Month: August 2021

By Brad Brooks NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Doctors in Louisiana have been through it before: the exhaustion, the grief, and the overflowing intensive care units. But this new surge of COVID-19 cases driven by the Delta variant is different, not least because it did not have to be. “Where we are now was preventable, and that’s what is so hard for my colleagues in hospitals to stomach,” said Rebekah Gee, who until last year was the health secretary for Louisiana and now heads Louisiana State University’s healthcare services division. “It’s very frustrating and unfair for doctors to see preventable suffering.” The national vaccination campaign that began in the past year offered a new weapon against the novel coronavirus besides masks and social distancing. Health experts say shots can prevent ...

Sacramento County health officials say they are encouraged by an increase in people getting vaccinated and a related boost in vaccine orders by providers lately. There was about a 41% increase in initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines that were administered in the county for the week of July 18 to 24 when compared with the July 4 to 10 period, Sacramento County immunization program manager Rachel Allen said in a virtual update on Thursday. “Definitely encouraging to see that,” she said.Allen called for more people on the fence to get vaccinated to avoid the possibility that other variants could emerge.She also released statistics for July on hospitalizations and the numbers of breakthrough COVID-19 cases.About 16% of total COVID-19 cases (8,905) were breakthrough cases of people who wer...

MADISON, Wis. (WBAY) - For the first time since early February, Wisconsin is averaging 1,000 new coronavirus cases every day, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Service’s 7-day average. That rolling average is up from 902 the day before. The state says the latest test results confirmed 1,573 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19. The percentage of tests coming back positive in the last week jumped to a 7.6% positivity rate. An update from the state says the positivity rate a day earlier was 7.8%, the highest positivity rate since mid-January when cases were on a decline. The state says this rolling average should be considered preliminary. As we reported Wednesday, the Department of Health Services (DHS) said the transmission of COVID-19 is high in 71 out of 72 counties...

A new study has found that individuals that have previously contracted COVID-19 show a more potent antibody response than those who were solely vaccinated for the respiratory virus. Conducted by a research team at Rockefeller University in New York, the analysis found “that between a first (prime) and second (booster) shot of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, the memory B cells of infection-naïve individuals produced antibodies that evolved increased neutralizing activity against SARS-CoV-2,” but also that “no additional increase in the potency or breadth of this activity was observed thereafter.” Meanwhile, researchers determined that not only do recovered COVID-19 patients possess neutralizing antibodies up to a year after infection, but that such infection simultaneo...