Category Archives: Covid-19

The chance to get the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine will be at a premium in Los Angeles County next week as a continuing supply crunch and a hefty queue of those needing a second shot will leave few opportunities for those looking to start their inoculations, a top health official said Friday.

Most appointments offered at the major county-run vaccination sites will be needed for second doses, according to Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the L.A. County Department of Public Health. At the countys five mega-PODs, or mass points of distribution, only a very limited number of people will be able to receive their first doses Monday.

Were just struggling with the supply, the limited supply, and feeling an obligation to make sure that people that had a first dose are able to get their second dose, he said during a briefing. But we know, just based on the numbers, next week at least in our sites, beyond Monday, we really have to stick with the second doses. When we get to the following week, it may be a slightly different story if we are able to get a larger supply of a vaccine. But well have to wait and see.

In the face of constrained and inconsistent supplies, the county is reserving sufficient doses to ensure there is enough for everyone who has already received the first shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

Both vaccines require two shots, administered three and four weeks apart, respectively.

Because of that, residents who receive their initial dose need to get back in line weeks later. When the countys total vaccine supply remains flat, or goes down, that leaves little wiggle room to also offer first doses.

In L.A. County, 193,950 doses arrived the week of Jan. 11, but only 168,575 were delivered the following week and 146,225 the week after that.

County officials said 184,625 doses arrived this week. While a boost from last weeks total, shipments need to be much larger to keep up with demand and allow additional pools of Angelenos to receive their first shots.

If we do continue to receive increasing supplies, obviously well be able to expand and continue to offer first doses, Simon said. Certainly, we want to do that.

Cumulatively, more than 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in L.A. County, and nearly 850,000 people or about 11% of the population of those 16 and over have received first doses. Roughly 2.6% of Angelenos in that age range are fully vaccinated.

The bottleneck isnt unique to L.A. County. Regions throughout California have reported similar problems and have had to take similar steps to make sure people dont miss out on the second shots.

First-dose clinics have been paused in Napa County as officials catch up on giving second inoculations.

Although its amazing that the vaccine is here now, we just dont have enough of it, said Dr. Karen Relucio, Napa Countys public health officer. Supplies are unpredictable. Were running on thin margins.

So far, more than 4 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered throughout California.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 7 million doses of the vaccine have been shipped, and 6.8 million have been delivered to health providers in the state. That means, nearly 62% of the available supply has been used.

Officials said the state is expecting a vaccine allocation of more than 1 million doses next week, and a similar amount the week after. Previously, the state had been allocated roughly 300,000 to 500,000 doses per week.

The supply, while increasing, remains low compared to whats needed, and eligibility is limited. California health departments can currently administer vaccines to healthcare workers, staff and residents at long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and adults who are at least 65 years old.

They also have the option of doling out doses to those who work in the fields of education, emergency services and food and agriculture but many counties have yet to open eligibility to those groups, given supply constraints.

L.A. County, for instance, is accepting appointments only for healthcare workers, residents of long-term care facilities and adults who are at least 65 years old.

Together, those groups comprise about 2 million people, meaning 4 million doses would be needed to fully vaccinate those who are currently eligible to say nothing of the millions more Angelenos who still need to be inoculated.

Unfortunately, the biggest issue we continue to face in our ability to vaccinate is a scarcity of supply and variability in the amount of vaccines we receive from week to week, Simon said. This has been an issue across the country, and it makes planning very challenging.

Times staff writer Faith E. Pinho contributed to this report.

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L.A. County severely limited in 1st dose of COVID-19 vaccines - Los Angeles Times

The Chinese Communist Party reached deep into private business and the broader population to drive a recovery, an authoritarian approach that has emboldened its top leader, Xi Jinping.

The order came on the night of Jan. 12, days after a new outbreak of the coronavirus flared in Hebei, a province bordering Beijing. The Chinese governments plan was bold and blunt: it needed to erect entire towns of prefabricated housing to quarantine people, a project that would start the next morning.

Part of the job fell to Wei Ye, the owner of a construction company, which would build and install 1,300 structures on commandeered farmland.

Everything the contract, the plans, the orders for materials was all fixed in a few hours, Mr. Wei said, adding that he and his employees worked exhaustively to meet the tight deadline.

There is pressure, for sure, he said, but he was very honored to do his part.

In the year since the coronavirus began its march around the world, China has done what many other countries would not or could not do. With equal measures of coercion and persuasion, it has mobilized its vast Communist Party apparatus to reach deep into the private sector and the broader population, in what the countrys leader, Xi Jinping, has called a peoples war against the pandemic and won.

China is now reaping long-lasting benefits that few expected when the virus first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan and the leadership seemed as rattled as at any moment since the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

The success has positioned China well, economically and diplomatically, to push back against the United States and others worried about its seemingly inexorable rise. It has also emboldened Mr. Xi, who has offered Chinas experience as a model for others to follow.

While officials in Wuhan initially dithered and obfuscated for fear of political reprisals, the authorities now leap into action at any sign of new infections, if at times with excessive zeal. In Hebei this January, the authorities deployed their well-honed strategy to test millions and isolate entire communities all with the goal of getting cases, officially only dozens a day in a population of 1.4 billion, back to zero.

The government has poured money into infrastructure projects, its playbook for years, while extending loans and tax relief to support business and avoid pandemic-related layoffs. China, which sputtered at the beginning of last year, is the only major economy that has returned to steady growth.

When it came to developing vaccines, the government offered land, loans and subsidies for new factories to make them, along with fast-tracking approvals. Two Chinese vaccines are in mass production; more are on the way. While the vaccines have shown weaker efficacy rates than those of Western rivals, 24 countries have already signed up for them since the pharmaceutical companies have, at Beijings urging, promised to deliver them more quickly.

Other nations, like New Zealand and South Korea, have done well containing the virus without heavy-handed measures that would be politically unacceptable in a democratic system. To Chinas leaders, those countries do not compare.

Beijings successes in each dimension of the pandemic medical, diplomatic and economic have reinforced its conviction that an authoritarian capacity to quickly mobilize people and resources gave China a decisive edge that other major powers like the United States lacked. It is an approach that emphasizes a relentless drive for results and relies on an acquiescent public.

The Communist Party, in this view, must control not only the government and state-owned enterprises, but also private businesses and personal lives, prioritizing the collective good over individual interests.

They were able to pull together all of the resources of the one-party state, said Carl Minzner, a professor of Chinese law and politics at Fordham University. This of course includes both the coercive tools severe, mandatory mobility restrictions for millions of people but also highly effective bureaucratic tools that are maybe unique to China.

In so doing, the Chinese Communist authorities suppressed speech, policed and purged dissenting views and suffocated any notion of individual freedom or mobility actions that are repugnant and unacceptable in any democratic society.

Among the Communist Party leaders, a sense of vindication is palpable. In the final days of 2020, the seven members of the Politburo Standing Committee, the countrys top political body, gathered in Beijing for the equivalent of an annual performance review, where in theory they can air criticisms of themselves and their colleagues.

Far from even hinting at any shortcomings the rising global distrust toward China, for example they exalted the party leadership.

The present-day world is undergoing a great transformation of the kind not seen for a century, Mr. Xi told officials at another meeting in January, but time and momentum are on our side.

In recent weeks, as new cases kept emerging, the governments cabinet, the State Council, issued a sweeping new directive. There cannot be a shred of neglect about the risk of resurgence, it said.

The dictates reflected the micromanaged nature of Chinas political system, where the top leaders have levers to reach down from the corridors of central power to every street and even apartment building.

The State Council ordered provinces and cities to set up 24-hour command centers with officials in charge held responsible for their performance. It called for opening enough quarantine centers not just to house people within 12 hours of a positive test, but also to strictly isolate hundreds of close contacts for each positive case.

Cities with up to five million people should create the capacity to administer a nucleic test to every resident within two days. Cities with more than five million could take three to five days.

The key to this mobilization lies in the partys ability to tap its vast network of officials, which is woven into every department and agency in every region.

The government can easily redeploy volunteers to new hot spots, including more than 4,000 medical workers sent to Hebei after the new outbreak in January. A Communist Party member goes to the frontline of the people, said Bai Yan, a 20-year-old university student, who has ambitions to join the party.

Zhou Xiaosen, a party member in a village outside of Shijiazhuang, a city of 11 million people that was among those locked down, said that those deputized could help police violations, but also assist those in need. If they need to go out to buy medicine or vegetables, well do it for them, he said.

The government appeals to material interests, as well as to a sense of patriotism, duty and self-sacrifice.

The China Railway 14th Bureau Group, a state-owned contractor helping build the quarantine center near Shijiazhuang, drafted a public vow that its workers would spare no effort. Dont haggle over pay, dont fuss about conditions, dont fall short even if its life or death, the group said in a letter, signed with red thumb prints of employees.

The network also operates in part through fear. More than 5,000 local party and government officials have been ousted in the last year for failures to contain the coronavirus on their watch. There is little incentive for moderation.

Residents of the northeastern Chinese city of Tonghua recently complained after officials abruptly imposed a lockdown without enough preparations for supplying food and other needs. When a villager near Shijiazhuang tried to escape quarantine to buy a pack of cigarettes, a zealous party chief ordered him tied to a tree.

Many measures seemed over the top, but as far as theyre concerned it was necessary to go over the top, said Chen Min, a writer and former Chinese newspaper editor who was in Wuhan throughout its lockdown. If you didnt, it wouldnt produce results.

The anger has faded over the governments inaction and duplicity early in the crisis, the consequence of a system that suppresses bad news and criticism. Chinas success has largely drowned out dissent from those who would question the partys central control. The authorities have also reshaped the public narrative by warning and even imprisoning activists who challenged its triumphant version of events.

In the beginning, the pandemic seemed to expose the fundamental pathologies of Xi-style governance, said Jude Blanchette, a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

In fact, with time and hindsight, we see that the system performed in large part as Xi Jinping was hoping it would do, he added.

The measures in Hebei worked quickly. At the start of February, the province recorded its first day in a month without a new coronavirus infection.

In many countries, debates have raged over the balance between protecting public health and keeping the economy running. In China, there is little debate. It did both.

Even in Wuhan last year, where the authorities shuttered virtually everything for 76 days, they allowed major industries to continue operating, including steel plants and semiconductor factories. They have replicated that strategy when smaller outbreaks have occurred, going to extraordinary lengths to help businesses in ways large and small.

Chinas experience has underscored the advice that many experts have suggested but few countries have followed: The more quickly you bring the pandemic under control, the more quickly the economy can recover.

While the economic pain was severe early in the crisis, most businesses closed for only a couple of weeks, if at all. Few contracts were canceled. Few workers were laid off, in part because the government strongly discouraged companies from doing so and offered loans and tax relief to help.

We coordinated progress in pandemic control and economic and social development, giving urgency to restoring life and production, Mr. Xi said last year.

Zhejiang Huayuan Automotive Parts Company missed only 17 days of production. With the help of regional authorities, the company hired buses to bring back workers, who had scattered for the Lunar New Year holiday and could not return easily since much of the country was locked down at the beginning. Government passes allowed the buses through checkpoints restricting travel.

Workers were only allowed to go back and forth between the factory and dormitories, their temperatures checked frequently. BYD, a large customer, started manufacturing face masks and shipped supplies to Huayuan.

Soon, the company had more orders than it could handle.

An ambulance manufacturer in Anhui Province increased production immediately, buying screws, bolts and other fasteners that Huayuan produces. Then Chinese automakers started needing them as the virus spread and overseas suppliers shut down.

We just said no to clients who only wanted standard parts we wanted to sell more specialized parts, with higher profit, said Chen Xiying, the companys deputy general manager. Clients who were slow to pay we rejected outright.

Like China itself, Huayuan rebounded quickly. By April, it had ordered nearly $10 million of new equipment to start a second, highly automated production line. It plans to add 47 technicians to its work force of 340.

Before the pandemic, multinationals were looking beyond China for their operations, in part prodded by the Trump administrations trade war with Beijing. The virus itself added to fears about dependence on Chinese supply chains.

The pandemic, though, only reinforced Chinas dominance, as the rest of the world struggled to remain open for business.

Last year, China unexpectedly surpassed the United States as a destination for foreign direct investment for the first time, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Worldwide, investments plummeted 42 percent, while in China they grew by 4 percent.

Despite the human cost and disruption, the pandemic in economic terms was a blessing in disguise for China, said Zhu Ning, deputy dean of the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.

Last February, while the coronavirus ravaged Wuhan, one of the countrys biggest vaccine manufacturers, Sinovac Biotech, was in no position to develop a new vaccine to stop it.

The company lacked a high-security lab to conduct the risky research needed. It had no factory that could produce the shots, nor the funds to build one.

So the companys chief executive, Yin Weidong, reached out to the government for help. On Feb. 27, he met with Cai Qi, a member of Chinas Politburo, and Chen Jining, the mayor of Beijing and an environmental scientist.

After that, Sinovac had everything it needed.

The officials gave its researchers access to one of the countrys safest labs. They provided $780,000 and assigned government scientists to help.

They also cleared the way for the construction of a new factory in a district of Beijing. The city donated the land. The Bank of Beijing, in which the municipality is a major shareholder, offered a low-interest $9.2 million loan.

When Sinovac needed fermentation tanks that typically take 18 months to import from abroad, the government ordered another manufacturer to work 24 hours a day to make them instead.

It was the sort of all-of-government approach that Mr. Xi outlined at a Politburo Standing Committee meeting two days after Wuhan was locked down. He urged the country to accelerate the development of therapeutic drugs and vaccines, and Beijing broadly showered resources.

CanSino Biologics, a private company, partnered with the Peoples Liberation Army, working with little rest to produce the first trial doses by March. Sinopharm, a state-owned pharmaceutical company, got government funding in three and a half days to build a factory.

Mr. Yin of Sinovac called the project Operation Coronavirus in keeping with the wartime rhetoric of the countrys fight against the outbreak. It was only under such comprehensive conditions that our workshop could be put into production, he told The Beijing News, a state-controlled newspaper.

Less than three months after Mr. Yins Feb. 27 meeting, Sinovac had created a vaccine that could be tested in humans and had built a giant factory. It is churning out 400,000 vaccines a day, and hopes to produce as many as one billion this year.

The crash course to vaccinate a nation ultimately opened a different opportunity.

With the coronavirus largely stamped out at home, China could sell more of its vaccines abroad. They will be made a global public good, Mr. Xi promised the World Health Assembly last May.

Although officials bristle at the premise, vaccine diplomacy has become a tool to assuage some of the anger over Chinas missteps, helping shore up its global standing at a time when it has been under pressure from the United States and others.

This is where China can come in and look like a real savior, like a friend in need, said Ray Yip, a former head of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in China.

Chinas efficiency at home has not translated into an easy triumph abroad. Chinese vaccines have lower efficacy rates. Officials in Brazil and Turkey have complained about delays. Still, many countries that have so far signed up for them have acknowledged that they could not afford to wait months for those made by the Americans or Europeans.

On Jan. 16, Serbia became the first European country to receive Chinese vaccines, some one million doses from Sinopharm. The countrys president, Aleksandr Vui, stood in chilly winds with the Chinese ambassador to welcome the first planeload of supplies.

He told reporters that he was not afraid to brag of the countrys relationship with China.

Im proud of that and will invest more and more of our time and efforts to create and even improve our great relationship with the Chinese leadership and the Chinese people.

Coral Yang, Amber Wang, Claire Fu and Elsie Chen contributed research.

Read more from the original source:

How China Beat Covid-19 and Revived Its Economy - The New York Times

A teacher at J. Frank Dobie High School died due to COVID-19. She was only 45 years old and had no underlying conditions.

HOUSTON Students at J. Frank Dobie High School are mourning the loss of their beloved teacher, 45-year-old Melissa Gutierrez. But her students say she was more than just a teacher.

"She loved everybody. Everybody that was around her felt love for her. A love beyond what a teacher should normally do," said Noah Torres, a senior at J. Frank Dobie High School.

Mrs. Gutierrez taught family consumer science at Dobie High school for 11 years. She actually graduated from Dobie in 1993. And she loved being a part of the school.

"That was her passion to be an educator, that was her calling. Even outside of school she was still trying to teach," said Joanna Gutierrez, Mrs. Gutierrez's daughter.

But on Dec. 29, 2020, she tested positive for COVID-19. Her daughters said they were shocked, because she was always very careful.

"My mom was the last person that we thought would have ever got it, because she was so prepared and cautious," Joanna Gutierrez said. "Not any time she (wouldn't) have worn her mask."

Her family said Mrs. Gutierrez had no underlying health conditions. They say she was intubated a week ago, but her lungs were just having a hard time. She died Tuesday.

"I was just in shock. There are no words to say. She was just a light in our life. Hard to imagine a person like that just gone," said Kristen Barba, a Dobie High School senior.

Even though her classroom is now empty, Mrs. Gutierrez leaves hearts full of love and memories and one last lesson for all of her kids.

"She would have wanted for everyone to be prepared, wear your mask, take it seriously and take care of each other," Joanna Gutierrez said.

See more here:

'There are no words to say' | Students mourn Dobie HS teacher who died after battle with COVID-19 - KHOU.com

New Hanover County Schools reported 100 cases of Covid-19 the week of Feb. 1-5.

SOUTHEASTERN N.C. New Hanover County Schools reported 100 cases of Covid-19 among its students and staff the week of Feb. 1-5, including 12 individuals at Isaac Bear Early College High, according to the districts reporting.

A total of 205 people are quarantining after being exposed to the virus at NHCS locations.

Related: New Hanover County Schools to consider reopening elementary schools fully

Since NHCS launched its reporting dashboard which is where Port City Daily obtains data for its weekly updates the school system has been met with skepticism about the accuracy of its reporting. Administrators said the school system only posts cases that are self-reported by parents to the schools, which means some positive tests are unreported.

Director of Student Support Services Kristen Jackson, who manages the dashboard, said some students will have Covid-19 and others will know about it, but the school does not. This may lead people to believe the numbers are intentionally inaccurate.

Were working really, really hard to be transparent, Jackson said. I just report the numbers that are reported to us, and I feel really good about their accuracy if we know about it.

The dashboard is updated Fridays by 5 p.m. Cases reported on Friday afternoons may not be included until the following Friday. (Principals sometimes send notifications to families about cases that were reported too late to be included on the Friday dashboard.)

When a Covid-19 case is reported, the school nurse logs it in a database and Jackson receives an email from the principal with the same information. Jackson said she meets with school nurses two to three times a week to review the reports.

We make sure that were getting everything thats coming into the school, Jackson said. So we have a checks and balance there.

Last week, NHCS reported 20 Covid-19 cases at Laney High School. Jackson said administrators and nurses met to discuss the rise in cases and, based on where each student thought they had been exposed, determined the majority were not connected. A couple of cases were linked to sleepovers, she said, but most students who are infected catch the virus at home.

Currently, there are no reported clusters (five or more connected cases) in New Hanover County public schools.

All schools in the county are operating under Plan B, meaning students attend in-person instruction only twice a week and participate remotely on the other days.

After Gov. Roy Cooper and state health officials urged districts statewide to resume daily in-person classes for elementary students, the New Hanover County Board of Education will take up the issue Feb. 10. The public can watch the 6 p.m. meeting remotely on NHCS Youtube. Attendance at the Board of Education Center is limited to 25 people.

NHCS has recorded 464 positive cases in its schools since Oct. 12, the day students returned to in-person school on a part-time basis.

ElementaryAlderman Elementary 1Anderson Elementary 1Blair Elementary 1Castle Hayne Elementary 1Codington Elementary 1College Park Elementary 4College Road Early Childhood Center 4Eaton Elementary 1Forest Hills Elementary 1Freeman Elementary 1The International School at Gregory 2Holly Tree Elementary 1Johnson PreK Center 1Lake Forest Academy 1Murrayville Elementary 2Ogden Elementary 1Parsley Elementary 1Pine Valley Elementary 1Porters Neck Elementary 1Snipes Elementary 2Sunset Park Elementary 3Mary C Williams Elementary 1Winter Park Elementary 3Wrightsboro Elementary 2Wrightsville Beach Elementary 1

MiddleHolly Shelter Middle 1Murray Middle 4Myrtle Grove Middle 2Noble Middle 5Roland-Grise Middle 9Trask Middle 1Williston Middle 5

HighAshley High 8Career Readiness Academy at Mosley 6Hoggard High 1Isaac Bear Early College High 12Laney High 1New Hanover High 5

Central OfficeCommunication and Outreach 1

Port City Daily offers all Covid-19 coverage for free. However, we value the time and effort our journalists put into their work. If you agree, please, consider a monthly subscription for access to all of PCDs in-depth reporting, and sign up for the free morning newsletter.

As of Friday morning, Brunswick County Schools (BCS) is reporting 53 active Covid-19 cases, including one in the central office, and more than 400 quarantines, according to the districts Covid-19 dashboard.

The weekly numbers come from the Brunswick County Health Department and only includes positive cases that were at BCS sites.

To date, BCS has recorded 269 positive cases. Of those, 216 have recovered.

Related: Brunswick County Schools asks Gov. Roy Cooper to prioritize school staff for vaccines

BCS elementary school students are attending school in-person five days a week under the governors Plan A, while middle and high school students come into buildings twice a week Plan B.

Two Brunswick elementary schools Union and Jessie Mae Monroe were 100% remote this past week to stop the spread of Covid-19 in the buildings. The schools will resume in-person instruction Feb. 16.

ElementaryBelville Elementary 2Bolivia Elementary 2Jessie Mae Monroe Elementary 7Lincoln Elementary 3Union Elementary 12Virginia Williamson Elementary 5

MiddleShallotte Middle 3South Brunswick Middle 1

HighNorth Brunswick High 9West Brunswick High 6South Brunswick High 1The COAST 1

Pender County Schools most recent Covid-19 update is from the week of Jan. 25-31. As of then, the school system was reporting 26 active Covid-19 cases and 153 precautionary quarantines. One of the cases was in the central office.

The school system is operating its elementary schools under Plan A, meaning students may participate in in-person instruction all five days of the school week. Middle- and high-school students are learning in the hybrid model, Plan B.

At least 399 people in Pender County Schools have tested positive. Of those, 373 have recovered.

The district updates its numbers every Monday with any positive cases that it is aware of, according to Pender County Schools spokesperson Alex Riley.

The district also requires students coming to campus for any reason to report if they test positive for Covid-19. However, the district also receives information from the Pender County Health Department when cases are connected to district employees and students.

ElementaryCape Fear Elementary 3C.F. Pope Elementary 2Malpass Corner Elementary 1North Topsail Elementary 1

K-8Penderlea School 1

MiddleCape Fear Middle 2Surf City Middle 2Topsail Middle 3West Pender Middle 2

HighHeide Trask High 3Pender High 4Topsail High 1

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Checking in with tri-county schools: NHCS reports 100 Covid-19 cases, some may be unaccounted for [Free] - Port City Daily

Nearly a year into the coronavirus pandemic, as thousands of patients are dying every day in the United States and widespread vaccination is still months away, doctors have precious few drugs to fight the virus.

A handful of therapies remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies and the steroid dexamethasone have improved the care of Covid patients, putting doctors in a better position than they were when the virus surged last spring. But these drugs are not cure-alls and theyre not for everyone, and efforts to repurpose other drugs, or discover new ones, have not had much success.

The government poured $18.5 billion into vaccines, a strategy that resulted in at least five effective products at record-shattering speed. But its investment in drugs was far smaller, about $8.2 billion, most of which went to just a few candidates, such as monoclonal antibodies. Studies of other drugs were poorly organized.

The result was that many promising drugs that could stop the disease early, called antivirals, were neglected. Their trials have stalled, either because researchers couldnt find enough funding or enough patients to participate.

At the same time, a few drugs have received sustained investment despite disappointing results. Theres now a wealth of evidence that the malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine did not work against Covid. And yet there are still 179 clinical trials with 169,370 patients in which at least some are receiving the drugs, according to the Covid Registry of Off-label & New Agents at the University of Pennsylvania. And the federal government funneled tens of millions of dollars into an expanded access program for convalescent plasma, infusing almost 100,000 Covid patients before there was any robust evidence that it worked. In January, those trials revealed that, at least for hospitalized patients, it doesnt.

The lack of centralized coordination meant that many trials for Covid antivirals were doomed from the start too small and poorly designed to provide useful data, according to Dr. Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. If the government had instead set up an organized network of hospitals to carry out large trials and quickly share data, researchers would have many more answers now.

I blame myself to some extent, said Dr. Woodcock, who has overseen the federal governments efforts to develop Covid drugs.

She hopes to tame the chaos with a new effort from the Biden administration. In the next couple of months, she said, the government plans to start large and well-organized trials for existing drugs that could be repurposed to fight Covid-19. We are actively working on that, Dr. Woodcock said.

Brand-new antiviral drugs might also help, but only now is the National Institutes of Health putting together a major initiative to develop them, meaning they wont be ready in time to fight the current pandemic.

This effort will be unlikely to provide therapeutics in 2021, Dr. Francis Collins, the head of the N.I.H., said in a statement. If there is a Covid-24 or Covid-30 coming, we want to be prepared.

Even as the number of cases and deaths have surged around the country, the survival rate of those who are infected has improved significantly. A recent study found that by June, the mortality rates of those hospitalized had dropped to 9 percent from 17 percent at the start of the pandemic, a trend that has been echoed in other studies. Researchers say the improvement is partly because of the steroid dexamethasone, which boosts survival rates of severely ill patients by tamping down the immune system rather than blocking the virus. Patients may also be seeking care earlier in the course of the illness. And masks and social distancing may reduce viral exposure.

When the new coronavirus emerged as a global threat in early 2020, doctors frantically tried an assortment of existing drugs. But the only way to know if they actually worked was to set up large clinical trials in which some people received placebos, and others took the drug in question.

Getting hundreds or thousands of people into such trials was a tremendous logistical challenge. In early 2020, the N.I.H. narrowed its focus to just a few promising drugs. That support included a project known as ACTIV, which enabled trials on antivirals and other treatments for Covid-19 to run at many sites at once. Researchers tested remdesivir, as well as monoclonal antibodies, gathering the data that showed they were indeed effective to some extent. Remdesivir, which stops viruses from replicating inside cells, can modestly shorten the time patients need to recover, but has no effect on mortality. Monoclonal antibodies, which stop the virus from entering cells, can be very potent, but only when given before people are sick enough to be hospitalized.

Hundreds of hospitals and universities began their own trials of existing drugs already deemed safe and widely manufactured that might also work against the coronavirus. But most of these trials were small and disorganized.

In many cases, researchers have been left on their own to set up trials without the backing of the federal government or pharmaceutical companies. In April, as New York City was in the throes of a Covid surge, Charles Mobbs, a neuroscientist at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, heard about some intriguing work in France hinting at the effectiveness of an antipsychotic drug.

Doctors at French psychiatric hospitals had noticed that relatively few patients became ill with Covid-19 compared with the staff members who cared for them. The researchers speculated that the drugs the patients were taking could be protecting them. One of those drugs, the antipsychotic chlorpromazine, had been shown in laboratory experiments to prevent the coronavirus from multiplying.

The doctors tried to start a trial of chlorpromazine, but the pandemic ebbed temporarily, it turned out in France by the time they were ready. Dr. Mobbs then spent weeks making arrangements for a trial of his own on patients hospitalized at Mount Sinai, only to hit the same wall. We ran out of patients, he said.

If doctors like Dr. Mobbs could tap into nationwide networks of hospitals, they would be able to find enough patients to run their trials quickly. Those networks exist, but they were not opened up for drug-repurposing efforts.

Many scientists suspect that the best time to fight the coronavirus is early in an infection, when the virus is multiplying quickly. But its particularly hard to recruit trial volunteers who are not in a hospital. Researchers have to track down people right after theyve tested positive and find a way to deliver the trial drugs to them.

At the University of Kentucky, researchers began such a trial in May to test a drug called camostat, which is normally used to treat inflammation of the pancreas. The scientists thought it might also work as a Covid-19 antiviral because it destroys a protein that the virus depends on to infect human cells. Because camostat comes in pill form, rather than an infusion, it would be especially useful for people like the trial volunteers, many of whom lived in remote rural areas.

But the researchers have spent the past eight months trying to recruit enough participants. They have had trouble finding patients who have recently received a Covid diagnosis, especially with the unpredictable rise and fall of cases.

This has been the source of the delays for essentially all of the trials around the world, said Dr. James Porterfield, an infectious disease clinician at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, who is leading the trial.

While doctors like Dr. Porterfield have struggled to carry out studies on their own, a few drugs have become sensations, praised as cure-alls despite a lack of evidence.

The first supposed panacea was hydroxychloroquine, a drug developed for malaria. Television pundits claimed it had healing powers, as did President Trump. Rather than start one large, well-designed trial across many hospitals, doctors began a swarm of small trials.

There was no coordination, and no centralized leadership, said Ilan Schwartz, an infectious disease expert at the University of Alberta.

Nevertheless, the F.D.A. gave the drug an emergency clearance as a treatment for people hospitalized with Covid. When large clinical trials finally did begin delivering results, it turned out that the drug provided no benefit and might even do harm. The agency withdrew its authorization in June.

Many scientists were left embittered, considering all that work a waste of precious time and resources.

The clear, unambiguous and compelling lesson from the hydroxychloroquine story for the medical community and the public is that science and politics do not mix, Dr. Michael Saag of University of Alabama at Birmingham wrote in November in JAMA.

Now another drug is becoming popular before theres strong evidence that it works: the parasite-killing compound ivermectin. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, who extolled hydroxychloroquine in April, held a hearing in December where Dr. Pierre Kory testified about ivermectin. Dr. Kory, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Aurora St. Lukes Medical Center in Milwaukee at the time, called it effectively a miracle drug against Covid-19. Yet there are no published results from large-scale clinical trials to support such claims, only small, suggestive ones.

Even if the federal government had set up a centralized trial network to evaluate these repurposed antivirals on a large scale, as it is trying to do now, scientists would have still faced some unavoidable hurdles. It takes time to do careful experiments to discover promising drugs and then to confirm that theyre really worth investigating further.

In drug development, were used to 10-to-15-year runways, said Sumit K. Chanda, a virologist at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

In February, Dr. Chanda and his colleagues began a different kind of search for a Covid-19 antiviral. They screened a library of 13,000 drugs, mixing each drug with cells and coronaviruses to see if they stopped infections.

A few drugs proved promising. The researchers tested one of them a cheap leprosy pill called clofazimine over several months, doing experiments in human lung tissue and hamsters. Clofazimine fought off the virus in the animals if they received it soon after being infected.

Now, nearly a year after he started his research, Dr. Chanda is hoping he can get funding for the most difficult part of drug testing: large and randomized clinical trials that can cost millions of dollars. To complete this stage efficiently, researchers almost always need the backing of a large company or the federal government, or both as happened with the large clinical trials for the new coronavirus vaccines.

Its unclear how the Biden administrations new drug-testing effort will choose which drug candidates to support. But if trials begin in the next few months, its possible they could reveal useful data by the end of the year.

Pharmaceutical companies are also beginning to fund some trials of repurposed drugs. A study published this week in Science found that a 24-year-old cancer drug called plitidepsin is 27 times more potent than remdesivir at halting the coronavirus in lab experiments. In October, a Spanish drug company called PharmaMar reported promising results from a small safety trial of plitidepsin. Now the company is preparing to start a late-stage trial in Spain to see if the drug works compared with a placebo.

The pharma giant Merck is running a large, late-stage trial on a pill called molnupiravir, originally developed by Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for influenza, which has been shown to cure ferrets of Covid-19. The trials first results could emerge as early as March.

Experts are particularly eager to see this data because molnupiravir may be effective in treating more than just Covid-19. In April, scientists found that the drug could also treat mice infected with other coronaviruses that cause SARS and MERS.

Any antivirals that may emerge in 2021 wont save the lives already lost to Covid-19. But its possible that one of those drugs may work against coronavirus pandemics to come.

Noah Weiland and Katie Thomas contributed reporting.

More here:

How the Search for Covid-19 Treatments Faltered While Vaccines Sped Ahead - The New York Times

Although rate is reflected differently, spread remains at elevated levels

COLUMBIA, S.C.The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) today announced a change in the way percent positive is calculated for COVID-19 cases. The change will allow South Carolina percent positive calculations to be more easily compared to those used by federal entities, including the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Starting today, DHEC is now reporting percent positive using the tests-over-tests method. Percent positive is now calculated by dividing all positive COVID-19 tests by the total number of COVID-19 tests (positive and negative), and then multiplying the result by 100 to get a percent.

With the change, the public will notice a big drop in the number representing percent positive. That does not mean the level of spread in the community has decreased. Percent positive will appear to be lower only because it is calculated differently.

Not only will DHEC use this new method going forward, but it will go back and recalculate the percent positive for the entire time COVID-19 has been tracked in South Carolina. Anyone wishing to see what the old data looked like can visit this link: https://scdhec.gov/sites/default/files/media/document/COVID19-Archived-Percent-Positive.pdf.

State Epidemiologist Dr. Linda Bell said it is important to note that when changing methods, you cannot compare information from the old method (people over people) with the new method (tests over tests). It is important that people understand that while percent positive appears as a smaller number under the new way of calculating the rate, COVID-19 continues to spread at an elevated level in our state. That smaller number is solely based on the change in the way we calculate the rate, Dr. Bell said.It is important that South Carolinians continue to take steps we know to protect us all from this deadly disease: wear a mask consistently and correctly, stay six feet away from others, wash your hands frequently, and avoid crowds. And when your time comes, get vaccinated, Dr. Bell added.

New Calculation Allows for Greater Data ComparisonWith many federal agencies and state health departments using the tests-over-tests method, this change by DHEC will allow comparisons with percent positivity calculations provided by the CDC, The White House Coronavirus Task Force, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), other academic institutions and many states. In December, CMS began requiring health care facilities to use test over test; DHEC began preparing for the change at that time.

Understanding How Precent Positivity is CalculatedPreviously, DHEC had been calculating percent positive using the people-over-tests method. That required dividing the number of people with positive results by the number of people who had taken tests overall, which included positive and negative results.

DHEC decided to use this method early in the pandemic because the focus was on identifying new people who were testing positive. This becomes harder to do when much of the population has been tested. With the continued recommendation for South Carolinians to be tested frequently, the shift from people to tests also becomes a more effective method to monitor active cases.

The positivity rate helps public health officials determine the level at which COVID-19 is spreading in the community and whether enough testing is taking place, said Dr.Bell. The rate provides us a snapshot of how much COVID-19 is circulating in the community at a given period of time.

What Does Percent Positivity Tell Us about Community Spread?Percent positive will be high if the number of positive tests is high, or if the number of total tests is low. A higher percent positive suggests higher spread and that there are likely more people with COVID-19 in the community who have not been tested.

Percent positivity does not reflect a complete picture of COVID-19 in South Carolina. While it tells us some information about disease spread, other factors are at work as well, including access to testing and how quickly results come back from the lab. No single measure can give a complete picture of COVID-19 spread in our state and our counties.

For information on COVID-19 percent positive rates in South Carolina, visit the testing tab in the county-level dashboard.

View post:

DHEC Announces Change in the Way COVID-19 Percent Positive Is Calculated - SCDHEC

February 2, 2021 by Jill DvorkinCategory: Strategies and Programs , Open Public Meetings Act , Public Records Act , COVID-19

Editor's note: This is an updated and republished version of a blog post originally written on January 13 and updated again on January 28. This version contains new information about Proclamation 20-28.15, which addresses in-person meetings, the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA), and the Public Records Act (PRA), as well as the updated Miscellaneous Venues guidance issued on February 1.

This updated blog sets out our latest understanding of where things stand for local governments based on a recent conversation with Governor Jay Inslees office clarifying some questions related to daily government operations and conducting open public meetings during the COVID-19 emergency.

As of January 11, Washington State is operating under the new COVID-19 reopening plan called theHealthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery, made effective through the governorsProclamation 20-25.12. And on January 19, the governorextended 26 proclamations, including the OPMA/PRAProclamation 20-28.15, through the duration of the COVID-19 emergency or until rescinded. This followed action by the legislature on January 15, which passedSCR 8402, extending statutory waivers and suspensions contained within those 26 proclamations.

For now, agencies in Phase 1 jurisdictions still may not hold an in-person component to their public meetings. Phase 2 jurisdictions may have an in-person public meeting component, limited to 25% capacity or 200 people, whichever is fewer, and consistent with the revised Miscellaneous Venues guidance. Local government operations are to be guided by locally-developed operational plans, described further below.

The latest OPMA/PRAProclamation 20-28.15states, in relevant part:

Proclamations 20-28, et seq., are amended to (1) recognize the extension of statutory waivers and suspensions therein by the Washington State Legislature until termination of the state of emergency pursuant to RCW 43.06.210, or until rescinded, and (2) similarly extend the prohibitions therein until termination of the state of emergency pursuant to RCW 43.06.210, or until rescinded, whichever occurs first.

So, what does this mean for public meetings? Because this is a simple extension of the previous proclamation (version 14), we must look toProclamation 20-28.14to determine the rules applicable to meetings subject to the OPMA. Proclamation 20-28.14 requires that all public meetings must be held remotely but provides an option for an in-person meeting component consistent with the business meetings requirements contained in the Miscellaneous Venues guidance, which is incorporated into Proclamation 20-25, et seq. The relevant language states:

As an exception to the above prohibition, public agencies holding public meetings may, at their option and in addition to hosting the remote meeting elements described above, include an in-person component to a public meeting if all of the following requirements are met:

1. The open public meeting complies with the guidelines for business meetings, found in the Miscellaneous Venues guidancehere, as incorporated into the Proclamation 20-25 et seq., Stay Safe Stay Healthy - Rollback of County-By-County Phased Reopening Responding to a COVID-19 Outbreak Surge;

The Miscellaneous Venues guidance was updated February 1 to reflect the new phasing approach. Business meetings are prohibited in Phase 1 regions but allowed in Phase 2, consistent with the requirements set forth in the guidancemeetings allowed up to 25% capacity or 200 people, whichever is fewer (excluding staff), with several safety measures that must be met.

While the previous Stay Safe - Stay Healthy plan (the last version can be found atProclamation20-25.11) followed a four-phase reopening approach based on metrics measured at the county level, the new plan divides the state into eight regions and currently contains only two recovery phases.

The eight regions in theRoadmap to Recoveryare based largely on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) regions used for evaluating healthcare services. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) will evaluate each region based on a set of four metrics. The metrics look at trends in COVID-19 disease rate, hospital admission rate, intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy, and COVID-19 test positivity rate.

The firstRoadmap to Recovery Reportwas issued by the DOH on Friday, January 8, with every region starting in Phase 1. On January 21, the state launched a newRoadmap to Recovery Dashboardthat will be used for the DOH evaluation and reporting. Based on an update to the Roadmap to Recoveryannounced by the governoron January 28, a region must meet three of four metrics to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2 (previously a region must have met all four metrics) and continue to meet three of four metrics to remain in Phase 2. Two regions (Puget Sound and West) moved to Phase 2 on Monday, February 1. The updated Roadmap to Recovery also changes the timing of the DOH evaluation and potential changing of phases from weekly to every two weeks.

Thischart in the Roadmaplists broad categories of activities allowed in Phases 1 and 2, although more specific guidance is available for many activities on the governorsCOVID-19 Reopening Guidance for Business and Workerspage.

The latestRoadmap to Recoveryand updated COVID-19 Reopening Guidance for Business and Workersprovide guidance and benchmarks for certain local government activities; however, how a local government chooses to conduct their daily operations, within CDC and other recommended safety parameters, remain largely within their discretion. The governor recognizes local control and the need for local governments to develop their own appropriate operational plans.

On June 19, Governor Inslee issued thismemo to local governmentsthat encourages them to use the Safe Start Reopening Guide for State Agenciesin developing their own safe start plans. The governor continues to recommend that local governments use this guide in developing their plans (Version 5, linked above, is the most recent).

The state guidance covers:

For state agencies, the guidelines for activities described in the Roadmap to Recoveryand updated COVID-19 Reopening Guidance for Business and Workersare intended to act as minimum standards for operations. On p. 6, the guidance states:

The phases in the governors Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery plan act as a minimum standard for how businesses, counties, and regions can reopen.

For example, continued telework is strongly encouraged and offices should remain closed for those government agency activities that would fit within theProfessional Servicescategory. For those services that cannot be provided remotely, the plan sets a limit of 25% capacity. Similarly, the governors office recommends applying these benchmarks for local government operations.

In the previous phased re-opening plans, customer-facing government services were not allowed to resume until Phase 3. Our understanding from talking with the governors office is that this prohibition was part of the former phasing plan and is no longer applicable. Again, local governments will need to make their own plans, prioritizing and resuming services as safely as possible, using current statewide capacity and safety guidance, as applicable.

On January 19 the governor extended dozens of proclamations until the termination of the emergency, or until rescinded. Some proclamations affecting local governments include20-64.5and20-23.14.

The governors website contains afull list of all updated proclamations.

The actions of the legislature and governor extending the emergency proclamations until the termination of the emergency will provide more certainty going forward, without having to wonder whether any given proclamation will be extended or renewed after the rolling expiration dates. Local governments should be using the Roadmap for Recovery and related activity-specific guidance in developing their own operational plans. Meetings subject to the OPMA continue to be guided by the specific limitations set forth in Proclamation 20-28.15.

As always, we recommend consulting with your agencys legal counsel with questions and keeping a close eye onMRSCs websitefor the latest guidance regarding local government operations during the COVID-19 emergency.

MRSC is a private nonprofit organization serving local governments in Washington State. Eligible government agencies in Washington State may use our free, one-on-one Ask MRSC service to get answers to legal, policy, or financial questions.

VIEW ALL POSTS BY Jill Dvorkin

See the original post here:

COVID-19 Reopening Plan, Proclamation Extensions, and Government Operations - MRSC

MADISON (WKOW) -- Forty more people were added to the total of those who have died in Wisconsin because of COVID-19, according to the latest numbers from the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Deaths for each day arereported by DHS HERE.

DHS also reported 123 people were newly hospitalized.

As of Sunday afternoon, 686COVID-19 patientswere being treated in Wisconsin hospitals, down 11 from the day prior.

Of those, 146 are in the ICU, down 22 from the day before,according to the Wisconsin Hospital Association.

There have been 1,095 positive COVID-19 tests since yesterday in Wisconsin and 2,087 negative results.

(CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL DHS DASHBOARD)

The Department of Health Servicesdashboardshows the seven-day average of both positive tests by day and test by person.(CHART)

(App users, see the daily reports and charts HERE.)

Of all positive cases reported since the pandemic began, 517,169 or 95.4 percent, are considered recovered.

As of Monday a total of 578,336 vaccines have been administered throughout Wisconsin.

DHS now has a county-level dashboard to assess the COVID-19 activity levelin counties and Healthcare Emergency Readiness Coalition regions that measure what DHS calls the burden in each county.View the dashboard HERE.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services updates the statistics each dayon its website around 2 p.m.

(Our entire coronavirus coverage is available here.)

The new strain of the coronavirus causes the disease COVID-19. Symptoms include cough, fever and shortness of breath. A full list of symptoms is available onthe Centers for Disease Control website.

In severe cases, pneumonia can develop. Those most at risk include the elderly, people with heart or lung disease as well as anyone at greater risk of infection.

For most, the virus is mild, presenting similarly to a common cold or the flu.

Anyone who thinks they may have the disease should call ahead to a hospital or clinic before going in for a diagnosis. Doing so gives the staff time to take the proper precautions so the virus does not spread.

Those needing emergency medical services should continue to use 911.

(County by county results are available here).

More:

Forty more dead from COVID-19 in Wisconsin; 123 newly hospitalized - WKOW

ByUNHCR staff|02 February 2021

In a data visualization project entitled 'Livelihoods, food and futures: COVID-19 and the displaced,'UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, collated statistics from numerous sources to shed more light on the effects of the pandemic on poor and vulnerable people, including refugees.

The storymap the third in a series examining how displaced communities have been affected by the coronavirus illustrates the drastic falls in levels of employment and income since the onset of the pandemic. It also explores how families are coping to meet basic needs, in many cases forced to cut corners because of shrinking household budgets.

But job losses and evaporating incomes could not just be measured in purely economic terms, said Raouf Mazou, Assistant High Commissioner for Operations at the UN Refugee Agency. The side effects of these financial crises are pernicious and devastating on education, mental and physical health, food security, gender-based violence, community relationships and beyond, he said.

"The side effects of these financial crises are pernicious and devastating."

As a result of the pandemic, vulnerable households, including those among displaced communities, are resorting to negative ways of coping such as cutting meals, increasing debts, selling assets or cutting short their childrens education.

And with incomes drying up and food systems disrupted by COVID-19, the scale and impact of food insecurity is expected to increase.The World Food Programme estimates that 270 million people may have fallen into acute food insecurity at the end of 2020.

Displaced populations are generally more vulnerable to food insecurity and malnutrition. They often rely on food assistance and are more likely to have abandoned their jobs, possessions and social networks to find safety, often settling in displacement sites or urban areas with limited access to basic services.

Overall, said Mazou, the international community would have to find fair and global solutions to what was a global challenge. To this end, he added, it would be vital to work towards the longer-term inclusion of the poorest in society, including the displaced, in formal systems.

COVID-19 has shown us is that exclusion kills, he said. No one is safe until everyone is safe.

More here:

Data reveals impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods and futures - UNHCR

Today Gov. Jim Justice, the West VirginiaDepartment of Health and Human Resources, and the West Virginia Joint InteragencyTask Force for COVID-19 Vaccinesannounced the COVID-19 vaccine clinics thatwill be held in all 55 counties throughout the state Feb. 3-6, 2021 throughOperation Save Our Wisdom.

This weeks clinics are available for WestVirginians who are 65 years of age and older. Residents from any county in WestVirginia may access an appointment at any of the vaccination clinics listed,regardless of their county of residence.

Many clinics arelisted as full as they are utilizing existing waitlists. However, WestVirginians can now pre-register for a COVID-19 vaccine through the WestVirginia COVID-19 Vaccine Registration System at http://www.vaccinate.wv.gov.In select counties, individuals who are pre-registered will be notified if they are selected for an available slot to receive a vaccine in their area. Supplies are limited.

Walk-ins will not beaccepted.

Due to possible inclement weather this week, pleasecheck local news media and social media for any changes or delays.

Changes to clinics highlighted belowinclude: Braxton, Brooke, Hampshire, Hancock, Kanawha, Lincoln,Mason, Mineral, Monongalia,Monroe, Pleasants, Pocahontas, Preston, Summers, Taylor, Upshur counties.

Wednesday, February 3, 2021

CabellCounty (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

8:30 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Valley Health Milton, 1 HarbourWay, Milton, WV 25541. By appointment only.

Mingo County (FULL:Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., 2nd dose shots only; 1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m., 1stdose shots only.

Williamson Memorial Hospital, 189 Alderson Street,Williamson, WV 25661 By appointment only.

Monongalia County (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

8:00 a.m. 2:00 p.m., FormerSears at Morgantown Mall, 9520 Mall Rd., Morgantown, WV 26501

Randolph County (FULL:Will utilize existing waitlist)

8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., Phil Gainer Community Center, 142 Robert E.Lee Avenue, Elkins, WV 26241 26537. By appointment only.

Taylor County (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Taylor County Senior Center, 52 Trap SpringsRoad, Grafton, WV 26354. By appointment only.

Wirt County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Coplin Health Systems, 483 Court Street,Elizabeth, WV 26143. By appointment only.

Thursday, February 4, 2021

Braxton County(FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. -2:00 p.m.Pfizer 2nd Dose Only; 2:00 p.m. -4:30 p.m.Moderna 1st & 2nd Doses.

Gassaway Baptist Church, 56Beall Drive, Gassaway WV 26624. By appointment only.

Cabell County - A(FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., St.Mary's Education Center, 2853 5th Avenue, Huntington, WV 25702. Byappointment only.

Cabell County - B(FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., OldHighlawn Baptist, 2788 Rear Collis Avenue, Huntington, WV 25702. Byappointment only.

Calhoun County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

9:00a.m. - 2:00 p.m., Calhoun Middle/High School - Front Loop, 50Underwood Circle, Mt. Zion, WV 26151. By appointment only.

GrantCounty (FULL:Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., E.A. Hawse Health Center, 111 S. Grove St., Suite 1, Petersburg, WV 26847. Byappointment only.

Greenbrier County A (FULL: Willutilize existing waitlist)

10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Rainelle Medical Center, 176 Medical Center Drive, Rainelle, WV 25962. By appointment only.

Greenbrier County B (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., WV Building-WV State Fairgrounds, 947 Maplewood Ave,Lewisburg, WV 24901. By appointment only.

HampshireCounty (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

12:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m., Hope Christian Church, 15338Northwestern Turnpike, Augusta, WV 26704. Byappointment only.

HarrisonCounty (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Nathan Goff Armory, 5 Armory Road, Clarksburg, WV 26301. By appointment only.

Jackson County (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9 a.m. - 4:00 p.m., Jackson County Armory, 8832Pt. Pleasant Road, Millwood, WV 25262. By appointment only.

Jefferson County (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Ranson Civic Center, 432West 2nd Avenue, Ranson, WV 25438. Byappointment only.

LoganCounty (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Logan County Resource Center, 100Recovery Road, Peach Creek, WV 25639. By appointment only.

Mason County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m., National Guard Armory, 4194Ohio River Road, Pt. Pleasant, WV 25550. By appointment only.

Mineral County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., MineralCounty Health Department, 541 Harley O. Staggers Drive,Keyser, WV 26726. Byappointment only.

Monroe County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Church of God Fellowship Center, 96 BudRidge Road, Union, WV 24981. By appointment only.

Ohio County (Limited availableslots will be filled from those pre-registered on http://www.vaccinate.wv.gov)

6:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m., Highlands Old Michaels Building, 550 CabelaDrive, Triadelphia, WV 26059. By appointment only. Pre-register at http://www.vaccinate.wv.gov.

Pendleton County (Limited available slots will be filled from those pre-registeredon http://www.vaccinate.wv.gov)

9:00 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., Pendleton Community Building, ConfederateRoad, Franklin, WV 26807. By appointment only. Pre-register at http://www.vaccinate.wv.gov.

Pleasants County (FULL:Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Pleasants County Library, 101 LafayetteStreet, Saint Marys, WV 26170. By appointment only.

Pocahontas County (FULL:Will utilize existing waitlist)

12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Marlinton Wellness Center,320 9th Street, Marlinton, WV 24954. Byappointment only.

Preston County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Craig Civic Center, 311 Tunnelton Street,Kingwood, WV 26537. By appointment only.

RaleighCounty (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Beckley Convention Center, 200 ArmoryDrive, Beckley, WV 25801. By appointment only.

RitchieCounty (FULL: Will utilize existing waitlist)

9:00a.m. - 3:00 p.m., Ritchie County 4-H Camp, 4-H Camp Road,Harrisville, WV 26362. By appointment only.

Summers County (FULL: Will utilize existingwaitlist)

8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., Hinton Freight Depot, 506 CommercialStreet, Hinton, WV 25951. By appointment only.

See the article here:

COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics in all 55 Counties for Residents Age 65 and Older Feb. 3-6 - West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources