Watch: Law enforcement procession for slain Sacramento County deputy
Updated: 10:44 AM PST Jan 22, 2021
A large law enforcement procession for slain Sacramento County deputy Adam Gibson was held Friday morning. Gibson, K-9 Riley and a chase suspect were killed in a shootout on Cal Expo grounds earlier this week. >> See part of the procession in the video aboveShortly after 10 a.m., Gibson’s body was taken from the county coroner’s office to a funeral home in Folsom. Due to COVID-19 concerns, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not encourage residents to gather for the procession.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
A large law enforcement procession for slain Sacramento County deputy Adam Gibson was held Friday morning.
Gibson, K-9 Riley and a chase suspect were killed in a shootout on Cal Expo grounds earlier this week.
>> See part of the procession in the video above
Shortly after 10 a.m., Gibson’s body was taken from the county coroner’s office to a funeral home in Folsom.
Due to COVID-19 concerns, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office did not encourage residents to gather for the procession.
(Newser) –
It may be hard to fathom, but the pandemic seems to have an upside, too: The flu is pretty much nonexistent this year. Popular Science delivers the remarkable stat: In 2019, the US recorded 65,000 cases from late September to late December. In 2020, that figure dropped to 1,000. It seems that all the precautions people are taking to ward off COVID—masks, social distancing, avoidance of indoor social activities, etc.—are working to keep the flu at bay, too. In addition, flu shots are up. Researchers also are studying the theory that some kind of complex interplay between COVID and the flu is at play. As in, the virus behind COVID might be raising people’s immunity levels against the flu, per the Wall Street Journal. However, more research is needed to understand that possibility.
“This is an extremely puzzling phenomenon,” says pediatrician Norio Sugaya, who sits on the World Health Organization’s influenza committee. “We’re in a historic, unbelievable situation.” It’s not just in the US: Flu numbers are similarly down around the world. The trend began in Australia and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, where flu cases typically peak between June and August, notes Smithsonian. The big question is what happens when COVID goes away. As Science explains, one fear is that the flu will come back strong next season because so few people got it this year. But that could be mitigated if people adapt COVID safety protocols more permanently or perhaps make more of a point to get their flu shots. The flu typically kills hundreds of thousands of people annually worldwide, and “we need to ask ourselves whether we are going to continue to allow it in the future,” virologist Tetsuya Mizutani tells the Journal. (Read more flu stories.)
The number of Iowa counties reporting a 14-day COVID-19 positivity rate of 15% or higher has dropped to only 10.The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,319 new positive COVID-19 cases and 33 additional deaths Friday. As of 10 a.m., the health department reported 310,596 total positive cases, 273,011 total recoveries and 4,478 total deaths since the start of the pandemic. The health department reported 309,277 total cases and 4,445 total deaths at the same time a day earlier.Iowa’s positivity rates continue to decline. The state reports an 11.1% 14-day positivity rate. That’s down from 11.3% the previous day. The 7-day positivity rate also declined from 8.5% to 8.3%. There have been 1,439,736 Iowans tested for COVID-19, with 3,466,465 tests administered in the state.The number of Iowa’s 99 counties with a 14-day positivity rate at 15% or higher has dwindled to 10. On Nov. 12, that number was 93. Iowa schools can apply for a waiver to provide 100% virtual learning at the 15% threshold. Only Kossuth and Ringgold counties report a rate greater than 20%. Thirty-nine counties report a rate lower than 10%. The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 is at its lowest level since October 7. There are now 450 Iowans hospitalized with the virus, down from 457 the previous day. The number admitted in the last 24 hours dropped from 77 to 66. There are 89 patients in ICU and 34 patients on ventilators.The number of long-term care facilities reporting virus outbreaks dropped from 71 to 69 in the last 24 hours. The state reports 1,868 positive cases and 1,031 recoveries among residents and staff within those facilities. There have been 1,839 deaths reported in Iowa’s long-term care facilities.Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that Iowa’s vaccination data would be available on the health department website starting next week.The Iowa Department of Public Health lists COVID-19 data in real time on this website. KCCI publishes a daily summary at 10 a.m.
DES MOINES, Iowa —
The number of Iowa counties reporting a 14-day COVID-19 positivity rate of 15% or higher has dropped to only 10.
The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,319 new positive COVID-19 cases and 33 additional deaths Friday.
As of 10 a.m., the health department reported 310,596 total positive cases, 273,011 total recoveries and 4,478 total deaths since the start of the pandemic. The health department reported 309,277 total cases and 4,445 total deaths at the same time a day earlier.
Iowa’s positivity rates continue to decline. The state reports an 11.1% 14-day positivity rate. That’s down from 11.3% the previous day. The 7-day positivity rate also declined from 8.5% to 8.3%. There have been 1,439,736 Iowans tested for COVID-19, with 3,466,465 tests administered in the state.
The number of Iowa’s 99 counties with a 14-day positivity rate at 15% or higher has dwindled to 10. On Nov. 12, that number was 93. Iowa schools can apply for a waiver to provide 100% virtual learning at the 15% threshold. Only Kossuth and Ringgold counties report a rate greater than 20%. Thirty-nine counties report a rate lower than 10%.
The number of Iowans hospitalized with COVID-19 is at its lowest level since October 7. There are now 450 Iowans hospitalized with the virus, down from 457 the previous day. The number admitted in the last 24 hours dropped from 77 to 66. There are 89 patients in ICU and 34 patients on ventilators.
The number of long-term care facilities reporting virus outbreaks dropped from 71 to 69 in the last 24 hours. The state reports 1,868 positive cases and 1,031 recoveries among residents and staff within those facilities. There have been 1,839 deaths reported in Iowa’s long-term care facilities.
Gov. Kim Reynolds said Thursday that Iowa’s vaccination data would be available on the health department website starting next week.
The Iowa Department of Public Health lists COVID-19 data in real time on this website. KCCI publishes a daily summary at 10 a.m.
Pennsylvania has moved smokers to the top of its list for getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has added “persons ages 16-64 with high-risk medical conditions” to phase 1a of its vaccine allocation plan. Smoking is listed as a high-risk condition.
Health care personnel, long-term care facility residents and people 65 years old and older are also included in Pennsylvania’s phase 1a. The state is now in phase 1a of its allocation plan.
A spokesperson for the department told WTAE-4 in Pittsburgh that “Pennsylvania has chosen to follow the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] recommendations and include smoking among the list of medical conditions putting individuals at greater risk.”
The Pennsylvania Department of Health didn’t immediately return a request for comment from The Hill.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices currently recommends those aged 16-64 with medical conditions that increase their risks of severe COVID-19 to be included in phase 1c, but states are free to modify their distribution plans to their discretion.
The CDC says that smoking increases one’s risk of severe illness from COVID-19. Smoking weakens the immune system, which lowers the body’s ability to fight off disease.
The move comes as states expand eligibility in a rush to vaccinate more of its residents. CNN reported that New Jersey and Mississippi currently offer the vaccine to smokers, and several other states have smokers next in line.
It was the great German doctor and Nobel laureate Otto Warburg who, back in 1921, discovered that cancer cells don’t use sugar as fuel the way we thought they would. Rather than “burning” sugar using oxygen like most cells in our body prefer, cancer cells adopt a tactic known to be used by yeast cells: fermentation.
This specialized fermentation process (known as the Warburg effect) is rapid and preferred by cancer cells to produce ATP (used by cells for energy) even in conditions where oxygen is available. However, it is not the most effective way to tap into all of the energy stored within sugar molecules and therefore left scientists intrigued for many years as to why cancer cells do this.
Many proposed ideas have surfaced over the years since Warburg coined the term. One hypothesis was that cancer cells have faulty mitochondria (the powerhouse of the cell), the organelle within cells where sugar is “burned” and turned into energy very effectively. However, the hypothesis has not stood the test of time, as it was found that the mitochondria within cancer cells work as they should, and hence it could not have been the reason why cancer cells prefer the fermentation route to acquire energy from sugar.
Now, researchers at the Sloan Kettering Institute led by Dr Ming Li have published a potential explanation in the journal Science. Using biochemical and genetic experiments, the researchers showed that it all comes down to an important growth factor signaling molecule called PI3 kinase, an enzyme involved in a wide range of cellular activities such as cellular division, proliferation, growth, and survival.
“PI3 kinase is a key signaling molecule that functions almost like a commander-in-chief of cell metabolism,” Dr Li said in a statement. “Most of the energy-costly cellular events in cells, including cell division, occur only when PI3 kinase gives the cue.”
PI3 kinase has been extensively studied as part of a key signaling pathway involved in proliferation and cancer metabolism. As cancer cells start to shift and use the Warburg effect, the levels of PI3 kinase increases within the cells. This in turn, via a cascade of downstream events, leads to the cells becoming more committed to dividing. This is of course a hallmark of cancer: rapid division and proliferation.
“PI3 kinase is a very, very critical kinase in the context of cancer,” Dr Li says. “It’s what sends the growth signal for cancer cells to divide, and is one of the most overly active signaling pathways in cancer.”
To study this, researchers turned to another cell type in our bodies that has the ability to use the “ineffective” Warburg effect to investigate this phenomenon: immune cells. When certain types of T-cells are alerted of a nearby infection and need to rapidly divide to increase in number, they too are capable of turning off the sugar “burning” method of energy production, and turn on the Warburg effect to produce ATP and aid their proliferation.
As the authors explain in the press release, this “switch” from using oxygen to starting to use the fermentation process is controlled by an enzyme called lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA). In turn, LDHA is regulated by the amount of PI3 kinase activity within the cell. By using mice that lack the LDHA enzyme, the researchers found that animals could not maintain their normal levels of PI3 kinase within their T-cells, and were unable to fight off infections, because the T-cells didn’t divide properly as the PI3 kinase levels were not what it should be.
This cemented the idea that the metabolic LDHA enzyme was somehow regulating the cells’ PI3 kinase signaling molecule.
“The field has worked under the assumption that metabolism is secondary to growth factor signaling,” Dr Li says. “In other words, growth factor signaling drives metabolism, and metabolism supports cell growth and proliferation. So the observation that a metabolic enzyme like LDHA could impact growth factor signaling through PI3 kinase really caught our attention.”
The researchers go on to explain that like most enzymes, PI3 kinase uses ATP as an activating source of energy to perform its functions, like enforcing cellular division. As the Warburg effect ultimately results in ATP production, a positive feedback loop is established between the two molecules where ATP drives the activity of PI3 kinase, and with more PI3 kinase available, it results in rapid cell division and growth.
The findings challenge the accepted textbook view that cell signaling drives metabolism in cancer, as the researchers demonstrate in immune cells that use the Warburg effect, metabolic enzymes could be driving signaling molecules which in turn drives cellular division and growth, explaining a long-standing mystery as to why cancer cells might preferentially use the fermentation process to their advantage.
Although more research needs to be done using cancer cells instead of immune cells to test this, the current findings open up an exciting therapeutic avenue in the future where one might be able to target cancer growth and proliferation by targeting LDHA, instead of the more commonly focused on PI3 kinase signaling enzyme.
Hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States are falling after having hit record levels this month — a welcome sign that the winter surge may finally be leveling off. But as new, potentially more contagious variants of the virus circulate, coronavirus modelers warn that the U.S. is by no means out of the woods yet.
The emergence of new variants isn’t altogether surprising, but experts say that without a better understanding of how these strains affect things like transmissibility and the effectiveness of existing vaccines, it’s difficult to know how the pandemic may play out.
“There’s so much up in the air, and the new variants have thrown a huge monkey wrench into our ability to model things,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, a professor of medicine and director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “All of those things make the crystal ball very cloudy.”
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Although hospitalizations and the number of new infections in the U.S. both declined compared to the previous seven days, Covid-19 deaths are still rising. The country surpassed 400,000 deaths this week, and on Wednesday it set a daily record, with 4,131 reported deaths, according to an NBC News tally.
It’s estimated that the coronavirus has undergone thousands of mutations since it was detected in humans. Many ended up being inconsequential, but scientists are concerned about any alterations that could make the virus more contagious or make the available vaccines less effective.
Evidence from the U.K. has shown that one such variant, known as B.1.1.7, spreads more easily from person to person, although it doesn’t seem to make people sicker and it appears to be susceptible to vaccines. A report released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the U.K. variant could become the predominant strain in the U.S. by March.
New variants have also been reported in South Africa, Brazil and the U.S., with a flurry of research underway to characterize the changes. Early lab experiments suggest that the vaccines made by Pfizer and BioNTech and by Moderna may be less effective against the variant identified in South Africa, but the research wasn’t done in humans, and the findings have yet to be peer-reviewed.
As variants emerge, it will be crucial to adhere to measures to slow the virus’s spread and pick up the pace of vaccinations to keep all of those figures from spiking, said coronavirus modeler Alessandro Vespignani, director of Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute.
That’s because a more contagious variant is likely to result in more cases overall, which adds even more strain on health care systems that are already overburdened.
“It’s a bit of a race against the emergence of new strains that are more transmissible,” Vespignani said. “If we roll out the vaccine fast enough and keep epidemic levels low, that will also slow down the variants and buy us more time.”
The distribution of vaccines has been problematic, with some states running out of their supplies while others have struggled to administer all the doses they were receiving.
And there are concerns that the U.S. isn’t doing enough to track genetic changes in the virus by sequencing genetic codes. Not knowing specifically what variants are present in the country makes it harder to protect those at risk, said former CDC official Ali Mokdad, a professor of global health at the University of Washington. It also makes it more challenging for modelers to project how the pandemic may unfold.
“If we don’t stay on top of what’s circulating, we may have a homegrown variant that is more transmissible than the one we’ve seen in the U.K., and we wouldn’t know,” he said.
Mokdad is part of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which developed one of the most widely cited coronavirus models. Its current projection shows that while the number of new infections is decreasing in the U.S., Covid-19 deaths aren’t expected to peak until early March.
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Still, Mokdad said, there are ways the U.S. can avoid additional spikes in hospitalizations and deaths, even with the emergence of new variants.
“We have to do what we know is effective — social distancing and wearing a mask,” he said. “We can’t celebrate prematurely, because if everyone assumes the worst is behind us, that’s when we’ll see peaks again.”
And although models anticipate that deaths will continue to rise for several more weeks, it’s possible to flatten the curve if people remain vigilant, Vespignani said.
“Every forecast is not a deterministic outcome,” he said. “We can do something to change the trajectory.”
Denise Chow
Denise Chow is a reporter for NBC News Science focused on the environment and space.
JOHANNESBURG—Three new laboratory studies are raising concerns that the immune response triggered by a Covid-19 infection or vaccination may be less effective at protecting against the new strain of the coronavirus that first emerged in South Africa.
The findings come from experiments done in the laboratory and only look at certain elements of a body’s immune response. Still, they reinforce the possibility that vaccine makers and regulators will need to update Covid-19 vaccines as the virus evolves.
A fourth study, conducted by scientists at BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and published by the companies, showed that their vaccine successfully neutralized a variant that was initially detected in the U.K. That study didn’t include the South African strain.
The U.K. variant has already spread to many other countries, including the U.S.
More than a year into the pandemic, the discovery of new variants that appear to have made the virus more contagious is forcing researchers to adapt their understanding of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. One concern, researchers said, is that the new strains are emerging in countries where a significant percentage of people have already built up an immune response to earlier variants after getting Covid-19.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease may not be an inevitable part of aging, according to a recent Dutch study, which identified 100-year-olds with high cognitive performance despite risk factors for decline.
This six-year study of centenarians — people who are over 100 years old — found that despite high levels of a brain marker associated with cognitive decline, called amyloid beta, these centenarians were still sharp and performed well on cognitive tests. The researchers concluded these elderly subjects may have resilience mechanisms protecting them from memory loss.
In fact, they said the risk of dementia may not necessarily increase once you pass your 100th birthday.
“A person between 70 and 95 years old is exposed to the same dementia risk as a person who lives between age 100 and 102,” said Henne Holstege, Ph.D., of Amsterdam University Medical College in the Netherlands, who was involved in the study.
These results provide a hopeful glimmer to some that although dementia and Alzheimer’s is more likely to occur with an increase in age, it won’t be everyone’s fate.
“Age is the No. 1 risk factor for Alzheimer’s, but these findings show us that it’s possible for centenarians to thrive despite their advanced age,” said Dr. Richard Isaacson, director of the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, who headed the study.
Although these findings shed light on aging and cognitive function, it still remains a complex phenomenon that needs more exploration, according to some experts.
“Dementia and Alzheimer’s tend to be multifactorial conditions, meaning that a mix of genetics, age, environment, lifestyle behaviors and medical conditions that coexist together and can lead a person toward or away from cognitive decline,” said Isaacson.
Researchers still aren’t sure exactly why some people are protected from cognitive decline, while others are spared. The researchers in the study proposed some of these protective factors associated with cognitive performance could be education, frequent cognitive activity and even IQ. But there can be more at play.
“There could be protective immunologic and cardiovascular risk factors that help keep their brains resilient and cognitively functional even in old age,” said Dr. Gayatri Devi, a neurologist and psychiatrist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
The role the brain markers analyzed in the study play on memory, including a sticky plaque called amyloid beta typically found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s, is now hotly debated among experts. The varying presence of these markers in this study further contribute to this complicated process.
“It’s important to understand that the presence of amyloid in the brain does not definitively mean a person will develop dementia,” said Isaacson. “There are other factors and lifestyle behaviors that can make us resilient and resistant to cognitive decline.”
Importantly, there are some caveats to this study. For instance, the brain markers were only analyzed in 44 of the participants, so the findings may not apply to everyone, and more research needs to be done to learn about the complexity of aging.
Other studies have investigated prevention of cognitive decline. According to the 2020 Lancet Commission Report, 40% of dementia cases may be preventable based on modifiable risk factors. Some of these previous studies have had success in improving cognitive function and reducing risk.
A study by Isaacson’s team at the Alzheimer’s Prevention Clinic found it was possible to improve cognitive function and reduce risk, especially in those who followed suggestions on lifestyle modification, such as exercise, nutrition, vascular risk and medications.
Even though more is being discovered and debated, experts still recommend maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including balanced eating, exercising and doctor visits, to maintain cognition during aging.
“It’s essential for people at risk to see their doctors on a regular basis and consider cognitive screening tests,” said Isaacson.
Alexis E. Carrington, M.D., is a dermatology research fellow at the University of California, Davis and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
Stock image. | Photo by Nature/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News
ST. GEORGE — The first weekend of COVID-19 vaccination appointments being opened up for local residents ages 70 and oldersaw all reservation slots for the rest of the month fill quickly. Due to technical glitches, some residents expressed frustration with trying to get inoculated against the virus that has infected 23,300 and killed 191 people locally since March, including a record-high five people announced Thursday.
Stock photo. | Photo by Arindam Ghosh/iStock/Getty Images Plus, St. George News
The spokesman for the local health department said the problem has not been a lack of manpower or a lack of capabilities – it has been a lack of supply.
Spokesperson David Heaton said the Southwest Utah Public Health Department has been receiving 2,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. That supply is not just for the approximately 35,000 people locally who are 70 and older, but for school staff, first responders and non-hospital medical personnel who also qualify right now for the vaccine in Utah.
“At this rate, it would take two months to get people in this group vaccinated. So when the state asked us what help we need, there’s only one answer: We need more vaccines,” Heaton said, adding that the department has an abundance of manpower that could handle a large influx of vaccine supply on day one. “We have staff trained to handle this. We have the staff to do 2,000 a day.”
The wish for more vaccines may have been granted Thursday.
On the second day of his administration, President Joe Biden signed an emergency order Thursday to boost COVID-19 vaccine production and distribution. The order, announced on the one-year anniversary of when the first COVID-19 case was detected in the U. S., is part of a 200-page COVID-19 plan released by the White House.
The order activated the Defense Production Act – the same act used during World War II to boost wartime production – to drastically increase production of both the vaccines as well as the equipment like syringes to administer them.
In this May 2017 file photo, then former Vice President Joe Biden speaks at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. June 1, 2017 | Steven Senne/Associated Press/St. George News
The plan calls for 100 million Americans to receive their first dose of the vaccine by May 1. According to the Associated Press, 12.3 million Americans have been vaccinated since late December.
As of Thursday, the Utah Department of Health says 12,887 people in Southern Utah have received their first dose of the vaccine, while 487 people have received their second dose to be fully inoculated. There have 173,587 first doses in the state as a whole.
The more federally-based Biden strategy on COVID-19 vaccine distribution differs from the strategy of the administration of President Donald Trump, which focused on each state relying on its own vaccine policies and distribution. During the recording of the PBS Utah Monthly Governor’s Press Conference Thursday, Gov. Spencer Cox said he welcomed the federal initiative.
“We are excited about this announcement. I’ve just perused through it, but it’s a good thing,” Cox said. “They’re doing the same thing we’ve been doing here with our local health departments.”
Cox gave particular praise to the president’s change to provide 100% federal reimbursement for emergency COVID-19 supplies and the use of national guardsmen to administer COVID-19 tests and vaccines. Until now, the state has had to foot 25% of the bill.
Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox, right, arrives for a COVID-19 briefing at the Utah State Capitol. Jan. 8, 2021, Salt Lake City, Utah | Photo by Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News/Associated Press, St. George News
Cox defended his order earlier in the month that local health districts use up their vaccine supply within seven days. He said the only alternative to that was a slower rollout that would have left vaccine supply sitting in freezers and refrigerators.
“I had to choose between two problems. Either doses sitting on shelves or a crush of people,” Cox said, adding a slower approach would have left the possibility of vaccine sitting unused for too long and needing to be thrown away – something that has been experienced in other states. “I would rather be struck trying to get it than it being thrown away.”
Large vaccination clinic in the plans locally
Another part of the White House vaccine plan is for the creation of larger, mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics nationwide. Some cities are already utilizing stadiums and convention centers to inoculate large amounts of people at once.
A patient receives a flu vaccination from their car at an annual flu shootout, date and location not specified | Photo courtesy of the Southwest Utah Public Health Department, St. George News
Heaton said the Southwest Utah Public Health Department already has a plan to have such a mass clinic and use last September’s flu vaccination “shootout” at the fairgrounds in Washington County Regional Park as a dry run.
“Our flu shootout was in preparation for the vaccine rollout, but the vaccine supply has been more of a trickle so that was scaled down to our offices,” Heaton said, adding that if the supply comes in, they have the staff to immediately move to much larger COVID-19 vaccination clinics. “We’re prepared to do that. We’ve never reached our limit.”
Until the federal reinforcement of vaccine supply arrives, there’s the matter of dealing with the present high-demand, low-supply status of getting people inoculated locally against the virus.
Heaton said Southern Utah has a unique problem compared to the rest of the state, which has a younger demographic.
“The fact is our older demographic is higher than other counties in the state, Heaton said.
A woman named Elizabeth receives COVID-19 vaccination shot from a nurse at the Southwest Utah Public Health Department offices in Cedar City, Utah, Jan. 12, 2021 | Photo by Jeff Richards, St. George News / Cedar City News
Heaton said one issue the department thinks it has fixed is its technical ones, which caused their website to go down several times during vaccination sign-ups earlier this week. The state has provided some aid in this matter.
“Our hosting service made some mistakes so that was confusing,” Heaton said. “We are now hosted by Utah state service which should be robust.”
The reservation slots – for at least the first week of February and possibly the second – are expected to go online through SignUpGenius at 9 a.m. Monday. At the same time, residents will also be able to utilize a hotline at 435-986-2549, though the department said it prefers that people try signing up online first.
“It will be a rush, but hopefully the website will be able to handle it a lot better,” Heaton said.
Second doses get their own place in line
While most Southern Utahns still await getting their first shot of the vaccine, the time is coming up for those that received the vaccine when it was first rolled out to receive the second of two COVID-19 vaccine shots.
Two of the COVID-19 vaccines are seen at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Utah, on Dec. 16, 2020. | Photo courtesy of Intermountain Healthcare, St. George News
On Thursday, the local health department announced they will not have to compete with the already high demand of others for reservation slots. The Southwest Utah Public Health Department will be holding separate second-shot clinics.
“We’re looking at doing second-dose clinics separately so people may be relieved that they won’t have to compete for slots with those getting their first shots,” Heaton said.
The move comes after the governor announced that like the first doses, the second-dose supply will need to be used within seven days by a local health department or it will go back into the vaccine supply chain.
Second-doses will utilize the same SignUpGenius online form as the first-injection clinics and are also going online Monday.
And like the first-dose clinics, reservation slots may go quicker than the hottest toy of the season on Black Friday. However, Heaton and other health experts say that while a person has to wait 28 days before their second dose, they don’t have to get that second injection on the 28th day.
“There’s not a maximum waiting period so if you can’t get it on the 28th day, you have some leeway,” he said.
Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine
Those who can currently get the vaccine: Everyone ages 70 and over. K-12 teachers and staff, those that work in nonhospital health care facilities (those in clinics, pharmacies, dentists or other medical offices) and first responders, including law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs.
Must register in advance online for an appointment time. Walk-ins will not be accepted.
Must have a personal ID, employment ID (if necessary) and wear a short-sleeve shirt at appointment.
Must get the vaccine in the county you reside in. Proof of residency is required. Part-time residents can get vaccinated with proof of residency.
Vaccines are free of charge.
Those without email addresses or unable to make reservations online can get help at a specialized hotline at 435-986-2549.
Washington County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department St. George office, 620 S 400 East, 2nd Floor Conference Room, St. George, 84770
When: First dose Jan. 29 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Feb. 4 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m; Second dose Feb. 1 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Feb. 3 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
First dose Jan. 29 click to register (opening up Monday)
First dose Feb. 4 click to register (opening up Monday)
Second dose Feb. 1 click to register (opening up Monday)
Second dose Feb. 3 click to register (opening up Monday)
Iron County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Cedar City office, 260 DL Sargent Dr., Cedar City, 84721.
When: First dose Thursday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (full), Feb. 2 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.; Second dose Feb. 3 9 a.m. to 4:15 p.m; K-12 teachers and staff-only clinic Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. (full).
First dose click to register (opening up Monday)
Second dose click to register (opening up Monday)
Kane County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Kanab office, 445 N. Main St., Kanab 84741.
When: To be announced
Click to register
Garfield County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Panguitch office, 601 Center St. Panguitch 84759.
When: To be announced
Click to register (opening up Monday)
Beaver County:
Where: Southwest Utah Public Health Department Beaver Office, 75 1175 North, Beaver 84713.
When: To be announced
(All slots full) Click to register
COVID-19 information resources
St. George News has made every effort to ensure the information in this story is accurate at the time it was written. However, as the situation and science surrounding the coronavirus continues to evolve, it’s possible that some data has changed.
Check the resources below for up-to-date information and resources.
Southern Utah coronavirus count (as of Jan. 15, 2020, seven-day average in parentheses)
Positive COVID-19 tests: 22,355 (199.1 new infections per day in seven days, falling since Jan. 14)
Washington County: 17,129 (135 per day, falling)
Iron County: 3,988 (53.6 per day, falling)
Kane County: 378 (3 per day, falling)
Garfield County: 378 (2.1 per day, falling)
Beaver County: 482 (5.2 per day, falling)
New infections for major Southern Utah cities (numbers released ahead of Southern Utah numbers):
St. George: 68 (falling)
Washington City: 23 (rising)
Hurricane/LaVerkin: 14 (rising)
Ivins City/Santa Clara: 11 (rising)
Cedar City: 40 (falling)
Deaths: 191 (2.9 per day, falling)
Washington County: 155 (11 new since last report: Hospitalized female 65-84, hospitalized male 65-84, long-term care female over 85, hospitalized female 65-84, hospitalized male 65-84, female 45-64 at home, hospitalized male 65-84, long-term care male over 84, long-term care female 65-84, long-term care male 65-84, long-term care male 65-84)
Iron County: 20 (1 new: Long-term care female 65-84)
Garfield County: 9 (2 new: Long-term care female over 85, long-term care male 65-84)
Number of initial vaccine injections in Southern Utah: 12,887
Number of fully vaccinated in Southern Utah: 487
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Chris Reed serves as weekend editor and reporter for St. George News. He has steadily moved east after growing up among the Valley girls of Southern California’s San Fernando Valley. He graduated from Cal State Northridge before spending a decade in Las Vegas. As a sports reporter and editor, he once compared shoe sizes with Shaq. As a news reporter and editor, he has covered parades, triumphs and tragedies. He also once got close to the stars doing publicity for a space module builder. He came to St. George for love and has grown to love the community. He is the proud father of two boys, his youngest a champion against both autism and Type 1 diabetes.
Orange County staff and volunteers are gearing up for the opening of a mass vaccination center at Soka University in Aliso Viejo on Saturday.
It joins the first center the county opened last week at Disneyland that has been handling about 3,000 appointments a day.
“Bring your umbrellas, plan for rain, if you’re in a walker, you have to take those things into account,” county spokeswoman Molly Nichelson said. Staff and volunteers will be on hand to help visitors from the campus parking structure off Wood Canyon Drive to a gym nearby, where vaccines will take place.
The county has enough vaccines and staff on hand for a confident launch of the new Soka Super POD (point-of-distribution) this weekend, said spokeswoman Molly Nichelson. Officials have said they would not open new locations until volunteers and doses were available to make it worth it; five sites are ultimately expected.
But public health officials are tempering expectations and asking for patience after the Othena appointment system got off to a rocky start among its target users: seniors age 65 and older.
The Health Care Agency said this week the appointment process had been “simplified” to stop users from needing to constantly refresh Othena on their computers and phones in hopes of landing a slot.
For users who have completed registration, Othena will email eligible groups around 10 a.m. each day, alerting them an appointment is available to them.
Dr. Clayton Chau, Health Care Agency director and county health officer, said staff members are considering a person’s coronavirus risk while assigning appointments. Staff also will send patients to whichever super site is closest, he said.
But if users don’t respond through Othena within a few hours, they’ll be placed back in the virtual queue, Nichelson said.
“They really have to pay attention to those emails that come through,” she said.
The Health Care Agency has set up a hotline at 714-834-2000 to field questions about Othena, vaccine appointments and other related issues during weekday business hours.
At this point, people who qualify for a vaccine and want an appointment can’t call to set one up, but can call for help in registering on Othena.
“We view that this’ll be able to make a us more nimble,” she said.
Chau advised seniors having trouble with Othena to ask their doctor or staff at a local senior center for help.
And super sites aren’t the only option, Chau said. The Health Care Agency also is ramping up smaller-scale “mobile” vaccination clinics, which have parachuted in for a day at a couple of seniors centers with more in the works.
Meanwhile, the county is still striking a balance of marshaling vaccines, staff and volunteers to get doses into the arms of the county’s most exposed and vulnerable to COVID-19 efficiently and fairly.
During a virtual town hall Thursday with Assemblywoman Cottie Petrie-Norris, Chau said Orange County still doesn’t have enough vaccines and repeated the need for letting older seniors get their shots first, particularly those with chronic health conditions that make the coronavirus more dangerous to them.
“We are asking the community to be patient, let us give the vaccine to those 75 and older and those 65 and older with chronic problems,” he said. “Let us protect them first, because they are the ones that if they get infected, they end up in hospitals more than others.”
On Thursday, Orange County gave vaccine administrators the go-ahead to resume using Moderna vaccine lot 41L20A, which was put on hold by the state Department of Public Health after a handful of allergic reactions in San Diego last week. About 5,000 people in Orange County received shots from that batch, but there were no known adverse effects, the Heath Care Agency said earlier this week.
After an investigation, state health officials said late Wednesday there was “no scientific basis to continue the pause.”
