Category: Breaking News

The research, which used findings from more than 29 million people, found there is still a risk after having the jab – but it is “considerably higher” in someone who has the virus.

A coronavirus infection presents a much higher risk of developing a blood clot than a first dose of either the AstraZeneca or the Pfizer jab, a study has found. The research used findings from more than 29 million people who were vaccinated with first doses of either jab. The study showed although there was an increased risk of having a blood clot after having the first doses of either vaccine, it was much greater in someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. The researchers are fully independent from the University of Oxford team that worked with AstraZeneca to develop that particular vaccine. Fears over blood clots have led to the restricted use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in a number of countries. The researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal, found for short time intervals after the first does there are increased risks of some blood, or blood-vessel, related events leading to hospitalisation or death. However, they also wrote that that the risk of these adverse events is substantially higher and for a longer period of time, following infection from coronavirus.

The popularity of at-home COVID-19 testing kits has skyrocketed as the delta variant has spread, leaving many consumers scrambling to find them as retailers struggle to catch up with demand. Over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits are now the top-selling items in CVS stores, a spokeswoman said. Manufacturers of BinaxNOW Self Tests said demand for its products is increasing as cases rise and it’s working with retailers to keep store shelves stocked. “The phrase ‘flying off the shelves’ would probably be appropriate,” said Tim Halfin, regional pharmacy director for H-E-B’s Houston Division.

On HoustonChronicle.com: Struggling to find COVID tests in Houston? You’re not alone as delta variant rages, schools reopen

The home testing kits have grown in popularity with the concurrent rise in delta cases and the return of students to school this month, he said. Vaccination volumes at H-E-B’s Houston pharmacies have also returned to the peak volumes they reached in April. Supply throughout Houston has been spotty as demand for home test kits soars, but Halfin said H-E-B should be well-stocked for at least the next couple of weeks. “We placed what I’ve been told was a very large order of them,” he said. Leslie Santamaria, of Houston, had to do a bit of hunting to score her kit last week after learning she’d been exposed to COVID-19. She wanted immediate results — she is fully vaccinated, she said, but her young children are not. “I wanted to know ASAP to protect my under-12 children,” she said. The first pharmacy she went to was sold out of the kit she wanted, Santamaria said, so she searched CVS’ website for which stores had them in stock and found one on South Main. Walmart said it, too, is noticing and adjusting to an uptick in home test sales. “While we have seen increased demand for COVID testing kits, we are not experiencing major supply issues overall and if a particular store has low or no inventory,” it said in a statement, “we expect it is temporary as product moves through the supply chain.” Rapid tests at drive-thru operations by Walgreens and CVS are also getting harder to schedule as people scramble for tests. Testing slots are booked days in advance. Compounding the demand for testing in recent weeks was the rampant spread of colds and other viruses that had been suppressed as people wore masks and socially distanced earlier in the pandemic, said Steve Hoffart, owner of Magnolia Pharmacy in Magnolia. He said his customers are blowing through cough and cold medicines. “You would think it’s the fall,” he said, noting a run like this is abnormal for summer. “You don’t ever see this.” Hoffart said he received so many requests for home testing kits last week that he ordered his first batch, which arrived on shelves Monday. He said people are out and about more than they had been in a while and are catching all kinds of viruses en masse, are experiencing allergy symptoms and are wondering which is which. Immune systems got weaker during the pandemic as people masked up and limited their exposure to others, he said, urging use of Vitamin D to help give it a boost.

(Reuters) – The number of coronavirus patients in U.S. hospitals breached 100,000 on Thursday, the highest level in eight months, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, as a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant strains the nation’s health care system. U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past month. Over the past week, more than 500 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals each hour on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States reached its all-time peak for hospitalizations on Jan. 6 when there were 132,051 coronavirus-infected patients in hospital beds, according to a Reuters tally. As the vaccination campaign rapidly expanded in early 2021, hospitalizations fell and hit a 2021 low of 13,843 on June 28. However, COVID-19 admissions rose suddenly in July as the Delta variant became the dominant strain. The U.S. South is the epicenter of the latest outbreak but hospitalizations are rising nationwide. Florida has the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, followed by Texas and California, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than 95% of intensive care beds are currently occupied in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among mostly the unvaccinated U.S. population, has also sent a record number of children to hospital. There are currently over 2,000 confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to HHS. Three states – California, Florida and Texas – amount to about 32% of the total confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States. Children currently make up about 2.3% of the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalizations. Kids under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine. The country is hoping for vaccine authorization for younger children by autumn with the Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that the nation could get COVID-19 under control by early next year if vaccinations ramp up. The United States has given at least one dose of vaccine to about 61% of its population, according to the CDC.

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ISIS bombing the airport and U.S. assets in Kabul. Breakthrough COVID mutation infecting fully vaccinated people in America. We cover this and more in our latest offering of Radio Free Wall Street.

SYDNEY, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Australia’s new daily cases of COVID-19 topped 1,000 on Thursday for the first time since the global pandemic began, as two major hospitals in Sydney set up emergency outdoor tents to help deal with a rise in patients. Sydney, the country’s largest city and the epicentre of the current outbreak, is struggling to stamp out a surge in the fast-spreading Delta variant, with daily infections hitting record levels even after two months under lockdown. New South Wales (NSW) state, where Sydney is the capital, reported 1,029 new locally acquired cases, exceeding the previous record of 919 a day earlier. Of the new cases, 969 were detected in greater Sydney, up from 838. The rapid rise in COVID-19 patients has forced Sydney’s Westmead and Blacktown hospitals, which service the city’s sprawling western suburbs, to erect tents to screen and swab patients to help manage capacity. The makeshift unit in the emergency department for COVID-19 patients will help “to offload delays”, a Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson told Reuters. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said authorities had quadrupled the number of the state’s intensive care ventilators to 2,000 early last year. Although the system is “under pressure”, it can withstand the current crisis once vaccination rates rise, she said. “It might be different to the help you got before because of the situation, but please know the system is kicking in,” Berejiklian said at a televised media conference. Of 116 people in intensive care in NSW, 102 are not vaccinated. Three new deaths were reported, including a man in his 30s who died at home, taking deaths from the latest outbreak to 79, although the death rate has slowed since last year. In a video posted on Twitter Wednesday night, the Australian Paramedic Association said paramedics were given a choice to wait in their vehicles with infected people or “wait outside in the freezing rain” due to the rise in patients. The fast-moving Delta strain has taken the gloss off Australia’s early success against the virus that kept its coronavirus numbers relatively low, with some 47,700 cases and 989 deaths. About 32% of people above 16 have been fully vaccinated while just over 54% have had at least one dose. Besides Sydney, the country’s second-largest city, Melbourne, and capital, Canberra, are also in hard lockdowns, putting more than half of the country’s 25 million population under strict stay-at-home orders. Cases in Victoria, home to Melbourne, surged to 80 on Thursday, up from 45 a day earlier.

• Just two days into her administration, NY Gov. Kathy Hochul released new COVID-19 death numbers.
• Hochul updated the state’s tally by adding 12,000 more deaths than were previously reported.
• “Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration,” Hochul said on MSNBC.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul acknowledged an additional 12,000 COVID-19 deaths in New York State that her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, did not, the Associated Press reported. The new governor said the new tally will increase transparency after former governor Andrew Cuomo was accused of covering up COVID-19 deaths in state nursing homes during the beginning of the pandemic. Beyond the sexual harassment allegations that preceded Cuomo’s resignation, the nursing home death count became one of several scandals that plagued his third term. “We’re now releasing more data than had been released before publicly, so people know the nursing home deaths and the hospital deaths are consistent with what’s being displayed by the CDC,” Hochul said Wednesday on MSNBC. “There’s a lot of things that weren’t happening and I’m going to make them happen,” she continued. “Transparency will be the hallmark of my administration.” Before her bombshell 165-page report that found Cuomo sexually harassed 11 women, New York Attorney General Letitia James accused the former governor of undercounting nursing home deaths by as much as 50%. Cuomo’s top aide at the time, Melissa DeRosa, told lawmakers in a leaked call that the administration was sitting on the nursing home-related death tally as a preemptive measure against a potential federal investigation urged by former President Donald Trump. A March 25, 2020 executive order mandated that nursing home patients who were hospitalized with the COVID-19 should be discharged back to nursing homes, as long as the providers could take adequate care of them. The Cuomo administration insisted they were simply following CDC guidance. Hospital capacity was a primary concern at the time, but the order left nursing home staff in a bind, particularly with the potential for the recently hospitalized residents to spread the virus if they were still within the window of contagiousness. Cuomo accused Trump, Fox News and the New York Post of conspiring against him by running with the story. Questions remain over whether Hochul will fire Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, who was heavily implicated in the attorney general report on nursing homes. Our goal is to create a safe and engaging place for users to connect over interests and passions. In order to improve our community experience, we are temporarily suspending article commenting.

If you’ve been to a grocery store lately, you’ve probably noticed that a lot of your favorite items are either missing or low in stock. In some cases, entire stretches of grocery stores are bare. Why are grocery stores having so much trouble stocking their shelves? Unless you’ve taken social distancing to the extreme and have completely shut down the outside world, then you know that the current coronavirus (also known as COVID-19) pandemic is escalating every day. People who are worried about the future have been panic-buying everything from toilet paper to water, either because they’re worried about potentially being quarantined or because they don’t want to face a shortage of goods. Ironically, it’s this panic-buying that is leading to a shortage of goods in the first place. Stores like Walmart are cutting their hours and putting purchase limits on high-demand items, but household staples are still flying off the shelves. This may lead some people to think that food production is slowing down, but that simply isn’t the case. “There is food being produced,” Julie Anna Potts, chief executive of the North American Meat Institute, told The New York Times. “There is food in warehouses. There is plenty of food in the country.”