Coronavirus Alert: August 16, 2021 | Everyday Health

TheJohns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Centermaintains an ongoing count of the COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States and worldwide. As of 7:12 p.m. on August 16, 2021, the tally is:

Total cases worldwide: 207,729,610 (up from 205,898,243 Friday)

Total deaths worldwide: 4,369,546 (up from 4,341,589 Friday)

Total cases in the United States: 36,864,483 (up from 36,402,782 Friday)

Total deaths in the United States: 622,271 (up from 619,793 Friday)

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The number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 has reached a record high.Reuters reportedthat the number of children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the United States hit a record high of just over 1,900 on Saturday, as hospitals across the South were at capacity fighting outbreaks caused by the highly transmissible delta variant. Children currently make up about 2.4 percent of the nation's COVID-19 hospitalizations. Kids under 12 are not yet eligible to receive the vaccine.

The United States has one-fifth of all coronavirus infections.USA Todayanalysisof Johns Hopkins University data shows that the United States accounts for more than one-fifth of the world's total COVID-19 cases for the first time since mid-February. As of Friday, cases were rising in 46 states, and Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, and Mississippi broke all-time case count highs last week.

USA Todayalso foundthat deaths are now on the rise in most states.

The peak of delta infections is yet to come, says the NIH director.Speaking on Fox Sunday, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins said the trend is “steeply upward” with no sign of having peaked yet and warned of a return to the pandemic's worst days.

“I will be surprised if we don’t cross 200,000 cases a day in the next couple of weeks, and that’s heartbreaking considering we never thought we’d be back in that space again,” Collins said.

He called the unvaccinated “sitting ducks.”

The CDC recommends boosters for immunocompromised.Following thedecision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)to grant emergency use authorizations of the Pfizer and the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for certain immunocompromised individuals, theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday followed suit, recommending that people whose immune systems are compromised moderately to severely should receive an additional dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine after the initial two doses. The CDC said that people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised make up about 3 percent of the adult population and are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 because they are more at risk of serious, prolonged illness.

Walgreens and CVS have begun giving third shots.ABC News reportedthat CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens have started administering COVID-19 booster shots for those with weakened immune systems. Those who qualify canschedule appointments on the CVS website.Walgreens saidthat same-day appointments will be available on a walk-in basis.

Biden is developing a plan to offer boosters for the elderly in the fall.The New York Timeshas learned拜登政府发展计划to start offering booster shots to some Americans as early as this fall, even as researchers continue to hotly debate whether extra shots are needed. The first boosters are expected to go to nursing home residents and healthcare workers, followed by other older people who were near the front of the line when vaccinations began last year.

National News

The CDC declared vaccines safe for those who are pregnant.TheCDC released new data on Wednesday证明Covid-19疫苗在孕妇中是安全的。CDC主任Rochelle Walensky，MD，MPH表示：“ CDC鼓励所有孕妇或正在考虑怀孕的人，而母乳喂养的人会接种疫苗以保护自己免受COVID-19的侵害。”“这些疫苗是安全有效的，当我们面对高度可传播的三角洲变体并在未接种疫苗的孕妇中看到Covid-19的严重结果，因此增加疫苗接种从未更加紧迫。”

The latestCDC analysisdid not find an increased risk of miscarriage among nearly 2,500 pregnant women who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine before 20 weeks of pregnancy. A previous study fromthree safety monitoring systemsdid not find any safety concerns for pregnant people who were vaccinated late in pregnancy or for their babies.

A father of a 1-year-old hospitalized with COVID-19 is pleading for others to get vaccinated.Asposted on Twitter, Kyle Butrum, an Arkansas father of a 1-year-old hospitalized due to COVID-19, made an emotional plea on CNN for people to get vaccinated, so other babies don’t suffer like his son. “I hate to be so blunt about it, but there's nothing you can do to help me.” he said. “The only thing you can do to help me is help the next person.”

"Get your vaccine... so another father doesn't have to stand at the back of an ambulance and wonder if that's the last time you're going to see your son."

An emotional plea from Kyle Butrum, whose 1-year-old son Carter is hospitalized with covid in Arkansaspic.twitter.com/ihgvbpdmqw
— Alli Hedges Maser (@AllisonLHedges)August 13, 2021

State Update

Three Florida educators died of COVID-19 in 24 hours.Local union officials in Broward County, Florida,told NPR on Sundaythat three educators have died of complications from the coronavirus, with less than a week to go before schools reopen. None were vaccinated.

Florida and Texas schools are defying bans on mask mandates.Reuters last weeksaid that school districts in Florida and Texas are pushing back against their Republican governors' bans on requiring masks for children and teachers as coronavirus cases soar in conservative areas with low vaccination rates. Broward County in Florida became the first major school district to flout Governor Ron DeSantis’s order outlawing mask requirements. Dallas Independent School District this week also it would require masks despite Governor Greg Abbott forbidding such measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

About 7 in 10 Florida hospitals are nearing staffing shortage.Naples Daily Newsshared detailsfrom a Florida Hospital Association survey showing that 68 percent of Florida hospitals expect to reach a critical staffing shortage by next week.

Better vaccination rates could have saved 4,700 lives in Florida and Texas.Astudy released by the Commonwealth Fund on Thursdayshowed that Florida and Texas could have averted more than 70,000 hospitalizations and 4,700 deaths by the end of July if the states had had reached vaccination coverage of 74 percent. By the end of July, Florida and Texas had fully vaccinated only 59.3 percent and 55.6 percent of their adult residents, respectively.

Around the World

Deaths in Russia topped 800 for a fourth day.For the fourth day in a row, daily coronavirus deaths in Russia have surpassed 800,according to Radio Free Europe. New confirmed cases in Russia soared from around 9,000 a day in early June to 25,000 a day in mid-July.

Poland sent one million vaccine doses to Australia.Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Sunday that Poland had sent one million COVID-19 vaccines to Sydney, where the delta variant continues to spread,according to the Associated Press. Australia bought the vaccines after weeks of negotiations between Morrison and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki.

Heavily vaccinated Iceland is seeing a surge in mostly mild cases.Aninvestigation by theWashington Poston Sundayrevealed that Iceland is currently seeing a surge in coronavirus cases despite nearly 71 percent of its population being fully inoculated. Although about 1,300 people are currently infected, only 2 percent are hospitalized. Pall Matthiasson, PhD, chief executive of the country’s largest hospital, said that without vaccinations, the latest outbreak in Iceland would be “catastrophic.”

Israel has extended booster shots to those 50 and up.Israel has lowered the age at which its residents are eligible for a third coronavirus vaccine dose from 60 to 50. TheTimes of Israelsaidthat Prime Minister Naftali Bennett called the move “the right decision for the health of Israeli citizens” and “an important step in the fight against the delta [variant] pandemic.” Bennett would like to see the booster given to even younger populations — he has been putting significant pressure on health officials and cabinet members to authorize an additional shot for those over 40.

Vaccine and Research News

Wildfires appear to heighten COVID-19 risk.Astudy published inScience Advances在周五建议成千上万COVID-19病例和deaths in California, Oregon, and Washington between March and December 2020 may be linked to increases in fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) from wildfire smoke. Scientists from Harvard University and Environmental Systems Research Institute in Redlands, California, estimated the association between daily changes in levels of PM2.5 and the percentage increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths for the counties in the western United States that were affected by the 2020 wildfires. “We found strong evidence of a positive associations between daily increases in PM2.5 and increased risks of COVID-19 cases and deaths, cumulatively up to four weeks,” concluded the authors.

One in 10 got COVID-19 in hospital.Aresearch letter published inThe Lanceton August 12found that more than 1 in 10 patients at 314 hospitals in the United Kingdom acquired aCOVID-19 infectionfrom the hospital early in the pandemic. The investigators estimated that between 5,699 and 11,862 patients admitted in the first wave were infected during their hospital stay. Ina press release, study author Chris Green, MBBS, at the University of Birmingham, suggested that the hospital infections might be attributed to “limited facilities for case isolation, limited access to rapid and reliable diagnostic testing in the early stages of the outbreak, the challenges around access to and best use of PPE, our understanding of when patients are most infectious in their illness, some misclassification of cases due to presentation with atypical symptoms, and an underappreciation of the role of airborne transmission.”