The Latest: Nevada concerned by rural vaccination rates

Protesters walk the Strip to protest COVID-19 government mandates, hosted by the non-profit Freedom of Choice, Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021, in Las Vegas. (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

A woman touches the sculpture 'Sad Angel', a memorial for St. Petersburg's medical workers who died from coronavirus during their work in St. Petersburg, Russia, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Russia's daily tolls of coronavirus infections and deaths have surged to another record in a quickly mounting figure that has put a severe strain on the country's health care system. The record for daily COVID-19 deaths in Russia has been broken repeatedly over the past few weeks as fatalities steadily approach 1,000 in a single day. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

White flags representing people who have died of COVID-19 in Brazil cover a field as part of a protest against the government's health policies outside the National Congress in Brasilia, Brazil, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Activists said they placed 600 flags, each with a person's name, to represent the 600,000 death toll, announced the previous day. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

In this March 28, 2021, file photo, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz delivers his third State of the State address in Mankato, Minn. Walz called on lawmakers Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, to approve a series of new measures to respond to the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, including vaccine and testing requirements for teachers and school staff, and for long-term care workers. (Glen Stubbe/Star Tribune via AP, Pool, file)

This undated file photo shows the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M. A New Mexico judge has denied a request by dozens of scientists and others at Los Alamos National Laboratory who sought to block a vaccine mandate. Workers risk being fired if they don't comply with the lab's Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, afternoon deadline. (The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)

Employees sanitize a movie theatre as they prepare to reopen at the Eastwood mall in Quezon city, Philippines as government eases restrictions after a decline in Coronavirus cases in the country on Thursday, Oct. 14, 2021. Several businesses were allowed to reopen in the next days as the country tries to revive the economy which have suffered due to the lockdowns to prevent the spread of COVID-19. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)

A pharmacist collects a nasal swab sample for a COVID-19 test in a pharmacy in Bayonne, southwestern France, Friday, Oct.15, 2021. COVID-19 tests in France are no longer free for unvaccinated adults unless they are prescribed by a doctor. While tests remain free for vaccinated adults and all children under 18, adults who have not gotten their shots will have to pay 22-45 euros ($25-$52) to get tested as of Friday. (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

People hold a banner reading No Green Pass during a protest in Rome, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Protests erupted in Italy on Friday as one of the most stringent anti-coronavirus measures in Europe went into effect, requiring all workers, from magistrates to maids, to show a health pass to get into their place of employment. The so-called “Green Pass” shows proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or of having recovered from COVID-19 in the past six months. Italy has required it to access all sorts of indoor activities for weeks, including dining , visiting museums and theaters and on long-distance trains. (Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse via AP)

Employees have their certification checked as Italy's new “Green Pass” vaccination requirement for employees to enter their offices became mandatory, at the Trenitalia, Italian train company offices, in Rome, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. From Friday, certification is required for public and private workplaces. Both employees and employers risk fines if they don’t comply. Public sector workers can be suspended if they show up five times without a Green Pass. The pass is already required in Italy to enter museums, theaters, gyms and indoor restaurants, as well as to take long-distance trains and buses or domestic flights. The passes show that a person has had least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, or recovered from the virus in the last six months, or has tested negative in the last 48 hours. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Sri Lankan university students wait to receive their coronavirus vaccine at the Sri Jayawardenapura university in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Oct. 11, 2021. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

In this Sept 16, 2021, file photo, residents gather outside a vaccination center looking to be inoculated with a second dose of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, in Caracas, Venezuela. Millions from Latin America to the Middle East are waiting for promised doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine due to manufacturing problems and other issues. Venezuela ordered 10 million doses in December 2020 but has only gotten slightly over 3 million. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

A passenger uses a phone while waiting to board a flight at Tan Son Nhat airport in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Vietnam has resumed air travel after several months of suspension due to COVID-19 outbreak. (AP Photo/Hau Dinh)

A Sri Lankan school student receives a COVID-19 vaccine in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Sri Lanka is vaccinating 18- and 19-year-olds against the coronavirus as it expands the shots to students. After beginning with older people, Sri Lanka has now vaccinated 57% of its 22 million population. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A young woman wearing a face mask to help curb the spread of the coronavirus leaves a subway in Moscow, Russia, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021. Russia's daily tolls of coronavirus infections and deaths have surged to another record in a quickly mounting figure that has put a severe strain on the country's health care system. The record for daily COVID-19 deaths in Russia has been broken repeatedly over the past few weeks as fatalities steadily approach 1,000 in a single day. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Demonstrators gather at Rome's Circus Maximus, Friday, Oct. 15, 2021, to protest a new anti COVID-19 measure requiring all workers to show a health pass to enter their place of employment. Banner in Italian reads: "Liberta'" (Freedom). (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

RENO, Nev. — Nevada health officials say rural areas with low vaccination rates remain the biggest concern, but overall COVID-19 trends continue to improve statewide, with a test positivity rate that’s dropped below 8% for the first time since early July.

“The Delta surge continues to recede across Nevada, with all key COVID-19 metrics declining,” state officials reported in Thursday’s weekly update.

Daily cases declined 26% between Sept. 21 and Oct. 5. The 14-day average fell to 527 on Thursday — less than half the 1,193 reported in mid-August when a steady decline began.

“However, the surge is not over,” the weekly bulletin warned. “Rural hospitalizations remain near their peak and Nevada is still averaging five times more cases than in June.”

Officials added that while hospital capacity in rural communities continues to be strained, “significant challenges are not as widespread as they were in July and August.” Statewide hospitalizations declined 11% between Sept. 23 and Oct. 7.

As of Thursday, the test positivity rate was 7.9% statewide across Nevada, where 55.1% of all residents 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 63.7% have initiated vaccination.

In rural areas outside Las Vegas, Reno-Sparks and Carson City, only 49.5% are fully vaccinated. The positivity rate there is 13.7%.

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MORE ON THE PANDEMIC:

— Russia struggles to meet global orders for Sputnik V vaccine

— Made in India virus kits boost testing, and local industry

— FDA panel endorses lower-dose Moderna COVID shot for booster

— FDA panel endorses booster shot for J&J vaccine

— FDA unlikely to rule on Merck’s COVID pill before December

— See all of AP’s pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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HERE’S WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The governing body of Alaska’s largest city has overridden the mayor’s veto of an emergency order instituting a mask mandate for 60 days.

Alaska Public Media reports the Anchorage Assembly on Thursday overturned Mayor Dave Bronson’s veto of the measure requiring masks by most everyone in indoor public spaces.

The ordinance mandates people wear masks in indoor public places and communal spaces. It provides some exemptions. Businesses must deny entry to people who aren’t wearing masks.

The order could be canceled earlier than 60 days if two of Anchorage’s three hospitals are not operating with crisis care protocols or if the city does not have a high transmission rate of COVID-19.

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PORTLAND, Maine — A federal appeals court has denied an emergency request to stop a COVID-19 vaccine mandate from going into effect in Maine.

The rule, announced by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, requires health care workers to get vaccinated against the disease by Oct. 29 or risk losing jobs. Opponents of the mandate challenged it in federal court and a judge declined to block it earlier this week.

A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston issued a one-sentence statement on Friday that said the request for an emergency halt to the mandate was denied, the Bangor Daily News reported.

Health workers in the state needed to get their final shot by Friday to comply with the mandate in time.

Most already have. State officials said earlier this week that the compliance rate at hospitals in the state was more than 90%, and it was more than 80% in some other types of health care facilities such as intermediate care facilities.

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OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska’s attorney general said Friday that he won’t seek disciplinary action against doctors who prescribe controversial, off-label drugs to treat and prevent coronavirus infections as long as they get informed consent from patients and don’t engage in misconduct.

The office of Attorney General Doug Peterson released a legal opinion saying it didn’t see data to justify legal action against health care professionals who prescribe ivermectin, a decades-old parasite treatment, or hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug that former President Donald Trump took to try to prevent a COVID-19 infection.

“Based on the evidence that currently exists, the mere fact of prescribing ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 will not result in our office filing disciplinary actions,” the Republican attorney general said in the opinion.

Many health experts and leading medical groups have been trying to stop the use of both drugs, arguing that they can cause harmful side effects and there’s little evidence that they help.

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ROBBINSDALE, Minn. -- Gov. Tim Walz said Friday he’ll use the Minnesota National Guard to help alleviate staffing shortages at hospitals and care facilities that are struggling to cope with the surge in COVID-19 cases among unvaccinated Minnesotans.

The governor announced plans at North Memorial Health Hospital in Robbinsdale for alleviating bottlenecks caused by overstretched staffs that prevent hospitals from moving recovering patients to transitional and long-term care facilities.

More than 400 Minnesota hospital patients are currently waiting for beds to open up at other care centers and taking up space needed for incoming patients, he said.

Walz said the number of National Guard soldiers who will be deployed to help out and their exact roles have yet to be determined.

Hospitals across Minnesota report that they’re at or near capacity, with intensive care and pediatric beds in short supply. They’re currently treating just over 1,000 COVID-19 patients. But hospital officials said the problem is not just due to the coronavirus, but also other serious conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, trauma and scheduled surgeries.

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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A New Mexico judge has denied a request by dozens of scientists and others at Los Alamos National Laboratory who sought to block a vaccine mandate.

Workers risk being fired if they don’t comply with the lab’s Friday afternoon deadline.

The case comes as New Mexico extends its mask mandate for indoor spaces.

While the vaccination rate among adults in New Mexico hovers around 71.5%, the rate among lab employees is much higher. Still, 114 workers sued, saying the mandate violates their constitutional rights and that lab management has created a hostile work environment.

Attorneys for the lab argued that being vaccinated is a condition of working there.

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BERLIN — The pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech say they have requested that their coronavirus vaccine be licensed for children aged 5 to 11 across the European Union. If authorized, it would be the first opportunity for younger children in Europe to be get immunized against COVID-19.

In a statement on Friday, Pfizer and BioNTech said they had submitted data to the European Medicines Agency, including late-stage results from a study testing their COVID-19 vaccine in more than 2,200 children aged six months to 11 years, using a lower dose than what’s normally given to adults.

The companies said those results showed a “strong immune response” in the children and that the vaccine was also found to be safe. There are currently no COVID-19 vaccines licensed for use in children younger than 12 in Europe or North America; the shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are authorized for children 12 and older in the European Union.

Earlier this month, Pfizer and BioNTech asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to green light their vaccine for kids aged 5 to 11.

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ISLAMABAD--- The U.S. Embassy in Pakistan said on Friday that Washington is sending an additional 9.6 million doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to Islamabad in partnership with the COVAX global vaccine initiative.

According to an embassy statement, the latest donation brings the total number of COVID-19 vaccines donated by the U.S. government to the Pakistani people to more than 25 million.

It said “these Pfizer vaccines are part of the 500 million Pfizer doses the United States purchased this summer to deliver to 92 countries worldwide, including Pakistan.

It said the United States is the single largest contributor supporting COVAX efforts toward global COVID-19 vaccines access.

The latest development comes amid a steady decline in the fourth wave of coronavirus in Pakistan which has reported 28,228 fatalities from coronavirus among 12,62,771 cases since last year.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. — The operator of a sprawling federal nuclear reservation in South Carolina says the vast majority of its 5,500 workers are now vaccinated against COVID-19 after the company mandated the shots.

But nearly 80 Savannah River Site employees who have refused to get inoculated are suing Savannah River Nuclear Solutions over the requirement, arguing the stipulation flouts South Carolina law because it amounts to illegally practicing medicine.

In a complaint filed Thursday in South Carolina state court, the workers said they wanted a judge to stop the federal contractor from instituting the mandate, which requires employees to get vaccinated against the highly contagious virus by a fall deadline or face firing.

The workers skeptical of the vaccine’s efficacy and safety appear to represent a small fraction of those employed by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, which has held a U.S. Department of Energy contract to manage and operate the old nuclear weapons complex south of Aiken since 2008.

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WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is expected to announce Friday that it will lift travel restrictions on Nov. 8 for fully vaccinated individuals arriving in the U.S. by air travel or by crossing land borders, according to a White House official.

Foreign nationals will be able to travel to the U.S. if they show proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days of travel. The policy change was announced in September, but the White House is announcing Friday the date when it will take effect.

The White House announced earlier this week it would lift restrictions on fully vaccinated foreign nationals for non-essential travel at U.S. land borders and ferry crossings with Canada and Mexico in early November. Land and ferry travelers will be required to present proof of vaccination to officials upon request.

The official, who was granted anonymity to speak on a policy that had not yet been publicly announced, said that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has informed airlines that all FDA-approved and authorized vaccines, as well as those that have an Emergency Use Listing from the World Health Organization, are acceptable. The CDC plans to issue guidelines on acceptable proof of vaccination in the coming weeks.

— By Alexandra Jaffe

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PARIS — COVID-19 tests in France are no longer free for unvaccinated adults unless they are prescribed by a doctor.

While tests remain free for vaccinated adults and all children under 18, adults who have not gotten their shots will have to pay 22-45 euros ($25-$52) to get tested as of Friday.

The government introduced the change as a complement to the COVID-19 passes that have been required in France since the summer. To get a pass, people need to show proof of vaccination, a recent negative test or recent recovery from the virus.

The passes are required to visit tourist sites, for hospital visits and on domestic train trips and flights. The pass requirement, announced in July, helped boost France’s vaccination rate.

Over 49 million people, or about 74% of the population, are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in France. Everyone age 12 and older are eligible for shots.

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MOSCOW — Russia’s daily number of new coronavirus infections and deaths surged to another record on Friday, a quickly mounting figure that has put a severe load on the country’s health care system.

The government’s coronavirus task force reported 32,196 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 999 deaths in the past 24 hours.

Death tolls have set daily records over the past few days, approaching 1,000 as infections spread amid a sluggish vaccination rate and Russian authorities’ reluctance to toughen restrictions that would further cripple the economy.

The government said this week that about 43 million Russians, or about 29% of the country’s nearly 146 million people, is fully vaccinated.

The Kremlin has also ruled out a nationwide lockdown like the one early in the pandemic that badly hurt the economy, eroding President Vladimir Putin’s popularity. Instead, it has delegated the power to enforce coronavirus restrictions to regional authorities.

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LONDON — British health officials say 43,000 people in southwest England may have been wrongly told they don’t have the coronavirus because of problems at a private laboratory.

The U.K. Health Security Agency says a lab in Wolverhampton, central England has been suspended from processing the swabs after reports of false negatives. The faulty results are among tests processed at the Immensa Health Clinic Lab between early September and this week.

The issue was uncovered after some people who were positive for COVID-19 when they took rapid tests went on to show up as negative on more accurate PCR tests.

One local authority, West Berkshire Council, has told people who were tested at the government-run Newbury Showground site between Oct. 3 and 12 and were told they were negative to get tested again.

Britain conducts about 1 million coronavirus tests a day and reported almost 40,000 new infections a day over the past week.