The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said on Wednesday it will deliver COVID-19 tests for free to households across the country.
Beginning Sept. 25, households will again be able to order four free tests through COVIDTests.gov, the health agency said, adding that the tests can detect currently circulating COVID-19 variants and are intended for use through the end of 2023.
HHS also announced an investment of $600 million in 12 domestic COVID-19 test manufacturers.
A slew of schools across America are reinstating mask mandates amid a surge in positive Covid tests – despite evidence they harm children’s learning.
Kinterbish Junior High School in Alabama has asked all students, staff and visitors to start wearing face masks in classrooms and hallways ‘due to the slow rise of Covid cases in the area’ since late last month.
Alabama’s Talladega City School district which serves more than 1,700 students has also urged children and staff to wear masks, but stressed they are ‘encouraged but not required.’
Meanwhile, a Maryland elementary school sparked outrage this week after saying students must don tightly-fitted N95 masks for 10 days, despite only a handful of schoolkids testing positive for Covid.
New York health officials are also providing free masks to schools in the state in response to rising Covid rates and absences, while face coverings are being strongly encouraged in some classrooms in Los Angeles.
The new calls for masks are a throwback to the dark days of the pandemic and come despite the growing body of evidence that masks were not only not effective at preventing the spread of the virus, but also hampered children’s learning, social interactions and natural immunity to other infections.
Kinterbish Junior High School, in Cuba, Alabama, has around 120 students aged between five and 14, while Talladega City Schools district has 1,792 students aged four to 18.
New York State will also send masks and Covid tests to school districts that need them.
Governor Kathy Hochul announced on Tuesday that an outreach survey will be sent to districts in the state asking if they need supplies, which will then be sent out.
Case rates are slowly climbing in the US. The test positivity rate – the share of swabs that come back positive – has soared from 6.7 percent in the week ending July 15 to 13.5 percent by August 19, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
Schools in Los Angeles, which previously had some of the strictest Covid measures in the country, including mask mandates, 10-day illness quarantines and weekly Covid testing, have also opted for an optional masking policy.
But the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has more than 429,000 kindergarteners through 12th grade, has taken an even more relaxed approach to illness.
Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho urged students to come to school even if sick to combat high rates of absence.
He told the LA Times: ‘We’re back at a point — based on high levels of vaccination, therapeutics available and children’s higher resiliency than most — where if a child is mildly sick — no fever, just maybe the sniffles — it is OK for them to go to school.
‘There are ways of mitigating against that: some good meds, a mask and monitoring.’
Last month, a Kentucky school district canceled classes less than two weeks after reopening after swathes of students were hit by a ‘tripledemic’ of flu, Covid and strep throat outbreaks — meaning nearly a fifth signed off sick.
Meanwhile, there are growing concerns that damaging Covid policies could creep back into American life.
There is little evidence that face masks actually reduce infection rates, and mounting research shows the mandates stunted children’s social development and education.
Masks were blamed for the surge in flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and bacterial infection Strep A cases last year in minors because wearing face coverings and avoiding exposure to healthy germs prevented them from developing the natural immunity they would have otherwise gained.
Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12486965/Reinstate-MASKING-Covid-schools-Alabama-LA.html
Biden’s 72-year-old wife, whose symptoms were described as mild, last had COVID in August of last year. The president, now 80, last tested positive in July 2022.
“This evening, the First Lady tested positive for COVID-19,” her communications director, Elizabeth Alexander, said in a statement. “She will remain at their home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.”
Biden flew back alone from Delaware on Monday evening.
“Following the First Lady’s positive test for COVID-19, President Biden was administered a COVID test this evening,” the White House said. “The President tested negative. The President will test at a regular cadence this week and monitor for symptoms.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Biden’s foreign travel could be affected.
Social media erupted after Dr. Anthony Fauci was confronted by a CNN host with a study showing face masks made little to no difference in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Conservative critics pounced on the former White House chief medical adviser after he acknowledged the masking study during the Saturday segment — while continuing to insist that, at an individual level, other research shows face coverings are effective at curtailing the spread of the virus.
“When you’re talking about the effect on the epidemic or the pandemic as a whole, the data are less strong,” Fauci admitted to CNN’s Michael Smerconish.
“But there are other studies, Michael, that show at an individual level, for individuals,” they might be protective, he said.
Fauci also stressed during the interview that at the moment “we’re not talking about forcing anybody to do anything.”
“Fauci admits that masks don’t work for the public at large but still absurdly claims masks work on an individual basis. More subterfuge,” Sen. Ran Paul (R-Ky.), a political nemesis of Fauci, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Fauci admits that masks don’t work for the public at large but still absurdly claims masks work on an individual basis. More subterfuge. pic.twitter.com/UcjOa8flkr
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) September 3, 2023
“This is amazing. According to Fauci, masks work at the individual level but not on the pandemic level. Makes sense,” TRIGGERnometry podcast co-host Konstantin Kisin
“Holy s***t @cnn just directly confronted Dr. Fauci on air with bullet proof scientific evidence that masks don’t work at all. It only took three years, but finally!” Outkick host Clay Travis wrote.
“Fauci confronted with most definitive data analysis possible that masks make ZERO difference against Covid. Not a little, not slight- Zero. And he just mutters some numerical illiteracy bulls–t about ‘individual protection.’ He’s a fraud and a liar,” conservative commentator Buck Sexton said.
“It’s really hard to assume Fauci’s disastrous ‘mistakes’ were in good faith when he refuses to acknowledge obvious facts that don’t require a PhD to decipher. It looks a lot more like ‘TRUST THE SCIENCE!’ only applies when it suits Fauci’s personal or political narrative,” former senior White House and US Intelligence Community official Cliff Sims said.
Labour has also ramped up its calls for the government to reveal the “full extent” of the impact of RAAC on schools and says it could force a vote in parliament next week.
A return to pandemic-style home learning for school pupils impacted by the unsafe concrete crisis should only last “days, not weeks”, the government has said.
More than 100 schools and colleges have been told by the Department for Education (DfE) to partially or fully shut buildings – just days before the start of the new school year – over fears about the safety of facilities built with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC).
However, the department says a move to remote education should only be considered as a “last resort” and only for a “short period”.
Schools impacted by the crisis have instead been advised by the government to find space in nearby schools, community centres or even “empty local office buildings”.
They say such spaces should be utilised for the “first few weeks” while structural supports are installed to mitigate the risk of collapse of structures built with RAAC.
Meanwhile, Labour has ramped up its calls for the government to reveal the “full extent” of the impact of RAAC, including by publicly listing the schools which have had to close or partially shut.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb has pledged to publish the list in “in due course”, while it is understood a full list will only be released by the DfE when all parents are informed and mitigations are in place.
Labour says it will call for a vote next week in the House of Commons with the aim of forcing the government to publish all official documents about their handling of the RAAC crisis.
The party’s shadow education secretary, Bridget Phillipson MP, said: “Parents and the public have the right to know where public buildings affected by this dangerous concrete are, what ministers knew about the risk that this concrete posed to life and why they acted to intervene only days before the start of the school term.
“An urgent, full audit is required to reveal the extent that Conservative ministers failed to replace this dangerous concrete across the public sector estate.
“It’s time ministers were transparent about their handling of this debacle: if they still refuse to publish these documents and give parents the reassurances they deserve about the risks to their children’s safety, then we will force a vote in parliament next week.”
The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, have called on the prime minister to hold an emergency Cobra meeting over the problem.
NHS officials say the variant, known as BA.2.86, represents the most concerning new variant since Omicron first emerged. And while It is not classified as a “variant of concern”, scientists say it carries a high number of mutations.
Scientists also say it has mutated, but has not been classed as a “variant of concern”.
Vaccination efforts aimed at care home residents and those who are immunocompromised will now start on 11 September rather than the initial October date.
This group will be followed by carers, pregnant women, social care personnel, and individuals aged 65 and above, all of whom will receive booster shots this upcoming winter.
Dame Jenny Harries, UK Health Security Agency chief executive, said: “As we continue to live with COVID-19, we expect to see new variants emerge.
“Thanks to the success of our vaccine programme, we have built strong, broad immune defences against new variants throughout the population. However, some people remain more vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19.”
Dame Jenny acknowledged the complexity of estimating the potential impact of BA.2.86, citing limited available data.
“As is the case with all emerging and circulating COVID-19 variants, both within the UK and on a global scale, we will continue to closely monitor BA.2.86 and provide guidance to the government and the public as our understanding grows,” she asserted.
Flights have already begun operating to Beijing in China and Vladivostok in Russia ahead of the borders reopening, but it is unclear who has actually travelled onboard.
North Korea has become the latest country to reopen its borders following the COVID-19 pandemic – but only to its own citizens.
Pyongyang announced its own citizens will be allowed to fly back into the country, with those returning having to quarantine for seven days for “proper medical observation”, according to a statement on state television.
While details are scant, experts believe North Koreans abroad include students and workers, and were mostly based in allied countries such as China or Russia.
North Korea slammed its borders shut after the pandemic started, banning tourism, flying out key diplomats and halting border traffic and trade, with analysts believing the move harmed its food security and economy.
South Korea’s spy agency said it believes the North will slowly begin to fully reopen its borders in an effort to revive its economy.
As of Monday, India has 1,475 active coronavirus cases. The maximum number of active cases is in Kerala (1,010), followed by West Bengal (182) and Maharashtra (116).
New Delhi: The Centre on Monday reviewed the Covid-19 situation in the country and asked all states to maintain a close watch on the new global variants. PK Mishra, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, chaired a high-level meeting with NITI Aayog member Vinod Paul, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, and other top officials, and called for ramping up the whole genome sequencing.
In the meeting that was also attended by PMO Advisor Amit Khare, and DG ICMR Rajiv Bahl, an overview of the global Covid-19 situation was given by Secretary (Health) including certain newer variants of coronavirus like BA.2.86 (Pirola) and EG.5 (Eris), which have been reported globally. He underlined that as per World Health Organization (WHO), while Eris has been reported from over 50 countries, the Pirola variant is in four countries.
