- Is it going to snow tomorrow? Chicago snow forecast shows 1-2 inches in area; counties west of city under Winter Weather Advisory WLS-TV
- Here are the latest Chicago-area snowfall totals NBC Chicago
- National Weather Service warns overnight snow could make for hazardous driving conditions WGN TV Chicago
- Chicago snow sees a dusting Sunday expected to be as much as two inches in the city and suburbs, more in northwestern Illinois Chicago Sun-Times
- Overnight snow could impact travel with up to 3 inches expected west of Chicago ABC 7 Chicago
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: counties
Are you living in a Covid hotspot? CDC reveals counties with highest rates as virus hospital admissions rise f – Daily Mail
- Are you living in a Covid hotspot? CDC reveals counties with highest rates as virus hospital admissions rise f Daily Mail
- Why Florida is seeing the highest proportion of counties with ‘moderate’ COVID hospitalization rates Yahoo! Voices
- CDC Data: New Weekly COVID-19 Hospitalizations Climb 9% | Health News | U.S. News U.S. News & World Report
- COVID-19 continues to rise with fall respiratory season around the corner, North Texas hospitals report The Dallas Morning News
- New COVID data suggests San Antonio’s late-summer surge is changing course KENS5.com
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Albany working with state to welcome asylum seekers as surrounding counties implement bans – WRGB
- Albany working with state to welcome asylum seekers as surrounding counties implement bans WRGB
- NYC Mayor Adams: Migrants should be sent to every city ‘throughout the entire country’ Fox News
- Mayor Eric Adams on asylum seekers: NYC carrying “burden” of “nation problem” Face the Nation
- Eric Adams’ migrant problem isn’t getting solved: The mayor has little help or sympathy from Albany or Washington New York Daily News
- NYC Immigrant Affairs Commissioner Manuel Castro on asylum seekers crisis CBS New York
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Winter Storm Alerts Change For Chicago-Area Counties as Weather Forecast Shifts – NBC Chicago
- Winter Storm Alerts Change For Chicago-Area Counties as Weather Forecast Shifts NBC Chicago
- Winter Storm Warning now: ‘Intense snowfall rates’ location, timeline MLive.com
- Winter storm approaches Metro Detroit: Timeline, snowfall estimates and ‘thundersnow’ Click On Detroit | Local 4 | WDIV
- While storm track has uncertainty, the potential for heavy snow exists across NE Illinois and NW Indiana. Strong winds will accompany Friday’s storm. Below normal temperatures settle in next week. WGN TV Chicago
- Southeast Michigan weather: The latest totals and what to expect tonight FOX 2 Detroit
Early voting begins in some Georgia counties as Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker sprint to December 6 runoff
CNN
—
A week-long early voting period begins Saturday in some Georgia counties as Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger Herschel Walker enter a week-and-a-half, post-Thanksgiving sprint to their December 6 runoff election.
Unlike the 2021 runoffs, control of the Senate is not on the line, with Democrats having won 50 seats already and Vice President Kamala Harris giving the party a tie-breaking vote.
However, the stakes remain high: A Warnock victory would give Democrats the majority outright, rather than requiring the power-sharing agreement that is now in place. Democrats would have the majority on committees, allowing them to advance President Joe Biden’s nominees more easily.
Georgia’s Supreme Court delivered Warnock a victory Wednesday, allowing counties to offer early voting on Saturday. Democrats said they expected as many as 22 counties to do so – some in heavily populated areas around Atlanta, including DeKalb and Fulton, as well as Chatham County, home of Savannah.
That ruling followed a legal battle triggered by Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s interpretation of the state’s 2021 voting law. He said the new law restricted weekend voting immediately after holidays.
That 2021 law cut in half the timeline for runoff elections, to four weeks, and limited the early voting window to a minimum of five days rather than the minimum of 16 days that had been in place when Democrats won two Senate runoffs in the state in January 2021.
As many as 22 of the state’s 159 counties let voters cast their ballots Saturday.
At a polling site in Atlanta, Boston College student Emma Demilio said she probably wouldn’t have been able to vote in person if the early voting sites hadn’t opened.
“This is kind of the only time that I’m in Georgia and able to vote. I leave tomorrow, so I was really happy I was able to get it in,” she said, adding that she may have tried to scramble for an absentee ballot.
Warnock continues to outraise Walker as they enter the final stretch.
Warnock raised nearly $52.2 million from October 20 through November 16, a period covering the end of the general election and roughly the first week of the runoff. Walker collected $20.9 million in that time, according to his campaign’s filings with the Federal Election Commission. Warnock ended the period with more than $29.7 million remaining in the bank, more than three times the $9.8 million left in the coffers of his rival.
Warnock is set to bring in a top Democratic surrogate: Former President Barack Obama is slated to travel to Atlanta on Thursday for a rally ahead of the final day of early voting.
So far, Obama is the only president past or present slated to visit Georgia ahead of the runoff.
Neither President Joe Biden, to whom Walker’s campaign has tried to latch Warnock, nor former President Donald Trump, who was in office when Republicans lost two Senate runoffs two years ago, have scheduled trips to the state. On Saturday, Warnock appeared with Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) at a rally in Sandy Springs, just outside of Atlanta.
Trump allies, including Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have been out in force for Walker, the former president himself has not campaigned with the candidate he recruited.
Other Republicans, meanwhile, are rallying around Walker, with the Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, pumping more than $10 million into the race since the general election.
In addition to the new influx of outside spending, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who cruised to re-election earlier this month, made his first appearance with Walker on the trail after stiff-arming the former football great throughout the fall.
Kemp defeated a primary challenger backed by Trump in May and then outpaced Walker by more than 200,000 votes in the general election – a sign both of his crossover appeal to moderate Democrats and Walker’s difficulties consolidating Republicans.
Still, Democrats said they doubted Kemp could rescue Walker in a runoff election in which Walker is the only Republican on the ballot.
“There’s tons of folks that voted for Raphael Warnock and Brian Kemp,” said Jason Carter, the 2014 Democratic nominee for governor and grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.
He called Warnock a “unique figure,” noting that he “got more votes than Herschel Walker and he got more votes than any other Democrat.”
“People appreciate him. And they think of him as Raphael Warnock first, and as his political party and all that other stuff second,” Carter said.
A new potential flashpoint in the runoff election emerged Wednesday. The Georgia Supreme Court, in a separate legal battle, also reinstated the state’s six-week abortion ban.
It was a policy victory for the Republicans who had enacted that ban and defended it in court, but one that could come at a political cost, reviving the backlash over the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade that energized Democrats and swung moderate voters in their favor on the party’s way to a surprisingly strong showing in this year’s midterm elections.
In the midterms, according to CNN exit polls, 28% of Georgia voters said abortion was the most important issue to their vote – second only to inflation at 37%.
Of those who identified abortion as the most important issue, 77% backed Warnock, compared to 21% who voted for Walker – a reversal of inflation, an issue that favored Walker by a 45 percentage point margin.
Fifty-three percent of Georgia voters said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and among those voters, 75% backed Warnock. Of the 43% who said it should be illegal in all or most cases, 87% backed Walker.
Already, both parties have pumped more than $40 million into television advertising in the runoff. Democratic groups have spent nearly $25 million, while GOP groups have spent nearly $16 million, according to the ad tracking firm AdImpact.
In an effort to unite Republican factions, a Walker super PAC is sending out mailers touting Kemp’s support and trying to tie Warnock to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams. “You stopped Stacey. Now reject Warnock,” they read.
“Who do you want to fight for you in the United States Senate? Do you want a guy that represents our values like Herschel Walker, or do you want a guy who’s stood with Joe Biden 96% of the time?,” said Kemp, borrowing a familiar attack from Walker, at a rally last weekend in Cobb County.
Kemp also echoes that line of attack in a new television ad launched by SLF. The governor and McConnell’s group have are also linking up for get out the vote efforts. SLF is boosting Kemp’s state operation, which has been pivoted to help Walker, with a $2 million cash injection.
Warnock’s campaign, too, is trying to win over Republicans who effectively chose Kemp over Trump.
A new ad from the Warnock campaign features a woman who says she voted for Kemp this year and describes herself as a lifelong Republican, but goes on to say she won’t support Walker in the runoff because of his “lack of character.”
Warnock has also campaigned on what should be some of Walker’s safest territory: his hometown. At an event in Wrightsville, where Walker played his high school football, Warnock asked voters to separate the sports hero from the political candidate.
“I saw what your favorite son did on the football field. I don’t mind giving credit where credit is due. That brother could razzle dazzle you on that football field. He created a lot of excitement and did a lot for the great University of Georgia. And he deserves credit for that,” Warnock said. “But tonight, we’re on a different field.”
At the same time, the Republican has faced some backlash over an ad of his own – alongside University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who has appeared with Walker before and competed with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, who became a focus of debate surrounding trans women’s participation in sports and has frequently been attacked in conservative media.
“For more than a decade, I worked so hard. Four a.m. practices to be the best. But my senior year, I was forced to compete against a biological male,” Gaines says in the ad.
The spot was released in the days after a gunman allegedly targeted the LGBTQ community at a gay club in Colorado. One of the five people killed was a trans man.
Buffalo snowstorm 2022: Federal disaster declared for 11 New York counties after historic snowfall
BUFFALO, New York (WABC) — President Joe Biden has approved a federal emergency declaration for 11 New York counties after historic levels of lake-effect snow buried the region over the weekend.
The storm set a state record for the most snowfall within a 24-hour period, with some parts of Erie County getting more than 6 feet of snow.
According to the National Weather Service, by 1 p.m. Sunday the highest total was recorded in Orchard Park, home to the Buffalo Bills, which saw a jaw-dropping 80 inches of snow.
That was followed by Athol Springs with 76″, Hamburg with 73.7″ and Natural Bridge with 72.3″.
The President’s emergency declaration authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts for residents who have been impacted.
WATCH | Walls of snow, diving into piles & more: New Yorkers show impact of historic snowfall:
The counties covered under the declaration are Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie, Genesee, Jefferson, Lewis, Niagara, Oneida, Oswego, St. Lawrence and Wyoming.
“I thank President Biden for immediately granting our emergency declaration request and for our ongoing strong partnership as well as Senator Schumer for his assistance in securing relief for New Yorkers,” Governor Kathy Hochul said in a statement Monday. “My team and I will continue working around the clock to keep everyone safe, help communities dig out, and secure every last dollar to help rebuild and recover from this unprecedented, record-shattering, historic winter storm.”
Parts of the state finally caught a break Sunday after the storm pounded cities and towns east of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario.
Many businesses in the hardest-hit areas remained closed, but highways reopened and travel bans in many areas were lifted, though bands of lake-effect snow were expected to bring up to 2 feet (0.6 meters) by Monday morning in some parts of the state that were largely spared in earlier rounds.
“This has been a historic storm. Without a doubt, this is one for the record books,” Hochul said at a briefing on Sunday.
Snow began falling Thursday in towns south of Buffalo. By Saturday, the National Weather Service recorded 77 inches (196 cm) in Orchard Park and 72 inches in Natural Bridge, a hamlet near Watertown off the eastern end of Lake Ontario.
Hochul said teams were checking on residents of mobile home parks in areas that got enough snow to potentially crumple roofs.
Due to the heavy snowfall, the Sunday football game between the Buffalo Bills’ and Cleveland Browns was moved to Detroit.
New York is no stranger to dramatic lake-effect snow, which is caused by cool air picking up moisture from the warmer water, then releasing it in bands of windblown snow over land.
This month’s storm is at least the worst in the state since November 2014, when some communities south of Buffalo were hit with 7 feet (2 meters) of snow over the course of three days, collapsing roofs and trapping drivers on a stretch of the New York State Thruway.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
ALSO WATCH: Weather Or Not with Lee Goldberg: Winter Weather Outlook
———-
* Get the AccuWeather App
* More AccuWeather
* Follow us on YouTube
* More local news
* Sign up for free newsletters
* Download the abc7NY app for breaking news alerts
Submit Weather Photos and Videos
Have weather photos or videos to share? Send to Eyewitness News using this form. Terms of use apply.
Copyright © 2022 WABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.
DeSantis official says Justice Dept. can’t send monitors to 3 Florida counties
But Brad McVay, the chief counsel for the Florida Department of State, said in a letter issued late Monday that those monitors would not be allowed inside polling places under Florida law.
McVay said the Florida secretary of state’s office — which Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis oversees — would instead send its own monitors to those three counties, which are among the most Democratic-leaning counties in Florida.
“Florida statutes list the people who ‘may enter any polling room or polling place,’” McVay wrote. “Department of Justice personnel are not included on the list.”
The Justice Department said Tuesday that it had received the DeSantis administration’s letter and still has election monitors stationed outside polling locations in Florida.
Although Florida law has an exception allowing law enforcement to enter polling sites, McVay said Justice Department monitors do not qualify.
“Absent some evidence concerning the need for federal intrusion, or some federal statute that preempts Florida law, the presence of federal law enforcement inside polling places would be counterproductive and could potentially undermine confidence in the election,” McVay wrote.
“None of the counties are currently subject to any election-related federal consent decrees,” McVay added. “None of the counties have been accused of violating the rights of language or racial minorities or of the elderly or disabled.”
The Justice Department said in a news release announcing the monitoring locations that it has observed local election procedures nationwide since 1965.
Republicans have waged a sustained campaign against alleged voter fraud over the past two years, despite scant evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, and as threats against politicians, their families and election workers have spiked around the country.
Election officials in battleground states are anticipating delayed results and protracted fights once the polls close Tuesday night.
Separately, Missouri officials on Friday denied the Justice Department’s request to conduct routine inspections under the Americans With Disabilities Act and Voting Rights Act at polling places on Election Day. Secretary of State John Ashcroft (R) reiterated that stance in a meeting Monday.
He told The Washington Post that the Justice Department’s presence amounted to a bid to “bully a local election authority” and could “intimidate and suppress the vote.”
Ashcroft and Cole County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer (R) told federal officials that they would not be permitted to observe polling places Tuesday.
“This is not the Voting Rights Act. This is the Americans With Disabilities Act. What’s next? They’re going to want to be at elections because they want to check that insulation in the building was purchased from China in the 1970s? Give me a break,” Ashcroft said in a phone interview.
He compared Justice Department officials from the U.S. attorney’s office of the Western District of Missouri to “jackbooted thugs” and to armed individuals in Arizona who have been seen patrolling ballot drop boxes.
“I think we’ve already had lawsuits around the country about individuals around polling places,” Ashcroft said. “And they were told that they had to stay away from them because they could intimidate voters.” Justice Department officials last observed Missouri elections in 2016 at polling places in St. Louis.
FBI special agents serving as election crime coordinators will also be on duty in the bureau’s 56 field offices to receive voting-related complaints from the public, according to the Justice Department. Employees in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division will also operate a hotline all day on Election Day, answering calls from people who spot possible violations of federal voting rights laws.
CDC recommends masks for 14 Michigan counties, raising from 8 last week
Michigan has 14 counties at a high COVID-19 Community Level this week according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC uses Community Levels to determine COVID risk, putting counties in one of three buckets: low (green), medium (yellow) or high (orange).
The CDC recommends masking while indoors in public when counties are at a high Community Level, regardless of vaccination status. However, people with symptoms, a positive test or exposure to someone with COVID-19 should wear a mask regardless of where they live, the CDC says.
The 14 counties at a high level this week are: Calhoun, Clare, Clinton, Dickinson, Eaton, Ingham, Ionia, Iron, Lapeer, Macomb, Midland, Schoolcraft, Shiawassee and Washtenaw counties.
Michigan has 34 counties at a medium level and 35 counties at a low COVID-19 Community Level this week.
Here’s the latest map showing the Community Level for each Michigan county. Tap or hover over a county to see details.
(Can’t see the map? Click here.)
The CDC considers cases and hospitalizations when determining COVID risk for an area. The goal is to prevent severe disease and limit strain on hospitals.
For Community Levels, the CDC looks at three factors for each county: the percentage of staffed hospital beds occupied by COVID patients, COVID hospital admissions per capita and COVID cases per capita.
A county is at a high level when there are 200 or more new cases per 100,000 in the past week and either (a) 10-plus new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 or (b) when at least 10% of the staffed inpatient beds are occupied by COVID patients.
If hospitalizations are particularly high, even a county with low cases can be at a high level, per the CDC formula.
(Not every county has a hospital, so each one is assigned a health services area, a geographic region that contains at least one hospital. Counties are attributed the metrics calculated for the entire area, weighted based on each county’s population.)
Here’s more on the state of COVID-19 in Michigan.
Michigan is reporting 2,086 new, confirmed cases per day in the past week
Reported COVID cases are up 16.0% from last week, as the state had 2,086 new, confirmed cases this week.
Michigan has hovered around the 2,000-case-per-day mark for most of the summer.
Michigan also reported 539 “probable” COVID cases per day this week.
Cases are “confirmed” when there’s a positive result from an NAAT/RT-PCR test. Cases are “probable” when there’s a reported antigen (rapid) test or if somebody has symptoms and was exposed to a person with COVID-19.
All graphics in this story except the initial one (which uses CDC case calculations) are based only on “confirmed” numbers.
The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reports COVID cases once per week. The department announced 18,375 confirmed and probable cases this week.
Michigan has reported 2.4 million confirmed COVID cases and nearly 378,000 probable cases since the pandemic began.
The chart below shows the seven-day average for new, confirmed COVID cases throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
Michigan ranks 8th in the U.S. in new cases per capita
Michigan’s COVID rate was the eighth highest in the U.S. in the past week, according to the New York Times.
Michigan had fewer COVID cases than last week, but managed to move up the list for highest COVID rate because 46 of the 50 states saw their rate decline in the past week.
West Virginia, Kentucky, South Carolina, Alaska, North Carolina and Ohio had the most COVID cases per capita this week. Nevada, California, Washington, Utah, Montana and Wyoming had the lowest COVID rates.
For COVID hospitalizations, Michigan ranked 14th of 50 this week. The state also had the fourth-most COVID deaths per capita this week.
42 counties saw rise in cases in last seven days
Of Michigan’s 83 counties, 42 had more cases this week than last week.
Many of Michigan’s larger counties had big increases in cases. Ingham County was up 39% compared to last week, Kalamazoo County increased 34%, Wayne County jumped 32%, Oakland County was up 23%, Washtenaw County jumped 20%, Macomb County increased by 19% and Kent County rose 8%.
See the database below to search by county and sort by most/fewest cases. The chart also shows the percent change from week to week and the seven-day case average per capita.
(Can’t see the database? Click here.)
37 Michigan counties at highest risk for cases
There are 37 counties at the highest risk level (Level E) for cases, down from 43 counties last week.
The MDHHS has five risk levels for COVID cases:
- Level A: 7-19 cases per day per million
- Level B: 20-39 cases per day per million
- Level C: 40-69 cases per day per million
- Level D: 70-149 cases per day per million
- Level E: 150+ cases per day per million
The counties with the highest COVID rates in Michigan this week were Iron, Dickinson, Washtenaw, Midland, Schoolcraft and Ingham counties.
The lowest COVID rates were in Alcona, Huron, Presque Isle, Leelanau, Antrim and Cheboygan counties.
The map below is shaded by the state’s six risk-assessment levels from A to E. This is based on new cases reported per day per million people from Sept. 7-13.
The arrows on each county show if new cases this week are up or down compared to the previous week. Put your cursor over a county to see the underlying data. (Hint: Drag the map with your cursor to see the entire U.P.)
(Can’t see the map? Click here.)
COVID case totals don’t tell the whole story. At-home tests are not reported, so those aren’t included in the data. That’s why it’s also key to look at percent positivity of reported tests and data on hospitalizations and deaths.
Average test positivity is 18%
About 18 of every 100 COVID tests reported to the state on Monday, Sept. 12, came back positive.
The positivity rate has hovered between 18% and 19% in the past week.
The World Health Organization considers there to be a substantial level community transmission when positivity rates are above 5%.
Michigan’s rate peaked at 35% in January. It dipped as low as 2% in early March before climbing again.
The graph below shows the percentage of COVID-19 tests reported that came back positive throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
Eaton County had the highest positivity rate of all Michigan counties this week, at 30.5%. Baraga, Keweenaw and Lake counties all had a positivity rate less than 5%.
To see the COVID test positivity rate for your county, see the searchable table below.
(Can’t see the database? Click here.)
The interactive map below shows the seven-day average testing rate by county. Put your cursor over a county to see details.
(Can’t see the map? Click here.)
Hospitals treating 1,145 confirmed or suspected adult COVID-19 patients
Michigan had 1,145 adults in hospitals with confirmed or suspected COVID as of Wednesday, Sept. 14. That’s down slightly from 1,172 adult hospitalizations last week.
Before this week, Michigan COVID hospitalizations had risen in eight of the previous nine weeks.
Of the 1,145 adults in the hospital with COVID on Wednesday, 148 were in intensive care and 69 were on a ventilator.
There were also 46 kids hospitalized with COVID in Michigan as of Wednesday.
Michigan is reporting 21 new COVID deaths per day in the past week
Michigan averaged 21 COVID deaths per day this week, the highest mark since March.
But it’s still far fewer COVID deaths than Michigan had during omicron’s winter peak. Michigan was averaging more than 100 COVID deaths per day during parts of January.
Michigan has had 34,970 confirmed COVID-19 deaths and 3,347 probable COVID deaths since the pandemic began. Put another way, roughly one in every 287 Michigan residents have died from confirmed COVID.
Below is a chart illustrating the seven-day average for reported deaths throughout the pandemic.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
Vaccinations: 63.4% of residents have received at least one dose
About 63.4% of Michigan residents have gotten at least one COVID shot, 58.3% have received the full original regimen and 33.9% have been boosted.
The omicron-specific COVID-19 booster shot is now available in Michigan from both Pfizer and Moderna.
The new shots are authorized for use as a single booster dose, administered at least two months after a previous COVID vaccine. Moderna’s shot is authorized for people 18 and older, while Pfizer’s is for those 12 and older.
Below is a vaccination breakdown by age group of Michiganders who have gotten at least one shot (initiated) and those who are “completed,” meaning two shots of mRNA vaccines or one Johnson & Johnson shot, as of Wednesday, Sept. 14:
- 75 and older: 87.1% initiated; 81.3% completed
- 65 to 74: 90.4% initiated; 85.4% completed
- 50 to 64: 76.9% initiated; 72.2% completed
- 40 to 49: 67.6% initiated; 62.4% completed
- 30 to 39: 65.9% initiated; 59.6% completed
- 20 to 29: 55.6% initiated; 49.4% completed
- 16 to 19: 56.6% initiated; 51.6% completed
- 12 to 15: 49.8% initiated; 46.1% completed
- 5 to 11: 30.3% initiated; 27.3% completed
- Younger than 5: 6.2% initiated, 1.5% completed
Below is a chart that ranks counties from most vaccinated to least vaccinated.
(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)
For more statewide data, visit MLive’s coronavirus data page.
To find a testing site near you, check out the state’s online test find send an email to COVID19@michigan.gov, or call 888-535-6136 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on weekdays.
If you have any COVID-19 questions, please submit them to covidquestions@mlive.com to be considered for future MLive reporting.
RELATED STORIES
Here’s where Michiganders can get an omicron-specific COVID booster shot
Saginaw, Grand Traverse join Michigan counties with monkeypox cases
Michigan could be in for a worse flu season than recent years
Weekly coronavirus cases climb 32%; nine Oregon counties labeled ‘high’ by CDC
Identified coronavirus cases jumped 32% in Oregon last week compared to the previous week, according to state data released Monday, with hospitalizations rising above projections for the omicron wave.
Oregon recorded about 12,000 weekly cases, up from about 9,000 the previous week. The state is now identifying about 1,700 daily cases – the highest level since February – but reported case numbers are a dramatic undercount because of at-home testing.
The number of people hospitalized and testing positive also jumped in the past week, reaching 357 as of Monday, exceeding the June 5 peak of 327 projected by Oregon Health & Science University. The increase comes as Oregon sees more iterations of the highly contagious omicron variant.
Hospitalizations this weekend reached their highest levels since early March. But they remain far below earlier records from delta and omicron, when the number of people hospitalized surpassed 1,100.
Nine Oregon counties are now in the high category for spread, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with indoor masking recommended in public places.
The high counties are: Hood River, Wasco, Sherman, Lane, Douglas, Coos, Jackson, Klamath and Lake. In the metro area, Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties are in the medium range, with people at high-risk of severe infection encouraged to talk with a health care provider about whether to wear masks.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 805,978 confirmed or presumed infections and 7,791 deaths.
Hospitalizations: 357 people with confirmed coronavirus infections are hospitalized, up 57 since Monday, June 20. That includes 55 people in intensive care, up 11 since June 20.
Vaccinations: As of June 20, the state has reported fully vaccinating 2,923,957 people (68.5% of the population), partially vaccinating 288,639 people (6.8%) and boosting 1,673,842 (39.2%).
New deaths: In the six days since June 21, the Oregon Health Authority has reported 62 deaths connected to COVID-19.
— Brad Schmidt; bschmidt@oregonian.com; 503-294-7628
STDs surge in Alabama following pandemic dip; these counties saw the highest STD rates in 2021
Alabama – and the rest of the nation – saw a significant decline in reported sexually transmitted diseases in 2020. But that doesn’t mean cases actually decreased – and if 2021 numbers are any guide, the opposite is likely true.
According to data from the Alabama Department of Public Health, STDs in Alabama rose dramatically between 2020 and 2021. But cases aren’t spread evenly across the state.
STDs by county
STD rates vary widely by county, with some areas seeing rates above 22 cases per 1,000 residents and others seeing less than three per 1,000. You can see the rate in every Alabama county in the map below.
[Can’t see the map? Click here.]
The Black Belt region – one of the poorest regions in the nation – saw some of the highest STD rates in the state in 2021. Each of the six Alabama counties with the highest STD rates were in the Black Belt, including the highly populated Montgomery County, home of the state capital, which saw a rate of 18.7 cases per 1,000 people, the second highest in Alabama.
Jefferson County, home of Birmingham and the most populous county in Alabama, saw nearly 15 cases per 1,000, the seventh highest rate in the state. Mobile County, the second largest county in Alabama, ranked just inside the top 20 for STD rate, with 11.8 per 1,000 residents. Madison County, home of Huntsville – Alabama’s largest city – ranked 25th out of 67 counties with an STD rate of 10.3 per 1,000.
Each of those large counties saw a higher rate than the state as a whole, which came in at 9.9 cases per 1,000.
The COVID dip
STD cases statewide were up in 2021, especially cases of chlamydia, by far the most common type of STD in the state. But gonorrhea and syphilis cases also rose.
[Can’t see the chart? Click here.]
ADPH reports there were more than 31,400 chlamydia in Alabama in 2021, up from 27,000 in 2020. That’s a difference of more than 4,000 cases, or a 16% increase. The 2021 number is a slight increase from pre-pandemic levels, and STD cases overall have gone up steadily since the middle of the last decade.
But the year-to-year difference from 2020 to 2021 likely isn’t because of a large change in actual cases, but rather a large change in testing, according to Dr. Jodie Dionne, an associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Starting in March 2020, there was about a 25% drop in STI testing,” she said. “It’s because clinics were closed.”
COVID-19 brought almost every aspect of life to a standstill, including STD testing. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also warn against taking 2020 numbers too literally because of a nationwide decrease in screening and other complications due to the pandemic.
But just because clinics were closed and testing was down doesn’t mean STDs weren’t spreading. And in many cases, testing is key because many STDs won’t be caught without a test.
“Most STIs, especially in women, are asymptomatic,” Dionne said. “If we’re not doing this testing, we’re missing new infections because most people feel just fine.”
And if testing is down 25%, then experts worry about missing 25% of cases, she said.
But there is at least one good thing that came out of the pandemic – the advent of at-home testing. COVID-19 home test kits are now widely available throughout the United States, and that change in mindset could be spreading to other forms of health diagnostics, Dionne said. That includes a future where people can test themselves for STDs in the comfort of their own homes.
Dionne mentioned a statewide pilot program from ADPH that currently has limited funding, but is experimenting with this home testing.
“These are not complicated tests to do – just like a COVID test,” she said. “Often people prefer to do them themselves.”
Do you have an idea for a data story about Alabama? Email Ramsey Archibald at rarchibald@al.com, and follow him on Twitter @RamseyArchibald. Read more Alabama data stories here.