With August just around the corner, COVID-19 cases surging and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) again recommending indoor masking for many vaccinated people, parents and health officials are gearing up for tough choices around school reopening.
My colleague Tara Law has a new story on an issue that may foreshadow what’s to come for schools: COVID-19 outbreaks at summer camps.
Tara focused on a camp in Galveston County, Texas, which has been linked to 157 COVID-19 cases. The camp, which was for kids in grades six through 12, reportedly did little to enforce social distancing and few campers wore masks—even though pediatric vaccination rates in the area are low. The outbreak was likely the result of “a partially vaccinated group of people all getting together and everyone acting...like they were all vaccinated,” one expert told Tara.
That statement has big implications for schools trying to reopen this coming fall. With vaccines still not authorized for children younger than 12, and less than half of 12- to 17-year-olds nationwide fully vaccinated, there will be millions of unprotected children returning to school soon.
With the Delta variant spreading, the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics say all students and staff should wear masks in school. (The CDC initially said in guidance published July 9 that vaccinated people could go without masks, but the agency reversed that decision yesterday.) But, as camp outbreaks show, it can be difficult to enforce those policies to the letter, particularly in states—like Texas—where elected officials have barred public schools from requiring any students to wear masks.
“Because actually following rules is an important piece of prevention, schools have the advantage of being more controlled environments than camps,” Tara says. We’ll see this fall how well they do.
Nearly 396 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which some 343.4 million doses had been administered, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 49.3% of Americans had been completely vaccinated.
More than 195.3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and nearly 4.2 million people have died. On July 27, there were 614,584 new cases and 9,937 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's every country that has reported over 3 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 34.6 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 611,000 people have died. On July 27, there were 70,740 new cases and 462 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:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of July 28, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
U.S. President Joe Biden is set to announce a vaccine mandate for all federal employees tomorrow, CNN reports. That report comes shortly after the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs became the first federal agency to require vaccines for some employees. Federal employees who choose not to get vaccinated will have to undergo regular testing and follow other disease-prevention requirements, according to CNN. If Biden makes the announcement as expected, it could coax other employers into requiring vaccines for their own teams.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has become the latest country to roll out a vaccine passport system. Starting this weekend, residents will need to show proof of at least one vaccine dose to enter schools, restaurants, concert venues, malls, public transportation and other indoor spaces. So far, about 20% of its population is fully vaccinated, compared to about 60% in nearby Israel.
Data posted on Pfizer’s website today claim a third “booster” dose significantly increases protection against the Delta variant, compared to the company’s standard two-shot regimen. Those data, published ahead of a company earnings call, have not yet been peer-reviewed or published, and they may not translate to a change in U.S. health officials’ recommendations. The CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have both said they are still evaluating whether and when booster shots may be needed, and have not made any final calls since.
Some Israeli hospitals have reopened their COVID-19 wards as the Delta variant spreads in the country. The number of serious cases recorded in Israel is still fairly low—the country has reported 153 “serious” cases overall, 35 of which have been classified as “critical”—but the figure has doubled over the past week, the Times of Israel reports. Hospitals reopening their recently closed COVID-19 wings is a grim sign that doctors expect more illnesses to come.
And though the U.S. is dealing with its own Delta-related surge, the U.S. government is now warning against travel to Israel, Cyprus, Portugal, Spain and Kyrgyzstan, all of which are battling spikes related to the new variant. On the flip side: starting Monday, fully vaccinated Americans and Europeans who visit England will no longer have to quarantine upon arrival, U.K. officials announced today.
For workers, remote-friendly offices have opened up a world of possibility. But as the Wall Street Journal reports, work-from-anywhere perks arepresenting a challenge for tech companies outside urban centers. Previously, tech firms in smaller U.S. cities could count on attracting employees who wanted to leave places like San Francisco—but now, those same people can work for major Silicon Valley companies (which pay major Silicon Valley salaries) without relocating. The result is a hiring squeeze for smaller companies.
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 Jamie Ducharme and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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