Coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus variants, and vaccine updates for 8-06-2021

This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for August 6th, 2021.

The head of the CDC says the number of daily cases in the US has surged more than 40% from the previous week. And across the board, they’re seeing increases in cases and hospitalizations across all age groups.

Moderna believes people who got two doses of its vaccine will need a third dose before winter as a booster shot. They’re also working on a single shot that would be an annual booster for COVID-19, as well as flu and the respiratory condition RSV. The company said, "We believe increased force of infection resulting from Delta, non-pharmaceutical intervention fatigue, and seasonal effects (like more time indoors) will lead to an increase of breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals."

California will require all of its roughly 2.2 million health care workers and long-term care workers to be fully vaccinated by Sept. 30. That’s different than what the Governor said last month when he said workers would have a choice of vaccination or weekly testing. But that choice is the case for Oregon’s health care workers. That order effectively neutralizes an Oregon law that says employers can’t fire health care workers for not being vaccinated.

Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, has gone into a sixth lockdown. Melbourne joins Sydney and Brisbane in full lockdown due to the Delta variant. The local government said they had no choice because only 20% of Australian adults have been fully vaccinated.

You might laugh a little when you hear a cable news channel was operating with its employees on the honor system, but that’s what CNN was doing and now it’s fired three employees who came to work unvaccinated. The head of CNN said that honor system may change in the coming weeks.

In the United States cases were up 131%, deaths are up 65%, and hospitalizations are up 87% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending up since July 5. 

There are now 5,864,272 active cases in the United States.

Keeping in mind that several states have stopped reporting their daily case numbers, the five states with the most new cases: Florida 20,133. Texas 14,173. California 11,725. Georgia 5,806. And Louisiana 5,468.

The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Sabine, TX. Dimmit, TX. Lafourche, LA. St. Charles, LA. Stone, MS. Terrebonne, LA. St. Mary, LA. Gulf, FL. Nassau, FL. And Chambers, TX.

There have been at least 615,309 deaths in U.S. recorded as Covid-related.

The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s been fully vaccinated: Vermont unchanged at 67.7%, Massachusetts unchanged at 64.1%, and Maine unchanged at 64%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Alabama at 34.6%, Mississippi at 34.8%, and Wyoming at 36.7%. The percentage of the U.S. that’s been fully vaccinated is 49.8%.

The 5 countries with the largest recent 24-hour increase in the number of fully vaccinated people: Sri Lanka up 6%. Vietnam, Zambia, and Taiwan 5%. And Japan 4%.

Globally, cases were up 17% and deaths were down 3% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since June 21.

There are 15,965,230 active cases around the world.

The five countries with the most new cases: The United States 120,945. India 45,001. Brazil 40,054. Iran 38,674. And Indonesia 35,764.

There have now been at least 4,265,797 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide.

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