Month: July 2021

Mississippi's top health official said hospitalizations are "skyrocketing" as the number of COVID-19 cases rise.The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 1,908 new COVID-19 cases and four additional deaths. Dr. Thomas Dobbs said the number of hospitalizations and patients in the ICU are increasing, and the hospitalized patients are younger compared to last year at this time.Mississippi health leaders said during a media briefing Wednesday that hospitals in some areas of the state are struggling to keep up with the demands of the latest surge of COVID-19 patients. As of Thursday, when hospital beds become full, patients will be rotated to other hospitals in the state, according to Jim Craig, state director of health protection.Doctor Mark Horne said the hospital systems were...

There are 18 million unvaccinated people in California, according to the state’s vaccination dashboard. State health officials say it’s those residents who are driving the new surge in Covid-19 cases across the state. On Wednesday, the California Department of Public Health released figures showing, in early July, case rates among unvaccinated residents were 600% higher than those among the vaccinated. What’s more, more than 90% of the patients hospitalized with Covid in the state are unvaccinated. On July 4, the 7-day average number of cases per 100,000 was 4.6. On Wednesday, that number had risen to 12.7. Just 24 hours later, it had pushed to 14.2. The rise is being driven by the Delta variant spreading among unvaccinated. For the week of July 14-20, the average case rate amo...

Who could’ve seen that coming? Humboldt County Administrative Office press release:  With the emergence of the more contagious Delta variant in California, which rapidly increased to over 80% of cases in California in the past weeks, the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are rising again throughout the state. This is especially true amongst those that remain unvaccinated. Despite ongoing outreach and improving COVID-19 vaccine access, as of late July, a significant proportion of Humboldt County residents are not yet fully vaccinated. It is with all this in mind that universal masking in indoor public settings is now recommended again by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), California Department of Public Health (CDPH) and Humboldt County Public Health. Univ...

The same ticks that spread Lyme disease can also spread anaplasmosis. Above, a deer tick seen under a microscope.Photo: Victoria Arocho (AP) An emerging disease spread by ticks is becoming a substantial public health threat in New York State, researchers warn in a new study out this month. The study found that human cases of anaplasmosis have dramatically increased in the state over the past decade, and ticks are found to be carrying the bacteria responsible for it more frequently. Anaplasmosis is caused by the bacteria Anaplasma phagocytophilum, which needs to invade white blood cells to survive. It’s spread by the same two species of tick known to carry Lyme disease in the U.S., the blacklegged or deer tick (Ixodes scapularis) in the East and the western blacklegged tick (Ixodes pac...