(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 763,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 68.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 15, 6:54 pm
US sees increase in pediatric cases for 2nd week in a row
For the second week in a row, the U.S. experienced an increase in its weekly number of pediatric COVID-19 cases.
Over the last week, more than 122,000 child cases were reported — an increase of about 22% from two weeks ago, according to a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA).
This marks the 14th consecutive week that child COVID-19 cases are above 100,000.
Prior to the recent increases, infections among children had been steadily dropping since the pandemic peak of 252,000 child cases, recorded over the span of a week in early September.
But now, COVID-19 cases among children remain “extremely high,” the organizations wrote, and since the first week of September, there have been almost 1.6 million additional child cases.
Last week, children accounted for more than a quarter (27%) of reported weekly COVID-19 cases, though children under 18 make up just 22.2% of the U.S. population.
Nov 15, 4:20 pm
Arkansas opening boosters to all adults
Arkansas will now allow boosters for all adults, Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday.
“What we’re finding is that we want more people to get their booster shot and this is somewhat confusing and limiting as to the eligibility of those that ought to be getting their booster shot,” the governor said at a press conference. “And so in consultation with the Department of Health, we’re changing that.”
Nov 15, 2:39 pm
Consider rapid testing before Thanksgiving, experts say
Former Baltimore health commissioner Dr. Leana Wen said in an interview Monday hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center that her family is rapid-testing on Thanksgiving because they’re gathering indoors with multiple families and have young, unvaccinated children.
She said it was reasonable for families with immunocompromised members to continue to take precautions, like rapid test and gather outdoors.
“A family in which everybody is generally healthy and fully vaccinated might take very different types of risks than a family with unvaccinated young kids or elderly, immunocompromised family members,” she said.
Dr. Jerome Adams, former Surgeon General under President Donald Trump, said to make sure all relatives are vaccinated and that no one has cold symptoms.
“Even if you’re vaccinated, if you’re coughing, if you’re sneezing, if you’ve got symptoms, you still could be spreading the virus,” he said.
Looking to the future, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “If we can get most of the people who are eligible to be boosted, boostered, we can go a long way to make in 2022 much more of a normal year than what we’ve seen in 2021.”
Nov 15, 1:45 pm
Long-term study of kids with COVID begins
The National Institutes of Health is starting a study to track the impact of COVID-19 infections in children, enrolling its first participant at the NIH’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
The idea of “long COVID,” or long-term health impacts, is of concern in children, and is one of the reasons doctors strongly encourage pediatric vaccination. Six million children in the U.S. have had COVID-19, and many “experienced significant acute and long-term effects,” the NIH said.
The study will track up to 1,000 children and young adults between 3 and 21 years old who previously tested positive for COVID-19 and evaluate the impact on their physical and mental health over three years.
The study will also try to determine risk factors for complications. It will evaluate the long-term immune responses to the disease, screen for genetic factors that may affect how children respond to COVID-19 infection and determine whether immunological factors influence long-term outcomes.
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