July 14 coronavirus news

By Meg Wagner, Melissa Mahtani, Melissa Macaya, Mike Hayes, Fernando Alfonso III and Veronica Rocha, CNN

Updated 8:11 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021
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7:41 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

Extra Covid-19 vaccine dose might help some, NIH director says 

From CNN's Lauren Mascarenhas

An extra dose of coronavirus vaccine might help some people, including those with immune system deficiencies, National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins said Wednesday. 

“People who have immune deficiencies, who did not get a full response to the original pair of doses from Moderna or Pfizer, or the one dose from J&J – maybe an additional dose might help those people,” Collins told CNN’s Erin Burnett.

“I wouldn't call that a booster, though,” Collins added. “I would just say that's trying to get the primary immunization up to the level it needs to be – that's under consideration.”

Pfizer said a booster for its vaccine could be needed six months to a year after completion of the first two vaccine doses, prompting a rare public rebuke from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration. The company met with administration and top public health officials this week to discuss the data. 

“There was nothing there that would change the view of myself, or the FDA or the CDC, that we need boosters imminently,” Collins said. “I think Pfizer was a bit apologetic that they might have jumped the gun a bit on that.”

Collins added that he believes Covid-19 vaccine boosters may be needed at some point but not right now.

 

8:11 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

Argentina surpasses 100,000 Covid-19 deaths

From CNN’s Karol Suarez

Argentina surpassed 100,000 total Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, the country's health ministry reported.

The current Covid-19 death toll in the country stands at 100,250.

The country reported 4,702,657 total Covid-19 cases as of Wednesday, according to the ministry. A total of 614 people died from Covid-19 today, the ministry added.

Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong total of Covid-19 cases in Argentina. The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country is 4,702,657.

6:32 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

All Covid-19 patients in Los Angeles County hospitals are unvaccinated, officials say

From CNN's Cheri Mossburg

 A Emergency sign is seen at Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center in Los Angeles on January 7.
 A Emergency sign is seen at Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center in Los Angeles on January 7. Ringo Chiu/ZUMA Wire/FILE

Los Angeles County is seeing a surge in new Covid-19 cases, topping 1,000 for the fifth straight day on Wednesday, and though hospitalizations remain low, each admitted patient to a county hospital has been unvaccinated, officials said.

“To date, we have not had a patient admitted to a [Department of Health Services] hospital who has been fully vaccinated, with either the J&J, Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Every single patient that we’ve admitted for Covid is not yet fully vaccinated,” County Health Services Director Dr. Christina Ghaly told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

Some context: The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services runs four hospitals, including those affiliated with University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Southern California, along with 19 healthcare centers throughout the region. There are currently about 400 Covid-19 patients in Los Angeles County hospitals. 

Ghaly called the hospitalizations entirely preventable.

"At this point, this really is a preventable illness, a preventable infection, and the healthcare workers will continue doing everything they can to support the lives and health of the individuals that come in, but it's really been a very challenging year, and I think it's made all the more challenging because we see the suffering that these patients and their families are going through, and it's very preventable at this point in time," she said.

While still well below the spike in cases seen early this year, the increase in cases in Los Angeles is helping drive the state’s positivity rate up to 3%, a level not seen in the state since February.

Over 60% of California residents have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The percentage is slightly higher in Los Angeles County, but daily vaccination rates have been steadily declining over the past couple of months, according to data from the county health department.

5:17 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

Acting FDA commissioner says no apparent need for Covid-19 boosters right now

From CNN's Virginia Langmaid

There is currently no need for a booster dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, acting US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said Wednesday.

“We don't think that boosters are needed at the current time,” Woodcock said in a conversation hosted by STAT News. “We will follow the data on waning of immunity over time and the data on acquisition of infections by the vaccinated to see if, at some point, it appears that a booster would be warranted.”

Woodcock said what’s important is that people get their primary vaccinations.

“We think the most important thing is to get the unvaccinated people vaccinated,” she said. “The Delta variant is circulating and we're seeing rise in infections in many states across the United States, especially where people aren't, (where) there's not a high rate of vaccination.”

5:16 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

Tennessee health department confirms it has stopped outreach about adolescent vaccines

From CNN's Keri Enriquez

The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed Wednesday it is temporarily halting all adolescent vaccine outreach, even for vaccines not related to Covid-19, telling CNN the issue is “polarized.”

“We recognize where we are around the national conversation around vaccinations and it is a polarized conversation, and that is true in our state. And so we're just taking this opportunity to evaluate our messaging and to ensure that we're not hurting our efforts,” spokesperson Sarah Tanksley told CNN in a phone call.

Dr. Michelle Fiscus, a pediatrician who was the state’s medical director of the vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization, said Monday she was fired in a dispute over parental permission for vaccinating children. She said the health agency was stopping all its outreach efforts involving childhood vaccines.

Tanksley said Covid-19 and other childhood vaccines would still be available while the department of health re-evaluates the vaccination notification process. She said the goal was to ensure that vaccination reminders are sent to the parents of the adolescent. 

In a few cases, immunization reminders were sent directly to minors who had contact information listed in the department’s electronic health records, according to a statement given to CNN by the Tennessee Department of Health.

The halt impacts all outreach to adolescents, including Covid-19 second-dose reminders, HPV vaccine reminders and kindergarten vaccination surveys, according to the documents circulated within the department obtained by CNN and first reported by The Tennessean.

Research published in June by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed routine child and adolescent vaccinations dropped in the early stage of the coronavirus pandemic, but Tanksley said she doesn’t think the pause in communications to Tennessee’s adolescents will have an impact.

“We're already seeing our childhood immunization rates rebound to pre-pandemic levels,” Tanksley told CNN Wednesday. “This is just kind of our opportunity to recognize the conversation and be mindful of those conversations so that we can be as supportive to the decision makers in our state.”

Tanksley said she is confident the department of health will continue to successfully communicate with parents and providers. “This is not a monthlong evaluation period or anything like that,” she said.

Asked how many children have gotten the Covid-19 vaccine without parental permission in Tennessee, Tanksley cited the number previously shared before a Tennessee Government Operations Committee hearing in June: eight unaccompanied adolescents, five of whom were already at a health facility for other reasons when they got vaccinated. The other three were the children of the state’s health commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey, according to Piercey’s testimony at the hearing. 

“The other three were my own children, who I sent unaccompanied to get their second dose because they’re 16 and their mom works,” Piercey said.

4:53 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

Here's why the Delta variant may be more transmissible

From CNN's Michael Nedelman

The Delta variant might spread faster than other strains of the coronavirus because it makes more copies of itself inside our bodies quicker than other strains of the coronavirus. 

In research posted online last week, Chinese scientists detected Delta viral loads that were about 1,260 times higher than earlier strains on initial positive tests. They compared 62 Delta cases with 63 cases from the early epidemic wave in 2020.

Moreover, the amount of time it took quarantined people to test positive for Covid-19 on PCR also shortened – from about six days with the earlier infections to four days with Delta.

“These data highlight that the Delta variant could be more infectious during the early stage of the infection,” the researchers wrote. 

Some context: Delta outbreaks in China have prompted some local governments to shorten the window for a negative test in order to travel from 72 hours to 48 hours. 

According to Public Health England, a number of analyses have shown Delta to be more transmissible, including lab studies that suggest “increased replication in biological systems that model human airway, and evidence of optimized furin cleavage” – a process that activates the virus’ entry into the human cell. The variant has also been observed to spread faster in real-world epidemiological studies. 

According to the World Health Organization, Delta is estimated to spread roughly 55% faster than the Alpha variant first identified in the UK, and roughly twice as fast as variants that do not rise to the level of “interest” or “concern.”

5:48 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

More than 90% of new Covid-19 cases in Mississippi are of unvaccinated people, governor says

From CNN's Kay Jones

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves (Edmund D. Fountain for CNN)

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said today that more than 90% of those who have recently tested positive or been admitted to the hospital are unvaccinated people. 

Reeves said the state is seeing a "slight uptick" in total Covid-19 cases since the first of July, but he's doesn't think the state is "headed to a third wave."

He said during a press conference Wednesday afternoon that the best way to protect yourself from the Delta variant or any others is to get vaccinated. 

Reeves said that for those who choose not to get vaccinated, "I personally don't think that's a good choice."  

4:26 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

More than 160 million people in the US are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data

From CNN's Deidre McPhillips

A city run vaccination site stands in a Brooklyn neighborhood which is witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases on July 13, in New York City.
A city run vaccination site stands in a Brooklyn neighborhood which is witnessing a rise in COVID-19 cases on July 13, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

More than 160 million people in the US are fully vaccinated, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s more of the latest data on vaccination efforts in the US:

  • 48.2% of the US population is fully vaccinated (160,126,516 people)
  • The current pace of vaccinations (7-day average): 316,906 people fully vaccinated per day; 548,045 doses reported administered per day. This is a 27% decline from last week, when an average of about 432,000 people became fully vaccinated each day. But the pace has been slightly improving over the past couple of days.
  • 20 states have fully vaccinated more than half of their residents: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C.
4:13 p.m. ET, July 14, 2021

States that ban requiring proof of Covid-19 vaccination status also have low vaccination rates, data suggest

From CNN's Deidre McPhillips and Jacqueline Howard

A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to a resident at the Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield, Missouri, on June 29.
A healthcare worker administers a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to a resident at the Jordan Valley Community Health Center in Springfield, Missouri, on June 29. ( Liz Sanders/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Many states that have policies in place prohibiting requirements for showing proof of Covid-19 vaccination status also have some of the lowest vaccination rates in the United States, a CNN analysis finds.

As of June 22, at least 13 states have enacted laws that limit requirements for individuals to demonstrate their vaccination status or immunity against Covid-19 in general, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Utah. 

Overall, 48% of people in the US are fully vaccinated, but among those 13 states that have enacted the laws, an average of only 41% of residents are fully vaccinated. 

Alabama and Arkansas, for instance, are the only states nationwide -- other than Mississippi -- to have fully vaccinated fewer than 35% of their residents. Average daily case rates in each state were among the 10 worst in the country last week. Iowa is the only one in the group to have vaccinated a larger share of residents than the US overall, with less than 49% of residents fully vaccinated.

At least another 21 states have introduced similar bills that are pending legislation, according to the NCSL, which has been tracking legislation related to coronavirus vaccines. 

In comparison, states that have not enacted or proposed legislation to ban proof of Covid-19 vaccination have fully vaccinated an average of about 50% of residents, above the national rate.

Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine lead the nation, each with more than 62% of their residents fully vaccinated. Each of these states reported among the 10 lowest case rates in the country last week, and none have proposed or enacted legislation banning proof of Covid-19 vaccination status.