https://dcist.com/story/21/08/27/covid-cases-hospitalizations-increasing-with-delta-spread/



As the D.C. region barrels towards another pandemic autumn, cases and hospitalizations are continuing to rise in the D.C. region.

Just last week, key metrics like the rolling average of new cases per day, the positivity rate, and hospitalizations looked similar to the numbers reported locally in April, before vaccines became widely available. Now, the region’s case numbers and hospitalizations are hitting levels not recorded since earlier this spring, when vaccination rollouts were still hobbled by low supply and overwhelming demand. While hospital capacity remains stable and the rise in infections has not yet led to a similar spike in deaths from the virus, the consistently climbing metrics and plateauing vaccination rates underscore the severe infectiousness of the delta variant.

On Thursday, D.C. reported 210 new COVID-19 cases in one day, marking the first time the city has recorded more than 200 infections since February. (One day in early March, the District reported more than 300 daily cases due a backlog.) Since Aug. 11, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has classified D.C.’s level of spread as “high,” the most severe category. As of this week, the city’s average rate of new cases per 100,000 residents has hit levels not seen since March, per D.C.’s coronavirus data.

Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the city dipped significantly in the early summer months, but began to climb this August. As of Wednesday, 116 people in the city were hospitalized with the virus, and 26 of those people are being treated in intensive care units. One month ago, a total of 21 residents were hospitalized due to COVID-19. The number of patients hospitalized with the virus last topped 100 in late April into early May, and began steadily declining throughout the summer.

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/national/president-biden-expected-to-sign-paws-act-would-allow-va-to-pay-for-service-dogs-for-veterans/77-bc7ad07c-a961-42ad-bbf6-263ea35cf3fa

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — President Biden signed the PAWS Act into law Wednesday.

The PAWS ACT, or 'Puppies Assisting Wounded Service members for Veterans Therapy Act,' authorizes the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to create a pilot program on dog training therapy that will provide dog-training skills and service dogs to veterans with mental illnesses.

"This has been a five-year battle to try and convince the federal government that what we do every day is valuable and helps veterans," Rory Diamond, CEO of K9s for Warriors said to First Coast News. "They're finally agreeing and we're getting a big breakthrough here."

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed the bill earlier this month after it was passed by the House in March.

Diamond said the $10 million, five-year pilot program will take effect on Jan. 1, 2022. For the first time in American history, he says the VA will pay for service dogs for veterans with PTSD.

The news release says the new law will also:

Designate eligible veterans to receive dog training instruction from nongovernmental accredited 501(c)(3) nonprofit Service Dog training organizations (i.e., K9s For Warriors)
Allow eligible veterans to learn positive reinforcement training in skills that are unique to their own needs to help address or alleviate their PTSD symptoms
Provide veterans participating in the program with the opportunity to adopt a dog that they actively assisted in their training, provided that the veteran and their health provider determine it to be in the best interest of the veteran.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/covid-monoclonal-abbott/2021/08/19/a39a0b5e-0029-11ec-a664-4f6de3e17ff0_story.html

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The drugs often prevent severe disease, keeping people like Mike Burton out of the hospital if taken within seven to 10 days after symptoms begin. And since last month, they can be given prophylactically to millions of people like Linda Burton who have been exposed to the coronavirus and are at high risk of serious consequences.

“That was all news [to me], when my friend Rita called,” said Linda Burton, a retired nurse. “I want everybody to know about this. I’m telling people that I know that are older. I’m saying ‘if you get exposed, you need to talk to your doctor about it.’”

Monoclonal antibodies are free to patients and there have been almost no side effects. They are accessible on an outpatient basis, via a single infusion or four injections. Hospitals, urgent care centers and even private doctors are authorized to dispense them.

But Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, maker of the only authorized, free monoclonal antibodies, said it is reaching fewer than 30 percent of eligible patients, up from fewer than 5 percent a month ago.

Maryland, one of the two states in the country to flip from majority White to majority non-White over the last decade, is now the most diverse state on the East Coast, according to new data from the 2020 Census. Meanwhile, the District continued to lose Black residents — an exodus that has accelerated over the last 10 years.

Overall, the region’s population grew by 12.9 percent to 6.6 million, less than in past decades. Loudoun County led Northern Virginia and the metro area with an increase of 38.4 percent, while in the Maryland suburbs of D.C., Howard County grew the most, 15.8 percent.



Keeping with national trends that saw the number of White people in the U.S. fall and the White share of the population dip below 60 percent for the first time since 1790, population growth in the D.C. region has been driven largely by people of color.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s diversity index — which measures the likelihood that two people chosen at random would be from different racial and ethnic groups — Maryland is now one of the most diverse states in the nation, surpassed only by Nevada, California and Hawaii.

Nevada also was the only other state in the country to become majority non-White over the last decade.

The change in Maryland’s demographic makeup was driven by growing Asian and Latino populations in the District’s inner suburbs and areas around Baltimore.

https://www.vox.com/22602039/breakthrough-cases-covid-19-delta-variant-masks-vaccines

The last week’s headlines were not comforting for Americans vaccinated for Covid-19.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed its guidance to recommend everyone, regardless of vaccination status, wear masks in Covid-19 hot spots. A study of an outbreak in Provincetown, Massachusetts, found around three-quarters of people infected there were vaccinated. As cases increase nationwide, it’s understandable to think that breakthrough cases (infections in vaccinated people) are now a main driver of the ongoing Covid-19 surge.

But the evidence is clear: The problem is the unvaccinated population. If more people got the vaccines, the current surge wouldn’t be as big; it certainly wouldn’t lead to the levels of hospitalization and death now seen across the US. This was true months ago, and remains true today.

Unvaccinated people still make up the vast majority of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. They’ve made up more than 94 percent of reported Covid-19 cases in states with available data, a report last week from the Kaiser Family Foundation found. They’ve also made up similar, or higher, shares of hospitalizations and deaths.

Then there’s what really happened in the Provincetown outbreak. The headlines noted three-fourths of people infected by the virus were vaccinated. But among the more than 900 cases tracked as a result of the outbreak, just seven led to hospitalization — and there were zero deaths. If this was 2020, when there were no vaccines, closer to 90 people would have been hospitalized and about nine would have died, based on hospitalization and death rates over the last year.

“The vaccines are upholding their promise to massively prevent serious disease, hospitalizations, and death,” Monica Gandhi, an infectious diseases doctor at the University of California San Francisco, told me. “That’s the main message I get from that outbreak.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/pentagon-transit-center-incident/2021/08/03/b0c1c01a-f46c-11eb-9738-8395ec2a44e7_story.html

The Pentagon was put on lockdown Tuesday morning after reports of an “active violence incident” in its transit center, Pentagon and fire officials said. The Associated Press reported a shooting occurred on a bus platform.

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency tweeted shortly before noon that the scene of the incident was secure but remains the subject of an active investigation. It also reported the Pentagon had been reopened around 12:15 p.m.

The agency initially announced the lockdown shortly after 11 a.m.

“We request that everyone stay away from the Metro rail entrance and bus platform area,” one tweet read.

The Arlington Fire Department tweeted it was responding to an incident of violence near the Pentagon Metro station and it had encountered multiple patients. No information was given about the patients’ conditions.