Oregon Health Authority reports 441 additional cases of COVID-19, two new deaths - KPTV.com

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1. Oregon Health Authority reports 441 additional cases of COVID-19, two new deaths  KPTV.com
2. Coronavirus in Oregon: 441 new cases, 2 new deaths as average cases, positivity rate remain higher than recen  OregonLive
3. Vaccine eligibility expands in 20 Oregon counties  KEZI TV
4. Oregon seafood company urging all employees to get COVID vaccine  KGW.com
5. Oregonians may get invitations to vaccine clinics where appointments are a long shot  OregonLive
6. View Full Coverage on Google News

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Manufacturing moonshot: How Pfizer makes its millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses - CNN

This was no small feat. Until the very end of last year, no mRNA vaccine had ever been authorized and no such vaccine had ever been manufactured to scale by any company.

Pfizer has now shipped more than 100 million doses to the US and it said this week it has successfully met its goal of 120 million doses released and ready for shipment by the end of March.

For Mike McDermott, Pfizer's president of global supply, the mission is still more doses. Billions of them.

"Our goal has been running 24/7, make as many doses as possible. I actually don't even have a production goal," McDermott told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta during an exclusive tour of its manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in March. "Our goal is to produce as much as possible to get to 2 billion doses this year as soon as possible."

Pfizer/BioNTech's global goal is 2.5 billion doses by the end of the year.

Big gamble

Pfizer met its first milestones with substantial upfront investment, and it had no guarantees.

Pfizer was part of Operation Warp Speed as a potential supplier for Covid-19 vaccines and had a purchase agreement for an initial 100 million doses. However, the company didn't receive federal funding for the research or development of the vaccine.

So while Pfizer could repurpose some of its equipment at its main manufacturing site in Kalamazoo, most of what's there now didn't exist a year ago.

"Pfizer has spent at risk, almost $2 billion on the overall program. From manufacturing, my team spent $500 million, before we even got out of clinical trials. So all completely at risk. We didn't know if we had a product that was going to work," said McDermott.

Before Pfizer decided on its final vaccine candidate, it was looking into four different options. That meant McDermott and his team had to be ready to go in any direction.

"I think about like, we're going to have dinner tonight, and we need to get dessert ready, but I don't know what dessert we're having. So you just start buying ingredients," he said. "Maybe we're making a cake, maybe we're making brownies. Let's bring in the standard materials that we need. So filling up this pantry was quite, quite expensive."

One of the biggest rate-limiting steps of this production, according to McDermott, has been the availability of raw materials and specifically lipids, the fatty substance that safely houses the mRNA until it can get to our cells.

"Lipid nanoparticle hasn't been used in a large commercial product. So the lipid suppliers weren't very large. And so we work very closely with them to build more lipids capacity, and actually making lipids in this site in Kalamazoo, Michigan," said McDermott.

The heart of mRNA

Pfizer/BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine can simply be described as mRNA housed in a lipid coating, but the successful production of that by the millions all came down to a something the size of a quarter.

"
The heart of this whole machine is what's called an impingement jet mixer," said McDermott as he is twirled it around his fingers.

The impingement jet mixer, also known as the tea stirrer, works by simply pumping lipids in one side and mRNA in the other, forcing them together with 400 pounds of pressure. That's what creates the lipid nanoparticle which is essentially the vaccine.

These aren't just any lipids, Pfizer/BioNTech had to design the right combination of four different lipids that would not only protect the mRNA on the way to cells, but then release the mRNA once it gets there.

While the process of creating lipid nanoparticles is not new, McDermott said the challenge was scaling up this process.

"The first time somebody showed me this impingement jet mixer, I said, 'You can't be serious?' Like how could you put billions of doses through here? So my confidence level was actually quite low. Not that it could be done, I knew it worked at this scale, but how could you multiply it?"

McDermott's first thought was to go bigger, make a large-scale tea stirrer to allow more volume to pass through. When that didn't work, they ended up replicating the quarter-sized mixers and put technology in place to ensure efficiency in order to scale up production.

"There's a computer system that's running the whole apparatus that makes sure you have the precise amount of flow and pressure. And that allowed us to get more production out. Even though this size is small, we were able to really scale this up our original design for this machine. We're currently operating at four times the capacity."

Make it modular

Part of what has allowed Pfizer to continue to make room for these new formulation suites has been its strategy of using prefabricated construction.

In its 1,300-acre foot Kalamazoo facility, Pfizer is installing around 13,000 square feet of modular rooms that are first built in Texas and then shipped to Kalamazoo.

"We've had planned to expand our formulation capacity. The question was, how can we do it quickly? If we built it wall by wall on site, it would have taken us a year. By doing it modularly, we could cut that in half," says McDermott.

Moving each room into place is surprisingly easy. With the help of compressed air -- think of an air hockey table -- you can simply slide them into place. Then the rooms are ready to be connected to electricity, sterilized and put to use.

With each of these improvements, Pfizer says it has gone from producing 3 to 4 million doses of vaccine a week to 13 million doses a week. They company expects to double that again by the middle of the year. That will mean roughly 100 million doses a month and the ability to hit its goal of 300 million total doses delivered to the US government by July.

What's next

McDermott says the last 12 months have been "like nothing I've ever experienced in my career."

"As a kid, my dad worked for NASA," McDermott said. "He was lucky enough to be in mission control in Houston when Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon right at that amazing moment.

"I could never imagine having a moment like that in my life. Right? Like, what's the odds that something like that would ever happen again?"

Then came December 13, 2020 -- the day the United States' first coronavirus vaccine, the first step to end the pandemic, left the facility.

"The day we shipped the first doses out of this site, it rushed over me like that was that was my moment," McDermott said. "That was our moonshot."

But McDermott says vaccine supply is always on his mind, and they have to prepare for the future -- and that means coronavirus variants.

Although there is no evidence people immunized with Pfizer's vaccine will be less protected against the current variants, the company has started testing a third dose of its current vaccine.

Pfizer and BioNTech say they are also in ongoing discussions with regulators about potentially testing a vaccine modified to protect against concerning variants in a Phase 1/2 study.

The company's next giant leap is to be ready to get it to patients, if necessary.

Pfizer's goal, McDermott says: To be able to develop a new variant-specific vaccine, get it through production and get it to patients within a matter of months.

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Coronavirus in Oregon: 441 new cases, 2 new deaths as average cases, positivity rate remain higher than recen - OregonLive

The Oregon Health Authority reported 441 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and two new deaths as key coronavirus metrics continued rising.

Oregon is now averaging 375 coronavirus cases a day over the past week, the highest level since March 1.

Test positivity rates from the past week stand at 4.2%, a level not seen since Feb. 22.

Tuesday’s test positivity rate was 5%, the second day in a row at or above that threshold – which officials have said is an indicator that more testing is needed to identify cases and slow spread.

Officials at the Oregon Health Authority this week acknowledged concern over the latest metrics, although hospitalizations, after sharply rising, have stabilized for the past four days.

State officials will release new modeling on Friday about the potential for more spread in the weeks ahead.

Meanwhile, cases in Multnomah County are once again approaching 100, with 94 confirmed cases reported Wednesday. Case increases in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties next week could push each back into a more-restrictive “high” risk category restricting capacity in restaurants and gyms, among other places.

Vaccines: Oregon reported 38,373 newly administered doses, which includes 23,834 doses administered Tuesday and 14,539 from previous days.

Where the new cases are by county: Baker (7), Benton (14), Clackamas (61), Clatsop (2), Columbia (10), Coos (7), Crook (2), Curry (2), Deschutes (13), Douglas (5), Grant (6), Harney (1), Jackson (30), Josephine (17), Klamath (14), Lake (1), Lane (35), Lincoln (3), Linn (18), Malheur (1), Marion (25), Multnomah (94), Polk (10), Tillamook (4), Umatilla (3), Union (3), Wasco (1), Washington (47) and Yamhill (5).

Who died: Oregon’s 2,382nd COVID-19 death is a 63-year-old Washington County woman who tested positive March 19 and died March 30 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

Oregon’s 2,383rd COVID-19 death is an 84-year-old Douglas County woman who tested positive March 16 and died March 29 at Bay Area Hospital.

Both women had underlying conditions.

Hospitalizations: There are 139 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are hospitalized, the same total as Tuesday. There are 36 patients with COVID-19 in intensive care, also unchanged from Tuesday’s total.

Since it began: Oregon has reported 165,012 confirmed or presumed infections and 2,383 deaths, among the lowest per capita numbers in the nation. To date, the state has reported 1,806,528 vaccine doses administered.

-- Andrew Theen; atheen@oregonian.com; 503-294-4026; @andrewtheen

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Nationals Player Tests Positive for Virus Before Opening Day - The New York Times

Because of contract-tracing rules, four other players and a staff member will be held out of Washington’s season opener against the Mets on Thursday.

WASHINGTON — In the last Major League Baseball game of 2020, the Los Angeles Dodgers were forced to remove third baseman Justin Turner from the final moments of the World Series after learning that he had tested positive for the coronavirus.

It was one of many positive tests that M.L.B. had to grapple with during a shortened season, and there is hope that 2021, with a complete schedule of 162 games and some fans allowed to attend, will feel at least a little more normal.

But as the league prepared for its opening day on Thursday, it was reminded that the problem had not gone away. The Washington Nationals announced on Wednesday that one of their players had tested positive for the coronavirus and that, because of contact-tracing protocols, four more players and one staff member who had close contact with that player would also be held out of their game against the visiting Mets on Thursday.

The Nationals did not name the player who tested positive or the others who are in the protocols, but Mike Rizzo, the team’s general manager, said he had learned of the positive test at about 1:20 a.m. on Wednesday. The team flew back to Washington on Monday after its last spring-training game.

The positive test also occurred on Monday, Rizzo said. He added that the team had no positive test results during the six weeks of spring training.

Team personnel were given more tests on Wednesday, but Rizzo said he did not have the results when he spoke to reporters on Wednesday afternoon. It is possible the number of players in the protocols could change before Thursday’s game, but Rizzo said the game was not likely to be postponed.

“We’ve got a long season ahead of us,” Rizzo said. “The difference this year is it’s 162 and we are ready for the long haul. This is just a small blip on our radar screen. We are going to handle it and take it in stride.”

Max Scherzer, the scheduled starting pitcher for the Nationals on Thursday, said that he had flown back with his family, separately from the team, and that he still expected to pitch.

“We had done so well in spring training, everyone across the game,” Scherzer said. “We had seen so few positive cases across spring training as a whole. It just shows how quickly that can turn.”

Last year Juan Soto, the Nationals’ star outfielder, missed the first eight games of the season after he tested positive for the coronavirus before the team’s season opener against the Yankees. Soto later said he thought it was a false positive.

Also in 2020, M.L.B. suspended activities during spring training in March because of the pandemic. When the league returned in July to start its 60-game regular season, several teams had games postponed because of positive tests.

Turner’s positive test forced him to be taken out of Game 6 of the World Series before the start of the eighth inning. He was criticized for coming back onto the field to join the Dodgers’ championship celebration, especially because he appeared in a team photograph without a face mask.

Baseball executives, players, staff members and fans all remain hopeful for a more normal season this year, but the revelation of the positive test on Wednesday served as a reminder to keep expectations in check.

“It will be a little more normal than it was last year,” Rizzo said of opening day, “but certainly a long way from normal.”

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Convincing skittish parents to vaccinate their children will be key to curbing Covid, says Dr. Hotez - CNBC

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In order to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 moving forward, U.S. officials will have to convince skeptical parents to vaccinate their children, Dr. Peter Hotez said Wednesday.

"There's going to have to be a lot of public communication, and a lot of advocacy that needs to be done, because parents are going to be a bit skittish about ... a brand new mRNA technology for their kids," Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children's Hospital, told CNBC's "The News with Shepard Smith." 

Hotez's comments came after Pfizer announced earlier in the day that its vaccine is 100% effective in kids ages 12 to 15. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company will submit the new data to Food and Drug Administration and other regulators soon. He added Pfizer will request an amendment to its emergency use authorization to include everyone 12 and older.

"We are seeing adolescents going into pediatric intensive care units, they are getting sick, especially those with underlying risk factors,"  Hotez said. "If we're going to actually interrupt virus transmission, we have to get to 80, 85% of the population vaccinated, now that we have the B.1.1.7 variant, which is so highly transmissible, and I think we could do that by including adolescents."

Hotez said he thinks the U.S. could get "maybe 75% of adults vaccinated" by summer, but warned that "we're in a race with this B.1.1.7 variant," which results in higher mortality and hospitalization rates.

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The Latest: Magazine says Palin tests positive for virus - Minneapolis Star Tribune

BEIJING — Health officials in China say six more people have become ill with COVID-19 in a southwestern Chinese city on the border with Myanmar. That brings the confirmed total in the Yunnan province city of Ruili over the past two days to at least 15, including at least four Myanmar citizens.

The National Commission said Thursday that 23 other people have tested positive for the coronavirus without showing symptoms of illness.

Officials say more than 20,000 tests have been administered so far. City authorities plan to test Ruili's entire population of about 210,000 people, and require them to quarantine at home for one week.

The residential compound where the infections were found has already been locked down.

China has largely eradicated local transmission of coronavirus and takes strict measures whenever a new cluster emerges.

___

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

VACCINES: More than 96 million people, or 28.9% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Some 53.4 million people, or 16.1% of the population, have completed their vaccination.

CASES: The seven-day rolling average for daily new cases in the U.S. increased over the past two weeks from 54,799 on March 16 to 66,875 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

DEATHS: The seven-day rolling average for daily new deaths in the U.S. decreased over the past two weeks decreased from 1,275 on March 16 to 994 on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

— COVID-19 pushed total US deaths beyond 3.3 million last year

— Pfizer says vaccine is safe in kids as young as age 12

— Follow AP's pandemic coverage at https://ift.tt/35k8pHx, https://ift.tt/3ajhaVd and https://ift.tt/2wrCaXK

___

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — People magazine reports that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says she tested positive for the coronavirus and is urging people to guard themselves in the pandemic, such as wearing masks in public.

It is not clear when Palin tested positive, but the magazine quotes her as saying other members of her family tested positive, too.

According to the magazine, Palin says her case shows that "anyone can catch this." She urges vigilance and says people should "use common sense" to avoid spreading the coronavirus and other viruses.

___

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state is opening eligibility for coronavirus vaccinations to all residents age 16 and older starting April 15.

Gov. Jay Inslee had previously resisted expanding eligibility, saying he wanted to avoid doing that too quickly into order to ensure those most at risk were vaccinated first. He had noted that eligibility didn't guarantee vaccination right away and would depend on supply.

But Inslee said Wednesday that the federal government's assurances of increased allocations, plus concerns about rising cases in many parts of the state, led to the decision to open up eligibility.

The federal government has directed states to make all adults eligible for vaccination by May 1, but most states have earlier plans, with more than a dozen opening eligibility to all adults this week.

___

QUEBEC CITY — The Quebec government is putting three cities in the Canadian province into lockdown beginning Thursday following a sharp rise in coronavirus infections.

Quebec Premier Francois Legault announced Wednesday that schools and non-essential businesses will close and the curfew will be moved ahead to 8 p.m. in Quebec City, Levis and Gatineau. He says the situation is alarming.

The new restrictions do not affect the Montreal area.

Canada's most populous province of Ontario is expected to announce new pandemic restrictions Thursday amid a new wave of infections.

___

ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is rolling back pandemic restrictions amid warnings from federal officials of a "fourth surge" of coronavirus cases if states continue relaxing precautions.

The governor's office says Kemp signed an executive order Wednesday that will end a ban on large gatherings, eliminate shelter-in-place requirements and reduce any remaining distance requirements at restaurants, bars, movie theaters and fitness classes. The rollback starts April 8.

Earlier this week, President Joe Biden and the head of the CDC warned that too many Americans are prematurely declaring victory against the virus. They appealed for mask requirements and other restrictions to be maintained or restored.

Kemp has said loosening restrictions is a critical step in restoring normalcy and ensuring businesses survive.

Georgia last week made all residents over age 16 eligible for vaccination against the coronavirus.

___

SEATTLE — Amazon plans to have its employees return to the office by fall as the tech giant transitions away from the remote work it implemented for many workers due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The company had previously given its return-to-office date as June 30, but questions remained as to whether the company would allow some of its 60,000 Seattle-area office employees to continue working from home part time.

The Seattle Times reports the company told employees Tuesday it is planning a "return to an office-centric culture as our baseline."

Amazon and Microsoft were among the first large companies to mostly shutter their main offices in the Seattle area during the first COVID-19 outbreak in March 2020.

Amazon spokesperson Jose Negrete said the company will not require office workers to receive a COVID-19 vaccine before they return, but is encouraging employees and contractors to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible.

___

JOHNSTON, Iowa — Facing an uptick in new coronavirus cases and a hesitancy among a significant portion of the population to get the vaccine Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds is pushing to convince residents that getting a shot will help return life to normal.

Reynolds faces a state where virus activity has increased in recent weeks specifically among spring break travelers aged 18 to 29. About a third of the state's adult population, roughly 800,000 people, will not commit to getting a vaccine which is prompting Reynolds to plead with them to consider it for everyone's sake.

State health data shows 555 new positive cases in the past 24 hours and no additional deaths reported. Iowa has had 5,729 COVID-19 related deaths in the past year.

Reynolds said Iowa is expected to get nearly 161,000 vaccine doses next week, the largest weekly supply so far. That will enable the state to open vaccination appointments broadly to all adults beginning Monday although a few counties already have expanded their vaccination eligibility.

___

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Students lined up outside schools in Kansas City, Kansas, for the first time in more than a year as in-person classes resumed in one of the last districts in the state still learning mostly virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Wednesday is the date lawmakers set for public schools to begin offering in-person classes in a bill that is awaiting Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's signature. Most Kansas schools already returned to in-person classes, but the Kansas City, Kansas, area was particularly hard hit by the pandemic.

The district moved up the date for the rest of the students to return from April 5 in part because of the legislation, although spokesman Edwin Birch said it already had been moving in that direction.

Some who filed through the doors of the 1,700-student Wyandotte County High School lost grandparents to the coronavirus, took on part-time jobs to support their families and came dangerously close to dropping out.

School Principal Mary Stewart said the school implemented measures to keep the virus at bay. Those included plastic shields on desks, assigned seating, staggered passing periods and rolling dismissals.

___

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Rhode Island Department of Health reports more than 560 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus and a daily positivity rate from the previous day of about 2.5%.

The state also reported two more virus-related deaths pushing the total reported fatalities to 2,619.

Of the new cases, 500 were people who tested positive for the first time on Tuesday, the highest one-day total since early February. The remainder tested positive for the first time on previous days.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in Rhode Island declined over the past two weeks, going from about 353 on March 15 to 347 on Tuesday, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins.

There have now been more than 137,000 known cases in the state.

___

PHOENIX — Arizona reported 733 additional confirmed COVID-19 cases and 26 more deaths but officials said about 200 of the additional cases were from records cleanups involving cases occurring over the entire pandemic.

The state's coronavirus dashboard said pandemic totals increased to 841,811 cases and 16,967 deaths.

Department of Health Services spokesman Steve Elliott said of the 733 additional cases, 202 were cases newly reported for Apache and Navajo counties in northeastern Arizona after officials reviewed records provided by neighboring New Mexico where facilities tested or treated Arizona residents.

Arizona's seven-day rolling averages of daily new cases dropped from 868.3 on March 15 to 547.7 two weeks later on Monday while the average of daily deaths dropped from 35.4 to 20.4 during the same period, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

___

TRENTON, N.J. — Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli said New Jersey will see a nearly 12% increase in the number of vaccines next week, from 494,000 to 551,000 doses.

Johnson & Johnson vaccines will see the biggest bump among the three shots being delivered, climbing from about 52,000 this week to 131,000 next week.

The increase coincides with what Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy had predicted would be "quantum leap" in the number of vaccines around Easter, which is Sunday.

___

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron announced a three-week nationwide school closure and a one month domestic travel ban to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

In a televised address to the nation Wednesday night, Macron says efforts are needed as "the epidemic is accelerating." The move is a departure from the government's policy in recent months, which has focused on regionalized restrictions. School closures were seen as a last resort.

Paris hospital officials warned they'd have to start refusing patients for lack of space. The total number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care in France surged past 5,000 on Tuesday, the first time in 11 months the figure has been that high.

Previous nationwide lockdowns in France were in March and October 2020.

___

CHICAGO — Chicago officials are warning if the number of coronavirus cases keep climbing, they'll stop letting baseball fans into Wrigley Field, along with limits on bars and restaurants.

The city's Office of Emergency Management and Communications made the announcement a day before Thursday's Opening Day for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. Wrigley and Guaranteed Rate Field, home of the White Sox, can allow up to 25% of their capacity when they open for fans for the first time since 2019.

Illinois Department of Public Health officials on Tuesday reported 2,404 coronavirus cases, including 17 more deaths. More than 1.2 million residents have contracted the virus and there's been 21,273 confirmed deaths.

Health officials say hospitalizations have increased almost daily since falling to a one-year low on March 12. Hospitalizations totaled 1,396 beds on Monday, the most since late February.

The state reported more than 2.1 million Illinois residents have been fully vaccinated, about 16.6% of the population.

___

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — South Dakota announced it will open COVID-19 vaccinations to anyone over age 16 on Monday.

Gov. Kristi Noem's announcement came amid a recent uptick in cases statewide. Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by 34%, according to Johns Hopkins University.

State health officials say 43% of people have received at least one dose of a vaccine and about 65% are fully vaccinated.

As those over 16 become eligible, more than 400,000 people in the state can receive a vaccine.

___

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's number of confirmed coronavirus cases reached 39,302, a record high for a second straight day.

The Health Ministry reported 152 more deaths, pushing the confirmed death toll to 31,537. The total number of confirmed infections stands at 3.3 million.

On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government re-imposed restrictions, including weekend lockdowns, amid a sharp increase in the number of infections less than a month after the measures were relaxed. The government has also announced restrictions over the upcoming Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

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Beaumont requiring COVID-19 vaccination record cards for visitors - The Detroit News

America's next Covid-19 culture war is here - CNN

Growing numbers of businesses, hospitality industries, and even sports teams are considering requiring proof of vaccination for customers, once the world begins to open up. For both patrons and staff, such a system might offer peace of mind -- and could stop a cruise voyage around the Caribbean, for example, from turning into a floating super spreader.

Countries where Covid-19 rates are low might soon start demanding inoculation information before they let tourists in. It's not that different from parents showing proof of vaccination typically required to enroll kids in American schools, or those little yellow vaccine cards already required to travel in countries threatened by yellow fever, tuberculosis or other scourges. Yet the idea of "vaccine passports" has become the latest object of right-wing politicians' outrage.

Everyone's favorite conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene, a member of Congress from Georgia, branded vaccine passports as "Biden's mark of the beast" and "fascism or communism or whatever you want to call it." Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential Republican 2024 presidential candidate, has also seized on the idea as an issue that will play to the GOP base. "It's completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society," DeSantis said.

For the record, President Joe Biden is not actually planning to mandate vaccine passports or to set up a central vaccines database that raises the specter of Big Brother surveillance trampling American individualism. The White House says it is trying to work with companies to set standards for vaccine passports and to ensure people's privacy is protected.

Nevertheless, it is an ethical minefield. Should businesses bar people who are not vaccinated? Can employers make vaccines a condition for accepting a new job? Certainly vaccines should be available to anyone who wants one before such filtering systems are introduced. But equally, is it fair for an American who endangers others by refusing vaccination to get the same benefits as others? Rent-a-quote politicians stirring fear and anger about the issue are not doing much to help.

Team USA athletes are now permitted to hold up a fist, kneel, and wear garments promoting racial and social justice at competitions, according to new rules published Tuesday by the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee. Those who choose to do so will be following in a well-trod path -- Tommie Smith and John Carlos, gold and bronze medalists in the 200 meters, made history at the 1968 Olympic Games with the black power salute in support of African Americans' civil rights.

Postcard from London

My hands are chapped from a day wiping down patients' chairs with disinfectant as a volunteer at a local Covid-19 vaccination center -- they didn't have gloves in my size. But raw knuckles seem like a small price to pay for my tiny role in getting the United Kingdom vaccinated.

The UK's vaccination rollout has so far been a roaring success, with 50 doses of vaccine administered per 100 people, according to data tracked by CNN. It's the largest country by far to have such a high vaccination rate. But the shots came too late to prevent a grimmer statistical superlative: The UK also has one of the highest per capita Covid-19 death rates on Earth.

The US with its turbo-charged inoculation program is in a similar position: Awful death tolls and impressive vaccination figures. Both countries failed to contain the coronavirus when it first appeared -- but after a lethal year, Covid-19 now appears to be a problem they can solve with massive spending on vaccines. In this crisis, vaccines are a magic bullet for sale, and the US and UK have money. But both countries may have lost out on a teachable moment; they won't be able to buy their way out of the world's other enduring crises.

Technology is moving slowly on coming up with a similar solution for climate change. And there are no magic bullets at any price for sexism or racism or poverty, as the UK faces up to its problem of violence against women in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard; systemic racism intertwined with its colonial history; and the shocking fact that in one of the world's wealthiest countries, many children would go hungry without free meals at school.

Those problems require permanent and profound changes in human behavior on a massive scale -- the kind of changes that we initially needed to prevent the spread of Covid-19, but now thanks to vaccines, are preparing to forget. -- CNN's Richard Greene writes from London

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Governor Lamont Announces Connecticut Remains on Track To Expand COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility To All Adults on Thursday, April 1 - CT.gov

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03/31/2021

Governor Lamont Announces Connecticut Remains on Track To Expand COVID-19 Vaccine Eligibility To All Adults on Thursday, April 1

More Than 100 Additional Pharmacies in Connecticut Are Being Added to Connecticut’s Vaccination Program

(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the State of Connecticut is on track to expand its COVID-19 vaccination program to the final group of adults, including all individuals between the ages of 16 and 44, on Thursday, April 1, 2021. Individuals in this age group will have access to schedule appointments beginning Thursday morning.

To schedule an appointment, Connecticut residents should visit ct.gov/covidvaccine and enter their zip code in the space provided. From there, they will be presented a list of the closest available clinics and instructions for how to make an appointment at each clinic. Those without access to the internet can call Connecticut’s Vaccine Appointment Assist Line at 877-918-2224. The assist line is available seven days a week from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Appointments are required in advance at all vaccination clinics in the state.

Individuals who are 16 and 17 years old are reminded that they should only sign up for a clinic that is offering the vaccine made by Pfizer, as that is the only vaccine at this point that has been approved for those ages by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Connecticut is currently ranked second in the nation in percentage of population that has received at least one dose.

“Connecticut’s healthcare providers have been doing a tremendous job getting the vaccine to our residents, and the reason why our state is among the most vaccinated in the country is because of the remarkable work they have been doing,” Governor Lamont said. “As we prepare to expand vaccine eligibility to the final group of adults on Thursday morning, there is going to be an initial rush of people who attempt to make appointments during the first couple of days, similar to what we experienced when we expanded to other age groups. I urge everyone to please be patient and check back as new appointments are being added every day. Thanks to the efforts of the Biden administration, the number of doses being delivered to Connecticut is significantly increasing each week, and I am confident that within this next month we will get the vaccine to everyone who wants it.”

“With the recent increase in cases in Connecticut, it is crucial that everyone who wants a vaccine, gets one as quickly as possible,” Connecticut Acting Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford said. “I am extremely proud of everyone involved in our vaccine program – the federal government, our local health departments and community partners, our vaccine providers, the National Guard – and thankful for the leadership of Governor Lamont and his team, who have all helped to speed up Connecticut’s delivery of vaccines and make tomorrow’s final expansion to all adults possible. Through everyone’s efforts, we are now able to offer vaccine to all adults months earlier than originally planned. While general availability of vaccines is a cause for celebration, we must also remember to keep up our guard against the spread of COVID-19. Even after you are vaccinated, you should continue to wear masks, social distance, avoid large gatherings and test and isolate if you are sick.”

More than one hundred additional pharmacies to begin offering vaccinations

Governor Lamont today also announced that more than 100 additional pharmacies throughout Connecticut will begin offering COVID-19 vaccines over the next several days, adding to the growing list of locations where the state’s residents can be vaccinated. Individuals are reminded that appointments must be made in advance prior to receiving the vaccine at all locations statewide.

The new pharmacies that are being added to Connecticut’s COVID-19 vaccination program include:

• Able Care Pharmacy & Med Supply: 15 Palomba Drive, Enfield
• Achorn Pharmacy: 289 Post Road East, Westport
• Apex Pharmacy & Home Care Center: 2380 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden
• Arrow Prescription Center: 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington
• Arrow Prescription Center: 500 Farmington Avenue, Hartford
• Beacon Prescriptions: 233 Main Street, New Britain
• Beacon Prescriptions: 25 Collins Road, Bristol
• Beacon Prescriptions: 543 West Main Street, New Britain
• Beacon Prescriptions: 609 North Main Street, Southington
• Big Y Pharmacy: 1289 Foxon Road, North Branford
• Big Y Pharmacy: 135 West Road, Ellington
• Big Y Pharmacy: 224 Salem Turnpike, Norwich
• Big Y Pharmacy: 33 Fieldstone Commons, Tolland
• Big Y Pharmacy: 355 Hawley Lane, Stratford
• Big Y Pharmacy: 504 Winsted Road, Torrington
• Big Y Pharmacy: 7 E Hampton Road, Marlborough
• Big Y Pharmacy: 70 Wauregan Road, Danielson
• Big Y Pharmacy: 81 Stony Hill Road, Bethel
• Big Y Pharmacy: 85 Bridge Street, Naugatuck
• Big Y Pharmacy: 87 W Stafford Springs Plaza, Stafford Springs
• Big Y Pharmacy: 995 Poquonnock Road, Groton
• Bissell Health Mart Pharmacy: 23 Governor Street, Ridgefield
• Brass City Pharmacy: 558 Chase Avenue, Waterbury
• Brass Mill Pharmacy: 1405 East Main Street Unit 3, Waterbury
• Bridgeport Pharmacy: 978 East Main Street, Bridgeport
• Candlewood Drugs: 11 State Route 37, New Fairfield
• Community Health Pharmacy: 210 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven
• Danielson Pharmacy: 77 Westcott Road, Danielson
• Della Pietra Pharmacy: 792 Highland Avenue, Waterbury
• Evine Llc-Valuerx Pharmacy: 54 Tuttle Place, Middletown
• Grieb’s Pharmacy: 1021 Post Road, Darien
• Hancock Pharmacy: 1020 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport
• Hancock Pharmacy: 306 Grand Avenue, New Haven
• Hancock Pharmacy: 840 East Main Street, Meriden
• Hancock Pharmacy: 95 Wakelee Avenue, Ansonia
• Health Complex Pharmacy: 55 Deforest Street, Watertown
• Higganum Pharmacy: 23 Killingworth Road, Higganum
• Main Street Pharmacy: 2117 Boston Avenue, Bridgeport
• McQuade’s Pharmacy: 10 Clara Drive, Mystic
• Medical Pharmacy: 1213 Main Street, Willimantic
• Milford Pharmacy and Home Care: 78 Broad Street, Milford
• Naugatuck Pharmacy: 153 Maple Street, Naugatuck
• New Britain Pharmacy: 46 Broad Street, New Britain
• New Canaan Pharmacy: 44 East Avenue, New Canaan
• Norwalk Pharmacy: 250 Westport Avenue, Norwalk
• Nutmeg Pharmacy Centerbrook: 33 Main Street, Centerbrook
• Nutmeg Pharmacy: 38 Williams F Palmer Road, Moodus
• Oxford Pharmacy: 100 Oxford Road, Oxford
• Petricones Torrington Pharmacy: 110 East Main Street, Torrington
• Pharmscript Holdco & Subsidiaries: 80 Clark Drive, East Berlin
• Price Chopper Pharmacy: 121 Farmington Avenue, Bristol
• Price Chopper Pharmacy: 251 Kennedy Drive Suite A, Putnam
• Price Chopper Pharmacy: 675 Poquonock Avenue, Windsor
• Price Chopper Pharmacy: 855 Washington Street, Middletown
• Procare: 1492 Highland Avenue Suite 1C, Cheshire
• Rite Aid: 1030 Wolcott Street, Waterbury
• Rite Aid: 1060 East Main Street, Bridgeport
• Rite Aid: 1395 Middletown Avenue, Northford
• Rite Aid: 141 Meriden Road, Waterbury
• Rite Aid: 1619 Post Road, Fairfield
• Rite Aid: 180 Main Street, Cheshire
• Rite Aid: 190 East Avenue, Norwalk
• Rite Aid: 215 Federal Road, Brookfield
• Rite Aid: 2175 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden
• Rite Aid: 249 Legion Avenue, New Haven
• Rite Aid: 277 Fairfield Avenue, Waterbury
• Rite Aid: 280 Branford Road, North Branford
• Rite Aid: 289 Greenwood Avenue, Bethel
• Rite Aid: 325 Ferry Street, New Haven
• Rite Aid: 508 Monroe Turnpike, Monroe
• Rite Aid: 56 Rubber Avenue, Naugatuck
• Rite Aid: 588 Main Street, East Haven
• Rite Aid: 605 North Colony Road, Wallingford
• Rite Aid: 645 Foxon Road, East Haven
• Rite Aid: 744 Wolcott Road, Wolcott
• Rite Aid: 85 Middletown Avenue, North Haven
• Rite Aid: 922 South Main Street, Cheshire
• Rockville Pharmacy: 42 Windsor Avenue, Vernon
• Rotary Drug: 1030 Barnum Avenue, Stratford
• Seybridge Pharmacy Jewelry & Gifts: 37 New Haven Road, Seymour
• Shop Rite: 1990 West Main Street, Stamford
• Shop Rite: 200 Shippan Avenue, Stamford
• Shop Rite: 2100 Dixwell Avenue, Hamden
• Shop Rite: 214 Spencer Street, Manchester
• Shop Rite: 250 Barnum Avenue Cutoff, Stratford
• Shop Rite: 259 Bull Hill Lane, Orange
• Shop Rite: 266 East Main Street, Clinton
• Shop Rite: 35 Talcottville Road, Vernon
• Shop Rite: 360 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk
• Shop Rite: 45 Shunpike Road, Cromwell
• Shop Rite: 745 Foxon Road, East Haven
• Shop Rite: 775 Main Street South, Southbury
• Shop Rite: 875 Bridgeport Avenue, Shelton
• Shop Rite: 935 Boston Post Road, Milford
• Slavins Hancock Pharmacy: 922 Washington Boulevard, Stamford
• Stolls Pharmacy: 185 Grove Street, Waterbury
• The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy: 535 Boston Post Road, Old Saybrook
• The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy: 774 Farmington Avenue, West Hartford
• The Medicine Shoppe: 79 East Street, Vernon Rockville
• The Rose City Pharmacy: 3 N 2nd Avenue, Taftville
• Visels Pharmacy: 714 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven
• Wallingford (Berlin): 8 Fairfield Boulevard, Wallingford
• Westown Pharmacy: 455 Hartford Road, Manchester
• Woodbury Drug: 682 Main Street South, Woodbury

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The Latest: Virus surge shows no sign of abating in Hungary - Minneapolis Star Tribune

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka received 600,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China as a donation on Wednesday.

Sri Lankan authorities said the supplied doses will go first to Chinese citizens in Sri Lanka, where thousands of people from China are working.

Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa accepted the vaccine from Chinese Ambassador Qi Zhenhong at the airport after the doses were flown in on Wednesday.

Sri Lankan officials have said the vaccine will be given to Sri Lankans only after the island nation receives clearance from the World Health Organization.

Sinopharm is the third vaccine to be approved in Sri Lanka and the second the country has obtained in it's fight against COVID-19.

Sri Lanka has so far used Oxford-AstraZeneca shots to vaccinate more than 903,000 people. The government also has arranged to buy 7 million doses of the Russian-developed vaccine Sputnik V.

___

THE VIRUS OUTBREAK:

— After three pandemic lockdowns, London tourism braces for slow recovery

— After tumult, White House virus briefings have turned wonky, aiming to deliver facts and restore trust

— China's loans impose unusual terms that hurt poor countries' ability to renegotiate debts after pandemic, researchers say

— Follow AP's pandemic coverage at https://ift.tt/35k8pHx, https://ift.tt/3ajhaVd and https://ift.tt/2wrCaXK

___

BRUSSELS — Belgium has an extra unexpected hurdle to overcome in its fight against the coronavirus: a bout of gorgeous weather.

Temperatures in Belgium reached 24.5 degrees Celsius (76 F) on Tuesday, bringing thousands of people to coastal beaches and parks amid a worrying surge of COVID-19 cases.

The warm weather is expected to continue until Friday and the start of the Easter weekend. Good news for the 11.5 million Belgians craving sun after a gloomy winter, but a real worry for the government struggling to deal with a third wave of infections.

In response to the number of passengers on its trains, Belgium's national rail company, SNCB, was forced to activate a "stop-and-go" system to prevent travelers from boarding in several train stations packed to the rafters.

Under the COVID-19 restrictions imposed in Belgium, residents are banned from traveling abroad but can move freely across the country. Many did not resist the appeal of a grand day out to the North Sea beaches, especially after the government decided last week to shut down schools for an extra week before the Easter school break in a bid to slow infections.

___

BUDAPEST— A devastating surge in COVID-19 deaths in Hungary showed no sign of abating Wednesday as daily new cases hit a record 302. Hungary continues to have the highest weekly death rate per 1 million inhabitants in the world.

The Central European country is in its fourth week of a new round of lockdown measures aimed at reducing infections, hospitalizations and deaths, even as an ambitious vaccination program has given Hungary the highest vaccination rate in the European Union. The number of vaccinated people broke the 2 million mark on Tuesday, more than 20% of the population, and the foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, announced Wednesday that a quarter million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine had arrived overnight in the capital, Budapest.

But mass vaccinations have been unable to turn around pandemic indicators, and Hungary's hospitals are under unprecedented strain. As a proportion of the population, more COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals in Hungary than in any other EU country except Bulgaria.

On Wednesday, 28 news outlets signed an open letter to the government demanding more transparency concerning the pandemic, writing, "The lack of information has serious consequences." The outlets asked for journalists to be allowed into hospitals to report on COVID-19 wards, and for medical staff, who are prohibited by ministerial decree from speaking to the media, to be permitted to give interviews.

___

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has scheduled a televised address to the nation on Wednesday night, a possible harbinger of tighter restrictions to combat surging coronavirus hospitalizations.

Previous nationwide lockdowns in March and October of 2020 were announced by Macron in televised speeches. His office said Wednesday that he will address the nation at 8 p.m., without saying what he will announce.

Ahead of his weekly coronavirus strategy meeting Wednesday with ministers and aides, Macron was under intensifying pressure to close schools and further restrict people's movements to ease the pressure on hospitals.

French hospital ICUs had to make room for another 569 new patients on Tuesday, pushing the nationwide total beyond 5,000 for the first time in 11 months.

___

TOKYO — Japan is calling for further investigation into the origins of COVID-19, saying the WHO report released this week was based on work that faced delays and lacked access to essential virus samples.

"In order to prevent future pandemics, it is indispensable to carry out prompt, independent and experts-led investigations that are free of surveillance," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters. "We are concerned that the latest investigation faced delays and the lack of access to virus samples."

The World Health Organization's report was released Tuesday after experts traveled to Wuhan, China, the city where illnesses from the coronavirus were first detected in late 2019.

China has touted its cooperation with WHO and warned that attempts to politicize the matter would cost lives. The U.S. and other countries say the WHO report lacked crucial information, access and transparency and further study was warranted.

Kato called for additional investigation and analysis and said Japan will encourage WHO to consider additional investigation inside China.

"We will further cooperate with other countries in carrying out additional studies that are still necessary," Kato said.

The report said the virus most likely came from bats and spread to an unidentified mammal before being transmitted to people. It called a laboratory leak an unlikely route of transmission that didn't warrant further study.

___

BEIJING — At least nine people have tested positive for COVID-19 in a Chinese city on the border with Myanmar, health officials said Wednesday.

Five are Chinese citizens are four are Myanmar nationals, the Yunnan Province Health Commission said in a report posted online. Three of the infected people did not have any COVID symptoms.

The city of Ruili, with a population of about 210,000 people, said all residents would be tested for COVID-19 and would have to home quarantine for one week. The residential compound where the infections were found has been locked down.

The city also ordered a crackdown on people who cross the border illegally, anyone who shelters them and those who organize such border crossings. It wasn't immediately clear how the outbreak started.

China has largely eradicated the spread of the coronavirus and takes strict measures whenever a new cluster emerges.

___

MEXICO CITY — Many of the over 120,000 excess deaths Mexico suffered so far during the pandemic may have been indirectly caused by the coronavirus, even if those people didn't die of COVID-19, Mexican officials said Tuesday.

A "very significant part" of those deaths were people who were suffering heart problems but were too afraid to go the hospital for fear of getting infected, said Dr. Ruy López Ridaura, the country's director of disease prevention and control.

"Clearly, even those cases that aren't directly associated with (coronavirus) infection ... in some way are associated with the pandemic, right, because they were associated with the burden on hospitals, the fear that people had," López Ridaura said.

"It is not unreasonable to think that a very significant part is due to people not seeking medical attention," he said. "They were in a certain way afraid to go to a system that was caring for a lot of COVID patients, for fear of getting infected."

The number of deaths from heart disease and diabetes skyrocketed during 2020. For example, deaths from cardiac ailments increased 36% last year, as compared to 2019, and deaths from complications of diabetes were up 46%.

___

LOS ANGELES — Nearly half of California's 40 million people are living in areas where coronavirus restrictions are easing and some of the largest counties are preparing to expand movie theater and restaurant reopenings despite worries about a new surge and demand for limited vaccine supplies.

Massive Los Angeles County and neighboring Orange County dropped into orange, the state's second-least restrictive of four color-coded tiers, according to a weekly state update Tuesday. They and 11 other counties moving into the less-stringent category — including Santa Cruz and Alameda — altogether have a population of around 17 million.

Officials in Orange County said that as of Wednesday restaurants, theaters, museums, and houses of worship can allow people indoors at 50% capacity. Bars that don't serve food can operate outdoors, and bowling alleys and card rooms can operate indoors at 25% capacity.

The county has about 3 million residents.

L.A. County, with about 10 million residents, is taking a more cautious approach and won't loosen its restrictions until Monday. That allows a three-week gap to ensure that the number of COVID-19 cases doesn't rise in the wake of a previous relaxation of some rules on March 15, public health officials announced.

___

BATON ROUGE, La. — The governor of Louisiana said he intends to keep the state's face covering requirement firmly in place even as several states have shed their mask mandates.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards also said he is ending many other coronavirus restrictions for businesses.

Customer limits on bars, restaurants, salons, gyms, malls, casinos and other nonessential businesses will be removed, though they'll be required to use social distancing. Direct table service still will be required at bars, but an 11 p.m. alcohol curfew will end.

The changes represent the fewest restrictions for businesses since the pandemic began. The new rules start Wednesday. Local officials could choose to enact tougher limits.

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Vaccines are working. The latest surge in Covid cases proves that. - NBC News

People under 60 are accounting for the majority of new Covid-19 cases across the country — likely a testament to the success of the vaccines that have been administered to primarily older, more vulnerable Americans.

The number of cases is rising again following a steep decline and then plateauing for several weeks. During a White House Covid-19 briefing Monday, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the rise in cases — an average increase of 10 percent from the previous week — gave her a sense of "impending doom."

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

But doctors say that patients seeking care this time around are younger and, notably, not as sick.

In New York, where cases are rising, some Covid-19 patients still require hospitalization, but the numbers of such patients are nowhere near the "astronomical" levels from a year ago, said Dr. Frederick Davis, an associate chair of emergency medicine at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Hospital.

Now, Davis said, Covid-19 cases are mostly mild.

"The cases we are seeing are the younger groups that probably aren't eligible for vaccines just yet," Davis said.

March 30, 202106:03

More than 73 percent of people over age 65 has received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, and nearly half are fully vaccinated. Monday, the CDC reported that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are 90 percent effective against Covid-19 in the real world.

The increase in immunity among older adults is illustrated in the shift in age groups most likely to seek care for Covid-19.

Nationwide, "the number of 25-to-49-year-olds visiting U.S. emergency departments for diagnosed Covid-19 is now higher than the number of visits among patients 65 and older," the CDC said in a statement to NBC News.

In Michigan, where cases have more than doubled in the past two weeks, doctors are seeing increases in patients between the ages of 10 and 60, with hospitalizations among people in their 50s rising at the fastest rate, said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, the state's chief medical executive.

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"Even if you may be at lower risk for getting the virus, you can still get the virus," Khaldun said. "People simply cannot let their guard down now. No one lives in a bubble."

Dr. Usamah Mossallam, an emergency department physician at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, cautioned that even younger people can get quite ill from Covid-19.

"I've also seen my fair share of people who require hospitalization and ICU admissions, and they're in their 40s," Mossallam said.

At Northwell health system in New York, Davis said that many of the Covid-19 cases are due to domestic travel.

"They went to a gathering somewhere out of state, whether it was family they hadn't seen in a long time, or maybe a wedding," Davis said. "Sometimes multiple family members come in from the same event."

Spring break may also be partly to blame for the recent rise in cases, particularly as some states have rolled back restrictions and mask mandates, said Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist at the Cleveland Clinic. But vaccinations among the highest-risk demographics may prevent hospitalizations from rising as precipitously this time as they did during previous surges, he said.

"A lot of places opened up and we saw more travel for spring break, so we certainly expected a bump in cases," Khabbaza said. "But when these people go back home to their workplace or to their loves ones and family members, at least more of the higher risk people are going to be vaccinated."

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The trend toward younger patients with milder illness is likely the reason many intensive care units are no longer inundated with severe cases.

At the pandemic's peak last year, Dr. Todd Rice, director of Vanderbilt University Medical Center's medical intensive care unit in Nashville, Tennessee, said he had 60 Covid-19 patients at once. Now, he has five.

The shift is likely because "we've changed the demographics of the people who are being affected" by the illness, Rice said.

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The virus itself, however, is shifting and changing. "We know that about 26 percent of all sequenced virus is now the B.1.1.7" variant, Walensky said during Monday's briefing. That variant has been shown to be more contagious.

"This variant is probably less forgiving, and more infections will occur," Walensky said.

Khabbaza said that while he remains hopeful that a new wave of infections won't be accompanied by as many hospitalizations and deaths, it's hard to predict the full impact of the variants.

"We haven't had a surge with a variant yet, so we're not really sure what to expect for these next couple weeks and months," he said.

Even if cases are milder, they can still result in debilitating "long-hauler" symptoms.

The possibility of long-term illness combined with more transmissible variants are major reasons to get vaccinated, even as cases are trending toward younger, healthier patients.

"The good news with the variants is, they are all mostly responsive to vaccinations," said Dr. James McDeavitt, senior vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

"We can still vaccinate our way out of this crisis."

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‘It Felt Like Deception’: An Elite NYC Hospital Charges Huge Virus Test Fees - The New York Times

Insurers are stuck with the big bills from Lenox Hill, but the public ultimately pays through higher premiums.

The Lenox Hill Greenwich Village emergency department, where patients have been charged extraordinarily high prices for coronavirus tests. This photo was taken in mid-March; the blue parts of the signs advertising coronavirus testing have since been removed.Steven Molina Contreras for The New York Times

Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan advertised its “Covid-19 Testing” on a large blue and white banner outside its Greenwich Village division’s emergency room. The banner said nothing about cost.

But cost turned out to be the testing’s most noteworthy feature. Lenox Hill, one of the city’s oldest and best-known hospitals, repeatedly billed patients more than $3,000 for the routine nasal swab test, about 30 times the test’s typical cost.

“It was shocking to see a number like that, when I’ve gotten tested before for about $135,” said Ana Roa, who was billed $3,358 for a test at Lenox Hill last month.

Ms. Roa’s coronavirus test bill is among 16 that The New York Times reviewed from the site. They show that Lenox Hill arrives at its unusually high prices by charging a large fee for the test itself — about six times the typical charge — and by billing the encounter as a “moderately complex” emergency room visit.

In one case, a family accrued $39,314 in charges for 12 tests this winter, all taken to fulfill requirements for returning to work or school. In another, an asymptomatic patient walked in because she saw the banner outside and wanted a test after traveling. Her insurance was charged $2,963.

Federal legislation last year mandated that coronavirus testing be free for patients, so individuals are typically protected. None of the patients tested at the Lenox Hill emergency room were billed directly for the service. But eventually, American patients bear the costs of these expensive tests in the form of higher insurance premiums.

Patient bills show that at least one additional hospital owned by Lenox Hill’s parent group, Northwell Health, has charged emergency room fees to patients at a mass testing site.

“It felt like deception, and an effort to try and get money that they are not entitled to,” said Ute Tabi. She was reviewing her family’s insurance claims and saw a $2,793 charge for a drive-through coronavirus test her husband got at a Northwell hospital in the New York suburbs, Huntington Hospital on Long Island. The hospital pursued the family for a share of the bill, which Ms. Tabi has so far refused to pay.

The Times has been asking readers to submit bills so that we can understand the costs of coronavirus testing and treatment. So far, more than 600 patients have participated. Their bills have revealed high charges and illegal fees, as well as patients who face substantial medical debt for coronavirus treatment. If you have a bill for coronavirus testing or treatment, you can share it here.

Northwell Health, a nonprofit, operates 23 hospitals in the region, and received about $1.2 billion in emergency health provider funding in the federal CARES Act last year.

The chain recently came under scrutiny after The Times revealed it had sued more than 2,500 patients for medical debt during the pandemic. It has since dropped those cases.

Northwell, which defended its coronavirus testing charges as appropriate, has since removed the blue signs at the Greenwich Village division advertising the service.

Officials said patients tested at the emergency room received more advanced care than they would elsewhere. They declined to comment on specific patient cases but said their protocols involve notifying patients that their test will come with emergency room fees. A sign with the information is taped to a plexiglass shield at the registration desk.

“I don’t think of the emergency room as a testing site,” said Barbara Osborn, Northwell’s vice president for communications.

But the Lenox Hill in Greenwich Village has tested 15,000 patients for coronavirus over the course of the pandemic. Patients interviewed by The Times said they went there because of the banner outside, not to seek emergency care. They were asymptomatic and seeking tests as a precaution before traveling or socializing.

Ms. Roa spotted the emergency room fee through an unusual circumstance. Her wallet had been stolen, and she was checking her bills. She feared her identity had been stolen because she had no memory of visiting an emergency room.

“I called my insurance and was freaking out, asking who has my identity, what will this bring,” she said. “After maybe 45 minutes, I got transferred to someone who was able to tell me that this was all about a Covid test.”

Congress inadvertently encourages expensive tests

Americans have taken about 370 million tests during the pandemic. The price of each — as with most services in the American health system — can vary widely from one hospital or doctor’s office to another.

State-run testing sites in New York do not charge patients or collect health insurance information for the coronavirus nasal swab tests. A study published last year found that a swab test at a hospital can run from $20 to $850. Some independent laboratories have charged more, billing $2,315.

The Lenox Hill Greenwich Village center bills $671 for its coronavirus test, six times what major labs such as LabCorp and Quest charge. The rest of the price discrepancy comes from the emergency room fees.

Doctors and hospitals that bill higher prices for testing can rely on new federal protections to ensure they are paid. Congress passed a law last year that requires insurers to fully cover coronavirus testing costs and not apply any patient co-payments or other fees to the service.

Insurers must also pay for services that are necessary to obtain the coronavirus test, such as a doctor’s visit or, in the case of Lenox Hill, an emergency room facility fee.

“This is such a gold mine for hospitals because now they can charge emergency fees for completely healthy people that just want to be tested,” said Renee Hsia, a professor of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, who researches medical billing. “This is what you’d expect from a market-oriented approach to health care. It’s the behavior our laws have incentivized.”

Emergency rooms in the United States typically charge patients something called a facility fee, the price of walking through the door and seeking care. The fees have risen sharply in recent years, and can cost about $200 for a simple visit or $1,800 for the most complex cases.

Hospitals like Lenox Hill often defend these costs as necessary to fulfill federal laws that require them care for all patients regardless of their ability to pay.

“If someone does not have insurance, we still provide the same level of care as we would to someone who has insurance,” said Rich Miller, Northwell’s chief business officer.

Emergency room fees are common in the American system but rare in the world of coronavirus testing. At The Times’s request, the data firm Castlight Health analyzed insurance claims for 1.5 million coronavirus tests.

It found that less than 4 percent of coronavirus tests are billed through emergency departments. The vast majority of those tests are associated with large claims that have many charges, suggesting the nasal swab was incidental to a more complex visit.

Only about 5,000 bills out of the sample of 1.5 million — about 0.3 percent — were billed in a way that looked similar to Lenox Hill’s fees, the Castlight data shows.

At the Lenox Hill site, Mr. Miller explained, there are actually two separate coronavirus testing processes. Patients who arrive with a doctor’s order for a coronavirus test are routed to a service center that does not charge emergency room fees.

Patients who come in without that prescription are sent to the emergency room for an evaluation, where they will incur the facility fee charges. About 75 percent of coronavirus tests at Lenox Hill Greenwich Village are routed through the emergency room, a practice Mr. Miller defended.

“Anyone who would have been billed for an emergency room visit would have been assessed accordingly to see if other things were wrong with them,” Mr. Miller said. “We believe we’re adequately disclosing that this is an emergency department visit, and will be billed as E.R.”

Short visits, surprising bills

Founded in 1857, Lenox Hill has long served a wealthy clientele at its main division on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is where Beyoncé gave birth in 2012, and is the subject of an eponymous Netflix documentary series that shows the hospital’s inner workings.

In 2010, New York State awarded Lenox Hill the rights to take over the Greenwich Village building left empty by the closing of St. Vincent’s Hospital. It replaced it with a free-standing emergency room.

It would stay open 24 hours and provide care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. But unlike traditional emergency rooms, it is not physically attached to a larger hospital.

Free-standing emergency rooms have proliferated in recent years, across the country and across New York City. Montefiore, Northwell and N.Y.U.-Langone have all opened them within the last decade.

Supporters have praised them for expanding critical care access without building an entire hospital, a potential boon to underserved urban and rural areas.

But they have also faced criticism for how they price care, especially for simple visits. One analysis conducted by the health insurer UnitedHealthcare found that the average cost for a visit related to a common condition like a fever or cough was 19 times higher in free-standing emergency rooms than in urgent care centers.

“Free-standing emergency departments simultaneously represent the best, innovative side of American health care and the pure profit motive,” said Dr. Jeremiah Schuur, chair of the emergency medicine department at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School.

The prices at Lenox Hill’s free-standing emergency room caught the eye of local government officials shortly after it opened. New York City’s Community Board 2, which has jurisdiction over Greenwich Village, held a meeting in 2016 to discuss several cases. One patient was charged $1,000 to have a bee sting looked at, and another faced fees of $3,000 related to a sprained ankle.

Sarah Nathan was not looking for emergency-level care when she was tested at Lenox Hill Greenwich Village. She just needed a test to return to her job as a nursery school teacher.

The bill for her visit came to $3,194, which her insurance negotiated down to $2,084. She recalls asking a front desk representative whether she would be billed for an emergency room visit. She said she was told she would not be.

Ms. Nathan worries about the impact these high fees could have on her premiums.

“My insurance is so expensive already, and it infuriates me that they’re adding to the cost of that for New Yorkers,” she said.

Coronavirus tests were scarce at the start of the pandemic, but have since become plentiful, raising questions about why Lenox Hill advertised testing at this site.

Northwell owns an urgent care center that is a 15-minute walk from the Lenox Hill emergency room. The urgent care center’s charge for a coronavirus nasal swab test and doctor visit usually comes to $350 — nearly 90 percent less.

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