LANSING – The Ingham County Health Department says schools should suspend in-person classes after spring break as a precaution to prevent the continued spread of COVID-19.
Ingham County Health Officer Linda Vail issued a recommendation that schools move to remote learning for grades 6-12 for one week.
She made the request because the county’s test positivity rate is 15.2%, nine people died of the virus last week and roughly 150 people are hospitalized. The county had not seen nine deaths in a week since January.
“Looking at our percent positivity, case numbers and hospitalizations, I am deeply concerned,” Vail said in a statement. “That said, looking at our vaccination rates I am really hopeful. We are at a turning point in the pandemic.”
Vaccines dramatically reduces COVID-19 risk, experts say, though infections still possible
Updated Apr 03, 2021;
Posted Apr 03, 2021
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 doses are prepared at a vaccine outreach clinic at Mt. Zion Baptist Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan on Tuesday, March 23, 2021. The clinic was put on by the Kalamazoo County Health Department with volunteers from Mt. Zion. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)
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Yes, the COVID-19 vaccine works.
After two weeks, one vaccine shot is 80% effective at preventing infections, while a second shot carries 90% effectiveness, according to a new CDC study.
“Our data from the CDC today suggest that vaccinated people do not carry the virus,” said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in an MSNBC interview from Tuesday, March 30.
Barriers on barriers: Non-English speakers face more than language issues in vaccine distribution
But language is far from the only issue.
Even after finding information in a language they understand, non-English speakers face a confusing mix of providers offering shots and technology needed to access appointments.
“There are barriers on top of barriers for these subsets,” said Bobby Mukkamala, a surgeon and chair of a subgroup of the Protect Michigan Coalition responsible for increasing vaccination rates among Michigan s Asian Pacific American population.
As of Wednesday, fewer than 55,000 non-Hispanic Asians, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders had received their first doses of vaccine, around 1.9% of the total number of vaccinated Michigan residents.
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According to the Ingham County Health Department, 117 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in the county, up from about 40 two weeks ago.
Still, Health Officer Linda Vail says hospitals are not “ringing the bell” that they’re about to be full. She adds that hospitalization numbers have been higher at times during the pandemic. Vail adds we definitely need to get a handle on this transmission that’s going on and push these numbers back down, and get hospitalizations back under control.”
Vail reports that more than 83,000 people in the county will have received at least one vaccination by the end of this week, which is almost 50-percent of those age 16 and up. The department’s goal is 70-percent. “32,170 of these individuals are 65 and over, Vail concludes, and that is approaching now 82-percent of our 65-plus population vaccinated in Ingham County.”
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