As cases surge, mandates for public workers

New York City, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and the state of California announced plans Monday to mandate COVID-19 vaccines for many of their employees, a shift in how the country is dealing with vaccine hesitancy after months of campaigning to encourage shots and offers of money and prizes when vaccination levels dipped.

As the U.S. once again is seeing more than 50,000 new infections each day, New York City will require teachers, police officers and the rest of the 340,000 city employees to get vaccines by mid-September or face weekly testing, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. California unveiled a vaccine verification program for all state and health care employees and will require evidence of shots by Aug. 2 to avoid mandatory testing.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs announced an even stricter order, saying shots would be mandatory for its health care workers, following the deaths of four employees from COVID-19 in recent weeks.

In the week ending Sunday, the U.S. averaged just under 52,000 cases per day, the highest in three months. Cases are surging as the delta variant sweeps through communities where vaccine uptake stalled.

On a rolling seven-day average, cases are almost four times higher than they were June 22. Even with most Americans at least partially vaccinated, the country is reporting cases at more than three-quarters of the pace of the worst week last summer, which had about 67,000 cases per day.

Calls for mandatory shots for health workers

More than 50 major American health care and medical groups called for employers of health and long-term care workers to mandate COVID-19 vaccines. The joint statement Monday included the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians and American Academy of Pediatrics. It said mandating vaccines is “the logical fulfillment of the ethical commitment” of health care workers to put the needs of patients and residents of long-term care facilities first.

Study: Vaccine mix boosts antibodies

A South Korean study found evidence of increased antibody levels when people received a mixed vaccination schedule of an AstraZeneca shot then the Pfizer vaccine, Reuters reported. The study follows one from the U.K. with similar results when mixing AstraZeneca then Pfizer, rather than two doses of AstraZeneca. The FDA has not yet authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine in the U.S.

Public health officials have asked whether a “mixand-match” vaccine schedule would be safe and effective. There have also been questions over whether a booster dose will be needed for those who received two shots of Moderna or Pfizer or one shot of Johnson & Johnson as variants spread.

Soumya Swaminathan, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, however, called the mixed approach a “dangerous trend” earlier this month, adding that it could lead to people deciding for themselves which vaccines to combine and how many doses to receive.

Canada and Thailand have allowed some form of mixing and matching in certain circumstance, but so far no such combination of vaccines is authorized in the U.S.

Other top headlines

● The United States has no plans to lift travel restrictions given the rise of the delta variant, the White House says. The restrictions block entry from most of Europe and several other nations.

● Savannah, Georgia, reimposed a mask requirement in public over a “steep and alarming rise” in cases.