Half of total U.S. population fully vaccinated: CDC
As of Friday, 50 percent of the U.S. population – more than 165.9 million people – had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC.
Half of the total U.S. population has been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the data updated Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website.
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As of Friday, 50 percent of the U.S. population – more than 165.9 million people – had been fully vaccinated against the virus. More than 193.7 million, or 58.4 percent of all Americans, have gotten at least one dose, showed the data.
The 50 percent milestone came amid a surge in new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in parts of the United States, driven largely by the delta variant.
“America can beat the Delta variant just as we beat the original COVID-19,” President Joe Biden said at the White house on Friday, saying “it’s a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
“We can do this, so wear a mask when recommended, get vaccinated today. All of that will save lives and it means we’re not going to have the same kind of economic damage we’ve seen when COVID-19 began,” he said.
Earlier this week, 70 percent of U.S. adults have received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine, a month behind President Joe Biden’s Fourth of July goal.
The first COVID-19 vaccine in the United States was administered on Dec. 14, 2020.
Covid crisis worsens in Asean as new cases, deaths hit record highs
Southeast Asia hit a new high on Friday, reporting 105,287 new Covid-19 cases, and a record 3,069 deaths, the highest on a single day.
The numbers exceeded Thursday’s tally of 97,679 new cases and 2,966 deaths.
Total Covid-19 cases in Asean crossed 7.85 million, while the death toll rose to 164,816.
The Philippines on Friday put Metro Manila, which is located on Luzon Island and comprises 16 cities including Manila and Quezon City, under lockdown until August 20 due to increasing number of new infections with delta variant of Covid-19. The president also extended the ban on foreigners from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Oman, UAE, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand who wish to enter the country until at least August 15.
Vietnam reported 8,324 new cases and 296 deaths on Friday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 193,381 patients and 3,016 deaths.
The government is planning to extend the use of strict disease control measures in Hanoi until August 22 as the 8.5 million population city is experiencing increasing numbers of new cluster cases of the delta variant, which is more contagious than the original virus.
Meanwhile, the country’s vaccination campaign is still in the starting phase and only 1.1 million people in Hanoi have been vaccinated. Of these, some 7,400 people have received two jabs. The total number of people receiving two jabs throughout Vietnam is 780,000 people, or less than one per cent of the 98 million population.
Paul Johnson, DJ and house producer, dies at 50 of covid-19 complications
Paul Johnson, a DJ, producer and house music alchemist who mixed pounding bass beats, hypnotic rhythms and looping melodies to create intoxicating dance music, recording international hits like the 1999 song “Get Get Down,” died Aug. 4 at a hospital in Evergreen Park, Ill. He was 50.
The cause was complications of covid-19, said his agent Camille Harry. Mr. Johnson had been hospitalized with disease on July 17 and posted occasional video updates on Instagram, laboring to breathe as he declared his love for his fans.
Raised in Chicago, where house music grew out of disco in the early 1980s, Mr. Johnson was a leader of the genre’s second wave in the ’90s, using a turntable, mixing console and Roland beat machine to craft propulsive dance songs that caught on at clubs across the United States and Europe. “Paul Johnson was Chicago house,” the local music publication 5 Magazine wrote in a tribute, “and Chicago house is a lot less bright today.”
Mr. Johnson started DJing when he was still a boy, throwing his first party for his eighth-grade graduation, and regularly inviting friends to dance in his basement after school. At age 16, he spotted a neighbor dancing with a handgun in his waistband. “If that goes off, my mother will kill me,” he later recalled thinking. At Mr. Johnson’s request, his friend began to take out the bullets, only to accidentally fire and hit Mr. Johnson in the shoulder.
“It felt like a car was on top of me,” he said in a video interview released by S&S Records in 2014. The bullet clipped his spine, leaving him partially paralyzed. He used a wheelchair and later had both legs amputated – he lost his right after a car accident in 2010 – while continuing to make music. Were it not for the shooting, he recalled, he would have followed his father and uncles into the Army after graduating from high school.
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“This part of my life takes over 80 percent of anything,” he said in the video interview, referring to his health. He added, “I’m always smiling when I’m out on the street, I’m always doing everything everybody wants. But when I go home, I’m hurting.”
Signs of that pain were scarcely visible in Mr. Johnson’s joyous music. His best-known song, “Get Get Down,” layered electronic high-hats, keyboard and hand claps atop the syncopated bass line from disco king Hamilton Bohannon’s 1978 song “Me and the Gang.” The single topped Billboard’s Dance Club Songs chart and sold more than 3.5 million copies worldwide, although Mr. Johnson said he had written it merely as filler for his album “The Groove I Have.”
“When the album came out, ‘Get Get Down’ overshadowed every other track on the album,” he told 5 Magazine in a 2006 interview. “I had no idea it would be that hot. I was actually kinda upset when that became big, because I worked hard on all the other tracks and that was what blew up.”
Mr. Johnson added saxophones to the mix in songs like “A Little Suntin Suntin” and revealed a playful side in tracks such as “Let Me See You Butterfly,” which called on listeners to pump and shake on the dance floor. In 2004, he cracked the Billboard dance chart’s Top 10 a second time with “Follow This Beat,” which sampled Melba Moore’s soul cover of “You Stepped Into My Life.”
While he never had a mainstream hit in the United States, Mr. Johnson influenced acts including the French electronic duo Daft Punk, who name-checked Mr. Johnson in their 1997 song “Teachers,” a roll call of influential musicians that also included Brian Wilson, George Clinton and Dr. Dre.
Mr. Johnson’s name was first on the list.
Paul Leighton Johnson was born in Chicago on Jan. 11, 1971. By age 10 or 11, he was listening to house music pioneers like Farley “Jackmaster” Funk and Hot Mix 5 on the radio. “It just grabbed me. Instantly,” he recalled.
Beginning in the 1990s, he worked as a producer for Chicago labels including Dance Mania, Relief, Cajual, Moody and Dust Traxx, which he co-founded. He continued performing at clubs in recent years, although his health sometimes kept him from the stage. Survivors include a brother and a sister.
“Ever since I was young, I always had this inside me, to just go – go, go, get out, get out, faster,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook page, accompanying an announcement of his death.
“I’ve never let any type of experiences let me down or put me down,” he added. “I’ve always had my own mind and thought like that … Nobody else was in my brain, so I knew it couldn’t stop me. Even this disability couldn’t stop me. Nothing could. I just had that in me. I still have that drive in me right now.”
A day after Juan Soto tweaked his knee, the Nationals give their star a rest
ATLANTA – Out of caution, and because they arent in the thick of a pennant race, the Washington Nationals decided to sit Juan Soto on Friday, giving his right knee more time to heal.
Soto, 22, the reigning NL batting champion and an all-star last month, hurt his knee while running the bases in a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday. That happened in the ninth inning, with Soto limping home to score the game’s final run. On Friday, then, ahead of a series opener with the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, Soto did agility drills and jogged in the afternoon.
He said he felt “fine” afterward, grinning a bit. Manager Dave Martinez later noted that Soto still “felt it a bit,” leading the Nationals to rest him and start veteran Gerardo Parra in right field. Soto was available to pinch hit, according to Martinez, though the manager hinted that he’d likely get the full night off.
“He took his secondary lead [Thursday] and kind of tweaked his right knee,” Martinez said Friday. “I don’t think there’s a major concern, but we want to make sure he’s OK.”
If the pain worsens and Soto is forced to go on the 10-day injured list, the team has added outfielder Lane Thomas to its taxi squad. Thomas, 25, is with the team in Atlanta, called in from the Class AAA Rochester Red Wings after being acquired last week in a deadline trade that sent starter Jon Lester to the St. Louis Cardinals. He is comfortable at all three outfield positions, but struggled at the plate in a short stint with the Cardinals earlier this season, posting a slash line of .104/.259/.125 in 58 plate appearances.
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In a small sample with the Red Wings, he singled and doubled in his first game, smacked a leadoff homer in his second and a walk-off single in his third. On one hand, Soto is impossible to replace, by Thomas or anyone else. Soto led the majors in on-base-plus-slugging percentage in July (1.176) and is one of the league’s most feared hitters. But on the other, the Nationals have decided to build for the future, making it unnecessary to play him if there is even a minuscule risk to his long-term health.
They entered the weekend on a four-game losing streak, trailing the New York Mets by 7½ games in the NL East.
Negotiators strike deal on spending Virginias $4.3 billion in federal coronavirus aid
RICHMOND, Va. – Virginia Senate and House budget negotiators quickly struck a deal on Friday on how to spend $4.3 billion in federal coronavirus relief funding, rebuffing a last-minute plea from Gov. RalphNorthams administration that they stick strictly to the governors original plan for the money.
But Northam, a Democrat, indicated he supports the new plan, which the General Assembly will vote on when lawmakers convene again Monday.
The plan deviates from Northam’s by providing a one-time $3,000 bonus to sheriff’s deputies, boosting Medicaid rates for workers who serve people with disabilities, and requiring DMV offices to reopen to walk-in services that were halted during the pandemic. But their compromise would also allow college athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness – a provision in Northam’s original proposal that the Senate version hadstripped out.
The conference report appeared to have buy-in from Northam, despite the tweaks to the original appropriations bill.
“The governor is grateful to the legislature for their hard work and collaborative partnership,” Northam spokeswoman Alena Yarmosky said in a written statement. “This bill makes critical investments in small businesses, public health infrastructure, first responders and law enforcement, universal broadband, and college affordability. It will move our Commonwealth forward, and we look forward to seeing it passed.”
The General Assembly convened a planned two-week special session on Aug. 2 with the expectation that both chambers would pass the plan that Northam had hashed out ahead of time with leaders of the two Democratically controlled chambers.
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That plan included$800 million in American Rescue Plan Act fundsto restore the unemployment trust fund, $700 million for rural broadband projects and $250 million for school ventilation systems. It also set aside $800 million for future needs.
The House passed that versionwithout amendments, but a few Democrats teamed up with Republicans in the closely divided Senate to force several changes, including one to provide $5,000 bonuses for three years to sheriff’s deputies and jail personnel, and another to boost pay for Medicaid disability providers.
The upper chamber had also stripped language from the bill related to the ability of college athletes to earn money for the use of their name, image and likeness. And it included language to require Department of Motor Vehicle offices to resume walk-in services, which have been suspended during the pandemic.
The House and Senate appointed budget conferees Thursday, and late that night, they got an email from Finance Secretary Joseph Flores, urging them to revert to the original bill, according to a copy of the emailobtained by The Washington Post.
Northam is “looking forward to a quick resolution to the few outstanding items to ensure these resources are put to work for Virginians as soon as possible,” Flores wrote. “As such, he is asking for a bill with no amendments – fiscal or policy – reflecting the agreement we negotiated and hammered out prior to the beginning of this special session.”
A bipartisan team from both chambers began meeting Friday and came to an agreement within a few hours, loweringthe bonus for sheriff’s deputies to $3,000 and limitingit to a single year instead of three. It restored the college athletics provision, and gave the DMV 60 days to start walk-in service, rather than the 30 the Senate had called for.
Philippine influencers call for probe into U.S. Fort Detrick biolab
“To this day, Fort Detrick remains too dangerous a mystery to be ignored by WHO experts,” said an online petition launched by Philippine influencers.
Philippine influencers have launched an online petition, urging the international community to seriously look into the role of the Fort Detrick laboratory in the United States in the global spread of the COVID-19 virus.
Herman Laurel, a columnist for social news website Sovereign P.H., said the World Health Organization (WHO) should probe the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) in Fort Detrick, Maryland.
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“This biological laboratory suffered a laboratory incident in July 2019, causing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to shut down the facility in August 2019 due to ‘serious safety violations,'” Laurel said.
He said the facility was ordered closed after it disposed of “dangerous materials believed to have caused strange ‘vaping sickness’ and the ‘strange flu’ in the U.S. at that time.”
Laurel added there are plenty of serious and credible reports raised by experts of different countries pointing to the COVID-19 incidences in their territories much earlier than the end of 2019.
“The logical direction is to widen the search net as much as possible to get to the bottom of where the so-called patient zero originated,” said the petition, adding that “To this day, Fort Detrick remains too dangerous a mystery to be ignored by WHO experts.”
The online campaign, which has amassed hundreds of signatures so far, also calls on “certain countries” to stop politicizing COVID-19.
“We, therefore, affix our marks to this appeal, hopeful that in joining millions around the globe seeking a common ground to allow science, not politics and not racism, to rule,” said the petition.
Former Philippine diplomat to Washington and book author Adolfo Paglinawan said that politicizing the virus “leads to an information war.”
Paglinawan warned the “info-demics are moving at a get-go to preempt the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth,” adding that there is “no vaccine for a virus called racism.”
Covid deaths in Indonesia cross 100,000 as Asean reports rise in cases
Southeast Asia saw an increase in new Covid-19 cases, while deaths were down marginally on Thursday, collated data showed.
Asean reported 97,679 new cases, higher than Wednesday’s 95,870, with 2,965 deaths, down from the previous day’s 2,977.
The number of Covid-19 cases crossed 7.75 million and deaths climbed to 161,748.
Indonesia became the second country in Asia and 12th in the world to cross 100,000 deaths. Although the number of new infections is lower than the United States, the lower vaccination rate and lack of equipment among public health staff has caused a higher mortality rate. About one-third of the Indonesia’s Covid-19 deaths were reported in July, which was when the delta variant of the virus was spotted in the country. Most of the victims died while waiting to be treated due to inadequate hospital beds.
Malaysia reported 20,596 new cases and 164 deaths on Thursday, bringing cumulative cases in the country to 1,203,706 patients with 10,019 deaths. It was the first time that new infections crossed the 20,000 mark. Numbers have exceeded 10,000 patients per day since mid-July.
Public health experts predicted that the new infections would reach the peak point in mid-September before decreasing to around 1,000 a day in October due to the strict lockdown measures.
COVID-19 cases among U.S. children, teens increased 84 pct in week: media
During the week from July 22-29, COVID-19 cases jumped 84 percent among U.S. children and teens, CNN reported in an article released on Wednesday.
Comparing with 39,000 cases that were found within the same age group in the week prior, almost 72,000 of new infections of COVID-19 are logged last week, CNN reported, citing data from a new study released by the American Academy of Pediatrics on Tuesday.
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According to the CNN report, the study comes as schools have just started or will soon start, with some requiring no masks or social distancing.
The country also recorded another 86 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 130,086.
Britain has reported another 30,215 coronavirus cases in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 5,982,581, according to official figures released Thursday.
The country also recorded another 86 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 130,086. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test.
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Latest data from Public Health England (PHE) showed that most coronavirus-related intensive care admissions are among 55- to 64-year-olds, despite hospitalizations being highest among those aged 85 and over.
According to the data, hospital admissions related to COVID-19 are highest in North East England.
The data also showed around 66,900 hospital admissions have been prevented in those aged 65 and over as a direct result of the vaccine rollout.
Most COVID-19 restrictions in England have been lifted last month as part of the final step of the British government’s roadmap out of the lockdown.
More than 88 percent of adults in Britain have received the first COVID-19 vaccine jab and more than 73 percent have received two doses, according to the latest figures.
Passengers walk at St. Pancras International Station in London, Britain, July 29, 2021.
Passengers walk at St. Pancras International Station in London, Britain, July 29, 2021.
The United States, India and Brazil remain the top three in confirmed cases, having reported 35,125,227 cases, 31,812,114 cases and 19,985,817 cases respectively.
The number of COVID-19 cases worldwide has surpassed 200 million, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Globally, as of 18:08 CEST (1608 GMT) on Thursday, there have been 200,174,883 confirmed cases, including 4,255,892 deaths, reported to WHO, it said.
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The United States, India and Brazil remain the top three in confirmed cases, having reported 35,125,227 cases, 31,812,114 cases and 19,985,817 cases respectively.
Following the top three are Russia with 6,379,904 cases, France with 6,068,252 cases, the UK with 5,952,760 cases, Turkey with 5,822,487 cases, Argentina with 4,961,880 cases, Colombia with 4,807,979 cases and Spain with 4,545,184 cases.
The United States, Brazil and India have also recorded the highest death tolls, with 609,613 deaths, 558,432 deaths, and 426,290 deaths respectively.
According to the WHO data, Americas remains the most impacted region by COVID-19, with a total of 77,904,346 confirmed cases and 2,020,001 deaths, followed by Europe where 60,771,066 cases and 1,226,634 deaths have been reported.
A man wearing a mask walks past a boutique at the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, May 12, 2021.
A man wearing a mask walks past a boutique at the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, May 12, 2021.
A man wearing a mask rides an electric scooter near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the United States, Aug. 4, 2021.
A man wearing a mask rides an electric scooter near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the United States, Aug. 4, 2021.
Passengers walk at St. Pancras International Station in London, Britain, July 29, 2021.
A man wearing a mask walks past a boutique at the Champs Elysees Avenue in Paris, France, May 12, 2021.
A man wearing a mask rides an electric scooter near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, the United States, Aug. 4, 2021.
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