WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will require essential, nonresident travelers crossing U.S. land borders, such as truck drivers, government and emergency response officials, to be fully vaccinated beginning on Jan. 22, the administration planned to announce. A senior administration official said the requirement, which the White House previewed in October, brings the rules for essential travelers in line with those that took effect earlier this month for leisure travelers, when the U.S. reopened its borders to fully vaccinated individuals. Essential travelers entering by ferry will also be required to be fully vaccinated by the same date, the official said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to preview the announcement. The rules pertain to non-U.S. nationals. American citizens and permanent residents may still enter the U.S. regardless of their vaccination status, but face additional testing hurdles because officials believe they more easily contract and spread COVID-19 and in order to encourage them to get a shot.
NEW YORK, Nov 23 (Reuters) – Top U.S. infectious disease official Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday the vast majority of Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should receive a booster shot, and that an additional dose could eventually become the country’s standard for determining who is fully vaccinated. Fauci and other disease experts have said they expect that COVID-19 will transition this spring from a pandemic phase in the United States to an endemic disease, meaning that the virus will continue to circulate at a lower level, causing smaller, less disruptive but still significant outbreaks in the coming years. But some are expressing new concern over a rise in U.S. infections in recent weeks, a trend that is likely to accelerate as more Americans travel and gather for U.S. Thanksgiving this week and other upcoming holidays. “We’d like to get as many people who were originally vaccinated with the first regimen boosted,” Fauci said in an interview for the upcoming Reuters Next conference. Asked to quantify, he said, the “overwhelming majority” of Americans who have been fully vaccinated should now receive a COVID-19 booster shot based on data showing they provide “substantial” protection beyond what is seen from the original inoculation. To date, about 33 million Americans have received a booster dose. The government recently expanded eligibility for an additional shot to all U.S. adults. Studies from Israel and other countries have shown that vaccine protection wanes over time. While data first suggested that was mostly a problem in the elderly, there is newer evidence that it occurs among all age groups, Fauci said. “That’s the reason why we’re very keen on getting as many people who are originally vaccinated to get a booster … because they really do work,” he said. As experience with COVID-19 vaccines grows, it is conceivable that the definition of a “full and complete regimen” in the United States would comprise three doses of the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech and Moderna (MRNA.O) and two doses of the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) vaccine, he said, similar to what some other countries have done. Continue reading “Fauci says vast majority of vaccinated Americans should get a COVID-19 booster”
Throughout the COVID pandemic, what has been missing from our medical tool kit is an easy-to-take treatment that keeps people out of the hospital. Yet, within the next few weeks, we will have two new antivirals: Merck’s molnupiravir and Pfizer’s Paxlovid. As part of the unimaginable speed that has characterized the medical countermeasure response to COVID, the advent of two highly effective treatments for COVID is nothing short of game-changing. But given that nearly 30 percent of adults are not fully vaccinated against COVID, it is natural to wonder if having these highly effective oral drugs will diminish the value or role of COVID vaccines in our response. There is a real fear being voiced by public health practitioners that if highly effective treatments stand at the ready, people who have so far shunned the vaccine will likely never get vaccinated. That they will get COVID is likely inevitable, prolonging the pandemic, continuing to endanger high-risk individuals, and further taxing our hospitals and their staff. Continue reading “Covid Antivirals Don’t Replace Vaccines: Johns Hopkins’ Adalja”
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Netherlands started transporting COVID-19 patients across the border to Germany on Tuesday to ease pressure on Dutch hospitals, which are scaling back regular care to deal with a surge in coronavirus cases. The number of COVID-19 patients in Dutch hospitals has swelled to its highest level since May in recent weeks and is expected to increase further as infections jump to record levels. As of Monday, 470 of a total 1,050 intensive care beds in the Netherlands were being used for COVID-19 patients. Hospitals were already scaling back other procedures including cancer treatments and heart operations https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/facing-new-covid-wave-dutch-delay-care-cancer-heart-patients-2021-11-19, to make room. The Dutch health authority (NZA) on Tuesday said almost a third of all operating theatres in the Netherlands had been closed to limit the use of intensive care beds. Deadlines for critical operations can’t be met in about a fifth of all Dutch hospitals, the NZA said, while various types of care had been scrapped in 49 of the country’s 73 hospitals. German hospitals in total have offered 20 beds for patients from the Netherlands, after treating dozens during previous waves of the pandemic. Plans by the Dutch government to impose further curbs to contain the virus prompted three nights of rioting https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/dutch-pm-lashes-out-idiots-after-third-night-violence-2021-11-22 starting on Friday and more than 170 arrests in cities cross the country. Plans include limiting access to many public places to people who have been vaccinated or have recently recovered from COVID-19. It remains unclear whether the government will find a majority to enact the rules into law.
BERLIN (Reuters) – Health Minister Jens Spahn called on Tuesday for further restrictions as Germany’s rate of coronavirus infections hit a record high and more politicians backed compulsory vaccinations. The seven-day incidence rate jumped to 399.8 per 100,000 people on Tuesday, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed, the 16th straight day it has hit a record level. As the number of COVID-19 deaths in Germany nears 100,000, the United States advised on Monday against travel there. Spahn said more public spaces should be restricted to those who were vaccinated or recently recovered from COVID-19 and also had a negative test. “We are having to move patients around as intensive care units are full and that doesn’t just affect COVID-19 patients,” he told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio. On Monday, Spahn said that by the end of the winter almost everyone in Germany would be “vaccinated, recovered or dead”. Continue reading “Germany considers more COVID-19 curbs, compulsory vaccines as cases soar”
The number of coronavirus cases in France rose by 19,749 in the last 24 hours, marking a 56% jump compared to the prior week’s figure, according to the data published on Sunday by the country’s health authorities. During the same period, there were 15 additional deaths attributed to the virus. France’s President Emmanuel Macron previously assured that a lockdown in the country will not be necessary due to the successful use of COVID passes
Germany’s COVID-19 incidence jumps to 372.7
Germany’s COVID-19 incidence rate reached a new record high on Sunday, according to data published by the Robert Koch Institute. The seven-day average of cases per 100,000 people jumped to 372.7 from the previous record high of 362.2. The number of infections in a 24-hour period fell to 42,727 since Saturday. Since the start of the pandemic, Germany has seen 5,354,942 coronavirus cases. There have been 75 deaths since the previous daily update, a significant drop compared to 248 on Saturday. The death toll now stands at 99,062.
Italy reports 49 coronavirus deaths, 11,555 new cases
ROME, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Italy reported 49 coronavirus-related deaths on Saturday against 48 the day before, the health ministry said, while the daily tally of new infections rose to 11,555 from 10,544.
(CNN)Europe is facing a potentially devastating winter that could see half a million people die with Covid-19, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Thursday, as it sounded the alarm over a surge in cases and bemoaned stuttering vaccination rollouts on parts of the continent. Much of Europe is battling spikes in infections, with Germany on Thursday reporting its highest number of daily new cases since the pandemic began. And in a dire new warning, WHO regional director Hans Kluge said the pace of transmission across the region was of “grave concern.” “We are, once again, at the epicenter,” Kluge said in a statement. “According to one reliable projection, if we stay on this trajectory, we could see another half a million COVID-19 deaths in Europe and Central Asia by the first of February next year,” he warned, adding that 43 of the 53 countries on his patch could also see high or extreme stress on hospital beds. Large swathes of the continent are battling to beat back surges of the Delta variant, which has complicated the relaxing of restrictions in many countries. Eastern Europe is particularly badly hit; cases are at record levels in Russia and now Germany, while Ukraine’s capital Kiev introduced strict new restrictions on Monday. Germany is experiencing a ‘massive’ pandemic of the unvaccinated, says health minister Many experts have expressed concern that further rises in infections, coupled with seasonal winter colds, could place health care workers under unmanageable pressure through Christmas and in the New Year. In its latest weekly update, WHO said Europe recorded a 6% rise in cases on the previous week. That was the highest of any global region, with every other region registering “declines or stable trends.” “We are at another critical point of pandemic resurgence,” Kluge said. He blamed two factors for the new wave; the relaxation of Covid-19 measures, and a lack of vaccination coverage in the Balkans and towards the east of the continent. “Hospitalization rates in countries with low vaccine uptake are markedly higher and rising more quickly than in those with higher uptake,” he said. Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn on Wednesday warned that stricter measures are needed for those who refuse to get vaccinated. Spahn also told reporters at a press conference on Thursday that he was asked for his vaccination certificate in Rome during the G20 more often in one day than in Germany in four weeks. He was responding to a dramatic rise in infections in the country; 33,949 new cases were registered on Thursday, breaking the previous record set in December 2020. Hospitalizations and deaths remain far lower than they were in that pre-vaccine peak. Spahn said Germany was experiencing a “massive” pandemic of the unvaccinated, adding: “The truth is that there would be far fewer Covid-19 patients in [intensive care] if everyone who could do it got a vaccination.”
The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines for all adults six months after having been fully vaccinated with the shots from either Pfizer and partner BioNTech or Moderna. The agency’s decision authorizes booster doses for all US adults. It had previously allowed the additional shot for all recipients of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine. The move paves the way for millions of Americans to get additional protection and is also aimed at fighting the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which has driven breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated who can then transmit the virus. After about two months of declining infections, the United States has reported daily increases for the past two weeks, driven by the Delta variant and people spending more time indoors due to colder weather. The nation’s top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said this week boosters can help reduce that spread. The FDA said its decision was supported by data showing that a third round of shots increased the immune response to the virus in studies of both the Moderna and the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. About 31 million Americans have already received boosters, which had been approved for people in several categories in the United States. Some states in recent days had opened them to all adults ahead of FDA authorization, creating a patchwork of eligibility.
Nov 19 (Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that has yet to be certified by peer review. Breakthrough COVID-19 raises risk of health problems, death COVID-19 is generally less severe in vaccinated patients but that does not mean breakthrough infections will be benign, a large study shows. Researchers analyzed data collected by the U.S. Veterans Affairs Administration from 16,035 survivors of breakthrough infections, 48,536 unvaccinated COVID-19 survivors and nearly 3.6 million uninfected people. At six months after infection, after taking their risk factors into account, people with breakthrough infections had lower rates of death and long-term lingering health problems than COVID-19 patients who had not been vaccinated. But compared to people who never had COVID-19, those who had breakthrough infections had a 53% higher risk of death and a 59% higher risk of having at least one new medical condition, particularly problems affecting the lungs and other organs. Even when breakthrough infections did not require hospitalization, the increased risks of death and lasting effects were “not trivial,” the research team reported on Monday on Research Square https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1062160/v1 ahead of peer review. “The overall burden of death and disease following breakthrough COVID-19 will likely be substantial,” the researchers conclude. Vaccine passports would allow infections to be missed “Vaccine passports” that exempt vaccinated people from regular COVID-19 testing would allow many infections to be missed, Israeli data suggest. Researchers analyzed infection rates in citizens returning to Israel through Ben-Gurion airport, for whom PCR tests upon arrival are required regardless of vaccination status. “Surprisingly,” in August 2021, the rate of positive tests among vaccinated travelers was more than double the rate among the unvaccinated, said Retsef Levi of the MIT Sloan School of Management, coauthor of a report posted on the SSRN server https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3963606 ahead of peer review. Travelers who had received the second dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine within the past six months or who had received a booster dose were considered vaccinated. The group considered to be unvaccinated included the never-vaccinated and those whose most recent shot was more than six months prior, given evidence of waning vaccine efficacy by then. In September, when the Israeli government was recommending booster shots for all adults, the positive-test rate dropped among vaccinated travelers and was about 3.5 times lower with vaccination than without. By October, the positive-test rate in the vaccinated group, while still lower, had started to climb again, Levi said. The data suggest that limiting frequent COVID-19 testing to unvaccinated people would “pose potential risks by reinforcing the misrepresentation that vaccinated individuals are protected from infections.” Masks, social distancing still worthwhile Mask wearing and physical distancing are tied to reductions in the spread of COVID-19 and should be continued, according to researchers who reviewed 72 previous studies. When they analyzed results from eight of the studies in detail, they saw a 53% reduction in the incidence of COVID-19 with mask wearing and a 25% reduction with physical distancing. There is not yet enough data to confirm the overall benefits of more stringent measures such as lockdowns, school and workplace closures, and border closures, the researchers reported on Thursday in The BMJ https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj-2021-068302. Very few of the studies analyzed were randomized trials, so they cannot prove the interventions directly reduced infection rates. Still, the researchers conclude, “It is likely that further control of the COVID-19 pandemic depends not only on high vaccination coverage and its effectiveness but also on ongoing adherence to effective and sustainable public health measures.”