Renown Health urgent care locations are indicating there’s a current increase in COVID-19 cases in the Reno-Sparks area, even as new COVID vaccines aren’t available yet, with availability in doubt locally for the future as well.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this week narrowed approval of the new vaccines by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax only to people who are over 65, or younger people with underlying conditions that put them at higher risk for severe disease.
However, CVS has announced it will not provide the shots to residents in Massachusetts, Nevada, and New Mexico, due to the "current regulatory environment” and specific state laws and regulations.
Walgreens has indicated it is "prepared to offer the vaccine in states where we are able to do so," but one pharmacist there previously told us it might not be offered in their pharmacies locally either based on what they had heard.
Doctors at Renown are asking residents to practice good hygiene and preventative measures, such as washing hands frequently, covering coughs and sneezes with a tissue, staying home when feeling sick and wearing an N95 mask and limit interactions with others if needing to leave home when sick.
The latest Northern Nevada Public Health’s respiratory illness data tracker showed a jump in cases in the past month from 12.2 per 100,000 residents to 29.2, while COVID-linked hospitalizations went up from 1.4 to 2.5 per 100,000 residents.
Flu vaccines aren’t available yet either for this season.