WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Coronavirus vaccinations will be required of all teachers and other school staff, with a weekly testing option initially available, and a universal facemask mandate for all people entering a school building, Governor Kathy Hochul said in an inaugural address on her first day in office.
“We’re launching a back-to-school COVID-19 testing program to make testing for students and staff widely and convenient. I’m also immediately directing the department of health to institute universal masking for anyone entering our schools,” Hochul said.
Hochul said a vaccine mandate for all teachers and school staff is needed, although educators would initially have the option of weekly testing, presumably for those not yet vaccinated.
Hochul also said residents can expect a new series of vaccine mandates following Monday’s approval of the Pfizer jab by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and an FDA recommendation for booster shots eight months after becoming fully vaccinated.
“I’m prepared to whatever is necessary, including reopening mass vac sites so a booster is available to all new Yorkers who meet that timetable,” she said.
Hochul, a longtime lieutenant governor, took over the top slot on Tuesday following the resignation of Governor Andrew Cuomo over a report that he sexually harassed 11 women and amid numerous other scandals.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Guatemalan Health Ministry said on Tuesday that the country has received a fresh supply of 400,000 shots of the Russian-made coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V.
"The 400,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccine that have arrived have been sent to the National Biological Center, where they will be stored at a temperature of -18 to -20 °C [-0.4 to - 4 degrees Fahrenheit] before being transferred to regional health authorities," the ministry tweeted.
The emergency use of the Russian vaccine was approved in Guatemala in late February. Last month, the country's government and the Russian Direct Investment Fund renegotiated a contract on vaccine doses due to delays in previous deliveries. Under the new deal, Guatemala will receive half of the previous order, or 8 million Sputnik V shots, that had been prepaid by the country's government.
To date, the Russian vaccine has been approved in 69 countries with a total population exceeding 3.7 billion people.
BUENOS AIRES (Sputnik) - At least 70% of the Uruguayan population have been fully immunized against the coronavirus, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
"70% of the population of Uruguay received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine, and it is possible to reach the goal of 75%," the ministry said.
Overall, 2,482,063 Uruguayans have received two doses and 243,754 have received a booster shot, according to the ministry.
To date, a total of 384,181 COVID-19 cases and 6,015 related fatalities have been confirmed in Uruguay.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – A 7-day average of daily COVID-19 related deaths increased 23 percent over the previous week to reach nearly 740 fatalities every day, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Tuesday.
“7-day average of daily death increased to 739 per day and increase of 23 percent from the previous 7-day period,” Walensky said in a press briefing.
The CDC reported 157,000 new COVID-19 cases last Friday.
“Our 7-day average is about 137,000 cases per day. This represents the increase of nearly 12 percent from the prior 7-day average,” she added.
Walensky warned that the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths are continuing to rise.
As White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients noted at the same briefing, more than 200 million Americans got at least the first vaccine shot, and 171 million are Americans fully vaccinated.
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – One quarter of more than 40,000 COVID-19 infections were in fully vaccinated individuals during a 3-month period when the delta variant became dominant, according to a report published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on Tuesday.
The data from individuals in Los Angeles County, California, was collected from May 1–July 25, 2021. From 6,752 samples subjected to genome sequencing, researchers estimated that prevalence of the delta variant rose from 8.6 percent of infections at the beginning of the period to 91.2 percent when the three month period ended, the report.
“Among 43,127 reported SARS-CoV-2 infections in Los Angeles County residents aged ≥16 years, 10,895 (25.3%) were in fully vaccinated persons, 1,431 (3.3%) were in partially vaccinated persons, and 30,801 (71.4%) were in unvaccinated persons,” the report said.
While the report appears to indicate that so-called breakthrough infections have become increasingly common with the delta variant, the report also reinforced earlier data showing COVID-19 vaccines offer substantial protection from severe infections, especially those requiring hospitalization.
Much lower percentages of fully vaccinated persons infected with SARS-CoV-2 were hospitalized (3.2%), were admitted to an intensive care unit (0.5%), and required mechanical ventilation (0.2%) compared with partially vaccinated persons (6.2%, 1.0%, and 0.3%, respectively) and unvaccinated persons (7.6%, 1.5%, and 0.5%, respectively), the report said.
The report concluded with a recommendation that efforts to increase COVID-19 vaccination coverage, in coordination with other prevention strategies, are critical in preventing COVID-19–related hospitalizations and deaths.
BANGKOK (Sputnik) - Myanmar and Russia are conducting negotiations on the construction of a factory producing vaccines against COVID-19 in Yangon, Myanmar’s state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar reported on Tuesday.
The outlet said that on Monday, Prime Minister Min Aung Hlaing held a meeting with the State Administration Council, during which he informed that the government sought to build a plant in cooperation with Moscow.
The COVID-19 situation in Myanmar is one of the worst among Asian countries. After the February military overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, most of the country’s medical personnel joined the Civil Disobedience Movement and left hospitals, while military medical facilities are overloaded with people infected with the coronavirus.
The country has so far registered over 375,800 COVID-19 cases and almost 15,000 deaths caused by the disease. Myanmar, which has a population of about 54 million, has the highest coronavirus mortality rate among other Southeast Asian countries.
