Tag Archives: Delta variant

Missouri attorney general sues school districts that mandate masks

(Reuters) – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against school districts in his state that have required masks for students and teachers, calling the practice in a statement “arbitrary and capricious.”

The lawsuit filed in Boone County Circuit Court named Columbia Public Schools, its school board and its superintendent as defendants but also includes other schools that have issued such mandates.

Columbia’s school district, with about 19,000 pupils in the center of the Midwestern state, issued a mask mandate this month for all students, teachers and staff to protect against a surge in COVID-19 cases.

“We filed this suit today because we fundamentally don’t believe in forced masking, rather that parents and families should have the power to make decisions on masks, based on science and facts,” Schmitt said in a statement.

The lawsuit asked the court to rule the mask mandate is unlawful and to block the district from carrying it out.

The lawsuit is one of several court battles being waged in the United States over masking and COVID vaccinations as educators, parents and lawmakers grapple with another coronavirus surge just as students head back to the classroom.

In Florida, the state Board of Education on Friday ordered two school districts to provide parents with a way to opt out of a requirement that their children wear masks or face having some of their state funding withheld. On Tuesday, the Broward County School Board, which oversees a system of 261,000 students, said it rejected the order.

Columbia Public Schools officials were not available for comment on Tuesday. On Aug. 13, when the district announced the masking requirement, it cited a high rate of transmission of the Delta variant in the community.

“We know not everyone will agree with this decision,” the district said in a statement. “This decision is not a forever decision, but it is a decision that is currently necessary.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)

Oil up 3% on stronger demand outlook; Mexican oil rig outage

By Jessica Resnick-Ault

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Oil prices rose 3% on Tuesday, extending sharp gains on a bullish demand outlook after U.S. regulators issued their first full approval for a COVID-19 vaccine and Mexico suffered a large production outage due to a fire on an oil platform.

Brent crude oil futures were up $2.25, or 3.3%, at $71.00 a barrel by 2:20 p.m. ET (1720 GMT) while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) gained $1.92, or 2.9%, to $67.56.

Last week, both benchmarks notched their biggest weekly losses in more than nine months. On Monday, both jumped more than 5%, boosted by a weaker dollar.

A resurgent pandemic has fueled health system concerns; however, “economically harmful containment measures seem rather unlikely,” said Julius Baer analyst Norbert Rucker, citing the effectiveness of vaccines.

On Monday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued full approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech two-dose vaccine, having authorized it for emergency use last December. Officials hope to convince unvaccinated Americans the shot is safe and effective.

Analysts said China’s apparent success in fighting the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus also boosted demand sentiment, with no cases of locally transmitted infections in the latest data.

“Concerns are easing that we will not see a global shutdown due to the Delta variant,” said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.

Also supporting oil prices was a fire on an oil platform off Mexico on Sunday that has cut state-run Pemex’s oil production by about 25% since then. Five workers died and the fire halted 421,000 barrels per day of production.

Prices of heavy sour crude oil grades are rising on the U.S. Gulf Coast, traders said, as the market braces for a disruption of supplies from Mexico.

“The market is getting a tailwind from the PEMEX fire, which has greenlighted this rally,” said Bob Yawger, director of energy futures at Mizuho in New York.

Still, Yawger cautioned that the market could reverse course if U.S. government data on Wednesday shows gasoline inventories increased. Analysts polled by Reuters expect gasoline inventories to fall, but Yawger expects a gain, which could signal a demand lull.

Data from trade group the American Petroleum Institute is expected Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. ET (2030 GMT), with official data from the Energy Information Administration released on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. ET (1430 GMT).

The U.S. Department of Energy on Monday said it would sell up to 20 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) oil stocks to comply with legislation, with deliveries to take place between Oct. 1 and Dec. 15.

Meanwhile, Indian refiners’ crude throughput in July bounced to its highest in three months as fuel demand rebounded and buoyed prices.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Jaganathan in Singapore and Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Editing by John Stonestreet, David Goodman, David Gregorio and Jonathan Oatis)

U.S. data show rising ‘breakthrough’ infections among fully vaccinated

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Some 25% of SARS-CoV-2 infections among Los Angeles County residents occurred in fully vaccinated residents from May through July 25, a period that includes the impact of the highly transmissible Delta variant, U.S. officials reported on Tuesday.

The data, published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease, shows an increase in so-called “breakthrough” infections among fully vaccinated individuals.

The CDC is relying on data from cohorts, such as the Los Angeles County study, to determine whether Americans need a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines to increase protection. Government scientists last week laid out a strategy for booster doses beginning on Sept. 20, pending reviews from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC.

The new data released on Tuesday involved more than 43,000 reported infections among Los Angeles County residents aged 16 and older. Of them, 10,895, or 25.3%, occurred in fully vaccinated persons, 1,431, or 3.3%, were in partially vaccinated persons, and 30,801, or 71.4%, were in unvaccinated individuals.

The vaccines did, however, protect individuals from more severe cases. According to the study, 3.2% of fully vaccinated individuals who were infected with the virus were hospitalized, just 0.05% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 0.25% were placed on a ventilator.

Among the unvaccinated who fell ill, 7.5% were hospitalized, 1.5% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 0.5% required breathing support with a mechanical ventilator.

In addition to the LA County data, the CDC on Tuesday released an update on the HEROES cohort study among healthcare workers that showed a significant drop in vaccine effectiveness among vaccinated frontline workers in eight states who became infected with the coronavirus.

Vaccine efficacy during the period of the study when Delta was predominant fell to 66% from 91% prior to the arrival of the Delta variant, according to the report.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Editing by Mark Porter)

Vietnam deploys troops to enforce COVID lockdown in largest city

HANOI (Reuters) -Vietnam deployed soldiers on Monday to help enforce a strict COVID lockdown in Ho Chi Minh City, its biggest urban area and current epicenter of its worst coronavirus outbreak to date.

Vietnam implemented movement restrictions in Ho Chi Minh City in early July, but announced its harshest curbs last week as infections have continued to surge. Authorities have said enforcement of recent curbs has not been sufficiently strict.

After containing COVID-19 for much of last year, Vietnam has recorded 358,456 infections and at least 8,666 fatalities. Ho Chi Minh City has recorded over 180,000 infections – half the country’s total – and 7,010 deaths, making up about 80% of the nation’s fatalities, according to the health ministry.

Most of those cases have been recorded in Ho Chi Minh City and its surrounding industrial provinces, where the Delta variant of the virus has sent numbers soaring since late April.

The government said on Friday a tighter lockdown would begin on Monday, prohibiting people from leaving their homes, even for food, and said the military would step in to help.

The announcement, later amended so that people in some areas could still shop for food, was subsequently reverted to a total ban, triggering confusion and panic-buying at supermarkets in the city over the weekend.

Witnesses said soldiers were delivering food to residents of the city on Monday and images broadcast by state media showed armed soldiers manning checkpoints and checking documents.

Vietnam has over recent weeks sent 14,600 additional doctors and nurses to the city and its neighboring provinces to support its overwhelmed medical system, the ministry said.

Patients with mild or no symptoms have been told to self isolate at home.

The government said on Friday it would send 130,000 tonnes of rice from state stockpiles to Ho Chi Minh City and 23 other cities and provinces. People in the city’s Phu Nhuan and Go Vap districts told Reuters they had received packages of rice, meat, fish and vegetables from the military.

Vietnam received two shipments of 501,600 AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses from Poland and 200,000 Sinopharm doses donation from China on Monday, the government said.

In total, the country has secured over 23 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines but just 1.8% of its 98 million people have been fully vaccinated – one of the lowest rates in the region.

(Writing by James Pearson; Editing by Ed Davies, Ana Nicolaci da Costa and Bernadette Baum)

Israel finds COVID-19 vaccine booster significantly lowers infection risk

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A third dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has significantly improved protection from infection and serious illness among people aged 60 and older in Israel compared with those who received two shots, findings published by the Health Ministry showed on Sunday.

The data were presented at a meeting of a ministry panel of vaccination experts on Thursday and uploaded to its website on Sunday, though the full details of the study were not released.

The findings were on par with separate statistics reported last week by Israel’s Maccabi healthcare provider, one of several organizations administering booster shots to try to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.

Breaking down statistics from Israel’s Gertner Institute and KI Institute, ministry officials said that among people aged 60 and over, the protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than after two doses.

A third jab for over 60-year-olds offered five to six times greater protection after 10 days with regard to serious illness and hospitalization.

That age group is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and in Israel was the first to be inoculated when the vaccine drive began in late December.

In recent weeks, the health ministry has said immunity has diminished over time for seniors and younger people as well. Most vaccinated people who fell severely ill in Israel were over 60 and with underlying health conditions.

Israel started administering third jabs to over 60-year-olds on July 30. On Thursday it dropped the age of eligibility for a booster to 40, and included pregnant women, teachers and health care workers below that age. Third doses are given only to those who received their second shot at least five months ago.

The United States has announced plans to offer booster shots to all Americans, citing data showing diminishing protection. Canada, France and Germany have announced booster campaigns.

Fighting an outbreak of the Delta variant since June, Israel presently has one of the world’s highest infection rates per capita. Close to 1.5 million people out of the country’s 9.3 million population have taken a third jab.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

NYPD orders police officers to get a jab or mask up while on duty

By Tyler Clifford and Barbara Goldberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York City’s 36,000 police officers now have a simple choice: either get vaccinated against coronavirus or wear masks at all times while on duty.

The department issued the bulletin spelling out the order earlier this week, said Sergeant Edward Riley, an NYPD spokesman. The order came in response to a lagging vaccination rate among NYPD officers at a time when the Delta variant has fueled a surge of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations across the country.

Among New York police officers, the current vaccination rate is about 47%, Riley said in an emailed response to questions from Reuters. That falls well short of the 68% rate for all adult New Yorkers who are fully vaccinated, according to city data.

“Since vaccinations became available we have encouraged our employees, especially those who have contact with the public, to get vaccinated,” Riley said, adding that the order also applies to civilian employees of the department.

All members of the force are required to wear a face covering when interacting with the public, regardless of vaccination status, the order said.

Several officers, all unmasked, were seen patrolling outside an NYPD precinct in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan just before noon on Thursday. They declined to comment to Reuters when asked for their thoughts on the order.

Two of the officers stood about a dozen feet away from a masked civilian who was airing grievances about property that was allegedly confiscated.

The NYPD bulletin said “appropriate disciplinary action will be taken for unvaccinated members found not wearing a face covering when required.” But it did not specify possible punishments.

Police unions that represent NYPD members, including the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The United States recorded more than 1,000 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, the second time in as many days the daily tally has crossed that threshold, according to data compiled by Reuters. The country last reported that many daily deaths in March.

With Wednesday’s count, the United States has averaged more than 800 deaths daily in the past seven days, a stretch not seen since April. Hospitalizations are at the highest since February.

The NYPD, which has had 59 police officers die of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, is not the only police department that is requiring vaccinations for its officers.

In Denver, Mayor Michael Hancock set a deadline of Sept. 30 for full vaccination for all city employees, including police officers. Masks are optional only for those granted a medical or religious exemption, Kelli Christensen, Denver Department of Public Safety spokeswoman, said in an email.

In the small Midwest town of Venice, Illinois, population 1,890, the entire police force has been infected with the virus and all six full-time officers are quarantining, KMOV4 reported.

“My chief even has COVID-19 and he’s sounding terrible,” Mayor Tyrone Echols told the news station.

The Venice Police Department declined to comment to Reuters and the Madison County Sheriff’s Department, which is reportedly covering the area while the local officers are in quarantine, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Tyler Clifford and Barbara Goldberg in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler)

U.S. lets states use federal pandemic funds to extend jobless aid

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. states can use federal pandemic-related funds passed this year to extend unemployment aid, President Joe Biden’s administration said on Thursday, saying the Delta variant impact on some local economies may mean people need help for longer.

“There are some states where it may make sense for unemployed workers to continue receiving additional assistance for a longer period of time, allowing residents of those states more time to find a job in areas where unemployment remains high,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Labor Secretary Martin Walsh told congressional leaders in a letter.

“The Delta variant may also pose short-term challenges to local economies and labor markets,” they added.

Extra federal unemployment benefits will expire as planned on Sept. 6, they said. But states can tap funds from a law enacted in March called the American Rescue Plan, they told the heads of the Senate Finance Committee and the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.

COVID-19 deaths in the United States reached a five-month high this week, with cases most prevalent in the U.S. South as the highly contagious Delta variant continued to spread, according to a Reuters tally.

Surging infections have threatened to upend the nation’s battle with the pandemic as well as its economic recovery.

Still, data released on Thursday showed U.S. weekly jobless claims hit a 17-month low as the ranks of the unemployed continued to shrink despite threats from rising COVID-19 cases.

(Reporting by Susan HeaveyEditing by Will Dunham and Chizu Nomiyama)

New studies on vaccine efficacy against Delta, kids’ noses have more immunity

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – Here is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Vaccines’ efficacy against infection weakens

The COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States are still highly effective at preventing hospitalization but their effectiveness against new infections has decreased as the Delta variant spread, according to new studies published on Wednesday in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. None of the studies could tell whether the breakthrough infections were due to waning immunity, reduced protection against the Delta variant, or a combination of factors. Still, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Wednesday that COVID-19 booster shots would be made available to all Americans beginning in September. The new studies found:

– Vaccine effectiveness against any SARS-CoV-2 infection – mild or severe – dropped to 53.1% in late June to early August, from 74.7% before Delta became predominant, according to a study of U.S. long-term care facilities.

– Vaccine efficacy for preventing new infections dropped from 91.7% to 79.8% between early May and late July, though efficacy at preventing hospitalization remained above 90%, according to a study by New York State health officials.

– Protection from hospitalization lasts at least six months, according to a study in 18 U.S. states. It found that 24 weeks after full vaccination with an mRNA vaccine, efficacy was 84%, and it was 90% among adults without immunocompromising conditions.

Children’s noses are “pre-activated” to fight the virus

Children’s noses may be better than adults’ at defending against infection because of “pre-activated” immunity against the coronavirus, a new study suggests. Researchers analyzed nasal swabs from 45 infected patients, including 24 children, and from 42 healthy individuals, including 18 children. In nasal-lining cells and immune cells from the children’s swab samples, they saw higher levels of genetic material that can sense the presence of the virus and trigger the immune system to defend against it. Higher amounts of these sensors result in stronger early immune responses in children than in adults, according to a report published on Wednesday in Nature Biotechnology. The nasal samples from the children were also more likely than adult samples to contain immune cells known as T cells that play roles in fighting infection and in developing long-lasting immunity, the researchers found. Ultimately, the authors concluded, the effects may lead to a reduction in the ability of the virus to reproduce and help children to clear it from the body faster. “In fact,” they added, “several studies already showed that children are much quicker in eliminating SARS-CoV-2 compared to adults, consistent with the concept that they shut down viral replication earlier.”

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

U.S. to begin offering COVID-19 vaccine booster shots in September

By Carl O’Donnell and Ahmed Aboulenein

(Reuters) -The U.S. government said on Wednesday it plans to make COVID-19 vaccine booster shots widely available starting on Sept. 20 as infections rise from the coronavirus Delta variant, citing data indicating diminishing protection from the vaccines over time.

U.S. officials are prepared to offer a third shot to Americans who completed their initial inoculation in two-dose COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna Inc and by Pfizer Inc and BioNTech AG at least eight months ago, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.

Initial booster doses will be given to Americans who received the two-dose vaccines, but U.S. health officials said they anticipate that people who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, the other COVID-19 vaccine approved in the United States, will also need boosters. The United States did not begin administering J&J shots until March.

The booster shots initially will focus upon healthcare workers, nursing home residents and older people, among the first groups to be vaccinated in late 2020 and early 2021, top U.S. health officials said in a joint statement.

There is mounting evidence that protection from the vaccines wanes after six or more months, particularly in older people with underlying health conditions. The officials cited this in their decision on boosters, but stressed that the U.S.-approved shots have proven “remarkably effective” in reducing the risk of severe disease, hospitalizations and deaths.

The officials included President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci as well as the heads of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the National Institutes of Health.

“The available data make very clear that protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection begins to decrease over time … and in association with the dominance of the Delta variant, we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease,” the officials said.

“We conclude that a booster shot will be needed to maximize vaccine-induced protection and prolong its durability,” they added.

U.S. officials previously authorized a third dose of the vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna for people with weak immune systems.

In recent weeks, several other countries also have decided to offer booster shots to older adults as well as people with weak immune systems, including Israel, France and Germany.

DELTA VARIANT CONCERNS

Vaccinations have been widely available in the United States, unlike many other countries, but the highly infectious Delta variant has caused what experts describe as a pandemic of the unvaccinated as a significant number of people choose not to get inoculated.

The United States leads the world in reported COVID-19 cases and deaths. Daily U.S. cases soared from fewer than 10,000 in early July to more than 150,000 in August as the Delta variant took hold. The new cases include some vaccinated people, though they are far less likely to experience severe disease or death than the unvaccinated.

According to CDC data, more than 72% of Americans 18 and older have received at least one vaccine dose and nearly 62% are fully vaccinated. Of the total population, the CDC said 59.9% have received at least one dose and 50.9% are fully vaccinated.

More than a million Americans independently sought an extra vaccine dose before the official decision on boosters was announced, according to federal data.

A study by an Israeli healthcare provider released on Wednesday found that a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot is 86% effective in people over age 60.

It followed another Israeli study released this week that showed evidence of waning immunity from COVID-19 vaccines in the months after inoculation, raising the risk of serious infection among the elderly and people with compromised immune systems.

“The surprise factor is the vaccine vulnerability – people who are vaccinated became vulnerable much earlier than expected,” Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in California, said about the study.

“The whole dynamic of boosters is being rewritten,” Topol added.

The U.S. announcement goes against guidance from the World Health Organization, whose chief scientist said on Wednesday current data does not indicate the need for booster shots. A WHO adviser said vaccine doses should first go to people in poorer countries who have not yet received an initial inoculation.

The decision represented a shift from the optimism of U.S. health authorities in May in curbing the pandemic when Biden set a goal to vaccinate 70% of American adults with at least one dose by July 4. That goal was achieved about a month late.

The U.S. booster plan is dependent on the FDA determining that a third dose of the two-dose vaccines is safe and effective, and a favorable recommendation from CDC advisers.

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York and Ahmed Aboulenein in Washington; Editing by Will Dunham and Grant McCool)

Japan extends COVID-19 emergency lockdown as cases surge

By Daniel Leussink, Leika Kihara and Sakura Murakami

TOKYO/FUKUOKA, Japan (Reuters) – Japan on Tuesday extended its state of emergency in Tokyo and other regions and announced new measures covering seven more prefectures to counter a spike in COVID-19 infections that is threatening the medical system.

The current state of emergency, the fifth of the pandemic so far, was due to expire on Aug. 31 but will now last until Sept. 12. Tokyo announced 4,377 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, after a record 5,773 on Friday.

“The Delta variant raging across the world is causing unprecedented cases in our country,” Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. “Serious cases are increasing rapidly and severely burdening the medical system, particularly in the capital region.”

The emergency will now cover nearly 60% of Japan’s population with the prefectures of Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Shizuoka, Kyoto, Hyogo and Fukuoka included. Less strict “quasi-emergency” measures will be applied to a further 10 prefectures.

Restaurants are being asked to close early and stop serving alcohol in exchange for a subsidy. Suga announced a fresh subsidy of 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) to help businesses cope with the fall-out.

Suga said the government would also request occupancy limits at department stores and ask people to reduce by half the times they go to crowded areas.

Speaking at a news conference explaining the steps, the government’s top health advisor, Shigeru Omi, said Japan needed to come up with steps to “prod individuals to avoid taking action that could potentially spread infections”.

He said that could be done under the current laws, which are mostly based on voluntary cooperation, but added that there’s also room for a nationwide debate on how to do this under a new legal framework”. He did not go into details.

Speaking beside Omi, Suga said the government would consider crafting legislation to swiftly prepare enough hospital beds for critically ill COVID-19 patients, and speed up vaccinations.

Suga dismissed the idea of imposing a blanket, nationwide state of emergency, saying that would pose “excessive restrictions for some prefectures” that were succeeding in containing new infections.

FALLING SHARES

Japanese shares fell for a fourth day on Tuesday as concerns about the Delta variant overshadowed optimism about upbeat earnings.

Japan’s case fatality rate stands at about 1.3%, compared with 1.7% in the United States and 2.1% in Britain.

But health experts fear the number of deaths could soar in Japan as the Delta variant tears through the younger population and hospitals become too crowded to treat serious cases.

“Many experts expressed an extremely strong sense of crisis about the medical care situation and the status of infections,” Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura said after consulting with health advisers.

More than 80% of Tokyo’s critical care beds are occupied, and the rate is already 100% in neighboring Kanagawa prefecture. Serious cases climbed to records of 276 in Tokyo and 1,646 nationwide on Tuesday.

Dai-ichi Life Research Institute estimated that the government’s extended and expanded state of emergency would lead to a total economic loss of about 1.2 trillion yen ($11 billion) and could cost 66,000 jobs.

That was about 60% higher than an expected loss of about 750 billion yen if the emergency remained at its current scope and schedule.

Repeated states of emergency have had a limited effect in slowing the spread of the virus.

Takuto Honda, 20, a university student in the southwestern city of Fukuoka who works part-time at a karaoke shop, said a harder lockdown with government pay-outs would be more effective. “If there is money to host the Olympics, there should be money to compensate us,” he said.

Pandemic fatigue and summer vacations have also been blamed for contributing to the latest COVID-19 surge in a nation where only around 37% of people have been fully vaccinated.

(Reporting by Sakura Murakami in FUKUOKA, Daniel Leussink, Leika Kihara and Rocky Swift in TOKYO; Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski; Editing by Susan Fenton, Giles Elgood and Mark Heinrich)