Category Archives: Corona Virus

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

Original post:

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

More than a month has passed since Gov. Greg Abbott ended virtually all statewide restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. Nationwide, new coronavirus cases are on the rise as new variants of the virus spread. And about four-fifths of Texans are not yet fully vaccinated.

But at least for now, the most dire predictions of a new major wave of cases in Texas have not come true, prompting a mix of theories from public health experts.

Those experts caution that a major increase in cases could still come and it may still be too early to tell whether Abbotts decisions to lift the statewide mask mandate and allow businesses to fully reopen could prompt a new wave of infections. Still, daily new cases and the positivity rate have leveled off over the past month, while deaths and hospitalization have gone down substantially.

Experts point out that vaccination is ramping up, many businesses are still requiring masks and there are unique factors impacting individual metrics like a drop in demand for testing that is driving down raw case numbers.

They also emphasize that, especially at this point in the pandemic, a stabilization of such metrics, or even a modest decline, is not exactly cause for celebration.

I think we couldve been even lower at this point in time, if not for Abbotts latest decisions, said Dr. Luis Ostrosky, an infectious disease specialist at UTHealths McGovern Medical School in Houston. The fact that were sort of stable is not necessarily good news because were stable at a very high level. Its like everybody saying youre at a stable cruising speed but at 100 miles per hour.

Abbotts decision to end most statewide restrictions went into effect 35 days ago, on March 10. The seven-day average for daily new confirmed cases was 3,020 on that day; it was 2,456 on Tuesday. The seven-day average of the states positivity rate the ratio of cases to tests was 6.24% on March 10; it was 5.89% on Monday. (The latest positivity-rate figures are considered preliminary and subject to recalculation as more test results come in from the date in question.)

Deaths and hospitalizations, which lag new cases, have seen steeper drops since March 10. The seven-day average of new daily deaths was 187 on March 10; it was 64 on Tuesday. There were 4,556 Texans hospitalized with the virus on March 10; there were 3,002 on Tuesday.

The four key metrics are way down from peaks earlier in the year, when the state was seeing daily new caseloads approaching 20,000, a positivity rate that went above 20%, hospitalizations that topped 14,000 and weeks of more than 300 deaths per day.

At the same time, vaccinations have climbed steadily as the state has expanded eligibility, opening up to everyone age 16 and older on March 29. The percentage of fully vaccinated Texans more than doubled from March 10 to Monday, when it was 1 in 5 Texans.

Overall, its great news, said state Rep. Chris Turner, the House Democratic Caucus chairman who has been critical of Abbotts decisions throughout the pandemic. Im very glad that so far the governors decisions have not resulted in an increase in cases.

Clearly the massive investment in vaccines and the improved distribution of vaccines across the country since President Biden came into office is having a tremendously positive impact on protecting people from COVID-19, Turner added.

Despite the numbers in Texas, it has been an open question as to how long it takes after the lifting of restrictions to see a spike in the data. The incubation period for the virus the time between when someone is exposed to it and when they start showing symptoms is believed to be two to 14 days, and not everyone immediately stopped wearing masks and visiting fully reopened businesses on March 10.

Meanwhile, the rise of more transmissible variants across the country has added another threat. Average daily infections rose by almost 7% nationwide over the past week as officials race to vaccinate people as quickly as possible. Those efforts might be hampered in the short term after Texas paused the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine so federal health authorities could review six reports of blood clotting among 6.8 million doses nationwide.

The nations top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, was asked in a TV interview last week about Texas numbers and gave an uncertain response about what was driving them at the moment. Speaking with MSNBC, he said it can be confusing because you may see a lag and a delay because often you have to wait a few weeks before you see the effect of what youre doing right now.

Weve been fooled before by situations where people begin to open up, nothing happens and then all of a sudden, several weeks later, things start exploding on you, Fauci said. So weve got to be careful we dont prematurely judge that.

Until recently, Abbott has been restrained in openly touting the Texas trend lines, instead focusing much of his celebratory public messaging on vaccination progress.

We absolutely are not declaring victory at this time, Abbott told Fox News on Sunday. We remain very vigilant and guarded and proactive in our response, but theres simple math behind the reason why we continue to have success, he added, citing the combination of increasing vaccinations and the acquired immunity among Texans who have already had the virus and recovered from it.

However, Abbott went on to make a dubious claim: that the state is very close to herd immunity, or the point at which enough people have been vaccinated or have already become infected and recovered to protect the rest of the population. Abbott said that despite acknowledging in the same response that he does not know what the herd immunity threshold is for the virus, an uncertainty echoed by the public health community.

Fauci has said herd immunity against the coronavirus could require as much as 90% of the population to be vaccinated. Ostrosky said classically in epidemiology, we talk about herd immunity in the 60 to 80% range.

In any case, experts agree that Texas is not anywhere near herd immunity. As of Monday, just 20.1% of Texans had been fully vaccinated and 9.72% had tested positive for the virus. There could be overlap between the two groups the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people who had the disease get a vaccine.

In the meantime, though, public health officials are keeping a close eye on the core metrics and whether they creep up as more Texans take advantage of the end of the mask mandate and businesses reopening at full capacity. Ostrosky acknowledged that so far, the numbers are not what we were expecting.

The question is how come and the answer in my mind is vaccines, Ostrosky said. I think were making really good headway with the vaccination program. We were sort of aggressive moving through the stages [of eligibility].

I think our saving grace was the vaccines despite the not-so-good choices that some of our fellow Texans are making with regard to practices like masking, Ostrosky added.

Jaquelin Dudley, the associate director of the LaMontagne Center for Infectious Disease at the University of Texas at Austin, said the underreporting of previous cases could be masking the extent to which the states population is already immune. Combined with the vaccination effort, were definitely impairing the ability of the virus to spread at this juncture in the pandemic, she said.

She and other experts also cited anecdotal evidence that most businesses, especially in the states major metropolitan centers, are still requiring masks despite the lack of statewide mandate.

I think its too early to drop mask mandates, and thats really been left up to the individual businesses, Dudley said. Certainly the places that I know of are still requiring masks, and Im sure thats helping.

One of the strongest arguments to keep wearing masks is the rise of variants, Dudley said. There are currently five "variants of concern" in the United States, according to the CDC, which is studying how effectively current vaccines address them.

When it comes to steeper drops in deaths, Dudley said she thinks the state has just got a lot better about treating the infection after confronting the pandemic for over a year.

Ben King, a clinical assistant professor and epidemiologist at the University of Houston College of Medicine, said the downward trend in both deaths and hospitalizations could reflect Texas prioritization of the highest-risk population the elderly for immunization.

Both Texas and Florida made national headlines late last year for bucking CDC guidance and prioritizing older people over essential workers in their vaccine rollouts. And Abbott further prioritized older Texans with his Save Our Seniors initiative, which has deployed National Guard troops to help vaccinate homebound seniors. Over 100 counties have taken part in the the program, which has been underway for six weeks.

There are also simple statistical truths behind the latest numbers. Since earlier this year, the number of tests administered has dropped, and with it, the number of cases identified. The falloff in testing is not for a lack of supply, according to experts, but due to an apparent lack of demand as Texans fatigued by the virus see less of a need to get tested in the pandemics final stages.

While the positivity rate has remained stable, experts said the end of the pandemic is especially not the time to let up on testing. King said Texas plan to provide state-licensed summer camps with COVID-19 rapid antigen tests is exactly the way we need to be thinking.

We want to see testing go way up, but we also want to see cases go way down, said King, who agreed with Ostrosky that any flatlining of metrics at this point is "not what we need."

We have to be crushing [the curve] at this point, King said. Abbott's latest decisions "could be just stretching out the flatness of the curve, which just makes it harder to get to zero, which is obviously what we all want.

Experts also point out that the changing of seasons could be keeping the numbers relatively low. As the weather gets warmer, people are gathering more outside and not inside, where the virus is more likely to spread.

The experts, though, are pleading with the public to still take the pandemic seriously, even as the numbers look good and the statewide restrictions fall further in to the rearview.

If we dont focus and all were asking for is two more months were really gonna lose all that ground we gained, Ostrosky said.

Disclosure: UTHealth and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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Texas coronavirus cases haven't surged since governor lifted mask order - The Texas Tribune

You could run into a situation where you just got unlucky with where you chose to target your test, and something popped up there that then made your test less effective, said Nathan Grubaugh, a virologist at Yale University.

The gene for the viruss characteristic spike protein, known as the S gene, has been particularly prone to mutation, and tests that target this gene may miss certain variants. For instance, Thermo Fishers TaqPath test fails to detect the mutated S gene of the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first identified in Britain and is now spreading rapidly through the United States.

But the test does not rely on the S gene alone; it has three targets and can still return accurate results by detecting two other stretches of the coronavirus genome.

Just 1.3 percent of molecular tests rely solely on an S gene target, according to calculations performed by Rachel West, a postdoctoral associate at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. The rest either target more stable regions of the genome, which are less likely to mutate, or have multiple target sequences, which makes them less susceptible to failure. Its very unlikely that youre going to get mutations in all of them, Dr. Lillis said.

April 15, 2021, 6:41 a.m. ET

The F.D.A. has listed four different molecular tests whose performance could be impacted by the variants, but notes that the tests should still work. Three of the tests have multiple targets; a fourth may be slightly less sensitive when the virus has one particular mutation and is present at very low levels. (The four tests are the TaqPath Covid-19 Combo Kit, the Linea Covid-19 Assay Kit, the Xpert Xpress and Xpert Omni SARS-CoV-2, and the Accula SARS-CoV-2 Test.)

We dont think that those four assays are significantly impacted, said Dr. Tim Stenzel, who directs the F.D.A.s office of in vitro diagnostics and radiological health. It was more out of an abundance of caution and transparency that we made that information public.

Antigen tests are less sensitive than molecular tests, but they are typically cheaper and faster, and they are being deployed widely in coronavirus screening programs. These tests detect specific proteins on the outside of the virus. Some genetic mutations could change the structure of these proteins, allowing them to escape detection.

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What the Coronavirus Variants Mean for Testing - The New York Times

Hospital workers tend to a Covid-19 patient at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, England, last month. Researchers have found that the so-called U.K. variant of the coronavirus isn't more likely to lead to death or severe illness. Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

Hospital workers tend to a Covid-19 patient at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, England, last month. Researchers have found that the so-called U.K. variant of the coronavirus isn't more likely to lead to death or severe illness.

People infected with the U.K. variant of the coronavirus didn't experience more severe symptoms and weren't more likely to die from this particular strain, according to a new study of hospitalized patients published Monday.

The strain, called the B.1.1.7 variant, remains more contagious than original strains of the virus however, according to the study in The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

The U.K. strain is believed to have first emerged in England in September 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is now the most common strain in the U.S.

Researchers for The Lancet study collected samples from patients at the University College London Hospital and the North Middlesex University Hospital between Nov. 9 to Dec 20, 2020. The samples were collected just prior to a surge in hospitalizations in England and Ireland due to the rapid spread of this particular strain of the coronavirus.

Scientists sequenced samples from 341 patients and found 58 percent were positive for the B.1.1.7 variant. The other 42 percent were infected with a different strain, according to the study. Researchers compared the severity of symptoms between the two groups and found those with the B.1.1.7 strain were not particularly worse off than those with other virus variants.

Patients who tested positive for the the B.1.1.7 variant also reportedly had higher "viral loads," or greater amounts of the virus in their bodies.

Continued here:

U.K. Coronavirus Strain Does Not Lead To More Severe Illness And Death, Study Finds - NPR

Here's the latest COVID-19 case, death and hospitalization data from the state.

ATLANTA We're breaking down the trends and relaying information from across the state of Georgia as it comes in, bringing perspective to the data and context to the trends.

Visit the 11Alive coronavirus page for comprehensive coverage, find out what you need to know about Georgia specifically, learn more about the symptoms, and keep tabs on the cases around the world.

State and federal officials with the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are continually monitoring the spread of the virus. They are also working hand-in-hand with the World Health Organization to track the spread around the world and to stop it.

Appling 1896 65

Atkinson 777 18

Baldwin 3806 110

Barrow 8518 128

Bartow 11019 204

Ben Hill 1482 60

Berrien 1050 30

Bleckley 796 34

Brantley 913 32

Bulloch 5195 63

Carroll 7333 130

Catoosa 5487 62

Charlton 1047 24

Chatham 19834 402

Chattahoochee 3181 12

Chattooga 2202 60

Cherokee 21973 295

Clarke 12577 133

Clayton 22904 424

Coffee 4214 134

Colquitt 3480 74

Columbia 10867 157

Coweta 8509 194

Crawford 520 17

DeKalb 56379 898

Decatur 2123 54

Dougherty 5435 275

Douglas 11659 171

Effingham 3726 64

Emanuel 1723 53

Fayette 6504 151

Forsyth 17537 172

Franklin 2312 42

Fulton 79952 1237

Gordon 6423 101

Gwinnett 84763 1034

Habersham 4618 147

Haralson 1698 34

Henry 18641 284

Houston 9870 186

Jackson 8397 135

Jeff Davis 1286 37

Jefferson 1569 59

Laurens 3670 142

Liberty 3332 58

Lowndes 7661 137

Lumpkin 2745 61

Madison 2707 46

McDuffie 1635 41

McIntosh 680 14

Meriwether 1496 70

Mitchell 1513 73

Montgomery 708 21

Muscogee 13925 381

Newton 7310 210

Non-GA Resident/Unknown State 23310 462

Oglethorpe 1176 28

Paulding 10543 162

Pickens 2487 58

Randolph 464 32

Richmond 19489 399

Rockdale 5873 149

Seminole 740 17

Spalding 3935 152

Stephens 2946 76

Taliaferro 100 3

Tattnall 1830 45

Thomas 3511 113

Treutlen 622 24

Unknown 2390 12

Walton 7907 229

Washington 1596 61

Whitfield 14710 225

Wilkinson 726 28

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LIST: The latest COVID case, death and hospitalization data for Georgia as of April 14 - 11Alive.com WXIA

The number of new coronavirus cases in New York City has remained alarmingly, and stubbornly, high for weeks, even as tens of thousands of people are vaccinated daily.

A likely reason is that more contagious variants have displaced the original forms of the virus, public health officials have said, accounting for more than 75 percent of new cases, according to a recent analysis.

Each week, the Health Department releases the results of a sampling of up to 1,500 sequenced cases, providing a citywide snapshot of which variants are on the rise.

Until this week, the city had not said which variants were more common in which neighborhoods. But newly available ZIP code-level data provides some insight into the mix of variants circulating in the area.

The information serves as a vivid reminder that the dynamics of New Yorks epidemic have changed over the past few months, and that the original forms of the virus are increasingly unusual across the city.

It makes something thats been pretty abstract and maybe less accessible that much more tangible to people, Dr. Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, said of the data. The landscape is changing quickly.

A variant first discovered in New York, B.1.526, has spread more widely in the city than all of the others so far. There has also been a significant increase in cases linked to the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first detected in Britain last year and now makes up nearly 30 percent of new cases sequenced in New York City.

The B.1.1.7 variant has driven new surges of sickness from Poland to Michigan. It is estimated to be 60 percent more contagious and two-thirds more deadly than the original form of the virus. This variant is now the main source of new infections across the United States and in Europe.

But not in New York City, where B.1.526 remains the most prevalent variant, comprising about 45 percent of cases sequenced from the fourth week of March.

Many questions about B.1.526, such as whether it causes more severe illness or can evade the protection granted by the vaccines, remain unanswered.

As to which is more contagious B.1.1.7 or B.1.526 health officials are not yet sure. We dont have enough information to discern this at this moment, said the citys health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi.

In Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, the B.1.526 variant made up more than 50 percent of all the cases sequenced between March 16 and April 1. In the Bronx, the share of B.1.526 was 61 percent.

One of the few places where B.1.1.7 appears responsible for the majority of cases was along the southern tip of Staten Island, which has struggled with high case loads for months and currently has some of the highest positivity rates in the city.

Across Staten Island, B.1.1.7 made up 40 percent of new cases sequenced between March 16 and April 1. In Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan, B.1.1.7 represented a smaller share, making up 26 to 29 percent in these boroughs. In the Bronx, B.1.1.7 represented only 23 percent of the cases sequenced.

Despite the dominance of variants, hospitalizations have not been rising in the city in recent weeks, and are actually on a slight decline. And cases have been stable, though at a high level. To me that is reassuring, said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, an epidemiologist at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health. We may be seeing the beginnings of a vaccine effect.

April 15, 2021, 6:41 a.m. ET

In a given week, about one to two thousand positive coronavirus cases in New York City are sequenced that is, the genetic material of the virus is examined for mutations. That represents roughly between four and eight percent of New York Citys new cases. The majority of those cases are sequenced at a laboratory in Long Island City operated by Opentrons, a robotics company.

At the request of The Times, the companys chief executive, Jonathan Brennan-Badal, shared ZIP code-level data for about 7,500 sequenced cases, explaining that the information could help identify where the need for more resources including testing and vaccinations was greatest.

The city Health Department uses the sequences from this laboratory, known as the Pandemic Response Lab, as the basis for its weekly sample gauging the prevalence of each variant.

But even with thousands of samples sequenced, the data still has significant limitations. Most of its coronavirus samples come from the citys public hospital system and city-sponsored testing sites. It receives lots of samples from some neighborhoods, but few from others.

The limited number of variants sequenced up till now make it difficult to arrive at conclusions as to whether some neighborhoods are more severely affected than others, Dr. El-Sadr said.

Each dot on the density maps above is placed in the ZIP code of a New Yorker whose coronavirus sample was sequenced at the Opentrons lab. But neighborhoods with lots of dots do not necessarily correspond with coronavirus hot spots. The density of dots can often be explained by the presence of a city testing center nearby.

On the other hand, neighborhoods with few dots are not necessarily free of variants. It just means few coronavirus samples from there reached the lab.

There are blind spots across the Bronx, Queens and the southern half of Manhattan. In some ZIP codes too few samples have been sequenced to draw any solid conclusions. In Roosevelt Island, for example, only one case has been sequenced.

The city on Monday separately released a report based on ZIP-code level data from the Pandemic Response Lab, as well as from the citys own lab. It also showed the proportion of B.1.1.7 and B.1.526 cases growing rapidly.

The report said that B.1.526 cases have been detected in all five boroughs, but were slightly more common in the Bronx and parts of Queens. B.1.1.7 cases were also found citywide, but were slightly more common in southern Brooklyn, eastern Queens and Staten Island.

City officials said that the maps showed widespread transmission of the variants, and that they were an important reminder for people not to let their guards down in any neighborhood.

The single best way we can address this threat is by vaccinating everyone as quickly as possible, said Dr. Jay Varma, a senior adviser on public health in the mayors office. The reality is you are at risk of any of these no matter where you are.

Dr. Chokshi said that the geographic breakdown of variants illustrated where the variants had been detected and how widespread they were across the city, questions health officials had been asking for weeks.

Monitoring clusters in certain neighborhoods could lead to insights about variants that so far have remained somewhat of a mystery to health officials.

Because B.1.526 appears to have emerged locally in New York City, Dr. Nash said he would expect that it would circulate more in areas with high levels of community transmission.

Throughout the pandemic, these have tended to be poorer swaths of the city, where living conditions are more crowded and jobs have required showing up in person. The map largely bears that out.

In ZIP codes where more than 20 percent of the population lives in poverty, there were about three times as many B.1.526 cases sequenced as B.1.1.7 cases between March 1 and April 1. In ZIP codes with less poverty, B.1.526 cases were just twice as numerous as B.1.1.7.

In an inverse effect, vaccination rates also tend to be lower in harder hit neighborhoods that have had more community transmission during the pandemic. Some of this is because of vaccine hesitancy, and some because of access issues. The city has been trying to address this with targeted vaccination campaigns.

Scarcity is the enemy of equity, said Dr. Tom Frieden, a former city health commissioner.

The abundance of variants being detected in the city has created a complicated challenge for health officials.

Some variants such as the ones first found in Brazil, P.1, and South Africa, B.1.351, that are now popping up in small numbers in New York carry a mutation that appears to allow the virus to partially evade antibodies from prior infection. The variant first found in South Africa also appears to make vaccines less effective.

The variant first detected in New York, B.1.526, appears to come with two forms of mutation.

More than half of the B.1.526 circulating in New York City now carries a mutation similar to ones carried by the variants discovered in South Africa and Brazil, according to the New York City Health Department.

Another version of the variant, researchers say, contains a different mutation, which may help the virus bind more tightly to human cells and may make it more contagious. However, there is no real-world evidence yet that B.1.526 results in more severe infection, or is more likely to evade antibodies from prior infections or vaccines, though it is being studied, city officials said.

The P.1 variant, which has been linked to a surge of cases in Brazil, has been detected about two dozen times in New York City between March 16 and April 1, mainly in Queens. A handful of cases of B.1.351 have been found mostly on Staten Island in recent weeks.

Its just a reminder that not only are we interconnected in the city, but we are interconnected around the world, said Dr. Nash, and what happens there can happen here too, if we are not careful.

Lauren Leatherby contributed research.

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How the Coronavirus Variants Are Spreading in New York City - The New York Times

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) The number of Kansas deaths linked to COVID-19 increased by 14 in the past two days, bringing the states death toll to 4,944.

Out of 5,029 Kansans tested for the coronavirus so far this week, 601 tested positive. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment also reports 39 new hospitalizations. It does not track recoveries.

The KDHE releases the coronavirus and vaccine updates each Monday, Wednesday and Friday over the noon hour.

The number of Kansans who have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine has surpassed one million. The KDHE says more than 24,000 people got their first dose since Monday morning, bringing the states total to 1,019,650. That is 35% of the states population. The KDHE says 22.3% of Kansans have completed their COVID-19 vaccinations.

County coronavirus cases updated: April 14, 2021Weekly doses updated April 12, 2021Sources:Kansas Department of Health and EnvironmentNebraska Department of Health and Human ServicesOklahoma State Department of Health

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Coronavirus in Kansas: Cases and deaths climb, while more than 1 million vaccinated - KSN-TV

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ohios coronavirus case rate has increased to near 200 cases per 100,000 residents over the last two weeks - a rate four times the level Gov. Mike DeWine has set as his test before he will lift health orders ranging from mask mandates to limited gatherings.

The official update will come from the Ohio Department of Health Thursday afternoon, but cleveland.com projects that it will be close to 199.8 cases per 100,000

This is up from a low for the year of 143.8 cases per 100,000 reported on March 18, and well above the goal of 50 per 100,000 DeWine announced March 4 as a prerequisite to lifting his health orders.

A week ago, the rate was reported at 183.7 per 100,000.

Ohio was last below 50 cases per 100,000 in June. Yet despite the recent increase, the state is far below fall and winter highs. The rate topped out at 845.5 cases per 100,000 in mid-December.

The rate is based on when people became sick, not when the cases were reported. And it excludes incarcerated individuals.

The official number released by the state likely will differ some from the cleveland.com estimate, mainly because its unknown how many of the recently reported cases involve incarcerated people. But in each of the last five weeks the cleveland.com projection has been within decimal points of the official number, and sometimes exactly the same.

Dr. Bruce Vanderhoff, the states chief medical officer, has blamed much of the increase to the spread into Ohio of the B.1.1.7 variant. This is the variant first identified in the United Kingdom.

DeWine has said Ohio is in a race to vaccinate more people to head off the variant, a race detoured somewhat this week with the pause of administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine amid concerns over blood clots in a handful of known cases out of millions of people vaccinated.

Soon after cases began to rise in Ohio in March, so did hospitalizations.

The Ohio Hospital Association reported 1,302 coronavirus patients across the state on Wednesday, a 32% increase from 984 at the end of March. The number this year was as low as 823 on March 7. The patient count was last above 1,300 on Feb. 24, though it was once much higher - a record 5,308 on Dec. 15.

Rich Exner, data analysis editor for cleveland.com, writes about numbers on a variety of topics. Follow on Twitter @RichExner. See other data-related stories at cleveland.com/datacentral.

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New Ohio coronavirus cases climb to four times the rate Gov. DeWine wants before lifting health orders - cleveland.com

After Pamela Addisons husband Martin battled coronavirus for nearly a month in the hospital, the 36-year-old mother had to sit down with her 2-year-old daughter Elsie.

I had to tell her that Papa wasnt coming back home, Pamela recalled. At 36, I never thought Id be having a conversation with her about her Dad dying.

Elsie and her 17-month-old brother Graeme are two of the 40,000 young children in the U.S. who have lost a parent to COVID-19.

Researchers recently wrote that the number of young children who have lost a parent is staggering, with an estimated 37,300 to 43,000 already affected.

Martin was 44 years old when he died last spring. Immediately, Pamela noticed the impact on her daughter.

She stopped eating and looked sad all the time, Pamela said of Elsie.

Going through your own grief and seeing your young little daughter like this was quite challenging, she added. I feel a lot of my pain as I look at them. Theyve missed out on a lifetime they should have had with their dad Being a dad was his dream.

Martin, a speech pathologist who attended Boston University, contracted the virus last March while working in a New Jersey hospital.

He was in peoples faces all the time, helping people who had strokes and oral cancer, and would assess their swallowing abilities, Pamela said.

He felt the first symptoms a day after Elsies birthday on March 18, and later spent 26 days in the hospital. He died on April 29.

You dont hear about younger people dying from it, so you feel so alone and isolated, as if nobody else is going through this, Pamela said.

After seeing her daughters immediate struggles, she put her in therapy, which has definitely helped her, Pamela said.

She has fewer moments of sadness, the mother said.

I didnt realize she was avoiding all the foods she would eat with her Papa, Pamela added. She was telling me she was upset, but I didnt catch those clues until therapy.

A week or so after Martin died, Pamela received a card in the mail from a fellow COVID-19 widow who also had young children. Pamela realized she was no longer alone, and that many young parents are losing spouses to the virus.

As a result, the New Jersey mother created a Facebook group called Young Widows and Widowers of Covid-19, where those widows can come together to support one another. There are now 500 members in the Facebook group.

Its now a place to talk about our childrens grief, and figure out how to help them, Pamela said. That feeling of loneliness before, I dont feel that now because so many of us are in similar situations. Its the best group you dont want to belong to.

She worries about the long-term impact the loss will have on Elsie and Graeme.

My son was only 5 months, so hes clueless to what has happened, Pamela said. When he finds out, I dont know how that will affect him. He could be angry he never got to know his Dad.

The researchers who estimated 40,000 young children have lost a parent wrote that sweeping national reforms are needed to address the health, educational, and economic fallout affecting children.

See more here:

40,000 young children who have lost a parent to coronavirus: I had to tell her that Papa wasnt coming back home - Boston Herald

Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. and the changes in the daily lives of Americans that ensued have taken a toll on peoples mental health and created new barriers for those seeking mental health care. Stress and worry about contracting the virus, coupled with job losses, loss of childcare, as well as the devastating loss of loved ones due to COVID-19 are just a few ways in which the pandemic may be having an effect on mental health. Previous KFF analysis of the Census Bureaus Household Pulse Survey from earlier this year shows the economic downturn has led to mental health issues and increased substance abuse in the U.S.. The analysis also found school closures and lack of childcare had an even larger impact on parents with children in their home under the age of 18 who either have transitioned to working from home during the pandemic or have been required to go into work throughout the pandemic. This analysis from the March KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor finds that those hardest hit by the mental health impacts of the coronavirus pandemic have been younger people and women, including mothers.

In the first few months of the coronavirus pandemic, the share of U.S. adults who said worry and stress related to the coronavirus was having a negative impact on their mental health increased from about one-third (32%) in March 2020 to roughly half (53%) in July 2020. With the end of the pandemic in sight as millions of Americans are getting vaccinated against the disease, the mental health impact seems to have leveled off. The March 2021 KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor finds that about half of adults (47%) continue to report negative mental health impacts related to worry or stress from the pandemic.

Younger adults and women, including mothers with children under 18 years old in their households, are among the most likely to report that stress and worry related to coronavirus has had a negative impact on their mental health. Nearly half of Black adults (49%), White adults (48%), and about four in ten Hispanic adults (43%) say the coronavirus has had a negative impact on their mental health, including three in ten Black adults (31%) and one-fourth of White (23%) and Hispanic (25%) adults who say it has had a major impact. Smaller shares of adults ages 65 and older and men (including fathers with children in the home) say they have experienced mental health impact from the coronavirus. It is notable that some previous studies have shown that men, older adults, and Black adults may be less likely to report mental health difficulty and more likely to face challenges accessing mental health care.

More than half of women overall (55%) report a negative impact on their mental health related to the coronavirus pandemic, compared to about four in ten men (38%) who report the same. While a larger share of women across age groups under age 65 report a negative impact on their mental health, the youngest group of men and women are most likely to report negative mental health impacts, compared to their older counterparts. Nearly seven in ten women ages 18 to 29 (69%) report a negative impact on their mental health.

Direct experience with COVID-19 has a role in reported mental health impacts of the pandemic. The March 2021 KFF COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor finds one in four (24%) U.S. adults report having a close friend or family member who has died of complications related to COVID-19. An additional 12% say they have someone less directly connected to them who has died, and about six in ten (63%) say they do not know anyone who has died of COVID-19.

Among those with the closest connections to a COVID-19 related death (having a close friend or family member who died), three in ten say stress related to coronavirus has had a major impact on their mental health. Smaller shares of those who do not know anyone who has died from complications related to COVID-19 say their mental health has been impacted in a major way (23%). Half of those who know someone close who has died, or indirectly, say their mental health has been impacted in at least a minor way (53% each), while more than four in ten who have not had a personal experience with knowing someone who has died say the same (44%).

One potential contributor to negative mental health impacts may be the fear of contracting COVID-19 or having a family member get sick from the disease. When asked how worried they are they or someone in their family will get sick from COVID-19, some of the same groups that are most likely to report negative mental health impacts are also the most likely to report being worried, including women, and younger adults.

A relationship between worry and self-reported mental health impacts is also evident. Among those who say they are either very worried or somewhat worried they or a family member will get sick from coronavirus, six in ten (61%) say worry or stress has had a negative impact on their mental health. This is compared to two-thirds of those who say they are either not too worried or not at all worried about their family getting sick who say that stress has not negatively impacted their mental health regarding the pandemic.

Many adults who reported worsened mental health due the pandemic also report forgoing mental health treatment. About one third (32%) of those who reported a negative impact on their mental health (representing 15% of all adults) say there was a time in the past year where they thought they might need mental health services or medication but did not get them. Nearly half of mothers (46%) who report a negative mental health impact due to the pandemic (27% of all mothers) say they did not get mental health care that they needed. In addition, about one in five adults under age 50, Black adults and women say they have experienced worsened mental health due to the pandemic and have not gotten mental health services or medication they thought they might need.

Access to providers and affordability appear to be the biggest barriers for those who felt they needed mental health care because of the pandemic but did not receive them. One in four adults who did not get the mental health care say the main reason why was because they could not find a provider (24%) or could not afford the cost (23%). An additional one in five (18%) say they were too busy or could not get the time off work to receive treatment. One in ten say they had problems with insurance covering their treatment while 5% said they were afraid or embarrassed to seek treatment.

Read the original post:

Mental Health Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Update - Kaiser Family Foundation