Coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus variants, and vaccine updates for 8-09-2021

This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for August 9th, 2021.

Hospitalizations are reaching all-time highs, especially in parts of the South. Some patients and their doctors are struggling to find hospitals that will take them, even if it’s out of state. Louisiana set a new record for hospitalizations last week. Florida's hospitalizations recently jumped 13% above the previous peak and 60% of the state’s hospitals expect a "critical staffing shortage" by this week. Houston's United Memorial Medical Center says, "We have no beds. Over the last 12 hours, we’ve lost more patients than in the last 5-6 weeks."

Among the problems in Florida, pediatric hospitals have become “completely overwhelmed” with young patients battling COVID. Yesterday, Florida reported having the highest number of children — 172 — hospitalized. Sharp rises in admissions involving kids have also been recorded in other states like Arkansas.

The head of the U.S.’ second-largest teachers union made her position clear yesterday; vaccines should be required for educators before they go back to the classroom. Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers said mandates are necessary because kids can’t get vaccinated and are getting COVID.  

Evidence out of Israel indicates even boosters won’t stop breakthrough infections. 14 of its citizens got COVID despite having been inoculated with a third vaccine dose. Two are sick enough to have been hospitalized. Some 420,000 Israelis have been administered a third booster shot so far in a drive that began last week.

What happens when there’ve been so many coronavirus variants we run out of Greek letters? Well if we’re still here as a species, the World Health Organization is considering using constellations like Gemini and Aries. So far, we’ve used 11 of the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet so as not to offend or stigmatize countries of discovery. No word yet on if people who claim to be from the constellation Orion will have their feelings hurt.

In the United States cases were up 112%, deaths are up 92%, and hospitalizations are up 83% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending up since July 5. 

There are now once again over 6 million active cases in the United States, at 6,051,160.

Keeping in mind several states stopped reporting daily case numbers, the five states with the most new cases: California 7,105. New York 3,572. Arizona 2,639. Texas 2,141. And Missouri 1,768.

The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Dimmit, TX. Neshoba, MS. Gulf, FL. Columbia, FL. Chambers, TX. Lafourche, LA. Terrebonne, LA. Iberia, LA. Jackson, FL. And St. James, LA.

There have been at least 616,827 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 at 64.2%, and Maine at 64.1%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Alabama unchanged at 34.6%, Mississippi unchanged at 34.8%, and Wyoming unchanged at 36.7%. The percentage of the U.S. that’s been fully vaccinated is 49.9%.

The 5 countries with the largest recent 24-hour increase in the number of fully vaccinated people: Nepal up 7%. Trinidad and Tobago 6%. Kyrgyzstan 5%. And Zambia and Cambodia 4%.

Globally, cases were up 15% and deaths were down 6% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since June 21.

There are once again over 16 million active cases around the world, at 16,392,735.

The five countries with the most new cases: Iran 39,619. India 36,035. The U.K. 27,429. Indonesia 26,415. And the United States 24,390.

There have now been at least 4,293,555 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide....

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