School mask mandates spur state bans as delta COVID variant spreads

The Department of Education’s Return to School Roadmap includes instructions on how to wear masks, which in many school districts pits educators against state officials.

On the roadmap’s recommendations, that districts follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention School Masking Guidelines published last week in light of the increase in cases attributed to the Delta variant. But some states have laws banning schools from following these guidelines, and the authorities in some other states say they will not enforce them.

A district in Arizona where lawmakers banned masking mandates announced on 30. The Phoenix Union High School District opened its doors to masked students on Monday, and the Phoenix Elementary School District followed on Tuesday.

“Let us all do our part to help protect our children, employees, and their families by wearing face covers in schools,” said a Phoenix Elementary School District press release. “We must take every precaution to protect the lives of the people entrusted to us.”

In Florida, Duval County’s public schools will have a mask mandate with an opt-out option, although Governor Ron DeSantis threatens to fund the district if schools issue one. In Tennessee, Shelby County Schools will retain their mask mandate and will even start school remotely this fall, depending on cases. The US House of Representatives spokesman has threatened to convene a special session to ban this.

And a contingent of Oklahoma Legislative Democrats are calling for a special session of the legislature to repeal a new law preventing school districts from imposing masking requirements unless there is a state of emergency. Tulsa Public Schools are required to wear a mask at all times for students and employees, regardless of their vaccination status.

“What must happen before we take COVID seriously?” Said Emily Virgin, the Democratic House minority leader. “We have children in the intensive care unit.”

Also on the news:

►Pete Parada, drummer for The Offspring, said he was expelled from the American rock band for not receiving the vaccine. Parada, 48, said he was prone to adverse vaccine side effects because he has Guillain-Barré syndrome, a condition in which the body’s immune system attacks nerves.

►Country music star Garth Brooks said he was considering continuing his stadium tour given the rising number of coronavirus cases across the country.

►The Biden administration has issued a targeted moratorium on evictions in the areas hardest hit by COVID-19 to replace a nationwide eviction freeze that expired on Saturday despite legal concerns about unilateral action.

►The global number of new cases has been rising for more than a month, with over 4 million cases reported in the last week, according to an epidemiological update from the World Health Organization released on Tuesday. The number of deaths worldwide fell 8% last week but rose in some places.

📈Today’s numbers: In the United States, there have been more than 35.2 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and 614,200 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The global totals: More than 199.4 million cases and 4.2 million deaths. More than 165 million Americans – 49.7% of the population – have been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

📘What we read: After more than 18 months of a pandemic that killed one in 545 Americans by COVID-19, a significant segment of the population continues to exercise their own individual freedoms for the common good. Read the full story.

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Fourth wave of virus overwhelms hospitals in areas where vaccinations are hesitant

A fourth wave of COVID-19 threatens to overwhelm US hospitals in regions where large swaths of unvaccinated people offer little resistance to the highly contagious Delta variant. Nowhere is the burden more evident than in Florida, which hit a new high of 11,515 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Department of Health.

Hospitals in Jacksonville and Orlando fell from their pandemic spikes last week, and hospitals in Miami-Dade County are in or about to have record coronavirus hospital admissions this week, said Mary Mayhew, CEO of the Florida Hospital Association. And cases continue to rise, with 110,477 residents testing positive for the COVID-19 virus in the week ending July 29, suggesting more people will need hospital treatment in the coming weeks.

“The Delta variant breaks through the unvaccinated,” Mayhew said.

– Ken Alltucker

Biden stops governors: “Use your power to save lives”

President Joe Biden expressed frustration at Republican governors preventing local businesses and schools from implementing coronavirus masks and vaccine mandates as the highly contagious Delta variant continues to overwhelm states across the country. Biden highlighted Florida and Texas, both of the GOP-run hotspots that have been pushing back against coronavirus restrictions in recent days, which account for a third of all new COVID-19 cases across the country.

“Some governors are unwilling to do the right things to make this happen,” said Biden. “I tell these governors, please help. If you don’t want to help, at least avoid people who are trying to do the right thing. Use your power to save lives.”

– Courtney Subramanian and Matthew Brown

The US reports 620,226 new coronavirus cases in a week, one case per second

The US is again reporting more than one new coronavirus case every second. The Johns Hopkins University data released through Tuesday evening shows at least 620,226 new coronavirus cases reported in the last week, much more than the 604,800 seconds this week.

The United States hadn’t hit that mark since February 14, Valentine’s Day. In the worst case, the country was reporting an average of nearly three cases per second in mid-January.

– Mike Stucka

Number of Americans who are unlikely to get a sting given the Delta variant

According to a new Axios-Ipsos poll, the number of Americans who are unlikely to receive the vaccine at all has dropped to 15%, down from 20% two months ago. The decrease is largely due to an increase in cases in recent weeks as the Delta variant sweeps across the country and now accounts for more than 90% of cases. To that end, three in four Americans are largely concerned about the emergence of the Delta variant, and half consider returning to pre-COVID activities risky.

On Tuesday, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said on Twitter that 453,000 doses had been administered, including 301,000 first doses.

Louisiana hospital stays hit record highs due to unvaccinated people

Louisiana COVID-19 hospital admissions rose to record levels Tuesday, with 2,112 largely unvaccinated people struggling in hospital beds and hospital directors describing facilities overcrowded with patients. The Louisiana Department of Health reported that 89% of people hospitalized with COVID-19 were not vaccinated.

The state’s peak to date for people hospitalized with COVID-19 was 2,069 in early January after holiday gatherings sparked a surge in cases and before vaccines became widely available. But the highly contagious Delta variant of the virus is driving record hospital admissions faster. Health officials say the influx of COVID-19 patients is affecting hospitals’ ability to care for people with heart attacks, injuries from car accidents, and other health conditions.

“We ask that ambulances do not come to us to redirect to another facility. There is no other facility to go to, ”said Michele Sutton, President and CEO of North Oaks Health System in Hammond. “When I’m doing my laps, it’s not uncommon to have five or six stretchers queuing in our hallway in the emergency room while the ambulance drivers wait to unload, but I don’t have any space to put them down.”

Louisiana has the highest Covid-19 case growth per capita in the nation, according to Governor John Bel Edwards.

South Korea reports two new cases of Delta Plus variant

South Korea reported two new cases of the Delta Plus variant on Tuesday, a variant that some experts believe is more transferable than the original Delta variant. The Delta Plus variant was first identified in Europe in March and refers to the addition of the K417N spike protein mutation, which is also found in some alpha variant substrains, according to a UK report published in July.

“To date, there is no clear evidence that it brings enough benefit to the virus to dominate the original Delta variant,” Colin Angus, senior research fellow at the University of Sheffield, told the Washington Post. “While it is clearly here, there is no obvious indication that it has gained a foothold over existing variants of the virus.”

The variant is more common in young people, Angus said, but vaccinated people still show an immune response to the variant in a small data set.

Contributor: Associated Press