Category Archives: Covid-19

The pressure on Kentucky hospitals from the COVID-19 omicron variant is unrelenting.

Hospitalization is near a record high. We are close to the height of the inpatient census we hit during the delta variant surge, Gov. Andy Beshear said at a press conference Thursday.

Beshear has already called in more than 400 Kentucky National Guard members to help alleviate the pressure in the hospitals, which comes from both an influx of patients as well as a high number of staff out with coronavirus.

As of yesterday, we had less than 100 adult ICU beds available in the state that can be staffed, Beshear said.

Even with the help of nursing students and guard members, the governor warned that people experiencing non-COVID-related emergencies might soon be affected by the dwindling number of beds available.

Folks, be careful. When this happens we dont have room or beds for people who have been hurt in car accidents or have strokes, Beshear said.

Beshear commented Thursday on the severe COVID cases young Kentuckians are experiencing.

This is killing a lot of people who arent vaccinated at ages that typically would not die from a virus, Beshear said.

Beshear showed a chart during the press conference illustrating major shifts in the age distribution of deaths in Kentucky since June.

Those in the 70 and older category went from making up three-quarters of the chart to half, as younger groups began to take up more space. Beshear related this directly to those 70 and older being among the most vaccinated with younger populations having a smaller vaccination rate.

Beshear also took a moment to reflect on the death toll.

Weve lost 12,817 Kentuckians, Beshear said. More than, I think, in any of the wars in our history, and thats in 20 months.

Despite increasing hospitalization and an ever-growing death count, officials expressed a glimmer of hope when it comes to the omicron surge.

If we follow the trends that others are, if this week is higher than last week, then next week we truly believe that we will be lower, Beshear said.

Even with the potential decline on the horizon, the numbers will still be high given the records reached during the surge.

We gotta ride the dip a couple of weeks, Beshear said. But we hope that it descends as fast as it ascended.

See the original post:

COVID-19 hospitalizations are near their record as state officials hope omicron surge is on the decline - 89.3 WFPL News Louisville

The Bruins will be without their leading scorer Thursday night against the Golden Bears.

Guard Johnny Juzang will miss UCLA men's basketball's (14-2, 6-1 Pac-12) game versus Cal (9-10, 2-6) at Pauley Pavilion on Thursday night due to COVID-19 protocols, a UCLA Athletics spokesperson told All Bruins. Guard Jaylen Clark, meanwhile, will miss a second second-consecutive game while in concussion protocols.

Both players' status for Saturday's game against Stanford remains undetermined.

The Bruins had five games canceled or postponed as a result of a COVID-19 outbreak within the team in December, with more than 10 players and coaches coming down with the virus. The result was a 26-day break between games, extended somewhat by health and safety protocols on their opponents' sides, and then a recovery period that included some spotty moments against Long Beach State and Cal earlier in January.

Juzang previously told the press that he was not one of the players who contracted the virus, meaning he remains at risk of testing positive with the omicron variant. New Pac-12 policies that went into effect at the start of the month state that Juzang only needs to isolate for five days should he test positive, so while he may avoid a lengthy absence, he would be in line to miss the Stanford game over the weekend if he winds up testing positive.

With no other players set to miss Thursday's in-state showdown, it appears the rest of the roster is not facing any serious COVID issues at the moment.

The last time Juzang missed a game for the Bruins was all the way back at the end of last regular season on March 6, 2021. UCLA lost to USC on a buzzer-beater 3, as no player on either side scored more than 13 points with Juzang nursing a mildly sprained ankle.

Juzang returned from that one-game absence to lead the Bruins to the Final Four, scoring 22.8 points per game on his way through the NCAA tournament.

Clark will be missing his third game out of the Bruins' last four, the first coming as a result of a non-COVID-related illness and the next two coming as a result of a concussion. Clark was hit in the face during practice Monday and was not able to go Tuesday against Arizona, although UCLA managed just fine without their undersized defensive and rebounding ace.

UCLA, without two of its top-six rotation players, will tip off against Cal at 6 p.m. Guard David Singleton, guard/forward Peyton Watson and guard/forward Jake Kyman are all in line to pick up more minutes with Juzang and Clark missing.

The Bruins beat the Golden Bears 60-52 on Jan. 8 with Juzang scoring a season-low nine points. In the five games since then, however, Juzang is averaging 22.6 points per game on .513/.500/.862 shooting splits with 5.4 rebounds per game and a positive assist-to-turnover ratio.

Follow Connon on Twitter at @SamConnonFollow All Bruins on Twitter at @SI_AllBruinsLike All Bruins on Facebook at @SI.AllBruinsSubscribe to All Bruins on YouTube

Read more UCLA stories: UCLA Bruins on Sports IllustratedRead more UCLA men's basketball stories: UCLA Men's Basketball on Sports Illustrated

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Johnny Juzang in COVID-19 Protocols, Will Miss UCLA Men's Basketball's Game Against Cal - CalBearsMaven

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 362.5 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.62 million. More than 9.98 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Moderna has announced a mid-stage study to test a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine specifically designed to target the Omicron variant. The news comes a day after Pfizer and BioNTech announced a trial of their own Omicron-specific jab. CEO Stphane Bancel discussed an Omicron-specific vaccine at the Davos Agenda last week.

COVID-19 restrictions continue to ease in England, with measures such as mask mandates and COVID passes, which were introduced in December, lapsing today.

The United States has shipped 400 million COVID-19 vaccine doses as part of its earlier pledge to donate about 1.2 billion doses to low-income countries, the White House said on Wednesday.

Tunisia has extended a night curfew and banned all gatherings for another two weeks to counter the rapid spread of COVID-19, the government said on Wednesday.

Austria's lockdown for people not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will end on Monday, because pressure on hospitals has eased, the government announced yesterday.

Italy will ease COVID-19 restrictions for all visitors from European Union countries starting from 1 February, the health ministry has announced.

New research suggests that hospital room surfaces pose a low risk of spreading COVID-19.

The Biden Administration is withdrawing its COVID-19 vaccine and testing mandate for businesses, reports CNBC. The move comes after the US Supreme Court blocked the mandate earlier this month.

The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, which is dominant in Denmark, appears more contagious than the more common BA.1 sub-lineage, Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said on Wednesday.

Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.

Image: Our World in Data

The COVID Response Alliance to Social Entrepreneurs - soon to continue its work as the Global Alliance for Social Entrepreneurship - was launched in April 2020 in response to the devastating effects of the pandemic. Co-founded by the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship together with Ashoka, Echoing Green, GHR Foundation, Skoll Foundation, and Yunus Social Business.

The Alliance provides a trusted community for the worlds leading corporations, investors, governments, intermediaries, academics, and media who share a commitment to social entrepreneurship and innovation.

Since its inception, it has since grown to become the largest multi-stakeholder coalition in the social enterprise sector: its 90+ members collectively support over 100,000 social entrepreneurs across the world. These entrepreneurs, in turn, have a direct or indirect impact on the lives of an estimated 2 billion people.

Together, they work to (i) mobilize support for social entrepreneurs and their agendas; (ii) take action on urgent global agendas using the power of social entrepreneurship, and (iii) share insights from the sector so that social entrepreneurs can flourish and lead the way in shaping an inclusive, just and sustainable world.

The Alliance works closely together with member organizations Echoing Green and GHR Foundation, as well as the Centre for the New Economy and Society on the roll out of its 2022 roadmap (soon to be announced).

New cases of COVID-19 in the Americas in the past week have been their highest since the start of the pandemic, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said yesterday.

There were more than 8 million new cases, 32% higher than the previous week, while fatalities throughout the region also increased by 37%, with 18,000 new deaths caused by COVID-19.

The United States continues to have the highest number of new infections, although cases decreased by nearly 1 million over the last week, the regional health agency said.

Mexico's southern states have seen new infections triple and Brazil has seen new cases surge 193% over the last seven days, PAHO said in weekly briefing.

The agency also warned about the impact of the pandemic on children, with millions yet to return to the classroom.

Numerous countries around Europe have reported record daily COVID-19 cases.

Germany crossed the 200,000 mark for the first time, with 203,136 confirmed infections in the previous 24 hours. This represents 69,600 more cases than the same day a week before.

Countries across Eastern Europe also set records, with Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania all reporting their highest confirmed COVID-19 cases of the pandemic on Wednesday.

Written by

Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Go here to see the original:

COVID-19: Top news stories about the pandemic on 27 January | World Economic Forum - World Economic Forum

Pregnancy & COVID-19 Vaccines

As you care for the health of you and your baby, you will make many important decisions. Getting a COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to protect both of you against the virus.

The CDC and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommend you get vaccinated if you:

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine says getting vaccinated before becoming pregnant or early in your pregnancy is the best way to reduce risk of complications from COVID-19 for you and your baby.

Vaccines Recommended for Pregnant People

When you are pregnant, your body changes in many ways. Your risk of getting severe COVID increases due to these changes, including:

The COVID-19 vaccine protects you from serious illness and keeps you healthy, so you can keep your baby healthy. Pregnant people who get COVID during their pregnancy are at higher risk for:

The CDC recommends the COVID vaccine for people who are breastfeeding. Reports have shown that breastfeeding people who have been vaccinated have antibodies in their breastmilk, which could help protect their babies.

The vaccine is safe for those who are pregnant, want to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. The vaccine does not contain any live virus, so it cannot give you or your baby COVID-19. The vaccine teaches your body to recognize COVID-19 and create an immune response.

There is no evidence that any vaccine causes fertility problems in women or men including the COVID-19 vaccines.

In addition to getting vaccinated, you can create a COVID-safe cocoon by encouraging those that come into contact with your baby to also get vaccinated.

If you have questions about COVID-19 vaccines or boosters, talk to your doctor or healthcare provider. You can also check out the CDCs Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 Vaccinationsor call the PA Health Hotline at 1-877-724-3258.

See original here:

Pregnancy & COVID-19 Vaccines - Governor Tom Wolf

Country

United States of AmericaUS Virgin IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsCanadaMexico, United Mexican StatesBahamas, Commonwealth of theCuba, Republic ofDominican RepublicHaiti, Republic ofJamaicaAfghanistanAlbania, People's Socialist Republic ofAlgeria, People's Democratic Republic ofAmerican SamoaAndorra, Principality ofAngola, Republic ofAnguillaAntarctica (the territory South of 60 deg S)Antigua and BarbudaArgentina, Argentine RepublicArmeniaArubaAustralia, Commonwealth ofAustria, Republic ofAzerbaijan, Republic ofBahrain, Kingdom ofBangladesh, People's Republic ofBarbadosBelarusBelgium, Kingdom ofBelizeBenin, People's Republic ofBermudaBhutan, Kingdom ofBolivia, Republic ofBosnia and HerzegovinaBotswana, Republic ofBouvet Island (Bouvetoya)Brazil, Federative Republic ofBritish Indian Ocean Territory (Chagos Archipelago)British Virgin IslandsBrunei DarussalamBulgaria, People's Republic ofBurkina FasoBurundi, Republic ofCambodia, Kingdom ofCameroon, United Republic ofCape Verde, Republic ofCayman IslandsCentral African RepublicChad, Republic ofChile, Republic ofChina, People's Republic ofChristmas IslandCocos (Keeling) IslandsColombia, Republic ofComoros, Union of theCongo, Democratic Republic ofCongo, People's Republic ofCook IslandsCosta Rica, Republic ofCote D'Ivoire, Ivory Coast, Republic of theCyprus, Republic ofCzech RepublicDenmark, Kingdom ofDjibouti, Republic ofDominica, Commonwealth ofEcuador, Republic ofEgypt, Arab Republic ofEl Salvador, Republic ofEquatorial Guinea, Republic ofEritreaEstoniaEthiopiaFaeroe IslandsFalkland Islands (Malvinas)Fiji, Republic of the Fiji IslandsFinland, Republic ofFrance, French RepublicFrench GuianaFrench PolynesiaFrench Southern TerritoriesGabon, Gabonese RepublicGambia, Republic of theGeorgiaGermanyGhana, Republic ofGibraltarGreece, Hellenic RepublicGreenlandGrenadaGuadaloupeGuamGuatemala, Republic ofGuinea, RevolutionaryPeople's Rep'c ofGuinea-Bissau, Republic ofGuyana, Republic ofHeard and McDonald IslandsHoly See (Vatican City State)Honduras, Republic ofHong Kong, Special Administrative Region of ChinaHrvatska (Croatia)Hungary, Hungarian People's RepublicIceland, Republic ofIndia, Republic ofIndonesia, Republic ofIran, Islamic Republic ofIraq, Republic ofIrelandIsrael, State ofItaly, Italian RepublicJapanJordan, Hashemite Kingdom ofKazakhstan, Republic ofKenya, Republic ofKiribati, Republic ofKorea, Democratic People's Republic ofKorea, Republic ofKuwait, State ofKyrgyz RepublicLao People's Democratic RepublicLatviaLebanon, Lebanese RepublicLesotho, Kingdom ofLiberia, Republic ofLibyan Arab JamahiriyaLiechtenstein, Principality ofLithuaniaLuxembourg, Grand Duchy ofMacao, Special Administrative Region of ChinaMacedonia, the former Yugoslav Republic ofMadagascar, Republic ofMalawi, Republic ofMalaysiaMaldives, Republic ofMali, Republic ofMalta, Republic ofMarshall IslandsMartiniqueMauritania, Islamic Republic ofMauritiusMayotteMicronesia, Federated States ofMoldova, Republic ofMonaco, Principality ofMongolia, Mongolian People's RepublicMontserratMorocco, Kingdom ofMozambique, People's Republic ofMyanmarNamibiaNauru, Republic ofNepal, Kingdom ofNetherlands AntillesNetherlands, Kingdom of theNew CaledoniaNew ZealandNicaragua, Republic ofNiger, Republic of theNigeria, Federal Republic ofNiue, Republic ofNorfolk IslandNorthern Mariana IslandsNorway, Kingdom ofOman, Sultanate ofPakistan, Islamic Republic ofPalauPalestinian Territory, OccupiedPanama, Republic ofPapua New GuineaParaguay, Republic ofPeru, Republic ofPhilippines, Republic of thePitcairn IslandPoland, Polish People's RepublicPortugal, Portuguese RepublicPuerto RicoQatar, State ofReunionRomania, Socialist Republic ofRussian FederationRwanda, Rwandese RepublicSamoa, Independent State ofSan Marino, Republic ofSao Tome and Principe, Democratic Republic ofSaudi Arabia, Kingdom ofSenegal, Republic ofSerbia and MontenegroSeychelles, Republic ofSierra Leone, Republic ofSingapore, Republic ofSlovakia (Slovak Republic)SloveniaSolomon IslandsSomalia, Somali RepublicSouth Africa, Republic ofSouth Georgia and the South Sandwich IslandsSpain, Spanish StateSri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic ofSt. HelenaSt. Kitts and NevisSt. LuciaSt. Pierre and MiquelonSt. Vincent and the GrenadinesSudan, Democratic Republic of theSuriname, Republic ofSvalbard & Jan Mayen IslandsSwaziland, Kingdom ofSweden, Kingdom ofSwitzerland, Swiss ConfederationSyrian Arab RepublicTaiwan, Province of ChinaTajikistanTanzania, United Republic ofThailand, Kingdom ofTimor-Leste, Democratic Republic ofTogo, Togolese RepublicTokelau (Tokelau Islands)Tonga, Kingdom ofTrinidad and Tobago, Republic ofTunisia, Republic ofTurkey, Republic ofTurkmenistanTurks and Caicos IslandsTuvaluUganda, Republic ofUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited Kingdom of Great Britain & N. IrelandUruguay, Eastern Republic ofUzbekistanVanuatuVenezuela, Bolivarian Republic ofViet Nam, Socialist Republic ofWallis and Futuna IslandsWestern SaharaYemenZambia, Republic ofZimbabwe

Read more:

WV's school COVID-19 case tracker has re-started, after stopping amid surge. The state epidemiologist says the old version 'severely under-reported'...

Bloomington, Ind.Thirty City workers have reported positive results of COVID-19 laboratory tests since the January 20 update, including one Parks & Recreation (Parks) employee, two Bloomington Police Department (BPD) employees, seven Utilities (CBU) employees, five City Hall employees, two Bloomington Fire Department (BFD) employees, two Bloomington Transit (BT) employees, four Department of Public Works (DPW) employees, and seven employees of the Bloomington Housing Authority (BHA).

Any close contacts have been notified, but no members of the general public were identified as close contacts as a result of exposure to these employees in the course of their work.

Close contact is defined by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as someone who was within six feet of an infected person for at least 15 minutes starting from two days before illness onset--or, for asymptomatic clients, two days prior to positive specimen collection--until the time the patient is isolated.

Details of each case are as follows:

A Parks employee started experiencing symptoms on January 23 and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 24. There were no close contacts.

A BPD employee started experiencing symptoms on January 21, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 23. There were no close contacts.

A second BPD employee started experiencing symptoms on January 21, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 23. There were no close contacts.

A CBU employee started experiencing symptoms on January 13, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 16. There were no close contacts.

A second CBU employee started experiencing symptoms on January 20, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 24. Close contacts have been notified.

A third CBU employee, who was asymptomatic, received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 24 from a test to comply with the Citys testing policy for employees who have not submitted proof of vaccination against COVID-19. There were no close contacts.

A fourth CBU employee started experiencing symptoms on January 22, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 25. There were no close contacts.

A fifth CBU employee started experiencing symptoms on January 23, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 24. There were no close contacts.

A sixth CBU employee started experiencing symptoms on January 23, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 25. There were no close contacts.

A seventh CBU employee started experiencing symptoms on January 13, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 19. Close contacts have been notified.

A City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on January 11, receiving a positive COVID-19 test result on January 18. There were no close contacts.

A second City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on January 21, receiving a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. There were no close contacts.

A third City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on January 22, receiving a positive COVID-19 test result on January 24. There were no close contacts.

A fourth City Hall employee, who was asymptomatic, received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 22. There were no close contacts.

A fifth City Hall employee started experiencing symptoms on January 20, receiving a positive COVID-19 test result on January 25. There were no close contacts.

A BFD employee started experiencing symptoms on January 25, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. There were no close contacts.

A second BFD employee started experiencing symptoms on January 26, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. There were no close contacts.

A BT employee started experiencing symptoms on January 24, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 25. There were no close contacts.

A second BT employee started experiencing symptoms on January 21, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 25. There were no close contacts.

A DPW employee started experiencing symptoms on January 6, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. Close contacts have been notified.

A second DPW employee started experiencing symptoms on January 11, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 15. Close contacts have been notified.

A third DPW employee started experiencing symptoms on January 12, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on the same day. Close contacts have been notified.

A fourth DPW employee started experiencing symptoms on January 19, and received a positive COVID-19 test result on January 120. There were no close contacts.

Seven BHA employees received a positive COVID-19 test result since the January 20 update. Further details of each case are unknown at time of this release.

Including todays report, 262 positive COVID-19 viral test results have been reported since the start of the pandemic by City workers, including those employed by the municipal corporations that operate the water utility (CBU), transit system (Bloomington Transit), and public housing (Bloomington Housing Authority). Additionally, COVID-19 was listed among the causes of death of one City worker.

Data about COVID-19 cases among City employees, in the county, the state and the nation are available at https://bton.in/SOHjE. Other City-related updates about the COVID-19 pandemic are available at bloomington.in.gov/covid19.

The City of Bloomington is committed to sharing information about how its operations and workforce are affected by this public health emergency, and will continue to provide weekly updates about confirmed cases among staff while protecting employees privacy.

Excerpt from:

City Reports Thirty New COVID-19 Cases | City of Bloomington, Indiana - City of Bloomington

Dear Campus Community,

We were very pleased to greet students as they returned to campus this week. With an extensive set of public health protocols in place to manage the impact of COVID-19, we welcome the start of the spring semester.

Vaccination continues to be the best public health measure to fight COVID-19. While vaccines do not prevent all infections, they have proven to be very effective at preventing severe illness and hospitalization.Earlier this week, we conducted two large-scale booster clinics, and we will continue to provide convenient access to vaccines.The Public Health Promotion Center (PHPC) plans to conduct vaccine clinicseach Thursday and Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. in the Campus Center. Walk-ins are accepted, butwe encourage everyone to book an appointment.

This week we also distributed KN95 masksto departments, schools, colleges and residential halls across campus. Faculty, staff and students can also stop by the PHPC during operating hours to pick up two masks per person.We strongly urge you to use a high-grade mask, such as an N95, KN95 or KF94, or a double mask with a surgical mask under a cloth mask.

With the start of the semester, we have received some inquiries about testing protocols.Our approach to testing has been one of the most rigorous and effective aspects of the universitys pandemic mitigation efforts, and that commitment continues. With the development of vaccines over the past two years, our testing regimen has evolved to best address changing conditions.

Previously, the primary purpose of surveillance testing (testing everyone) was to identify individuals with COVID and isolate them from the community. In a vaccinated and boosted population, testing serves different purposes.We now employ a combination of more effective measures. These are especially valuable given how quickly the Omicron variant spreads, since the majority of people testing regularly are not identified as positive during their peak period of being contagious. Our current approach features continuous testing of wastewater on the scale of the entire campus, providing an accurate and real-time assessment of infectivity. Adaptive testing is then deployed to the populations showing increases in infectivity to identify individual cases. Meanwhile, convenient, unobserved voluntary testing is available and used regularly by the campus community. This comprehensive approach provides the PHPC enhanced tools to continuously analyze the state of the virus on our campus and enact real-time COVID-mitigation measures to keep our campus and the surrounding communities safe. These testing protocols, employed in concert with our vaccination and masking policies, are designed to create a safe environment for all, including vulnerable individuals with medical conditions, and families with young children at home who are not vaccinated.

The latest COVID-19 testing data for the UMass communityfrom Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 shows 191 new positive cases. The universitys cumulative positivity rate is 2.58%, down from last weeks rate of 6.33%.The states seven-day positivity rate is 10.37%. Most cases are of short duration resulting in mild-to-moderate illness, and there are no current hospitalizations.

Everyone must continue to monitor themselves forCOVID-19 symptomsevery day before coming to campus.If you feel unwell, stay home.

Thank you for all you are doing to care for yourselves and one another, and to support the health of our community.

Sincerely,

Co-Directors of the Public Health Promotion Center (PHPC)

Ann Becker, Public Health DirectoJeffrey Hescock, Executive Director of Environmental Health and Safety

Link:

COVID-19 Update from the UMass Public Health Promotion Center - UMass News and Media Relations

The Marine Corps has approved a third religious exemption to the required COVID-19 vaccine, according to its latest statement about the forces vaccination rate.

Historically religious exemptions to vaccines were completely nonexistent, with the Corps having no history of granting one over the past ten years, Marine spokesman Capt. Andrew Wood told Marine Corps Times in October 2021.

But in mid-January, the Corps said it granted two religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine the first for the U.S. military. Now, it has approved a third.

A total of 3,428 Marines have requested religious exemptions and 3,377 have been processed through Marine Corps Manpower and Reserve Affairs, leaving 51 to still be decided.

The Marine Corps, following Department of Defense policy, issued an order that all Marines were required to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 by the end of November 2021 or they would be separated.

The only way to avoid both the vaccine and separation was to get an approved medical, administrative or religious exception.

With the politicization of the current vaccine rollout, thousands of Marines have applied for religious exemptions, hoping to keep their careers and avoid the shot.

All current exemption requests are being reviewed on a case-by-case basis, Wood said in the emailed statement. Each request will be given full consideration with respect to the facts and circumstances submitted in the request.

The Marine Corps is tracking 627 administrative or medical exemptions to the vaccine, most of which are temporary, Wood said.

With the third Marine receiving the exemption, the Marine Corps is approving just 0.088% of all religious exemption requests.

The Marine Corps has a compelling governmental interest in mission accomplishment at the individual, unit, and organizational levels, Wood said. Adjudication Authorities pay particular attention to how religious accommodation request determinations will impact the Marines and units ability to accomplish the mission and consider the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling government interest.

Currently 95% of the active duty Marine Corps is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, while 97% of active duty Marines are fully or partially vaccinated.

For the reserves, 87% of the force is fully vaccinated while 88% of the force is fully or partially vaccinated.

Holding true to its promise to separate Marines who refuse the vaccine, the Corps already has administratively separated 399 Marines, Wood said.

No other U.S. military branch has yet approved any religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine.

In the active duty Army, 2,910 permanent religious exemptions have been requested, with 266 disapproved so far and zero approved, according to data released Wednesday.

More here:

Another Marine receives a religious exemption to the COVID-19 vaccine - Marine Corps Times

Vaccines have shown themselves to be the best defense against a serious case of COVID-19: According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated adults were about 13 times more likely to be hospitalized with the disease than vaccinated adults as of late November.

But vaccines and the antibodies they generate are just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to fighting off the coronavirus. The immune system has other sets of defenders that find and kill infected cells, then preserve a living record of the virus, bacteria or other infectious agent so the body can respond faster the next time its under assault.

And speed is essential, said E. John Wherry, director of the University of Pennsylvanias Institute for Immunology.

During an infection, its a race, with the immune system pressing to stop the virus before it has multiplied to a debilitating level, Wherry explained. Thats particularly true for the Omicron variant, which replicates at an alarming rate.

Heres a breakdown of how the bodys immune system works and how its been tested by Omicron:

Think of the immune system as having three layers of defense. One tries to keep hostile molecules pathogens on the outside, looking in. That job is performed by the skin, the bodys largest organ, whose cells can defeat invaders and warn the rest of the immune system that trouble is at hand.

The second layer tries to stop the attackers once theyve entered the body, but before they have infected cells. This is where the bone marrow comes in. It produces natural killer or NK cells as well as B cells, the ones that generate antibodies. Both are types of white blood cells, or lymphocytes.

We have natural killer or NK cells in the tonsils, lymph nodes and spleen, ready to fight any attackers.

(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

NKs earned their name because they arent produced in response to an attacker; theyre already present and ready to kill cells that dont belong in the body, such as tumor cells. NKs are part of the innate immune system, in scientific terms. According to researchers at Rockefeller University, NKs hang out in the tonsils, lymph nodes and spleen, then rush to confront attackers where they emerge.

Antibodies, on the other hand, are generated after an attacker is discovered, making them part of what scientists call the adaptive immune system. They attach themselves to specific pathogens, which then get gobbled up and destroyed by other members of the immune systems team.

In the case of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, different antibodies bind to different parts of the virus, including the spike protein the virus uses to enter a healthy cell and replicate itself over and over. If the spike protein is gummed up by an antibody, the virus cant infect a cell.

Its conceivable that if youre freshly vaccinated or boosted, you could have so many antibodies ready to attack that you wont become infected, said Trudy U. Rey, a virologist and science communicator. This is called sterilizing immunity, although in the case of COVID-19, it would be merely temporary. But thats not the goal of a COVID-19 vaccination. (More on that later.)

A more common scenario is that some quantity of invading coronaviruses get past the antibodies. Cells have some innate defenses that can defeat the invaders, but SARS-CoV-2 has shown itself capable of evading them. Happily, there is a third line of defense: T cells.

T cells in the upper chests thymus gland can detect pathogens after theyve gotten inside a cell, where antibodies cant find them.

(National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases)

Like B cells and NKs, T cells are white blood cells that originate in the bone marrow, but they develop in and emanate from the thymus gland in the upper chest. Their special power is their ability to detect viruses and other germs after theyve gotten inside a cell, where theyre hidden from antibodies.

T cells come in two basic flavors: killers and messengers. The lethal version detects cells that have been infected with a virus, then kills them (by releasing a toxic version of a granule called a cytokine) to stop the virus from replicating. Wherry called this destroying the village to save the nation. The messengers alert B cells to the new threat, and they respond by making antibodies designed to meet that threat.

Its a complex molecular dance with many other vital parts, including dendritic cells or DCs, which act as sentinels and couriers within the immune system. Among other things, the DCs tell the T cells which specific threat to hunt down and kill.

Once an infection is overcome, the immune system naturally winds down and sheds some antibodies and T cells. But some T cells live on as memory T cells, ready to respond by killing infected cells and stimulating the production of new antibodies if the same attacker returns. And some B cells remain as memory cells to handle antibody production.

Daniela Weiskopf, an immunologist at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, said the bodys adaptive immune system is very specific. Thats good, she said, because otherwise youd be in a constant state of inflammation. But it also means that antibodies and T cells are limited in what they can bind to or recognize. They need to learn their enemy before they can defend against it.

Vaccines help us create antibodies and memory T cells that recognize a virus and infected cells so our immune systems react more quickly. Booster shots reinforce this process.

(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

Vaccination, Weiskopf said, is nothing but training the immune system without getting sick. COVID-19 vaccines create antibodies that recognize the spike protein and other characteristics of SARS-CoV-2, along with memory T cells that can recognize cells that have been infected with the virus.

The more often your immune system sees a threat, Weiskopf said, the more detailed it makes the response. The speedier, too once your system has these memory cells, she said, it can react much, much, much faster the next time the same pathogen comes knocking. Hence the value of booster shots.

As viruses mutate, the parts that antibodies attach themselves to may change. If they change too much, the antibodies wont be as good at binding to them and preventing them from entering cells. That appears to be the case with the Omicron variant, which has multiple mutations that affect its spike protein.

But Omicrons mutations havent tempered the response of memory T cells, Weiskopf, Rey and Wherry said. Thats because the mutations havent had much effect on the parts of the virus that T cells recognize.

Beyond that, Weiskopf said, each person has multiple different T cells, and their T cells are different from everyone elses. If by some rare misfortune a new variant managed to dodge all of your memory T cells, she said, it would still encounter plenty of effective T cells in the rest of the population.

Rey added that much of the talk about waning immunity is based on the declining presence of what are known as neutralizing antibodies, which can block the virus from attaching to a cell and replicating. But other types of antibodies remain in the system.

There have even been studies that have shown that just because an antibody doesnt neutralize, it doesnt mean it cant do anything, Rey said. For example, she said, by binding to parts of the virus other than the spike protein, it may prompt other immune cells to join the fight.

If youve never been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 or to COVID-19 vaccines, the coronavirus wont encounter any customized antibodies or T cells on its way to your respiratory system. Even if your immune system is healthy, it takes a week to 10 days to transform undifferentiated T cells into killers and get them in place to confront infected cells, Wherry said. During that time, the virus is replicating exponentially and spreading through the body.

But if youve been immunized, you can have killer T cells ready in four days or fewer, Wherry said. That head start makes a huge difference in keeping an infection from raging out of control.

Unvaccinated people may nevertheless have some T cells ready to defend at the first sign of an infection, Weiskopf said. Researchers found some T cells that responded to SARS-CoV-2 in samples taken from people whod never been exposed to the virus, she said. These cells created in response to the common cold, which can be caused by other kinds of coronaviruses helped speed up and strengthen the immune response, she said.

Not everyone whos caught a cold will have T cells with this kind of versatility, she added. But the discovery suggests to some researchers that scientists might be able to devise a vaccine capable of attacking any coronavirus variant by prompting the immune system to make T cells like these. (Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of The Times, has another company that is exploring this possibility.)

At any rate, the more a virus replicates in the body, the bigger the response from killer T cells. That raises a second issue, Wherry said: T cells cant go on killing tissue forever; at some point, the system has to shift into repair mode. Thats why there are regulatory T cells to act as a counterweight on this whole system, helping to rein in the killer cells, he said.

Sometimes, however, the system doesnt throw the off switch soon enough. Wherry said that for some seriously ill COVID-19 patients, the virus spreads to many places inside their bodies, and a huge number of killer T cells flood their systems with very damaging cytokines. Clinicians help those patients by suppressing their immune systems to tamp down this response, he said.

If they recover from COVID-19, unvaccinated people will have antibodies and memory cells to help protect against the next encounter with SARS-CoV-2. But Rey said a persons immune response is much better after vaccination than with the natural immunity conferred by an infection. The reinfection rate for unvaccinated people who only have natural immunity is twice as high as the infection rate for people whove been vaccinated, she said.

Over the course of the pandemic, elderly people have tended to suffer far more serious consequences from COVID-19 than children have. There appear to be at least a couple of reasons for that.

Rey pointed to a study led by researchers at the Charit-Universittsmedizin Berlin, which found certain innate defenses in childrens nasal passages that may help them clobber the virus before it can replicate wildly.

This type of innate immune response seems to be delayed in older adults, and in an effort to catch up, may result in excessive inflammation, thereby ultimately causing more severe damage, she wrote in a blog post.

Wherry said the immune system is susceptible to the effects of aging, just like the rest of the body.

One of the key things is you lose production of these new, what we call naive, T cells, he said. These act as blank slates, ready to learn new threats. Late in life, Wherry said, they become a much smaller portion of the cells you can call into action.

As we age, problems emerge in other elements of the immune system as well, he said. Altogether, he said, these issues make it harder for the immune system to get out of the gate.

Read more:

How the body's immune system tries to fight off COVID-19 - Los Angeles Times

New York City's surge of COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron variant appears to be falling just as quickly as it rose.

Tens of thousands of infections are still being reported every day, and the test positivity rate is still above 20%. However, after new cases increased 26-fold in just one month, they have now fallen by 57% over the last week, an ABC News analysis found.

After a single-day peak of 50,803 COVID-19 cases reported on Jan. 3, just 9,202 cases were reported on Jan. 14, according to data from the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.

In addition, hospitalizations are declining, and the number of wastewater samples that have detected the virus have also plunged.

"Infections are coming down, even visits to the emergency room are coming down," Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News. "And usually we see when there is a surge, we see visits to the emergency rooms going up."

New York City COVID-19 cases per day

Mokdad, who helps lead a model that projects COVID-19 cases around the country, added, "All the indications of the people being tested and found to be positive show that [omicron] appears on its way down."

On Dec. 2, the first case of omicron tied to New York City was reported in a Minnesota resident who had traveled to the Big Apple in November to attend an anime convention.

From there, COVID-19 cases began spiking. Within two weeks, the city was reporting an average of nearly 7,600 infections per day, up from 1,600 per day.

Studies have since shown that omicron is more likely to pass between vaccinated people than prior variants, though vaccines still dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness.

Coupled with the cold weather and people gathering for the holidays, Mokdad said it is no surprise the virus spread as quickly as it did.

People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 test, Jan. 4, 2022, in New York. The U.S. recorded more than 1 million cases on Jan. 3, 2022, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as the Omicron variant spread at a blistering pace.

Even coronavirus levels in wastewater samples were showing that a surge was coming, according to wastewater analytics company Biobot.

"The scale of the amount of virus that was detected in wastewater was far greater than any point in the pandemic, so much so that [the company] had to rebuild some of the graphs around the scales, because so much more virus was being collected more than any time," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist who is a member of Biobot's board of advisers and an ABC News contributor. "It gave us that early sense that we were going to deal with this massive surge."

However, there are signs the city may have hit its omicron peak.

New York City has been reporting nearly 12 straight days of COVID-19 case declines and is averaging about 15,000 new infections per day, down from roughly 36,000 just two weeks ago.

In yet another sign that the city's surge may be ebbing, New York City no longer holds the nation's highest case rate -- Rhode Island now does, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hospitalizations have also declined from an average of 992 new admissions on Jan. 6 to 496 as of Jan. 15, according to the city's health department.

Mount Sinai Health System, one of New York City's largest hospital systems, has seen new daily COVID-19 hospital admissions remain relatively flat over the last week to 10 days. About one-third of patients are admitted for other reasons and then test positive during their stays, Dr. Bernard Camins, medical director for infection prevention at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.

A person walks past a COVID-19 testing tent during the coronavirus pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Jan. 14, 2022.

He said hospitalizations will not significantly come down until two or three weeks from now, because they are a lagging indicator.

"When people get sick enough with COVID, now they are going to come into the hospital, and it does take a delay," Camins said. "Sometimes people start having symptoms but they're not sick enough to need the hospital until Day 7 or 10 days later."

He added, "Eventually the ones who were coming into the hospital with 'moderate symptoms' or maybe severe enough to need oxygen, it does take them a few more days lag in terms of needing ventilators."

A rapid rise in cases followed by a dramatic decline is similar to what has been seen in other countries that detected omicron before the U.S.

In South Africa, where the variant was first identified, the surge looked like an "ice pick," according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. In early December, the country was averaging about 10,000 cases per day, quickly rising to 20,000 by mid-December.

People wait in line at a COVID-19 testing site in Times Square, New York, Dec. 13, 2021.

But, by early January, when New York City was experiencing its peak, the average number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa had already fallen to about 8,000 per day.

"What we know and are certain about from data from South Africa and the U.K., when omicron takes hold in a location, it takes about a month to go up and a month to come down," Mokdad said.

Even though the surge is not entirely over yet, Mokdad said New York's decline is a signal for the rest of the country, with the Midwest about one week behind and the West Coast two or three weeks behind.

The University of Washington's own model suggests that the U.S. will peak at about 1.2 million cases Jan.17, and then all states will be on their way down by the end of January, Mokdad said, adding that he is still encouraging vaccination and mask-wearing.

"Everybody who's out and about will be infected by then," he said. "This is like infecting everybody out there, so basically, it's running out of people to infect and it's going to start coming down because there's no more people to infect."

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COVID-19 cases in NYC show omicron infections may be plummeting - ABC News