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Your Coronavirus Update – Today, March 16, 2021
RHODE ISLAND & VICINITY
Photo: URI facing an uptick and quarantines
The RI vaccination portal opens with new availability today at 9am – there is not enough supply until next week, it is estimated, to accommodate people. Only 1,900 appts are available today. RI can do 100K shots per week. The state’s site will also have a new “waiting room” feature.
Gov. McKee is encouraging people to buy at small garden shops this year.
Hundreds of Massachusetts State Police declined the vaccine. 35%, or 850 officers are involved.
8 students at North Kingstown High School have tested positive for COVID-19 and the school has returned to full distance learning until about the 22nd of the month. The involved students were not in one pod, classroom or group – quarantining will impact about 100 people.
RIDOH says about vaccination availability at the portal – some adjustments will be made and today at 9am the site will open up for about 1,900 appointments. Gov. McKee says our demand exceeds our supply – but people should keep trying – hear his interview with WPRI’s Kim Kalunian, here, about the sign-up process, and the re-prioritization of teachers, whether mandatory shots will be required in the fall, and which groups it might impact. He also discusses Lt. Gov. selection process
Boston Marathon is set for October at 20% registration limit.
Mondays….. 2p.m. – 6p.m. (March 15, 22, 29 & April 5) the Blue Cross Blue Shield personnel (Mobile Unit) will be at Bethel AME Church (parking lot) to assist ANYONE needing help to register for the vaccine.
Gov. Baker has said that 3 feet is sufficient, as opposed to 6 feet, for schools. Dr. Fauci’s statement on Sunday seems to back that up.
Connecticut is announcing April 5th as the date when the state will make vaccinations available for all over 16.
Brown University has not made the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory. If Brown decides to make the vaccine mandatory, medical and religious exceptions will be allowed, along with considerations for reasonable accommodations. Brown’s policies and protocols for vaccination will be based on the best scientific evidence.
Healthcentric Advisors, a Providence-based company specializing in health care improvement through data analysis and education, has been awarded a $600,000 federal contract to lead a COVID-19 learning collaborative for nursing homes.
An association representing MA superintendents is urging the state to cancel MCAS and language proficiency testing this year, arguing that the spring exams threaten to steal ‘valuable time away from efforts toward a healthy return.’”
Cape Cod, with a case-fatality rate higher than the state average and a second wave of winter deaths that peaked higher than last year’s spring surge – part of this is the older age of Cape Cod residents.
Next 2 Mondays. 2-6pm. East Side of Providence – Bethe AME Zion Church, 30 Rochambeau Ave. With BCBSRI – they will help you sign up for a vaccine.
Bishop Thomas Tobin pointed out that the timing of the lifted restrictions in RI is March 19, coinciding with St. Joseph’s Day. “Our churches have been safe places to gather, and they are still,” Tobin tweeted. “Our churches are open; it’s time to come back, time to come home, especially for Sunday Mass.”
Veterans Affairs Boston held its first of three mobile vaccine clinics at a VFW post in Dorchester, with others scheduled Wednesday and next weekend.
Boston Public Schools had its first COVID-19 vaccination clinic for educators, bus drivers, bus monitors, administrators and all of the school district’s employees and contractors.
23% of renters in RI are not caught up on their rent – the highest in New England as reported by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities compared with 11% in CT, 17% in MA, 10% in VT, 15% in NH, 21% in ME.
Dr. Fauci has said that President Trump’s important message to his followers to take the vaccine is important to winning the pandemic’s toll on Americans
In Vermont, two households may now gather together, and that pairing doesn’t have to be the same each time. That means children can again have playdates, “which we know have been sorely missed and will be good for the mental health and emotional wellbeing of the kids as well as parents,” he said. Restaurants are now allowed to seat six people at a table from different families
Two SBA seminars will be held to update RI companies on PPP availability:
RI families of loved ones in nursing homes held a demonstration on Friday to demand an end to isolation policies in long term care facilities.
Brickley’s Ice Cream, Wakefield, opens for the season on Thursday, March 18 at noon. They have installed a temporary takeout window for service, they reported on Facebook. The Narragansett store opens in May.
While most Boston restaurants will be able to offer outdoor dining beginning March 22, eateries in the city’s North End neighborhood will have to wait until April 1 to do the same.
It is estimated the RI vaccination website was visited 2.5 million times in one day after its Friday announcement of availability. This could be an average of 20 visits per person trying to access the system.
Volunteers are playing a key role in helping vaccinate thousands of New Hampshire educators at COVID-19 vaccination clinics this weekend.
URI has approx. 573 total students, faculty, and staff in isolation and quarantine.
Worcester’s DCU Hospital will close its field hospital this week.
Data – March 15, 2021
Deaths: 2 (plus 7 from Fri/Sat/Sun)
Tests – 3,612 (not reflective of 3 days) – Positives – 134 – Percent positive – 3.7%
Hospitalized – 134 – In ICU – 19 – Ventilated – 16
Deaths in hospital – 3 – New Admissions – 11 – New Discharges -12
Vaccinated – 273,216; Both shots – 114,399
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
The White House this week will unveil a wide-reaching, $1.5 billion public relations campaign aimed at boosting vaccine confidence and uptake across the U.S. Federal officials have already allocated more than $500 million for local efforts to recruit local leaders and community organizations to encourage vaccine uptake and ensure racial equity in the vaccine distribution effort.
All Mississippi residents can get the coronavirus vaccine starting tomorrow, joining Alaska as states where all adults can get vaccinated.
Dr. Birx, who has left the CDC, was interviewed about what she thinks about where the US is:
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) called for an economic and political boycott of next year’s Olympics in Beijing.
The CDC indicated that even after teachers and staff have been fully vaccinated, children as young as two should still be required to wear masks at day-care centers and schools.
Facebook pledged to label all Covid-19 vaccine-related posts. The disclaimers will apply to both Facebook and Instagram posts in the US. The company has come under fire for the spread of health misinformation on its platforms.
There is no causal link between the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine and blood clots, according to medical experts.
Spring break on South Padre Island in Texas is packed, with most people not wearing masks.
At Florida spring break, over 165 people were arrested.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a plan to help more people get vaccinated. Zuckerberg announced in a Facebook post early Monday that the social media giant is launching a tool in its COVID Information Center that shows “when and where you can get vaccinated, and gives you a link to make an appointment.” Facebook is partnering with Boston Children’s Hospital, which runs the VaccineFinder.org website, to offer the tool that identifies places nearby to get the vaccine.
Indiana has become “high risk” for the number of new cases daily. Notably, they have stuck with age based plan for vaccinations, with a slow roll out.
Contagion is rising again in the EU despite months of restrictions on daily life as more-virulent virus strains outpace vaccinations, with a mood of gloom and frustration settling on the continent.
487,000+ new businesses have formed during the pandemic in the US.
Air traffic is at its height for the past year right now.
Germany’s IDT Biologica said on Monday it would make Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine using capacity previously reserved by Japan’s Takeda, helping to ease concerns about the U.S. drugmaker’s ability to meet its production goals.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the CDC is aware of accumulating data that suggest 3 feet of social distance” are OK under certain circumstances.”
Increase in smoking in 2020 as fewer people tried to quit.
Google has launched four new Career Certificates in project management, data analytics, UX design, and Android development. Google and the National Association of Workforce Boards are providing scholarships for 30,000 people to access the Google Career Certificate program.
Indonesia expects to receive 20.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna Inc and China’s Sinopharm from the second quarter to use in a private vaccination
Chicago Mayor Lightfoot agreed to the famous green river dyeing to proceed to recognize St. Patrick’s Day – without notice to the community to avoid large gatherings.
Some medical experts theorize that variants developed “inside people with challenged immune systems”.
British variants have tripled in Massachusetts.
13% of Boston residents are fully vaccinated.
“Now the nation just needs former President Donald Trump to help out”, Fauci says.
A recent new PBS NewsHour/NPR/Marist poll found 41% of Republicans saying they would not get one of the three federally authorized COVID-19 vaccines, compared to less than 15% of Democrats. “We’ve got to dissociate political persuasion from what’s common sense, no-brainer public health things,” Fauci said.
Duke University issued a quarantine order for all its undergraduates effective Saturday night because of a coronavirus outbreak caused by students who attended recruitment parties
Dr. Fauci’s message was that, yes, we could see some degree of normalcy by the Fourth of July, but only if cases drop as more Americans are vaccinated.
ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos will sit down with President Joe Biden this week to discuss the COVID-19 relief plan and more. The interview is scheduled to air Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”
Males feelings about vaccinations: 25% of Black respondents, 28% of white respondents and 37% of Latino respondents said the same.
A stunning 25% of House members — all with access to the vaccine — have refused to get it, haven’t reported getting it, or are avoiding it for medical reasons
COVID testing and new ventilation systems are costing school districts tens of millions, forcing poorer districts to freeze hiring and cut entire programs
Farmers of color will receive 120% forgiveness of farm loans – no provision is for white farmers in the Biden stimulus bill.
The virus has extinguished a centuries-old tribe in the Amazon. The last member of the Juma people died from Covid last month.
Faith leaders in the U.S. are coaxing their congregations to get vaccinated.
Police officers, firefighters and grocery workers will start getting the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine in about two weeks as the effort to immunize school workers wraps up in Pennsylvania.