(NEW YORK) — The mother of Jashyah Moore, a 14-year-old from New Jersey who had been missing for about a month, has been charged with two counts of second-degree endangering the welfare of a child.
The charges against 39-year-old Jamie Moore were announced in a press release Friday from acting Essex County prosecutor Theodore N. Stephens and East Orange Police Chief Phyllis Bindi, who added that the charges include allegations of physical abuse and neglect.
Moore was arrested early Friday and is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility.
Jashyah — who was found safe in New York City on Thursday after a weekslong search by local officials since her disappearance on Oct. 14 — and her 3-year-old brother were removed from Moore’s custody by the New Jersey Division of Child Protection and Permanency (DCPP).
At a press conference Friday, police said Jashyah had run away from home and did not want to return.
The teen “is currently safe and is being provided all appropriate services,” Stephens said in a statement. Authorities believe Jashyah was alone when she was found. She is said to have found shelter in Brooklyn, but the details of her time in New York are still being uncovered by investigators.
A reward for finding Jashyah had reached $20,000 this week.
“Jashyah is one of our own,” East Orange Mayor Ted Green said. “We’re asking this community, as we have been asking from Day 1, to help us in locating this young lady.”
Jashyah’s family had pleaded with the community to help bring her daughter home.
She had last been seen around 10 a.m. at Poppie’s Deli Store in East Orange after her mother, Jamie Moore, asked her to go to the store for groceries. According to police, surveillance footage shows Jashyah entering the store with an older male who paid for her items. The footage, however, does not appear to show them leaving the store together, police said. The man has cooperated with investigators and was helpful in the search, according to police.
Jashyah initially returned from the store and told her mom she had lost the card the family uses for groceries, police said. Moore said she told Jashyah to retrace her steps to find it.
Moore said that was the last time she saw her daughter.
“I cannot imagine what she might be going through just being away from us this long, being away from her family who loves her very much,” her mother said through tears at a press conference last Friday. “If anybody knows anything, please, please come forward.”
East Orange Police, the FBI and the New Jersey State Police worked in collaboration to help find Jashyah. Anyone who knows about her disappearance should call the East Orange Police at (973) 266-5041.
(NEW YORK) — A defense attorney in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial apologized a day after he said there shouldn’t be “any more Black pastors” in the Glynn County, Georgia, courtroom, as a representative for Arbery’s family called for his removal from the case.
Addressing Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley Thursday while the jury wasn’t present, defense attorney Kevin Gough said he took major offense to learning after the fact that Rev. Al Sharpton had been in the courtroom with the Arbery family Wednesday. Gough called Sharpton’s presence “improper,” “intimidating to the jury” and “an attempt to influence.”
“We have all kinds of pastors in this town, over 100. And the idea that we’re going to be serially bringing these people in to sit with the victim’s family, one after another, obviously there’s only so many pastors they can have,” Gough said. “If their pastor’s Al Sharpton right now, that’s fine. But then that’s it. We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here.”
Walmsley told Gough to “not overstate what’s going on here” because “this will become a distraction that we’re going to waste a bunch of time on.”
The trial resumed Friday with a brief apology from Gough, who said his statements had been “overly broad.”
“My apologies to anyone who might’ve been inadvertently offended,” he said.
Gough said he had been asked to address the issue, to which Walmsley responded that it wasn’t the court that had asked that.
Gough is representing William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, chasing down Arbery while the 25-year-old Black man was out for a jog last year. Arbery was fatally shot during the confrontation.
In response to Gough’s comments, Sharpton is calling on clergy to join him and Arbery’s family outside the courthouse on Nov. 18.
“The arrogant insensitivity of attorney Kevin Gough in asking a judge to bar me or any minister of the family’s choice underscores the disregard for the value of the human life lost and the grieving of a family in need [of] spiritual and community support,” Sharpton said in a statement Friday.
Ben Crump, an attorney for Arbery’s family, tweeted Friday morning that “we are going to bring 100 Black pastors to pray with the family next week.”
“It is not illegal for Black pastors to support the parents of Ahmaud Arbery or any other Black victims,” he said.
Barbara Arnwine, a representative for Arbery’s family, called the comments “absolutely inappropriate” and “horrible behavior” from a lawyer.
“He really should not be part of this case, it’s very, very disturbing,” she told reporters outside the courtroom Friday.
“We’re gonna bring a whole lot of Black pastors over the week. Get ready,” she added.
Defense attorney Jason Sheffield, who is representing Travis McMichael, also called Gough’s comments “asinine.”
“Everyone is welcome, come one, come all,” he told reporters during lunch recess.
The trial started last Friday under a cloud of controversy after a jury comprised of 11 white people and one Black person was selected, prompting an objection from prosecutors that the selection process, which took nearly three weeks, ended up racially biased.
The high-profile trial is expected to last into Thanksgiving week, Sheffield said.
The three defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Janice McDonald and Alex Presha contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has charged former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress over his defiance of a subpoena from the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.
The indictment sets off what will likely be a contentious legal battle with significant ramifications for the Jan. 6 committee as it seeks to compel other witnesses to testify about the events leading up to the attempted insurrection, including any communications they may have had with former President Donald Trump.
The case also presents an extraordinary test for the Justice Department under Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has made restoring DOJ’s independence from politicization one of the top priorities of his tenure.
In a recent appearance in front of the House Judiciary Committee, Garland told lawmakers the department would follow “the facts and the law” in its consideration of the contempt referral voted on by the full House of Representatives last month.
Given Bannon was indicted on two counts, if he is convicted on both a judge could decide to stack the counts and he could potentially face a max sentence of two years in jail. His fine on each count could be between $100 and $1000.
While Bannon, if convicted, faces the prospect of a max sentence that could amount to up to 12 months in prison and fines of as much as $100,000 — such prosecutions are rare, and if history is any guide the legal fight could potentially drag on for years and face additional hurdles on appeal.
Reps. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the chairman and co-chair of the House Jan. 6 select committee, issued a response to news of Bannon’s indictment Friday afternoon.
“Steve Bannon’s indictment should send a clear message to anyone who thinks they can ignore the Select Committee or try to stonewall our investigation: no one is above the law,” they sad in a joint statement. “We will not hesitate to use the tools at our disposal to get the information we need.”
The last time a criminal contempt case was brought by the Justice Department was in 1983 during the Reagan Administration against an EPA official who was eventually found not guilty by a jury at trial.
Committee members have sought Bannon’s testimony citing his comments leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, including his promotions of the so-called ‘Stop the Steal’ effort and the day before when he predicted on his podcast that “all hell is going to break loose” in Washington.
In its original letter to Bannon seeking his deposition, the committee also raised reports that Bannon and other allies held meetings at the Willard Hotel in Washington leading up Jan. 6, where they strategized about ways to stop or delay Congress’ certification of Biden’s election win.
An attorney for Bannon has repeatedly said his refusal to comply with the committee’s subpoena stems from an assertion of executive privilege made by Trump, though legal experts have cast doubt on the merits of that claim both due to Trump’s status a former president and the fact that Bannon was not a White House advisor at the time of the alleged communications.
(HOUSTON) — Several lawsuits have been filed so far against several parties connected to the deadly stage surge during Astroworld Festival at NRG Park in Houston, Texas, which left at least nine concertgoers dead and many more injured. Now, more than 100 victims of the tragedy are being represented in cases against event organizers, managers and performers.
Astroworld is a music festival founded by rapper Travis Scott and held annually in Houston. This year was the third Astroworld event, which hosted popular rappers and singers including SZA, Bad Bunny, Chief Keef and Tame Impala.
According to Houston Police and witness accounts, a wave of tens of thousands of people surged toward the stage when Scott — and later, rapper Drake — appeared. Concert attendees say they were pushed into one another from all sides, and as the crowd pressed its way forward, some began to fall, pass out and get trampled by others in the audience.
“You’re not moving yourself — it’s more of the crowd moving you, so you don’t have control of your body at that point,” said concertgoer Fatima Muñoz, who shared her experience with ABC News’ daily news podcast “Start Here.” “So when people start falling and losing their balance, it kind of becomes like a domino effect.”
“Somebody next to me started falling, and he kind of took me down with him. And that’s when I had fell right on the floor, and that’s when everybody started tumbling down, and I tried so hard to get up,” Muñoz said. “There’s just too much people like on me, like, they legit dog-pile on me. I was on the floor. Nobody helped. I tried screaming for my life. I tried screaming for help. Nobody helped nobody.”
Muñoz said she bit someone’s leg to bring attention to her laying on the floor and then two attendees helped her up and out of the crowd.
“If those two guys didn’t help me, I mean, I really could have been one of those people for sure,” she said.
The lawsuits, along with some witness accounts, allege that Scott continued to perform despite the presence of emergency vehicles in the audience.
Houston police say the investigation is active and in its early stages.
Lawsuits stack up against concert producers, venue
Live Nation Entertainment and ScoreMore Holdings, two concert production and entertainment companies that organized and produced the event, are being sued, as well as performers Scott and Drake. NRG Park’s venue management and operation agency, the Harris County Sports & Convention Corporation, is also included as a defendant in the lawsuits.
The family of 21-year-old Axel Acosta, one of the people who died in the crowd surge, say they plan on joining a lawsuit as part of 35 total plaintiffs in a case to be filed by Houston attorney Tony Buzbee against the aforementioned organizers.
Buzbee cited a 2015 disorderly conduct charge against Scott, which he pleaded guilty to, stemming from that year’s Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago when he urged attendees to ignore security, ABC7 Chicago reported at the time.
“Certainly neither Travis Scott nor his handlers, entourage managers, agents, hangers on promoters, organizers or sponsors cared enough about Axel to make even minimal effort to keep him and the others at the concert safe,” Buzbee said in a press conference with the family Monday.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and attorney Alex Hilliard are representing more than 100 victims from the Astroworld tragedy, including a 21-year-old attendee who helped lift people up from the floor amid the chaos. They accuse the event’s organizers and Scott of negligence in providing medical equipment, crowd control, safety precautions, adequate hiring and training of staff.
“We are hearing horrific accounts of the terror and helplessness people experienced — the horror of a crushing crowd and the awful trauma of watching people die while trying unsuccessfully to save them,” Crump said in a statement to ABC News. “We will be pursuing justice for all our clients who were harmed in this tragic and preventable event.”
Texas attorney Thomas J. Henry also filed a lawsuit against Scott and Drake, as well as Live Nation and NRG Stadium, on behalf of one of the surviving victims following Friday night’s tragedy.
Henry said he believes a message needs to be sent to “performers, venues and event organizers that a lackadaisical approach to event preparation and attendees safety is no longer acceptable.”
“Live musical performances are meant to inspire catharsis, not tragedy,” Henry said in a statement sent to ABC News. “Many of these concertgoers were looking forward to this event for months, and they deserved a safe environment in which to have fun and enjoy the evening. Instead, their night was one of fear, injury and death.”
Kherkher Garcia, LLP has also filed a lawsuit against event organizers and Scott on behalf of an attendee who the firm said “suffered serious bodily injuries when the uncontrolled crowd at the concert knocked him to the ground and trampled him.”
“He and those who promoted and supported this concert must take responsibility for their heinous actions,” Kherkher Garcia, LLP said in a statement to ABC News. “We intend to hold them fully accountable by showing that this behavior will not be tolerated in our great city.”
Houston attorney Ricardo Ramos told reporters Tuesday night he also plans to file a lawsuit on behalf of as many as 30 concertgoers over alleged injuries and emotional distress, though the defendants are still being determined.
“They went there to have a good time, and they went there to have some fun,” Ramos said. “In return, probably it was the biggest nightmare they have ever experienced.”
Scott and organizers react
Following the concert, Scott released a statement on the tragedy on Twitter, saying, “I’m absolutely devastated by what took place last night. My prayers go out to the families and all those impacted by what happened at Astroworld festival.”
Scott announced he will cover the funeral costs and further aid to individuals affected by the tragedy and will refund all of the Astroworld concertgoers and ticket holders. He has also said he is cooperating with investigators.
On Instagram, Scott’s girlfriend, Kylie Jenner, who attended the concert, defended Scott.
“I want to make it clear we weren’t aware of any fatalities until the news came out after the show and in no world would have continued filming or performing,” Jenner wrote in her post.
Drake on Monday night posted a statement on Instagram. “I’ve spent the past few days trying to wrap my mind around this devastating tragedy. I hate resorting to this platform to express an emotion as delicate as grief but this is where I find myself. My heart is broken for the families and friends of those who lost their lives and for anyone who is suffering,” he wrote. “I will continue to pray for all of them, and will be of service in any way I can. May God be with you all.”
In a statement to ABC News, Live Nation said it was working with law enforcement to get answers.
“We continue to support and assist local authorities in their ongoing investigation so that both the fans who attended and their families can get the answers they want and deserve, and we will address all legal matters at the appropriate time,” Live Nation said.
Legal analysts, including civil litigation attorney Danielle Cohen Higgins and ABC News’ Dan Abrams, say there are many questions that need to be answered about what exactly happened at the festival.
Higgins said event organizers are going to have to answer for the safety precautions, crowd control procedures and other policies that play a big role in event planning.
“If Live Nation created an environment where they reasonably should have anticipated that a surge was possible — that’s a problem for Live Nation. They are the experts in creating this environment,” Higgins said in an interview with ABC News.
NRG Park representatives declined ABC News’ request for comment.
Higgins and Abrams also pointed out that in 2019, three people were also hospitalized at Astroworld after being trampled when thousands of people rushed to get into the event.
Following that 2019 incident, Houston police tweeted: “We are successfully working together to support Houston’s biggest music festival @astroworldfest at @nrgpark and collaborating closely with the festival to ensure the public safety of everyone attending the event. We look forward to a memorable night.”
Abrams, when asked on Good Morning America about what stands out to him the most about this tragedy, said any of Scott’s actions and comments at the concert could affect these cases.
“There’s going to be social media videos of every moment of that show,” Abrams said. “Every single second will have been documented, so we’ll know exactly what he said and when he said it.”
(NEW YORK) — The number of people who quit their jobs rose to a record high in September, the Department of Labor said Friday.
Some 4.4 million workers, or 3% of the total workforce, quit their jobs in September, the DOL said, marking the highest number since the government started tracking the data. Moreover, the number of job openings in September was 10.4 million — tying August for the second-highest figure ever recorded and down only slightly from the record 10.9 million job openings seen in July.
The layoffs and discharge rate, meanwhile, was unchanged at 0.9% in September.
The fresh data reflect an ongoing trend among U.S. workers who are reevaluating their work situation and life following the shock of the pandemic.
Job quitting increased in several industries in September, according to the data, with the largest increases seen in the arts, entertainment and recreation sector and in the state and local government education industry.
The record-high levels of people quitting their jobs, combined with soaring job openings, have left many major companies reeling to find staff. Workers now have an upper hand in the labor market that has been linked to a spate of strikes and new employee activism.
Thousands of workers at John Deere remain on strike and new unionization efforts have emerged at major companies including Amazon and Starbucks.
The crunch for workers as the economy reopens has also been linked to rising wages, especially in the service industry where wages were largely stagnant for years before the pandemic.
Preliminary data from the Labor Department indicates that the average hourly earnings of all employees in food and drinking establishments soared to a record high of $17.58 in September, a figure that has slowly climbed each month in 2021.
The overall unemployment rate still remains elevated compared to pre-pandemic levels. The unemployment rate last month was 4.6%, still above the 3.5% seen in February 2020 before the pandemic upended the labor market.
(NEW YORK) — Tanner Vanvalkenburg is speaking out after he was shot on vacation in a popular resort area in Mexico late last week, caught in the crosshairs of gunfire by rival gangs.
“I was just like, man this is it, like I’m probably not going to make it,” he recalled to ABC News.
The tourist from America was with his partner and two friends when the incident began.
“We were kind of just eating tacos and that’s when I started hearing gunfire,” he said.
The gunmen headed ashore in front of a Hyatt Resort just south of Cancun and opened fire.
The shooting left two dead and four Americans injured. The armed suspects initially escaped, but local authorities confirmed to ABC News on Friday that they have five people in custody.
“We thought that they were fireworks and then more started going off and everyone started to panic and run,” Vanvalkenburg said. “That’s when I took off and all of us jumped into the pool.”
The mele sent tourists scrambling for cover as some hid under pool chairs.
“Right when I jumped into the water, I went to dive and that’s when the bullet hit. And as soon as the bullet hit me, I came up … and I was holding the gunshot wounds as I was bleeding, kind of putting as much pressure as I could because I knew that I had just been hit,” Vanvalkenburg explained.
“I honestly thought that I was gonna die because I thought the gunmen were going to basically come and just kill everyone [who] was there at the resort,” he said.
Vanvalkenburg was taken to a local hospital and later released.
Hyatt told ABC News “the safety and wellbeing of guests and colleagues is always a top priority.”
Now as he recovers back home in Utah, Vanvalkenburg said this incident has left him reconsidering how he travels.
“I never in a million years thought that I would have to worry about my life sitting in a resort,” he said. “So it’s going to be very different now if I travel again.”
(WASHINGTON) — As it again masses troops and equipment on the border with Ukraine, the Russian government is “looking for the opportunity to move further” into Ukrainian territory, the country’s foreign minister warned in an exclusive interview.
“We do not want to scare anyone, but we have to remain vigilant,” Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba told ABC News. “We are extremely worried, but listen — when you live next to Russia for seven years in an armed conflict, you kind of learn to be worried. You get used to it.”
Kuleba just wrapped up a high-profile visit to Washington, meeting Wednesday with President Joe Biden’s top foreign policy aides, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The visit was just the latest exchange between Biden’s administration and that of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who was infamously urged by former President Donald Trump to announce an investigation into Biden and his son Hunter.
Kuleba noted the “turbulence” in U.S.-Ukrainian relations during the Trump years, but eagerly looked to turn the page — saying ties were “revived, restored, relaunched, whatever word we use.”
U.S. officials have tried to demonstrate that, too, expressing growing concern about Russia’s military movements in recent weeks. Blinken said the U.S. commitment to Ukraine remains “ironclad” and warned Moscow that “any escalatory or aggressive actions would be of great concern by the United States.”
As many as 100,000 Russian troops have been moved to its western border with Ukraine, Zelenskiy said Thursday. Satellite images published by the firm Maxar Technologies last week showed large ground forces deployed 140 miles from the border with heavy equipment, while the defense firm Janes said the buildup was largely covert, with elite ground units and often taking place at night, according to Bloomberg News.
Russian government officials denied the movements, then dismissed concerns about them and accused the U.S. and NATO of aggression.
Ukrainian officials have swung between raising alarm at Russia’s recent actions and downplaying them as a tactic by Russian leader Vladimir Putin meant to create hysteria.
“Russia’s psychological pressure has not worked on us for a long time. Your panic will definitely not help, but it can help the enemy. It can become part of the information war and bring no less harm to the country than the fighting,” Zelenskiy said Thursday.
Standing alongside Kuleba on Wednesday, Blinken said, “We don’t have clarity into Moscow’s intentions, but we do know its playbook,” recalling Putin’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine’s territory, Crimea, which it still occupies, and incursion into eastern Ukraine. That still-smoldering war between Russian-backed separatists and the Ukrainian government has claimed 14,000 lives and counting.
That playbook can be swiftly executed, Kuleba warned, because a similar military buildup in April ended with troops departing, but the infrastructure and equipment largely remaining in place.
“With this infrastructure in place along our border, it will not take Russia a lot of time to resort to an offensive action if it decides to do so, and our goal and our objective is to make everything, everything possible to prevent Russia from making that decision,” he told ABC News.
Part of that effort is boosting U.S. military assistance to Ukraine, which both Kuleba and Blinken called for after their meetings Wednesday. Blinken declined to offer specifics, but Kuleba called for greater intelligence sharing, air defense systems and more.
The Biden administration has been “very specific and very committed” in responding to Russian aggression, he told ABC News, taking a “proactive stance” and walking the walk.
“What is even more important from my conversations here in Washington, I see that the United States are ready not only to talk, but also to act, to act in order to deter Russia and to strengthen Ukraine’s capacity to defend itself,” he said. “This is even more important.”
Selling Ukrainian lethal weapons was at the heart of Trump’s first impeachment and the infamous call between him and Zelenskiy. As the newly elected Ukrainian leader asked Trump for more Javelin anti-tank missiles, Trump turned the conversation to ask for a “favor” and announce a probe of Biden, his son Hunter and Hunter’s time on the board of the Ukrainian state-owned energy company Burisma.
While there was no announcement about new weapons sales, Kuleba said he was “leaving Washington, D.C., in a good mood because this is exactly what we were working for.”
“The truth is, there has been some turbulence in our bilateral relations under the previous administration. There was some hesitations of how this relationship will proceed further in the early days of this administration. But I think that it will not be an exaggeration to say that the quality and the number of contacts between our presidents, between me and foreign secretary, and at all other levels of our teams has been unprecedented,” he told ABC News.
But that’s not to say there aren’t critical differences now, even on the potential threat from Russia. During their joint press conference Wednesday, Blinken refused to say Russia is using energy as a weapon, while Kuleba clearly said it already is, including by halting coal shipments to Ukraine and withholding greater natural gas imports through Ukraine to Europe amid an energy crisis across the continent.
“What is unfolding in Europe now is a very complicated game with many elements in it,” Kuleba said at the State Department, accusing Russia and its ally Belarus of pressuring Europe using energy, propaganda and disinformation, cyber attacks, military buildups, and the migration crisis between Belarus and its neighbors.
Biden has called for stabilizing U.S. relations with Russia, including by holding his summit with Putin in June — a meeting that could have a sequel soon. Kuleba said he understands the sentiment and sees no “risks” that U.S.-Russian dialogue would be “done at the expense of Ukraine,” but he warned that Putin only responds to strength.
“Our experience of recent seven years demonstrates that Moscow understands and respects the language of strength. You do not have to threaten them, you do not have to act, to use force against them, but they respect you if you are strong with them, if you are tough with them,” he said.
One issue, however, where critics say the U.S. is not standing strong is Nord Stream 2, the nearly completed natural gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany and circumventing Ukraine, Poland and other U.S. partners. Biden waived congressionally-mandated sanctions on the German company constructing the pipeline and its CEO, saying he did not want to damage ties with a key ally. Instead, the U.S. and Germany issued a joint statement, committing to helping Ukraine diversify its energy resources and responding swiftly if Russia withholds gas to Ukraine.
But joined by Poland, Kyiv expressed anger and dismay at the non-binding agreement. Kuleba papered over that disagreement, saying what was most important is that they were talking — but urged action if needed.
“We have differences in seeing how the negative consequences of this project being implemented can be avoided or prevented,” Kuleba told ABC News. “We definitely want the United States to remain vigilant and ready, ready to take action if the current policy fails.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service announced Wednesday that Innovative Solutions, Inc., is recalling approximately 97,887 pounds of raw ground chicken patty products, some of which was sold at Trader Joe’s locations.
The chicken patty products, which were produced on various dates from Aug. 16 to Sept. 29, may be contaminated with extraneous materials, specifically pieces of bone, according to the press release.
The products subject to recall include Chile Lime Chicken Burgers sold at Trader Joe’s, as well as Spinach Feta Chicken Sliders, which were sold at other grocery stores. Both were shipped nationwide.
The items have an establishment number of EST. P-8276.
There have been no confirmed reports of injury or illness, but the FSIS urges consumers to throw away or return the products.
(NEW YORK) — State and local health officials are once again raising the alarm about the renewed threat of COVID-19 spread in communities across the country as people head indoors during the colder months and are set to gather for the holidays.
“Winter is coming,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned during a press conference on Tuesday. “COVID is not taking the winter off.”
For weeks throughout the early fall, the U.S. had seen steady declines in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, offering hope that perhaps the pandemic was finally subsiding in the U.S. after a significant summer surge across the South and a renewed push for vaccinations.
However, the U.S. appears to be once again at an inflection point, with cold weather setting in across much of the North, COVID-19 restrictions relaxed and gatherings growing more frequent. On average, the U.S. is reporting approximately 75,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, according to federal data, still significantly lower than the country’s most recent surge over the summer, but higher than at any point last spring.
Since mid-October, the average number of new COVID-19 cases has risen by approximately 17%, marking the first consistent increase in national cases in nearly 10 weeks. While some health officials caution that case numbers may not be the best indicator of the prevalence of COVID-19, hospitalizations are also on the rise in a number of states.
Experts say a confluence of factors is likely driving the country’s recent uptick besides cold weather — largely the more than 107 million Americans who remain completely unvaccinated and continue to account for the majority of new infections and hospitalizations.
People who have not been fully vaccinated are 6.1 times more likely to test positive with the virus and 11.3 times more likely to die from it, compared with people who are vaccinated, according to federal data.
But there is also the factor of waning immunity for those who are fully inoculated, something that other countries have seen as well.
“Lowering temperatures, increased population mixing, reduced masking, fully open schools and the more contagious delta variant all contribute to the increases in cases and hospitalizations in many parts of the country. Despite widespread availability of the vaccine, we still have pockets of under-vaccinated communities that consistently provide opportunities for the virus to spread,” said John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While we should all be more optimistic than this time last year, we are not yet in a position to declare victory on the pandemic,” Brownstein said.
COVID-19 cases on the rise in nearly 2 dozen states
Over the last two weeks, 22 states — many of them with colder temperatures — have seen an uptick in daily cases of 10%.
Similarly, 14 states — Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin — have seen an increase of about 10% or more in hospital admissions over the last week.
And after nearly 10 weeks of declines, national hospitalizations have also begun to increase. Although hospitalizations have declined significantly from the country’s summer surge, when more than 104,000 patients were hospitalized at one time, 47,000 patients currently in the hospital with COVID-19 — an increase of 2,000 from last week.
“We need to stop talking as though covid is over,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, tweeted last week. “More than 40% of the country remains unvaccinated. That’s a lot of warm water for hurricane delta. I’m concerned about yet another surge beginning after Thanksgiving (just like last year).”
Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiology lead at the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, called the stall in the national decline “worrisome.”
“We’re stalling at a level of weekly case numbers that are still well above what we saw at the lower periods at the end of June and in early July,” Nuzzo said during a briefing last week. “There are a number of states where these increases have persisted for two or more weeks, and that’s usually the metric we look for to say a trend is happening. So there are some early signs that we’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Even states with high vaccination rates see upticks
Despite states across the Northeast boasting high vaccination rates, with several jurisdictions reporting full vaccination rates above 70%, several states are struggling through their worst surge yet.
In Maine, COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have been steadily rising across the state, despite the fact more than 70% of the state’s total population fully inoculated.
Since the onset of the pandemic, LifeFlight of Maine, which provides critical care transport across the state, has not seen a decline in the steady stream of patients in need of urgent care.
“The number of COVID patients we’re transporting is remaining the same as it was for the last 19 months. We’re continuing to say the hospitals are full to capacity,” Thomas Judge, executive director of LifeFlight of Maine, told ABC News.
This issue is not unique to Maine, Judge explained, adding that his colleagues across the country, and in the Northeast, are all still struggling.
“Because the hospitals can’t absorb all these patients, they’re just under such pressure for beds, especially the ICU beds,” Judge said.
Judge explained that they are frequently flying patients out of state, at times, as far away as Connecticut or New York, depending on bed availability.
“We’re taking patients across state lines routinely. Just because of these challenging beds, and we’re taking patients much further than we would normally take them which you can imagine,” Judge added. “The patients we’re seeing are primarily unvaccinated and the vast majority of patients in the ICU, and on ventilators are unvaccinated, and that continues to be the challenge.”
Vermont sees record surge in COVID-19 infections
In neighboring Vermont, which has the highest vaccination rate of any state with nearly 72% of the population fully vaccinated, COVID-19 cases increased by 50% over the last 14 days. According to a recent report by the Department of Financial Regulation, people who are not fully vaccinated continue to report infection rates 3.7 times higher, per capita, compared to people who are fully vaccinated.
Further, according to the report, 67% of hospitalizations, over the last seven days, are among the unvaccinated.
The patterns observed in communities with current spikes in infections and hospitalizations suggest that they are driven not only by those still unvaccinated, but also the decline of vaccine efficacy over time.
“Waning immunity likely is also contributing to increases in cases especially among those with increased vulnerability because of underlying conditions. Boosters can at least play a supporting role in averting a larger surge this winter,” Brownstein said.
Experts say the key to getting through the winter will ultimately be to get more Americans fully vaccinated and boosted when eligible.
“As we go into the winter months with the challenge of a respiratory infection being worse in the winter months, we can get through this if we really put a lot of effort into getting as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in an interview with NPR, this week.
Health experts also say that it will also be critical for people to get the flu vaccine, in addition to their COVID-19 shots, as both vaccines only protect against their respective diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is safe to get the COVID and flu vaccines during the same visit.
At this time, booster shots are recommended for anyone over the age of 18 who has received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer recipients are encouraged to get a booster shot six months after receiving their second dose, if they are over the age of 65, have an underlying medical condition or are at high risk for exposure. On Tuesday, Pfizer requested the Food and Drug Administration allow all Americans over 18 to be eligible for booster shots.
(NEW YORK) — State and local health officials are once again raising the alarm about the renewed threat of COVID-19 spread in communities across the country as people head indoors during the colder months and are set to gather for the holidays.
“Winter is coming,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned during a press conference on Tuesday. “COVID is not taking the winter off.”
For weeks throughout the early fall, the U.S. had seen steady declines in coronavirus infections and hospitalizations, offering hope that perhaps the pandemic was finally subsiding in the U.S. after a significant summer surge across the South and a renewed push for vaccinations.
However, the U.S. appears to be once again at an inflection point, with cold weather setting in across much of the North, COVID-19 restrictions relaxed and gatherings growing more frequent. On average, the U.S. is reporting approximately 75,000 new COVID-19 cases each day, according to federal data, still significantly lower than the country’s most recent surge over the summer, but higher than at any point last spring.
Since mid-October, the average number of new COVID-19 cases has risen by approximately 17%, marking the first consistent increase in national cases in nearly 10 weeks. While some health officials caution that case numbers may not be the best indicator of the prevalence of COVID-19, hospitalizations are also on the rise in a number of states.
Experts say a confluence of factors is likely driving the country’s recent uptick besides cold weather — largely the more than 107 million Americans who remain completely unvaccinated and continue to account for the majority of new infections and hospitalizations.
People who have not been fully vaccinated are 6.1 times more likely to test positive with the virus and 11.3 times more likely to die from it, compared with people who are vaccinated, according to federal data.
But there is also the factor of waning immunity for those who are fully inoculated, something that other countries have seen as well.
“Lowering temperatures, increased population mixing, reduced masking, fully open schools and the more contagious delta variant all contribute to the increases in cases and hospitalizations in many parts of the country. Despite widespread availability of the vaccine, we still have pockets of under-vaccinated communities that consistently provide opportunities for the virus to spread,” said John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While we should all be more optimistic than this time last year, we are not yet in a position to declare victory on the pandemic,” Brownstein said.
COVID-19 cases on the rise in nearly 2 dozen states
Over the last two weeks, 22 states — many of them with colder temperatures — have seen an uptick in daily cases of 10%.
Similarly, 14 states — Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont and Wisconsin — have seen an increase of about 10% or more in hospital admissions over the last week.
And after nearly 10 weeks of declines, national hospitalizations have also begun to increase. Although hospitalizations have declined significantly from the country’s summer surge, when more than 104,000 patients were hospitalized at one time, 47,000 patients currently in the hospital with COVID-19 — an increase of 2,000 from last week.
“We need to stop talking as though covid is over,” Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, tweeted last week. “More than 40% of the country remains unvaccinated. That’s a lot of warm water for hurricane delta. I’m concerned about yet another surge beginning after Thanksgiving (just like last year).”
Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiology lead at the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center, called the stall in the national decline “worrisome.”
“We’re stalling at a level of weekly case numbers that are still well above what we saw at the lower periods at the end of June and in early July,” Nuzzo said during a briefing last week. “There are a number of states where these increases have persisted for two or more weeks, and that’s usually the metric we look for to say a trend is happening. So there are some early signs that we’re headed in the wrong direction.”
Even states with high vaccination rates see upticks
Despite states across the Northeast boasting high vaccination rates, with several jurisdictions reporting full vaccination rates above 70%, several states are struggling through their worst surge yet.
In Maine, COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations have been steadily rising across the state, despite the fact more than 70% of the state’s total population fully inoculated.
Since the onset of the pandemic, LifeFlight of Maine, which provides critical care transport across the state, has not seen a decline in the steady stream of patients in need of urgent care.
“The number of COVID patients we’re transporting is remaining the same as it was for the last 19 months. We’re continuing to say the hospitals are full to capacity,” Thomas Judge, executive director of LifeFlight of Maine, told ABC News.
This issue is not unique to Maine, Judge explained, adding that his colleagues across the country, and in the Northeast, are all still struggling.
“Because the hospitals can’t absorb all these patients, they’re just under such pressure for beds, especially the ICU beds,” Judge said.
Judge explained that they are frequently flying patients out of state, at times, as far away as Connecticut or New York, depending on bed availability.
“We’re taking patients across state lines routinely. Just because of these challenging beds, and we’re taking patients much further than we would normally take them which you can imagine,” Judge added. “The patients we’re seeing are primarily unvaccinated and the vast majority of patients in the ICU, and on ventilators are unvaccinated, and that continues to be the challenge.”
Vermont sees record surge in COVID-19 infections
In neighboring Vermont, which has the highest vaccination rate of any state with nearly 72% of the population fully vaccinated, COVID-19 cases increased by 50% over the last 14 days. According to a recent report by the Department of Financial Regulation, people who are not fully vaccinated continue to report infection rates 3.7 times higher, per capita, compared to people who are fully vaccinated.
Further, according to the report, 67% of hospitalizations, over the last seven days, are among the unvaccinated.
The patterns observed in communities with current spikes in infections and hospitalizations suggest that they are driven not only by those still unvaccinated, but also the decline of vaccine efficacy over time.
“Waning immunity likely is also contributing to increases in cases especially among those with increased vulnerability because of underlying conditions. Boosters can at least play a supporting role in averting a larger surge this winter,” Brownstein said.
Experts say the key to getting through the winter will ultimately be to get more Americans fully vaccinated and boosted when eligible.
“As we go into the winter months with the challenge of a respiratory infection being worse in the winter months, we can get through this if we really put a lot of effort into getting as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said in an interview with NPR, this week.
Health experts also say that it will also be critical for people to get the flu vaccine, in addition to their COVID-19 shots, as both vaccines only protect against their respective diseases. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is safe to get the COVID and flu vaccines during the same visit.
At this time, booster shots are recommended for anyone over the age of 18 who has received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer recipients are encouraged to get a booster shot six months after receiving their second dose, if they are over the age of 65, have an underlying medical condition or are at high risk for exposure. On Tuesday, Pfizer requested the Food and Drug Administration allow all Americans over 18 to be eligible for booster shots.
