Category Archives: Corona Virus

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Air travel in the U.S. hit its highest mark since COVID-19 took hold more than 13 months ago, while European Union officials are proposing to ease restrictions on visitors to the continent as the vaccine sends new cases and deaths tumbling in more affluent countries.

The improving picture in many places contrasts with the worsening disaster in India.

In the U.S., the average number of new cases per day fell below 50,000 for the first time since October. And nearly 1.67 million people were screened at U.S. airport checkpoints on Sunday, according to the Transportation Security Administration, the highest number since mid-March of last year.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation giving him sweeping powers to invalidate local emergency measures put in place during the outbreak. While the law doesnt go into effect until July, the Republican governor said he will issue an executive order to more quickly get rid of local mask mandates.

I think this creates a structure thats going to be a little bit more respectful, I think, of peoples businesses, jobs, schools and personal freedom, he said.

Las Vegas is bustling again after casino capacity limits were raised Saturday to 80% and person-to-person distancing was dropped to 3 feet (0.9 meters). New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York Citys subways will begin running all night again and capacity restrictions on most businesses will end statewide in mid-May. And Los Angeles County reported no coronavirus deaths on Sunday and Monday, some of which may be attributable to a lag in reporting but was nevertheless a hopeful sign that could move the county to allow an increase in capacity at events and venues, and indoor-service at bars.

EU officials also announced a proposal Monday to relaxrestrictionson travel to the 27-nation bloc this summer, though the final decision is up to its member countries.

Time to revive EU tourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle safely, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. We propose to welcome again vaccinated visitors and those from countries with a good health situation.

In Greece, restaurants and cafes reopened their terraces on Monday after six months of shutdown, with customers flocking to soak up the sunshine. In France, high schools reopened and a ban on domestic travel was lifted.

The once hard-hit Czech Republic, where cases are now declining, announced it will allow people to remove face coverings at all outdoor spaces starting next Monday if they keep their distance from others.

But with more-contagious variants taking hold, efforts are underway to boost vaccination efforts, which have begun to lag. Theaveragenumber of doses given per day fell 27% from a high of 3.26 million on April 11 to 2.37 million last Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

InDetroit, teams from the citys health department have knocked on nearly 5,000 doors since the weekend to persuade people to get immunized. And Massachusetts governor announced plans to close four of seven mass vaccination sites by the end of June in favor of a more targeted approach.

My plea to everyone: Get vaccinated now, please, President Joe Biden said in Norfolk, Virginia. He stressed that he has worked hard to make sure there are more than 600 million doses of vaccine enough for all Americans to get both doses.

Were going to increase that number across the board as well so we can also be helping other nations once we take care of all Americans, the president said.

Brazil, once the epicenter of thepandemic, has been overtaken by a surge inIndia that has overrun crematoriums and made it clear the pandemic is far from over.

As the U.S. and other countries rushed in aid, India reported nearly 370,000 new cases and more than 3,400 deaths Monday numbers that experts believe are vast undercounts because of a widespread lack of testing and incomplete reporting.

InGermany, Bavarian officials canceled Oktoberfest for a second year in a row because of the safety risks. The beer-drinking festivities typically attract about 6 million visitors from around the world.

And in Italy, medical experts and politicians expressed concern about a possible spike in infections after tens of thousands of jubilant soccer fans converged on Milans main square Sunday to celebrate Inter Milans league title.

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Coronavirus restrictions easing in U.S. and Europe amid disaster in India - MarketWatch

Heres what you need to know:Skiers at Breckenridge Ski Resort in Breckenridge, Colo., on Sunday.Credit...Stephen Speranza for The New York Times

More than half of U.S. states have seen a significant decline in new coronavirus cases over the past two weeks, as federal health officials have begun to suggest that the viruss trajectory is improving. Still, the uneven levels of vaccination across the country point to the challenge of reaching those people who have not gotten shots.

As of Wednesday, the United States was averaging about 52,600 new cases a day, a 26 percent decline from two weeks ago, and a number comparable to the level of cases reported in mid-October before the deadly winter surge, according to a New York Times database. Since peaking in January, cases, hospitalizations and deaths nationwide have drastically declined.

While addressing a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night, President Biden touted the nations progress on vaccinations since he took office, calling it one of the countrys greatest logistical achievements. He also highlighted the passage of the American Rescue Plan, an ambitious relief package to address the economic toll of the pandemic.

Despite the successes, Mr. Biden implored the public to remain on guard.

Over the past two weeks, case numbers have fallen by 15 percent or more in 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, with drops of 30 percent or more in 14 states and the District of Columbia. As of Wednesday, Vermont reported a 54 percent decline in the average number of new cases a day, while Michigan, which had one of the nations most severe recent outbreaks, is now seeing rapid improvement with cases there down 40 percent.

In New York City, which had seen stubbornly high caseloads for months, the second wave is receding a half-year after it started, the citys health commissioner said.

Federal health officials have taken note. After expressing a recurring sense of impending doom last month, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that she was beginning to see signs of progress.

Cases are starting to come down. We think that this is related to increased vaccination, increased people taking caution, and so Im cautiously optimistic that were turning the corner, she said on Good Morning America.

But she warned that the virus is an opportunist and could strike in communities with low vaccination rates. Persistent vaccine hesitancy remains a challenge, and the pace of vaccination will ebb, officials have acknowledged, amid issues of supply and demand.

About 43 percent of people have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, and 30 percent have been fully vaccinated. Providers are administering about 2.67 million doses per day on average, as of Wednesday, about a 21 percent decrease from the peak of 3.38 million reported on April 13.

The C.D.C.s move to relax mask guidance outdoors this week is a reflection of the rise in the total number of vaccinations and an incentive to get a shot, experts said.

Its another demonstration of what science has been telling us over the last many months, which is that vaccines are effective in preventing the Covid-19 virus from infecting us. And the more people who get vaccinated, the more quickly we can resume our activities, Dr. Vivek Murthy, the surgeon general, said in a Tuesday interview on CNN.

Mr. Biden has set a target date of July 4 for the country to get life in America closer to normal. But public health experts have emphasized that the experience of the pandemic across the world is not universal. India, for example, is experiencing a catastrophic second wave that could have global implications.

Pandemics require global cooperation and mutual support, Dr. Murthy said. When theres uncontrolled spread of the virus in any part of the world, that means that variants can arise, variants which may over time become resistant to the protection that we get from vaccines, which could mean a real problem for us here in the United States.

Allyson Waller and Kevin Draper contributed reporting.

As supplies run dangerously low and hospitals in India are forced to turn away the sick, scientists are trying to determine what role variants of the coronavirus might be playing.

Doctors, the public and the media are citing anecdotal but inconclusive evidence to suggest that a homegrown variant called B.1.617 is driving the countrys worsening outbreak. But researchers outside of India say the limited data so far suggests instead that a better-known variant, B.1.1.7., that walloped Britain late last year may be a more considerable factor.

Authorities in India reported nearly 3,300 daily deaths on Wednesday. That brings the official total to nearly 201,200 people lost, though experts believe the true figure is much higher. Daily new infections also surged to nearly 357,700, another record.

The presence of the variant could complicate the taming of Indias Covid-19 disaster. A number of doctors point to anecdotal evidence that people who have been fully vaccinated are getting sick.

The current wave of Covid has a different clinical behavior, said Dr. Sujay Shad, a senior cardiac surgeon at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where two of the doctors needed supplemental oxygen to recover. Its affecting young adults. Its affecting families. Its a new thing altogether. Two-month-old babies are getting infected.

Scientists say that different variants seem to dominate specific parts of India. For instance, the B.1.617 variant has been detected in a large number of samples from the central state of Maharashtra while the B.1.1.7 variant is rising quickly in New Delhi.

There are variants that are more transmissible than what we all coped with a year ago, said Dr. Jeffrey Barrett, director of the Covid-19 genomics initiative at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Britain. Things can change really quickly, so if a country doesnt react quickly enough, things can go from bad to very bad very quickly.

Beyond the variants, scientists believe there are other, possibly more obvious factors that could be powering Indias deadly second wave.

India has just scraped the surface in terms of vaccinating its population, with less than 2 percent fully vaccinated. Experts also blame lax public behavior after last years first wave and missteps by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And they note that Indias schools had started reopening in recent months a possible factor behind rising infections among young people.

A broad lack of data plagues the scientific chase for variants and whether they are contributing to the severity of Indias crisis. Fast-moving mutations complicate the picture because it isnt immediately clear how quickly they spread or how they respond to vaccines.

In India, the health care system wasnt on alert for the impact of variants at home, even as they began to spread globally, said Dr. Thekkekara Jacob John, a senior virologist in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

We were not looking for variants at all, he said. In other words, we missed the boat.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines are 94 percent effective at preventing hospitalization in fully vaccinated adults 65 or older, according to a small study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday.

The findings, which are consistent with the clinical trial results, are the first real-world evidence from the United States that the vaccines protect against severe Covid-19. Older adults are at the highest risk of hospitalization and death from the disease. More than 573,000 people have died across the country related to the virus, according to a New York Times database, and as of Wednesday, 142.7 million people have received at least one dose of one of three federally authorized vaccines, including about 98 million people who have been fully vaccinated.

These findings are encouraging and welcome news for the two-thirds of people aged 65 and up who are already fully vaccinated, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C. director, said in a statement. Covid-19 vaccines are highly effective and these real-world findings confirm the benefits seen in clinical trials, preventing hospitalizations among those most vulnerable.

The study is based on data from 417 patients who were admitted to 24 hospitals in 14 states between January 1 and March 26. Approximately half were 75 or older.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots, spaced three to four weeks apart. Older adults who were partially vaccinated that is, they had received one dose of the vaccine more than two weeks prior were 64 percent less likely to be hospitalized with the coronavirus than unvaccinated seniors, the researchers reported.

The vaccines did not reduce hospitalization rates in people who had received their first dose less than two weeks prior. The body requires time to mount an effective immune response, and people are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the last dose in the series.

This also highlights the continued risk for severe illness shortly after vaccination, before a protective immune response has been achieved and reinforces the need for vaccinated adults to continue physical distancing and prevention behaviors, the scientists wrote.

Germanys domestic intelligence service said on Wednesday that it would surveil members of the increasingly aggressive coronavirus denier movement because they posed a risk of undermining the state.

The movement fueled in part by wild conspiracy theories has grown from criticizing coronavirus lockdown measures and hygiene rules to targeting the state itself, its leaders, businesses, the press and globalism, to name a few.

Our basic democratic order, as well as state institutions such as parliaments and governments, have faced multiple attacks since the beginning of the measures to contain the Covid-19 pandemic, the Interior Ministry said in a statement confirming that parts of the denier movement were under observation. The Interior Ministry oversees the intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution.

In announcing the decision to keep tabs on conspiracy theorists, intelligence officials noted the movements close ties to extremist groups like the Reichsbrger, who refuse to accept the legitimacy of the modern German state.

The news comes days after Germany instituted new virus rules that apply nationwide and allow the federal government to enforce lockdowns. (Such regulation had previously been in the hands of the countrys 16 states.) It also suggests that the authorities believe coronavirus denier groups could continue to flourish and pose a threat after the pandemic ends.

The movement, called Querdenken, German for lateral thinking, communicates and recruits over social media and has a large presence on the encrypted chat service Telegram, where its main channel has 65,000 subscribers.

A week ago, when Parliament passed the law giving the government powers to impose the latest lockdown, about 8,000 of the movements activists took to the streets in Berlin before being dispersed by the police for ignoring mask and distancing rules. Germany has seen a persistently high number of new daily cases recently, averaging about 19,000, up from about 8,000 two months ago.

Pia Lamberty, a psychologist and expert in the German conspiracy scene, warned of connections between the deniers and far-right extremists. The danger of Querdenken, she said, has long been underestimated.

After months of persistently high coronavirus caseloads, New York City appears to have finally reached a turning point. The citys second wave is ebbing, a half-year after it began, New York Citys health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, said.

Throughout April, virus cases, hospitalizations and deaths have all been declining, which epidemiologists attribute to the climbing rate of vaccination as well as the arrival of warm weather, drawing people outdoors.

From a second-wave peak of nearly 8,000 cases in a single day in January, New York City, as of last week, was averaging about 2,000 virus cases per day. The seven-day positive test rate has fallen, too, and is now between 3 and 4 percent, according to the citys data, the lowest it has been since the fall but still a lot higher than its low of 1 percent last summer.

Public health officials say that by July, if the city stays on its current trajectory, that number could drop to below 600 cases a day, perhaps lower.

But epidemiologists and city officials warn that the epidemic is not close to over in New York, even though there are promising signs.

Hospitalizations have dropped faster for people over 65 a group prioritized for vaccinations early on than for other groups. Yet more than 1,500 Covid-19 patients remain hospitalized in New York City, and the death toll on some days is still around 40.

While some neighborhoods now have positivity rates of under 1 percent, in others that rate is six or seven times higher. Officials also worry that uneven vaccination coverage could lead to a situation where the virus persists in some corners of the city, but not others. Manhattan, the borough with the highest median household income, is far more vaccinated than the Bronx, the poorest, reflecting vaccine hesitancy in some parts of the city and underscoring the longstanding inequalities in health care that the virus has laid bare.

And there are signs that the pace of vaccinations is slowing. So far 52 percent of adults across the city have received at least one dose.

I feel good that we are beginning to see a vaccine effect on transmission here, said Dr. Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the City University of New Yorks School of Public Health. But we still have a long way to go, and there are so many New Yorkers and so many neighborhoods that are more affected by this pandemic that are being left behind.

U.S. Round up

New York will end a longstanding curfew next month that forced bars and restaurants to close early in a bid to fight the spread of the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Wednesday.

The announcement came as state lawmakers voted to suspend an unpopular directive that required customers to order food when purchasing alcohol at bars and restaurants.

The curfew, which currently requires establishments to stop serving customers at midnight, will end statewide on May 17 for outdoor dining areas and May 31 for indoor dining.

Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat, first ordered the restriction last November as the state tried to stave off a second surge of the virus, saying at the time that indoor dining at restaurants was a likely cause of the spread. He loosened the curfew in recent months as cases have fallen, moving it from 10 p.m. to midnight.

The hospitality industry and some state lawmakers have long criticized the curfew as arbitrary, pointing to a lack of evidence that late-night dining was contributing in any meaningful way to the viruss spread.

The state will also allow people in New York City to sit at bars starting on Monday, for the first time since Mr. Cuomo implemented a statewide shutdown last March. Even as establishments have been allowed to welcome customers indoors, patrons were required to be seated at tables.

The restaurant industry welcomed the news.

Its great news that the state will finally undo the bar stool ban and lift the arbitrary midnight curfew, said Andrew Rigie, the executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, an industry group. These outdated policies made it too difficult for too many small business owners and workers to support themselves and their families, and were a grave inconvenience to customers.

The state will also loosen restrictions on catered events at residences. Beginning on Monday, they can have more than 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, provided events follow any necessary mask and social-distancing directives. Curfews on all catered events will also be lifted next month.

Officials in the state have gradually taken steps to roll back virus-related restrictions as more New York residents were vaccinated and cases of the virus fell.

The citys second wave is finally ebbing, a half-year after it began, with virus rates and hospitalizations plunging, though city officials warn that the epidemic is not close to being over in the city.

On Monday, Mr. Cuomo said that next month the state would raise the capacity limits on offices statewide to 75 percent from 50 percent and on gyms outside New York City to 50 percent from 33 percent.

Last month he raised the maximum capacity for indoor dining at restaurants in New York City to 50 percent, up from 35 percent. Restaurants in the remainder of the state are allowed to serve customers at 75 percent occupancy.

Luis Ferr-Sadurn contributed reporting.

In other news from around the United States:

Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland announced Wednesday he would lift the state of Marylands outdoor mask mandate, effective immediately, citing recent guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Starting May 1, restrictions surrounding outdoor dining, including capacity limits and social distancing, will also be lifted. Coronavirus cases in Maryland have dropped 29 percent in the past two weeks, according to a New York Times database.

In Atlanta, certain sports venues are making a return to 100 percent capacity. On Wednesday, the home stadium of the Atlanta Braves, Truist Park, announced it would allow 100 percent capacity at games starting May 7. Capacity at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium, home of the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United, will also move up to 100 percent capacity, AMB Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the two professional teams, said in a statement on Wednesday. The change in restrictions for the Mercedes-Benz Stadium will start May 15.

The effort by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomos office to obscure the pandemic death toll in nursing homes in New York State was far greater than previously known, with aides repeatedly overruling state health officials over a span of at least five months, according to interviews and newly unearthed documents.

Mr. Cuomos most senior aides engaged in a sustained effort to prevent the states own health officials, including Howard Zucker, the health commissioner, from releasing the true death toll to the public or sharing it with state lawmakers, these interviews and documents showed.

A scientific paper, which incorporated the data, was never published. An audit of the numbers by a top Cuomo aide was finished months before it became publicly known. Two letters, drafted by the Health Department and meant for state legislators, were never sent.

The number of nursing home residents who died in first wave of the pandemic has been a particularly sensitive question for the Cuomo administration, which initially put the number at around 6,000.

The full data on nursing home deaths was not released until this year, after a report by the state attorney general in late January found that the official tally might have undercounted the true toll by as much as 50 percent. That was something Mr. Cuomos aides had known since the previous spring, The New York Times found.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that fully vaccinated Americans can, in most cases, avoid wearing masks outdoors. But this group of nearly 100 million, scattered across the country, remains for now under the authority of a patchwork of mask mandates, varying by state and sometimes by county, dictating when and where face coverings should be worn.

Some states, like Arizona and Texas, have already lifted mask mandates. But most indoor mask mandates could be eased or eliminated by the summer, said Dr. Arthur Reingold, chair of the epidemiology division at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley as long as people continue to get vaccinated, and as long as the United States avoids the troubling waves it has endured over the past year.

About 2.7 million Covid-19 vaccine doses are being administered nationally each day on average a drop from the peak of more than 3.3 million this month, when those who were most eager and able to get shots were getting them quickly.

By summer, Dr. Reingold said, there wont be big regional differences in mask wearing as there are now. Strict outdoor masking has been standard behavior in urban centers like New York City and San Francisco, but less common in other parts of the country.

The C.D.C. on Tuesday advised that Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus no longer need to wear masks outdoors, except in some cases, like during large gatherings.

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said that New York would adopt the C.D.C.s guidance on outdoor mask wearing for vaccinated people, and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said, If youre fully vaccinated, outdoors and not in a large crowd you do not need to wear a mask.

A federal mask policy was always going to be somewhere between difficult and impossible to achieve in the United States, Dr. Reingold said. Still, outside of places like airports and stores where strictly enforced mask requirements have sometimes led to heated confrontations mask wearing has often been an individual choice, as local government mask mandates have rarely led to fines or punishment.

The C.D.C. is maintaining its advice on other safety measures, saying that all adults should wear masks and stay six feet apart at outdoor performance and sporting events and in indoor shopping malls and movie theaters.

President Biden said on Tuesday at an outdoor news conference that the updated guidance was a step toward getting life in America closer to normal.

Xavier Becerra, the secretary of health and human services, said on CBS This Morning on Tuesday, The message is clear: Youre vaccinated? Guess what, you get to return to a more normal lifestyle.

As the United States vaccinates more people and several states begin to reopen, public health officials warn that the failure of U.S. authorities to test adult migrants for the coronavirus in jam-packed border processing centers is creating a potential for new transmissions even among migrants who may have arrived healthy at Americas door.

More than 170,000 migrants crossed the border in March, many coming from countries still grappling with high infection rates. The government says it has insufficient time and space to test them upon their arrival, so testing is being postponed until the newcomers are released to local community groups, cities and counties.

But that is usually after they have spent days confined in tight spaces with scores of strangers, often sleeping shoulder-to-shoulder on mats on the floor.

There have been no reported instances of mass spread at U.S. border facilities, and overall numbers of cases are relatively low, according to the Department of Homeland Security. But local officials and shelter operators say they fear the true number of cases could be much higher.

Perhaps no one feels the strain of remote learning more acutely than the youngest, highest-need students, whose ability to access in-person early intervention classes, targeted behavior analysis and speech therapy is considered key to their academic success.

In New Jersey, school districts in two towns five miles apart with similar population sizes and similarly high rates of coronavirus cases made radically different choices about whether and how to reopen schools during the pandemic.

In Rutherford, where schools have been mostly open, young children with autism have spent more than 700 hours in class since September. In Secaucus, the number of hours is closer to just 100.

Reuben Alarcon, part of a group of parents who have criticized the Secaucus Public School Districts reopening policies, said he was worried that the educational opportunities his son Eric, who will be 4 next month, lost during a crucial year of brain development would cause lifelong harm.

He will sometimes use one or two words to ask for something. Sometimes he surprises us and he blurts out a sentence, Mr. Alarcon said. He would be so much more ahead had he had the full-time class.

Organizers of the rescheduled Summer Olympics released a second round of so-called playbooks on Wednesday, with updated protocols for those taking part in the worlds largest sporting event this July.

Among the new rules: Athletes will be tested daily, but they will not need to quarantine. Visitors will be asked to stay off public transit. And members of the news media, along with other officials, will be urged to eat takeout meals alone.

Thomas Bach, the International Olympic Committee president, said the revised protocols were based on the best scientific and medical expertise and the experience of hundreds of sports events over the last year, involving thousands of athletes.

Organizers have not mandated that Olympians be vaccinated, and will not address whether domestic spectators will be allowed into Olympic stadiums and arena until June. Overseas spectators are barred from the Games, but tens of thousands of people will enter Japan this summer after nearly a year in which the countrys borders have been mostly closed to nonresidents.

Many in Japan are jittery that the Games could turn into a Covid superspreader event. In several public polls, a majority said they would prefer the Olympics be postponed again or canceled altogether, and some public health experts have questioned whether the Games are safe to stage under current pandemic conditions.

The unions representing television actors and crews are in talks with the major studios about extending and possibly changing the pandemic safety protocols they agreed on last year, like frequent testing and letting some employees record from inside closets.

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In U.S., Virus Cases Have Recently Dropped in Over Half of States - The New York Times

DENVER Health officials in Colorado say virus outbreaks have increased this week, reaching a total last seen in February, with the most outbreaks reported in schools and nursing homes.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment said there were 722 active COVID-19 outbreaks as of Wednesday, The Denver Post reported Thursday.

An outbreak is at least two confirmed cases linked to the same location or event. Outbreaks are declared over after four weeks with no new infections.

Compared with last week, K-12 schools reported 18 more COVID-19 outbreaks and nursing homes reported 13 more outbreaks, health officials said. Manufacturing facilities, offices and restaurants and assisted living facilities also saw an increase in outbreaks.

Long-term care facilities reported 69 active virus outbreaks in Colorado, with 52 of them found since April 1. Nursing home residents were among the first to be offered vaccines, but not everyone took the shot. Some unvaccinated residents may have also moved in since vaccination efforts began.

As of Thursday, about 1.6 million Coloradans were fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

The latest from the coronavirus outbreak in Colorado:

>> FULL COVERAGE

Officials said schools reported 90 active virus outbreaks, with majority of them being small. Only seven outbreaks involve 20 or more confirmed COVID-19 cases. It is not immediately clear how many teachers are fully vaccinated.

Health officials also said 613 people were hospitalized with confirmed or suspected COVID-19 infections as of Wednesday, 100 more than a week earlier. But officials warn it is too early to see a pattern. That number dropped to 551 on Thursday.

The seven-day average for new COVID-19 cases continued trending down Wednesday, while the percentage of positive tests remained high, indicating the state isnt detecting some infections.

More than 43% of Colorados population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 25% of the population is fully vaccinated.

The Colorado Sun has no paywall, meaning readers do not have to pay to access stories. We believe vital information needs to be seen by the people impacted, whether its a public health crisis, investigative reporting or keeping lawmakers accountable.

This reporting depends on support from readers like you. For just $5/month, you can invest in an informed community.

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Schools and nursing home drive increase in Colorado coronavirus outbreaks - The Colorado Sun

People scrambled for life-saving oxygen supplies across India on Friday and patients lay dying outside hospitals as the capital recorded the equivalent of one death from COVID-19 every five minutes.

For the second day running, the country's overnight infection total was higher than ever recorded anywhere in the world since the pandemic began last year, at 332,730.

India's second wave has hit with such ferocity that hospitals are running out of oxygen, beds and anti-viral drugs. Many patients have been turned away because there was no space for them, doctors in Delhi said.

Ambulance sirens sounded throughout the day in the deserted streets of the capital, one of India's worst hit cities, where a lockdown is in place to try and stem the transmission of the virus.

Mass cremations have been taking place as the crematoriums have run out of space and families have had to wait for two days to cremate the dead.

At Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital in the north east of the city, critical patients gasping for air arrived in ambulances and autorickshaws. One man among half a dozen people waiting for hours on trolleys outside on Friday died before being admitted.

"The staff are doing their best but there is not enough oxygen," Tushar Maurya, whose mother is being treated at the hospital, told Reuters. "If you are not in a serious condition please don't come. It isn't safe."

ALL ALONE

The India Today television channel showed angry relatives outside a hospital in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat.

"People are dying in front of hospitals while they wait for a bed to become available," one man said.

Another young man, who was not identified, said "Is this why we voted for this government? When we need it the most, we find ourselves all alone. Where will the poor go?"

Health experts say India became complacent in the winter, when new cases were running at about 10,000 a day and seemed to be under control, and lifted restrictions to allow big gatherings.

Modi himself has faced rare criticism for allowing political rallies and a Hindu religious festival, in which millions take a ritual bath in the Ganges river, to go ahead. He addressed many of the rallies with packed crowds and few people wearing masks.

"Indians let down their collective guard," Zarir Udwadia, a pulmonologist on Maharashtra's task force, wrote in the Times of India newspaper.

"We heard self-congratulatory declarations of victory from our leaders, now cruelly exposed as mere self-assured hubris."

Delhi's government declared in February it had beaten back the coronavirus. On Friday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal went on live television to plead for medical oxygen supplies in a virtual meeting with Modi, warning that many people would die.

"All of the country's oxygen plants should immediately be taken over by the government through the army," he said.

Police in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, some wielding assault rifles, escorted trucks to waiting hospitals in Delhi, while city governments traded accusations over hoarding. read more

Modi said government was making a "continuous effort" to increase oxygen supplies, including steps to divert industrial oxygen.

A fire broke out in a hospital treating COVID-19 patients in a Mumbai suburb early on Friday, killing 13 people, underlining the stress the hospitals were under. On Wednesday, 22 patients died at a public hospital in Maharashtra where Mumbai is located when oxygen supply ran out due to a leaking tank.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was concerned about the growing case load in India, which on Thursday passed the previous global high of 297,430 recorded in January in the United States, where case numbers have fallen.

"The situation in India is a devastating reminder of what the virus can do," he told a virtual briefing in Geneva.

WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan said reducing transmission would be a "very difficult task" but the government was working on limiting mixing between people, which he said was essential.

Bhramar Mukherjee, a professor of biostatistics and epidemiology at the University of Michigan in the United States, said it seemed as if there was no social safety net for Indians.

"Everyone is fighting for their own survival and trying to protect their loved ones," he said. "This is hard to watch."

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Hospitals overrun as India's COVID-19 infections top global record for second day - Reuters India

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness rose above 144.8 million on Friday, as the death toll increased to 3.07 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. continues to lead the world in cases and deaths by wide margins, with 31.9 million cases, or 22.1% of the global total, and 570,346 deaths, or 18.6% of the worldwide total. The U.S. added at least 61,901 cases on Thursday, while new deaths rose to at least 719, according to a New York Times Tracker. But the U.S. also leads the world in vaccines administered, with 27% of the poplation now fully vaccinated and 41% receiving at least one dose of two-dose vaccines.India is second to the U.S. by cases at 16.3 million after adding a record of more than 330,000 cases in a 24-hour period, setting a global record for a second day, the Times reported. India has suffered 186,920 deaths, according to its official numbers, or fourth-highest in the world. Brazil is third with 14.3 million cases and second by fatalities at 383,502. Mexico has the third-highest death toll at 214,095 and 2.3 million cases, or 15th highest tally. The U.K. has 4.4 million cases and 127,597 deaths, the fifth-highest in the world and highest in Europe.

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Coronavirus tally: Global cases of COVID-19 top 144.8 million and India sees record of more than 330,000 cases in a single day - MarketWatch

The rollout of coronavirus vaccines in Florida was heralded as a light at the end of the tunnel for a pandemic that has upended normalcy and killed 35,000 people in the Sunshine State alone. Now comes the question of just how long the tunnel is.

Across Tampa Bay, officials are seeing slowdowns in the number of people lining up for doses. One site in Plant City averaged 200 to 300 shots a day during the first full week of April, though managers there had planned for a daily average of 1,000.

We have a lot of vaccines out there all over the place, but people arent getting it, said Kevin Watler, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County. How fast we can resume to normal really lies with people who are choosing not to get vaccinated.

Watler is talking about herd immunity, the point where enough people are immunized to block transmission of a virus. Its the final milestone before the pandemic can end.

Getting there will depend on many factors, experts say, including how many people acquire immunity through vaccination or infection, how long each type of immunity lasts and human behavior.

More than 45 percent of eligible Floridians have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and surveys show that hesitancy about the vaccines has been decreasing. After a rocky start to Floridas vaccine rollout, residents can now turn to multiple providers, even with the pause in the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. And doses, which are free of charge, are fairly easy to obtain for most people.

Still, a significant number of people dont plan to get vaccinated, according to surveys. And so far, children under 16, who make up nearly 20 percent of the population, arent eligible. That leaves roughly 10 million eligible Floridians over 16 who have yet to roll up their sleeve.

Large numbers of people without immunity makes a return to pre-pandemic life more risky, experts say. Infection could spread through non-immunized communities, which would offer a greater chance for the virus to mutate and become harder to control.

The result: more cases and a lengthening of the pandemic.

Already, a fourth spike of coronavirus cases has been fueled by variants that are more transmissible and have become dominant in the U.S., particularly in Florida.

We are in a race to get people vaccinated as soon as possible, because were just starting the next surge, said Marissa Levine, a professor of public health at the University of South Florida. We dont know what it will look like, but it has the potential to cause preventable suffering and death.

Between 60 and 85 percent of people need to be immune to the coronavirus to reach herd immunity, based on experts varying estimates.

That number becomes even more difficult to hit considering that all children arent eligible for shots yet. Without them, the percentage of immune adults would need to be even higher, said Josh Michaud, associate director of global health policy at Kaiser Family Foundation.

About 25 to 30 percent of American adults have contracted COVID-19 at some point in the pandemic, which gave them an estimated six to nine months of natural immunity, Michaud said. Vaccination, meanwhile, is thought to provide one to three years of immunity.

That means those infected in early 2020 have likely run out of antibodies to fight COVID-19, although some may have since been vaccinated, as directed by health experts. The overlap makes it difficult to know just how close we are to herd immunity, Michaud said.

In Hillsborough County, about 20 percent of adults have natural antibodies against COVID-19, according to a March study by Moffitt Cancer Center led by Dr. Anna Giuliano, founding director of the Center for Immunization and Infection Research in Cancer.

The only realistic way the state can get close to reaching herd immunity is through large numbers of people choosing to get vaccinated, Giuliano said. Some other experts disagree, saying it can be achieved over time as the virus continues to spread. But most agree that reaching it with vaccination will be less painful.

At some point, we will reach herd immunity, its just at what cost, said Dr. Edgar Sanchez, an infectious disease specialist with Orlando Health. Depending primarily on natural immunity, he said, would mean scores of more deaths.

Michaud, from Kaiser, said he isnt confident that herd immunity is just around the corner for the U.S., citing lower demand for shots. He called it difficult if not impossible to get there in the next few months.

As of April 21, more than 26 percent of Americans were fully vaccinated. Combine that with an optimistic 20 percent of people with natural defenses, and its still not enough to meet even the lowest estimate of immunity to eradicate the virus.

Edwin Michael, a professor of epidemiology at USF who is modeling predictions of the coronavirus in Florida, estimates that the state will reach herd immunity by December if the vaccination rate and current social measures stay the same.

At double the speed, the state would reach it in July, he estimates. At three times the speed, it would reach it in June, he said. But much could change those estimates, including human behavior and the current and future introductions of new coronavirus variants.

The state could slip in and out of herd immunity or see the threshold needed for it rise as some people who were inoculated early on run out of immunity and require booster shots, or as more contagious strains emerge.

This is now a race, Michael said, between the rate of vaccination, the social measures in place and the new wave of coronavirus cases.

Vaccine providers in Florida say they have doses for people who want them. But in many cases, available appointments are now taking longer to get filled, even as millions more people have recently become eligible.

Thats frustrating to those working in public health.

We fought to get the vaccine, and we got the vaccine, said Watler, the health department spokesman in Hillsborough County, where demand has slowed.

Last Monday, Pasco Countys health department said only 150 out of 900 vaccine appointments were taken. The health departments in Hernando and Pinellas counties are also seeing unfilled appointments.

Statewide, tens of thousands are getting vaccinated every day, state data shows. Floridas rate of vaccination is about on par with the nationwide average, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But its still not going as quickly as some had hoped.

The number of daily vaccinations for residents 65 and older, who have been eligible for shots since December, has been slowing since late March. Thats likely because about 80 percent of people in that age group already have been at least partially vaccinated.

But vaccinations among people ages 45 to 54, some of whom have been eligible for about three weeks, also have been trending down on a daily basis so far in April. About 40 percent of people in that age group had gotten at least one dose as of Wednesday.

Vaccinations among people ages 16 to 44 had been rising but have slowed in recent days. So far, about a quarter of people in that age group have gotten at least one dose.

The more-transmissible B.1.1.7 variant has become the dominant strain of the coronavirus in the country and Florida has the most cases of any state, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.

The introduction of vaccines themselves could drive the mutation of variants, thanks to what is known as selection pressure causing the virus to adapt to survive, said Michael, the USF professor.

The mutations found so far, he said, have spread very fast.

Hillsborough County has seen the effects of the B.1.1.7 variant as COVID-19 admissions at Tampa General Hospital have swelled over the last month, said emergency department director Dr. Jason Wilson. Hardly any of the patients who tested positive had been vaccinated, he said.

The rise in cases is going up faster than the people getting vaccinated, and we want the opposite, Wilson said.

He and Dr. Kami Kim, an internal medicine physician at Tampa General, say the virus has been spreading more among young people, largely because fewer of them have gotten the vaccine, and they may be more likely to eschew social distancing and other safety measures.

Wilson said that, based on conversations hes had with patients, younger Floridians are less likely to get the shot than older people because they have repeatedly heard theyre less at risk for severe complications from the disease.

But even if those unvaccinated people dont get severely ill, experts say, they could still spread COVID-19, giving the virus opportunities to mutate into more-aggressive strains.

A growing share of Americans say they are willing to get the vaccine, according to a March poll by the Kaiser foundation. But vaccine hesitancy and outright resistance remains.

A steady 13 percent of people have said since December that they will definitely not be vaccinated, the poll found. Most identified as Republican or white evangelicals, with half of Republican respondents saying they feared being forced to get a vaccine against their will.

The poll also found that 17 percent of Americans are taking a wait-and-see approach, a smaller percentage than in earlier surveys. Those respondents worried about side effects, that they may be worse than the virus itself, as well as wanting to see more safety data over time.

While hesitancy among Black and Hispanic people has shrunk from earlier polling, those groups still expressed the most concern about not being able to get a vaccine from a trusted source or said they would have difficulty getting to a vaccine site.

Thirty-three percent of poll respondents did not know where to get a shot, and 46 percent werent sure about their eligibility.

Some of the same themes Kaiser found are reflected in Tampa Bay, according to the most recent survey by the Tampa Bay Partnership, which has spent more than a year tracking how local residents feel about the pandemic.

Three-quarters of respondents said they were more likely to get a vaccine in March, an increase from 67 percent in January. Many still cited concerns about side effects and said they needed more information.

More than 40 percent of Black residents said they were not likely to be vaccinated, as did 36 percent of residents ages 18 to 34.

Efforts need to focus on reaching people who are hesitant or dont know where to get vaccinated, experts say.

Its no longer enough to say, come and get your doses, said Jason Salemi, a professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida. We have to tackle this problem.

Wilson, the Tampa General doctor, has been talking to one of his regular patients, a Black person with sickle cell disease, about vaccination for four months.

The patient has yet to agree, he said. But theyve made progress with longer conversations and more nuanced and focused questions about the vaccines.

This is a long-term, consistent and persistent conversation about some pretty complex science, Wilson said.

That same level of care and understanding needs to happen on a larger level, Wilson and other experts say. Many communities are still lacking information, access and trust in the vaccines and the recent pause on those by Johnson & Johnson has only added to their hesitancy.

The Florida Division of Emergency Management has hired 2,900 canvassers to knock on doors in four major cities, including Tampa, where the state and federal governments are running mass vaccination sites. Theyve visited more than 510,000 homes providing information and helping people sign up for shots, a division spokeswoman said.

Teams have talked to about 43,000 people in Hillsborough County neighborhoods, with about 11,000 agreeing to register for vaccines, the state said. Another 12,000 said they had already received shots, but about half 21,000 said they were not interested.

Pairs of canvassers circled a Brandon neighborhood on Wednesday as registered nurse Stacey Gedeon stood by, ready to answer any clinical questions. People most often ask about side effects, she said.

Her team interacts with about 300 people a day, with an average of 25 agreeing to register for shots. Earlier in the vaccine rollout, about 50 a day would agree to sign up, but the number has dipped as more people have been vaccinated. She saw a lull after the Johnson & Johnson pause, too, she said.

My team is trained not to pressure people, Gedeon said. We just give them the facts and information. They have to make a decision themselves.

The state has moved on other fronts, too, like locating vaccine clinics at places of worship and in rural communities. The Department of Health is working with Florida A&M University on a public service campaign aimed largely at Black residents in certain parts of the state.

Counties are bringing vaccines to underserved areas and joining with community and faith groups to get the word out. Hillsborough County, for example, recently bused residents of a mobile home park to get shots, and its hosted multiple social media events so residents could ask experts questions.

But Kim said a more coordinated plan and better collaboration among all stakeholders is needed to reach the numbers of people required for herd immunity. She added that the states supply of doses to vaccine providers has not been consistent or predictable enough for optimal and equitable distribution.

As Florida and the U.S. continue to work toward the goal of herd immunity, experts beg people to be patient and not abandon social distancing and other guidelines too quickly.

That could be a struggle, particularly in Florida, which has been open for months.

Dr. Tom Unnasch, a professor of public health and biology at USF, said a move by Gov. Ron DeSantis to preclude businesses from requiring evidence of vaccinations from customers could hurt efforts to contain the virus before enough people have immunity.

Unnasch said incentives to get the vaccine, such as employers requiring them or businesses offering deals, could help prod some who are reluctant.

None of us are really protected until were all protected, Unnasch said.

Staff Writer Langston Taylor contributed to this report.

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To beat coronavirus, herd immunity is the goal. Can Florida get there? - Tampa Bay Times

Oregon reported nearly 1,000 new coronavirus cases for a second day in a row Thursday, with average daily case counts at their highest levels since January.

The Oregon Health Authority also reported one new COVID-19 death.

Thursdays 993 confirmed or presumed infections are four more than Wednesdays numbers, and they are the most since Jan. 16 the last time Oregon recorded more than 1,000 cases in a day.

Oregon is now averaging about 750 daily cases over the past week while the number of people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 is approaching 300. Both are at the highest levels since late January. Deaths, meanwhile, are substantially down.

Modeling released Thursday by Oregon Health & Science University projects cases will peak May 4, with a daily average of 1,326 for that week. Active hospitalizations are projected to peak about two weeks later, May 19, at 369. Cases and hospitalizations would precipitously fall afterward, according to the modeling.

Vaccines: Oregon reported 48,387 newly administered doses, which includes 28,535 Wednesday and the remainder from previous days.

Where the new cases are by county: Baker (14), Benton (24), Clackamas (116), Clatsop (4), Columbia (14), Coos (6), Crook (12), Curry (2), Deschutes (57), Douglas (5), Grant (1), Hood River (5), Jackson (46), Jefferson (6), Josephine (17), Klamath (54), Lake (2), Lane (54), Lincoln (7), Linn (34), Malheur (2), Marion (109), Morrow (1), Multnomah (206), Polk (20), Tillamook (1), Umatilla (8), Union (2), Wasco (16), Washington (128) and Yamhill (20).

Who died: Oregons 2,467th death linked to COVID-19 is a 67-year-old Linn County man who tested positive April 21 and died April 21 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. He had underlying health conditions.

State officials also clarified that Oregons 2,461st victim was age 61, not 82.

Hospitalizations: 283 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are hospitalized, up 11 from Wednesday. That includes 69 people in intensive care, up four from Wednesday.

Since it began: Oregon has reported 178,110 confirmed or presumed infections and 2,467 deaths, among the lowest per capita numbers in the nation. To date, the state has reported 2,662,784 vaccine doses administered, fully vaccinating 1,091,777 people and partially vaccinating 566,353 people.

To see more data and trends, visit https://projects.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/

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

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Coronavirus in Oregon: nearly 1,000 cases for second day in row - OregonLive

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Read the latest coronavirus news from around the world, get updates on the latest SpaceX launch and see more stories trending online today.

SpaceX rocket carrying four astronauts launches from Florida (CNN)

Senate passes bill to protect Asian Americans from hate crimes (LA Times)

Lawmakers hold good discussions on police reform in wake of Chauvin verdict (CBS News)

LeBron James says his deleted tweet about police shooting was being used to create more hate (Washington Post)

Family of MaKhia Bryant speaks out after teen is killed by Columbus police (NBC News)

At Biden Climate Summit, World Leaders Pledge To Do More, Act Faster (NPR)

The CDC and FDA are leaning toward resuming use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, sources say (CBS)

Scientists get creative to carry on research during pandemic (AP)

Debate grows over wearing masks outdoors (Yahoo)

India Is Experiencing A Devastating Wave Of Covid-19: Impact To Reverberate Around The World (Forbes)

Millennials moved back to their teenage bedrooms during the pandemic (Fox News)

Time running out for missing Indonesian submarine as U.S. joins search (Reuters)

Shock G of Digital Underground Dead at 57 (Complex)

ER Reunion Provides Good Fun For A Good Cause And Discusses A Possible Reboot (Deadline)

The Oscars are Hollywoods biggest night. Is it worth tuning in, or should you tune them out? (NBC)

Mortal Kombat reboot hits theaters and HBO Max (Yahoo)

Prince Louis is 3! See new photo in honor of his birthday (Today)

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Coronavirus news, SpaceX launch & more: Whats trending today - cleveland.com

Over the last two weeks, Massachusetts reported another 24,036 COVID-19 cases, down from the 26,717 confirmed over the prior 14 days, according to the latest Department of Public Health community-level data.

The latest totals are based on data analyzed between April 4 and April 17.

Percent positivity also declined over the last two weeks, to 2.3% from the 2.48% recorded during the last 14-day update.

If you are having trouble viewing this chart, click here.

And as of data available Thursday, there are now 48 communities at high risk for COVID spread. Last week, the number of cities and towns at high risk was 59.

Officials began releasing the number of confirmed cases among children and teenagers several weeks ago. On Wednesday, 1,223 cases were confirmed in children younger than four over the last 14 days, down from 1,235 reported last week. Officials reported 1,400 infections in children between the ages of 5 and 9, down from 1,469 since the last update.

And 1,696 infections were confirmed in children between the ages of 10 and 14, which is down from 1,816 reported on April 14, according Wednesdays data. There were also 2,481 teenagers between the ages of 15 and 19 infected with COVID over the last two weeks, down from 2,696 since the last update.

This week, 5,046 cases were confirmed among 20-somethings, down from the 5,942 reported last week.

While the distribution of new cases varies week-to-week, the slight reduction in cases among younger age groups follows what for several weeks now has been overall decline in COVID activity statewide. Hospitalizations, active infections and percent positivity have declined over the past seven days after several weeks of heightened concern over whether vaccinations are keeping pace with the rising numbers.

The decline in infections also suggests progress is being made in vaccinating elderly populations, which have seen fewer and fewer new infections and far fewer deaths in recent days. As of Thursday, nearly 2.2 million Massachusetts residents are fully vaccinated, and 5.4 million doses have been administered to date.

State health officials confirmed another 1,431 new COVID-19 cases and 17 virus-related fatalities on Thursday. On Monday, Massachusetts opened COVID vaccinations to all residents ages 16 and older.

Here is a breakdown of the cities and towns at high risk by county:

Barnstable County: Brewster, Dennis, Harwich, Yarmouth

Berkshire County: Adams

Bristol County: Berkley, Fall River, Freetown, New Bedford, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Swansea, Taunton, Westport

Dukes County: Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury

Essex County: Haverhill, Lawrence, Lynn, Methuen, Peabody

Hampden County: Chicopee, Hampden, Holyoke, Ludlow, Palmer, Southwick, Springfield

Middlesex County: Ayer, Dracut, Lowell, Townsend

Nantucket County: Nantucket

Norfolk County: Bellingham, Plainville

Plymouth County: Brockton, Carver, Plymouth, Wareham, West Bridgewater

Suffolk County: Revere

Worcester County: Sterling, Sutton, Templeton, Upton, West Boylston, Winchendon

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See how many coronavirus cases are in your Massachusetts city or town as of April 22 - MassLive.com

You can do a lot of things with minimal risk after being vaccinated. Although our public health expert says that maybe it's not quite time for a rave or other tightly packed events. Above: Fans take photographs of Megan Thee Stallion at a London show in 2019. Ollie Millington/Getty Images hide caption

You can do a lot of things with minimal risk after being vaccinated. Although our public health expert says that maybe it's not quite time for a rave or other tightly packed events. Above: Fans take photographs of Megan Thee Stallion at a London show in 2019.

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."

I've been hearing about breakthrough infections in people who have been vaccinated. Should I be worried? What can I do to protect myself?

The short answer:

You don't need to worry only 5,800 out of 66 million fully vaccinated Americans have contracted COVID-19 but you should still take steps to protect yourself and others. Getting COVID after the vaccine is a good reminder why your vaccination card is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

The long answer:

At this point, many of us can rattle off the COVID vaccine efficacy rates by heart: about 95% for Pfizer and Moderna; 66% for Johnson & Johnson globally, 72% in the U.S. (Remember, that means your chances of getting COVID after vaccination is way less than 1%.)

"Everybody sees that the stats are not 100%, but that immediately goes out the window and people just think, 'I've been vaccinated!'" says Charlotte Baker, assistant professor of epidemiology at Virginia Tech.

As powerful as these vaccines are, no vaccines offer 100% protection in the real world, Dr. Anthony Fauci pointed out in a press conference this week. So with the virus circulating at high rates in most communities, breakthrough infections shouldn't come as any surprise.

(Once we reach herd immunity and circulation levels drop, breakthrough infections will become even rarer. When was the last time you worried about getting diphtheria or pertussis? The vaccines that prevent them have similar efficacy rates 97% for diphtheria, and a range between 71 and 98% for pertussis as the COVID vaccines.)

"As long as the virus is not circulating and there's a high enough vaccine immunity in the community, then the risk is minimal, but if there is ongoing transmission at high levels it's still possible to get infected," says Dr. Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. "So that risk is still there and as we get more people vaccinated and the community spread goes down, the risk of breakthrough infections goes down significantly."

Until a much higher percentage of us are vaccinated, then, it's prudent to continue the "big 3" precautions we've all come to know and tolerate masking, physical distancing and washing your hands in most public or group situations.

In addition, consider these modifications and additions once you've been vaccinated:

Count to 2. Make sure to wait until you're fully vaccinated that's two weeks after your final dose before taking off your mask (and then only with other vaccinated folks, of course!)

Ask the question. If you don't know if someone you'll be seeing has been vaccinated, don't be shy. "With close friends, I just ask them," Baker says. "I say, I'd love to see you soon, so let's figure out the timeline [of who's been vaccinated when]." It feels like a fair question, she says. "If you're in a group of people going to see a play or a concert [in the same car], I'm comfortable asking if they are vaccinated. And if I don't know, I wear a mask," she says. (You'll still need to wear one once you get to the event, anyway!) Of course, getting over the initial fear of asking strangers if they're vaccinated may be trickier. "In those cases you're not sure, that's when you wear your mask," she says. "If you're unsure and it's not people you know or feel comfortable asking, keep your mask on."

Pack a spare mask. Speaking of masks, find one you really like if you haven't done so already. As you ease back into society, you'll still want a mask in your purse or pocket just in case, says Baker. That way, if you need to make a pit stop at a public restroom or dart into a grocery store, you'll be prepared.

Table space. If you're dining out, opt for outdoors at restaurants where tables are spaced at least 6 feet apart (considering tossing a measuring tape in your purse or backpack along with your emergency masks!)

The outdoors is still your best friend. Keep in mind that kids under 16 are not eligible to be vaccinated yet, so if you're visiting with multiple families, consider staying outside as much as possible.

If all this sounds like a damper on your newly vaccinated freedom, don't despair: Early data shows that even if you get a breakthrough infection, you may be less likely to pass it on to others, Weatherhead notes. Also, like all the other phases of the pandemic, this one won't last forever.

The bottom line? "Enjoy yourself a little more, but don't go crazy," Baker says. "Don't go to a huge rave."

Sheila Mulrooney Eldred is a freelance health journalist in Minneapolis. She's written about COVID-19 for many publications including Medscape, Kaiser Health News, Science News for Students and The Washington Post. More at sheilaeldred.pressfolios.com. On Twitter: @milepostmedia

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After My Vaccine, Can I Do Anything To Prevent The Rare 'Breakthrough' Case? : Goats and Soda - NPR