Your Coronavirus Update Today – Feb. 4, 2021

RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY

Vaccine distribution in RI is seen as the worst in the US, by the New York Times, particularly due to the prioritization of seniors, which has been lacking.

Incoming Gov. Dan McKee has put together a Transition COVID19 Vaccination Committee to be led by Johnston Mayor Polisena and Dr. Stoukides – see our full article at RINewsToday.com.

AARP-RI’s Kathleen Connell issued a statement about the botched vaccination sign-up system: “The governor and state leaders must revise the vaccination plan so that it focuses on the most vulnerable among us,” read the statement.

There are calls for a statewide or city/town call center to be a major sign-up option, particularly because seniors are having difficulty with online signup, or lack computers all together.

Pawtucket realized it is too cumbersome for 75+ year olds to get to Providence for vaccines, and they are now doing a local in-city effort. You can still register online at: http://www.pawtucketri.com/COVID19

Warwick has an online signup at: https://www.warwickri.gov/

Cranston has an online signup at: https://www.cranstonri.gov/covid-19-vaccine-information/ – go to “Pre-register” – if you do not have an email call City Hall.

To register in Providence for a vaccine, regardless of age:  https://www.providenceri.gov/vaccinate/ or call 311

Salve Regina University will go on a 2-week pause. More than 3% of faculty and students have tested positive.

The 2021 National Guard Air Show has ben canceled.

The New England Aquarium will reopen in Boston tomorrow.

Red Sox opening day will stay April 1^st.

Connecticut is easing some restrictions. Houses of worship will still be required to limit attendance at services to 50% capacity, with a 100-person cap. Closing time for restaurants varies from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

25th Annual New Bedford Folk Festival is moved to 2022

In Vermont, officials said they are beginning to make plans to allow residents of long-term care facilities to have more contact with each other and the outside world.

Woodpecker Hill Health Center, in Greene, RI is closing due to poor Medicaid reimbursement and COVID19 crisis.

Bill McGuire, director of operating room facilities at Kent Hospital and managing the field hospital in Cranston, was picked by Bob Kraft to go with other front line healthcare workers on the team plane to the SuperBowl.

A handful of Massachusetts college campuses are serving as vaccine distribution centers, sparking a public health debate, as most college students and faculty won’t be eligible for their shots until April at the earliest. Boston University, Northeastern, Tufts, UMass, Salem State and Harvard are already operating as vaccine distribution centers, and the state has approved about a dozen more colleges to administer vaccines.”

Massachusetts’ Mystic Valley Elder Services is now providing free transportation to local COVID-19 vaccination sites for older residents that need it. The Malden-based agency recently began offering the service to residents 60 years and older in its 11-community region who have no other means to get to the locations.”

WPRO RADIO is operating Operation Vaccination with information by city/town – at: https://www.997wpro.com/operationvaccination/

Lt. Gov. McKee held a meeting and local COVID19 leaders met to share their feedback on Phase 2 and last weekend’s rollout of 5,000 additional vaccines to individuals 75 and older.  

The amount of vaccine in storage in Rhode Island according to the Public’s Radio, on Jan. 11th, was 48,500 doses. Over the next two weeks, the number of doses in storage rose by more than 50%.

An analysis of federal data by The New York Times showed that, as of Feb. 2, Rhode Island was one of just nine states that have used under 60% of their vaccine supply.

Brown University is considering allowing Providence residents to attend graduation if conditions improve, but still remain virtual for out of state families.

Rhode Island General Assembly leadership have introduced legislation to make The College Promise education funding permanent, to help those impacted, primarily by COVID19.

Data – Feb. 12 2021

Deaths: 13 Tests

5,763 Positives – 158 Percent positive – 2.7% Hospitalized

307 In ICU – 41 Ventilated

25 Deaths in hospital – 2 New Admissions – 27 New Discharges

36 First vaccines: 75,523 Total fully vaccinated – 2 shots: 26,861

From the New York Times about RI: “Whether the threshold is 65 or 80, people who meet their state’s age requirement are eligible to get a Covid-19 vaccination shot in every U.S. state but one. The exception: Rhode Island, the only state still in the first phase of its vaccination campaign, which restricts access to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.”

Two Denny’s, one in Warwick and one in Coventry, have closed.

Cranston’s new policy for vaccination signups:

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

On Feb. 11^th, vaccines will be shipped directly to the pharmacies for those who have ordered them from the federal government – this announced Tuesday at the COVID-19 task force meeting.

Even if you’ve had coronavirus,  there’s a “very high rate” of being reinfected with the new variants if they become dominant, Dr. Anthony Fauci says. 

Only 38% of nursing home staff accepted shots when they were offered, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed Monday.

Coronavirus federal coordinator Jeff Zients said some 6,500 pharmacies around the country will receive a total of 1 million doses of vaccine. The number of participating pharmacies is expected to grow as drugmakers increase production, allowing more doses to be allocated. The partnership with drug stores was originally announced by the Trump administration last November. At that time, no coronavirus vaccines had been approved. The pharmacy program will be administered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes major outlets such as CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Rite Aid and Costco

As was announced under the Trump administration, the Biden administration isn’t holding doses in reserve for people’s second shots — it’s shipping everything it can right away, trying to give as many people as possible at least some protection. Second doses will come from new supplies, although some providers and health departments are withholding second doses themselves.

Covid-19 dealt a significant blow to working women as household work, child care and the care of older adults disproportionately fall to them. A recent report found that 1 in 4 women considered cutting back hours spent at their jobs or dropping out of the workforce altogether, citing increased household and child care responsibilities during the pandemic.

Denmark’s government is joining forces with businesses to develop a digital passport that would show whether people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, allowing them to travel and help ease restrictions on public life.

Tourism in Spain has dropped by 77%.

Pope Francis received his second vaccine dose Wednesday.

Dr. David Chokshi, New York City’s health commissioner, said he has tested positive and is experiencing mild, “manageable” symptoms.

In California, after a deadly, months long COVID-19 surge, the state is starting to see infection and hospitalization rates fall even as it struggles to ramp up a chaotic vaccination program.

Yankee Stadium will open as a COVID-19 vaccination site Friday, exclusively serving Bronx residents,

The National Park Service will now require all visitors and employees to wear masks inside buildings and facilities and on lands “when physical distancing cannot be maintained.” That includes busy and narrow trails.

National Geographic Documentary Films announced Monday plans for a new documentary about Dr. Anthony Fauci. Called, appropriately enough, “Fauci,” it will look at the life and career of one of the nation’s top infectious disease experts and leading voice in the fight against COVID-19. It is directed by Emmy winners John Hoffman and Janet Tobias. Go here to view a trailer: https://youtu.be/xorBFNzvMQo

Those who had COVID-19 could get reinfected if the variants become dominant, Fauci says

New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang has tested positive for Covid-19

In Maine, a high-volume vaccination clinic is up and running at the former Scarborough Downs racetrack.

In Vermont, organizers of a program that buys meals from restaurants and distributes them across the state during the pandemic are working to find funding to keep the program going through the end of the state of emergency.

The most famous strip club in America has installed hand-sanitizing stations, UV lights in the air-conditioning system, and a requirement that everyone — dancers and clients — wears masks for the Mons Venus strip club, getting ready for another Super Bowl at his club, which sits just a stone’s throw from Raymond James Stadium.

A mass vaccination site at the Reggie Lewis Center in Boston’s Roxbury section opened

A study finds that hospitalized COVID patients with severe symptoms developed significantly higher levels of COVID antibodies than mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic patients. Antibodies also appeared much faster in hospitalized patients. The researchers suggest people with milder symptoms may be at higher risk for reinfection, but more data is needed to support this conclusion. Also, these results suggest that there are other components of the immune system besides antibodies that are crucial to the resolution of COVID. Read the study.

Increasing Reimbursements to States: Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will fully reimburse states for the cost of National Guard Personnel and emergency costs, retroactively to January of 2020 for costs of masks, gloves, emergency feeding actions, sheltering at risk populations, and mobilization of the National Guard. This reimbursement is estimated to total $3-5 billion and is only a small share of the resources that states need to fight this pandemic — including for testing, genomic sequencing, and mass vaccination centers. To fully support states, Tribes, and territories’ needs to contain the pandemic and vaccinate their populations, $350 billion is being requested from Congress in American Rescue Plan.

Moderna is now studying its vaccine on adolescents.

GlaxoSmithKline and Curevac will team up on a vaccine to particularly address the virus variants.

Long-term care vaccination effort remains on schedule – CVS Health has administered the first round of COVID-19 vaccine doses to nearly 8,000 skilled nursing facilities, and second doses are more than 60 percent complete. First doses at all long-term care facilities that selected CVS Health to provide COVID-19 vaccinations – more than 40,000 in total – will be complete by mid-February 2. As made clear by regularly updated data the company makes publicly available, most states chose activation dates for assisted living and other facilities well into January, which prevented clinics from being scheduled earlier.

CVS Health expands community access to COVID-19 vaccines – Starting Thursday, February 11, will begin to offer COVID-19 vaccinations to eligible populations at a limited number of CVS Pharmacy locations across 11 states. Supply for the initial rollout, which is sourced directly from the federal government through the pharmacy partnership program, will be approximately 250,000 total doses. As more supply becomes available the company will expand to additional states while increasing the number of stores offering vaccinations. There are nearly 10,000 CVS Pharmacy locations nationwide, with almost half located in communities ranked high or very high in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index. More than 90,000 health care professionals including pharmacists, licensed pharmacy technicians, and nurses will participate in the vaccination effort, giving CVS Pharmacy the capacity to administer 20 – 25 million shots per month.

State-specific details (eligibility will be confirmed and communicated by states in advance of the rollout):

State	Number of doses (approximate)	Number of active stores approximate)	Current eligibility guidelines
California	81,900	100	California Department of Public Health
Connecticut	6,800	12	Connecticut COVID-19 Response
Hawaii	4,400	7	Hawai‘i State Department of Health
Maryland	11,000	18	Maryland Department of Health covidLINK
Massachusetts	21,600	18	Massachusetts’ COVID-19 vaccination phases
New Jersey	19,900	27	New Jersey Department of Health
New York1	20,600	32	New York State Department of Health
Rhode Island	3,400	4	Rhode Island Department of Health
South Carolina	15,300	17	South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control
Texas	38,000	70	Texas Department of State Heath Services
Virginia	26,000	28	Virginia Department of Health

Vaccines in a retail setting will be offered on an appointment-only basis via CVS.com or through the CVS Pharmacy app, and those without online access can contact customer service: 1-800-746-7287. For CVS Pharmacy locations that will begin to offer COVID-19 vaccinations on February 11, appointments will become available for booking as early as February 9 as stores receive shipment.

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