Month: August 2021

The COVID-19 delta variant surging through the United States could peak later this month, but experts say projections are difficult and much will depend on an unpredictable factor: human behavior. The U.S. is expected to endure a rough next few weeks no matter what. The seven-day average for COVID-19 has risen in recent weeks to 85,866 cases per day as of Monday, the highest point since Valentine’s Day, according to data from The New York Times. The boost in cases per day is higher than last summer’s peak of almost 67,000 cases but much lower than the winter highpoint of nearly 260,000. A lot of what happens in the next few weeks will depend on the population, which Nicholas Reich, an associate professor of biostatistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, noted is “r...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - As the number of new COVID cases soars to record levels and hospital bed space dwindles, every Hawaii mayor is now looking at making vaccines mandatory for county workers in a bid to drive down infections and prevent the virus from mutating into something worse. Potential policy changes would apply to nearly 13,000 workers statewide. The talks come as mandatory vaccinations for government workers is catching on across the country. In addition to ensuring first responders and service workers are better protected, officials say vaccine requirements are an efficient way to get a larger percentage of the population vaccinated. “No one is supportive of a lockdown. Shutting down the economy again. Restricting travel,” said Healthcare Association of Hawaii CEO Hilton ...

<!-- --> Despite the losses, current vaccines continue to give a relatively high degree of protection. Vaccines targeting the highly transmissible delta variant may now be needed, given its ability to infect people with fading immunity and potentially increased severity, researchers leading a large English study of Covid shots said. A third wave of English cases has been driven by the delta strain among both unvaccinated people -- especially those aged 12 to 24 -- as well as some people who had received Covid shots, according to authors of a study of samples from about 98,000 people in England. The effectiveness of vaccines at stopping infection during the study period fell to 49%, the researchers estimated, down from 64% in a month earlier. Vaccines' protection against developm...

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