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Brazil: 43,033 COVID Cases, 990 Deaths in 24 hours, US COVID Surge Highest in 6 Months

A health worker administers a dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to a resident, during mass vaccination at the Ilha Grande island, one of the most famous tourist spots in Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil, July 10, 2021. REUTERS/Lucas Landau

SAO PAUsLO, Aug 7 (Reuters) – Brazil had 43,033 new cases of the novel coronavirus reported in the past 24 hours, and 990 deaths from COVID-19, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The South American country has now registered 20,151,779, cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 562,752, according to ministry data, in the world’s third worst outbreak outside the United States and India and its second-deadliest after the United States.

Reporting by Ana Mano; Editing by Aurora Ellis

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US COVID Surge Highest in 6 Months

CNN- The US is averaging more than 100,000 new daily Covid-19 cases each day, the highest in nearly six months, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The last time the seven-day average surpassed 100,000 cases was on February 11, according to the data. The country hit a 2021 low average of 11,299 daily cases on June 22.

And the surge, largely among unvaccinated people, has been fueled by the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.

As half of the US population remains unvaccinated, hospitalizations and deaths have climbed, the US Covid-19 surge is. But experts say we can turn things around

More than 63,250 Covid-19 patients were in US hospitals on Friday — a number that has generally climbed since a 2021 low of 16,152 on June 29, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services.

The alarming uptick in cases and hospitalizations comes as millions of students are returning to schools in-person.

And conversations about mask mandates in schools are once again shaping the debate on mitigation efforts between state and local school officials.

In Florida, which has the highest Covid-19 hospitalization rate in the country, school officials told CNN on Saturday that they want to keep their students and staff masked. But they are concerned about the anti-mask mandate stance taken by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, who threatened to pull funding from schools that implement such requirement.

n masking children in schools as pediatric hospitals fill up with Covid-19 patients

“We’ve already seen children are sick right here in Broward County. We have a high school student that is fighting for her life with Covid. We’ve had two students throughout the state of Florida this past couple of weeks that have passed away from Covid,” Anna Fusco, president of Broward Teachers Union, told CNN’s Pamela Brown on Saturday.

“So students are dying. And to have this mandate with funds held over our head if we go forward with it just shows really, really poor leadership in our governor.”

DeSantis issued an executive order last week, telling the state’s health and education departments to create rules preventing local school mask mandates. Two different lawsuits have since been filed against the Republican governor over the executive order.

Unvaccinated dad records days of regret in hospital — and makes heartbreaking request for daughter’s wedding in case he dies

Andrew Spar, president of Florida Education Association, said some districts are mandating masks, but allowing parents to opt out their children to get around DeSantis’ order.

Hillsborough County Public Schools in Tampa will require face coverings when schools starts, but parents will have the opt-out option, Superintendent Addison Davis said Saturday in a statement.

“While the outcome may be the same whether we make face coverings optional or required with an opt-out, we believe this decision continues to illustrate that Hillsborough County Public Schools takes public safety seriously,” said Davis, adding that masks are optional for employees.

Orange County Public Schools in Orlando is also adopting the same opt-out rule for students, but employees, visitors, volunteers and parents will be required to wear masks, the district said.

Florida has fully vaccinated 49.5% of its total population, but the rate of virus transmission is still high, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Overall, the CDC recommends that everyone — students, teachers, staff and visitors — wear masks in schools.

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CDC: Unvaccinated more than twice as likely to get COVID-19 reinfection

By Justine Coleman

Unvaccinated people are more than twice as likely than the fully vaccinated to get reinfected with COVID-19, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released Friday.

The research determined that unvaccinated Kentucky residents who had a confirmed coronavirus infection last year had a “significantly higher likelihood of reinfection” than those considered fully vaccinated. The study concluded that the unvaccinated were 2.34 times more likely to contract COVID-19 again.

The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) counters the argument that people previously infected with the coronavirus don’t need the vaccine because natural immunity offers enough protection.

The agency has already recommended that people previously infected with COVID-19 get vaccinated for more protection.

The study involved 246 Kentucky residents who were reinfected in May and June this year after having a confirmed 2020 case. They were compared to 492 controls who had a 2020 infection but were not reinfected.

Reinfection had previously been studied in laboratory settings, but the CDC noted there has been limited real-world data on the subject.

“These findings suggest that among persons with previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, full vaccination provides additional protection against reinfection,” the report reads. “To reduce their risk of infection, all eligible persons should be offered vaccination, even if they have been previously infected with SARS-CoV-2.”

The CDC said that natural immunity after recovering from COVID-19 without a vaccination “is suspected to persist for ≥90 days in most persons,” acknowledging it is “not well understood.” The report also said that variants could affect a person’s immunity to a natural infection.

The highly contagious delta variant was not as prevalent in May and June but has since become the dominant strain in the U.S. At the time, the alpha strain was the most common.

The agency noted that the reinfection numbers “might be overestimated” since vaccinated people are “possibly less likely to get tested.”

Some members of Congress, including Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), have said they do not plan to get the vaccine, citing claims that because they previously had COVID-19, they have immunity.

“Until they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers or being hospitalized or getting very sick, I just made my own personal decision that I’m not getting vaccinated because I’ve already had the disease and I have natural immunity,” Paul said in May.

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WORLD STATS

Coronavirus Cases:

203,508,853

Deaths:

4,308,544

Recovered:

182,815,018
Highlighted in green
= all cases have recovered from the infection
Highlighted in grey
= all cases have had an outcome (there are no active cases)

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Latest News

August 9 (GMT)

Updates

  • 14,472 new cases and 7 new deaths in Japan [source]
  • 22,160 new cases and 769 new deaths in Russia [source]
  • 603 new cases and 18 new deaths in Fiji [source]
  • 483 new cases and 8 new deaths

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