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The Latest: 2 Chinese cities urge people to stay at home – Burnaby Now

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BEIJING — Chinese authorities are asking residents in two cities south of Beijing to stay home for seven days as they try to stamp out a coronavirus outbreak in which more than 300 people have tested positive in the past week.

According to official notices on social media, the cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai in Hebei province are restricting people to their communities and villages and have banned gatherings.

Hebei reported 14 newly confirmed cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total in the outbreak to 137. It has found 197 other people without symptoms who also tested positive. China does not include asymptomatic cases in its confirmed count.

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Beijing is requiring workers from Hebei to show proof of employment in Beijing and a negative virus test before entering the capital.

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THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

President-elect Joe Biden plans to speed release of virus vaccines so more people can get first shot. The U.S. vaccine rollout hits snag as health workers balk at shots; US tops 4,000 daily deaths from the coronavirus. UK regulators OK use of a third vaccine against coronavirus.

Meanwhile, WHO approves expanding time between virus shots up to six weeks and asks countries for equitable access to vaccines. A Pfizer study suggests the vaccine works against the virus variant.

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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

MEXICO CITY — Mexico has posted its third straight day of a new high for coronavirus infections, with 14,362 newly confirmed cases and a near-record of 1,038 more deaths.

The country has now topped 1.5 million total infections and over 132,000 deaths so far in the pandemic.

The country’s extremely low testing rate means that is an undercount, and official estimates suggest the real death toll is over 180,000.

Officials say 6,623 people were vaccinated against the coronavirus Friday, a rate similar to previous days.

Mexico has received only about 107,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and has pinned much of its hopes on cheaper, easier-to-handle vaccines made by China’s CanSino, though that vaccine has not yet been approved for use.

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SAN DIEGO — San Diego County is opening what it calls a “vaccination super station” that aims to inoculate up to 5,000 health care workers daily with a coronavirus vaccine.

The effort that begins Monday is one of the most ambitious yet in California to accelerate the pace of vaccinations that Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week was “not good enough.” Only about 1% of California’s 40 million residents have been vaccinated against the virus.

Medical crews from the University of California, San Diego, will operate the station in a parking lot near the downtown baseball stadium.

Health care workers will remain in their vehicles while they are given the shot and then will be asked to remain on-site for 15 minutes to be monitored in case of any allergic reaction.

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MISSION, Kan. — Kansas state prisons, which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, will be given priority in the next phase of vaccinations.

Officials have reported 5,320 coronavirus infections in the state’s prison system, which houses about 8,600 inmates. In addition, 1,076 prison employees have tested positive. Thirteen inmates and four staff members have died.

Gov. Laura Kelly said Thursday that inmates will be vaccinated after health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. She says the prisons are being prioritized based on guidance from doctors and public health experts.

The second vaccination phase also will give priority to people 65 and older and critical workers such as firefighters, law enforcement officers, meatpacking employees, grocery store workers, teachers and child care workers.

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ALBANY, N.Y. — Faced with mounting criticism over the slow pace of the coronavirus vaccine rollout, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that starting next week, the state will allow a much wider swath of the public to get inoculated, including anyone age 75 or older.

The governor warned Friday that initially, the supply of vaccines available to people other than health care workers and nursing home patients will be very limited.

Cuomo says a beefed up statewide distribution network will include pharmacies, doctors’ networks and county health departments. The 3.2 million New Yorkers newly eligible for the vaccine includes teachers, first responders and public safety workers.

The announcement came as many local officials argued it was time to distribute the vaccine beyond health care workers.

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BISMARCK, N.D. — North Dakota Lt. Gov. Brent Sanford is in quarantine with his family after his wife tested positive for COVID-19, and he will not be able to fulfil his role of presiding over the Senate as the 2021 legislative session is getting underway.

Sanford’s spokesman, Mike Nowatzki, told the Bismarck Tribune that Sanford’s wife is asymptomatic and that Sanford planned to get his own COVID-19 test Friday, the session’s second day.

Nowatzki said Sanford is not showing any symptoms and is expected to return around the end of January.

Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, a Dickinson Republican, said senators haven’t been around Sanford or in meetings with him.

Sanford attended a joint legislative session on Tuesday, when Gov. Doug Burgum presented his State of the State address. Nowatzki said Burgum was not a close contact of Sanford, and that Sanford wore a mask the whole time and was socially distanced while seated in the chambers.

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ATLANTA — Georgia ranks last among states for the share of available COVID-19 vaccines that it has administered, but Gov. Brian Kemp said the data is badly misleading as some hospitals have failed to report all the shots they’ve given.

Still, the Republican governor acknowledged Friday that the state is struggling with the vaccine rollout even as Georgia sets daily records for people hospitalized with the respiratory illness.

Kemp says he’s “not happy” with the effort. Georgia now has the capacity to administer 11,428 doses a day. At that rate, it would take more than two-and-a-half years to vaccinate every Georgia resident.

Amber Schmidtke, an epidemiologist who reports daily on Georgia’s outbreak, blamed the staggering start on “poor planning and execution of a mass vaccination strategy, if Georgia ever actually had one.” She said state government needs to call in more resources instead of pushing all the responsibility down to its 18 public health districts.

The struggles come even as the state is allowing people over 65 to be vaccinated starting Monday, leading to local health departments being overrun with people seeking appointments.

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CHICAGO — Some in-person instruction at Chicago public schools will resume Monday for the first time in months, and the city’s mayor and school chief are warning teachers that their absence will have consequences.

The district is giving families the option for students in pre-kindergarten and some special education programs. K-8 students could return on Feb. 1. No date has been set for high school students.

About 6,500 students are expected Monday, still a fraction of the nation’s third-largest district.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Friday that remote learning “is not sustainable, not over the long term, because it does not serve every student equally, especially those students who are younger, who require additional help and support and simply don’t have access to a sustainable learning environment.”

The Chicago Teachers Union said many schools still carry risks for the coronavirus. Attendance by teachers this week has been uneven.

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OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma revenue collections for the calendar year 2020 declined by 3.8% as the coronavirus pandemic swept the state, state Treasurer Randy McDaniel said Friday.

The state collected nearly $13.2 billion in taxes and fees for the year, $520.9 million less than the previous year.

“The state’s economy declined in 2020,” McDaniel said in a statement. “Hopefully, we will see improvement in the months ahead as the (coronavirus) vaccine becomes widely available.”

The state health department reported 320,586 total virus cases and 2,703 deaths Friday, including a one-day record increase of 5,232 cases and 31 more deaths.

The seven-day rolling average of new cases in Oklahoma has risen from 3,478.43 per day on Dec. 24 to 3,488.29, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The data ranks Oklahoma seventh in the nation in new cases per capita with 1,072.7 per 100,000, down from 1,096.5 per 100,000 and the fourth-highest rate in the nation reported Monday.

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SALT LAKE CITY — New Gov. Spencer Cox unveiled a plan Friday to ramp up Utah’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution as the state sees a post-holiday surge in new cases.

Cox, a Republican, said he will issue an executive order requiring facilities to allocate their doses the week they are received and have local health departments manage distribution, with an expectation of administering 50,000 doses a week.

”This virus does not sleep,” Cox said at his first COVID-19 media briefing as governor. “This virus does not take weekends off. And neither should we.”

The state’s 50,000 teachers and in-person school staff will be eligible to receive the vaccine on Monday, Cox said. School districts will be expected to prioritize people over 65 or who have underlying health conditions.

Utah’s second phase of the vaccine rollout, which includes anyone 70 or older, will begin on Jan. 18. Former Gov. Gary Herbert, Cox’s predecessor, initially said people over 75 would be eligible.

The governor’s plan came as the state’s new COVID-19 cases continue to rise and ICU beds are nearly full. In the past week, Utah’s positivity average has increased from 26.8% to 32.7%, according to state data.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — New Mexico is moving ahead with vaccine distribution, expanding eligibility on Friday to people 75 and older as well as residents with underlying medical conditions that place them at greater risk from COVID-19.

The expanded list under what is known as Phase 1B of the distribution plan also includes frontline essential workers who can’t work remotely and vulnerable populations. Shots also are still being given to health care workers, first responders and staff and residents at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Under the updated vaccination plan released Friday, state official acknowledged that the number of people now eligible to be inoculated is much larger than the available supply so the groups are being further prioritized. For example, frontline essential workers will be vaccinated in order ranging from family home caregivers and child care workers, followed by teachers involved in in-person learning, grocery store workers, agriculture workers, public transit workers and others.

New Mexico is requiring workers in each category to verify their employment and those with qualifying medical conditions also are expected to provide validation. That could include a note from a provider, hospital discharge paperwork or even a prescription bottle.

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SALEM, Ore. — Oregon will be stepping up its vaccinations against COVID-19, including by administering thousands of doses at the state fairgrounds in Salem this weekend with the support of the National Guard, Gov. Kate Brown said Friday.

“The goal is to vaccinate 250 people per hour, vaccinating thousands of Oregonians,” Brown announced during a Zoom call with reporters.

Those eligible to receive the vaccination are in the top priority category set by the Oregon Health Authority, which includes hospitals, health care providers and residents at long-term care facilities; emergency medical service providers and other first responders.

On Friday, OHA recorded 7,994 doses of vaccine administered — including 578 second doses — raising the state’s total number of shots given to 74,914.

The agency also reported Friday that COVID-19 claimed seven more lives in Oregon, raising the state’s death toll to 1,575. There were also 1,755 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 122,847 in a state with a population of around 4.2 million.

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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia’s 82-year-old monarch King Salman has received the coronavirus vaccine, according to video and photos published by state media on Friday.

In a short video, the king was seen seated, dressed in the traditional male white thobe worn by men in Gulf with one sleeve rolled up, being given a shot in his left arm. It wasn’t immediately clear which of the coronavirus vaccines the king received, but state media said it marked his first dose.

Early on in the pandemic, the king decreed his government would cover hospitalizations related to the virus for all Saudi residents, including those in the country illegally or on expired visas.

The kingdom also plans to offer vaccines free of charge.

After a surge in cases over the summer, the country of 30 million, which mandates public mask wearing and social distancing, recorded just 97 new cases on Friday and four deaths as infections there continue to decline. Overall, there have been some 363,000 cases recorded in Saudi Arabia since the start of the pandemic and 6,282 deaths from the virus.

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RIVERSIDE, Calif. — Active-duty military medical personnel have been sent to a Southern California hospital swamped with a surge of COVD-19 patients.

Riverside County authorities issued a press release Friday saying approximately 20 physician assistants, nurses and respiratory care practitioners from the Army and Air Force arrived Thursday at Riverside University Health System-Medical Center.

The county says the Department of Defence team is part of a response to a state request to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for federal support to medical facilities throughout California.

Officials say the 439-bed hospital normally has a daily average of 350 patients but is averaging 450.

Jennifer Cruikshank, chief executive officer at Riverside University Health System-Medical Center and Clinics, says the help is bringing “renewed energy and hope into our team” and will “support the acute health care needs of more people in our region during this critical time.”

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The Associated Press















































































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Do you need a spring COVID-19 vaccine? Research backs extra round for high-risk groups | RCI – Radio-Canada.ca

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Posted: 4:54 PM

Recent studies suggest staying up-to-date on COVID shots helps protect high-risk groups from severe illness

New guidelines suggest certain high-risk groups could benefit from having another dose of a COVID-19 vaccine this spring — and more frequent shots in general — while the broader population could be entering once-a-year territory, much like an annual flu shot.

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Medical experts told CBC News that falling behind on the latest shots can come with health risks, particularly for individuals who are older or immunocompromised.

Even when the risk of infection starts to increase, the vaccines still do a really good job at decreasing risk of severe disease, said McMaster University researcher and immunologist Matthew Miller.

Who needs another COVID shot?

Back in January, Canada’s national vaccine advisory body set the stage for another round of spring vaccinations. In a statement (new window), the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) stated that starting in spring 2024, individuals at an increased risk of severe COVID may get an extra dose of the latest XBB.1.5-based vaccines, which better protect against circulating virus variants.

That means:

  • Adults aged 65 and up.
  • Adult residents of long-term care homes and other congregate living settings for seniors.
  • Anyone six months of age or older who is moderately to severely immunocompromised.

The various spring recommendations don’t focus on pregnancy, despite research (new window) showing clear links between a COVID infection while pregnant, and increased health risks. However, federal guidance does note that getting vaccinated during pregnancy can protect against serious outcomes.

Vaccinated people can also pass antibodies to their baby through the placenta and through breastmilk, that guidance states (new window).

What do the provinces now recommend?

Multiple provinces have started rolling out their own regional guidance based on those early recommendations — with a focus on allowing similar high-risk groups to get another round of vaccinations.

B.C. is set to announce guidance on spring COVID vaccines in early April, officials told CBC News, and those recommendations are expected to align with NACI’s guidance. 

In Manitoba (new window), high-risk individuals are already eligible for another dose, provided it’s been at least three months since their latest COVID vaccine.

Meanwhile Ontario’s latest guidance (new window), released on March 21, stresses that high-risk individuals may get an extra dose during a vaccine campaign set to run between April and June. Eligibility will involve waiting six months after someone’s last dose or COVID infection.

Having a spring dose is particularly important for individuals at increased risk of severe illness from COVID-19 who did not receive a dose during the Fall 2023 program, the guidance notes. 

And in Nova Scotia (new window), the spring campaign will run from March 25 to May 31, also allowing high-risk individuals to get another dose.

Specific eligibility criteria vary slightly from province-to-province, so Canadians should check with their primary care provider, pharmacist or local public health team for exact guidelines in each area.

WATCH: Age still best determines when to get next COVID vaccine dose, research suggests: 

Age still best determines when to get COVID vaccines, new research suggests

It’s been four years since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and new research suggests your age may determine how often you should get a booster shot.

Why do the guidelines focus so much on age?

The rationale behind the latest spring guidelines, Miller said, is that someone’s age remains one of the greatest risk factors associated with severe COVID outcomes, including hospitalization, intensive care admission and death. 

So that risk starts to shoot up at about 50, but really takes off in individuals over the age of 75, he noted.

Canadian data (new window) suggests the overwhelming majority of COVID deaths have been among older adults, with nearly 60 per cent of deaths among those aged 80 or older, and roughly 20 per cent among those aged 70 to 79.

People with compromised immune systems or serious medical conditions are also more vulnerable, Miller added.

Will people always need regular COVID shots?

While the general population may not require shots as frequently as higher-risk groups, Miller said it’s unlikely there will be recommendations any time soon to have a COVID shot less than once a year, given ongoing uncertainty about COVID’s trajectory.

Going forward, I suspect for pragmatic reasons, [COVID vaccinations] will dovetail with seasonal flu vaccine campaigns, just because it makes the implementation much more straightforward, Miller said.

And although we haven’t seen really strong seasonal trends with SARS-CoV-2 now, I suspect we’ll get to a place where it’s more seasonal than it has been.

In the meantime, the guidance around COVID shots remains simple at its core: Whenever you’re eligible to get another dose — whether that’s once or twice a year — you might as well do it.

What does research say?

One analysis, published in early March in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases (new window), studied more than 27,000 U.S. patients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID, between September and December 2023. 

The team found individuals who had an updated vaccine reduced their risk of severe illness by close to a third — and the difference was more noticeable in older and immunocompromised individuals.

Another American research team from Stanford University recently shared the results from a modelling simulation looking at the ideal frequency for COVID vaccines. 

The study in Nature Communications (new window) suggests that for individuals aged 75 and up, having an annual COVID shot could reduce severe infections from an estimated 1,400 cases per 100,000 people to around 1,200 cases — while bumping to twice a year could cut those cases even further, down to 1,000.

For younger, healthier populations, however, the benefit of regular shots against severe illness was more modest.

The outcome wasn’t a surprise to Stanford researcher Dr. Nathan Lo, an infectious diseases specialist, since old age has consistently been a risk factor for severe COVID.

It’s almost the same pattern that’s been present the entire pandemic, he said. And I think that’s quite striking.

More frequent vaccination won’t prevent all serious infections, he added, or perhaps even a majority of those infections, which highlights the need for ongoing mitigation efforts.

Lauren Pelley (new window) · CBC News

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Students face up to 20-day suspension over vaccines – Waterloo Region Record

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Only one principal reported an altercation with a parent on the second day of suspensions over immunization records on Thursday. 

Under the Immunization of School Pupils Act, suspensions can last up to 20 days. 

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Measles case reported locally turns out to be negative: health unit

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NEWS RELEASE
SIMCOE MUSKOKA DISTRICT HEALTH UNIT
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On March 26, the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit (SMDHU) was notified by Public Health Ontario’s (PHO) laboratory that due to laboratory error, the case of measles that had been lab-confirmed positive on March 12, based on symptoms and a positive urine measles laboratory result by PHO’s laboratory, is in fact negative for the measles virus.

“With this new information of the negative lab result, we believe that that individual was not infected with measles and that there has not been any public exposure to measles resulting from this individual’s illness,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, medical officer of health. “We recognize that notifying the public of what we believed to be a positive measles case in our area created worry, anxiety and disruption for some, and we regret this.

“We do know that, despite best efforts, on rare occasions laboratory errors can occur. We are working closely with the PHO’s laboratory to do all that we can to ensure that such an incident does not occur again.”

Measles is a highly contagious viral infection that spreads very easily through airborne transmission. The measles virus can live in the air or on surfaces for up to two hours.

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Symptoms of measles begin seven to 21 days after exposure and include fever, runny nose, cough, drowsiness, and red eyes. Small white spots appear on the inside of the mouth and throat but are not always present. Three to seven days after symptoms begin, a red, blotchy rash appears on the face and then progresses down the body.

The risk of transmission to those vaccinated with two doses is low, and when it does occur tends to show a reduction in the severity of these symptoms.

“Although we are relieved for the individual involved, and for all Simcoe-Muskoka residents, that this case has now been confirmed as negative, we know that measles is still active in Ontario at this time and the potential remains for new cases to arise, especially given the increase in Ontarians travelling to areas in the world that have higher numbers of measles cases,” said Dr. Gardner. “This is why we continue to advise individuals to keep up to date with their routine immunizations, including measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination.”

The risk of measles is low for people who have been fully immunized with two doses of measles vaccine or those born before 1970; however, many children have been delayed in receiving their routine childhood immunizations and people who have not had two doses of measles vaccine are at higher risk of contracting the disease.

People who do get sick usually recover without treatment, but measles can be more severe for infants, pregnant women, and those with compromised immune systems. Possible complications include middle-ear infections, pneumonia, diarrhea, or encephalitis (swelling of the brain) and occasionally death in the very young. Even individuals who are up to date with the measles vaccine should watch for symptoms of measles for 21 days after exposure.

For more information about measles, please visit smdhu.org or call Health Connection at 705-721-7520 or 1-877-721-7520, Monday to Friday between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. to speak with a public health professional.

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