·     If you have not already done so, submit a COVID-19 Vaccine Administration application to DOH to be eligible to administer the vaccine if you are interested in doing so

·     Visit the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) website, an excellent resource for providers

·     Review the document Interim Recommendations for Allocating Initial Supplies of COVID-19 Vaccine

·     Develop your plan for testing staff based on the guidance

Health care workers who are exposed to needles, for example, while administering vaccines, are at risk of sharps injury and exposure to bloodborne pathogens. NIOSH and our partners have many resources on how to keep health care workers safe. This includes information on how to reduce sharps injuries and what to do if you have a sharps injury.

We hope the resources below are useful. We encourage you to share this information with other health care personnel at risk for sharps injuries.

CDC/NIOSH Resources

• Ensuring the Proper PPE when Administering COVID-19 Vaccine
• Preparing Your Practice for COVID-19 Vaccination
• Preventing Needlesticks in Health Care Settings (Also Available in Spanish)
• Preventing Needlesticks and Sharps Injuries
• Stop Sticks Campaign
• What Every Worker Should Know: How to Protect Yourself From Needlestick Injuries (Also Available in Spanish)

OSHA Resources

• Bloodborne Pathogens and Needlestick Prevention
• Healthcare Wide Hazards Needlestick/Sharps Injuries

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine  for the prevention of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for individuals 16 years of age and older caused by SARS-CoV-2. This EUA represents the first vaccine authorized for the prevention of COVID-19.

The FDA has determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has met the statutory criteria for issuance of an EUA. The totality of the available data provides clear evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine may be effective in preventing COVID-19. The data also support that the known and potential benefits outweigh the known and potential risks, supporting the vaccine’s use in millions of people 16 years of age and older, including healthy individuals. In making this determination, the FDA can assure the public and medical community that it has conducted a thorough evaluation of the available safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality information.

A link to the full FDA press release is here. The press release also provides information and discussion on available safety and effectiveness data.

You can review the full Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine EUA Letter of Authorization here.

In addition to the EUA letter, see below:

Fact Sheet for Healthcare Providers Administering Vaccine (Vaccine Providers)

Fact Sheet for Recipients and Caregivers

Operation Warp Speed and private sector partners now begin distributing the first allocation of doses to sites designated by the public health jurisdictions and five federal agencies with which OWS and CDC have been working to plan distribution. HHS Secretary Alex M Azar II and Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller have issued statements on this next step, and they can be viewed here.

For more information on COVID-19 vaccines, the EUA process, and guidance to industry for developing a COVID-19 vaccine please visit:

COVID-19 Vaccines

Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines Explained

Emergency Use Authorization for Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19; Guidance for Industry

Development and Licensure of Vaccines to Prevent COVID-19; Guidance for Industry

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted long-standing health inequities that have resulted in an increased risk of sickness and death for people of color. The crisis has also propelled a nationwide focus on understanding and addressing health inequities. As compared to white, non-Hispanic individuals, American Indians or Alaska Natives are over five times as likely to be hospitalized, and black or African-American individuals are over twice as likely to die from COVID-19.

While COVID-19 and the reckoning on racial justice have mobilized some state officials working in Medicaid, public health, insurance departments and Marketplaces alike, states are at different places on their journeys to confront systemic racism and inequities in healthcare, and each faces unique and challenging barriers. As early as August of this year, over one-third of states had launched task forces to take a closer look at health disparities (or differences in health based on population group) in response to the pandemic. These new task force efforts stand in contrast to decades of siloed and often poorly funded work to advance health equity by state offices of minority health or health equity. The new wave of state health equity activities aims to mitigate structural, institutional, political, financial and analytical barriers to ensure everyone has a fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible.

In a new issue brief for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Health and Value Strategies program, Manatt Health explores impediments and accelerants to advancing health equity as states are increasingly being called upon to drive change.

To read the full issue brief, click here.

Stricter COVID-19 mitigation efforts, announced Thursday by Gov. Tom Wolf and Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine, aim to put Pennsylvania “on pause” for the next three weeks.

The limited-time mitigation orders place restrictions on in-person dining and alcohol sales, gatherings and events, businesses and K-12 sports. Wolf — who tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week — and Levine announced the new measures during a virtual press conference Thursday.

“This is a bridge to that better future we all know that we can get to in Pennsylvania,” Wolf said. “We know that COVID-19 thrives in places where people gather together. Therefore, these mitigation measures target high-risk environments and activities and aim to reduce the spread of this devastating virus.”

In the last two days, Pennsylvania has reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.

“The virus continues to strain our health care systems and the dramatic rise in cases among all age groups, including among school-age children, is alarming,” Levine said. “Since the start of the pandemic, there have been more than 37,500 cases among children age 5 to 18, yet 9,500 of those cases occurred in the past two weeks.”

The new order takes effect 12:01 a.m. on Saturday and will remain in effect until 8 a.m. on Jan. 4, 2021.

“We will be saving lives, but we have to do it together,” Wolf said.

Here’s what to know about the guidelines:

In-person dining and alcohol sales

• All in-person indoor dining at restaurants, bars and other food service establishments is prohibited.
• Outdoor dining, take-out food service and take-out alcohol sales are permitted and may continue.

Gatherings and events

• Indoor gatherings and events of more than 10 people are prohibited.
• Religious services and worship are specifically excluded from the limitations set forth above during religious services, but faith leaders are “strongly encouraged” to find alternative ways to gather.
• Outdoor gatherings and events of more than 50 people are prohibited.

Business closures, capacity limits

• All in-person businesses may operate at up to 50% of the maximum capacity stated on the applicable certificate of occupancy, except as limited by existing orders to a smaller capacity limit.
• In-person businesses in the entertainment industry — theaters, concert venues, museums, movie theaters, arcades, casinos, bowling alleys and private clubs — are prohibited from operating.

Gyms and fitness facilities

• Indoor operations at gyms and fitness facilities are prohibited, but outdoor facilities and classes may continue.
• All participants are required to wear a mask and social distance during outdoor activities.

K-12 sports, extracurricular activities

• Voluntary, school-sponsored activities are suspended, but participants may gather virtually. This includes, but is not limited to, attendance at or participation in activities such musical ensembles, school plays, student council, clubs and school dances.
• All K-12 sports are paused. This includes all competition at public, nonpublic and private schools as well as all club, travel, recreational, intermural and intramural sports.
• The Pennsylvania Principals Association is recommending a delay to the start of the winter sports season. The surge in cases among school-age children increases the risk that asymptomatic participants will spread the virus at a game or practice, in the locker room, while traveling to and from events, or at team meals, parties or other gatherings.

Professional, collegiate sports

• Professional and collegiate sports activities may continue in accordance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health.
• Spectators are prohibited from attending events.

On Friday, December 4, 2020, the cumulative number of COVID cases in Appalachia surpassed 1 million. New cases have risen considerably since Thanksgiving.

The Region set a new record high for the seven-day rolling average of daily new cases with 17,331 on Sunday, December 6. The seven-day average of daily new cases was 13,077 a week ago and 13,113 two weeks ago.

The number of deaths has also risen considerably in the past few weeks. A new record high for the seven-day rolling average of daily new deaths was also set on Sunday, December 6 at 231. The rate was 139 deaths per day a week ago and 173 two weeks ago.

As of 11:30am December 10, 2020, there were 1,118,068 cumulative cases throughout Appalachia and 18,011 cumulative deaths.

There were 65,188 new cases and 979 new deaths since 12am Monday, December 7, 2020. The total number of COVID-related deaths are 18,011 in 407 of Appalachia’s 420 counties.

The Appalachia Nonprofit Resource Center (ANRC) was established during COVID-19 to assist regional nonprofit organizations by offering free online access to curated resources. Information is updated regularly. Check out recent additions about:

• Online Marketing
• Online Engagement and Fundraising
• Building a Diverse Board

Other topics including financial management, mission and operations, and fundraising are also available. Register now!

The number of new rural deaths climbed by more than 30% last week, topping 3,000 in a one-week period for the first time. New infections last week remained just below the record number of new cases set three weeks ago.

The number of people from rural counties who died from Covid-19-related causes in a one-week period topped 3,000 for the first time last week, marking the fifth consecutive week of a record-setting number of fatalities.

Rural counties broke another record last week for the number of counties in the red zone, defined as 100 new cases per week per 100,000 residents. Ninety-four percent of rural counties (1,857 out of 1,976) exceeded that threshold last week. The red-zone definition comes from the White House Coronavirus Task Force and indicates that localities have lost control of the spread of the virus.

See examples of reports from the White House Coronavirus Task Force for and the nation.

The Daily Yonder’s weekly report on the coronavirus in rural America covers the period of Sunday, November 29, through Saturday, December 5.

• Rural counties reported 3,613 Covid-related deaths last week, an increase of 34% from the previous week, which also set a record for fatalities.
• Cumulatively, 38,172 rural Americans have died from the virus, representing just under 14% of all Covid-related deaths in the U.S. Rural residents (defined here as people living in nonmetropolitan counties) represents just over 14% of the U.S. population.
• The number of new infections was 211,960 last week, an increase of about 7% from the previous week. The record for new cases in rural counties (216,045) was set three weeks ago, just before Thanksgiving.
• Cumulatively, more than 2.2 million rural residents have tested positive for the coronavirus, representing 15.6% of all infections in the U.S.
• Although the rate of new infections continued to be worst in the Midwest, Great Plains, and Mountain West, all but a handful of U.S. counties (urban and rural) are in the red zone.
• About 4 out of every 10 rural counties had “very high” rates of new infections, defined as more than 500 per 100,000 in a week. These counties are shown in black on the map.
• About 3 out of 10 metropolitan counties had infection rates of more than 500 per 100,000 for the week. These counties are shown in dark blue on the map.
• Minnesota and Indiana each had more than 90% of their counties in the “very high” category.
• Illinois, Kansas, and South Dakota had more than 70% of all counties in the “very high” category.
• The rural rate of new infections and deaths remained higher in rural counties than in urban ones (see graphs below).