Your Coronavirus Update – Dec. 2, 2021

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

A state judge overturned the ban on evictions in Boston.

Eleanor Slater State Hospital has let go any worker who is not vaccinated.

A new online unemployment claim system has been developed at the RI DLT

In-person First Night in Boston will return

Massachusetts is experiencing the same uptick as the rest of the country – and RI – it’s called the “after Thanksgiving” surge – a surge that is seen after events and times that bring people together, indoors.

Massachusetts is considering a digital vaccination passport that people could have on their phones – not about a mandate, though.

Massachusetts has four mobile units to treat people who are positive and at high risk with monoclonal antibodies – one is in Fall River.

Massachusetts hospital workers did not get overturned their vaccination mandate, in an order from Chief Justice Breyer

RI’s testing lab had a back-up due to a technical issue – it is now fixed and should return to normal 24 hour return in a day or two.

Providence Bruins has a number of players test positive – though they are all vaccinated. 4 teams are positive that were in their team playing area. Some players have symptoms.

COVID Vaccination App for RI: The “Health Smart Card” app is a conversion of the original “Crush COVID App” that never took off in numbers large enough to be effective. Gov. McKee said it will be called the “401 Health Card”. You can upload your vaccination record, test records, etc. “for convenience”.

Gov. McKee update (held at Lincoln school)

Homelessness issues – $5M for emergency shelters; more to continue emergency hotel housing until the spring. $31M for affordable housing announced today – 23 new projects for 600 new units.

Omicron Variant – reinforce our preventive measures on mask wearing, social distancing, etc. – as well as PCR testing – state health lab is sequencing positive PCR results to identify the new variant.

The Westerly school “test to stay” program was successful – today, any school district who is interested in this can implement it.

Vaccinations, prevention methods, and boosters and more important in all populations than before.

Since Halloween, the rate for children 5-9 has doubled – among young teems that rate has tripled. These children are eligible to be vaccinated.

Q/A:

Why did it take RI so long to implement “test and stay” in RI schools?

Wanted to make sure we did it right, so we started with a pilot – now we’re prepared to move forward.

MA is implementing a phone app to store vaccination data – is RI?

Yes, we’ll have an app.

COVID will be with us for years to come – what benchmarks will you use before you end endless emergency orders?

When it makes sense – right now it doesn’t make sense.

Citizens are asking for answers on this – fundamental civil rights are being taken away for a disease that will be here seemingly forever.

Gov: people have done well, civil rights haven’t been too badly infringed on and now we have had Delta and now Omicron, once we understand where this is going we’ll inform people.

Clarify app – is it a passport? It’s not a requirement, but will it be more used by businesses – such as airports, etc.

Gov: we’re going to allow the info to be downloaded. After that it is up to businesses, etc. to use it.

McCarthy: Only recognized measure of vaccination is the paper vaccine card – so the app will allow this to be used as a common platform, even other than in US. There is no federal standard. We are in testing right now – should be a few weeks before rollout. The name most likely will be “401 Health”.

Rhode Island School Case Data can be found here – as of 11/29/21: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2QrNMz8pIbYEKzMJL7Uh2dtThOJa2j1sSMwiDo5Gz4/edit#gid=594871904

Rhode Island Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Congregate Care facilities can be found here – as of 12/1/2021: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1c2QrNMz8pIbYEKzMJL7Uh2dtThOJa2j1sSMwiDo5Gz4/edit#gid=594871904

Facilities with increased cases over 9 include:

Berkshire Place – 20 to 24

Evergreen – 5 to 9

Lincolnwood Rehab – 15 to 19

Summit – 5 to 9

West View Nursing – 5 to 9

Winslow Gardens – 15 to 19

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NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

First Omicron variant case in US – in San Francisco, California – person had traveled from So. Africa – returned on 11/22 and tested positive on 11/29 – he is quarantining – he was fully vaccinated, but not boostered, and experienced mild symptoms. All his close contacts have tested negative.

Dr. Ranney of Brown University’s advice about travel – “just press pause” – “we will now more in 1-2 weeks”

An NBA published study says vaccinated people who have breakthrough COVID are contagious for 5 days – unvaccinated people are contagious for 7 days.

The Biden administration’s global COVID-19 response coordinator Gayle Smith has left the role after eight months, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

Only 77% of NYC correctional officers are vaccinated; the remainder face termination.

A researcher at Columbia University said the virus will “never stop mutating” as long as it is “infecting someone, somewhere.

Marcus Lamb, founder of the Daystar Christian Network, a long time anti-vaxxer, has died of COVID.

The CDC has required airlines to provide to them a list of all passengers who flew from South Africa since the end of November.

South Korea reported its first five cases of the Omicron variant on Wednesday, officials said, as daily coronavirus infections rose above 5,000 for the first time

Moderna is predicting the will have a new Omicron vaccine will be ready by early 2022

Omicron is now the predominant variant of COVID in South Africa.

Merck’s COVID pill may be approved soon – only for high risk patients and not pregnant women. You would take one pill a day for 5 days.

CDC advising those 60+ or those with co-morbidities to postpone travel

226 confirmed Omicron cases across 20 countries.

NY, Newark, Atlanta, San Francisco airports are now under increased surveillance.

First case in Botswana on Nov. 11^th and elsewhere before that.

It could be 2 weeks before we know more about the impact of the new strain.

Stocks plunge on concerns over Omicron variant, then rallied, and have toggled back and forth

Regeneron & Moderna both saying their vaccine and treatment may be less effective.

Pfizer applies for emergency authorization for 16 & 17 year olds for their booster.

No Omicron-linked deaths have been reported. We will not know the severity for some time – early reports describe mild symptoms, but most of those cases were among young people

LeBron James can’t play while he is on the COVID list.

The WHO has agreed to form a member accord to work together on solving the COVID pandemic.

Greece mandates COVID-19 vaccines for all citizens over the age of 60.

The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered immobility worldwide to an extent unseen in recent history, slowing the pace of human mobility and migration. The pandemic is estimated to have negatively impacted the total growth of international migrants by 2 million.