Category Archives: Corona Virus

Illinois health officials on Friday reported 18,735 new COVID-19 cases in the past week, along with 236additional deaths and over 159,000 new vaccine doses administered.

In all, 1,630,864 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 25,017 confirmed COVID fatalities.

The state has administered 842,141 tests since last Friday, officials said, bringing the total to more than 32 million tests conducted during the pandemic.

The states seven-day positivity rate on all tests dropped to 2.2% from last week 2.7% and 4.4% the week before, officials said. The rolling average seven-day positivity rate for cases as a percentage of total tests also dropped to 2.8% from 3.7% last week and 4.1% the week before.

Over the past seven days, a total of 159,278doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered to Illinois residents. The latest figures brought the states average down to 22,754 daily vaccination doses over the last week, per IDPH data.

More than 14.5 million vaccine doses have been administered in Illinois since vaccinations began in December. More than 64% of adult residents in the state are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with more than 81% receiving at least one dose.

As of midnight Thursday, 1,833 patients were hospitalized due to COVID in the state. Of those patients, 447are in ICU beds, and 236are on ventilators.

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Coronavirus in Illinois: 18,735 New COVID Cases, 236 Deaths, 159K Vaccinations in the Past Week - NBC Chicago

To hug or not to hug? Experts say it depends on where you've been and your personal tolerance for risk. Malaka Gharib/ NPR hide caption

To hug or not to hug? Experts say it depends on where you've been and your personal tolerance for risk.

Each week, we answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." See an archive of our FAQs here.

I'm vaccinated. Is it safe to hug others who aren't in my bubble if they're vaccinated, too? What about shaking hands with a stranger, say, at work. I'm eager to get back to the way it was ... but slightly nervous.

You must remember this A kiss is just a kiss A sigh is just a sigh The fundamental things apply As time goes by

The lyrics of As Time Goes By are pretty famous yet no longer hold true. A kiss, even a kiss on the cheek, in the time of a pandemic makes people nervous. Early on in this global health crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron suggested curtailing the country's beloved cheek kiss to avoid spreading COVID-19.

Now we're in a new era the vaccine era. It's not an equitable era in terms of vaccine rates. But people are getting their shots around the world.

The French have reportedly begun cheek kissing again although not everyone feels comfortable resuming this venerable tradition.

And kissing isn't the only person-to-person contact that has come in for a pandemic rethink. There's hugging and handshaking, too.

In Nigeria, says Dr. Ifeanyi Nsofor, "most Nigerians have moved on as far as COVID-19 is concerned. Both the vaccinated and unvaccinated hug and shake hands freely. A few people still fist-bump though."

He says he'll hug a friend who is vaccinated but otherwise prefers a fist bump.

So the question looms: For those who've been vaccinated, how up-close and personal can you get?

The answer depends on various points.

First, let's consider how you catch COVID-19. "The data itself hasn't changed," says Dr. Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. "This virus is transmitted through respiratory and aerosol droplets. So we know closer contact with infected individuals will increase your risk of becoming infected."

But vaccination does offer protection. A vaccinated person who's infected will breathe out far fewer particles with pathogens and has greater barriers against getting infected. "Although, as we've learned with delta variant breakthrough transmission, infection is still possible in the vaccinated although much less likely," Weatherhead notes.

Then there's the matter of how much time goes by during a close contact with someone. We've all heard from public health agencies that the longer you're exposed to somebody who might be contagious, the greater the risk that you'll get infected. A lot of people talk about 15 minutes of close contact putting you at risk either a chunk of time or 15 minutes spread out.

That's a bit simplistic, says Seema Lakdawala, an associate professor at the Center for Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Even less than five minutes of close exposure in a packed indoor room might be all it takes to catch COVID-19. "If the person is extremely infectious, being up-close to them indoors is very high risk," says Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford University. "Hugging is as close as you can get."

By contrast, if you're outdoors, where airflow disperses those particles of pathogens, 15 minutes or more of contact might not be risky.

So that brings us back to the question: to hug or not to hug?

"I am a hugger by nature," says Lakdawala. "If I know the other person is fully vaccinated and I'm fully vaccinated, I'll give them a hug. I'm OK with that level of risk." She would generally wear a mask, although says she would hug her sister with no mask. Knowing her sister's routine, she says, "I am willing to take on her level of risk."

But she would take circumstances into consideration. "In a crowded bar, no," she says. Too many risks you're inside, you're up-close with lots of other people as well. "Outdoors, I'm OK."

A greater risk than a hug would be "sitting in an enclosed space with somebody you don't know," adds Charlotte Baker, assistant professor of epidemiology at Virginia Tech.

Baker, who is immunocompromised, is OK with hugging, too, with a couple of provisos: "As long as people are masked up and I know where you've been, I don't really have a problem with hugging."

As for the "where you've been" point if the hugger or huggee say, was on a six-hour flight the day before or very recently attended an indoor concert that might make you reconsider or make sure that you and the person you're hugging are wearing masks.

Then there are people outside your close family/friend "bubble" whom you might want to hug but may have jobs in fields that expose them to lots of potentially contagious folks, such as health care, education or the service industry.

"Their risk for getting COVID is different than mine. I don't think I'd walk up and just hug them," says Baker. "That would be a circumstance where I don't know your risk, and you don't know mine."

To sum up: The new reality is to share your personal status and preferences.

"I think most people at this point ask first because everybody has a different tolerance level," says Weatherhead. "If you are the hugger, ask if people are comfortable: 'I'm vaccinated and would love to give you a hug.' "

It would have been really weird pre-pandemic to ask "are you vaccinated against, say, the flu?" before hugging (or cheek kissing or shaking the hand of a stranger).

Now, she suggests, it is part of the new normal. "It's not an unreasonable or awkward thing to state anymore."

And that kind of open dialogue is important before hugging a kid, too.

"Ask the parent," says Baker. "And the parent should likewise ask any person the kid wants to give a hug to."

It's important to consider precautions when hugging children as well as adults, Baker adds: washing hands before and after, staying away from anyone who has been sick or exposed to a COVID patient.

The relationship of the adult and the child is also something to consider in weighing risks: "I would definitely rate grandparent hugs over neighbors."

Here's a rundown of potential risks from other up-close-and-personal interactions. In every case, it's your own tolerance of risk and other personal details that will inform a decision.

The cheek kiss: Being vaccinated offers protection, and the cheek kiss is fleeting. "Unless you took your hand and wiped your cheek and wiped your mouth," says Weatherhead, you'd likely be at very low risk of any infection.

The air kiss: "You're blowing air in someone's face," says Lakdawala. "I think a hug is less risky than an air kiss," says Lakdawala. Blowing a kiss from across an uncrowded room doesn't concern her. But "if you're a foot away from somebody and [want to] blow them a kiss, why not give them a hug?" she says.

The handshake: Getting germs on your hands doesn't make you catch COVID-19. But the risk isn't zero. Say the person you're shaking hands with is a stranger you're meeting at work. It is possible the person has been infected and shows no symptoms. Maybe they sneezed or coughed on their hand. Then you touch their hand. And ... you bring your hand to your face, because all of us touch our faces far more often than we think.

One solution is to hand sanitize after a handshake. So that little bottle of hand sanitizer you may have carried early on in the pandemic is still a useful item for your purse or pocket.

Another solution: Give up handshakes! "I don't handshake anymore," says Lakdawala. "People touch their faces way too much to adjust their glasses or mask." If someone sticks out their hand she'll say something like, "Oh yeah, we're going to elbow bump or fist bump because it's COVID time."

The elbow bump or fist bump. An elbow bump is pretty, pretty low risk, especially if you're not breathing in each other's faces while bumping. So the other person would have to have pathogens ON THEIR ELBOW OR FIST and you'd have to pick up those germs ON YOUR ELBOW OR FIST and then BRING YOUR ELBOW OR FIST to your eyes, nose or mouth to become infected. Unless you're a professional contortionist, this seems like the unlikeliest of scenarios to catch a virus. Ifeanyi Nsofor, the fist-bump-loving Nigerian physician, is definitely onto something!

P.S. If you're just an extraordinarily cautious or vulnerable soul, there's always the air hug!

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Can a vaccinated person hug another vaccinated person without risk? : Goats and Soda - NPR

My husband occasionally roots through our freezer and pulls out forgotten items, giving me a can we please throw this away look.

This time the container read Lentil Surprise in my neighbor Kerens cheerful handwriting.

Keren and her family lived two doors up. Four years ago, she was diagnosed with leukemia. A bone marrow transplant from her sister that year seemed to work the needed miracle, but she dealt with side effects from radiation, chemotherapy and the immune-suppressing drugs that kept her from rejecting the transplant.

Kerens husband, Mike, had his own autoimmune issues and had turned to a vegan diet low in oils, salt and sugar to help control his symptoms. Their daughter Ariella, who was 7 when Keren was first diagnosed, was a picky eater.

Keren loved good food, but she was often exhausted and money was tight, so takeout wasnt a frequent option. Trying to meet everyones dietary restrictions often left her nibbling chicken fingers or raw veggies for dinner. I cant cook three different meals, shed lament.

Soon thereafter, I texted her that Id made a cauliflower feta frittata. It was warm. Could I bring her some?

Next week my husband made spanakopita. Would she like a piece?

Soon we were regularly trotting over with entrees for Keren.

Then Keren asked if I wanted some old veggies and freezer-burned chicken they were throwing out.

I did.

A chicken and veggie pasta soon bounced back to Keren and provided our own dinner. It didnt suit the vegan or the picky eater, but Keren loved it.

I couldnt heal Keren. But sharing our food with her felt primal and life-affirming. With each bite, I imagined her growing stronger. I had to imagine it because once COVID-19 hit, we ate at separate tables two houses apart. Id see the three of them at dusk moving like slender masked ghosts on neighborhood walks. Id place food on their porch, ring the bell, then retreat 20 feet. Theyd open the door in their N95 masks and wed shout out conversations.

She used to joke that I could Iron Chef any leftovers in her fridge. My attempts with Kerens celery failed, partly due to my own distaste for it, but I gave it to my sister who found success with it in her home. Zero waste!

Keren was homebound long before COVID, but she was a lively correspondent. I was only one of the many helpers after her illness descended, but proximity made it easy to lend a hand.

For four years our culinary highway was in full swing, with plates of food, raw materials and compost donations (Keren was an avid composter) flying back and forth in a series of insane Tupperware exchanges. She even saved scraps for our dog and dropped off teas and jarred sauces that her family rejected. Now I realize she was cleaning house so Mike wouldnt have to deal with it when she was gone.

On good days, Keren cooked up a storm. Some endeavors succeeded wildly, like a vegan chocolate cake. Others not so much.

Mike wont eat it anymore, shed say, offering me a tub of vegan stew, Feel free to toss, but I cant bear to throw it out.

The addition of oil, salt, spices and alliums which Mikes diet severely limited were all Kerens dishes usually needed for my palate. But Lentil Surprise stumped me. Envisioning a vegan meatloaf, shed added a lot of ketchup. The dish was sweet and bland. I shoved it into the freezer and forgot about it.

Hanukkah and Christmas 2020 came and went, with holiday cookies chugging back and forth. Keren was thinner and visibly strained.

It wasnt clear whether Kerens immunocompromised system would be too frail for a COVID vaccine. She was in and out of the hospital for tests, and it made her cry when staffers didnt wear masks or slung them below their noses.

Late last year, Keren no longer had the energy to tend the compost bin. I wish I could say that I took it over, but I was too busy.

Then came the day Keren called me from her car. The cancer had returned.

Within two weeks, she was gone.

The food highway was no more.

And in my grief, I was left with bottled condiments and Lentil Surprise.

Just throw it away, my husband said sensibly.

I couldnt. Even though Keren would have laughingly told me to dump it, salvaging it was my way to honor the culinary friendship wed forged.

I was on a mission. First, I cooked more lentils. Then I sauted aromatics and spices and added tomatoes to make a masala, a nod to Kerens South Indian ancestry.

I mixed everything with Lentil Surprise and served it over brown rice. Only for myself my family wanted nothing to do with this experiment.

It was still sweet. But with every bite, I remembered meals Keren and I had shared and our zealous two-woman crusade against waste. And how, with almost everything Ive cooked in the last four years, Ive thought, Ill bring some to Keren.

When I washed out the container, I considered leaving Kerens handwritten label intact. But fearing it would cause Mike pain, I peeled it off and threw it away.

Then I filled the container with watermelon, walked up two houses and rang the bell.

Denise Hamilton, a former reporter at the Los Angeles Times, is a native Angeleno, a novelist and a Fulbright scholar.

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Op-Ed: Amid cancer and the coronavirus, it was leftovers that forged our friendship - Los Angeles Times

According to a new study published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Medicine, even a mild COVID infection can lead to symptoms that may last a lifetime. "The research found that over 1 in 3 patients had one or more features of long-COVID recorded between 3 and 6 months after a diagnosis of COVID-19," the authors concluded."This illness affects patients with both severe and mild Covid-19," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said. "Part of the challenge is that patients with long COVID could have a range of different symptoms that can be persistent or can come and go." Read on for 9 signs you may have Long COVIDand to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had COVID.

Pain, in general, is a frequent complaint for Long Haulers, as you'll read about in future slides, but pain localized in the chest and throat area can be quite common, including chest tightness, costochondritis (an inflammation of the rib cage near the lungs), a sore throatsome of these pains can scarily resemble a heart attack.

Abnormal breathing is unfortunately common among Long Haulers. Lucy Gahan, a clinical psychologist from the UK, told CNN: "I can only walk as far as the corner," she said. "In terms of running, I can't imagine when that will happen, if ever." She continued at the time: "I'm a clinical psychologist, and this is not anxiety," she said. "If doctors just say 'We don't know,' it's better than saying Covid symptoms only last two weeks."

RELATED: Over 60? Reverse Aging With These Health Habits

Nausea, diarrhea and vomiting are common symptoms of Long COVID, as is abdominal pain. "For two months, I was bloated and had zero appetite," one long hauler told us. He had his stomach x-rayed, and motility tests done, and was diagnosed with GERD and a hernia before doctors finally conceded it was Long COVID-related. "Some people don't immediately realize that their GI symptoms coincided with their COVID-19 infection, and they may not think the symptoms are related to COVID-19 because they're not respiratory in nature," said Dr. Jordan Shapiro, assistant professor of medicine gastroenterology at Baylor.

Fatigue is one of the most frequently reported symptoms of Long COVID. One recent study says Long COVID may be "reminiscent of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). ME/CFS is a debilitating condition, often triggered by viral and bacterial infections, leading to years-long debilitating symptoms including profound fatigue, post exertional malaise, unrefreshing sleep, cognitive deficits, and orthostatic intolerance."

RELATED: This is a "Significant" Factor in Getting Dementia, Study Shows

"Some people have sleep disorders, you might be able to help with sleep medications or ease or cognitive behavioral therapy," Dr. Walter Koroshetz, Director of NINDS, said during a panel about "The COVID Long Haulers Facing the Cognitive and Physical Consequences." "With the tremendous anxiety that comes from having had COVID and wondering if you're going to die, or family members may have had it as well.Then you think you're over it, you're not over it. So the amount of post-traumatic stress disorder that folks have been describing or even depression is actually quite dramatic."

"The long-COVID features involving pain were notable for 3 reasons," say the study's authors. "First, the overall incidence of pain (of any kind) recorded after COVID-19 was 34.2%, higher than any of the other features, and higher than after influenza (24.0%). Second, pain was the only feature that had a higher incidence in the 3- to 6-month period than in the 0- to 3-month period. Pain, therefore, appears to be a prominent and relatively persistent element of long-COVID. Third, headache and myalgia had characteristics that differed from the other pain categories: They were more common in women and in younger patients, and notably so in those who had been less acutely ill (as proxied by not requiring hospitalization or ITU admission, and without leukocytosis). In each case, this was in the opposite direction to the overall burden of long-COVID features. As such, post-COVID headache and myalgia may result from a different mechanism than the other long-COVID features."

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"We know that headaches can occur at any time during the COVID infection. Actually, people are having headache as one of the first symptomsit's been described as one of the top five symptoms people can have early on during their COVID infection, and people can continue to experience headaches long after their acute illnesses over," Dr. Valerie Klats, a neurologist of Hartford Healthcare's Headache Center, told Channel 8. "Headache is just one of the things that can happenmore likely to happen than the other more severe neurologic problems people can experience due to COVID.These are very disturbing symptoms and very painful and difficult to function, can wreck your life."

Long Haulers suffer from "brain fog," or what Dr. Fauci calls an "inability to concentrate." "Within each organ system, there's a span of severity that in neurology can range from headache to encephalopathy, to muscle weakness, to brain fog that looks like dementia, memory gaps, trouble finding words, inability to do simple math, such as calculating a tip," Elizabeth Cooney, a writer at Stat, said during that panel about "The COVID Long Haulers Facing the Cognitive and Physical Consequences." "People can suffer months, even if their infection was never serious enough to require hospitalization."

RELATED: Secret Side Effects of Obesity, Says Science

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has described "myalgia" as a frequent symptom of Long COVID. It's basically muscle aches and pains, and they can be anywhere on your body.

RELATED: Dr. Fauci Just Issued This "Formidable" Warning

There is no cure yet for Long COVID. Until effective treatments have been discovered, talk to your medical professional, who will try to address your symptoms. "Symptomatic treatmentthat's really important because that's what makes people feel better. So you have to parse out the symptoms and go after them one by one," says Koroshetz. There may also be a Post-COVID clinic near you. Studies like this new one may help. "The fact that the risk is higher after COVID-19 than after influenza suggests that their origin might, in part, directly involve infection with SARS-CoV-2 and is not just a general consequence of viral infection. This might help in developing effective treatments against long-COVID," say the authors. And to protect your life and the lives of others, don't visit any of these 35 Places You're Most Likely to Catch COVID.

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New Signs You've Already Had Coronavirus | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

Twomore Mainers have died as health officials on Saturday reported another 741coronavirus cases across the state.

Saturdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 91,468,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 90,727 on Friday.

Of those, 65,294have been confirmed positive, while 26,174were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

A man and a woman in their 50s and 80s from Cumberland and Kennebec counties have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,026.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 7,559. 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 up from 7,405 on Friday.

The new case rate statewide Saturday was 5.54 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 683.41.

Maines seven-day average for new coronavirus cases is 612.3, up from 593.1 the day before, up from 469.3 a week ago and up from 281.6 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, 2,521 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 204 are currently hospitalized, with 63 in critical care and 29 on a ventilator. Overall, 42 out of 331 critical care beds and 195 out of 303 ventilators are available.

The total statewide hospitalization rate on Saturday was 18.84 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (9,796), Aroostook (3,360), Cumberland (20,323), Franklin (1,888), Hancock (2,342), Kennebec (8,626), Knox (1,673), Lincoln (1,607), Oxford (4,501), Penobscot (10,680), Piscataquis (1,159), Sagadahoc (1,771), Somerset (3,657), Waldo (2,094), Washington (1,477) and York (16,511) counties. Information about where an additional three cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

An additional 1,826 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Saturday, 876,059 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 74 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.

New Hampshire reported 495 new cases on Saturday and no deaths. Vermont reported 190 new cases and one death, while Massachusetts reported 1,648 new cases and 20 deaths.

As of Saturday afternoon, the coronavirus had sickened 43,632,358 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 700,502 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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2 more Mainers have died and another 741 coronavirus cases reported across the state - Bangor Daily News

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Need a COVID-19 vaccine, booster shot? List of clinics in Austin-Travis County this weekend - KXAN.com

RICHMOND, Va. -- In an effort to provide accurate, easy-to-read information on the COVID-19 pandemic and on-going vaccination efforts, WTVR.com will update this post weekly with statistics from the Virginia Department of Health.

COVID-19 IN VIRGINIA (Scroll to bottom for U.S. stats)

Positive COVID-19 Cases Since Start of Pandemic: 869,328 (+19,463 from last Friday)People Hospitalized Since Start of Pandemic: 36,711 (+579 from last Friday)COVID-19-Linked Deaths Since Start of Pandemic: 12,806 (+295 from last Friday)

Total Tests: 12,854,826 (+316,759 from last Friday)All Health Districts Current 7-Day Positivity Rate Total: 9.0% (Down from 9.6% last Friday)

People Vaccinated with at least One Dose: 55,784,359 (+26,585 from last Friday)% of Population with at least One Dose: 67.8% (Up from 67.5% last Friday) People Fully Vaccinated: 5,145,393 (+28,325 from last Friday)% of Population Fully Vaccinated: 60.3% (Up from 60.0% last Friday)

Click here for complete city/county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 cases in Virginia

NOTE: This update data is provided from the Virginia Department of Health daily at 10 a.m. Officials said their cutoff for data is 5 p.m. the previous day. (Cases/testing data is now available Monday-Friday while vaccination data is updated seven days a week.) Get the latest charts and updated numbers from VDH here.

**Scroll down for week-to-week COVID cases comparison**

WTVR

VACCINATE VIRGINIA: Virginians age 12+ are eligible for COVID-19 vaccine. Register for the COVID-19 vaccine on the Vaccinate Virginia website or call 877-VAX-IN-VA (877-275-8343). You can also search for specific vaccines as well as which ones are available near you via the Vaccine Finder website.

VACCINE SUPPLY USAGE

COMPLETE COVERAGE: COVID-19 HEADLINES (App users, click here for a complete list.)

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TRACKING COVID IN VIRGINIA: WEEK-BY-WEEK COMPARISON

Week of Sept. 27-Oct. 1 Positive COVID-19 Cases : +19,463People Hospitalized: +579COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +295

Week of Sept. 20-24Positive COVID-19 Cases : +22,668 People Hospitalized: +718COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +269

Week of Sept. 13-17Positive COVID-19 Cases : +25,370 People Hospitalized: +718COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +233

Week of Sept. 6-10Positive COVID-19 Cases : +23,660People Hospitalized: +670COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +137

Week of Aug. 30 - Sept. 3

Positive COVID-19 Cases : +23,515People Hospitalized: +682 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +130

Week of Aug. 23-27

Positive COVID-19 Cases: +20,573 People Hospitalized: +674 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +122

Week of Aug. 16-20

Positive COVID-19 Cases: +16,253 People Hospitalized: +577 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +48

Week of Aug. 9-13

Positive COVID-19 Case: +13,162 People Hospitalized: +465 COVID-19-Linked Deaths : +41

Week of Aug. 2-6

Positive COVID-19 Cases: +10,280 People Hospitalized: +292 COVID-19-Linked Deaths: +26

Week of July 26-30

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COVID-19 in Virginia: 23,600+ new cases reported this week; 57.7% of Virginians now fully vaccinated - wtvr.com

Flu season is approaching and despite a large drop in flu cases due to covid-19, people should still get their jabs to prevent another viral disease being in mass circulation. In an interview with CNNs The Situation Room, the White House chief medical advisor Dr Anthony Fauci recommended that people get the vital shots as soon as they can.

What you should do is get it as soon as you can and in the most expeditious manner, Fauci told host Wolf Blitzer. If that means going in and getting the flu shot in one arm the covid shot in the other, that's perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with that at all."

He continued: In fact, that might make it more convenient and more likely that you would actually go get both of them if you can do it conveniently in one visit. So, whatever it takes to get both of them, go ahead and do it. If it's one visit, it's perfectly fine.

A British study by the University of Bristol published on Thursday found that side effects were not serious in tests with three flu vaccines and either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca shot.

"This is a really positive step which could mean fewer appointments for those who require both vaccines," chief investigator Rajeka Lazarus said.

Data from John Hopkins University shows that deaths in the US from covid-19 have surpassed 700,000, the highest in the world. The world also passed the grim milestone of 5 million deaths from the virus.

Reaching 700,000 deaths is a tragic and completely avoidable milestone. We had the knowledge and the tools to prevent this from happening, and unfortunately politics, lack of urgency and mistrust in science got us here, John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston childrens hospital, told ABC News.

At present, the US is on its way out of another peak in cases, with the highest day of cases for months being September 7. It saw more than 300,000 new cases in one day alone.

Despite the relative lull in cases at the start of October, seasonal cold weather in the winter will force people back indoors where the virus spreads easier. This is compounded by the overall vaccination rate in the country at just 56%. For comparison, Canada has more than 71% of people vaccinated, while the UK has more than 65%. There is every chance there will be another spike this Christmas.

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Should I have the flu shot if I have the coronavirus vaccine? - AS English

Denmark has lifted the last of its coronavirus restrictions, effectively declaring that the virus was no longer a critical threat to society and allowing the country to get back to a semblance of prepandemic normal.

This can only be done because we have come a long way with the vaccination rollout, have a strong epidemic control, and because the entire Danish population has made an enormous effort to get here, Magnus Heunicke, Denmarks health minister, said in a statement on Friday about the lifting of restrictions.

The Danish government announced late last month that it would allow the restrictions to lapse, and pointed to Denmarks high vaccination rates. As of Saturday, about 76 percent of the countrys population had received one dose of a vaccine, and 73 percent had been fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

While the rules lifted on Friday allow Danes to go more freely about their lives, foreign travelers will still be subject to some restrictions, including presenting a negative coronavirus test upon arrival or possibly even isolating for 10 days, depending on where they are coming from.

The Danish government had been gradually easing its coronavirus restrictions for weeks, including lifting a public transportation mask mandate in mid-August. But the rules lifted this week included the expiration of the coronavirus passport requirement that it had in place for entry into venues like nightclubs.

Mr. Heunicke said that the Danish government would continue to monitor the pandemic, and that it would be ready to act quickly if the situation were to deteriorate.

Denmark was one of the hardest hit countries of Scandinavia, though its northern neighbor Sweden, which shunned hard lockdowns, fared far worse. But cases have fallen in both, and Sweden expects to loosen most of its restrictions starting at the end of the month.

By contrast, Norway, which like Finland had kept cases low through most of the pandemic, is experiencing is worst outbreak to date. However, deaths remain low thanks to Norways high vaccination rates 74 percent of the population have had at least one shot and 64 percent are fully vaccinated.

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Denmark Lifts the Last of Its Pandemic Restrictions - The New York Times

Low-vaccinated communities continue to lead the state in weekly coronavirus case rates, an analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive found, underscoring how the delta variant is devouring the unvaccinated.

Oregon has seen cases fall from record levels set earlier this month. But new and presumed infections remain high, and the communities hardest hit continue to be almost exclusively in vaccine-resistant southern Oregon.

The ZIP code for Myrtle Creek in Douglas County led all of Oregon in coronavirus case rates for the week ending Wednesday, among ZIP codes with at least 40 new cases.

The area recorded 103 new or presumed infections per 10,000 residents, roughly double the worst rate for a community in the Portland area.

The vaccination rate in the Myrtle Creek ZIP code? A staggeringly small 38.2% among residents of all ages, far below the statewide average of 62.4%.

In fact, 11 of the 12 ZIP codes with the highest weekly case rates are all well below the statewide average for people at least partially vaccinated. Only the ZIP code for Lincoln City, along the Oregon coast, surpassed the statewide vaccination mark.

ZIP codes in southern Oregons Douglas and Josephine counties accounted for eight of the dozen areas with the highest weekly case rates. The ZIP codes generally run along the Interstate 5 corridor, including Roseburg, Grants Pass, Sutherlin and Winston.

Vaccination rates in each of those eight areas is below 50%.

While both ZIP codes for Grants Pass made the list of jurisdictions with the highest case rates, one of those, the 97526 ZIP code, led all of Oregon in total new cases regardless of population. It posted 256 cases for the week ending Wednesday, more than double the highest total from a ZIP code in the Portland area.

The list of ZIP codes with high new cases also skews heavy along I-5 in southern Oregon, including Medford, Roseburg, but it also includes parts of Salem. And it features Bend and Redmond in central Oregon, too.

State health officials for months have been saying the summer surge is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, and Oregons record-breaking case counts flooded hospitals. More people with COVID-19 died in August than in all but two other months of the pandemic, and September could be worse.

Officials for the Oregon Health Authority did not respond to a request for comment to the newsrooms analysis comparing case rates with vaccination rates. But Patrick Allen, the agencys director, released a separate statement Thursday about the states mounting death toll, saying it marks a failure of our collective responsibility to take care of each other.

He said Oregonians could prevent more people from dying by taking simple steps to stop COVID-19 from spreading.

The COVID-19 vaccines are extremely safe and effective at preventing serious illness and death from the virus, including the delta variant, he said in the statement. I urge every Oregonian who can to get vaccinated and wear your masks when youre in public places inside and outdoors.

-- Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt

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Coronavirus spread remains stubbornly high in these Oregon ZIP codes - oregonlive.com