Lane County COVID-19 update, Jan. 21: Record 1,246 cases reported

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Lane County broke a six-day-old record (1,073 cases on Jan. 15) reporting 1,246 confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19 Friday, a Register-Guard review of Lane County Public Health data shows. The death toll remained at 364 while the countywide case count rose to 44,200.

There were 3,437 county residents considered infectious, an 18% increase from Thursday's 2,912.

There were 58 county residents hospitalized Friday with 11 in intensive care and two on a ventilator, all unchanged from Thursday.

Of the 58 county residents hospitalized Thursday, 69%, or 40, were unvaccinated, Lane County Public Health reported.

As of Thursday, 271,234 people in Lane County, 71.12% of the total population, had received first or second vaccine doses with 629,047 first and second doses administered in Lane County, according to the Oregon Health Authority.

OHA reported Thursday that a 65-year-old man from Lane County tested positive Dec. 29, 2021, and died Tuesday, Jan. 18 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend. He had underlying conditions.

— The Register-Guard

Booster shots 90% effective at preventing omicron hospitalizations, CDC data shows

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were highly effective at preventing omicron-related hospitalizations.

The booster doses were 90% effective at keeping people infected with the omicron variant out of the hospital and 82% effective at preventing emergency department and urgent care visits, the data shows.

The CDC report analyzed emergency room visits, urgent care visits and hospitalizations between August 2021 and Jan. 5, 2022, in which the average person received their booster shot within a month and a half of needing medical help.

The data emphasizes recent research and assertions by public health officials that boosters significantly prevent severe illness and hospitalization.

Another CDC study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association on Friday found people who received three doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were less likely to be symptomatic when they got tested for COVID-19, compared to people receiving tests who only got two vaccine doses.

-USA TODAY

Preteens may be vaxed without parents under California bill

SACRAMENTO — California would allow children age 12 and older to be vaccinated without their parents' consent, the youngest age of any state, under a proposal late Thursday by a state senator.

Alabama allows such decisions at age 14, Oregon at 15, Rhode Island and South Carolina at 16, according to Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco who is proposing the change. Only Washington, D.C., has a lower limit, at age 11.

Wiener argued that California already allows those 12 and up to consent to the hepatitis B and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines and to treatment for sexually transmitted infections, substance abuse and mental health disorders.

“Giving young people the autonomy to receive life-saving vaccines, regardless of their parents’ beliefs or work schedules, is essential for their physical and mental health,” he said. “It’s unconscionable for teens to be blocked from the vaccine because a parent either refuses or cannot take their child to a vaccination site.”

Currently in California, minors ages 12 to 17 cannot be vaccinated without permission from their parents or guardian, unless the vaccine is specifically to prevent a sexually transmitted disease.

Wiener's bill would lift the parental requirement for that age group for any vaccine that has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

That includes immunizations against the coronavirus, but Wiener said vaccine hesitancy and misinformation has also deterred vaccinations against measles and other contagious diseases that can then spread among youths whose parents won't agree to have them vaccinated.

— The Associated Press

DeSantis administration puts Florida health official on leave for encouraging vaccinations

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration put Orange County Health Director Dr. Raul Pino on leave this week after encouraging his staff to get vaccinated.

Pino had written in a Jan. 4 email to his staff: “I have a hard time understanding how we can be in public health and not practice it,” WMFE, a public radio station in Orlando, reported.

Pino’s email to his staff detailed that only 219 of his 568 staff members had received two doses. “I am sorry but in the absence of reasonable and real reasons it is irresponsible not to be vaccinated. We have been at this for two years, we were the first to give vaccines to the masses, we have done more than 300,000 and we are not even at 50% pathetic,” he wrote.

DeSantis and his state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, have questioned the efficacy of masks and vaccines. The state’s Department of Health also has advised against testing for people who have no symptoms, stating, “COVID-19 testing is unlikely to have any clinical benefits.”

— Frank Gluck, Fort Myers News-Press

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This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Lane County COVID-19 update, Jan. 21: Record 1,246 cases reported