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New COVID Variant Sends NYC Case Rates Soaring; Hospitalizations High – NBC New York

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What to Know

  • You’ve probably heard about the XBB.1.5 variant; it’s the latest “most transmissible COVID variant yet” and appears to be better at binding to human cells, which may make it more adept at infecting
  • There’s no evidence at this point that the strain, a combination of two prior omicron subvariants, is more lethal or more likely to cause COVID complications, but as a top White House official said last week, if you haven’t been vaccinated or infected lately, your protection probably isn’t so good
  • Nowhere is XBB.1.5 more prevalent than in the northeastern United States, according to the CDC — and rolling hospitalization and death rates, along with cases, are climbing accordingly

COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York and New Jersey have soared to 11-month highs as the most transmissible variant yet, a combination of two prior omicron strains, fuels yet another infection wave nearly three full years into the pandemic, the latest federal health data show.

Deaths are also climbing, with weekly fatality reports for both states currently at their highest levels since early last year, according to the CDC. In New York City, the rolling COVID fatality average is the highest it’s been since February 2022, while rolling hospitalizations are at a height not seen since the downswing of the initial omicron wave.

CDC COVID guidelines say face masks should be worn across the board in New York City, Long Island and much of the Hudson Valley, given the high spread rate. And the entire state of New Jersey is at the agency’s highest risk level, its latest data shows. While elected officials and their health departments have advised people to follow those guidelines, especially if they’re more vulnerable in terms of age or underlying conditions, no new mandates have been issued.

CDC

COVID community levels in NY


CDC

COVID community levels in NJ

And no new mandates are expected, either, at this point in the pandemic.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, both of them Democrats, are each set to deliver their State of the State addresses on Tuesday. It remains to be seen whether the ongoing COVID response will once again play a feature role in those speeches. Given these charts, the odds are fairly likely.

NEW YORK STATE COVID TRENDS (via CDC)

HOSPITALIZATIONS



CDC

CASES AND DEATHS


CDC

COVID cases and deaths in New York via CDC

Last week, New York state’s Department of Health announced the XBB.1.5 variant is far and away the most dominant strain locally, accounting for more than 50% of statewide infections. That share is likely considerably higher, given the relatively low proportion of positive tests that undergo the exhaustive genetic sequencing process to isolate variants.

The same can be said for New Jersey, where the 38.4% share of sequences cases tied to XBB.1.5 reflects data not updated since mid-December. In New York City, where data also lags, XBB.1.5’s prevalence is likely well above the 68% share that the health department last updated on Christmas Eve.

NEW JERSEY COVID TRENDS


CDC

New Jersey COVID hospitalization trends


CDC

New Jersey COVID case and death trends

The latest CDC data suggests that XBB.1.5 is spreading in the northeastern United States at a much higher rate than the rest of the country, accounting for up to 81% of cases in the region comprising New York and New Jersey compared with a 43% high estimate for the nation.

While there is “not yet clear evidence,” according to New York state, that XBB.1.5 significantly affects COVID’s virulence or disease severity, early data does indicate it is more infectious than other circulating variants. The fact it has emerged at a time when both COVID and flu cases remain high is further cause for heightened caution, it says.

New York City positivity rates are bearing out the transmissibility concerns, with more than a third of neighborhoods across the five boroughs seeing those numbers in excess of 20% — and some spots topping 30% positivity.

NYC COVID VARIANT AND HOSPITALIZATION DATA


NYC

This chart represents COVID variants in NYC. The top line is XBB.1.5.


NYC Health Department

NYC COVID hospitalization trends

Omicron is still classified as a variant of concern according to the CDC and the World Health Organization. That strain, which first emerged in South Africa in November 2021, though likely was there earlier, is the only variant of concern currently in circulation, according to WHO.

To be a variant of concern, WHO says a strain must be associated with one or more of the following changes at a degree of global significance:

  • Increase in transmissibility or detrimental change in COVID-19 epidemiology; OR
  • Increase in virulence or change in clinical disease presentation; OR
  • Decrease in effectiveness of public health and social measures or available diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics

The CDC said the new COVID-19 variant is responsible for 75% of new cases.

Given their level of infectiousness and ongoing mutation, WHO advises each omicron descendant be monitored distinctly. That’s what officials in New York and New Jersey continue to do as they plead with the public to double down on the mitigation factors that have proven to work since the onset of the pandemic, from hand-washing and staying home when sick to vaccination, masking up in crowded areas and getting tested regularly.

Hochul continues to urge New Yorkers — and so does the White House — to get their updated bivalent booster shots if they haven’t already (see vaccine data). The head of the White House Task Force on COVID recently underscored the point, saying if you haven’t been infected lately or had that booster, you’re likely not protected from XBB.1.5.

Overall, experts say that healthy, vaccinated people still are at much lower risk for COVID complications than immunocompromised or un- and undervaccinated people.

As Hochul said in her latest COVID update, “I urge everyone to remain vigilant and continue to use all available tools to keep themselves, their loved ones and their communities safe and healthy. Stay up to date on vaccine doses, and test before gatherings or travel. If you test positive, talk to your doctor about potential treatment options.”

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Health

Second COVID booster effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths in nursing home residents: study

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A new study published this week found that the second COVID-19 booster that was made available to U.S. adults older than 50 this year was highly effective at protecting nursing home residents from hospitalizations and deaths, though its ability to prevent infections was not as potent.

The analysis, published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, compared nursing home residents who received a second original mRNA booster dose to those who did not get the additional shot.

According to the study, the second shot was 90 percent effective at preventing coronavirus-related deaths and 74 percent effective at preventing severe cases that led to either hospitalizations or deaths.

The shot was about 26 percent effective at preventing infection, however. This study looked at cases between March 29 and July 25. It was within this period that the BA.5 omicron subvariant grew to become dominant in the U.S.

By the end of July, BA.5 was accounting for four out of five coronavirus cases, and experts had noted its ability to evade protection from immunization and prior infection.

The 9,527 nursing home residents who were included in the study had received their booster within 60 days when they were followed up on by researchers. In order to be eligible, participants had to have stayed in a nursing home for more than 100 days, spent less than 10 outside of the facility and received three prior vaccine doses, with the last dose received more than 120 days beforehand.

Nearly 200 nursing homes from 19 states were included in the study.

Nursing homes have been disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus throughout the pandemic. Roughly three out of four COVID-19 deaths have been among those over the age of 65. When the delta variant spread throughout the U.S. last year, coronavirus deaths rose at a faster rate in nursing homes than in the rest of the country.

“These findings suggest that among nursing home residents, second mRNA COVID-19 vaccine booster doses provided additional protection over first booster doses against severe COVID-19 outcomes during a time of emerging Omicron variants,” researchers wrote.

“Facilities should continue to ensure that nursing home residents remain up to date with COVID-19 vaccination, including bivalent vaccine booster doses, to prevent severe COVID-19 outcomes.”

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha hailed the study’s findings.

“This is why we’re so focused on ensuring folks, particularly the high risk, get the latest vaccine,” Jha tweeted.

If they have not been recently vaccinated once more or infected with the virus, many of the participants in this study would now be eligible to receive the bivalent omicron-specific COVID-19 booster. The updated shot was authorized at the end of August.

The White House has strongly encouraged eligible individuals to get the bivalent booster, hoping to avoid another surge in coronavirus cases in the fall and winter. The dose has been followed by some uncertainty, as it was approved before a full human study was completed, with both Pfizer and Moderna submitting animal data, as is done for annual flu shots.

Pfizer and Moderna have recently submitted applications seeking authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to administer their shots in younger populations. Pfizer’s bivalent booster is authorized for children as young as 12, while Moderna’s is currently only authorized for adults.

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Health

Bay Area health officers recommend masking indoors; region has highest infection rate in California

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Bay Area health officers recommend masking indoors; region has highest infection rate in California

Twelve Bay Area health officers on Friday recommended that people wear masks indoors amidst a new swell of COVID cases and hospitalizations. The Bay Area now has California’s highest COVID infection rates fueled by omicron subvariants, according to a joint news release. KTVU’s Emma Goss reports.

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Twelve Bay Area health officers on Friday recommended that people wear masks indoors amidst a new swell of COVID cases and hospitalizations.

The Bay Area now has California’s highest COVID infection rates fueled by omicron subvariants, according to a joint news release. 

Although not required, masking is strongly recommended by the California Department of Public Health for most public indoor settings.

San Francisco is reporting more than 60 people are hospitalized with COVID-19, the biggest uptick in the Bay Area. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease doctor and professor of medicine at UCSF, said it’s a manageable caseload for hospitals.

“At this point there’s so much immunity that we’re seeing cases, but they’re mostly mild, and essentially our hospitalizations are still staying low,” Gandhi said.

The Bay Area health officials said that wearing higher-quality masks, such as N95, KN95 or snug-fitting surgical masks, indoors is a wise choice that will help people protect their health. 

“If you’ve chosen not to wear a mask in indoor public places recently, now is a good time to start again,” said Santa Clara County Deputy Health Officer Dr. George Han said in a statement. “Highly contagious subvariants are spreading here. If you add layers of protection like a high-quality mask, it reduces risk to you and the chance you’ll infect others.”

By recommending, rather than requiring masks, health officials are leaving up to each person to determine their own risk. Some already are, when it comes to dining out.

At Piperade, a French Basque restaurant on Battery Street in San Francisco, Gerald Hirigoyen, the owner, said more people are opting to dine outdoors in recent weeks, and thinks the uptick in COVID-19 cases may be impacting their choice. 

Fortunately, his fully-vaccinated staff has remained healthy throughout this recent surge in cases. Masks are optional, depending on employee preference.

“So far it [COVID-19 cases surging] doesn’t translate to the business yet,” Hirigoyen said. “It’s a day by day, we’re going to have to see what’s happening.”   

Health officials also said that people should get vaccinated. In San Francisco, for example, 84% of eligible residents are vaccinated. 

The advisory was sent out by the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma as well as the city of Berkeley.

The grim milestone of 1 million deaths from COVID in the United States underscores the need for continued vigilance against the virus.

The joint statement from health officers also encouraged the public to ask their doctors about antiviral medications, like Paxlovid, for people with a higher risk for severe illness. It’s an option for some that can help shorten their course of symptoms if they test positive.

MORE: Dr. Sara Cody’s message: Keep your mask handy, wear indoors in crowded spaces as virus once again surges

Rudi Miller, who graduated from Berkeley Law School on Friday, was grateful that a recent surge in COVID-19 infections among her classmates last month had largely dissipated in time for graduation. 

“I think the school officials handled it really well, and the numbers dropped significantly by the time graduation rolled around,” Miller said.

She’s planning to move to San Francisco shortly, and also plans to wear a mask most of the time.

“I feel comfortable continuing to mask,” Miller said, “because I think it’s the best way to combat COVID.”

KTVU’s Emma Goss contributed to this report.

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Health

COVID-19, overdoses pushed US to highest death total ever :: WRAL.com

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By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

NEW YORK — 2021 was the deadliest year in U.S. history, and new data and research are offering more insights into how it got that bad.

The main reason for the increase in deaths? COVID-19, said Robert Anderson, who oversees the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s work on death statistics.

The agency this month quietly updated its provisional death tally. It showed there were 3.465 million deaths last year, or about 80,000 more than 2020’s record-setting total.

Early last year, some experts were optimistic that 2021 would not be as bad as the first year of the pandemic — partly because effective COVID-19 vaccines had finally become available.

“We were wrong, unfortunately,” said Noreen Goldman, a Princeton University researcher.

COVID-19 deaths rose in 2021 — to more than 415,000, up from 351,000 the year before — as new coronavirus variants emerged and an unexpectedly large numbers of Americans refused to get vaccinated or were hesitant to wear masks, experts said.

The coronavirus is not solely to blame. Preliminary CDC data also shows the crude death rate for cancer rose slightly, and rates continued to increase for diabetes, chronic liver disease and stroke.

Drug overdose deaths also continued to rise. The CDC does not yet have a tally for 2021 overdose deaths, because it can take weeks of lab work and investigation to identify them. But provisional data through October suggests the nation is on track to see at least 105,000 overdose deaths in 2021 — up from 93,000 the year before.

New research released Tuesday showed a particularly large jump in overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.

Adolescent overdose death counts were fairly constant for most of the last decade, at around 500 a year, according to the paper published by the Journal of the American Medical Association. They almost doubled in 2020, to 954, and the researchers estimated that the total hit nearly 1,150 last year.

Joseph Friedman, a UCLA researcher who was the paper’s lead author, called the spike “unprecedented.”

Those teen overdose deaths were only around 1% of the U.S. total. But adolescents experienced a greater relative increase than the overall population, even though surveys suggest drug use among teens is down.

Experts attributed the spike to fentanyl, a highly lethal drug that has been cut into heroin for several years. More recently it’s also been pressed into counterfeit pills resembling prescription drugs that teens sometimes abuse.

The total number of U.S. deaths often increases year to year as the U.S. population grows. But 2020 and 2021 saw extraordinary jumps in death numbers and rates, due largely to the pandemic.

Those national death trends affect life expectancy — an estimate of the average number of years a baby born in a given year might expect to live.

With rare exceptions, U.S. life expectancy has reliably inched up year after year. But the CDC’s life expectancy estimate for 2020 was about 77 years — more than a year and a half lower than what it was in 2019.

The CDC has not yet reported its calculation for 2021. But Goldman and some other researchers have been making their own estimates, presented in papers that have not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Those researchers think U.S. life expectancy dropped another five or six months in 2021 — putting it back to where it was 20 years ago.

A loss of more than two years of life expectancy over the last two years “is mammoth,” Goldman said.

One study looked at death data in the U.S. and 19 other high-income countries. The U.S. fared the worst.

“What happened in the U.S. is less about the variants than the levels of resistance to vaccination and the public’s rejection of practices, such as masking and mandates, to reduce viral transmission,” one of the study’s authors, Dr. Steven Woolf of Virginia Commonwealth University, said in a statement.

Some experts are skeptical that life expectancy will quickly bounce back. They worry about long-term complications of COVID-19 that may hasten the deaths of people with chronic health problems.

Preliminary — and incomplete — CDC data suggest there were at least 805,000 U.S. deaths in about the first three months of this year. That’s well below the same period last year, but higher than the comparable period in 2020.

“We may end up with a ‘new normal’ that’s a little higher than it was before,” Anderson said.

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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Moderna seeks FDA authorization for 4th dose of COVID shot

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Drugmaker Moderna asked the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday to authorize a fourth shot of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster dose for all adults.

The request is broader than rival pharmaceutical company Pfizer’s request earlier this week for the regulator to approve a booster shot for all seniors.

In a press release, the company said its request for approval for all adults was made “to provide flexibility” to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and medical providers to determine the “appropriate use” of a second booster dose of the mRNA vaccine, “including for those at higher risk of COVID-19 due to age or comorbidities.”

U.S. officials have been laying the groundwork to deliver additional booster doses to shore up the vaccines’ protection against serious disease and death from COVID-19. The White House has been sounding the alarm that it needs Congress to “urgently” approve more funding for the federal government to secure more doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, either for additional booster shots or variant-specific immunizations.

U.S. health officials currently recommend a primary series of two doses of the Moderna vaccine and a booster dose months later.

Moderna said its request for an additional dose was based on “recently published data generated in the United States and Israel following the emergence of Omicron.”

On Tuesday, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech asked U.S. regulators to authorize an additional booster dose of their COVID-19 vaccine for seniors, saying data from Israel suggests older adults would benefit.

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In reversal, FDA puts brakes on COVID shots for kids under 5

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WASHINGTON (AP) — COVID-19 vaccinations for children under 5 hit another monthslong delay Friday as U.S. regulators abruptly put the brakes on their efforts to speed review of the shots that Pfizer is testing for youngsters.

The Food and Drug Administration, worried about the omicron variant’s toll on kids, had taken the extraordinary step of urging Pfizer to apply for OK of the extra-low dose vaccine before it’s clear if tots will need two shots or three. The agency’s plan could have allowed vaccinations to begin within weeks.

But Friday, the FDA reversed course and said it had become clear the agency needed to wait for data on how well a third shot works for the youngest age group. Pfizer said in a statement that it expected the data by early April.

FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said he hoped parents would understand that the agency’s decision was part of its careful scientific review of the evidence Pfizer has submitted so far.

That information “made us realize that we needed to see data from a third dose from the ongoing trial in order to make a determination,” Marks told reporters. “We take our responsibility for reviewing these vaccines very seriously because we’re parents as well.”

The nation’s 18 million children under 5 make up the only age group not yet eligible for vaccination.

Vaccine experts had been concerned with the sudden race to evaluate Pfizer’s vaccine — and now wonder what parents will make of the back-and-forth.

“I think they made the right decision to be careful and wait for the third-dose data,” said Dr. Jesse Goodman of Georgetown University, a former FDA vaccine chief.

“It was great to hear that there might be some promising data from two doses but it came out as ‘Hey everybody, you can expect a vaccine in a few weeks,’” he added. “I think this messaging gets very confusing for people.”

It’s not the first delay. Pfizer originally had expected to know by late December if the extra-low doses worked for kids under 5 — only to face a disappointing setback. Preliminary study results showed two shots were safe and strong enough to give good protection to babies as young as 6 months. But once tots reached the preschool age — the 2- to 4-year-olds — two doses weren’t protective enough, prompting the addition of a third to the study.

So it was a surprise when a few weeks ago, FDA urged Pfizer and its partner BioNTech to go ahead and apply. Next week, the agency’s independent scientific advisers were set to publicly debate if it was OK to start giving tots two shots before there was proof that a third would give them the extra needed protection — a highly unusual move.

Friday, the FDA abruptly canceled that meeting, promising to hold it once Pfizer submits the third-dose evidence. Even if Pfizer completes its submission by early April, it will take the FDA and other health authorities several weeks to review and publicly vet the data.

Earlier this week, FDA’s Marks had promised the agency wouldn’t cut corners but also noted how rapidly the pandemic was changing. Before Thanksgiving, no one had heard of omicron, by last month pediatric COVID-19 infections had hit an all-time high — and now cases are dropping fast as the latest mutant burns out.

How long to wait for new vaccine data — and how much to require — is a difficult balancing act for the FDA. It is caught between pressure to be more proactive against a rapidly changing virus and the risk that acting too quickly may deter families already on the fence about vaccinating their children.

Pfizer aims to give children as young as 6 months shots that contain one-tenth of the dose given to adults — two shots three weeks apart followed by a third at least two months later.

That’s a smaller dose than youngsters ages 5 to 11 receive, a third of the adult dose.

Vaccination rates have been lower among children than in other age groups. As of last week, just 22% of kids ages 5 to 11 and just over half of 12- to 17-year-olds were fully vaccinated, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Nearly three-quarters of adults are fully vaccinated.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken last month found just 3 in 10 parents of children under 5 would get their youngster vaccinated as soon as shots were authorized, while about a quarter said they definitely would not.

Dr. Moira Szilagyi, the pediatricians group’s president, recognized parental frustration but said in a statement that doctors were committed to “a careful, robust and transparent process to evaluate the evidence.”

Dr. Natasha Burgert, a pediatrician in Overland Park, Kansas, said, “We’re just gutted. We need this protection for our kids.”

She said some families likely feel relieved “because they didn’t want to make that decision without good efficacy data. Other groups of parents are just crying out, ‘Give us a choice. Show us what you’ve got and let us make a choice. Let us have access to it.”’

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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Health

COVID Omicron Updates: CDC releases new guidance for some Americans to get additional vaccine booster shot

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NEW YORK (WABC) — The CDC has shortened the amount of time people who are moderately or severely immunocompromised need to wait before getting a fourth COVID vaccine booster dose.

They now recommend that the severely immunocompromised can get an additional Pfizer or Moderna shot three months after their third dose instead of five months.

The CDC also encourages people with weakened immune systems who originally got a Johnson & Johnson vaccine to take two additional doses, instead of just one.

RELATED: What are the symptoms of the COVID omicron variant?

Here are more of today’s COVID-19 headlines:

US death toll hits 900,000, sped by omicron
Propelled in part by the wildly contagious omicron variant, the U.S. death toll from COVID-19 hit 900,000 on Friday, less than two months after eclipsing 800,000. The two-year total, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is greater than the population of Indianapolis, San Francisco, or Charlotte, North Carolina. The milestone comes more than 13 months into a vaccination drive that has been beset by misinformation and political and legal strife, though the shots have proved safe and highly effective at preventing serious illness and death.

Scientists study why some never catch coronavirus
Scientists are trying to unlock the mystery of why some people seem never to catch COVID. While there is no clear-cut answer, one factor may lie in our DNA, giving people with certain genetic traits more pre-existing protection. Researchers in London have also found that people with higher levels of T-cells generated from other previous coronavirus infections like a common cold were less likely to get COVID. “If there are overlapping sequences that are shared between the common cold coronaviruses and the sarscov2, that T-cell can react very quickly to mount a defense against sarscov2,” said Dr. Akiko Iwasaki, professor of immunology, Yale University.

More vaccinations will lead to lifting mask rules: Hochul
Records show 80% of 12-to 17-year-olds in New York State have gotten their first dose of the COVID vaccine, and Gov. Kathy Hochul says more vaccinations will lead to the lifting of mask mandates in schools. “The more children we have vaccinated, the safer they will be in school,” she said, explaining vaccination rate will be a factor in decisions on mask rules. “And they wont need a mask anymore,” Hochul promised. “But we are just not there yet. It is all based on data.” Data shows 40% of 5-to 11-year-olds have gotten their first dose.

COVID falling in 49 of 50 states as deaths near 900,000
With omicron easing, new cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. are falling in 49 of the 50 states, even as the nation’s death toll closes in on another bleak round number: 900,000. The number of lives lost to the pandemic in the U.S. stood at about 899,000 as of Friday afternoon, with deaths running at an average of more than 2,400 a day, back up to where they were last winter, when the vaccine drive was still getting started. But new cases per day have tanked by almost a half-million nationwide since mid-January, the curve trending downward in every state but Maine.

CT crosses grim milestone
Connecticut reported an additional 175 COVID deaths since last week, bringing the state’s total across the 10,000 threshold to 10,083. The state’s positivity rate is currently 6.57%, with 869 current hospitalizations.

Palin resumes court battle with NY Times after COVID illness

Sarah Palin’s libel suit against The New York Times went to trial Thursday in a case over the former Alaska governor’s claims the newspaper damaged her reputation with an editorial linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting. The trial is a rare example of a jury deciding the validity of a persistent refrain from Palin and other Republicans: That a biased news media is willing to bend the truth to make conservatives look bad. Palin, a one-time Republican vice presidential nominee, told journalists as she arrived at the courthouse that she was looking for “Justice for people who expect truth in the media.” Opening statements to the jury were initially scheduled for last week, but were postponed when Palin tested positive for COVID-19.
“We come to this case with our eyes wide open and keenly aware of the fact we’re fighting an uphill battle,” Palin attorney Shane Vogt said. “Give us a fair shot. We’re not here trying to win your votes for Governor Palin or any of her policies.”

Medicare opens up access to free at-home COVID-19 tests
The Biden administration says people with Medicare will be able to get up to eight free over-the-counter COVID-19 tests per month, starting in early spring. It’s seeking to fill a frustrating gap in coverage for coronavirus tests. Last month, the administration directed private insurers to cover rapid COVID-19 tests for people on their plans. But until now officials were trying to figure out what to do about Medicare, which covers older people particularly vulnerable to severe illness from COVID-19. Laws and regulations that govern the program stood in the way. Free tests will be available through participating pharmacies and other locations. AARP has praised Medicare’s decision.

Russia mulls loosening restrictions amid record virus surge
The Russian president says his government is considering loosening some coronavirus restrictions, even as the country is facing a record-breaking surge of infections because of the highly contagious omicron variant. Vladimir Putin on Thursday insisted that authorities are not planning any lockdowns or other additional restrictions because of the surge. Moreover, the government is considering lifting restrictions for those who come into contact with COVID-19 patients, “to give people the opportunity to continue working in peace.” Existing regulations mandate that people who come in contact with someone with COVID-19 must self-isolate for seven days. On Thursday, the country’s state coronavirus task force reported 155,768 new infections, a daily tally 10 times higher than a month ago.

How many times can I reuse my N95 mask?
How many times can I reuse my N95 mask? It depends, but you should be able to use N95s and KN95s a few times. The U.S. Centers of Disease Control and Prevention says health care workers can wear an N95 mask up to five times. But experts say how often the average person can safely wear one will vary depending on how it’s used. Using the same mask to run to the grocery store, for example, is very different than wearing it all day at work.
When am I contagious if infected with omicron?

When am I contagious if infected with omicron? It’s not yet clear, but some early data suggests people might become contagious sooner than with earlier variants – possibly within a day after infection. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people with the coronavirus are most infectious in the few days before and after symptoms develop. But that window of time might happen earlier with omicron, according to some outside experts. That’s because omicron appears to cause symptoms faster than previous variants – about three days after infection, on average, according to preliminary studies. Based on previous data, that means people with omicron could start becoming contagious as soon as a day after infection.

MORE CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 COVERAGE

Omicron variant symptoms: what to know even if you are vaccinated
New York City COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
New Jersey COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on coronavirus

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Indian scientists claim to have designed vaccine against all variants of Covid-19

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Indian scientists claim to have designed a universal vaccine that can be effective against all variants of the coronavirus, which triggered the once-in-a-century pandemic two years back.

With new variants of the SARS-COV-2 virus triggering fresh waves of the highly infectious disease, scientists at the Kazi Nazrul University, Asansol and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneshwar have designed a peptide vaccine which they claim could protect against any future variants of the coronavirus.

Their research has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Molecular Liquids that is devoted to fundamental aspects of structure, interactions and dynamic processes in simple, molecular and complex liquids.

Read more: Dr Reddy’s submits proposal to DCGI to test Sputnik Light as Covid booster dose

“In this study, we employed immunoinformatic approaches to design AbhiSCoVac – a multi-epitope multi-target chimeric peptide that would be able to generate protective immunity against all six virulent members of the family hCoV-229E, hCoV-HKU1, hCoV-OC43, SARS-CoV, MERS-CoV as well as SARS-CoV-2,” the researchers said.

“The designed vaccine was found to be highly stable, antigenic and immunogenic,” the researchers Abhigyan Choudhury and Suprabhat Mukherjee from Kazi Nazrul University and Parth Sarthi Sen Gupta, Saroj Kumar Panda, and Malay Kumar Rana from IISER, Bhubaneshwar said.

Choudhary said the team of researchers developed the vaccine using computational methods and the next stage would involve the production of the vaccine which would be followed by testing.

“This vaccine is one of a kind. No other vaccine in the world has been designed to cope with all the Coronaviridae family viruses at a single time,” he told PTI.

He said the researchers had first identified various conserved regions in the spike protein of the six different viruses that undergo very few mutations and thus change a little in the course of pandemic.

Also, these regions of the protein identified are highly immunogenic which means they can produce high levels of immune memory in the body that is required to protect against the viruses, he said.

“Unlike other vaccines, these identified were selected after they have shown high binding strengths with a protein called TLR4 – the same protein responsible for detecting SARS-COV-2 viruses in the body and initiating the immune responses,” Choudhary said.

“We also simulated injection of the vaccine into virtual patients and have found that this vaccine is highly capable of protecting the recipient from the viruses,” he said. 

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NC man refuses life-saving kidney transplant over vaccine requirement :: WRAL.com

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Winston-Salem, N.C. — A North Carolina man is turning down a lifesaving kidney transplant, because the hospital is requiring he be vaccinated against COVID before the procedure.

Chad Carswell is a double amputee and has been undergoing dialysis up to three times a week. His kidney is functioning at four percent.

Carswell said he was going through the transplant process at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem when he was told he would need to be vaccinated in order to move forward.

“They said the last thing we need talk about is your vaccination status,” Carswell said. “And that’s when I politely told him there was nothing really to talk about. It wasn’t up for debate that I wasn’t getting it. And then he told me, you know you’ll die if you don’t get it. And I said I’m willing to die.”

The hospital says their policy follows the current standard in the U.S. saying the vaccine is required to protect the patient, who is at high risk for severe illness if they don’t have immunity prior to the transplant.

Carswell said he’s already had COVID twice and is not willing to get the vaccine, even if it means giving up on finding a kidney.

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World

China’s success taming virus could make exit strategy harder

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TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The sweeping “zero-tolerance” strategy that China has used to keep COVID-19 case numbers low and its economy functioning may, paradoxically, make it harder for the country to exit the pandemic.

Most experts say the coronavirus around the world isn’t going away and believe it could eventually become, like the flu, a persistent but generally manageable threat if enough people gain immunity through infections and vaccines.

In countries like Britain and the U.S., which have had comparatively light restrictions against the omicron wave, there is a glimmer of hope that the process might be underway. Cases skyrocketed in recent weeks but have since dropped in Britain and may have leveled off in the U.S., perhaps because the extremely contagious variant is running out of people to infect. Some places already are talking about easing COVID-19 precautions.

China, which will be in the international spotlight when the Beijing Winter Olympics begin in two weeks, is not seeing the same dynamic.

The communist government’s practice throughout the pandemic of trying to find and isolate every infected person has largely protected hospitals from becoming overwhelmed and staved off the deaths that have engulfed most of the world.

But the uncompromising approach also means most people in China have never been exposed to the virus. At the same time, the effectiveness of China’s most widely used vaccines has been called into question. New studies suggest they offer significantly less protection against infection from omicron, even after three doses, than people get after booster shots of the leading Western vaccines.

Together, those factors could complicate China’s effort to get past the pandemic. Experts say if the country of 1.4 billion people were to relax restrictions, it could face a surge similar to what Singapore or Australia experienced, despite a highly vaccinated population.

“China’s susceptibility to outbreaks is likely to be more because most people have not been exposed to the virus due to the stringent measures that were put in place, thus lacking hybrid immunity, which is supposed to prove better protection than vaccination alone,” said Dr. Vineeta Bal, an immunologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research.

“It is risky for China to reopen right now because omicron is spreading globally, and even if the variant doesn’t cause major illness, it’ll spread like wildfire,” she added.

Dali Yang, a professor who studies Chinese politics at the University of Chicago, said, “It’s a big challenge, for leaders, especially their rhetoric on saving lives. How do you justify opening up and then having tens of thousands of people dying in the process?”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has cited China’s approach as a “major strategic success” and evidence of the “significant advantages” of its political system over Western liberal democracies.

The world’s most populous nation was the only major economy to grow in 2020, and it accounted for a fraction of global deaths and infections.

As part of the country’s tough-minded strategy for keeping the virus at bay, residents in Chinese cities must display their infection status on a government-monitored app to enter supermarkets, offices or even the capital.

But weeks ahead of the Olympics, omicron is testing this approach with outbreaks in the southern province of Guangdong, as well as Beijing.

Organizers of the Olympics announced they will not sell tickets locally and will allow only select spectators in. Foreign fans are not allowed.

Authorities have also asked people to not visit their hometowns around the Lunar New Year at the start of February, a move that will dampen spending during China’s most important family holiday. And the major city of Xi’an in the west and parts of Ningbo, a busy port south of Shanghai, are under lockdown.

With the Communist Party gearing up for a major meeting this fall, at which Xi is expected to be appointed to a third term as party leader, China is unlikely to relax its policies in a major way any time soon.

“If the numbers from COVID start to skyrocket to big levels, then this will reflect badly on his leadership,” said Willy Lam, an expert on Chinese political leadership at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

China relies heavily on its own Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines, along with several others made domestically. It has not approved the Pfizer shot, even though a Chinese company bought distribution rights in 2020.

Instead, the focus is on developing China’s own mRNA vaccines, like the Pfizer and Moderna formulas. One such vaccine is in late trials.

Another option for China may be to track how the virus is evolving and put off opening its borders until it becomes even milder. But it’s anyone guess when or if that might happen.

“What will the next variant be? How serious will it be? You can’t tell,” Bal said.

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Ghosal reported from New Delhi, India. Associated Press Business Writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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