Health CDC urges all travelers to get vaccinated By: Jenny Manrique D espite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warning unvaccinated Americans not to travel during the Labor Day, the weekend mobility spread COVID infections. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day average of new cases on Monday was 300% higher than Labor Day 2020, resulting in overcrowded hospitals and an increase in infections among children. CDC experts convened by Ethnic Media Services warned that while we have experienced several waves during the pandemic, the current one is “a fairly large surge”, related to a number of factors, including the highly transmissible Delta variant. “This pandemic continues to take a major toll,” said Dr. Peggy Honein, who leads the State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support Task Force in CDC’s COVID-19 response. “Despite the availability of proven mitigation measures and very effective vaccines, we are seeing increases in cases, emergency department visits, hospital admissions and deaths.” In June, less than 12,000 cases were reported per day as a seven-day average; today that number is 150,000. The average number of new hospital admissions is up over 12,000, and the CDC reports nearly 1,000 deaths a day. In total, almost 640,000 deaths and nearly 40 million cases have been reported since the pandemic began. In this context, under 53% of the population is vaccinated, with adults 65 years and older being the most covered (82% have been vaccinated) and young people between 12 and 17 years of age, the least protected (only 40% have received both doses). “We are particularly concerned about children,” Honein said, referring to the increase in hospitalizations among this population, mainly in states with low vaccination rates. “There is no vaccine authorized for children under 12 right now, but we can all do our part to protect children by vaccinating as many people as possible that are age 12 and over, and using other mitigation strategies, like wearing masks ”. The doctor also mentioned the reopening of schools in more counties across the country, in which “comprehensive layered prevention approaches” should be implemented. That means the use of several measures parallely: the promotion of vaccination, the universal use of masks, physical distancing, screening testing to identify and isolate cases quickly, and improving ventilation. “It has become even clearer over the last year, how important schools are not just for education, but for the overall mental and physical health of our children, so it is easy for transmission to occur when we let our guard down,” Honein added. She also pointed out that care should be increased in indoor public places where there could be crowding and, particularly in counties that have high levels of transmission that can be looked up in this CDC checker tool. Mass vaccination Jennifer Layden, Deputy Director of the CDC Office of Science, explained the latest CDC recommendations regarding people with moderate to severely compromised immune systems, who cannot get
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