Key Points

• In today’s Recommendations for Industry, we discuss how to implicate protections based off your employee’s vaccination status. Read more below.

• As the Delta variant’s prevalence rises throughout the country and throughout the world (especially in areas with lower vaccination rates), countries are tightening (or re-tightening) restrictions.
  • In fact, India is currently tracking a Delta variant offshoot, known as Delta Plus which “carries a mutation in the spike protein” similar to the Beta (B1351) variant.
  • In the UK, the Delta variant makes up 95% of all sequenced cases. The UK also saw a 46% increase of cases, just in the last week alone!
  • New travel restrictions are being reinstated and reevaluated in Europe. In fact, Germany is currently restricting entry from Portugal and Russia. As part of this, Portugal is the first EU nation to announce the Delta variant as its dominant variant strain. For those wishing to enter Spain, Malta, and Portugal, they will need to show that they are vaccinated; otherwise, a quarantine may be required or they will be restricted from entering.
  • Israel is reimposing indoor mask orders as their cases also continue to rise!
  • And South Africa is tightening its COVID rules as Africa’s (as a whole) third wave continues to rage.
  • Hong Kong is also banning all incoming flights from the UK; the UK will be classified as an “extremely high-risk” country from HK’s perspective.
  • COVID-19 outbreak is expanding in Australia.
• Bloomberg has interviewed the last and only foreign scientist to have worked at the Wuhan Lab, virologist Dr. Danielle Anderson.
• India is currently seeking E.U. approval for its own native vaccine, Covishield.
• There is another study that has shown that the “mix-and-match approach to COVID vaccines” can provide good protection against COVID.
• The NYT reports that a new trial shows that a third dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine can boost protections even more!
• The FDA is hosting a webcast on July 08, 2021 (12:00 PM – 1:00PM ET) on “SARS-CoV-2: Host-pathogen interaction, vaccines and variants of concern” hosted by Professor Miles W. Carroll (Head of Emerging Pathogens Group at Oxford University) to discuss “how the human body responds to severe SARS-CoV-2 infection which will help in future treatments” while presenting results “on the immunological response to infection and vaccination.”

Recommendations for Industry

Percent of Vaccinated Can Determine Needed Protections

As concerns continue to spread in the U.S. about the highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19, businesses should carefully consider, for each facility, both the percentage of vaccinated employees and conditions in the area in which the facility is located.  The WHO and countries such as Israel are now recommending that fully vaccinated people should mask in certain indoor settings.  Many countries in the world have much lower vaccination rates than the U.S., and the recommendation for fully vaccinated persons to mask recognizes the likelihood that they will come in contact with unvaccinated persons at a higher frequency.

While it is difficult to provide exact numbers, TAG recommends that facilities retain COVID protections, including masks for both vaccinated and unvaccinated, if more than 25-30% of your workforce has remained unvaccinated, or if transmission rates are high or increasing in the community. We also recommend that businesses continue to inform, encourage, and/or incentivize employees to help increase vaccine acceptance and taking of full (two-vaccine) doses. With studies finding that the two doses of mRNA vaccines (Pfizer and Moderna) have good efficacy against the Delta variant as well. Some discussion that a booster may be needed for those who took the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also occurring. However, the CDC has not recommended or provided guidance on boosting this single dose vaccine. So, if a choice is available, you may want to consider or recommend Pfizer or Moderna, as these vaccines still appear to be very effective against the Delta variant at preventing symptomatic and severe illness.

As we determine the direction the Delta variant and COVID itself, takes, we’ll want to follow the science and adjust masking and other risk mitigation measures recommendations if the science changes.  For now, it may be advisable to hold steady on any pandemic protections you have retained, waiting to relax any further until more is known.

In Case You Missed It

• In last Friday’s Recommendations for Industry, we discussed how previously infected individuals may not need the COVID vaccine. Read more here.

• The AP News reported that, nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the US are among unvaccinated individuals while only 0.1% of COVID-19 infections are “breakthrough” cases. In fact, Dr. Rochelle Walensky (CDC director) commented at a White House briefing on Tuesday (reported by CNN) that “new COVID-19 death is now entirely preventable.” In fact, Healio reports that Dr. Fauci noted that 20% of new COVID-19 cases are reported to be from the Delta variant as cases have doubled in the last two weeks.

• A CDC safety group says there is likely a link between a rare heart inflammation (myocarditis or pericarditis) in younger individuals (<30 years old) after their COVID-19 vaccination; with 12.6 heart inflammation cases per million doses.

• The effects of the Delta Variant are being seen globally (as we’ve discussed). CIDRAP reports that, around the world, 12 countries in Africa are seeing a surge in cases, as well as in South America (Brazil, Colombia, and Argentina). Even countries that had COVID under control are seeing an uptick in cases including Israel, Portugal, Lisbon, and New South Wales. The BBC further reports that Europe is bracing for a surge in Delta variants, too.

• As we had discussed in our Risk Matrix (and on Wednesday’s Recommendations for Industry), Missouri now leads the nation in new COVID-19 infections. Not only does it have the lowest vaccination rate in the country, Delta variant cases are rising there. Most infected who are being admitted to the hospital are younger unvaccinated individuals.

• COVID-19 vaccinations are tied to 40 – 50 % reduced transmission within households (a new study in the NEJM indicates).

• A recent non-peer-reviewed preprint, as reported by CIDRAP, has shown that the Delta and Gamma variants of COVID-19 are currently making up the largest shares of U.S.-specific COVID-19 cases, with much of the Delta variant being identified in regions with higher rates of unvaccinated individuals. Similarly, globally, the Delta variant (and in Latin America, the Gamma variant, too) of COVID-19, have surged dramatically, including in Africa and across South-East Asia. There is additional news coming out for the Philippines and in S. American nations like Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, and Uruguay whose COVID-19 death toll accounts for 25% of all COVID-19 death tolls globally even though their combined populations only make up 5% of the global population.

• A recent pre-peer reviewed study is investigating the mutation (P681R) that makes the Delta COVID-19 variant “more resistant against neutralizing antibodies and allows the virus to infect human cells more efficiently.”

• The FDA has put out a Drug Safety Communication for hand sanitizers, warning that symptoms such as headache, nausea, and dizziness can occur after applying alcohol-based hand sanitizers to the skin and inhaling the vapors that linger. Consumers should use hand sanitizer in a well-ventilated area. Please don’t inhale hand sanitizer fumes!

Public Health and Food Safety:

• Food Safety News reports that the confirmed number of Salmonella infections from backyard chicken flocks now stands at 474 people; sickened individuals live in 46 states with 1/3 of patients younger than 5 years old.