COVID-19 News and Discussions

[Yuli Ban]

Louisiana Doctors Cancel Brain Aneurysm Surgeries to Deal With Influx of COVID Patients

Anumber of health experts have described the dangerous and deadly effect the Delta variant of COVID-19 is having in the state of Louisiana, including how doctors are being forced to cancel key surgeries to free up space for those suffering from the virus.

Michele Sutton, CEO of North Oaks Health System located in Hammond, Louisiana, spoke of how hospitals are struggling to cope with the fourth wave of COVID infections as there is not enough space for patients and dozens of staff members are testing positive for the virus.

Sutton spoke along with several public health experts and doctors during a press conference on Monday explaining why they are backing Governor John Bel Edwards' plans to reinstate a statewide mask mandate.

Sutton said that the hospital has also had to discontinue elective surgeries so they could turn their recovery room into a third Intensive Care Unit in order to deal with the demand of COVID cases.

[weatheriscool]

New York City is expected to require proof of vaccination for indoor dining and fitness.
Source: New York Times

Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to announce Tuesday morning that New York City will require proof of vaccination for people participating in indoor activities, including at restaurants, gyms and performances, his latest attempt to spur more vaccinations, according to a city official.

The policy is similar to mandates issued in France and Italy last month and is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States.

The program will start later this month, and after a transition period enforcement will begin in mid-September, when schools are expected to reopen and more workers could return to offices in Manhattan.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/nyre ... ndate.html

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Costco, Kroger, Target, Walmart and Apple change mask policies, as CDC warns about rise in delta var
Source: Market Watch

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course on its masking guidance last week — and the move has important implications for retailers and other businesses. Some restaurants, for example, are already telling customers, as the delta variant spreads, “No vax, no service.”

The CDC now recommends that people, regardless of vaccination status, wear a mask indoors in areas where there’s “substantial and high transmission” of COVID-19, as well as in K-12 schools. In May, the agency relaxed face mask guidance, saying it was no longer necessary for fully vaccinated individuals to wear one indoors.

Ultimately, state and local governments don’t have to adopt the CDC’s recommendations.

On Monday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio recommended that the city’s 8 million residents wear a mask indoors, regardless of vaccination status.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... id=DELLDHP

[Yuli Ban]

My state's reimplemented a mask mandate
We aren't sucking for once! That's surprising.

[weatheriscool]

F.D.A. Aims to Give Final Approval to Pfizer Vaccine by Early Next Month
Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — With a new surge of Covid-19 infections ripping through much of the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has accelerated its timetable to fully approve Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine, aiming to complete the process by the start of next month, people involved in the effort said. President Biden said last week that he expected a fully approved vaccine in early fall. But the F.D.A.’s unofficial deadline is Labor Day or sooner, according to multiple people familiar with the plan. The agency said in a statement that its leaders recognized that approval might inspire more public confidence and had “taken an all-hands-on-deck approach” to the work.

Giving final approval to the Pfizer vaccine — rather than relying on the emergency authorization granted late last year by the F.D.A. — could help increase inoculation rates at a moment when the highly transmissible Delta variant of the virus is sharply driving up the number of new cases. A number of universities and hospitals, the Defense Department and at least one major city, San Francisco, are expected to mandate inoculation once a vaccine is fully approved. Final approval could also help mute misinformation about the safety of vaccines and clarify legal issues about mandates.

Federal regulators have been under growing public pressure to fully approve Pfizer’s vaccine ever since the company filed its application on May 7. “I just have not sensed a sense of urgency from the F.D.A. on full approval,” Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said in an interview on Tuesday. “And I find it baffling, given where we are as a country in terms of infections, hospitalizations and deaths.”

Although 192 million Americans — 58 percent of the total population and 70 percent of the nation’s adults — have received at least one vaccine shot, many remain vulnerable to the ultracontagious, dominant Delta variant. The country is averaging nearly 86,000 new infections a day, an increase of 142 percent in just two weeks, according to a New York Times database.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/03/us/p ... roval.html

[weatheriscool]

Florida sets COVID record with 11,515 people hospitalized
Source: Orlando Sentinel




Associated Press |Aug 03, 2021 at 10:37 AM

FORT LAUDERDALE — The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida rose to an all-time high of 11,515 patients in one day, according to data the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released Tuesday.

The data is used by the Florida Hospital Association to track admissions and staffing shortages. The figures also show 2,400 of those patients are in ICU beds.

The previous day, the data showed there were 10,389 COVID-hospitalizations in the state.

The new number breaks a previous record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago before vaccines were available. Last year, Florida hit its previous peak on July 23, with 10,170 hospitalizations....................................

Read more: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronav ... story.html

[weatheriscool]

Oregon health care workers must get COVID-19 shots or submit to weekly testing, governor says
Source: The Oregonian

Oregon health care workers will have to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or face weekly testing, Gov. Kate Brown’s office said Wednesday, in an apparent step to fight the state’s run-away coronavirus case numbers fueled by the delta variant.

The move comes amid a nationwide push to drive up vaccination rates, both for the general public and among health care workers in particular. Brown’s intervention effectively neutralizes an Oregon law that says employers can’t fire health care workers for not being vaccinated.

Brown’s order, through the Oregon Health Authority, sidesteps the law by mandating weekly testing while allowing for an exemption from the requirement for those who can prove they’ve been immunized.

Oregon appears to be the only state in the nation with the prohibition specifically for health care workers, and one of the sponsors of the bill was perplexed by the ramifications, saying, “Why the hell did we do that?”

Read more: https://www.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/ ... -says.html

[weatheriscool]

Pfizer will require U.S. employees to get Covid vaccine or undergo weekly testing
Source: CNBC

Pfizer said Wednesday it will require all its U.S. employees and contractors to get vaccinated against Covid-19 or participate in regular weekly testing.

The new initiative will "best protect the health and safety of our colleagues and the communities we serve," Pfizer spokesperson Pamela Eisele said in a statement to CNBC.

"Outside the U.S., the company is strongly encouraging all colleagues who are able to do so in their countries get vaccinated," Eisele added. "Colleagues who have medical conditions or religious objections will be able to seek accommodations. Colleagues are still required to adhere to all COVID-19 state, local and Pfizer safety procedures while engaged in Pfizer work."

Pfizer, whose Covid vaccine with German drugmaker BioNTech was the first to be authorized in the United States, is just the latest company to require its employees to get the shots. The mandates come as coronavirus cases in the U.S. spike once again, fueled by the highly contagious delta variant.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets ... li=BBnb7Kz

[weatheriscool]

S.Korea on alert for new Delta Plus COVID-19 variant
Source: Reuters

SEOUL, Aug 3 (Reuters) - South Korea has detected its first two cases of the new Delta Plus COVID-19 variant, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Tuesday, as the country battles with its fourth wave of infections.

The Delta Plus variant is a sub-lineage of the Delta variant first identified in India, and has acquired the spike protein mutation called K417N, which is also found in the Beta variant first identified in South Africa. read more

Reports of Delta Plus cases have been few, and a handful of countries, including Britain, Portugal and India, have reported some cases.

"The first case (in South Korea) was identified in a man in 40s who has no recent travel records," the KDCA told Reuters. The source of transmission is under investigation.

Test results in around 280 people who were in contact with the man found that only his son was positive too, Park Young-joon, a KDCA official told a briefing.

Park said it was unclear whether the son was also infected with Delta Plus.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 021-08-03/