock)

Of course you know alpha, beta and delta (in Prince-like fashion, the virus previously known as B.1.617.2).

But do you know delta AY? And epsilon, gamma, iota, lambda, mu and theta? These variants of SARS-CoV-2 have all been logged in Southern California, and dozens more versions of the virus are circulating across the globe, battling for world domination like tiny Dr. Evils in an Austin Powers movie.

So, what happened to the original virus? The very first one that jumped from bats or labs or wherever into human beings who were immunologically powerless against it, eventually leading to the deaths of nearly 5 million people and grinding world economies to a near halt?

Gone the way of the dinosaurs, at least in humans, said Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UC San Francisco.

It has been displaced. Elbowed out of the way by the newer, more competitive strains, said Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and demographer at UC Irvine who studies infectious diseases.

No one can say with 100% certainty that its gone, however, Noymer said. And Rutherford adds this caution:

God knows whats going on in bats.

Welcome to this friendly tutorial on viral mutation and why your life may depend upon it.

The SARS-CoV-2 that surfaced in Wuhan, China, in 2019 was likely not the original one, researchers say. And the version that swept through the United States in fall 2020 was already a mutation of the Wuhan version. And the one that steamrolled through the United States this summer was different still.

Scientists have logged scores of versions of the virus that causes COVID-19 across the globe, and thanks to genetic sequencing, they can pinpoint which are circulating where. Sometimes, those genetic changes are of little consequence. Sometimes, they make the virus much better at infecting humans or evading treatments, and thus more dangerous.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists just the highly contagious delta B.1.617.2 and AY lineages as variants of concern here in the U.S., while the World Health Organization also includes alpha, beta and gamma on its variants of concern list.

Up and coming mutants to watch? The WHO is keeping its eye on lambda and mu.

Scientists saw this coming.

Michael Buchmeier, an infectious disease researcher at UCI who has been studying coronaviruses for decades, takes us back some 20 years, to the original strain that sparked the SARS-1 outbreak in 2002-03.

Back then, only 12 other animal or human coronaviruses were known.

SARS-1 likely arose when two or more strains of bat coronaviruses combined and jumped to palm civets, a masked animal that resembles a raccoon and is widely sold in live animal markets throughout Asia, he said. There, the virus was amplified and adapted, and eventually infected humans. It spread widely in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and into Canada due to travel.

The fatality rate was 10%; for those over age 50, it was close to 50%.

Theres a key difference between SARS-1 and SARS-2, however: SARS-1 infections were essentially always symptomatic, making it far easier to spot and isolate outbreaks. SARS-2 can be spread by people with no symptoms, making it much harder to stop.

So, where is that virus now?

SARS-1 as a unique pathogen appears to be extinct in nature, but the conditions that produced it are still existent, Buchmeier said.

That is, the presence of coronaviruses that are present in wild bats, particularly in the horseshoe bats common throughout South Asia and China, and the husbandry of suitable amplifying hosts like the civet cat, the raccoon dog, and now the pangolin and perhaps others capable of adapting the virus to more easily infect humans.

Hundreds of viruses have been isolated from bats in Asia and worldwide, many of them coronaviruses that can recombine into dangerous pathogens, he said.

A paper in Clinical Microbiology Reviews, published in 2007, issued a warning: Coronaviruses are well known to undergo genetic recombination, which may lead to new genotypes and outbreaks. The presence of a large reservoir of SARS-CoV-like viruses in horseshoe bats, together with the culture of eating exotic mammals in southern China, is a time bomb. The possibility of the reemergence of SARS and other novel viruses from animals or laboratories and therefore the need for preparedness should not be ignored.

In 2015, another paper, in the journal Nature, warned of a potential risk of SARS-CoV re-emergence from viruses currently circulating in bat populations.

And, so, here we are. The precise origin of the virus that sparked the COVID-19 pandemic is still an official mystery, and may always be one. In addition to the widely embraced bat/wet market theory, there are suspicions that the virus may have leaked from a lab in Wuhan. The WHO has appointed a new, 25-member Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, with scientists from all over the world, to try to figure that part out.

Genetic flexibility is an RNA virus superpower.

This flexibility results in the production of a swarm of related viral offspring at each round of replication, allowing the virus to select a genetic makeup best adapted to a given host in the form of the variant viruses were now experiencing, Buchmeier said in a recent explainer.

Mutations are always present in the progeny viruses and may be selected if theres an advantage offered for replication in a new host species.

The alpha variant, which was found in the United Kingdom last year, was much more infectious than the early versions. And alpha gave rise to the beta, gamma and delta variants. Delta, as we know from summer surges, is about twice as contagious as alpha.

How did delta do this? It adapted to produce as much as 1,000 times more virus in the nasal passages and upper respiratory tract early in infection, when people may not show symptoms.

That offers two distinct advantages, from the virus perspective: Droplets from a persons upper respiratory tract when sneezing, say would spew much more virus into the air to find new hosts; and the human immune response isnt as robust in the upper respiratory tract as it is in the lower respiratory tract, Buchmeier said.

That combination leads to many asymptomatic carriers who then spread infection to others.

So far, the variants dont appear to have lessened the effectiveness of vaccines, but theyre straining the effectiveness of treatments.

Gamma, beta, kappa, mu and zeta variants may be moderately less responsive to some antibody treatments, while iota is significantly less responsive to some antibody treatments, according to the California Department of Public Health.

Epsilon, meanwhile, appears to result in 20% more transmission, with significantly reduced efficacy of some antibody treatments.

Each new infection is a new opportunity for the virus to mutate into something else. Maybe something less troublesome. Maybe something more troublesome.

Whats worrying me about the upcoming winter wave is not so much the variants its that we need more people vaccinated, said UCIs Noymer. Seventy-five percent is not good enough to protect some age groups.

Vaccination doesnt prevent infection, but its very protective against severe disease, hospitalization and death, even with the highly contagious delta variant.

The clear message is that as long as vaccination of populations remains incomplete and clearly effective social distancing and masking are not observed, were very likely to see more waves, Buchmeier said.

Will SARS-CoV-2 mutate into something more lethal still? Crystal balls are cloudy, but many experts dont expect that to happen. They do, however, expect it to remain in circulation as part of the human virome the total collection of viruses in and on the human body for a very, very long time.

Viral variants will continue to appear, and some may be more capable of spreading.

But even if we eventually make peace with this virus as we have with the flu threats loom. Buchmeier said that the precursors of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 remain in bats, and may provide a reservoir for future cycles of human infection.

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Does the first coronavirus that kicked off the pandemic still exist? - San Bernardino County Sun

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 242.4 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths stands at more than 4.92 million. More than 6.76 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended COVID-19 vaccine booster shots for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson jabs. They also said Americans can choose a different shot from their original inoculation as a booster.

The US has called on all World Trade Organization (WTO) members to support an intellectual property waiver for COVID-19 vaccines.

New Zealand has set a 90% vaccination target to end its strict COVID-19 restrictions, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced yesterday.

Lockdown restrictions have been eased in Melbourne, Australia, with pubs, restaurants and hair salons reopening.

Bavaria's leader, Markus Soeder, said yesterday that Germany should not let its COVID-19-related state of emergency expire as cases rise again.

Thailand is set to allow quarantine-free travel from 46 countries from 1 November, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha announced Thursday.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged the G20 to step up donations of COVID-19 vaccine doses to the global south.

The WHO also said COVID-19 may have killed between 80,000 and 180,000 healthcare workers up to May of this year - and insisted they be prioritized for vaccination.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.

Image: Our World in Data

A booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was 95.6% effective against the disease when compared to a vaccinated group that did not get the third shot, data from a large study released by the companies has shown.

The companies in a release said the booster was tested on 10,000 participants aged 16 and older who had received two doses in its earlier trials. A booster administered about 11 months after the second shot had a favourable safety profile and worked against the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus, they said. The data has not been submitted for peer review.

Pfizer and BioNTech said they would submit detailed results of the trial for peer-reviewed publication to the US Federal Drug Administration, the European Medicines Agency and other regulatory agencies as soon as possible.

The COVID Response Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship is a coalition of 85 global leaders, hosted by the World Economic Forum. Its mission: Join hands in support of social entrepreneurs everywhere as vital first responders to the pandemic and as pioneers of a green, inclusive economic reality.

Its COVID Social Enterprise Action Agenda, outlines 25 concrete recommendations for key stakeholder groups, including funders and philanthropists, investors, government institutions, support organizations, and corporations. In January of 2021, its members launched its 2021 Roadmap through which its members will roll out an ambitious set of 21 action projects in 10 areas of work. Including corporate access and policy change in support of a social economy.

For more information see the Alliance website or its impact story here.

The move of social interaction and mixing indoors as the Northern Hemisphere winter sets in is driving a rise in COVID-19 infections in many countries across Europe, the Executive Director of the World Health Organization's Health Emergencies Programme, Dr Mike Ryan, said yesterday.

"Most of those restrictions are now not in place anymore in many countries. And we're seeing that coincide with the winter period in which people are moving inside as the cold snaps appear," Ryan told a news briefing.

"The question remains as to whether or not we will have the same experience as last year with health systems coming once again under pressure."

Written by

Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content

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

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 22 October - World Economic Forum

After another brutal spike in coronavirus cases and deaths this summer fueled by the Delta variant infections are declining in the United States, down 50 percent from their peak in September.

Experts say what comes next is hard to predict, and we often do not know why the virus spreads the way it does. But looking back at the outbreak so far can provide some clues about how the virus may spread in the future.

Average cases per 100,000 people

Summer 2020

June August

Fall 2020

September November

Winter

December February

Spring 2021

March May

Summer and Fall 2021

June Oct. 20

Note: Most Nebraska counties did not report data during the summer of 2021.

The country has suffered through five waves of the pandemic now, depending on how you count. Each of these waves has a different complexity and pattern, said Alessandro Vespignani, the director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston.

During the first wave, for instance, strict stay-at-home measures and drastic changes in behavior may have stalled the virus for a time. Last fall, with those measures and behavior comparatively relaxed, record-breaking surges in the Midwest rippled outward to the South and both coasts. By the time the highly contagious Delta variant fueled a wave across the country this summer, vaccines were widely available, shifting the pattern once again.

Vaccines have clearly changed which places have been hit and how much theyve been hit, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University.

Below is a look at five times that the U.S. case curve hit a peak, and the lessons and insights experts have gleaned from each wave.

Outbreaks in

meatpacking facilities

Outbreaks in

meatpacking facilities

Outbreaks in

meatpacking facilities

In the spring of 2020, the first wave hit a few areas particularly hard, including New York City, New Orleans and Albany, Ga. A lot came down to random chance insofar as where the virus struck first, experts said, though population density and transportation hubs may have played a role.

Tests were hard to come by during this period, so cases were drastically underreported. But death data indicates the Northeasts outbreak was one of the worst of the whole pandemic one in about 400 New York City residents died within the span of two months.

Early stay-at-home orders and widespread, drastic behavioral changes flattened the curve in those outbreaks, however, preventing the coronavirus from rippling across the country in waves, the way it would in later surges.

While hospitals overflowed in the Northeast corridor, nearby areas like Maine did not see large outbreaks. Isolated hot spots broke out largely in places where people were unable to socially distance, like nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants.

I think its easy to miss how bad things could have gotten and how much better we did than we could have largely because of the lockdowns, said Justin Lessler, a professor of epidemiology at the University of North Carolina.

Outbreaks on

Native American

reservations

Outbreaks on

Native American

reservations

Cases surged again in the summer of 2020, but this time Sun Belt states suffered the worst outbreaks. Many states that set new records for cases and deaths were also those that reopened first, including South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. Experts say seasonality perhaps the Sun Belts summer heat driving people indoors may also have been a factor.

The summer surge slammed many metropolitan areas of the South and Southwest, including Houston, Miami and Phoenix. Without tight virus restrictions in place, the virus spread outward into suburbs and exurbs. By the end of the summer, most of the worst outbreaks were occurring in rural areas.

If you think of the spring wave in 2020, it was more pointlike around urban areas. In the other waves, you see more of a general flow, Dr. Vespignani said, Like when you throw a stone in a pond.

The flow of cases is clearer in the surge that began in the Upper Midwest in September 2020. North and South Dakota had few virus restrictions in place to contain an outbreak, and both states had particularly bad spikes. One in 10 residents tested positive for the virus in the fall in North Dakota, and experts think many more cases went undetected.

From there, the outbreak expanded beyond the Midwest, reaching both coasts and stretching down to the South in a devastating wave. The country saw more daily cases and deaths in January than any other time before or since.

You do see this movement, almost like its moving from county to county, said Jeffrey Shaman, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Columbia University, who said researchers found community-to-community transmission played an important role in virus spread during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. But Dr. Shaman said factors other than proximity could have also played an important role with Covid.

Disparate communities may have similar school opening dates, for instance, experience the same cold fronts, or share similar behavior patterns, all of which could lead to independent outbreaks at the same time.

When youre looking at anything after October of last year, the virus is everywhere. It didnt need to be reintroduced, Dr. Shaman said.

Then, in one community after another, cases fell often as quickly as they had risen. A sharp fall after a peak is not uncommon during epidemics, experts said. When a virus rapidly spreads through a community, it eventually runs out of people to infect.

By Spring 2021, U.S. cases had retreated far from their winter peak. At the same time, a more-contagious variant that had fueled an enormous surge in the United Kingdom, called Alpha, was quickly becoming dominant in the United States.

Michigan saw a large surge in cases and deaths, worrying experts that the variant would cause a similar nationwide outbreak. Instead, the virus seemed to stop at the Michigan border in May.

Epidemiologists still do not know why Michigan was unlucky or why the outbreak did not spread to neighboring states. But some noted that it took place right around when all adults first became eligible for the vaccine, and before social distancing behavior loosened significantly.

Its possible that people became more cautious during the resurgence, slowing the spread, said Dr. Lessler, the University of North Carolina epidemiologist. Then vaccines helped stamp it out.

Case and death records

broken across the South

Case and death records

broken across the South

In June, U.S. coronavirus cases were at a low point not seen since the beginning of the pandemic, and nearly half the population had received at least one shot. States lifted virtually all virus restrictions and people relaxed their behavior in celebration.

The timing proved disastrous, especially for areas with lower vaccination rates. Another variant, this time Delta, took hold and quickly grew to account for a majority of U.S. cases. Missouri saw the first big surge of the Delta wave.

Thats where the fire was ignited; then the fire started to spread to other places, Dr. Vespignani said.

Soon, that outbreak moved across Arkansas, then Louisiana, both states with low vaccination rates. Florida became another early Delta hot spot. By the end of August, most states in the South had hit new records for daily cases or deaths and the virus turned northward, causing surges in the upper Midwest and Mountain West.

While the Delta wave rolled across much of the country, some places were relatively spared.

That fire was never able to get, for instance, into the Northeast corridor, Dr. Vespignani said. Its where theres one of the highest vaccination rates. Its like theres a wall.

Some experts say that the vaccination campaign and much of the country having already experienced several waves of outbreaks which have conferred some immunity to those who were infected and recovered have made them cautiously optimistic for the winter.

Dr. Lessler, who helps run the Covid-19 Scenario Modeling Hub, a consortium of research groups that model the future of the outbreak, said none of the groups forecast a substantial winter peak in the United States this year.

We might see a little bump in cases, and of course people could radically change behavior or we could see a variant, Dr. Lessler said, but he added that he did not think a substantial peak was likely.

All the same, there are bound to remain places where the virus can spread, as each new wave has shown. And questions still remain about how long immunity will last.

The difference between the Michigan Alpha wave in Spring 2021 and the Delta wave is really telling you that the wall that youve built might work for one variant, but it might not be enough for the next one, Mr. Vespignani said. There might be another variant that is more transmissible and with more immune evasion. Thats why we need to build the wall as high as possible.

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What Previous Covid-19 Waves Tell Us About the Virus Now - The New York Times

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 15,131 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 183 additional deaths and over 209,651 new vaccine doses administered.

In all, 1,680,908 cases of coronavirus have been reported in the state since the pandemic began, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The additional deaths reported this week bring the state to 25,590 confirmed COVID fatalities.

The state has administered 773,791 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 34 million tests conducted during the pandemic.

The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests dropped to 2.2% from 2.5% last week, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests remained at 2% over the past week.

Over the past seven days, a total of 209,651doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents. The latest figures brought the states average to 29,950 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.

More than 15.2 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 54% of Illinois resident are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with more than 69% receiving at least one dose.

As of midnight Thursday, 1,277 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 323 are in ICU beds, and 152 are on ventilators.

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Coronavirus in Illinois: 15,131 New COVID Cases, 183 Deaths, 209K Vaccinations in the Past Week - NBC Chicago

Rishi Sunak has refused to commit to wearing a mask inside a crowded House of Commons, as a leading government scientific adviser said ministers were mistaken to believe that vaccinations alone would keep Covid levels under control.

The chancellor also reiterated that ministers did not yet believe it was necessary to move to the governments plan B for Covid over the winter, which would reintroduce mandatory mask wearing for crowded spaces, vaccine passports and more home working.

At the moment, the data does not suggest that we should be immediately moving to plan B, Sunak told BBC1s Andrew Marr Show. But of course we will keep an eye on that. The plans are ready, we outlined them way beforehand to make sure people knew what the possible options would be for the winter, which we said would be challenging.

Sunak, who does not wear a mask in the Commons, dodged questions about whether this was the right thing to do in an often crowded, poorly ventilated chamber. He did wear a masks in other settings, such as crowded trains, he said.

The government guidance is for people to make decisions based on what they think is appropriate based on the circumstances they are in, he said. Every workplace is going to be different depending on how many people are there, how long youre there for, whether you know the people or not.

This had been the consistent government line on mask use in the Commons, until the health secretary, Sajid Javid, said last week that Conservative MPs should set an example over mask use.

Adam Finn, a professor of paediatrics at Bristol University and a member of the governments Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisation, said relying on vaccinations alone, even with booster jabs, was not enough.

I would like to re-emphasise the fact that the vaccine programme by itself, in the current situation, even if things go optimally, is not in my opinion enough to bring things under control, he told Skys Trevor Phillips on Sunday show.

We do need to have people using lateral flow tests, avoiding contact with large numbers of people in enclosed spaces, using masks, all of those things now need to happen if were going to stop this rise and get things under control soon enough to stop a real meltdown in the middle of the winter.

Finn said he was concerned that the rate of vaccination was suffering because of a sense that somehow the problems gone and we can all go back to normal again.

So I do think we need to see a very different kind of message coming from the government now that there is a serious problem, and we all need to contribute to reducing transmission, so that we can get through the winter and the NHS can stay afloat and absolutely we can avoid lockdowns, and the disasters that those bring.

Speaking on the same show, Dr Katherine Henderson, the president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said emergency departments were already in a terrible place.

Were already struggling to cope, she said. This is not something thats coming in the next couple of months. Were already in a terrible place where we have got large queues of ambulances with vulnerable people waiting in those ambulances to be offloaded into departments and other patients at home waiting to be picked up by the ambulance.

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Sunak refuses to commit to wearing mask in crowded Commons - The Guardian

Sevenmore Mainers have died while health officials on Saturday reported another 585coronavirus cases across the state.

Saturdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 100,967,according to the Maine CDC. Thats up from 100,382 on Friday.

Of those, 71,989have been confirmed positive, while 28,978were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

Three women and four men have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,122.

One was from Cumberland County, one from Kennebec County, two from Oxford County, two from Penobscot County and one from York County. Of those, two were 80 or older, two were in their 70s and the others were in their 60s, 50s and 30s.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 6,019. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats down from 6,034 on Friday.

The new case rate statewide Saturday was 4.37 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 754.38.

Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 464, up from 457.3 the day before, up from 401.9 a week ago and down from 465 a month ago. That average peaked on Jan. 14 at 625.3.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old make up the majority of deaths. More cases have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.

So far, 2,721 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 206 are currently hospitalized, with 71 in critical care and 28 on a ventilator. Overall, 46 out of 339 critical care beds and 206 out of 305 ventilators are available.

The total statewide hospitalization rate on Saturday was 20.33 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (10,626), Aroostook (3,818), Cumberland (21,684), Franklin (2,241), Hancock (2,725), Kennebec (9,636), Knox (1,921), Lincoln (1,275), Oxford (5,038), Penobscot (12,025), Piscataquis (1,301), Sagadahoc (1,948), Somerset (4,243), Waldo (2,401), Washington (1,823) and York (17,760) counties. Information about where an additional two cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

An additional 2,486 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Saturday, 902,129 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 76.2 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.

New Hampshire reported 535 new cases on Saturday and four deaths. Vermont reported 230 new cases and no deaths, while Massachusetts reported 1,454 new cases and 15 deaths.

As of Saturday afternoon, the coronavirus had sickened 45,410,887 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 735,507 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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7 more Mainers have died and another 585 coronavirus cases reported across the state - Bangor Daily News

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) this week expanded eligibility for the coronavirus (COVID-19) booster shot, including those who received either the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Booster doses of Pfizers vaccine began last month for people at high risk of coronavirus, and a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel has recommended the same approach for Moderna recipients. An FDA panel has also endorsed a booster shot for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

On Thursday, the CDC announced expanded booster shot eligibility. Here are four things to know about the agencys current recommendations.

MODERNA, PFIZER

The following Americans who had their initial Moderna or Pfizer two-dose vaccine course at least six months ago are now eligible to receive a booster shot: those 65 years and older; those 18 years and older who live inlong-term care settings; those 18 years and older who haveunderlying medical conditions; those 18 and older who work or live inhigh-risk settings.

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

For those who had a Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, booster shots are now recommended for those who are 18 and older and who were vaccinated two or more months ago.

CHOOSING A BOOSTER

Eligible individuals may choose which vaccine they receive as a booster dose. Some people may have a preference for the vaccine type that they originally received, and others may prefer to get a different booster. CDCs recommendations now allow for mix-and-match dosing for booster shots.

VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS

According to recent data, all three coronavirus vaccines approved or authorized in the United States continue to be highly effectivein reducing risk of severe disease, hospitalization and death, even against the widely circulating Delta variant.

The evidence shows that all three COVID-19 vaccines authorized in the United States are safe as demonstrated by the over 400 million vaccine doses already given, said Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the CDC, in a statement.

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Coronavirus: 4 things to know about expanded booster shot eligibility - SILive.com