Category Archives: Corona Virus

WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) More Kansans tested positive for the coronavirus this week compared to last week. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) shows that 2,017 people tested positive for the coronavirus in the past seven days. That number is 443 higher than the previous seven days.

The KDHE said the seven-day average of cases is 259 which is 63 more than last week. The state did not release any new information about COVID-19 variant numbers.

COVID-19 hospitalizations did not fluctuate much. There are 81 people hospitalized with the virus this week, four more than last week. Of those, 75 are adults and six are children. Thirteen of the adults are in intensive care.

The Kansas COVID-19 death toll increased by 38, bringing it to 8,635. Only two of the deaths happened in the past week. When the death toll increases, it is sometimes because officials have finalized death certificates from older cases. The seven-day rolling average of daily new deaths decreased to zero.

The KDHE data shows more than 23,000 Kansans got COVID-19 vaccinations in the past week:

Of Kansans who are eligible to get vaccinated, 66.98% have received at least one dose, while 58.4% have completed a vaccine series.

The KDHE releases its coronavirus updates each Friday afternoon.

CDC Mask Guidelines based on community-level transmission:Low (green):No mask needed indoors (get tested if you have symptoms)Medium (yellow):Mask recommended for high-risk patients (discuss with your healthcare provider)High (orange):Should wear mask indoors in publicKansas coronavirus cases updated Apr. 29, 2022CDC Community transmission rates updated Apr. 29, 2022Sources:Kansas Department of Health and EnvironmentCenters for Disease Control

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Kansas coronavirus cases increase by more than 2,000 - KSN-TV

Its horrible, he said.

Dr. Philip Elizondo, his orthopedic colleague, said the hospital had to cancel minor surgeries for health problems that subsequently ballooned. One uninsured woman he treated had torn her meniscus, lost her job and lost her house. Dr. Elizondo said he could have performed a 20-minute surgery if the patient had been able to seek care immediately, but instead her injury went untreated and got worse.

Dr. Richard Fremont, a pulmonologist, said that he had treated dozens of Covid patients over the past two years, but that patients with other health conditions, such as chronic asthma, had more often needed oxygen. Because uninsured patients cannot get short-term home oxygen therapy, he sometimes keeps those who need it in the hospital for days or weeks.

The crisis of the uninsured is especially acute in Tennessee, which has one of the highest rates of hospital closures in the country and is among a dozen states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act. Roughly 300,000 people in the state fall in the so-called coverage gap, meaning they are ineligible for either Medicaid or discounted health insurance under the Affordable Care Act despite having little to no income.

John Graves, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said the influx of relief funds during the pandemic had allowed something akin to a universal coverage system within a system, granting coverage to everyone who got Covid. Now, he said, hospitals and patients are back to facing prepandemic pressures and will face even more once the federal government ends the public health emergency, which has temporarily increased Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements.

The federal Provider Relief Fund offered hospitals an early lifeline in the pandemic by providing tens of billions in direct funding, although the money was steered inequitably, said Jason Buxbaum, a Harvard doctoral student who has written about the program.

Separately, the Covid-19 Uninsured Program provided more than $20 billion in reimbursements to roughly 50,000 hospitals, clinics and other providers for testing, vaccinating and treating the uninsured, including nearly $8 million to Nashville General. A pandemic relief package that has stalled in the Senate will most likely not replenish the fund, leaving providers on the hook and making reimbursements during future Covid waves unlikely.

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Loss of Pandemic Aid Stresses Hospitals That Treat the Uninsured - The New York Times

CAMDEN, N.J. No one thought Frank Talarico Jr. was going to live. Not his doctors, his nurses or his wife, a physician assistant who works part time at the Camden, N.J., hospital where he spent 49 days fighting to survive Covid-19.

A 47-year-old police sergeant, he was not vaccinated against the coronavirus. Unconvinced of the vaccines merits, he figured he was young and fit enough to handle whatever illness the virus might cause.

He was wrong.

If its an eye opener for somebody so be it, Sergeant Talarico said recently at his home in Pennsauken, N.J., about five miles northeast of Camden. He plans to get the vaccine as soon as the doctors he credits with saving his life at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital give him final medical clearance.

If I was vaccinated, he said, I have to think I wouldnt have gotten as sick as I did.

Though police work inherently carries with it the possibility of violent or lethal encounters, for the last two years Covid-19 has been the leading cause of death for law enforcement officers in the United States.

When Covid vaccines were first offered in December 2020, law enforcement officers frontline workers who, like doctors and nurses, are required to interact closely with people in crisis were prioritized for shots that have since been proven to significantly lower the risk of serious illness and death.

But over the next year, as some police unions tried to block vaccine mandates, at least 301 police, sheriff and correction officers died of complications from Covid-19, according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, a nonprofit that tracks line-of-duty fatalities. Since January, Covid has continued to outpace other top causes of line-of-duty deaths.

Its not just a little bit above firearm fatalities and traffic fatalities, said Troy Anderson, a retired Connecticut State Police sergeant who is now director of safety and wellness for the memorial. Its heads and shoulders above.

Its unthinkable that were still in this place, he added.

Sergeant Talaricos ordeal began Christmas Eve, as Omicron infections were soaring across the country, inundating hospitals and stretching staffing levels nearly past breaking points.

Before it was over, the patrol officer who was less than a year away from retirement after 24 years on the job was hospitalized twice.

After being rushed to the hospital the second time, he had a foot-long blood clot removed from his lung, a procedure that prevented certain death but caused his heart to nearly stop beating. He was placed on advanced life-support while still on the operating table. For two days a machine did the work of his heart and lungs.

It wasnt long before his kidneys began to fail, requiring dialysis.

One of the many hard moments was the day his daughter, a 19-year-old college freshman, visited him for what they both feared could be a final goodbye. Conscious but hooked to a ventilator, Sergeant Talarico was unable to speak.

He would try and mouth words around the breathing tube, said Jackie Whitby, a cardiac care nurse who was also in the room. He had tears in his eyes. She had tears in her eyes.

Retelling the story more than two months later, Sergeant Talarico started to cry again.

About half of the 14 officers in his police department, in Merchantville, N.J., have been vaccinated, he said. The departments chief of police did not return calls.

Sergeant Talarico said he had tried to persuade reluctant colleagues to get vaccinated.

I say, Just look at me and look what I went through, he said.

Many of the nations largest police departments, including Los Angeles, New York and Newark, have required employees to be vaccinated. Correction officers in New Jersey also have been ordered to get shots or risk being fired.

In Newark, New Jerseys largest city, nine police employees have died of Covid-19. But there have been no Covid fatalities since the citys vaccination mandate was implemented in September after an unsuccessful legal challenge by the police and fire unions.

Roughly 96 percent of Newarks public safety officers have now had at least two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or one shot of Johnson & Johnsons, said Brian OHara, Newarks public safety director.

The last member of Newarks Department of Public Safety to die from Covid was Richard T. McKnight, a 20-year employee who processed detainees. He was not vaccinated, said Mr. OHara, who spoke at the funeral.

Days after Mr. McKnights death in August, his wife, who was sick with Covid, also died, Mr. OHara said.

Their 9-year-old daughter is left with no parents, he said.

A 340-bed hospital, Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes was treating 26 patients for Covid the day Sergeant Talarico was first admitted. Within two weeks, 81 patients were hospitalized with the virus.

January was the worst month of my career, said Dr. Vivek Sailam, a cardiologist who has worked at Our Lady of Lourdes for 14 years.

As Sergeant Talarico began to slowly recover, against the odds, staff members started to rally around him, referring to him as their miracle patient.

You get better, Im taking you to dinner, Dr. Sailam told Sergeant Talarico when he came off a ventilator for the second time.

A nurse, Shawn McCullough, devised a system using a letter board that enabled Sergeant Talarico to communicate while intubated. A physical therapist, Wendy Hardesty, insisted that he be strong enough to climb the three steps into his home before he was discharged for the second time on Feb. 18.

The mental trauma thats been on these nurses and what theyve witnessed the amount of death and agony. This is what everybody needed, Dr. Sailam said. Everybody needed this victory.

After being hospitalized with pneumonia for three weeks at Christmastime, Sergeant Talarico was discharged, but was so weak that his wife, Christine Lynch, set up folding chairs throughout their house so he could make it from a chair in the living room and rest before he went to the bathroom.

At 5 one morning, as he struggled to breathe, Ms. Lynch called the ambulance again.

Sergeant Talarico was readmitted with the foot-long blood clot in his lungs. Known as a pulmonary embolism, it has become a common side effect of Covid-19 for hospitalized patients.

The device used to remove it has only been available since 2018, said Dr. Joseph Broudy, who said the new technology enabled him to extract the embolism largely intact.

Had that not been possible, Dr. Broudy said, he probably would not have survived.

Sergeant Talarico and Ms. Lynch, his second wife, had been married for less than a year when he was told in late December that he had been exposed to the virus by a colleague. Soon, the newlyweds were both sick.

Ms. Lynch, a physician assistant who was vaccinated, said she initially shared her husbands reluctance to take the shot. Sergeant Talarico said he believed that the vaccine approval had been rushed, and he questioned its safety.

Looking back, he said he wished Ms. Lynch, 33, had kicked his butt to get vaccinated. Had he been older, with health risk factors other than high blood pressure, she said she would have.

Before getting sick, Sergeant Talarico said he worked out regularly, and for three years had participated in the Police Unity Tour, a three-day bicycle ride to Washington held each May to honor fallen officers as their names are added to a memorial in the capital.

Ive been healthy all my life, he said. I guess I just did have the mentality that if I do get it, Ill be one of the ones to have it mild. And that sure wasnt the case.

Tom Buckley, a senior vice president at the hospital, estimated that the billable cost of treating someone as sick as Sergeant Talarico would be roughly $400,000 to $500,000; Sergeant Talarico said he had not gotten the final bill from his insurance company for the cost of his care.

About three weeks after being released from the hospital for good, Sergeant Talarico returned with bagels, pizza and a promise for the staff members who fought to keep him alive. He told us he would get vaccinated, said Correinne Newman, a nursing director.

The gesture brought Ms. Whitby, who had the day off but was contacted through FaceTime, to tears.

Him being a cop and me being a nurse we essentially put our lives on the line and put other people first, she said.

Having him say, You know what? Im going to get the vaccine as soon as I possibly can.

I feel like thats him supporting us.

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What an Unvaccinated Sergeant Who Nearly Died of Covid-19 Wants You to Know - The New York Times

To date, a total of 2,528 cases with SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified and investigated in residents of Dallas County, including 288 cases of B.1.1.7 (Alpha); 4 cases of B.1.351 (Beta); 1,825 cases of B.1.617.2 (Delta); 30 cases of B.1.427 (Epsilon); 28 cases of P.1 (Gamma); 14 cases of B.1.526 (Iota); 5 cases of C.37 (Lambda); 4 cases of B.1.621 (Mu); 326 cases of B.1.1.529 (Omicron); and 3 cases of P.2 (Zeta). Four hundred and thirty-seven cases have been hospitalized and 57 have died. Forty-eight COVID-19 variant cases were reinfections. Seven hundred and nine people were considered fully vaccinated before infection with a COVID-19 variant.

As of 4/22/2022, a total of 473 confirmed and probable cases were reported in CDC week 15 (week ending 4/16/22), which is a weekly rate of 17.9 new cases per 100,000 residents.

As of the week ending 4/16/2022, about 81% of Dallas County residents age 12 years and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 98% of residents age 65 years and older; 86% of residents between 40-64 years of age; 78% of residents 25-39 years of age; 68% of residents 18-24 years of age; and 62% of residents 12-17 years of age. In the cities of Addison, Coppell, Highland Park, Irving, and Sunnyvale, greater than 94% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the cities of Cedar Hill, Desoto, Farmers Branch, Garland, Lancaster, and University Park, greater than 81% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

About 45.7% of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Week 15 were Dallas County residents who were not fully vaccinated. In Dallas County, 55,219 cases of COVID-19 breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated individuals have been confirmed to date, of which 3,980 (7.2%) were hospitalized and 691 have died due to COVID-19.

Of all Dallas County residents tested for COVID-19 by PCR during the week ending 4/16/2022 (CDC week 15), 4.7% of respiratory specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. For week 15, area hospital labs have continued to report elevated numbers and proportions of respiratory specimens that are positive for other respiratory viruses by molecular tests: parainfluenza (4.78%), rhinovirus/enterovirus (34.01%), and RSV (3.02%).

There are currently 10 active long-term care facility outbreaks. A cumulative total of 6,455 residents and 4,363 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 1,337 have been hospitalized and 911 have died. About 16% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities.

There has been 1 outbreak of COVID-19 in a congregate-living facility (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) reported within the past 30 days. A cumulative total of 1,135 residents and staff members (840 residents and 295 staff) in congregate-living facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19.

New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with more detailed data dashboards and summary reports updated on Friday evenings, available at: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus/daily-updates.php.

Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. The most recent COVID-19 hospitalization data for Dallas County, as reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council, can be found at http://www.dallascounty.org/covid-19 under Monitoring Data, and is updated regularly. This data includes information on the total available ICU beds, suspected and confirmed COVID-19 ER visits in the last 24 hours, confirmed COVID-19 inpatients, and COVID-19 deaths by actual date of death. The most recent forecasting from UTSW can be found here.The most recent COVID-19 Data Summaries for Dallas County, TX can be found at the bottom of this page.

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Dallas County Reports a Total of 430 New Positive 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases and 7 Deaths, Including 176 Probable Cases and 83 New Cases...

The coronavirus pandemic is far from over, Bill Gates has warned, saying there could still be a variant which is "even more transmissive and even more fatal".

"We haven't even seen the worst of it," he said in an interview.

While not wanting to be a "voice of doom and gloom", the risk of a more virulent variant emerging is "way above 5%", the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist told the Financial Times.

"We're still at risk of this pandemic generating a variant that would be even more transmissive and even more fatal," he said, adding that longer-lasting vaccines which block infection are urgently required.

Gates, one of the world's wealthiest people, has written a book called How to Prevent the Next Pandemic.

He is urging the creation of a team of international experts - ranging from epidemiologists to computer modellers - to identify threats and improve international coordination.

He is also calling for a global epidemic response team, managed by the World Health Organisation, and says extra investment is vital.

"It seems wild to me that we could fail to look at this tragedy and not, on behalf of the citizens of the world, make these investments," he said.

While acknowledging that the war in Ukraine is dominating the international agenda at present, he added: "The amount of money involved is very small compared to the benefit and it will be a test: can global institutions take on new responsibilities in an excellent way?"

A pandemic is something Gates has been warning about for years, having given a TED Talk in 2015 about the threat of a super-virus.

"If the pandemic hadn't come along it would have been a fairly obscure TED Talk," Gates told The Times.

"Now it's been watched 43 million times."

Modern life is not helping either, he added. "Everyone who works in infectious diseases just has this fear of human transmissible respiratory viruses. The more people travel and the stronger the interaction between wild species and humans, the more risk of zoonotic cross-species-type diseases."

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COVID-19: Bill Gates warns of an 'even more transmissive and more fatal' coronavirus variant - Sky News

WASHINGTON Vice President Kamala Harriss coronavirus infection is raising questions that some in the nations capital wish would remain unspoken: Is it safe for President Biden to attend the so-called nerd prom, otherwise known as the White House Correspondents Dinner? Should the dinner even be held?

The flashy event, where journalists, politicians and policy wonks mingle with celebrities, is returning in person on Saturday after a two-year absence because of the pandemic. It will be the first time a president has attended since 2016. Expected attendance: 2,600.

As the nation lurches out of the acute phase of the pandemic and into what some are calling the new normal, the dinner like so much of American life is prompting a good deal of risk-benefit calculation. Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Mr. Bidens top medical adviser for the coronavirus, said on Tuesday that he had decided not to attend because of my individual assessment of my personal risk.

But Mr. Biden, who at 79 is two years younger than Dr. Fauci, will be there, as will his wife, Jill Biden. The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, told reporters on Tuesday that Ms. Harriss diagnosis had not changed the presidents thinking about the dinner, which she described as an opportunity to talk about the importance of journalism in the world.

Just like many Americans, he makes risk assessments, Ms. Psaki said, adding, Thats an event hes attended many times in the past, and he made a decision through consultations that it was an event he could attend and wanted to attend again.

On Wednesday, after this article was published online, the White House made a slight shift in course; Ms. Psaki told reporters that the president might wear a mask at the dinner when he was not speaking, and would not attend the eating portion so he could attend in a safe way.

In interviews, public health experts were largely, though not entirely, supportive of Mr. Bidens choice. The organizers of the dinner are taking precautions, including requiring all attendees to be vaccinated and to provide proof of a negative Covid test taken that day. With vaccines and antiviral drugs available, some experts said, the time for shunning large gatherings is in the past, at least for most healthy people.

The dinner, in a cavernous ballroom at the Washington Hilton, is not the only large-scale event the president was scheduled to attend this week. On Wednesday, he delivered a eulogy at the funeral of Madeleine K. Albright, the former secretary of state an event that drew an estimated 1,400 mourners, most of them masked. On Sunday, Mr. Biden will travel to Minnesota to speak at a memorial service for former Vice President Walter Mondale.

Many public health experts are making calculations of their own. Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University, said he had just returned from Lisbon, where he was among 8,000 attendees of the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases. It was a risk that, with precautions, he was willing to take.

Everybody was vaccinated, everybody was masked except when speaking, he said. But we also went to restaurants and did other things, and I didnt get infected, so I feel very good about that.

Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist who is leading a new program on pandemic preparedness at Brown Universitys School of Public Health, said she recently attended a large indoor conference and was one of the few wearing masks. She has not gotten Covid-19 and does not want to, but, she said, I am also not completely rearranging my life trying to dodge it.

Everyone has a different risk tolerance, and experts say it is important not to judge other peoples choices. But the president, being the president, has an obligation to the public to not get sick, said Dr. Arthur L. Caplan, the director of N.Y.U. Langones division of medical ethics. He said Mr. Biden should not attend the dinner, ticking off the reasons in an email.

He is high-risk and occupies a very high office at a time of war, Dr. Caplan wrote, adding: He must be hypersafe. The correspondents dinner is highly optional. With the V.P. sick, he really needs to protect himself. His office imposes a duty of precaution.

Ms. Psaki conceded that Mr. Biden could contract Covid, adding that if he did, the White House would be very transparent about it. She said the White House took numerous precautions beyond those of most workplaces to protect Mr. Biden, including social distancing, regular testing and wearing masks during meetings.

Yet she also noted that the president was traveling more lately, having concluded that getting out into the country was vitally important to him, to his presidency, to the American people.

Still, there is an uneasy feeling here and a worry that maybe a gathering of 2,600 people, including journalists and politicians who have spent more than two years warning about the dangers of the pandemic, may not be the best look.

Well, there is a question of whether its EVER appropriate to engage in an exercise in gaudy, celebrity-drenched self-adulation, David Axelrod, a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser to President Barack Obama, wrote in an email, but thats a separate question.

However, Mr. Axelrod added, The country plainly is eager to move on, and people are regularly gathering in public places stadiums, theaters, restaurants and, as a political matter, Im sure the president is eager to embrace the sense that the siege is largely behind us.

Yet there is no shortage of reminders that the siege may not, in fact, be largely behind us.

The Gridiron Dinner, another gathering of A-listers in the capital, turned into a superspreader event this month. More than 70 attendees later tested positive for the coronavirus, including three members of Mr. Bidens cabinet Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo as well as Mayor Eric Adams of New York.

The Gridiron freaked everybody out, Sally Quinn, the Washington journalist, socialite and widow of Ben Bradlee, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, told Axios. I know a number of people who are not going because they are not wanting to chance it, she added, referring to the correspondents dinner.

The annual gala, hosted by the White House Correspondents Association, has been a fixture of Washington political life for decades.

Accompanied by a long weekend of spinoff parties, the event raises money for scholarships and honors journalists for distinguished White House coverage. It typically features celebrity entertainment this years featured guest is Trevor Noah and a roast of the president. But the gala has drawn criticism for coming across as an unseemly bacchanal in which journalists cozy up to the people they cover. The New York Times has not allowed its reporters to attend since 2007.

President Donald J. Trump shunned the dinner during his four years in office. The pandemic kept Mr. Biden away last year.

The correspondents association is clearly aware of the sensitivities. Youve had lots of questions, its president, Steven Portnoy of CBS News, wrote to members in an email this month. So heres an update from me on our Covid-19 mitigation strategy.

Citing advice from Dr. Fauci, who suggested same-day testing in addition to a vaccination requirement when asked if large-scale events should proceed, Mr. Portnoy said guests would be required to provide proof of vaccination and a same-day negative antigen test via Bindle, a verification app.

He also added some advice of his own, telling members that if they were eligible for a fourth dose of vaccine, they should consider getting one.

As for Mr. Biden, Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore city health commissioner who has been a vocal proponent of returning to pre-Covid routines, said the president must ask what is important to him. The mitigation measures at the dinner mean Mr. Biden is likely to avoid severe disease if he gets infected, she said. If he wants to avoid infection entirely, she added, he should not go.

However, that is not what living with Covid looks like, and I think that it is very important for him to model that ultimately what Americans should care about is avoiding severe disease, Dr. Wen said, adding, Especially if there are precautions such as testing and vaccination, he needs to show that we can resume our prepandemic lives.

Dr. Wen said she would not be attending the dinner for a different reason: I was not invited.

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Fauci clarifies that the pandemic isnt over, after saying the U.S. is out of the pandemic phase. - The New York Times

Racial disparities in Connecticuts COVID-19 deaths gaping in the early days of the pandemic narrowed over time as the crisis spread outward from urban to rural areas, a new Yale School of Public Health study has found.

Though Black and Hispanic people in Connecticut have remained more likely to die from COVID-19 than white residents, the narrowing of those disparities may suggest the success of campaigns to boost testing and vaccination among those communities, researcher Margaret Lind said.

In general we saw that, over the course of the pandemic in Connecticut, there has been a decline in the disparity of COVID-19 related mortality, said Lind, who led the study. We are moving in the right direction, and [equity] is something that could be achieved if we keep moving forward.

According to the study, Black and Hispanic people in Connecticut were more than four times as likely as non-Hispanic white people to die from COVID-19 between March 1 and Aug. 25, 2020, when the disease hit poor, under-resourced, urban communities hardest.

But over time, the study found, the COVID-19 mortality rate decreased only slightly among white Connecticut residents while falling much more sharply among Black and Hispanic residents. From July 13 to Dec. 13, 2021, the most recent period the study analyzed, Hispanic people were still about twice as likely to die of COVID-19 as white people, but the gap between Black and white residents had nearly disappeared.

This trend appears to mirror a national pattern in which the burden of COVID-19 gradually shifted over time from urban centers to whiter, more rural areas, which often had lower rates of vaccination and fewer control measures.

Racial disparities in Connecticut's COVID-19 deaths have diminished over the course of the pandemic, a new Yale study has found.

Despite the narrowing of disparities in Connecticut, the pandemic has remained, on balance, more significant for some groups than for others. Dating back to March 2020, state data shows, Black and Hispanic people have been substantially more likely to catch COVID-19 and about twice as likely to die from the disease, after adjusting for age.

We did see this attenuation overall, but there is still room to get better, Lind said. We can reduce these inequities, but we are not there yet.

As it happens

Get the latest updates on Coronavirus and other breaking news events happening across Connecticut

Disparities in COVID-19s impact in Connecticut were apparent from the earliest days of the pandemic, as state data almost immediately showed Black and Latino people catching and dying from the disease at higher rates than white people.

Experts say some groups were hit harder than others for several reasons. For one thing, Black and Latino people in Connecticut are more likely to live in densely populated areas and work front-line jobs that put them in direct contact with coworkers and customers. For another, decades of discrimination mean they are more likely to have underlying conditions like asthma and diabetes, which exacerbate the effects of COVID-19.

Though Linds team did not specifically study why these disparities shrunk over time, she guesses it was a result of state and federal programs aimed at distributing resources more evenly, combined with evolving attitudes toward COVID-19 among different groups. Throughout much of the pandemic, survey data has shown that people of color in Connecticut were more likely than white people to, for example, wear masks in public.

Whereas Black and Latino people in Connecticut were initially far less likely than white people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, those gaps have narrowed over time, state numbers show, which each racial and ethnic group now showing relatively high levels of vaccination.

Lind says her findings underscore the importance of measures aimed at reducing health inequities a lesson she says could be useful ahead of the next health crisis.

These measures such as trying to get testing equitably distributed, trying to get prevention measures ... widely utilized [helped], she said. The utility of education around that is something we should really think about and continue to move forward with, recognizing that this will not be our last global pandemic.

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Racial disparities in COVID-19 deaths decreased in Connecticut over time as pandemic shifted from urban to rural, Yale study finds - Hartford Courant

In the middle of last year, the World Health Organization began promoting an ambitious goal, one it said was essential for ending the pandemic: fully vaccinate 70 percent of the population in every country against Covid-19 by June 2022.

Now, it is clear that the world will fall far short of that target by the deadline. And there is a growing sense of resignation among public health experts that high Covid vaccination coverage may never be achieved in most lower-income countries, as badly needed funding from the United States dries up and both governments and donors turn to other priorities.

The reality is that there is a loss of momentum, said Dr. Isaac Adewole, a former health minister of Nigeria who now serves as a consultant for the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Only a few of the worlds 82 poorest countries including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal have reached the 70 percent vaccination threshold. Many are under 20 percent, according to data compiled from government sources by the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford.

By comparison, about two-thirds of the worlds richest countries have reached 70 percent. (The United States is at 66 percent.)

The consequences of giving up on achieving high vaccination coverage worldwide could prove severe. Public health experts say that abandoning the global effort could lead to the emergence of dangerous new variants that would threaten the worlds precarious efforts to live with the virus.

This pandemic is not over yet far from it and its imperative that countries use the doses available to them to protect as much of their population as possible, said Dr. Seth Berkley, chief executive of Gavi, the nonprofit that runs the global vaccine clearinghouse Covax.

Countries in different parts of the world, including some in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, have seen their vaccination rates stagnate in recent months at a third or less of their populations. But Africas vaccination rate remain the most dismal.

Fewer than 17 percent of Africans have received a primary Covid immunization. Nearly half of the vaccine doses delivered to the continent thus far have gone unused. Last month, the number of doses injected on the continent fell by 35 percent compared to February. W.H.O. officials attributed the drop to mass vaccination pushes being replaced by smaller-scale campaigns in several countries.

Some global health experts say the world missed a prime opportunity last year to provide vaccines to lower-income countries, when the public was more fearful of Covid and motivated to get vaccinated.

There was a time people were very desperate to get vaccinated, but the vaccines were not there. And then they realized that without the vaccination, they didnt die, said Dr. Adewole, who wants to see countries continue to pursue the 70 percent target.

What momentum remains in the global vaccination campaign has been hindered by a shortfall in funding for the equipment, transportation and personnel needed to get shots into arms.

In the United States, a key funder of the vaccination effort, lawmakers stripped $5 billion meant for global pandemic aid from the coronavirus response package that is expected to come up for a vote in the next few weeks. Biden administration officials have said that without the funds, they will be unable to provide support for vaccine delivery to more than 20 under-vaccinated countries.

Some public health experts point to reasons for optimism that the global vaccination campaign still has steam. Despite the drop off from the February peak, the number of Covid vaccinations being administered each day in Africa is still near a pandemic high. And Gavi earlier this month drew a significant new round of funding pledges, securing $4.8 billion in commitments, although it fell short of its $5.2 billion goal.

There is also hope that a global Covid summit the White House plans to co-host next month could be an opportunity to generate momentum and funding.

But the drop in public demand has led some health officials and experts to quietly, and in some cases outright, question whether the 70 percent vaccination target is feasible or even sensible.

Reported fatalities from Covid-19 remain comparatively low in sub-Saharan Africa, although there is debate about how much of this reflects poor data tracking. The perception, however, in many countries in the region is that the disease does not pose a serious threat, certainly not as much as other pervasive health problems that demand attention with scarce health care resources.

Many lower-income governments are turning their focus to their economies and other health issues like H.I.V., said Fifa Rahman, a civil society representative to a W.H.O.-launched group coordinating the global Covid response. Theres a sense of a lot of competing priorities, but thats a symptom of the momentum being gone. Because when the momentum was there, everyone was like, Where are our vaccines?

In rural areas of the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, where the reported Covid death rate is very low, there is a surge in measles cases threatening 20 million children. Yet the government says it cannot spare the resources to provide supplementary measles vaccinations this year, said Christopher Mambula, medical manager for Doctors Without Border in East Africa. In this kind of context, it makes little sense to continue to divert resources to widespread vaccination against Covid, he said.

As African governments have received more vaccines donated from wealthy countries and struggled to distribute even those supplies, their interest in ordering more doses has dropped.

The African Union still aims to vaccinate 70 percent of its population by the end of 2022. But with countries slow to use up donated vaccines, the bloc has not exercised its options to order more doses of the shots from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna.

The South African drugmaker Aspen Pharmacare earlier this year finalized a deal to bottle and market the Johnson & Johnson vaccine across Africa, a contract that was billed as an early step toward Africas development of a robust vaccine production industry. Aspen geared up for production, but no buyers, including the African Union and Covax, have placed orders yet, said Stephen Saad, Aspens chief executive.

The Serum Institute of India, the worlds largest vaccine maker, stopped its production of Covid shots in December last year, when its stockpile grew to 200 million doses; Bharat Biotech, another Indian firm that was a major producer, also stopped making vaccines in the face of low demand. The companies say they have no further orders since their contracts with the Indian government ended in March.

After the W.H.O. began promoting the 70 percent vaccination goal, many lower-income governments adopted the target for their own populations. The Biden administration also endorsed it last September, setting a deadline of September 2022.

At the time, two doses of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna were understood to offer very strong protection against even mild disease, and there was still hope that achieving high levels of vaccination coverage would tame the virus. But the emergence of new variants and the spread of the virus in Africa changed the calculus.

The vaccine regimens that had been planned for the developing world offered little protection against infection with the Omicron variant. And as sub-Saharan African countries were shut out of vaccine distribution for much of last year, more and more Africans gained protection against the virus from natural infection, which studies have shown works as well as two mRNA doses in preventing infection. New data from the W.H.O. shows that at least two-thirds of Africans had been infected with the virus before the Omicron wave.

Given these factors, some public health experts in Africa say the broad 70 percent goal no longer makes sense. Theres very little value to it. In fact, we will gain much more by getting to more than 90 percent of people above the age of 50, said Shabir Madhi, a professor of vaccinology and the dean of the faculty of health sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. About two-thirds of South Africans above age 50 are currently fully vaccinated.

Dr. Madhi said that South Africa could close down mass vaccination sites and instead redouble its efforts to seek out the most vulnerable at church services and at government offices that pay out monthly pension benefits.

Katherine OBrien, who directs the W.H.O.s work on vaccines and immunizations, said the agency encourages countries to focus on its most vulnerable citizens rather than vaccinating a random set of 70 percent of their populations. The aspiration she said, has always been 100 percent of health workers, 100 percent of older adults, 100 percent of pregnant women, 100 percent of the people who fall into those highest risk groups.

Countries can of course make decisions about what health goal they wish to prioritize, Dr. OBrien said, but finite resources should not be the obstacle to vaccinating against the coronavirus. The world has enough resources to do this, if countries want to do it, she said. And that should be really the North Star.

Some public health experts said that while the 70 percent vaccination threshold is clearly not achievable by its original deadline, it would be unwise and unethical to give up on that target over a longer time horizon. They expressed frustration about the growing gulf between wealthy countries vaccinating young children and offering healthy adults fourth vaccine doses, and the regions where the majority of people still do not have one dose.

Why are we making it one target for high-income countries and one target for low income? said Dr. Ayoade Alakija, a co-chair of the African Unions vaccine delivery program.

She said that even though many people in sub-Saharan Africa have been infected, there is still need for the additional protection that would come from a high level of vaccination coverage.

Modest vaccination coverage, she said, is not considered a good enough level of protection in England, its not a good enough level of protection in America. How is it OK not to be aiming for the very maximum, maximum we can? Aim for the sky and get to the top of the tree.

April 23, 2022

An earlier version of this article misspelled the surname of the chief executive of Gavi. He is Dr. Seth Berkley, not Berkeley.

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Covid Live Updates: Testing, Lockdowns, and More News - The New York Times

Mask mandates returning to some college campuses

The final weeks of the college school year have been disrupted yet again by COVID-19 as universities bring back mask mandates. (April 22)

AP

New York's COVID-19 case tally surged 37% last week while hospitalizations spiked 24%, promptinghealth officials to expand recommendations to wear masks indoors in public spaces across 23 counties.

New York reported 49,500 cases in the week ending Sunday, up from36,180 new cases the prior week. COVID-19 patients admitted to hospitals statewide last week totaled 3,219, up from 2,603.

New York ranked second among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows.

The uptick in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations stemmed in part from the spread of highly contagious omicron subvariants, health officials noted, with recent holiday gatherings held indoorsoffering potentialvenues for fuelingoutbreaks.

Nationally, coronavirus casesincreased about 57% from the week before, with 351,599 cases reported.Across the country, 42 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Indoor mask wearingrecommendations for 23 "high-risk" countiesnow covered large sections of upstate New York, including much of the Finger Lakes and Southern Tier, according to the Centers for Disease Control guidelines based on COVID-19 infection rates and the strainon local hospitals. That's up from 10 counties on April 18.

Here are the "high-risk" NY counties:

Another 16counties across the state, including Westchester, currently fall under the "medium-risk" category, meaning recent case and hospitalization trends could soon warrant masking in public spaces.

While still well below the initial omicron strain's peak in earlyJanuary, when New York reported90,000 new cases in one day, the rise in infections and hospitalizations over the past month illustratedthe virus' ability to keep mutatingand spreading.

Some prior waves of infections during the pandemic, however, have receded as weather conditions improved and people spent more time outdoors where the virus struggles to spread.

Yet therise of the omicron subvariants has fueled the current uptick in cases, as authorities tried to balance the push to reduce pandemic-related disruptions to daily life against the need to renew calls forpeople to take steps to limit the virus' spread, such as mask wearing.

Further, New York'smask mandate for all public transit settings statewide will remain in place for the "short term" despite a Florida judge voiding a federal mask mandate for public transportation, Gov. Kathy Hochul said last week.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 deaths have begun to increase in New York after lagging behind infections and hospitalizations. A total of117 people were reported deadof COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday, up from59 deaths the prior week.

MASKS:Hochul: NY's mask mandate for public transit remains in place despite federal court ruling

Within New York, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in:

The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week. Weekly case counts rose in 61 of 62 counties across New York from the previous week.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

New York ranked 7th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 90.1% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 77.5%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Sunday, New York reported administering another 193,193 vaccine doses, including 25,351 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 245,669 vaccine doses.

A total of 5,123,612 people in New York have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 68,231 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 80,984,914 people have tested positive and 991,254 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, April 24.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Hospitals in 37 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 25 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 42 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

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NY COVID cases surge 37%. CDC urges wearing masks in these 23 counties - The Journal News

Mike Stucka USA TODAY NETWORK| Bluffton Today

New coronavirus cases leaped in South Carolina in the week ending Sunday, rising 67.9% as 1,496 cases were reported. The previous week had 891 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

South Carolina ranked 40th among the states where the coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States increased 57.1% from the week before, with 351,599 cases reported.

With 1.55% of the country's population, South Carolina had 0.43% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, 42 states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.

Beaufort County reported 74 cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported 48 cases and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 43,130 cases and 376 deaths.

Jasper County reported four cases and zero deaths in the latest week. A week earlier, it had reported one case and zero deaths. Throughout the pandemic it has reported 5,893 cases and 93 deaths.

Within South Carolina, the worst weekly outbreaks on a per-person basis were in McCormick County with 85 cases per 100,000 per week; Kershaw County with 69; and Allendale County with 46. The Centers for Disease Control says high levels of community transmission begin at 100 cases per 100,000 per week.

Adding the most new cases overall were Charleston County, with 180 cases; Greenville County, with 158 cases; and Richland County, with 154. Weekly case counts rose in 37 counties from the previous week. The worst increases from the prior week's pace were in Richland, Greenville and York counties.

>> See how your community has fared with recent coronavirus cases

South Carolina ranked 34th among states in share of people receiving at least one shot, with 67.3% of its residents at least partially vaccinated. The national rate is 77.5%, a USA TODAY analysis of CDC data shows. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most used in the United States, require two doses administered a few weeks apart.

In the week ending Sunday, South Carolina reported administering another 1,078 vaccine doses, including 1,346 first doses. In the previous week, the state administered 1,096 vaccine doses, including 1,627 first doses. In all, South Carolina reported it has administered 7,389,108 total doses.

Across South Carolina, cases fell in five counties, with the best declines in Abbeville County, with 2 cases from 5 a week earlier; in Greenwood County, with 11 cases from 13; and in Bamberg County, with 0 cases from 1.

In South Carolina, 36 people were reported dead of COVID-19 in the week ending Sunday. In the week before that, 48 people were reported dead.

A total of 1,472,093 people in South Carolina have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began, and 17,734 people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the United States 80,984,914 people have tested positive and 991,254 people have died.

>> Track coronavirus cases across the United States

USA TODAY analyzed federal hospital data as of Sunday, April 24.

Likely COVID patients admitted in the state:

Likely COVID patients admitted in the nation:

Hospitals in 37 states reported more COVID-19 patients than a week earlier, while hospitals in 25 states had more COVID-19 patients in intensive-care beds. Hospitals in 42 states admitted more COVID-19 patients in the latest week than a week prior, the USA TODAY analysis of U.S. Health and Human Services data shows.

The USA TODAY Network is publishing localized versions of this story on its news sites across the country, generated with data from Johns Hopkins University and the Centers for Disease Control. If you have questions about the data or the story, contact Mike Stucka at mstucka@gannett.com.

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74 new COVID-19 cases reported last week in Beaufort County, 4 in Jasper County - Bluffton Today