Day: August 17, 2021

AUSTIN, TEXAS – Texas Governor Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to his office, who said the Republican is in good health and experiencing no symptoms.

Abbott, who was vaccinated in December and has refused calls to reinstate mask mandates as the highly contagious delta variant surges in Texas, was isolating in the governor’s mansion in Austin and receiving monoclonal antibody treatment, spokesman Mark Miner said in a statement. He is at least the 11th governor to test positive for the virus since the pandemic began, according to a tally by The Associated Press.

“Governor Abbott is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in good health, and currently experiencing no symptoms. Everyone that the governor has been in close contact with today has been notified,” Miner said.

The positive test comes a day after Abbott, who has seldom been seen wearing a mask in public recently, did not wear one while speaking indoors near Dallas to a crowded room of GOP supporters, most of whom were older and unmasked. Video posted by his campaign shows the 63-year-old governor — who is up for reelection in 2022 and has drawn two GOP challengers who have attacked the virus restrictions he put in place last year — mingling with attendees as they gathered around him taking pictures.

“Another standing room only event in Collin County tonight,” Abbott tweeted.

The event was held by a group called the Republican Club at Heritage Ranch. Reached by phone Tuesday after Abbott announced he had tested positive, Jack DeSimone, president of the club, said he did not like “to have conversations like this” and declined to comment further on Abbott’s appearance.

Abbott had also posted a picture of himself with the guitarist Jimmie Vaughan earlier Tuesday before news of his positive test. Vaughan and his family have tested negative, according to a statement from the musician.

Abbott has rebuffed calls to reimpose pandemic restrictions, including mask mandates, as cases in Texas are again soaring, hospitals are stretched thin and a growing number of school districts defy his orders that prohibit face covering requirements in classrooms. Abbott and Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton are now in court fighting what amounts to many of Texas’ largest school districts, which began classes this week.

More than 12,200 patients in Texas were hospitalized with the virus as of Tuesday, the highest levels since January, and state health officials said this week they had requested five morgue trailers from the federal government as a precaution. But as cases have sharply climbed, Abbott has stuck to a message that the path forward “relies on personal responsibility.”

 

By Tuesday, at least four Texas school districts had already temporarily closed because of virus outbreaks just days into students returning to class. And in a sign of tensions as schools defy Abbott’s orders, the superintendent of the Eanes school district near Austin said one parent “physically assaulted” one teacher by ripping a mask off her face.

Democrat Rafael Anchia, a state representative from Dallas, said he wished the governor a speedy recovery and was “praying this sign will cause him to rescind the order stopping schools from requiring masks.”

Miner said the governor’s address to the group was his only public event this week. He said Abbott tested negative Monday and that no one else on staff has tested positive.

Abbott’s wife, Cecilia Abbott, tested negative. The governor had been getting tested daily, Miner said.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

 

U.S. news outlets say the Biden administration will begin urging all Americans who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to get an additional shot. The added dose is intended to offer more protection against the highly contagious delta variant that has led to a wave of new infections.

Federal health officials are expected to announce sometime this week that Americans should get the extra shot, commonly known as a booster, eight months after their initial inoculation. Most Americans received either the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, while others were given the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

Officials had been rejecting calls to authorize booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines saying data suggested that people are still protected from the virus, including the delta variant. But new studies out of Israel show the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness had significantly decreased among elderly people who were inoculated at the beginning of this year. The data prompted Israel to begin administering booster shots to people 50 years or older.

The booster shots will likely begin sometime in September after the Food and Drug Administration approves Pfizer’s request to use the vaccine for a third dose. The first to receive the booster will be health care workers, nursing home residents and other elderly people — the same groups that received the first shots in the U.S.

CNN says experts anticipate the policy will be extended to those who received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, once they have more data.

Both the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control last week recommended a third shot of Pfizer or Moderna for some people with weakened immune systems.

The World Health Organization recently called for a worldwide moratorium on COVID-19 vaccine booster shots until at least the end of September, to allow low-income nations to get more initial vaccination doses.

 

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that lower income nations have vaccinated at a rate of about 1.5 doses per 100 people, while wealthy nations are vaccinating at a rate of nearly 100 per 100 people.

New vaccine requirements in New York City, New York state and Washington, DC 

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that all visitors and employees of museums and other cultural institutions will be required to have received at least one shot of a coronavirus vaccine.  The new mandate, which takes effect Thursday, is an expansion of Mayor de Blasio’s “Key to NYC” program that imposes a similar mandate for patrons of bars, restaurants, gyms and other indoor venues.

 

Also on Monday, New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered all health care workers in the state, including those at nursing homes and adult care facilities, to get at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by September 27.  A similar directive issued Monday by health authorities in Washington D.C. sets a deadline of September 30.

NFL has first team to reach 100% vaccination rate 

The National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons said Monday that all of its players are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, becoming the first NFL team with a 100 percent vaccination rate.  The NFL announced last week that if any games were cancelled due to coronavirus outbreaks among unvaccinated players during the upcoming season, the team with the outbreak will forfeit the game and be credited with a loss, and would also result in a loss of pay for players on both teams.

The NFL furiously scrambled to make up several games that were cancelled due to COVID-19 outbreaks on several teams during last year’s 17-week schedule.

Tennessee latest US state to take action against local mask mandates 

In the southeast U.S. state of Tennessee, Governor Bill Lee signed an executive order Monday that gives parents of public school children permission not to follow mandatory mask requirements issued by local school boards in the state.  Lee joins other  governors across the United States, including Florida and Texas, who have taken steps to either blunt, revoke or prevent such orders issued by local school officials, despite the new surge of COVID-19 infections due to the delta variant, especially among young children.

New lockdown in New Zealand  

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Tuesday that the entire nation was entering a strict lockdown after a 58-year-old man became the first person to test positive for COVID-19 since February.

The case was reported in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city.

The nationwide lockdown will take effect Wednesday and last for three days, while Auckland and the coastal town of Coromandel, where the infected man also visited, will be shut down for a full week.  Prime Minister Ardern said authorities are assuming the man was infected with the delta variant, but will not be able to confirm it until Wednesday.

Ardern said it was necessary to “go hard” with the strict lockdown in order to prevent a widespread outbreak.  New Zealand has been praised for imposing a strict lockdown in the early days of the pandemic that has led to just 2,927 confirmed infections and just 26 deaths among its five million citizens.

CDC designates four new destinations as ‘High-risk’ for COVID-19 

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Monday added four new destinations to its highest risk level of its COVID-19 travel advisory list.

Turkey, Montenegro, the Caribbean island of Dominica and the British-controlled island of Jersey have been designated as Level 4, which signifies a “very high” risk of contracting COVID-19.  The CDC says people should avoid travel to these destinations, and advises that anyone who must travel to these spots needs to be fully vaccinated.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

PARIS – Like many countries, France is seeing its COVID-19 cases rise — and nowhere as sharply as its overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Low vaccination rates, fueled by suspicion of Paris, help explain the exploding pandemic in the Caribbean islands.

Health workers from mainland France are arriving to the two Caribbean islands to help their overwhelmed colleagues deal with record COVID-19 cases.

Hardest hit is Guadeloupe, where one in four people now tests positive for the disease caused by coronavirus—a number that doubled in a week. The situation is also alarming in Martinique. Hospitals are overflowing. Doctors say some basic medical equipment — like instruments to measure oxygen levels — are in short supply.

The two islands are now under strict lockdown, with all but essential services open. But that hasn’t stopped some residents from heading to beaches—although they’re not supposed to.

“People respect distancing and the beach isn’t crowded,” this beachgoer told French TV explaining her presence.

Islanders are joining protests like those taking place in mainland France against COVID-19 vaccines and a new health pass required to access places like restaurants and movie theaters.

 

As nurse protesting in Martinique told French radio that she will never get vaccinated — there are other ways, she said, to prevent COVID-19.

But those sentiments are not shared by the majority of French, especially on the mainland. Polls show most support the health pass. More than half are fully vaccinate — compared to about one in five in Guadeloupe and Martinique.

 

Visiting Martinique last week, Health Minister Olivier Veran urged residents to get vaccinated. Coming out of a hospital there, he noted many of the patients in intensive care were very young and were previously healthy. Now, they’re hooked up to ventilators.

But it’s a hard sell.

Suspicion of the French state is high — partly experts say, because of France’s colonial past and old health scandals… like a hazardous pesticide used on the islands’ banana plantations long after it was banned elsewhere. Critics also fault Paris for neglecting the islands’ health infrastructure. So multiple misgivings are surfacing now…along with COVID-19.

 

 

Source: Voice of America