The Vaccination Campaign

Total People Fully Vaccinated (two doses of Moderna or Pfizer or one dose of Johnson & Johnson) Massachusetts: 5,384,051 (up 6,845 from Thursday) Rhode Island: 875,572 (up 1,870 from Thursday) Reported changes from the last issue of this newsletter. View all vaccine news and numbers on Globe.com Top Stories: Vaccinations Pfizer announced that three doses of its vaccine would offer strong protection for children younger than 5 and plans to give the data to US regulators this week. Find out more about the next steps.  With infections on the rise, the CDC urged adults 50 and older to get the 2nd booster and children ages 5 to 11 to get the first.

 

 

 

 

The Local Impact

Massachusetts:  1,707,849 cases (up 20,826 from Thursday)  ·  19,392 deaths (up 77 from Thursday)  ·  814 hospitalizations (down 52 from Thursday) Rhode Island:  390,639 cases (up 4,443 from Thursday)  ·  3,569 deaths (up 8 from Thursday)  ·  82 hospitalizations (down 21 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 In an encouraging sign, levels of coronavirus in Eastern Mass. waste water have dipped in recent days. Rhode Island will become the first state to open a federally funded test-to-treat COVID center that will allow residents to get a Paxlovid prescription at no cost. A former high-level employee at the Rhode Island Department of Health said COVID cases in the state are higher than official data shows.

 

 

Across the US and Around the World

US 585,460,553 vaccine doses administered 83,795,819 cases 1,004,003 deaths Sources: Johns Hopkins Centers for Disease Control and Prevention The Most and Least Vaccinated US States (% of population fully vaccinated) Top Ranked Rhode Island (82.9%) Vermont (81.4%) Maine (79.9%) Connecticut (79.5%) Massachusetts (79.3%) Bottom Ranked Wyoming (51%) Alabama (51.3%) Mississippi (52%) Louisiana (53.6%) Arkansas (54.6%) Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Worldwide  11,512,687,456 vaccine doses administered 527,673,467 cases 6,283,978 deaths Source: Johns Hopkins  Top Stories: US and Worldwide One in 5 adult COVID survivors under age 65 in the United States has experienced at least one health condition that could be considered long COVID, a new study found. The CDC plans to simplify the COVID hospital data it collects and restructure its COVID team as the demands of the pandemic evolve. Four Michigan residents were once infected with the same unique COVID variant found in ill mink — a marker of the first, and so far only, known instance of possible animal-to-human transmission in the US.

 

 

What's Next

Health officials from the CDC and Food and Drug Administration will soon decide if the Modern and Pfizer vaccines are safe for the youngest age group. FDA vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks has pledged the agency will “move quickly without sacrificing our standards” when evaluating tot-sized doses.