Category Archives: Covid-19

Franketa A. Taylor, of Birmingham, was arrested in the U.S. Virgin Islands after authorities say she submitted an altered negative COVID-19 test to the U.S.V.I., online travel portal,according to a Virgin Islands Daily News report Friday.

The report states Taylor is facing charges including: fraudulent claims upon the government, access to a computer for fraudulent purposes, use of false information, and filing or recording forged instruments.

The U.S. Virgin Islands territory currently requires visitors to provide a negative COVID-19 test within five days of arrival, according to cbs42.com.

V.I. Daily News says Taylor is the seventh person thus far to be charged with entering an altered or forged COVID-19 test in the portal, which screens incoming travelers to prevent the spread of the virus.

According to Virgin Island Daily News, Taylor was unable to post her $5,500 bail and was turned over to the V.I. Bureau of Corrections pending an advice-of-rights hearing.

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Alabama woman arrested in Virgin Islands for providing false COVID-19 test - AL.com

Michigan and other states that experienced springtime Covid-19 surges or faced worrisome transmission trends appear to have turned a corner, with drops in new cases in recent days as vaccines reach more people.

After hovering at stubbornly high levels or increasing over the past two months, average daily cases in Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Illinois, and other states in the Midwest and Northeast have started to fall, providing a breath of relief that the communities are past their most recent peaks. Crucially, new infections in Michigan which experienced the worst of the spring spikes, with some of its highest Covid-19 levels of the entire pandemic occurring in recent weeks have started declining, with hospitalizations also starting to tick down.

Experts are cautious that the progress has just begun and needs to be sustained if the states want to actually achieve low levels of transmission. But theyre heartened that it appears vaccines are increasingly not just protecting individuals from Covid-19, but are starting to have broader benefits for communities.

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Aprils been a bad month, said Preeti Malani, an infectious disease physician at the University of Michigan. There are hospitals across the state overwhelmed with patients. And because staff are sick, theyve been having trouble with staffing their hospitals. Different parts of the state remain under different levels of pressure, but now, with a big increase in vaccine availability in the past month, Malani said, Im optimistic about the direction were headed.

At the national level, the countrys average daily infection count has also started to come down, from more than 70,000 in the middle of April to closer to 60,000 now. But summarizing the U.S. Covid-19 epidemic from that frame obscures how much variability there is. After experiencing a horrific surge over the winter, California now has one of the lowest rates of infections in the country, while cases in Puerto Rico have increased over the past month.

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We remain in a complicated stage, Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at a briefing Monday. On the one hand, more people in the United States are being vaccinated every single day at an accelerated pace. On the other hand, cases and hospitalizations are increasing in some areas of the country, and cases among young people who have not yet been vaccinated are also increasing.

The progress in the United States stands in stark contrast to most of the rest of the world, which lacks anything close to the vaccine supply this country has. Persistently high cases in Europe and the Americas and huge spikes in Asia have driven global case counts to among the highest levels of the whole pandemic.

Trends can also be moving in the right direction when, in raw numbers, infections are still high. Cases may be coming down in Michigan, but theyre still higher than they were there at just about at any other point in the pandemic. National case counts in the 60,000 range as opposed to the, say, 20,000 range mean that many more people will suffer severe outcomes from the coronavirus. And while death counts have dropped dramatically from the more than 3,000 people taken daily in the United States in stretches of January and February, the progress has been stalled at more than 700 deaths per day. The hope is that if case counts continue to fall over the coming weeks, deaths will follow in turn.

Already, the rollout of vaccines has dramatically changed the dynamics of the U.S. epidemic. Hospitalization and death rates among older adults the population with the highest immunization coverage have plummeted, while hospitalizations among younger adults have also started to come down more recently. Whereas for the first year of the pandemic hospitalizations and deaths would follow case counts in predictable patterns, experts now speak of vaccines decoupling those metrics because they are so powerfully protective against the worst outcomes of the disease.

But the shots arent just protecting individuals. Increasing evidence shows that they take a substantial bite out of transmission once theyre given to a certain swath of the population, as countries like Israel that have vaccinated most of their populations have demonstrated. Its not a specific threshold it will vary place to place depending on other factors but experts are hoping and anticipating that some places in the U.S. could be nearing that point, and drops in case counts could accelerate.

I think that might be whats happening in the Upper Midwest, said infectious disease physician Monica Gandhi of UCSF.

Experts had expected that the vaccine rollout would suppress Covid-19 come this summer, to such low levels that many of the activities weve forsaken over the past year could be done relatively safely.

But there was an intermediate hurdle: In some states, cases started rising again this spring, as politicians eased restrictions and individuals grew more relaxed. More transmissible variants of the coronavirus pushed cases up or slowed progress most notably B.1.1.7, which ignited major outbreaks in the United Kingdom (where it first emerged) and then in other European countries. Some recent transmission in New York and New Jersey also seems to have been driven by another variant, B.1.526.

The declining case counts in Michigan and other states suggest we may be back on track.

Im hopeful for that, epidemiologist Stephen Kissler of Harvards T.H. Chan School of Public Health said about the U.S. dodging the full brunt of B.1.1.7. Im cautiously optimistic.

One reason is that the weather got warmer, which appears to have an impact on transmission both for behavioral reasons (people spend more time outdoors) and perhaps for biological ones (many respiratory viruses lose some of their transmission efficiency in hotter, more humid temperatures). B.1.1.7-fueled spikes in the U.K. and Europe were exacerbated because they occurred over the colder months, for example.

The U.S. also had a big wall of natural immunity blunting just how widely the virus could spread this spring. Experts estimate that more than 100 million people in the country have recovered from an infection the vast majority of whom remain protected against reinfection for now.

And then, of course, vaccines. More than half of adults in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a vaccine, and a full third of adults are fully vaccinated.

The factors that spur outbreaks or slow them the weather, the number of susceptible people, the virus itself, the precautions people take can compound or counteract each other, and the plateaued national case count in recent weeks is a reflection of an almost even tug-of-war. But it appears that the balance in more places appears to be tilting toward declines.

Our optimism that the country as a whole has reached a clear turning point is further reinforced, modelers at Childrens Hospital of Philadelphias PolicyLab wrote in their latest update on Wednesday. This is great news for a Covid-weary nation, but we are mindful that the rates of improvement for some areas will be quicker than others.

For all the progress achieved with vaccines, the U.S. is reaching the point where supply is outpacing demand in a growing number of communities. The average number of daily vaccines administered reached a peak of nearly 3.2 million earlier this month, but has since fallen to 2.8 million, even as all people 16 and up became eligible for the shots. Its a matter of both access and hesitancy, and health officials at every level will increasingly have to reach people where they are or assuage their concerns to get more shots in arms. The University of Michigans Malani, for example, raised the concern that teens and young adults could drive outbreaks if theyre not incentivized to get vaccinated.

Experts still foresee a summer when vacations and barbecues return. The coronavirus wont be gone from the United States, but at what level it circulates and how much damage it inflicts in large part depends on how many people in each area remain unvaccinated. (Most children still wont be vaccinated this summer, but experts say that high levels of vaccine coverage among adults and lower transmission rates generally will reduce spread among children as well. Children overall are far less vulnerable to severe outcomes from Covid-19 than older adults, and appear to transmit the virus at lower levels.)

One trend experts will be keeping an eye on this summer is if there are echoes of summer 2020. While the warmer weather gives states in the northern part of the country some breathing room, last summer brought large outbreaks in places like Texas and Florida, where summer temperatures drive people into air-conditioned indoors. If there are large pockets of people who remain susceptible to Covid-19 in those places, they could potentially see a repeat increase in cases if on a significantly smaller scale this summer.

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States with springtime Covid-19 surges appear to have turned a corner - STAT

News Release

Friday, April 23, 2021

Enrollment begins at NIH Clinical Center.

A study assessing how people with immune system deficiencies or dysregulations respond to COVID-19 vaccination has begun enrolling participants at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. The single-site study is led by researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and aims to enroll 500 people, 400 with primary or secondary immune system disorders and 100 without such conditions.

Through large Phase 3 trials, several experimental COVID-19 vaccines were shown to be safe and effective and three are now authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in the United States, said NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci M.D. People with immune disorders are typically excluded from trials of experimental vaccines, and this was the case in the COVID-19 vaccine trials. This new study will characterize the features and adequacy of immune responses to COVID-19 vaccination in people with a range of immune deficiencies and dysregulation syndromes and will provide valuable information about benefits and potential risks in these individuals.

In addition to analyzing how they respond to vaccination, the study team will gather information about COVID-19 illness in people with immune deficiencies and dysregulation conditions.

Currently, there are few published studies on the incidence and clinical presentation of COVID-19 disease in people who have immune deficiencies, especially those who have inborn conditions involving deficits or dysregulations in antibody or cell-based immune responses to infections, said study principal investigator Emily Ricotta, Ph.D., MSc, of the NIAID Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology. Our study aims to fill this knowledge gap.

Potential volunteers may be identified and invited to join the new study through existing NIH study protocol pools of healthy volunteers or via existing protocols involving persons with immune system disorders. Healthcare providers also may refer their patients with immune deficiencies or dysregulation conditions for enrollment. Initially, the study will enroll participants 16 years of age and older. If COVID-19 vaccines are authorized for use in younger people in the future, the enrollment age criterion could expand to include them.

All study visits can be conducted either in person at the NIH Clinical Center or remotely. Participants may be enrolled if they are completely or partially vaccinated against COVID-19. If a volunteer has not yet been vaccinated, they will provide a blood sample to investigators seven days prior to receipt of an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine. Study participants can receive any authorized COVID-19 vaccine in their local communities. Depending on which manufacturers vaccine a participant receives, additional blood samples will be collected between 14 and 28 days after the first dose. Participants who receive vaccine that is administered as a two-dose regimen will provide an additional blood sample between 21 and 28 days after the second vaccine dose. Participants who receive the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will provide a single blood sample between 21 and 28 days after vaccination.

Blood sampled before and shortly after vaccination will be used to study short-term immunological effects of immunization. Participants have the option to provide additional samples approximately six, 12 and 24 months after the last dose. These samples will permit the researchers to assess the persistence of vaccine-induced antibodies and T-cell responses and to compare responses made by people with and without immune system disorders. If vaccine booster injections are recommended in the future, volunteers may choose to provide additional blood samples following those booster vaccines.

At enrollment, participants will be asked if they have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past and about symptom severity, using standardized questionnaires.

This will allow us to characterize the different manifestations of COVID-19 illness in the study population and to determine what influence these may have on the immune response to COVID-19 vaccination, said Dr. Ricotta.

Participants also will have the option to be screened for SARS-CoV-2 infections following vaccination using at-home saliva collection kits that they will return to the NIH biweekly for six months. (SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19.) During multiple follow-up timepoints in the trial, participants will be asked about any vaccine-related adverse events, which will allow the study team to better understand safety and tolerability of the vaccines in people with specific immune deficiency or dysregulation disorders.

The information we gather on how well COVID-19 vaccines protect these specific populations and about any adverse events experienced by those with immune dysregulation or other disorders will aid decision-making about vaccination, said Steven Holland, M.D., director of the NIAID Division of Intramural Research, and the studys medically responsible principal investigator.

More information about the study is available at clinicaltrials.gov by searching on the identifier NCT04852276. Study staff may also be contacted by those interested in participating at NIAIDcovidvaccinestudy@niaid.nih.gov.

NIAID conducts and supports researchat NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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COVID-19 vaccine responses to be studied in people with immune deficits - National Institutes of Health

News Release

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

A Phase 2/3 trial to evaluate a new fully-human polyclonal antibody therapeutic targeted to SARS-CoV-2, called SAB-185, has begun enrolling non-hospitalized people with mild or moderate cases of COVID-19. The trial, ACTIV-2, is sponsored by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The therapeutic was developed by SAB Biotherapeutics, Inc. (Sioux Falls, South Dakota).

NIHs Accelerating COVID-19 Therapeutic Interventions and Vaccines (ACTIV) program is a public-private partnership to develop a coordinated research strategy for speeding development of the most promising treatments and vaccine candidates. ACTIV-2 is a master protocol designed for evaluating multiple investigational agents in adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who are not hospitalized. Led by the NIAID-funded AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) and supported by PPD (Wilmington, North Carolina), a global contract research organization that is responsible for trial execution, the trial will enroll participants at sites around the world.

The ACTIV-2 study design allows researchers to evaluate SAB-185 in a small group of volunteers and then continue testing it in a larger group if the antibody appears safe and effective. The trial began on Aug. 4, 2020 and has since added several therapeutics for testing.

SAB-185 is a fully-human polyclonal antibody therapeutic candidate for COVID-19 that has completed enrollment of Phase 1 and Phase 1b clinical studies. In previous pre-clinical studies, SAB-185 demonstrated neutralization of live SARS-CoV-2 at titers higher than convalescent plasma. The therapeutic candidate was developed from SABs platform, which uses genetically engineered cattle to produce fully-human antibodies in a process designed to potentially be both scalable and reliable.SAB-185 is administered intravenously, with the dose depending on the patients weight in kilograms (kg). A high and a low dose of SAB-185 will be tested in this trial.

When participants enroll in ACTIV-2, they will be assigned at random to receive either SAB-185, another therapeutic currently being evaluated in ACTIV-2, or a placebo. Other therapeutics currently being evaluated in ACTIV-2 include:

In the Phase 2 evaluation, each agent tested in ACTIV-2, and the shared placebo group, will enroll 110 participants with mild or moderate COVID-19 who are at risk for disease progression. The trial is blinded, so neither participants nor investigators will know whether a participant is receiving the therapeutic or the placebo. Participants will attend a series of clinic or at-home visits by clinicians and will be followed for a total of 72 weeks.

An independent Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) overseeing the trial will review the data collected at 28 days. They will monitor data to see if the therapy is safe, reduces the duration of COVID-19 symptoms and eliminates virus from the body. If there are no serious safety concerns and the results of this Phase 2 study seem promising, the trial will transition to Phase 3. It will then enroll 421 additional volunteers to receive the SAB agent, and 421 volunteers in the placebo group. The primary objective of the Phase 3 trial is to determine if the SAB therapy prevents either hospitalization or death by 28 days after study entry.

The study team for ACTIV-2 is led by protocol chairs Kara W. Chew, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Davey Smith, M.D., of the University of California, San Diego. Eric S. Daar, M.D., of UCLA, and David Wohl, M.D., of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), serve as protocol vice-chairs. Babafemi Taiwo, MBBS of Northwestern University is a co-investigator focused on the SAB agent. The ACTG network is led by chair Judith Currier, M.D., (UCLA) and vice-chair Joseph Eron, M.D., of UNC.

For more information on this study, please visit http://www.riseabovecovid.org, or visit clinicaltrials.gov and search identifier NCT04518410.

NIAID conducts and supports researchat NIH, throughout the United States, and worldwideto study the causes of infectious and immune-mediated diseases, and to develop better means of preventing, diagnosing and treating these illnesses. News releases, fact sheets and other NIAID-related materials are available on the NIAID website.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH):NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.

NIHTurning Discovery Into Health

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Large NIH clinical trial will test polyclonal antibody therapeutic for COVID-19 - National Institutes of Health

According to recent data, both the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines have been effective not just in preventing severe symptoms in people who get the vaccines they also effectively prevent infection from COVID-19 in the first place.

This means that those who get the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are unlikely to be able to pass COVID-19 to others in the community. And thats important because that significantly cuts down on spread of the virus, helping protect others who, for one reason or another, are more likely to develop deadly symptoms if they were to contract COVID-19.

How we know COVID-19 vaccines can reduce virus spread

Recent studies, including a study published March 29 in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, show that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines) are 90% effective against COVID-19 infection in real-world conditions once youre fully immunized (14 or more days after your second dose).

The mRNA vaccines are also 80% effective against COVID-19 infection when youre partially immunized (less than 14 days after first dose and before the second dose).

Why this is important

We continue to see data to support that current, FDA-authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not only safe and effective at preventing COVID-19 symptoms, they are a vital key to controlling the pandemic and preventing spread among communities.

What it means for you

Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is similar to getting vaccinated for other diseases in that its as much about protecting your community as it is about protecting yourself.

Perhaps your immune system is strong and healthy enough that a measles or flu diagnosis is unlikely to threaten your life. But if you contracted one of those diseases and unintentionally passed it to your 90-year-old grandmother or to your newborn niece whos too young to be vaccinated, would they be able to fight the virus as easily?

Most people 16 and older in the United States should get vaccinated against COVID-19 so that we can control the pandemic as soon as possible. If youre unsure about whether its right for you or you have more questions about the vaccines, please talk with your primary care provider or visit our COVID-19 Vaccine FAQ page.

Iahn Gonsenhauser is the chief quality and patient safety officer at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and an assistant professor in the Ohio State College of Medicine.

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Getting a COVID-19 vaccine isn't just about you it protects others in your life - Wexner Medical Center - The Ohio State University

The NHL has not promised to relax COVID-19 protocols once players are vaccinated, as Vegas Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner said Wednesday.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told general managers Wednesday not to expect protocols to change through the end of the regular season and perhaps longer.

"We're going to continue to monitor how things evolve, how the vaccination landscape continues to evolve, how the science continues to evolve, and when and if we think it's appropriate, we'll revisit the protocols," Daly told NHL.com.

The GMs held their annual meeting Wednesday virtually instead of holding it over three days in Boca Raton, Florida, as usual due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The NHL Hockey Operations Department updated the GMs on items from cross-checking to coach's challenges. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman went over what the schedule for next season could look like, starting the second week of October. Daly told the GMs he has stayed in touch with the International Olympic Committee but there is no agreement yet with the IOC for the NHL to participate in the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

At about the same time Commissioner Bettman told the GMs to remain vigilant in guarding against COVID-19, Lehner made unprompted, emotional comments at the end of a virtual media session.

Lehner said players were forced to take vaccines even though some were unsure; players were promised a new set of rules to get back to some type of normalcy if they took one; and now rules are not being changed so vaccinated teams won't get a competitive edge.

"They're talking about competitive edge instead of human lives," Lehner said.

Teams have been arranging for vaccines. In some markets, vaccines have been easily accessible. In others, including in the United States, they have been unavailable.

"The status of vaccinations is totally determined market by market based on the circumstances in each market and is totally directed by the clubs and the players," Daly said. "There is no League involvement whatsoever."

The NHL supports vaccination but cannot force players to be vaccinated.

"No, we don't have the ability to force players to take it, nor probably would we ask for the ability to force players to take it," Daly said.

Lehner said he had a couple of calls with the NHL and the NHL Players' Association on Tuesday, but it is unclear to whom he was referring.

"They told me yesterday that they're surveying all the teams to see who has taken the vaccine and who has not taken vaccines, and they're not going to change the rules for us as players until all the teams have a fair have the vaccines at the same time, so it's not a competitive edge," Lehner said.

The NHL has been working with the NHL Players' Association and public health officials in Canada and the United States.

The League is monitoring vaccinations to stay abreast of the situation. But there is not enough science to change protocols based on vaccination, and the NHL doesn't think it will be close to herd immunity by the end of the regular season May 19.

"With respect to saying there was ever a promise made to the players by the League with respect to relaxed protocols, that is not true," Daly said.

Lehner, who is bipolar, said mental health is not receiving enough attention as players live and work within the restrictions of the protocols.

After the media session, Lehner said on Twitter, "As I'm frustrated like a lot of people in the world right now everything didn't come out of today's press [conference] in the right way. Main point is that we need to start [to] take the mental health [as] important as well in this situation. It has a huge impact in society right now."

Daly said, "I am sympathetic to and understand his concerns and the sacrifices he's making to play. But that can't override what our judgment is as to keeping the players healthy and safe."

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news NHL urges teams to adhere to COVID-19 protocols - NHL.com

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Gov. Jay Inslee today announced applications will be accepted for the next round of assistance under the Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund starting April 21.

The additional $65 million allocated by the Legislature this year will provide additional relief to support new applicants. Similar to the first round, the fund will rely on the continued partnership between the state and community organizations, including Scholarship Junkies and the Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network, with the Department of Social and Health Services providing oversight.

This round of funding builds on the governors prior allocations totaling $62.6 million for COVID-19 relief to immigrants in 2020, which provided much-needed assistance to nearly 60,000 individuals who were not eligible for federal COVID assistance due to immigration status. The fund coincides with other relief commitments by the governor in small business grants and rental assistance.

We know many immigrant workers have served on the front line during our pandemic response, and we know that their communities still need our support, Inslee said. I applaud the tireless work of our agencies and nonprofit partners to assist those Washingtonians who were ineligible for federal stimulus relief. I thank the legislators who continue to advocate on behalf of our states immigrants, including the budget chairs, Sen. Rolfes and Rep. Ormbsy, as well as Sen. Saldaa, Rep. Gregerson, and Rep. Harris-Talley.

Applicants must demonstrate Washington state residency; be at least 18 years old; have been significantly affected by the coronavirus pandemic; be ineligible for federal stimulus payments or unemployment insurance benefits due to their immigration status; and have an income at or below 250% of the federal poverty level.

The Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund is considered one-time disaster relief assistance. Receiving assistance from this fund should not impact peoples ability to obtain a green card.

Applications for the second round of the Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund will be accepted from April 21 to May 21.

Applications will be accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, prioritizing those according to need. Eligible community members can apply by:

Public and constituent inquiries | 360.902.4111Press inquiries | 360.902.4136

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Washington COVID-19 Immigrant Relief Fund opens for new applications | Governor Jay Inslee - Access Washington

We're making this important information available without a subscription as a public service. But we depend on reader support to do this work. Please consider supporting independent journalism in Alaska, at just $1.99 for the first month of your subscription.

Although case counts and hospitalizations in Alaska remain below what they were during a peak in November and December, most regions in the state are still in the highest alert category based on their current per capita rate of infection.

Health officials continue to encourage Alaskans to wear face coverings in public, avoid large gatherings, wash their hands frequently and get vaccinated against COVID-19 to prevent further spread.

Alaska in March became the first state in the country to open vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and older who lives or works in the state. You can visit covidvax.alaska.gov or call 907-646-3322 to sign up for a vaccine appointment; new appointments are added regularly. The phone line is staffed 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on weekends.

By Thursday, 300,995 people about 49% of Alaskans eligible for a shot had received at least their first dose. At least 249,900 people about 42% of Alaskans 16 and older were considered fully vaccinated, according to the states vaccine monitoring dashboard.

By Tuesday, there were 49 people with confirmed or suspected cases of COVID-19 in hospitals throughout the state, far below a peak in late 2020.

Of the 212 cases reported among Alaska residents on Thursday, there were 39 in Anchorage plus four in Chugiak and three in Eagle River; five in Kenai; one in Seward; five in Soldotna; 70 in Fairbanks plus 34 in North Pole; two in Delta Junction; eight in Palmer; 14 in Wasilla; two in Willow; one in Nome; four in Juneau; one in Ketchikan; one in Sitka; and one in Bethel.

Among communities smaller than 1,000 people that arent named to protect residents privacy, there were two in the Copper River Census Area; one in the northern Kenai Peninsula Borough; one in the southern Kenai Peninsula Borough; two in the Fairbanks North Star Borough; two in the Northwest Arctic Borough; two in the Prince of Wales Hyder Census Area; five in the Bethel Census Area; and two in the Kusilvak Census Area.

There were also four new cases among nonresidents: one in Kenai, and three in Fairbanks.

While people might get tested more than once, each case reported by the state health department represents only one person.

The states data doesnt specify whether people testing positive for COVID-19 have symptoms. More than half of the nations infections are transmitted from asymptomatic people, according to CDC estimates.

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Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: 216 cases and no deaths reported Thursday - Anchorage Daily News

The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of April 21, 2021, there have been 2,633,918 total confirmatory laboratory results received for COVID-19, with 149,888 total cases and 2,800 total deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 71-year old male from Kanawha County, an 81-year old male from Berkeley County, a 67-year old male from Mingo County, a 72-year old female from Morgan County, a 66-year old male from Cabell County, a 90-year old female from Wood County, a 74-year old female from Ohio County, a 90-year old male from Kanawha County, a 64-year old male from Jefferson County, a 79-year old female from Hancock County, and a 67-year old female from Greenbrier County.

We grieve with these families during their time of loss, said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,361), Berkeley (11,711), Boone (1,890), Braxton (873), Brooke (2,126), Cabell (8,649), Calhoun (272), Clay (459), Doddridge (558), Fayette (3,293), Gilmer (739), Grant (1,240), Greenbrier (2,643), Hampshire (1,724), Hancock (2,718), Hardy (1,447), Harrison (5,461), Jackson (1,928), Jefferson (4,373), Kanawha (14,183), Lewis (1,143), Lincoln (1,400), Logan (3,009), Marion (4,184), Marshall (3,294), Mason (1,937), McDowell (1,497), Mercer (4,591), Mineral (2,777), Mingo (2,441), Monongalia (8,977), Monroe (1,079), Morgan (1,092), Nicholas (1,522), Ohio (4,054), Pendleton (692), Pleasants (837), Pocahontas (649), Preston (2,817), Putnam (4,843), Raleigh (6,263), Randolph (2,499), Ritchie (662), Roane (584), Summers (770), Taylor (1,201), Tucker (524), Tyler (676), Upshur (1,825), Wayne (2,824), Webster (456), Wetzel (1,221), Wirt (381), Wood (7,591), Wyoming (1,928).

Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Such is the case of Ritchie County in this report.

Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Calhoun, Doddridge, Jefferson, Lincoln, Morgan, Ohio, Putnam, Tyler/Wetzel, and Wayne counties.

Barbour County

9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Barbour County Health Department, 109 Wabash Avenue, Philippi, WV

1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV

Berkeley County

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Ambrose Park, 25404 Mall Drive, Martinsburg, WV

Boone County

Calhoun County

9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Minnie Hamilton Health Center, Annex Building, 186 Hospital Drive, Grantsville, WV

Doddridge County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Crimson River Church Parking Lot, 1623 Doe Run Road, West Union, WV

Jefferson County

10:00 AM 6:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV

12:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shepherd University Wellness Center Parking Lot, 164 University Drive, Shepherdstown, WV

Lincoln County

Morgan County

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Valley Health War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV

Ohio County

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Wheeling Island Fire Station, Station #5, 11 North Wabash Street, Wheeling, WV

Putnam County

Tyler/Wetzel Counties

Wayne County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Kenova Police Department, 1501 Pine Street, Kenova, WV

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COVID-19 Daily Update 4-21-2021 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources

The WestVirginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reportsas of April 22, 2021, there have been 2,643,797total confirmatory laboratory results receivedfor COVID-19, with 150,288 total cases and 2,808 total deaths.

DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a75-yearold female from Morgan County, a 57-year old male from Kanawha County, a 78-yearold female from Mingo County, a 57-year old male from Logan County, an 81-yearold female from Nicholas County, a 78-year old female from Wyoming County, a 72-yearold male from Kanawha County, and an 80-year old female from Boone County.

Weremember all loved ones who have been lost to COVID-19, said Bill J.Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary.

CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (1,360), Berkeley(11,768), Boone (1,897), Braxton (879), Brooke (2,128), Cabell (8,660), Calhoun(275), Clay (462), Doddridge (555), Fayette (3,301), Gilmer (741), Grant(1,242), Greenbrier (2,659), Hampshire (1,732), Hancock (2,723), Hardy (1,450),Harrison (5,473), Jackson (1,936), Jefferson (4,393), Kanawha (14,238), Lewis(1,144), Lincoln (1,402), Logan (3,011), Marion (4,195), Marshall (3,304),Mason (1,942), McDowell (1,508), Mercer (4,596), Mineral (2,783), Mingo(2,442), Monongalia (8,988), Monroe (1,078), Morgan (1,094), Nicholas (1,530),Ohio (4,062), Pendleton (693), Pleasants (841), Pocahontas (656), Preston(2,819), Putnam (4,854), Raleigh (6,288), Randolph (2,504), Ritchie (667),Roane (588), Summers (773), Taylor (1,204), Tucker (524), Tyler (677), Upshur(1,826), Wayne (2,827), Webster (456), Wetzel (1,224), Wirt (382), Wood(7,600), Wyoming (1,934).

Delays maybe experienced with the reporting of information from the local healthdepartment to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local healthdepartment level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may notbe a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in questionmay have crossed the state border to be tested. Such is the case of Barbour,Doddridge, and Monroe counties in this report.

West Virginians may pre-register for their COVID-19vaccination at vaccinate.wv.gov. The COVID-19 dashboard located at http://www.coronavirus.wv.gov shows the total number of vaccines administered.Please see the vaccine summary tab for more detailed information.

Free pop-upCOVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Clay,Hampshire, Hardy, Jefferson, Lincoln, Marshall, Mingo, Morgan, Putnam, and Ritchiecounties.

Barbour County

9:00 AM 11:00 AM, Barbour County Health Department, 109 Wabash Avenue,Philippi, WV

3:00 PM 7:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue,Junior, WV

Berkeley County

1:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shenandoah Community Health, 99 Tavern Road, Martinsburg, WV4:30 PM 8:00 PM, Dorothy McCormack Building, 2000 Foundation Way, Martinsburg,WV

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Ambrose Park, 25404 Mall Drive, Martinsburg, WV

Boone County

10:00AM 2:00 PM, Boone County Health Department, 213 Kenmore Drive, Danville, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)

Clay County

10:00 AM 6:00 PM, Clay County HealthDepartment, 452 Main Street, Clay, WV

Hampshire County

10:00 AM 6:00 PM, Hampshire County Fair Grounds(at the dining hall), Fairground Drive, Augusta, WV

Hardy County

9:00AM 12:00 PM, Hardy County Emergency Ambulance Authority, 17940 SR 55, Baker,WV (pre-registration:https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)

4:00PM 7:00 PM, Moorefield High School, 401 North Main Street, Moorefield, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)

Jefferson County10:00AM 6:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV

12:00 PM 5:00 PM, Shepherd UniversityWellness Center Parking Lot, 164 University Drive, Shepherdstown, WV

Lincoln County

9:00 AM 3:00 PM, Lincoln County HealthDepartment, 8008 Court Avenue, Hamlin, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)

Marshall County

9:00 AM 1:00 PM, Marshall County HealthDepartment, 513 6th Street, Moundsville, WV (pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)

Mingo County

10:00 AM 2:00 PM, Delbarton Fire Department, County Highway 65/12,Delbarton, WV

Morgan County

11:00 AM 4:00 PM, Valley Health War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way,Berkeley Springs, WV

Putnam County

9:00 AM 7:00 PM, Liberty Square, 613 Putnam Village, Hurricane, WV (pre-registration: bit.ly/pchd-covid)

Ritchie County

10:00 AM 5:00 PM, Ritchie Regional, 136S. Penn Avenue, Harrisville, WV

For more free COVID-19 testingopportunities across the state, please visit https://dhhr.wv.gov/COVID-19/pages/testing.aspx.

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COVID-19 Daily Update 4-22-2021 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources