The Delta-related surge in COVID-19 cases is frightening for everyone. But with young children still ineligible for vaccination and back-to-school season just around the corner, parents are likely the most worried of all.
My colleague Tara Law is here to help. She talked with a number of pediatric infectious-disease experts and put together some advice for parents:
If your kid is eligible for vaccination, don’t wait. This one bears repeating. If your child is 12 or older, they can get a shot. There’s no better way to protect them.
If your kid isn’t eligible for vaccination, make sure you’re protected. Throughout the pandemic, young children have caught and spread the virus much less than older people. With the extra-transmissible Delta variant spreading, that might be changing. One expert told Tara he is growing more concerned about unvaccinated kids infecting their parents or other adults—so make sure the teenagers and adults in your household are vaccinated before sending a child into the classroom.
Check if your school is using “layered” prevention strategies. Before classes start, ask your kid’s school how they’re protecting students. Ideally, they’re implementing a “layered” approach that involves multiple strategies—i.e., masking and physical distancing and encouraging vaccination, rather than just one.
Encourage masking. There’s been a lot of back and forth around who needs to wear masks and when. But with many school-aged children too young for vaccination, experts are increasingly recommending that all children wear them in school to reduce the amount of virus that can circulate.
Keep your kid home if they’re sick. Even if it seems like “just a cold,” don’t take the chance.
Over 400.6 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been shipped to various U.S. states as of this afternoon, of which some 347 million doses had been administered, according to TIME's vaccine tracker. About 49.7% of Americans had been completely vaccinated.
More than 198.3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 1 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 4.2 million people have died. On August 1, there were 460,725 new cases and 7,058 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 35 million coronavirus cases as of 1 a.m. E.T. today. More than 613,000 people have died. On August 1, there were 25,141 new cases and 71 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 Aug. 2, 1 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
The U.S. federal eviction moratorium in place since September 2020 has expired. After multiple previous extensions, the Supreme Court said the policy could not be stretched past July 31 without Congressional authorization. But Congress did not pass such an authorization before its August vacation, allowing the moratorium to lapse. Now, Voxreports, renters are scrambling to find the money for payments they’ve missed over the last year—something that may not be possible for those who lost jobs or grappled with lasting health issues.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo is encouraging private businesses, such as bars and restaurants, to require proof of vaccination for customers. He said today such a policy would be in their “best interest” as cases rise statewide, but stopped short of requiring it. (New York City mayor Bill de Blasio today similarly encouraged, but did not require, city residents to wear masks indoors.) Cuomo also said New York public transit workers must be vaccinated by Labor Day or face weekly COVID-19 testing. New York is now, on average, recording more than 2,000 cases per day—around the number in May of this year, but still far less than during winter.
Florida yesterday set a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations in a single day: 10,207. On Saturday, it also set a record for single-day diagnoses: 21,683. Both are clear and startling signs of Delta’s continued spread—but, on the bright side, those grim numbers may finally be encouraging people to get vaccinated. Week-over-week vaccination rates are up almost 75% in the state’s Lake and Seminole counties, the Orlando Sentinel reports.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn’t track how many vaccine doses go to waste. But the New York Times has an estimate: more than1 million doses have been thrown out since December. Much of that waste happened as demand for shots dropped off this spring and summer, a trend that is reversing in some areas as the Delta variant leads to new surges in cases. But even still, the Times’ estimate will likely add to calls for the Biden Administration to donate more doses to countries still desperate for vaccines.
Some Chicagoans and public-health experts are worried the massive music festival Lollapalooza could turn into a super-spreader event. The festival, which can attract 100,000 attendees during each of its four days, was held outdoors and required ticketholders to be vaccinated or show proof of a negative COVID-19 test. Even still, with the Delta variant spreading, experts fear new cases could emerge in the Chicago area and beyond after the festival wrapped up yesterday.
China is working to contain a cluster of COVID-19 cases. The country yesterday recorded 75 new cases, some linked to travelers who passed through Nanjing airport. That cluster, the largest China has seen in months, has prompted officials to roll out mass-testing campaigns in the area around Nanjing. Beijing has also halted travel to and from areas where COVID-19 cases have been detected, the Guardian reports.
The same researchers who predicted India’s record-breaking COVID-19 surge this spring say India may be headed for another spike in October. Their mathematical model suggests cases will begin to rise this month and peak at up to 150,000 per day in October—far below the 400,000-plus daily cases recorded there this spring but significantly greater than the approximately 40,000 infections currently confirmed each day.
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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