The Vaccination Campaign

The Local Vaccination Campaign Total People Fully Vaccinated (two doses of Moderna or Pfizer or one dose of Johnson & Johnson) Massachusetts: 5,132,780 (up 23,761 from Thursday) Rhode Island: 816,821 (up 4,013 from Thursday) Reported changes from the last issue of this newsletter. View all vaccine news and numbers on Globe.com Top Stories: Vaccinations With hospitalization rates in Massachusetts now climbing higher than they were last winter, health care leaders are encouraging people to get vaccinated and boosted.  Massachusetts is mandating that nursing home workers receive a booster shot in addition to implementing other measures aimed at improving conditions in nursing homes.

 

 

 

 

The Local Impact Massachusetts:  1,264,925 cases (up 105,335 from Thursday)  ·  20,275 deaths (up 224 from Thursday)  ·  2,970 hospitalizations (up 428 from Thursday) Rhode Island:  284,907 cases (up 24,797 from Thursday)  ·  3,144 deaths (up 32 from Thursday)  ·  459 hospitalizations (up 25 from Thursday) Reported increases or decreases from the last issue of this newsletter. Sources: Massachusetts Department of Public Health Rhode Island Department of Health View all COVID-19 news and numbers on Globe.com Top Stories: COVID-19 Impact Experts are sounding alarms about rising COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in Boston, as the city's hospitalization rate spiked dramatically in the past week.  While we're nowhere near that point right now, COVID-19 could become endemic. Larger institutions have quietly begun to consider the question of how the country learns to live with COVID.  Hospitals around the US are increasingly allowing nurses and other workers infected with COVID-19 to continue working if they have mild symptoms or no symptoms at all.

 

 

Across the US and Around the World US 521,156,804 vaccinations administered 62,117,454 cases 841,766 deaths Sources: Johns Hopkins Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Most and Least Vaccinated US States (% of population fully vaccinated) Top Ranked Vermont (78.3%) Rhode Island (77.3%) Maine (76.5%) Connecticut (75.4%) Massachusetts (75.3%) Bottom Ranked Idaho (46.5%) Wyoming (48%) Alabama (48.1%) Mississippi (48.8%) Louisiana (50.7%) Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Worldwide  9,474,664,529 vaccinations administered 312,736,353 cases 5,502,814 deaths Source: Johns Hopkins  Top Stories: US and Worldwide Across the United States, hospitalizations in children under 5 — the only group that is not yet eligible for vaccination — have reached their highest levels yet, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week.  Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight at-home COVID tests per month for people on their plans.  The Biden administration came under fire on Tuesday for its response to the COVID pandemic as Omicron continues to surge.

 

 

What's Next It feels like Omicron is everywhere. From skiing to shopping to getting a COVID-19 test, here's some advice on how to stay safe from the Omicron variant.