Coronavirus, COVID-19, coronavirus variants, and vaccine updates for 8-20-2021

This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for August 20th, 2021.   The World Health Organization is making it clear it is not happy with countries like the United States moving on to third booster shots. The Africa director warned such countries “make a mockery of vaccine equity.” Less than 2% of Africa’s population is fully vaccinated.   In Alabama, there aren’t any more available ICU beds. The state has run out. In fact there were negative 29 ICU beds available Wednesday night. State health officials say, "We've never been here before." Also, Alabama surpassed Florida as the state with the highest rate of children hospitalized with Covid after the number of kids admitted increased 333% in one week.   Needing an ICU bed and being unvaccinated may be a deadly combination if you’re in Texas. Doctors there have been told if ICU bed availability becomes an issue, they can consider vaccination status as part of triage. Doctors have noted unvaccinated patients are suffering worse outcomes. Meaning all other things being equal, vaccinated people are deemed more likely to survive.   Washington state joins those expanding vaccine mandates to include all public, charter and private school teachers and staff — and anyone working at state colleges and universities. And there is no weekly testing alternative. Those unvaccinated by Oct. 18 risk losing their jobs.   The unvaccinated have an answer for their critics. We didn’t do this, you did. A new YouGov poll shows slightly more unvaccinated Americans blame vaccinated Americans for Delta’s surge than blame themselves. 6% blame themselves, 7% blame the vaccinated. A full one third blame the US administration and the CDC.   In the United States cases were up 47%, deaths are up 97%, and hospitalizations are up 56% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending up since July 5.    There are 7,198,006 actives cases in the United States.   Keeping in mind several states stopped reporting daily case numbers, the five states with the most new cases: Texas 17,752. Florida 15,402. California 14,019. Georgia 9,836. And North Carolina 7,020.   The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Neshoba, MS. Cook, GA. Clay, KY. George, MS. Stone, MS. Columbia, FL. Tift, GA. Clarke, MS. Crockett, TN. And Attala, MS.   There have been at least 625,153 deaths in U.S. recorded as Covid-related.   The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s been fully vaccinated: Vermont again unchanged at 67.1%, Massachusetts at 65%, and Maine at 64.8%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Alabama unchanged at 35.7%, Mississippi at 36.2%, and Wyoming unchanged at 37.6%. The percentage of the U.S. that’s been fully vaccinated is 51%.   The 5 countries with the largest recent 24-hour increase in the number of fully vaccinated people: Malawi up 7%. Eswatini 6%. Kyrgyzstan 4%. And Malaysia and Morocco 3%.   Globally, cases were up 8% and deaths were up 4% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since June 21.   There are 17,652,034 active cases around the world.   The five countries with the most new cases: The United States 154,917. India 37,312. The U.K. 36,572. Brazil 35,991. And Iran 31,266.   There have now been at least 4,401,878 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide.   For the latest updates, subscribe for free to Coronavirus 411 on your podcast app or ask your smart speaker to play the Coronavirus 411 podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.