Your Coronavirus Update Today – April 16, 2021

Photo: Cranston West Senior Ette/Band night 2021

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

On Monday, everyone in RI, ages 16+ becomes eligible for the vaccination..

16,000 vaccination appointments will open up today at 5pm.

Dr. Ranney from Brown University & Lifespan told the Boston Globe that there are still things she is not comfortable doing, even though vaccinated – such as eating indoors.

258,000 new Rhode Islanders will be eligible for shots on Monday

Hendricken & LaSalle Football game will be rescheduled due to positive cases.

The Newport Restaurant Group is hiring for up to 400 seasonal, part-time and full-time positions for 11 of its restaurants in Newport, Tiverton, Providence, Cranston, Warwick, and Narragansett. 

The Rhode Island Food Dealers Association (RIFDA) and two of its members, Packaging & More and Price Rite will host a series of community food distribution events at Packaging & More’s headquarters at 30 Higginson Avenue in Central Falls. The distribution events are being planned to begin in late-May and will be free and open to the public

Governor McKee will join U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse for an announcement on new federal funding for the Rhode Island Veterans Home today at 11am.

University of Massachusetts will freeze their tuition.

Daggett Farm and Greenhouse in Slater Park will hold its opening day on Saturday, April 17.

RI unemployment falls to 7.1%

Cumberland High School will close early before spring break due to peak in the virus. Classes will move to online after a deep cleaning of the building.

MA is asking students to be tested if they leave for spring break.

Inmates at the ACI are building desks for the community, with some going to their own children, if they need them.

Some RI restaurants are offering bonuses and incentives trying to get employees. Siena, with multiple locations, said it was worth it to break even or take a small loss if this will get employees to work at their restaurant.

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said Thursday that he was lifting his state’s mask mandate.

In Maine, the state’s growing number of coronavirus cases is disproportionately affecting smaller towns.

Asian American families are choosing to keep their children learning from home at rates higher than any other racial group in Massachusetts.

Fall River is now using a mobile pop-up vaccination clinic. Mobile vaccination clinics are being launched in Chelsea, Revere, Boston, Fall River and New Bedford in partnership with FEMA.

In the last week there were less than 5 cases in RI nursing homes.

In CT, high school proms and graduation ceremonies can take place this spring but should have precautions to reduce the possibility of spreading the coronavirus, the state’s Department of Public Health said. Attendees should wear masks and practice social distancing regardless of their vaccination status.

CT plans to allocate millions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief funds toward education programs designed to help make up for learning lost by schoolchildren during the pandemic.

Dartmouth College students will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the fall term, according to campus officials.

Vermont is preparing to welcome the return of Amtrak passenger rail service and intercity bus services

The New England Patriots Players group has released a statement saying that many players will exercise their right to not attend voluntary workouts this offseason due to the threat of COVID-19.

Portland Pops July 4th celebration in Maine said the event is canceled again this year due to the pandemic.

The University of Vermont is promising to “take strong and swift action” against students who violated the school’s COVID- 19 safety restrictions along Lake Champlain. Hundreds of young people flocked to North Beach to enjoy the summerlike weather Saturday.

181,000 Massachusetts residents received a Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

PPAC schedule will not start until October of 2021.

Convention Center should be operational in August.

RI has distributed 31,000 doses of J&J vaccine, with no adverse side effects.

The SBA Shuttered Venue Operator (SVOG) grant (for theaters and other live event venues) is on hold while they address website/application portal issues. 

Governor’s Update – 4-15-2021

Effective Mon, 4/19 – free transportation to and from a vaccination clinic by RIPTA – [email protected] – 781-9400 for more info. They’ve also assisted w/delivery of 10K Meals on Wheels.

TY to all the volunteers and medical professionals at vaccination clinics, and community leaders, especially BIPOC community.

Another BIPOC clinic on Saturday – call 211 if you aren’t able to do this one.

J&J is still pausing – but we have plenty of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for Rhode Island.

Email cancellation issue with BIPOC is under way – no update yet as RI State Police reviews.

16,000 new appts. go live Friday – 16+ starts in RI next Monday. RI is top 5 states with 36.5% vaccination rate. 78% of seniors have been vaccinated.

Today starts new small biz $5K grant program – opens today at 3pm. RI Commerce for more information.  521-HELP also.

DBR is open and ready to help with grants. Call 889-5550 for more info.

Restaurants in RI are opening – make your reservations – visit your local businesses. Restaurant staff vaccination plans are underway. Unemployment incentives that are discouraging some people from going back – we are working on that.  Need to encourage staff to return. We are open, and we are safe.

Gov. McKee gave a shout out to a little boy he met at a school tour this morning – Josiah!

Dr. Scott

15-24 year olds and 25-39 year olds had the highest case rates in RI – household transmission was the primary driver. Biggest takeaway in addition to robust testing is that vaccines work.

RI is seeing an uptick in cancellations at vaccination sites – please cancel as early as possible if you need to for whatever reason.

Stefan Pryor:

Update on small business loans: grants of $5K available for certain groups. For businesses that have lost more than they have received grants for, they are eligible, but there are lots of details. Applications are being accepted at 3pm today. Go to: commerceri.com website – Brave River has engineered an app to use to apply for the grants. You can go directly to commerceri.com/reliefgrant. Lots of ways to get assistance there.

Q&A:

Governor spoke about revitalizing Providence which has empty parking lots. We need to encourage people to go back to work in restaurant business, get people downtown, with 50% occupancy in office buildings that can be difficult for companies to work with. We can go into office buildings with vaccination clinics, if need be. We will reopen the Convention Center soon. Governor will do more of the Town Meetings with local media.

Cases by city in Rhode Island (ProJo)

Today’s Data – April 15, 2021

Deaths: 4

Tests – 22,673 – Positives – 428 – Percent positive – 1.9%

Hospitalized – 138 – In ICU – 30 – Ventilated – 24

Deaths in hospital – 2 – New Admissions – 22 – New Discharges – 24

Vaccinated – 448,768 – Both shots – 366,983

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Moderna’s CEO anticipates that annual COVID booster shots will become commonplace, and hopes to develop a combination flu and COVID vaccine in the future.

To those who have received the J&J vaccine, does this development impact the efficacy of the vaccine? Dr. Fauci said no, it doesn’t. There is concern that this will make people hesitant to take the vaccine. What happened is extremely rare and occurred in less than 1 million people (6 in over 6 million).

Dr. Fauci said that even those who have been vaccinated, should not eat in restaurants.

Colorado will move on from day-to-day oversight of coronavirus safety restrictions and retire its color-coded dial system starting Friday,

The Vaccinated need to avoid crowds, especially indoors where people are not wearing masks.

Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be increased to take up what is lost from pause in J&J – appts are being rescheduled throughout the US.

Hertz, Avis and Enterprise sold enough of their fleets to create a shortage. Now rental cars are suddenly scarce. When planning a trip, you might want to get that figured out first.

The WHO urges halt to sale of live wild animals in markets, citing disease risk

Merck is discontinuing development of a treatment meant to tamp down the immune symptoms of Covid-19, shifting its focus to an antiviral that might help clear the virus in the early days of infection

Novavax Inc has pushed back the timeline for hitting its production target of 150 million COVID-19 vaccine doses per month until the third quarter due to supply shortages including bags used to grow cells.

The New York Philharmonic performed publicly in Hudson Yards to an audience of 120 out of a capacity of 1400.

Michigan hospitalizations from COVID-19 reached 3,953 on Monday, surpassing the state’s November/December spike. Among the biggest drivers of coronavirus infections in the state, health officials have said, are outbreaks among youth athletes and those associated with K-12 schools.

$39billion in federal stimulus money will be given to the childcare industry.

Federal officials announced new measures to help get fresh, new N95 masks to healthcare workers and expand their use in other industries after scientists argued that the highly protective masks are essential to keep workers safe from COVID-19.

Britain has offered coronavirus vaccines to everyone in the country age 50 and older, with 45 and older later this week.

100 days to the opening of the Olympics

54% of respondents said they had trouble concentrating behind the wheel after a video chat. It’s called the Zoom Zombie effect.

Sale of toilet paper has fallen by 32%; paper towels by 18% and wet wipes, 16%, but household cleaning product sale is still higher than before than the pandemic.

New treatment for early COVID-19, inhaled steroid passes early testing

The coronavirus outbreak sent profits plunging at Atlantic City’s casinos by more than 80% last year.

North Carolina Blueberry Festival has been canceled because of the pandemic.

Israel to allow limited entry of foreign tour groups in May

Walmart is moving more of its workers full time as the nation’s largest private employer looks for more ways to attract and retain employees.

CDC reports 5,800 Covid infections in fully vaccinated people

In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s administration on Tuesday extended workplace coronavirus restrictions another six months, including a requirement that employers prohibit office work if jobs can feasibly be done remotely.

Hawaii extends the statewide eviction moratorium for another two months. Also, people who are fully vaccinated would be able to avoid coronavirus testing and quarantine by uploading valid vaccination documents to the Safe Travels Program or showing documents in person.

Empty big-box stores serve new purpose: vaccine centers

U.S. intelligence officials warned that the coronavirus pandemic will test governments across the globe for years to come, “fueling humanitarian and economic crises, political unrest and geopolitical competition.”

The European Union announced plans to negotiate a massive contract extension for Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine as the 27-nation bloc’s faith in AstraZeneca’s vaccine wavers. America’s Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech would provide the EU with an extra 50 million doses in the second quarter of this year, making up for faltering deliveries of British-Swedish AstraZeneca following reports of rare blood clots in some recipients.

Poland plans to go ahead with immunizations using the Johnson& Johnson vaccine after receiving its first batch of 120,000 doses onWednesday.

Attendance at Saturday’s funeral for Britain’s Prince Philip will be limited to 30 mourners because of current coronavirus restrictions in England. Queen Elizabeth may be required to sit alone, and guests must be spaced 6 feet apart.

The White House Correspondents dinner is canceled again this year.

Takeout cocktails, which have proved a vital lifeline for struggling restaurants and bars during the pandemic, are poised to become permanent in Maryland.

A study by Oxford University found the number of people who receive blood clots after getting vaccinated with a coronavirus vaccine are about the same for those who get Pfizer PFE, +1.16% and Moderna MRNA, -0.10% vaccines as they are for the AstraZeneca AZN, +1.99% vaccine that was produced with the university’s help. According to the study, 4 in 1 million people experience cerebral venous thrombosis after getting the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, versus 5 in 1 million people for the AstraZeneca vaccine. The risk of getting CVT is much higher for those who get COVID-19 — 39 in a million patients — than it is for those for get vaccinated. AstraZeneca’s vaccine use has been halted or limited in many countries on blood clot concerns.

Comments from Dr. Jha about the J&J Pause (on Twitter):

(1) CDC’s vaccine advisory committee ACIP met today to advise on J&J pause After thoughtfully discussing what we know & don’t know about rare clotting events, they punted. The advisory committee decided not to advise. This was a mistake. J&J should be un-paused soon. (2) Nearly all the adverse events are in women 18-49 years old Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CVST), the clot seen with J&J, is known to be more common in young women Suggests that young women probably the group at high risk This actually gave ACIP a smart way forward. (3) Given that most cases of vaccine-related CVST appears in women ACIP should have recommended continuing pause for women 18-49 but resuming for everyone else Keeping vaccine paused for everyone makes little sense Risk-benefit keeping vaccine paused for everyone WAY off. (4) But what about the fact that we have Moderna/Pfizer? They are great. But not easy for everyone. For many, J&J is a life-saver Imagine 54 yo male migrant farm worker with diabetes who can’t return for a 2nd shot? Based on what we know today, Would you give him J&J?

(5) His risk of getting COVID may be as high as 1 in 1000 per day His chances of dying of COVID may be 1 in 100 So each unvaccinated day, his risk of death is 1 in 100,000 His life-time risk of CVST from J&J? WAY less than 1 in million May be zero No-brainer. Give him J&J. (6) ACIP’s decision to wait would be fine if there was no pandemic going on But there is And waiting 7-10 days won’t do much. Not sure what data they will get in that time But we’ll have done real harm to a terrific vaccine particularly well-suited for vulnerable populations. (7) Good news is that ACIP is just advisory So FDA/CDC can still move forward and recommend resuming vaccinations for everyone except women 18-49 And for all groups, continue to vigorously, proactively collect data and make changes later if needed. (8) We’re in a pandemic Short pause to alert folks is reasonable Waiting when its unlikely to change what we know is not J&J highly-effective, safe vaccine with rare side-effects I’d make it available soon, particularly for those for whom alternatives are not good choices. Fin.