Emergence of a Deadly Coronavirus

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The Tokyo Olympics will happen amid a state of emergency, and without fans at events in the host city.

The Japanese government on Thursday announced that it would re-institute strict measures to counter COVID-19 surges in the capital. The measures will take effect next week, and last the duration of the Games, which officially begin July 23 and end Aug. 8.

Hours after the announcement, Olympic organizers walked back a previous decision to allow local spectators to attend events.

Organizers have not yet made final decisions on whether they'll bar fans from events held elsewhere around the country.

Hashimoto said, however, that Olympic officials, foreign dignitaries, and other Games stakeholders could still be allowed to attend the ceremony.

On Wednesday, 16 days before the Opening Ceremony, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government reported 920 COVID cases, over 200 more than any other single-day total since May. On Thursday, it reported 896, the second-highest count since May.

U.S. regulators on Monday added a new warning to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine about links to a rare and potentially dangerous neurological reaction but said it’s not entirely clear the shot caused the problem.

The Food and Drug Administration announced the new warning, flagging reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome, an immune system disorder that can cause muscle weakness and occasionally paralysis. Health officials described the side effect as a “small possible risk" for those getting the shot.

The action comes after the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reviewed reports of about 100 people developing the syndrome after receiving the one-dose vaccine. Almost all of them required hospitalization and one person died, the FDA said.

Guillain-Barre syndrome occurs when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks some of its nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis that typically is temporary. An estimated 3,000 to 6,000 people develop the syndrome each year, according to the CDC. Most people fully recover.

The number of cases reported in connection with J&J's vaccine represents a tiny fraction of the nearly 13 million Americans who have received the one-dose shot. Most cases were reported in men — many 50 years old and up — and usually about two weeks after vaccination.

J&J said in a statement it has been discussing the reports with the FDA and other health regulators around the world.

The CDC said it would ask its panel of outside vaccine experts to review the issue at an upcoming meeting.

The government said the vaccines most used in the U.S., made by Pfizer and Moderna, show no risk of the disorder after more than 320 million doses have been administered.

The new warning will be included in pamphlets given to people getting the J&J shot. They should seek medical attention if they experience any symptoms, which include tingling sensations, trouble walking and double vision, the FDA said.

The coronavirus infections curve in the United States is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading Delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.

Despite having one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, new daily infections in the US have doubled over the past two weeks to an average of about 24,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Deaths linked to the coronavirus are still on a downward trajectory at around 260 a day.

At the same time, parts of the country are running up against widespread vaccine resistance, while the highly contagious version of the coronavirus that was first detected in India is accounting for an ever-larger share of infections.

Nationally, 67.7 percent of American adults have received at least one COVID-19 jab, according to data from the CDC. The five states with the largest, two-week jump in cases per capita all had lower vaccination rates.

But even with the latest surge, cases in the US are nowhere near their peak of 250,000 per day that was recorded in January – a testament to how effectively vaccines can prevent serious illness and death in those who become infected.

Still, the rise has prompted health authorities in places such as Los Angeles County and St Louis to urge residents, including those who have been vaccinated, to resume wearing masks in public.

Officials in the city of Chicago announced on Tuesday that unvaccinated travellers from Missouri and Arkansas must either quarantine for 10 days or have a negative COVID-19 test, while the health department in Mississippi, which ranks last for vaccinations, began blocking COVID-19 posts on its Facebook page amid a “rise of misinformation” about the virus and the vaccine.

Almost half of COVID-19 cases in the UK are among people who are partly or fully vaccinated people, according to data from a large study.

The finding came from the ZOE COVID Study run by King's College London. It uses information logged daily by over a million people to predict COVID-19 trends

As of July 15, an estimated 17,581 new daily UK cases of COVID-19 were in unvaccinated people, the study authors said in a press release on Thursday.

That compares to an estimated 15,537 new COVID-19 cases in people who had at least one dose of the vaccine, which is about 47% of all cases.

"That's probably because the virus is just running out of people to infect who haven't already been exposed and don't have natural immune unity in those groups [unvaccinated people]," Prof Tim Spector, an epidemiologist from King's College London, said in a video accompanying the press release.

COVID-19 is spreading more quickly in those who have received only one dose of vaccines.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/16/health/cdc-warning-covid-19-vaccine-immunocompromised/index.html

"CDC warns Covid-19 vaccines might not protect people who are immunocompromised"

This doesn't really change my personal stance on getting vaccinated, but it's just one more reason why I'm going to continue to mask up and maintain social distancing for as long as I can.

I won't be socially distancing or masking possibly for the remainder of my life.

Three of Australia's six states are now in lockdown after outbreaks of the Covid-19 Delta variant - which means about 13 million Australians are only able to leave their homes for essential reasons.

Various Covid restrictions are in place in the remaining three states.

Victoria extended its lockdown today, while South Australia announced it would go into a week-long lockdown from 6pm (local time) tonight. Meanwhile, there's no end in sight for NSW, which today reported 78 new community Covid-19 cases.

A spike in patient admissions for COVID-19 has put Florida hospitals on high alert, with Miami-Dade’s Jackson Health System announcing that it would suspend visitations at many of its facilities beginning Wednesday.

Driven by a highly contagious variant of the virus and the significant share of Floridians who remain unvaccinated, the number of new infections reported weekly by Florida’s health department has increased more than fourfold in a month, from 10,095 cases for the week ending June 17 to 45,449 on Friday.

Jackson Health, Miami-Dade’s public hospital system, said the number of COVID-positive patients admitted for overnight care at its three hospitals had ballooned from 66 on July 6 to 139 on Monday, a 111% spike.

Napp said two things stand out about patients being admitted during this most recent surge.

“The overwhelming majority are unvaccinated individuals,” he said, “and they do appear to be younger than before.”

In response to the rise in admissions, Memorial Healthcare has dialed back visitation hours and returned to video conference meetings for administrative staff instead of the in-person gatherings that had recently resumed.

Jackson Health administrators raised the COVID threat level to “high” at its hospitals in South Miami-Dade, Miami’s Civic Center and North Miami Beach on Monday, which means that in-person meetings will be limited to 50% of a room’s capacity and face masks will be required in all non-clinical areas for everyone, including those who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Beginning on Wednesday, Jackson Health will suspend visitations to most of its inpatient units, too, with exceptions for rehabilitation, pediatrics, the neonatal intensive care unit, maternity ward and non-COVID end-of-life cases. Visitors will not be allowed in all adult emergency departments.

Jackson Health administrators scheduled a press conference for Tuesday, but Jackson Health doctors and others have been monitoring the rise — and raising red flags about relaxed social distancing and other preventive measures — for weeks.

The rise in new infections and hospitalizations in Florida reflects a national and global increase, though the Sunshine State is leading most other U.S. states in case counts.

New coronavirus infections rose nearly 70 percent in one week, U.S. public health officials reported on Friday, and nearly every state reported an increase. But the White House said that nearly 1 in 5, or 20% of new COVID cases, were found in Florida, which makes up roughly 6.5% of the U.S. population.

He said the number of counties reporting positive test rates of more than 10% has jumped dramatically in a very short time.

“Just three weeks ago, 11 of our 67 counties had a positivity over 10%,” he said. “It’s now 53 out of 67 have a positivity over 10%. It is widespread. Everybody is on the rise.”

Unlike the surges that Florida experienced in 2020, however, the state’s current rise in cases and hospitalizations is still far from reaching crisis levels, said Justin Senior, chief executive of the Safety Net Hospital Alliance of Florida, a group that represents the state’s public and teaching hospitals.

“It’s nothing like what happened back in January at this point,” Senior said of the current increase, “and it’s nothing like what happened last July.”

The resurgent pandemic triggered steep drops in financial markets on Monday and threatened to stymie the economy’s strong recovery.

Stocks swooned from Wall Street to Tokyo on Monday, fueled by fears of the fast-spreading variant. And economic indicators signaled trouble, with the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq all slumping.

On Monday, U.S. Rep. Verne Buchanan, R-Longboat Key, announced that he has tested positive for COVID-19 despite being fully vaccinated.

At Memorial’s peak last summer, he said, there were 674 COVID patients in the system’s hospitals, about three times the current number. But if there’s one thing the pandemic has proven, he said, is that it’s unpredictable.

“Any surge starts the way this surge is starting,” Napp said. “There’s no way to know how long it will last or how high it will go. But if we do nothing differently, meaning that if this very infectious virus is out in the community and people don’t change behaviors ... and don’t get vaccinated, it’s a guarantee it will go up.

“Something has to change to bring that back down,” he said. “It’s not going to do it by itself.”

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer announced on Thursday that 20 percent of new COVID-19 cases identified in Los Angeles County were in vaccinated individuals.

The Delta variant is a game-changer," Ferrer said. With the Delta variant driving community spread and positive case numbers up in LA County, the percentage of breakthrough cases in fully-vaccinated people has gone up as well. The daily average case rate was 7.1 per 100,000 people on July 15 and shot up to 12.9 on Thursday.

Ferrer says one reason more vaccinated people are catching the virus is that more people are vaccinated.

And as the effects of the June 15 reopening of California reverberate through the region, more people have been interacting.

Only about 53 percent of LA County residents are fully vaccinated against coronavirus. About 58 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are fully vaccinated. And that younger age group seems to be heavily contributing to the rising case numbers, with their positive case rate at 25 per 100,000 as of Thursday.

Even in the face of increasing breakthrough cases, people who have been fully vaccinated generally won't need to be tested for COVID-19. Testing is no longer recommended for domestic travel, although most international destinations will require evidence of a negative test.

Vaccinated people with symptoms may also choose to get a test. However, since many COVID-19 symptoms are similar to symptoms for other minor infections and ailments, it can be hard to decide when to draw the line.

he Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidance on wearing masks Tuesday. In a reversal of its earlier position, the agency is now recommending that some fully vaccinated people wear masks indoors if they live in areas with significant or high spread.

Currently, much of the country falls into that category — with the exception of the Northeast and parts of the Upper Midwest.

But Walensky pointed to new data showing that while vaccinated people still account for a small amount of risk, in rare cases they can get infected and spread the virus to others.

" When we examine the rare breakthrough infections and we look at the amount of virus in those people, it is pretty similar to the amount of virus in unvaccinated people," she said. And, it's possible that because of this higher viral load, people with breakthrough cases of delta may be able to spread it.

"We have places that are now reporting over 300 cases per 100,000, so an extraordinary amount of viral transmission," Walensky said.

And polls suggest that up to 80% of unvaccinated adults are unlikely to change their minds.

The decision to lift the mask mandate in the spring wasn't well thought out, said Dr. Zeke Emanuel, a health policy researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, and the agency has been delaying taking action as the delta variant spreads.

"I think the CDC position on masks has been behind the eight ball almost every step of the way," he said. "I don't think that they've been on top of the mask issue."