RALEIGH, N.C. On Tuesday, North Carolina health officials released a report showing 170 ongoing COVID-19 clusters in K-12 schools or childcare settings. While the state Department of Health and Human Services said it does not have data on the number of pupils quarantined statewide or the share of those forced to miss school without a remote learning option, districts without mask-wearing requirements are seeing substantially more spread of the virus and hours of lost learning among students.
Union County Public Schools, which voted down a proposal last month to require mask-wearing in the state’s sixth-largest public school district, reported about one in 8 of the more than 41,000 students in the community were under quarantine as of Friday. More than 5,200 students were placed under quarantine after 337 pupils tested positive for the virus last week. Meanwhile, the Wake County Public School System, where masks are mandatory and four times larger than Union County Public Schools, has less than a fourth of the number of students quarantined. Data from the Wake County district shows less than 1,300 of its 161,000 pupils were quarantined last week.
In Durham County, where face coverings are also mandatory, the public school district with nearly 31,000 pupils learning in person reported 97 new cases among students last week. The weekly report state health officials updated on Tuesday shows the Union Academy Charter School in Monroe has the worst cluster in North Carolina, with 111 positive cases, including 98 among children. This amounts to about one in 20 of the charter school’s students being infected. Charter Day School in Brunswick County has the next highest cluster of 81 infected children, followed distantly by Emereau Charter School in Bladen County, with 31 infections among students.
MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:
— COVID-19 boosters are coming, but who will get them and when?
— Idaho hospitals begin rationing health care amid COVID surge
— Indian state battered by COVID now on alert for Nipah virus
— First responders nationwide resist COVID vaccine mandate
— Read AP coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.
HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
ATLANTA — Another Georgia school district is switching to virtual learning after three school bus employees have died from COVID-19 in recent weeks. The 9,700-student Griffin-Spalding County school system made the announcement late Monday, citing a disruption in student transportation—districts across Georgia struggle to line up enough drivers and monitors to keep buses running. In Savannah, some bus drivers staged a sickout for the second day on Tuesday after a similar protest Friday.
At least 210,000 Georgia students in 54 districts and charter networks have disrupted their school schedules because of COVID-19. Some sections have taken days off; some shifted to every-other-day programs and sent home individual schools or grades. TMorethan 12% of Georgia’s 1.7 million public school students. The number of COVID-19 patients in Georgia hospitals remains above 6,000, the highest level since the pandemic. The number of newly reported cases has decreased recently, although issues remain near an all-time high. According to state data, more than 34,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported among Georgia children aged 5-17 in the two weeks that ended September 2, with more than 125 infection clusters said in K-12 schools during that period.
SEATTLE — Fans attending most pro sporting events in Seattle will soon be required to prove they’ve been vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested negative for the virus. The NFL’s Seahawks, MLS’s Sounders, NHL’s Kraken, and MLB’s Mariners, along with the University of Washington and Washington State University, all announced updated policies Tuesday for fans attending games this season. The Seahawks will be the first to implement the requirements, starting with their September 19 home opener against Tennessee. Fans must show proof of vaccination or a negative test taken within 72 hours of the event to be granted entry.
Team president Chuck Arnold said the measures would allow for a full stadium while keeping the experience safe. Washington will begin an exact verification process for fans with its September 25 home game against California. The Sounders will start with their October 3 match against Colorado. Washington State said its verification process wwouldbegin in October. The Mariners said fans should plan to provide proof of vaccination for any potential postseason games the team hosts. The team also said all front office, event staff, and Mariners employees at team-operated facilities in the U.S. were told in late August they must be fully vaccinated by October 4 as a condition of employment. While the other Seattle teams permit a negative test to gain entry, the Kraken will only allow vaccinated fans at games.
FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. — West Virginia’s largest annual festival will require most people in attendance to wear masks when Bridge Day is held next month. The Bridge Day Commission says covers will be needed for the festival regardless of vaccination status, and social distancing must be observed whenever possible. Tens of thousands typically show up on the third Saturday of October to watch parachutists, zip liners, and rappellers on the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayetteville. Exceptions to the mask mandate include those thrillseekers at the time of their participation. The announcement comes as officials in nearby Oak Hill tell anyone who attended the Oak Leaf Festival to get tested for the virus after some workers and volunteers tested positive for COVID-19. Last year’s Bridge Day event was canceled due to the pandemic.
PARIS — French doctors and scientists are calling on authorities to take action against the insults and threats — including death threats — that they have frequently received during the pandemic. The doctors say they fear someone from the world of conspiracy theories will act against them and other medical professionals. They condemn what they call silence by authorities. Physician Jerome Marty, who heads a union for doctors in private practice, says some have been receiving regular death threats for months via social media, email, telephone, or the postal service. Some have engaged bodyguards; Marty says: “We are targets.”
BROOKFIELD, Ill. — Animals at Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago are getting their own COVID-19 vaccinations. Primates, small carnivores, big cats, and bears will be among the first to get shots. Dr. Mike Adkesson, vice president of clinical medicine at the Chicago Zoological Society, which manages the zoo, says it is known that various species can transmit and be sickened by coronaviruses. Adkisson says, “Vaccinating animals is not only important for their oealth, but healthy animals help keep humans healthy, too.” Similar vaccination programs have started at zoos in Detroit and elsewhere. Like humans, the animals get two doses about three weeks apart. The Zoetis-made vaccine has been authorized by the federal government and Illinois officials.
OMAHA, Neb. — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is announcing that meatpacking workers and farmworkers who were severely affected by the coronavirus pandemic will be eligible for grants of up to $600 per person of a new $700 million aid program. Officials say the gifts are meant to defray some of the costs workers bore as many of them bought their protective equipment or took unpaid leave as the virus tore through their industries, even as they were required to keep showing up for work.
Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, says meatpacking plants saw some of the deadliest outbreaks, and their workers deserve support. “While the rest of America could work from home,” Perrone said, “these brave men and women continued to show up for work every day to ensure that we all had food on our tables that we could eat.” The UFCW union, representing roughly 80% of the nation’s beef and pork workers and 33% of its poultry workers, estimates that at least 132 meatpacking workers died of COVID-19, and at least 22,000 workers were infected with or exposed to the virus.
PHOENIX — Arizona’s attorney general says Tucson’s vaccine mandate for city employees is illegal. Mark Brnovich’s decision gives the city 30 days to repeal the mandate or lose millions of dollars in state funding. Brnovich cites a state law approved this summer banning local governments from mandating vaccines for their employees. It takes effect later this month. Brnovich also mentions an August executive order signed by Gov. Doug Ducey. Last month a Pima County judge rejected a Tucson police union’s challenge of the mandate. A Tucson Mayor Regina Romero spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
BOISE, Idaho — Idaho public health leaders have activated “crisis standards of care” for the state’s northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than the institutions can handle. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare is warning residents they may not get the care they expect because of a severe shortage of staffing and available beds caused by a massive increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations. The measure includes ten hospitals and health care systems in north-central Idaho and the panhandle. It lets hospitals allot scarce resources like intensive care unit rooms to those most likely to survive.
GENEVA — The head of a top association of pharmaceutical makers says they are now churning out coronavirus vaccine doses at a rate of about 1.5 billion per month, so wealthy governments that have been sitting on stockpiles “no longer need to do so.” The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations says rising production can help offset gaping inequalities in vaccine access that have left developing countries far behind.
IFPMA director-general Thomas Cueni says 7.5 billion doses have been produced so far. He adds that independent adviser projects that 12 billion would be available worldwide by year-end and nearly twice that by next June. At those rates, wealthy G7 nations could vaccinate their populations sufficiently — including booster shots — and still have enough to donate 1.2 billion doses to other countries.
Key manufacturers like Pfizer and Moderna have reported considerable surges in revenues and earnings behind sales of their mRNA vaccines. Critics have accused the industry of putting profits over people. The World Health Organization has repeatedly called on governments and manufacturers to ensure that vaccines are distributed more equally. It says the pandemic can fester and worsen, such as with the emergence of new variants, if large parts of the world remain unvaccinated. The WHO has also praised the industry’s rapid development and rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.
LONDON — The U.K. has reported its most significant daily rise in coronavirus deaths in six months when new infections are expected to rise further with children returning to school. Government figures on Tuesday show 209 recent coronavirus-related deaths, taking the country’s overall total to 133,483. It’s the most significant daily increase since March 9, when the country was in strict lockdown. Figures reported on Tuesdays throughout the pandemic have tended to be higher because of the weekend writing lag effects. Over the past week, deaths have been up 39% on the preceding week to 948. Ends are still lower than in previous pandemic waves, with nearly two-thirds of the U.K. population fully vaccinated. Health officials are expected to decide soon whether children aged 12-15 will get vaccinated.
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romanian health authorities say the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus now has “sustained” community transmission in the country, where new infections are surging. The National Institute of Public Health says in a Tuesday report that of 2,563 “variants of concern” reported by seven laboratories, 807 were determined to be the delta strain. Of those delta cases, 184, or 22.8%, involved fully vaccinated people. A few dozen infections were reported daily in mid-July in Romania, home to about 19 million people. On Tuesday, more than 2,000 new cases were reported. Romania has recorded more than 1.1 million COVID-19 infections and 34,762 deaths.
MADRID — Over 8 million schoolchildren in Spain are returning to classes this week with masks of social distancing as authorities try to boost student vaccination rates. The staggered return to schools varies by region and age group. It has been a cause of concern because vaccinations among the youngest started only in the past few weeks. About 40% of students over 12 have received the two vaccine doses required to build the optimum level of immunization. Although Spain has little vaccine hesitancy, the government has launched campaigns on social media to motivate teenagers to get inoculated. Officials are betting on in-class education for this year with no small classes. Pupils will need to wear masks in classrooms and during recess time.
HELSINKI — Finland will lift all remaining coronavirus restrictions after at least 80% of people over age 12 are fully vaccinated. Prime Minister Sanna Marin says that goal will likely be reached in October, when “we will open the (Finnish) society and keep it open.” Marin says her government’s updated COVID-19 strategy is more oriented toward reopening than its previous strategy of “testing, tracking, and quarantining,” The key to achieving it is more vaccinations. 53% of Finland’s over-12 population have received both vaccine doses, and over 72% have had one jab. Some coronavirus restrictions will begin phasing out gradually. Restrictions on restaurants and pubs remain in effect in many parts of Finland. In the capital, Helsinki, they must shut down at 11 p.m.
STOCKHOLM — Swedish officials say most coronavirus restrictions, including limits on gatherings and a work-from-home advisory, will be lifted on September 29. Officials say 70% of people over age 15 have gotten both vaccine shots, and nearly 82% have received at least one dose. Citing high vaccination rates, Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren says that “we are heading toward a normal life, toward a society free of restrictions.”
Sweden, which had opted to keep large sections of society open during the pandemic, has seen more than 1.1 million COVID-19 cases and nearly 14,700 deaths. It has stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response to the pandemic. SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina – Bosnian authorities say only about 12% of the country’s people have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, among the lowest rates in Europe.
Vaccines from AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sinopharm, and Sinovac are available in the Balkan nation, whose health system is still recovering from the civil war in the 1990s. The Civil Affairs Ministry reports that as of September 3, some 600,000 people, about 18% of the population, have also received their first dose. Bosnia has recorded about 218,000 coronavirus cases overall and nearly 10,000 deaths.
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan health authorities say 62% of people above age 20 have been fully vaccinated as the country grapples amid an unprecedented surge of coronavirus cases and deaths due to the delta variant. The government hopes that everyone over 20 will be fully vaccinated before the end of October. Sri Lanka has busedthe Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, and Sputnik V vaccines. Aiming to hinder the spread of the virus, the country has imposed a pandemic lockdown from August 20 through September 13. Doctors have warned that hospitals and morgues are reaching capacity.
NOUMEA, New Caledonia — The French overseas territory of New Caledonia has reported its first three confirmed COVID-19 infections. The remote Pacific Ocean archipelago had been coronavirus-free until now. Dr. Sébastien Mabon of the Department of Health and Social Affairs says the first cases were confirmed Monday, and “the virus has been circulating for a few days.” Authorities have responded by enacting a strict confinement measure for an initial period of 15 days. It is the third confinement in 18 months, following two that were implemented even before there were any confirmed COVID-19 cases. Over 30% of the territory’s population, of some 270,000, have been vaccinated.
