A nursing home was never an option for Dottie Walden's 70-year-old husband, Joseph, after his debilitating stroke five years ago. "When you love somebody like I love him...I would crawl to be able to take care of him at home," Walden told me a few weeks ago. However, the physical toll of full-time caregiving for Joseph, who is unable to do most basic tasks for himself, eventually made her work impossible.
After pulling her back early this year, Walden found herself no longer able to lift her husband. She decided it was time to hire a nurse. But actually getting that help was easier said than done. Although she had access to a program in Georgia that provides home-based health care to families in need, a shortage of nurses meant that she had to wait weeks before one became available.
A lack of care workers is just one of the problems facing the U.S. long-term care system in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As my colleague Abigail Abrams explains in her latest piece, which I helped report, the pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of the long-term care system. About 25% of COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. occurred in nursing homes, the industry has cratered financially, and many facilities are in danger of closing.
At the same time, the pandemic may offer the elder care industry a historic opportunity for reform. President Joe Biden has proposed spending $400 billion over eight years on home care for elderly people and those with disabilities as part of his wide-ranging infrastructure plan. However, some care experts argue that Biden's proposal doesn't go far enough—especially given that about 10,000 Americans are turning 65 every day.
Others, meanwhile, are working to expand existing solutions. U.S. Senator Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, is seeking to bolster an initiative called PACE, or Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly, which has centers in 30 states and helps adults in need get medical care and social services at home. PACE participants had a COVID-19 case rate of just 19% through March of this year, compared to 60% at nursing homes nationwide; advocates say it's a model worth emulating as we crawl out of the pandemic. "This is our moment to really provide transformative change to how we care for seniors and people with disabilities," Casey told Abrams.
About 374.8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which 311.8 million doses have been administered thus far, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 43.9% of Americans have been completely vaccinated.
Two studies from the U.K. published yesterday found that vaccines provide strong protection against hospitalization and severe illness from the highly transmissible Delta variant. An analysis by England Public Health found that a two-dose course of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 96% effective in preventing hospitalization caused by the Delta variant, while a full regimen of Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine is 92% effective. Researchers in Scotland also found that the vaccines were effective, but warned that they did not seem to be strongly so until 28 days after the first dose was administered.
Mexico received 1.35 million doses of the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the U.S. today, which it plans to use in four border cities: Ciudad Juárez, Mexicali, Reynosa and Tijuana, the Associated Press reports. Mexican officials hope these four cities will reach the same vaccination levels as their counterparts on the U.S. side, and that the doses will enable the end of pandemic-related border restrictions.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
The Global Situation
More than 176.2 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 3.8 million people have died. On June 14, there were 307,952 new cases and 7,871 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here is every country with over 3 million confirmed cases:
Backlash against U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is mounting after his announcement yesterday that the country's reopening has been delayed for four weeks, to July 19, in response to rising cases linked to the Delta variant, the Washington Post reports. Anti-lockdown protesters gathered in London ahead of Johnson's announcement, which was reported in the press ahead of time. The highly transmissible variant now accounts for about 90% of the cases in the U.K., per Public Health England. Johnson, noting that two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccines in use in his country are highly effective against the variant, said in his statement that the additional time will "give the [National Health Service] a few more crucial weeks to get those remaining jabs into the arms of those who need them."
Indian officials are investigating after a government report found that private agencies faked at least 100,000 coronavirus test results for attendees of April's Kumbh Mela festival in the northern town of Haridwar, the New York Times reports. Although public health officials raised alarms about the gathering, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party promoted the festival, which occurred just before cases spiked across the country.
The Situation in the U.S.
The U.S. had recorded nearly 33.5 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. Nearly 600,000 people have died. On June 14, there were 12,710 new cases and 170 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was present in at least five U.S. states earlier than initially reported, and may have been in the country as far back as Dec. 2019, according to a National Institutes of Health antibody testing study released today. Positive samples from Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin were collected as far back as Jan. 7, 2020, suggesting the virus may have arrived weeks earlier. Keri Althoff, a lead author of the study, told the Los Angeles Times that the results are evidence that the virus "probably seeded in multiple places in our country."
California and New York, two of the first states to order lockdowns in 2020, dropped almost all of their coronavirus restrictions today. As these Los Angeles Times and New York Times articles break down, vaccinated Californians and New Yorkers can now forgo masks in most public places, while both states have lifted most of their capacity restrictions. "We can return to life as we know it," New York governor Andrew Cuomo declared today at a news conference announcing the changes. Both states have reported strong vaccination and low case rates in recent weeks. In California, about 43% of Californians are fully vaccinated and 0.63% of tests are returning positive, while in New York, 46% of residents are vaccinated and 0.41% of tests are coming back positive.
A man shot and killed a Georgia supermarket cashier yesterday after getting into an argument about masking, according to the DeKalb County Sheriff's Office. The accused, Victor Lee Tucker, 30, then allegedly exchanged fire with an off-duty sheriff's deputy. Both Tucker and the deputy, as well as a second cashier, were wounded in the incident. A witness told local CBS affiliate WSB-TV that the shooter had refused to put on a face mask.
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of June 15, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Appreciating Pups, and Their People, at the Westminster Dog Show
My colleague Elijah Wolfson is the proud owner of a pandemic puppy, but had always found the hubbub around the Westminster Dog Show somewhat alien. After attending the show last weekend, however, he came away with a new appreciation for the event—and the passion of the people who make it happen. Read more here.
Strange Smells and Tastes Linger for Some After Recovery
Months after recovering from COVID-19, some people are still dealing with lingering changes to their sense of smell and taste, Deborah Schoch reports for the New York Times. Read more here.
What to Know About the Delta Variant
Here, my colleagues Alejandro de la Garza and Jeffrey Kluger break down what you need to know about the Delta variant, a highly transmissible strain of COVID-19 that's worrying public health experts. Read more here.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Tara Law and edited by Alex Fitzpatrick.
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