COVID Bits

* Saudi Arabia is limiting this year’s hajj pilgrimage, which begins in mid-July, to no more than 60,000 people. In normal, non-pandemic years, up to 2 million Muslims perform the hajj.

* Vaccination rate for Haiti: 0 percent.

* The TSA screened 2 million people last Friday. It was the first time that daily threshold has been crossed since March 2020.

* Health officials have warned that obesity and related conditions are risk factors for severe COVID-19. In the U.S., an estimated one in four adults are considered obese.

* According to the CDC, emergency-room visits for suspected suicide attempts by teenagers, especially girls, rose sharply during pandemic lockdowns.

* Increasingly, people are reporting that they’ve forgotten aspects of driving—including formerly familiar routes and driving at night.

* “It’s important to get children vaccinated, not only to protect them … but to prevent children from being a reservoir for the virus that continues the outbreak in the rest of society.”–Eric Toner, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

* As of last Friday, according to the CDC, 64 percent of Americans 18 and older had had at least one vaccine shot. President Biden’s goal is 70 percent by July 4th.

* “Vaccinate at the Plate.” That’s MLB’s campaign that offers vaccine for fans either by appointment or walk-in.

* Airline ticket prices rose 10.2 percent in April—and another 7 percent in May.

* Chipotle is raising menu prices by 4 percent to cover the cost of raising its workers’ wages.

* About 22 percent of Floridians aged 12-19 have gotten at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.

* Florida’s positivity rate: about 3.4 percent this past week. The Hillsborough rate was 4.8 percent.

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