Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued an government order prohibiting any entity in Texas from mandating COVID-19 vaccinations for employees or consumers, an enlargement of a previous order restricted to authorities entities.
Abbott additionally requested lawmakers to sort out the difficulty in the course of the present particular legislative session, making certain that “no entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine.”
“The COVID-19 vaccine is protected, efficient, and our greatest protection towards the virus, however ought to stay voluntary and by no means compelled,” Abbott stated in an announcement.
Abbott, who was beforehand vaccinated and in addition later examined constructive for COVID-19, has urged Texans to get vaccinated all through the pandemic however banned faculty districts, cities, counties and authorities companies from requiring the pictures. The state legislature handed a regulation earlier this 12 months prohibiting so-called “vaccine passports,” which means non-public companies can’t require patrons to put on masks, however till Monday firms have been allowed to mandate vaccines amongst staff.
Texas has seen a latest lower in new COVID-19 instances and hospitalizations. However a rising dying toll from the latest surge attributable to the delta variant has the state quickly approaching 67,000 complete fatalities because the pandemic started in 2020.
— Madlin Mekelburg, Austin American-Statesman
Additionally within the information:
►Southwest Airways and its pilots union steadfastly denied that staff walked off the job to protest a federal vaccine mandate after 1000’s of flights have been canceled this weekend.
►Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday once more prolonged the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, because the state continues to get well from the pandemic.
►Tea Celebration firebrand Allen West, a candidate for the Republican nomination for governor of Texas, was hospitalized with COVID-19 on Sunday however stated he is “doing nice.”
📈 At the moment’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded greater than 44 million confirmed COVID-19 instances and greater than 714,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. International totals: Greater than 238 million instances and 4.8 million deaths. Greater than 187 million Individuals — 56% of the inhabitants — are absolutely vaccinated, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re studying: COVID-19 vaccines supply the most effective safety towards extreme sickness and dying. New antibody and antiviral remedies supply “interlocking advantages,” consultants say. Read more here.
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Moderna has no plans to share its COVID-19 vaccine recipe
Moderna has no plans to share the recipe for its COVID-19 vaccine as a result of executives have concluded that scaling up the corporate’s personal manufacturing is one of the simplest ways to extend the worldwide provide, the corporate’s chairman stated Monday.
The United Nations well being company has pressed Moderna to share its vaccine method. Afeyan stated the corporate analyzed whether or not it will be higher to share the messenger RNA know-how and decided that it might increase manufacturing and ship billions of extra doses in 2022.
“Throughout the subsequent six to 9 months, probably the most dependable strategy to make high-quality vaccines and in an environment friendly approach goes to be if we make them,” Moderna chairman Noubar Afeyan stated. Requested about appeals from the World Well being Group and others, he contended that such pleas assumed ”that we couldn’t get sufficient capability, however in actual fact we all know we are able to.”
The COVID-19 vaccine is Moderna’s solely industrial product. The corporate introduced plans final week to open a vaccine plant someplace in Africa. Afeyan stated he hopes a call will likely be made quickly on an actual location. Nonetheless, it might take years to get the plant up and working.
— Related Press
Well being staff, educators see excessive vaccination charges with vaccine mandates
Virtually all of Washington and North Carolina’s state well being staff are absolutely vaccinated towards COVID-19, whereas 99.99% of Cincinnati Public College staff have complied with the district’s obligatory vaccination coverage.
The excessive vaccination charges are possible a results of vaccination mandates from the federal authorities, states, and native faculty districts. The White Home launched a report final week contending that vaccine mandates would result in tens of millions extra Individuals getting vaccinated.
The report discovered that companies instituting vaccine mandates have seen their variety of absolutely vaccinated staff rise above 90%.
California coronavirus dying rely tops 70K as instances fall
California’s coronavirus dying toll reached one other once-unfathomable milestone – 70,000 folks – on Monday because the state emerges from the most recent an infection surge with the bottom price of latest instances amongst all states.
Final 12 months at the moment, instances within the state began ticking up and by January California was within the throes of the worst spike of the pandemic and was the nation’s epicenter for the virus. Every day deaths approached 700.
The newest surge began in summer season and was pushed by the delta variant that primarily focused the unvaccinated. At its worst throughout this spike, California’s common day by day dying rely was within the low 100s.
Contributing: The Related Press
