Daily Archives: November 11, 2021

COVID testing fees to be imposed on unvaccinated college students

Unvaccinated college students will now have to pay Covid-19 testing fees at some schools.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

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Because of the Veterans Day holiday, Lane County Public Health didn't publish COVD-19-related information Thursday.

As of Tuesday, 254,996people in Lane County, 66.86% of the total population, had received first or second vaccine doses with 521,016 first and second doses administered in Lane County,according to the Oregon Health Authority.

New coronavirus infectionsare rising again in most states for the first time in two months, and deaths are rising in about half of U.S. states, a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins University data reveals.

In the week ending Wednesday, case counts were higher in 29 states than they were the week before. A month ago, cases were rising in just 12 states.

The states now reporting rising cases are primarily in the North, which had fared far better in the late summer as the delta variant clobbered the South. Vermont, an early leader in vaccinations, is now seeing record case numbers. Florida, which has suffered the most deaths of any state since July 1 22,600 now reports the lowest daily per-capita case count of any state.

The highly contagious delta variant began dominating even after highly effective, safe and free vaccines became widely available to all adults. Health officials are now encouraging booster shots and newly authorized vaccines for children.

Mike Stucka

Also in the news:

Colorado will expand hospital capacity and staffing amid a coronavirus surge in hospitalizations that could break records, Gov. Jared Polis said.

Coronavirus deaths across Europe jumped 10% in the first week of November from the previous week, while new cases rose 7%, the World Health Organization reported. Globally, deaths fell 4% while new cases edged up 1%.

A Veteran's Day parade dubbed the nation's first returned to the streets ofBirmingham, Alabama, on Thursday after 2020 was onlinebecause of the pandemic. The Veterans Administration credits Birmingham with having the first celebration to use the term Veterans Day in its title after World War II veteran Raymond Weeks organized National Veterans Day in 1947.

Stonecrest, Georgia, Mayor Jason Larypleaded not guilty to conspiracy, wire fraud and other charges related to ascheme to steal federal coronavirus relief funds. Defense lawyer Dwight Thomas, however, said Lary wont fight the charges.

Today's numbers:The U.S. has recorded more than 46 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than759,000 deaths,accordingtoJohns Hopkins Universitydata. Global totals: More than 251.5 million cases and 5 million deaths. More than 194 million Americans58% of the populationare fully vaccinated,according to theCDC.

What we're reading:If youre taking your child to get vaccinated against COVID-19 soon, experts say some approaches can make it easier.

Keep refreshing this page for the latest news. Want more?Sign up forUSA TODAY's Coronavirus Watch newsletterto receive updates directly to your inbox, andjoin ourFacebook group.

The coronavirusstruck the NFL's Minnesota Vikings this week, including a vaccinated player who was admitted to an emergency room, head coach Mike Zimmer said Wednesday.Zimmer, who said the situation was "scary," said the player was hospitalizedinstable condition. ESPNandNFL Networkreported thatthe player was offensive lineman Dakota Dozier, who was placed on the team'sreserve/COVID-19 list last Friday. The Vikings have placed several players on the league's COVID list in recent days; NFL policy does not require vaccinated players to be quarantined.

"It's serious stuff," Zimmer, who has been outspoken in urging players to get vaccinated,said Wednesday. "Like, 29 guys are getting tested because of close contact, including myself."

Analis Bailey

Universities that adopted COVID-19 vaccine mandates this fall have seen widespread compliance even though many schools made it easy to get out of the shots by granting exemptions to nearly any student who requested one.Facing pockets of resistance and scattered lawsuits, colleges have tread carefully as forcing students to get the vaccine when they have a religious or medical objection could put schools into tricky legal territory. For some, there are added concerns that taking a hard line could lead to a drop in enrollment.

Still, universities with mandates report much higher vaccination rates than communities around them, even in places with high vaccine hesitancy. Most of the nations largest public universities arent seeing large numbers of student exemption requests, according to an analysis by The Associated Press. At the same time, those colleges have approved the vast majority in some cases all of the requests.

At Virginia Tech University, where 95% of students are now vaccinated, the school granted all of the 1,600 exemption requests from students as long as they agreed to weekly testing.

A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Gov. Greg Abbott'sexecutive orderthat bansschools from imposing mask mandates cannot be enforced because it violates federal law by putting students with disabilities at greater risk.U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel also blocked Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton frombringing legal action against school districts that require students, teachers and staff to wear face coverings as a pandemic safety measure.The evidence, Yeakel wrote, shows that wearing masks can decrease the risk of spreading COVID-19a particularly useful strategy for children with disabilities who can be at higher risk of contracting respiratory disease and from suffering more severe symptoms.

"Because GA-38 precludes mask requirements in schools, (students with disabilities) are either forced out of in-person learning altogether or must take on unnecessarily greater health and safety risks than their nondisabled peers," Yeakel wrote.

Tom Melsheimer, a Dallas lawyer who represented the students and their families, praised the ruling.

"Going forward, school districts all over the state will be free to follow sound medical science and common sense to protect the most vulnerable among us. Who can reasonably object to such a result?"Melsheimer said.

Chuck Lindell, Austin American-Statesman

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Lane County COVID-19 update, Nov. 11: New infections on the rise in most states - The Register-Guard

People in Singapore mask up to take a mass rapid transit train on Friday. Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As of Sunday, 85% of its population was fully vaccinated. Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

People in Singapore mask up to take a mass rapid transit train on Friday. Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As of Sunday, 85% of its population was fully vaccinated.

Singapore's government has been covering the medical bills of COVID-19 patients throughout the pandemic. But it says unvaccinated people will soon be on their own.

Those who are "unvaccinated by choice" will have to start paying for their own COVID-19 treatment starting Dec. 8, the Ministry of Health announced on Monday, citing the strain they are putting on the nation's health care system.

"Currently, unvaccinated persons make up a sizeable majority of those who require intensive inpatient care, and disproportionately contribute to the strain on our healthcare resources," it said in a statement.

Until now, the government has been covering the cost of COVID-19 care for all Singaporeans, permanent residents and long-term pass holders, excluding those who tested positive after returning from overseas travel.

"This was to avoid financial considerations adding to public uncertainty and concern when COVID-19 was an emergent and unfamiliar disease," it explained, adding that this system will continue to apply to "the majority who are vaccinated ... until the COVID-19 situation is more stable."

The policy change means the government will start charging all unvaccinated COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals and designated "COVID-19 Treatment Facilities" on or after Dec. 8. Those patients can still use their regular health care financing arrangements to pay their bills where applicable.

There are a few exceptions. People who aren't eligible for vaccination like children under 12 and people with medical exemptions will still have their medical bills covered by the government. And people who are partially vaccinated won't be charged until Dec. 31, to give them time to complete the full series.

Specifically, starting on Jan. 1, the government will only foot the bill for those Singaporeans (including permanent residents and long-term pass holders) who are fully vaccinated and have not recently traveled.

"Our hospitals really much prefer not to have to bill these patients at all, but we have to send this important signal, to urge everyone to get vaccinated if you are eligible," Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said on Monday.

Singapore has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world. As of Sunday, 85% of its population was fully vaccinated, and 18% had received booster shots, according to health ministry data.

The health minister credited the hard work of vaccination teams with reducing the number of unvaccinated seniors from 175,000 in early August to below 64,000.

"If not for this reduction, our hospitals and ICUs today would have been already overwhelmed," he added.

Singapore had 1,725 recorded hospitalizations as of Monday, with an intensive care unit utilization rate of 68.5%. The health ministry also looked at the difference in cases between those who are fully vaccinated and those who are partially or not at all vaccinated.

Over the last seven days, it said, the number of critically ill cases who were fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated were at 0.5 and 5.2 per 100,000 population, respectively. Over that same period, the number of fully vaccinated and not fully vaccinated cases who died were 0.1 and 0.9 per 100,000 population, respectively. Those numbers were considerably larger for seniors.

Singapore has seen a surge in cases over the last few months and decided in October to abandon its "zero COVID strategy" in favor of learning to coexist with the virus.

Officials said on Oct. 20 that they would extend their plan for another month, with a midpoint review. Their Monday announcement about COVID-19 medical coverage also said that the growth in new cases had slowed and that certain restrictions have been eased as a result.

For example, it will allow up to five fully vaccinated people from the same household to eat together at a dining establishment and take steps to simplify travel protocols.

The government also said it would "pilot the resumption of more activities" like sports, meetings and conferences for those who are fully vaccinated, subject to additional rapid testing requirements.

Unvaccinated people are not offered those same options.

"As for individuals who do not want to take any of the vaccines, we will need to have Safe Management Measures which differentiate between the vaccinated and unvaccinated," the health ministry explained. "This is in order to protect the unvaccinated, and also to preserve our healthcare capacity."

This story originally appeared on the Morning Edition live blog.

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Singapore will stop covering the medical bills of unvaccinated COVID-19 patients - NPR

An obstetrician gynecologist and a biochemist at the Miller School of Medicine have devised a new therapeutic to stop COVID-19 from overpowering patients who are struggling to survive.

Two University of Miami researchers have uncovered a novel treatment that could stop COVID-19 in its tracks and help those suffering from the disease to recover.

A therapeutic called Spikenet, created by Miller School of Medicine obstetrician gynecologist Dr. Michael Paidas and assistant research professor Arumugam Jayakumar, works by blocking the novel coronavirus from entering cells in the body, where it typically replicates and spreads.

Even with more vaccines available, the cases and death rates of COVID-19 have still skyrocketed, and new variants continue to emerge. So, the vaccine and treatments we have now are not enough, said Paidas, a maternal fetal specialist who chairs the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences. Doctors need some other options when a patient already has COVID-19, and we are desperate for this sort of therapeutic.

Early in the pandemic, Paidas and Jayakumar were interested in finding a way to stop the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, from affecting pregnant women. They began by using advanced computer imaging to model how the virus enters the body and focused on how the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein attaches to the outside of each human cell in a process called binding.

Soon after, Paidas recalled an experience working with another virus, which helped him realize that it could be possible to prevent the entire binding process from starting. More specifically, the researchers saw that they might be able to create a small peptideor a string of amino acidsthat would attach to the spike protein protruding from the virus outer membrane. This peptide could then effectively create a net to blanket the spike protein, thwarting the SARS-CoV-2 virus from ever entering human cells. Because of this visual, they named the therapeutic, Spikenet.

When we saw the spike proteins structure, we realized that we could create a small protein to exquisitely bind to it, said Jayakumar, an experienced biochemist and neuroscientist.

Our thought was if you can stop the spike protein from binding, its like preventing the key from going into the lock, so you cant open the door. And if we could prevent the virus from entering the cells, the ball game would be over, Paidas added.

Within weeks, the pair crafted a peptide recipe that they believed would attach to the spike protein like superglue to prevent the virus from binding and entering human cells. They then utilized an animal model of a virus that mirrors SARS-CoV-2which Paidas and Jayakumar also developedand treated some of the infected rodents with Spikenet. They gave just three doses of Spikenet to the animals, over a period of six days. But the results were promising80 percent of the rodents that received Spikenet survived their bout of COVID-19.

At a clinical level, whats really important is treatment of COVID-19 during the first few days when you get sick. Because if you dont turn the corner right away, its a downward spiral and its often hard to recover, Paidas said. Yet in our first animal model, we saw significant survivorship early on.

Then, Paidas and Jayakumar went a step further. They sent Spikenet to Northern Arizona University, which has a Biosafety Level 3 laboratory, something that is unavailable in Florida. There, the peptide was given as a treatment to mice infected with live SARS-CoV-2 virus. The health of most of the 20 mice who received Spikenet improved significantly. They are still analyzing the data but are elated by the initial results.

Along with survival rates, the duo discovered other benefits of Spikenet. For example, it reduces inflammation and oxidative stress levels in rodents who received the treatment. In addition, Paidas said they looked at the rodents water channelsor aquaporins, which regulate water in the bodyand noted that these also improved with the Spikenet treatment. These are major hurdles for patients suffering with severe COVID-19, whose lungs often fill up with fluid, Paidas pointed out.

In addition, Spikenet could offer production advantages, according to the researchers. While the most common treatments for COVID-19 available today are dexamethasone, a common steroid; Remdesivir, an antiviral limited to hospitalized patients; and Regeneron, a combination of two different monoclonal antibodies that must be infused in a patient shortly after the onset of COVID-19, Spikenet may be easier to mass produce because it can be created quickly in a lab. It can also be modified for variants. Paidas and Jayakumar anticipate that Spikenet would be an injectable treatment but explained that it could potentially take other forms in the futurelike Mercks new COVID-19 pill, molnupiravir, an investigational drug given orally, or Pfizers new oral drug, Paxlovid.

We are talking about a small peptide thats easy to make, and it has all these other positive effects that are important for treating this disease and possibly others, Paidas said.

And while the project began as a way to simply help patients, the journey to create a solution for those who are infected with COVID-19 has become personal. Not only did Paidas lose his father to COVID-19, along with a beloved University obstetrician gynecologist in his department, Jayakumar has lost eight relatives to the illness.

We will develop Spikenet for everyone, but I especially want a treatment for pregnant moms, Paidas said. We hope that this will be one part of the armamentarium to treat this disease.

In the meantime, Paidas acknowledged that the duo is working on starting some dosing studies with animals and publishing a paper about their work with Spikenet. He hopes that they can quickly find a private company to help them begin testing Spikenet in humans battling COVID-19.

We have such a positive signal that we are meeting with pharmaceutical companies to make sure we have the most expeditious route to humans, and we hope to be in clinical trials in a range of months, Paidas said.

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Researchers develop a 'net' to prevent the coronavirus from entering cells - University of Miami

by: ECU News Services, Emily Cervarich

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WNCT) Researchers at East Carolina Universitys Brody School of Medicine have found a new way to detect the virus that causes COVID-19 by testing the air passing through building ventilation systems.

The study could lead to earlier detection of the virus, improved quarantine protocols, reduced transmission and fewer outbreaks.

Two people spearheaded the effort. Dr. Sinan Sousan is an assistant professor in Brodys Department of Public Health and Research Faculty at North Carolina Agromedicine Institute who is also an expert of environmental and occupational airborne exposure. Dr. Rachel Roper is a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology with an extensive background studying coronaviruses. Together, they have been working to learn whether SARS-CoV-2 could be detected through the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in student dorms.

The team collected a total of 248 air samples from two large student dormitories as well as an isolation suite housing COVID-positive students during the 2021 spring semester.

Roper and Sousan recently published their findings in The American Journal of Infection Control, representing a possible quantum leap when it comes to early detection of COVID-19 before an individual even tests positive.

The challenge was to collect enough virus and have it concentrated enough. And also to keep it intact until we got it into the lab because we couldnt detect the RNA if it was already degraded and then we had to extract it enough in a compatible way so it would work in the PCR. So we were really excited we were able to get it to work, Roper said.

The professors told 9OYS there is still further research to be done to better utilize this study on larger scales. They believe their findings could be used in hotels, prisons, dorms and other larger buildings for surveillance to test for COVID and other air spread viruses.

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East Carolina University researchers discover new way to detect coronavirus through building ventilation systems - WAVY.com

The number of active cases in North Dakota has been slowly increasing throughout the week.

Cass County, which encompasses Fargo, had the most known active cases on Wednesday with 886 cases. Burleigh County, which includes Bismarck, had 533 active cases, and Ward County, which includes Minot, had 362.

The state's 14-day rolling average positivity rate was 7.05% as of Wednesday, Nov. 10.

Three children under 12 years of age were hospitalized due to COVID-19 as of Thursday.

As of Wednesday, there were seven available staffed ICU beds statewide, according to a Department of Health database.

Thursday's two additional COVID-19 deaths reported were residents of Williams and Burleigh County.

FIRST DOSE ADMINISTERED: 383,590 (57.4% of population ages 12 and up)

FULL VACCINE COVERAGE*: 360,823 (54% of population ages 12 and up)

North Dakota has administered more than 80,000 third doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the majority of which are booster doses.

The North Dakota Department of Health reports the state's vaccination rate for all residents eligible, which includes now children ages 5 to 11. The one dose vaccination rate for all North Dakotans above 5 years old is 51.5%, which is lower than the state's 12 and up rate because few children have been vaccinated so far.

Nearly 3% of the more than 82,000 children ages 5 to 11 have received their first dose of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine since it became available last week.

The Department of Health encourages individuals to get information about vaccines at http://www.health.nd.gov/covidvaccinelocator.

As a public service, weve opened this article to everyone regardless of subscription status. If this coverage is important to you, please consider supporting local journalism by clicking on the subscribe button in the upper righthand corner of the homepage.

Readers can reach reporter Michelle Griffith, a Report for America corps member, at mgriffith@forumcomm.com.

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North Dakota reports an increase in active COVID-19 cases and 2 additional deaths - Grand Forks Herald

(WXYZ) With kids back and school and cold & flu season setting in, there's a lot going around, and parents know it.

Related: State expecting a rise in RSV cases among kids; here's what to look out for & how to stay safe

What, what's going around is changing from community to community and also changes as we move through the year.

At Shelby Pediatrics in Shelby Township, they say Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and the common cold are two of the three issues bugging kids in Macomb County. RSV is a common childhood ailment. Most kids have had it by the age of two, but it can send children to the hospital.

The third issue bugging kids is an uptick in COVID-19, which they say may be tied to Halloween activities.

At Bloom Pediatrics in Birmingham, they're also seeing an uptick in RSV and COVID-19.

We're also seeing a lot of Coxsackievirus A-16, commonly known as hand, foot and mouth disease," Dr. Anna Groebe from Bloom Pediatrics said.

Groebe says hand, foot and mouth is a common virus that spreads easily from child to child through surfaces and respiratory droplets.

Symptoms include fever and other flu-like symptoms, three to six days after a child catches the virus.

"It does present with often low-grade fevers and headache, meaning the child's tire just doesn't feel good. Very commonly sore throat," she said.

That may start one or two days after the fever begins, along with painful mouth sores. These sores usually start as small red spots, often in the back of their mouth, that blister and can become painful.

Then there is the namesake rash that can appear anywhere on the body, including the palm of the hands and the soles of the feet.

"Some of the smaller children will refuse to bear weight on their feet, or if they're of crawling age, they won't want to crawl because their hands are painful," Groebe said.

The good news is that hand, foot and mouth usually goes away on its own and the rash only lasts a couple of days. It rarely leave scars.

Fluid in the blister and the resulting scab that forms as the blister heals may contain the virus that causes hand, foot, and mouth disease. Keep blisters or scabs clean and avoid touching them.

We also checked in with Universal Pediatrics in Midtown Detroit. They're also seeing a lot of common cold symptoms, RSV and a lot of hand, foot and mouth.

Again, the disease usually goes away on its own, but you'll want to see your healthcare provider if your child is not drinking enough to stay hydrated, their fever lasts longer than 3 days, your child has a weakened immune system, or your child is very young, especially younger than 6 months

Otherwise, just try to make sure your child is as comfortable as possible.

Additional Coronavirus information and resources:

View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.

See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.

Visit our The Rebound Detroit, a place where we are working to help people impacted financially from the coronavirus. We have all the information on everything available to help you through this crisis and how to access it.

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RSV, COVID-19 & hand, foot, and mouth disease: Here's what local pediatricians say is going around - WXYZ

Questions, answers and commentsWhy is it that in Ipswich I am seeing people in shops, both customers and staff) without masks? Have the rules changed?

-Nigel

Morning Nigel! Basically, yes. Now that Queensland has hit 80 per cent first-dose vaccinations, the government's mask mandate is over. You're advised to still wear masks in places where you can't social distance, and they're mandatory in airports and on planes, but it means you can go to the supermarket, cafe or gym and not worry about wearing one.

-Chris

Good morning, Chris! Well, the US and Israel are now jumping on board that particular train, so barring any surprising results, it's likely a matter of time. Pfizer has submitted a partial application to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), whichwill review all the information and make a decision about whether to approve the vaccine for use in this age group.

Barring any issues, TGA head John Skerritt expects a decision will be made by the end of November, and ATAGIwill then advise the government on the timing of the rollout.

-Teresa H

Lovely.

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COVID live updates: All the COVID-19 news you need to know in the one spot - ABC News

A federal judge dealt a blow to Texas Gov. Greg Abbotts effort to ban schools from mandating face masks, ruling that the ban violated a law that protects disabled students access to education.

U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel made the ruling in Austin in response to a suit brought by nonprofit advocacy group Disabled Rights Texas, who argued that Abbotts ban prohibited accommodations for disabled children particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, as the Associated Press reported.

Yeakel prohibited Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton from suing school districts that require students to wear masks as a safety measure. Paxtonalready had sued 15 school districtsto overturn local mask mandates.

The news is expected to be welcomed by parents who have fretted about children returning to school in person, before most were eligible for vaccination.

Dont miss:White House says 900,000 5- to 11-year-olds were vaccinated during first week of eligibility for scaled-down dose

The U.S. is still averaging about 1,200 COVID deaths a day, according to a New York Times tracker, and, while cases are falling in most places, they are still averaging almost 77,000 a day, while more than 46,000 people are being hospitalized on average.

California, Colorado and New Mexico remain hot spots where cases are rising faster than in the rest of the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Preventions vaccine tracker is showing that 194 million people living in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, equal to 58.5% of the population, a number that has barely moved in weeks.

In Europe, the only region where COVID fatalities and cases are still rising on a weekly basis, according to the World Health Organization on Wednesday, there was a flurry of grim news.

In the Netherlands, a panel of experts has recommended a partial lockdown that would be the first in Western Europe since the summer, Reuters reported.

Steps under consideration include canceling events, closing theaters and cinemas, and earlier closing times for cafs and restaurants, the NOS report said. Schools would remain open. The Netherlands has a vaccination rate of almost 85%, but hospitals are being filled mostly with unvaccinated or partially vaccinated people.

Neighbor Germany, also struggling with rising cases caused by unvaccinated people, is considering a set of new measures after it counted a record high of more than 50,000 new COVID cases on Thursday, the AP reported. Infections have risen so quickly in recent days that hospitals in especially affected regions canceled planned surgeries again so medical personnel could focus on COVID-19 patients.

One of the countrys top virologists, Christian Drosten, warned Wednesday that another 100,000 people could die in coming months if the countrys vaccination rate didnt accelerate quickly.

See: Unvaccinated people will hear you out on the COVID-19 shot as long as you dont work for the government

But the worst caseloads and death tolls are still being recorded in Eastern Europe, led by Russia, which counted another 1,237 COVID deaths on Thursday and 40,759 new cases, as the Moscow Times reported. Russia has been struggling to contain the spread of virus among its mostly unvaccinated population. Less than 35% of the Russian people are fully inoculated, despite the country repeatedly setting one-day death-toll records for weeks.

In Romania and Bulgaria, also hurt by low vaccination rates, morgues are rapidly filling, the Guardian reported.

Catalin Cirstoiu, the head of the university emergency hospital in Bucharest, where the morgue is filled to overflowing with coronavirus victims, told the AP the system is near a breaking point because of one thing: the populations inability to comprehend the need to get vaccinated. Data have shown Romanians and Bulgarians have little trust in their governments and are being bombarded with misinformation about vaccines.

Read now:Viewers of these news outlets are most likely to believe COVID-19 falsehoods

One Western European country is now considering a drastic step locking down the unvaccinated. Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg is threatening that very move in an effort to curb new cases and pressure people to get their shots, ABC News reported.

The global tally for the coronavirus-borne illness climbed above 251.6 million on Thursday, while the death toll edged above 5.07 million, according todata aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. continues to lead the world with a total of 46.8 million cases and 759,065 deaths.

India is second by cases after the U.S. at 34.4 million and has suffered 462,189 deaths. Brazil has the second highest death toll at 610,036 and 21.9 million cases.

In Europe, Russia has recorded the most fatalities at 247,000, followed by the U.K. at 142,772.

China,where the virus was first discovered late in 2019,has had 110,458 confirmed cases and 4,809 deaths, according to its official numbers, which are widely held to be massively understated.

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Federal judge deals blow to Texas ban on face masks in schools, and Europe struggles to contain rising COVID-19 cases and deaths - MarketWatch

MOSCOW (AP) Russias COVID-19 cases hit another one-day record as the country struggles to contain a wave of infections and deaths that has persisted for more than a month.

The national coronavirus task force on Saturday reported 41,335 new cases since the previous day, exceeding the previous daily record of 40,993 from Oct. 31. The task force said 1,188 people with COVID-19 died, just seven fewer than the daily death record reported Thursday.

Officials cite Russias low vaccination rate as a major factor in the sharp rise in cases that began in mid-September. The task force reported about 57.2 million full-course vaccinations, or less than 40% of the countrys 146 million people.

Last month, President Vladimir Putin ordered many Russians to stay off work between Oct. 30 and Nov. 7. He authorized regional governments to extend the number of nonworking days, if necessary.

Several regions, including Novgorod in the northwest, Tomsk in Siberia, the Chelyabinsk region in the Ural Mountains and Kursk and Bryansk regions southwest of Moscow, have extended the nonworking period through the end of next week.

Moscows mayor said the situation in the capital had stabilized sufficiently for people to return to work there on Monday. People in the Russia-annexed Crimea region also will resume working next week.

Certain restrictions will remain in place in the Russian capital, such as a stay-at-home order for older adults and a mandate for businesses to have 30% of their staffs work from home. Access to theaters and museums is limited to those who either have been fully vaccinated, have recovered from COVID-19 within the last six months or can present a negative coronavirus test.

Russia has recorded more than 8.75 million confirmed virus cases and 245,635 deaths in the pandemic, according to the national task force, which counts only deaths directly attributed to the virus.

Figures from the state statistical service, which also counts deaths in which the virus was a contributing factor or was suspected but not confirmed, indicate the virus impact is significantly more severe; its most recent report tallied about 462,000 virus-connected deaths through the end of September.

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Follow all AP stories on the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com.hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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New infections hit record as Russia's COVID-19 wave persists - Associated Press