Category: Corona Virus

Print a poster version of this comic to hang up on your fridge or give away to friends. Download the poster here. Malaka Gharib/ NPR hide caption

Print a poster version of this comic to hang up on your fridge or give away to friends. Download the poster here.

Outdoor events are way less risky than indoor events when it comes to COVID. They are still, by far, the safest way to gather as the country continues to see high levels of cases and rising hospitalizations.

But "way less risky" is not "zero risk." There's still a chance of catching COVID even at an outdoor event especially as the virus continues evolving to become more transmissible and to break through prior immunity from vaccination or earlier cases.

"With the more transmissible variants, it's likely that shorter periods of close contact will result in transmission," says Dr. Preeti Malani, an infectious diseases physician and a professor of medicine at the University of Michigan.

That means activities that once seemed pretty safe are potentially riskier and that includes outdoor activities.

As Maimuna Majumder, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a computational epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital, puts it, "the more transmissible a variant is indoors, the more transmissible it is in outdoor settings, too."

So additional precautions during a surge like the one the U.S. is currently seeing may be in order particularly if you are vulnerable or are in frequent contact with someone who is, say the experts interviewed for this story.

"People are going to make judgments based on [their] own level of risk and comfort," says Donald Milton, a professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Maryland School of Public Health.

But, Majumder says, "that transmissibility can be drastically reduced by ensuring that an outdoor event doesn't get too crowded." That means having plenty of room for guests to move around and making sure they are vaccinated, recently tested and symptom-free is also a very good idea, she says.

With the July 4 weekend upon us and wedding season in full swing, experts answered frequently asked questions about staying safe while gathering outdoors with family and friends.

When should guests get tested?

Majumder helped her friend plan a wedding with about 100 attendees, and they have not heard of any resulting cases of COVID.

First, they made sure everything was outdoors, including events that happen around the wedding rehearsal dinners, happy hours and so on.

They reminded everyone to be up-to-date on vaccinations and boosters, which can help prevent transmission of the virus.

They also asked guests to stay home if they were feeling any symptoms.

And everyone agreed to take a rapid test right before the event.

Majumder has thrown other events and parties with similar guidelines, and so far, she's not heard of anyone getting sick.

And for those who still think that you aren't contagious if you're not showing symptoms, a required pre-event test could surprise you.

"There have been multiple instances where folks without symptoms have tested positive, so they've stayed home," says Majumder, who asks everyone to get rapid tested within an hour of her events. She also keeps rapid tests on hand in case someone isn't able to test before they arrive.

Getting tested right before the event is key. Rapid tests are pretty good at telling someone whether they are positive and very contagious at that moment. But their status can change within hours, so if you take a rapid test in the morning, you could be contagious by night.

Rapid tests aren't always foolproof sometimes you have a false negative but they can be a very helpful layer of protection in addition to other precautions.

There have also been times when people felt a bit off and stayed home from one of Majumder's events, only to test positive a day or two later which meant they would have been contagious during the party.

And in addition to monitoring symptoms, Malani says, "if you add testing and vaccination to a low risk outdoor setting, the risk of COVID becomes manageable."

Do the old rules of staying safe still apply once the event gets going?

Keeping a distance still helps enormously. Whether you're having a wedding or BBQ, that might mean putting families together at the same table, rather than mixing them in with other guests, and spacing each table a few feet apart.

The "15-minute rule" was developed for contact tracers to reach out to people who may have been exposed to COVID. If you're in close contact with someone for more than 15 minutes, you're likelier to get sick. But it is also possible to catch the virus in passing, especially indoors.

Australian authorities reported a case last summer where someone got sick after walking by an infected person for a few seconds at a shopping mall, according to video footage.

Whether you get sick all depends on several factors: how much virus a person is emitting, what your immunity level is from vaccination or prior infection and, importantly, how much fresh air is between you.

Where do masks fit in?

When it comes to COVID, the outdoors are great for two main reasons: there's plenty of fresh air outside, and you have more space to keep a distance, Milton says.

But if you're not able to keep a distance in a crowd at a concert, sporting event or protest, for instance masking up greatly reduces the risks of getting sick.

That's especially true if people are shouting and yelling, if you're near them for a long period of time and if you don't know their vaccination, test and symptom status.

"If you're close together, you're likely to share air with other people," says Milton.

Two of his colleagues believe they caught COVID outdoors early in the pandemic one at an outside brunch, and one who was waiting in line to pick up groceries in spring 2020.

"There's always been a risk outdoors," Milton says. "It's much lower [than indoors], but it's not nothing."

The closer you are physically to someone, the higher the risk. If you're close enough, say, to smell on their breath what they chose for dinner, you're close enough to inhale the viral particles on their breath.

There is also the off-chance of air blowing the wrong way.

Just like plumes of smoke, virus-laden exhalations can "travel the distance outdoors," Milton says. That means it's possible to get infected even if you're not right next to someone.

But the chances of getting COVID at a distance outdoors are significantly lower than pretty much any other form of interaction, such as talking closer together or meeting indoors.

"I think the most important thing to remember about the outdoors is that while it's safer, it's not 100% safe," Majumder says. "The more crowded an outdoor space is, the more it begins to mimic an indoor space in terms of our exposure to shared air."

But, she says, "I don't think masks are necessary while outdoors as long as the event isn't too crowded, everyone tested negative, no one is experiencing symptoms and everyone is up-to-date on their vaccinations."

What if we need to go inside during an outdoor event?

Even if your event is outside, people may need to go indoors briefly to use the bathroom or wash their hands "something I think many folks forget when planning an event," Majumder says.

Guests should wear a high-quality mask, like an N95 or KF94, anytime they need to dash inside. Hosts can keep masks "stocked and accessible" for any of these indoor forays, Majumder says.

"Masks remain very important and very effective," Malani says. Especially if you or a member of your household is high risk, "keep masks handy not so much for outdoor use, but when you go in and out."

(You can also improve ventilation and filtration indoors by opening doors and windows and running air purifiers in bathrooms or hallways.)

Outdoor tents that don't have side flaps enclosing the space can help protect from the sun or rain while allowing air to pass through. But "if the tent is enclosed, it's not that different than being indoors," Milton says.

And "sometimes, social gatherings end up moving indoors," Malani points out, because of bad weather, high or low temperatures, or annoying mosquitoes and "that's when transmission risk can go from low to high."

Should I invite people from out of town?

The nature of a big event with lots of out-of-town guests is a recipe for transmission when cases are high. Guests are likely to fly in, stay in hotels that may not have good ventilation, eat inside restaurants and meet up with family and friends. Even if the event that you're hosting is itself low-risk, these other activities may not be.

And "the larger the group, the higher the risk," Malani says, because there are more chances of someone having the virus and passing it on.

"Prevention means using a layered approach," she says. Try to take as many precautions as possible distancing, staying home if you're sick, testing and masks when needed.

When those measures are taken, she says, "being outdoors is a wonderful way to spend time together."

Melody Schreiber (@m_scribe) is a journalist and the editor of What We Didn't Expect: Personal Stories About Premature Birth.

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Could I catch COVID at an outdoor wedding or picnic? : Goats and Soda - NPR

Elmo receives COVID-19 vaccine in PSA with Sesame Street, CDC

3 year-old Elmo got a COVID-19 vaccine but some aren't happy with the message it sends. Senator Ted Cruz criticized it for "aggressively" advocating.

Cody Godwin, USA TODAY

As crowds gather for events duringanother holiday weekend, Austin-area publichealth leaderswarn that thethreat of COVID-19could increase if you'reheading out to socialize in the city.

Increasing numbers of hospital admissionsappear to show the Austin area possibly in the foothills of a new surge in coronavirus cases.Austin Public Health this week released updated precautions against the coronavirus for residents at high risk of having severe symptoms,being hospitalizedor dying.

Dr. Desmar Walkes, Austin-Travis County health authority,encouraged those at high risk primarily the most medically vulnerable among us, oftenwith chronic health problems or who are frequently around high-risk people, to wear masks while indoors with others this weekend.

Walkes also continued to raise awareness of monkeypox,a rare infection circulating across the nation. The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week confirmed Travis Countys first monkeypox case, aresident who isisolatingat home. Austin Public Health is also investigating five other probablecases.

More: Plan to light fireworks in Austin area on July 4? Here's how to do it safely, legally

Monkeypox can be spread through close skin contact, like hugging, kissing or talking closely. It can also spread through suchshared fabrics as clothing, sheets and towels, or even items like children's toys, according to Walkes.

Symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills and, more noticeably, a rash that looks like pimples or blisters on the face, inside the mouth and other parts of the body.

Public health leaders are concerned about the few hundredconfirmed monkeypox cases across the country, but they said theomicron variant of the coronavirus is a much bigger threat. This is because one person infected with theomicron variant is estimated to infect between five and 24 people, while someone with monkeypox would likely infect one person or no one at all.

So for thethird Fourth of July in a row, Austin Public Health is focusedon limiting coronavirus spread. Gatherings last year led to faster spread of the highly contagious delta variant. That strain of the virus caused a then-record-setting surge in cases over the rest of the summer.

"Were seeing concerning trends with our disease indicators, which is especially worrisome as we head into a holiday weekend," Walkes said Tuesday.Test now, get up to date with your vaccines, and try to celebrate this weekend outdoors. Taking these steps will help protect loved ones and our hospital systems.

More: Parade kicks off July 4 celebrations in Round Rock

Because of at-home coronavirus testing, the number of current COVID-19cases recorded by Austin Public Health isfar fewer than the actual number in the community. Instead, a more accurate account of virus spread would be found by looking at hospitalization data.

Unlike the delta variant, the omicron variant has this year caused milder symptoms than those shown in 2021. However, many hospitalization records were still brokenin late winter and early spring because of omicron.

As of Friday, a total of 118 people were in the hospital in the Austin metro area with COVID-19. At the start of June, only 44 people with COVID-19 were hospitalized.

The rolling seven-day average of new daily hospital admissions for the coronavirus, used historically during the pandemic to help gauge the level of disease spread in the community, was 25on Friday. That is an increase from 9.9 onJune 1.

Walkes said the new omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, are overtaking the original strain, with the current virus spread now causing reinfections that are more likely to cause lung problems in at-risk people. Those lung issues could lead to more hospitalizations and increase the need to be hospitalized in intensive care units.

More: After a week reprieve, Travis County back up to medium level on COVID-19 spread

The CDC uses key statistics to determine whether the risk of COVID-19 spread islow, medium orhigh.

One of those key statistics is the seven-day transmission rate, which is the number of cases per 100,000 people. Anything above 100 cases per 100,000 people puts our area in the medium level. On Friday, the average for Travis Countywas 276, up from 206 last week, Austin Public Health data show.

Travis County, along with every other county in the metro area Williamson, Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell arecurrently in the medium level of community spread for COVID-19.

Austin Public Health, hoping to avoid another surge this summer,is now offering coronavirus vaccinations for everyone, including those as young as 6 months old, at Old Sims Elementary,1203 Springdale Road. The vaccine site is open 2-7 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays and from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.

The clinic will be closed on Saturday because of the holiday weekend, according to Austin Public Health.

We have highly-trained staff at our testing and vaccine sites that are here to help make sure you have a safe weekend with family and friends, APH Director Adrienne Sturrup said. We encourage families, especially those with young children, to come to our Old Sims clinic to start getting up to date with COVID-19 vaccines.

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Austin health officials urge caution to avoid another post-July 4 surge in COVID-19 cases - Austin American-Statesman

LONDON -- The number of new coronavirus cases across Britain has surged by more than 30% in the last week, new data showed Friday, with cases largely driven by the super infectious omicron variants.

Data released by Britain's Office for National Statistics showed that more than 3 million people in the U.K. had COVID-19 last week, although there has not been an equivalent spike in hospitalizations. The number of COVID-19 deaths also fell slightly in the last week.

COVID-19 has not gone away, said Dr. Mary Ramsay, of the Health Security Agency. It is also sensible to wear a face covering in crowded, enclosed spaces, she said. Britain dropped nearly all its coronavirus measures, including mask-wearing and social distancing months ago and masks are rarely seen on public transport.

The latest jump in coronavirus cases comes after an earlier increase of about 40% last month, following the large street parties, concerts and festivities held to mark the platinum jubilee celebrations marking 70 years of Queen Elizabeth II's reign.

British officials said the latest wave of COVID-19 infections were likely caused by omicron subvariants BA.4. and BA.5. Omicron has tended to cause a milder disease than previous variants like alpha or delta, but scientists warn its ability to evade the immune system means that people may be more susceptible to being reinfected, including after vaccination.

The constant bombardment of waves we are seeing does cause clinical impact that is not to be underestimated, said Dr. Stephen Griffin, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Leeds, explaining that any infection can lead to long COVID.

Despite widespread immunization across Britain, the protection from vaccines is likely fading and omicron and its subvariants have evolved to become more infectious. Britain's Health Security Agency said they were seeing more outbreaks in care homes for older people and a rise in admissions to intensive care units of people over 65.

Dr. Jonathan Van-Tam, a former deputy chief medical officer for the U.K., told the BBC that COVID-19 is now much, much, much closer to seasonal flu than when it first emerged. Still, he said experts should be vigilant for any signs the virus was causing more severe illness.

Germany's Robert Koch Institute also reported a similar rise in the coronavirus, with cases increasing especially among older people, children and teenagers. France has seen a jump in the COVID-19 hospitalization rate and officials recently recommended that people begin wearing masks again on public transport.

Globally, the World Health Organization said this week that COVID-19 is increasing in more than 100 countries worldwide. The U.N. health agency warned that relaxed testing and surveillance measures mean it may be more difficult to catch emerging variants before they spread more widely.

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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COVID cases up by more than 30% in Britain last week - ABC News

Whether heading for a scorching Mallorca beach or dancing beneath neon flags at a music festival, millions of people will be hoping for a Covid-free summer. But it isnt working out like that. With infections soaring once more, how can people make sure they stay safe and keep holiday plans on track?

Crowded spaces are ideal for spreading infection, and the dominant Omicron strains BA.4 and BA.5 are reported to evade antibody immunity effectively and are spreading about a third faster than previous variants. So you may feel dismayed at having to squeeze into your seat on the plane next to a stranger who keeps clearing their throat.

But planes have an unfair reputation as reservoirs of infection, experts say, and the actual risk is lower than in many indoor environments. For trains and other transport it depends on how busy they are and whether they have modern ventilation systems. Definitely consider wearing a mask in crowded areas, on public transport, and in the airport where theres a crowd, said Prof Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at the University of Hong Kong. On the plane itself, ventilation is excellent so the risk is actually lower in your seat.

Masks may feel like a thing of the past to some in the UK, but this isnt the case in all countries, so check the rules before you set off. Italy, for instance, has retained a requirement to wear an FFP2 mask on public transport, with the exception of planes. Some airlines have also maintained a mandate.

You may also be motivated by wanting to be a responsible citizen, or by self-preservation. In this case, an FFP2 mask, which filters out potentially infectious particles in the air, is better than a cloth or disposable paper mask. If youre concerned, Id strongly advise a mask, said Dr Stephen Griffin, an associate professor at the University of Leeds. Its been turned into this token of freedom but its sensible and not much of a hassle. Its a no-brainer. Why spoil your holiday feeling rubbish?

This summer festivals are back, from Primavera in Spain to Tomorrowland, the worlds largest dance music festival, in the Belgium town of Boom. Do these huge gatherings lead to outbreaks? Anecdotally a lot of people reported testing positive for Covid after Glastonbury, but then 200,000 people attended and about one in 30 people in England had Covid last week. Its hard to pinpoint whether events like this make much difference to overall numbers at this stage.

If youre trying to assess your own risk, common sense applies: indoor, crowded places make transmission more likely. This scenario may be relevant at a festival or in a nightclub, but equally to highbrow holiday pursuits such as an afternoon in a stuffy museum or crowded art gallery, or exploring the vaults of a medieval church.

The one time Ive been abroad recently was a microbiology conference in Northern Ireland, where I got Covid, said Griffin. Id put all the provisions in place for the conference to be Covid safe, but came back with Covid. Im pretty sure I caught it in a restaurant.

Outdoor spaces are generally low risk and if anything people tend to have fewer social contacts while on holiday. Often people are with their families and theyre not usually making huge numbers of contacts outside their household, being off work and off school, said Prof John Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. Actually being on holiday is not particularly high risk. Theres exceptions going clubbing and in bars but I dont want to stop people from having fun.

Again, check the rules for your destination. Many places in Europe no longer require you to arrive at the check-in anxiously clutching a bundle of paperwork, but testing requirements have not evaporated across the board. UK travellers need to show a vaccine certificate or show a negative result from a PCR test taken within 72 hours or an antigen test taken within 48 hours pre-departure. Spain and Portugal have similar requirements. Outside Europe there is a spectrum of strictness.

Beyond the rules, should travellers feel a moral duty to take a test? Edmunds says he does not want to tell people what to do, but notes that a well-established rule of medical screening is that theres no point in taking a test if youre not going to act on a positive result.

If someone tests themselves, finds out that theyre positive and goes anyway, whats the point of that? he said. Ideally if youre positive you shouldnt be getting on an aeroplane or public transport, you are putting other people at risk.

At a time when many are struggling financially, cancelling a flight is painful. But some airlines still have specific refund rules if a flight has to be changed due to Covid and offer more flexibility about changing flights than pre-pandemic.

In some places, including the US, vaccination is an absolute requirement. For other destinations, no vaccine means taking tests. For anyone eligible for a booster or children who havent had their first dose, it may be a particularly good time to get up to date. We know that booster doses give that top-up of protection against severe disease, but for a couple of months the dose also gives relatively good protection against infection, said Cowling. Its the time to get the jab if youre due for one.

Some countries, such as the UK, now have minimal legal isolation requirements. But France and Italy, for instance, still mandate seven days isolation after a positive test. At the extreme end, some countries require hotel or hospital-based quarantine. One of my PhD students ended up spending 18 days in an isolation room in hospital in Shanghai while travelling to visit family, said Cowling. It could be a different kind of holiday from what youd planned if you spend it in an isolation room.

Coronavirus cases have increased steeply in recent weeks, with the latest figures showing about 2.3m across the UK last week. But at this stage, with high overall prevalence and many countries scaling back surveillance, its hard to pinpoint with much certainty which countries are going to be the hotspots two months from now. Its difficult enough to predict whats going to happen in the UK, and weve got better data than everywhere else, said Edmunds. I dont think its possible to do that with any accuracy.

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Coronavirus and summer travel: how to stay safe on holiday - The Guardian

(Washington, DC) On Monday, July 4, 2022, the District Government will observe the Fourth of July holiday.While some services will be affected, many District employees will continue serving to maintain essential District operations.

What's Open on Monday, July 4

Test Yourself DC drop-boxesare open for residents to drop off samplesbetween 10am 8pm

Access to Emergency ShelterAll low-barrier shelters for individuals experiencing homelessness operate year-round. Currently, all low-barrier shelters remain open 24 hours and will remain open all day onMonday, July 4. Individuals seeking access to homeless services should call the DC Shelter Hotline at (202) 399-7093 from 8am 12amor the Mayors Citywide Call Center at 311 at any time of the day or night.

Drop-In Centers for Residents Experiencing HomelessnessThe Downtown Day Services Center (The Center) will offer walk-in services to guests with no appointment required. Hours of operation are 9am- 5pmon Monday, July 4. The Center is operating at its pre-pandemic capacity, meaning a maximum of 120 guests are permitted in the Center at any time. Entry will be permitted on a first-come, first-serve basis. Guests will be provided with a wristband that must be worn while in the Center. Available walk-in services include showers, laundry, medical treatment, computer access, electronic/mobile device charging, housing case management, employment counseling, harm reduction services, and other vital services. Full capacity lunch services will continue on Monday,11am 1pm.

Zoes Doors, located at 900 Rhode Island Avenue NE, will be open from 8am 7pmonMonday, July 4.

Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR)parks, playgrounds, athletic courts, and fields will be open. Fort Lincoln Tennis Courts will close at 3 pmfor the public use. DPR splash parks will be open from 10 am 8 pm. All previously permitted events will take place as scheduled. It is illegal to use fireworks on or at any DPR property including recreation centers, fields, and playgrounds. Gas grills and deep fryers are also prohibited.

DPRoutdoor pools will be open on all three days of the long weekend, including Monday, July 4, from 10am 6pm. On Monday, July 4, six outdoor pools regularly scheduled for closure on Mondays (Anacostia, Kelly Miller, Upshur, Theodore Hagans, Volta, and Oxon Run) will instead be open. DPRs 34 splash parks will be open from 10 am- 8 pmall three days as well. For a full list of pool schedules, visit dpr.dc.gov/page/outdoor-pools. Families can also visit summer.dc.gov or text SUMMER to 69866 for a list of activities across the District for residents ages 18 and younger.

What's Closed on Monday, July 4

All Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV)locations will be closed on Saturday, July 2 and Monday, July 4 Customers are encouraged to use online options by visitingdmv.dc.gov.

Walk-up COVID-19 testing, Rapid Antigen test kit pick-up locations, and Test Yourself PCR kit pick-up locationswill be closed Monday, July 4. Sites will reopen on Tuesday, July 5 as scheduled. Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/testing for locations and hours of operation.

All COVID-19 Centers will be closed Monday, July 4. Sites will reopen on Tuesday, July 5. Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/covidcenters for locations and hours of operation.

TheDistrictsCOVID-19call centerwillbe closed on Monday, July 4. For general COVID-19 related questions or to book a vaccine appointment for homebound residents, call 1-855-363 0333 when the Call Center reopens on Tuesday, July 5.

TheDepartment of Employment ServicesNavigation Call Centerand all American Job Centers will be closed on Monday, July 4. Residents are encouraged to file unemployment insurance claims online atdoes.dc.gov.

DC Youth Meal program sites will be closed on Monday, July 4. Youth ages 18 and younger can visit any of the open meal sites on Friday, July 1, between 8:30 am 9:30 amand between 12pm 2pm.

TheSasha Bruce Youth Drop-In Centerfor District residents experiencing homelessness will be closed on Monday, July 4.

DPR indoor pools and recreation centers will be closed on Monday, July 4 and will reopen on Tuesday, July 5. DPR childrens pools will also be closed as scheduled on Monday, July 4.

DC Public Library (DCPL)neighborhood locations and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library will be closed on Monday, July 4. Virtual programs will be available. For more information on available Library programs, visit dclibrary.org or download the Librarys app.

The Department of Human ServicesEconomic Security Administration Service Centers will be closed onMonday, July 4.

The DC Health & Wellness Center(77 P Street, NE) will be closed on Monday, July 4.

Modified Service Adjustments:

TheDC Department of Public Works (DPW)will slide household trash and recycling collectionsfor the remainder of the week into Saturday.For example, households that normally receive trash and recycling collections onMonday, July 4will be serviced on Tuesday, July 5.

The Benning Road Transfer Station will open as regularly scheduled Wednesday through Friday for residential drop-off and Saturday for household hazardous waste.

Construction:

TheDistrict Department of Transportation (DDOT)will suspend construction and work zones for non-emergency work in roadways, alleys, and sidewalks within the Districts right of way. This includes manhole access and construction-related deliveries. Approved construction activities may resumeTuesday, July 5, during permitted work hours.

TheDepartment of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA)does not normally permit construction on District Government holidays, and violations could result in a Stop Work Order and fines. No construction will be allowed on Monday, July 4 for the holiday without a companion Afterhours Permit. Illegal construction reports can be made using theIllegal Construction Inspection Request Formor calling 311. DCRA offers many online services, tools, and resources, enabling customers to conduct business 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

Lane Restrictions:DDOT will suspend reversible lane operations city-wide on Monday, July 4.

Parking Enforcement:

All parking enforcement will be suspended on Monday, July 4 except for Streetcar ticketing and towing. Parking enforcement will resume on Tuesday, July 5.

All DC Circulator routes are operating on a normal schedule, except for the National Mall route, which will not be in service on July 4. DC Circulator service for the National Mall route will resume on July 5.

DC Streetcar is operating on a normal schedule.

Social Media:Mayor Bowser Twitter:@MayorBowserMayor Bowser Instagram:@Mayor_BowserMayor Bowser Facebook:facebook.com/MayorMurielBowserMayor Bowser YouTube:https://www.bit.ly/eomvideos

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Modified District Government Services for Fourth of July | coronavirus - DC: Coronavirus

How likely is it for people to catch COVID from someone who is asymptomatic? Its not impossible and may be more common than people realize, health experts say.

With coronavirus cases currently stuck at a high level across California as fast-spreading offshoots of the omicron variant crowd out their competitors, that means the chances of getting COVID from an asymptomatic person are heightened.

An estimated 5%, or about 1 in 20, asymptomatic patients coming to UCSF for procedures unrelated to COVID are testing positive for the virus, said Dr. Bob Wachter, one of the universitys leading infectious disease experts.

UCSF asks patients who show symptoms of COVID to postpone their visits. Patients are routinely screened upon arrival, meaning that those who test positive are asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic.

Though its not a perfect sample pre-op patients are more likely to be older, have an illness and be vaccinated because theyre seeking other medical care its a convenient way to measure how many people in the community may be infected and go about their day-to-day lives, Wachter said.

Its been a very useful measure of something that otherwise is very hard to get your arms around, which is the probability that somebody standing next to you in line at a Safeway in the Bay Area would test positive for COVID if I could test them now, he said.

The math is sobering: At the current 5.5% rate of asymptomatic test positivity, In a group of 50 people, I think its a 95% chance that at least one person will be positive, Wachter said. On an airplane of 150 people, theres over 99% chance theres somebody on the plane who has it.

Asymptomatic infections are not uncommon. Many people who routinely test themselves for COVID have received positive test results, including Vice President Kamala Harris.

But guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does not advise vaccinated people who have been exposed to COVID-19 to quarantine unless they develop symptoms.

So although many people may have come in close contact with someone diagnosed with the coronavirus, they may not take the same stringent measures for mitigating transmission that they would have two years ago.

We can get a sense there are probably more people asymptomatically infected with SARS-CoV-2 with omicron and its subvariants than there were with delta, said Dr. John Swartzberg, a UC Berkeley infectious disease expert.

A 2021 study in the JAMA Network Open medical journal found that as many as 60% of COVID infections were transmitted by an asymptomatic person.

From the public health standpoint, the public needs to understand you can feel perfectly well and be infected and transmit this virus, Swartzberg said.

Obviously, infected people who show signs of sickness may generate more aerosols by sneezing or coughing. But while asymptomatic people shed less virus, they can still spread the virus without knowing theyve got it.

Fortunately, someone who is vaccinated has less viral load in nasal and throat secretions and vaccination rates for most Bay Area counties are among the highest in the nation, according to state and federal data.

But its still possible to have high viral load without showing signs of sickness, said Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious diseases expert at Stanford.

So what is responsible for driving the current surge? The recent variants of the coronavirus are many times more infectious than the original one back in 2020 and even more contagious than the omicron version last winter. Combine that with a relaxation of public health mandates on local, state and federal levels, and the opportunities to spread the virus, whether by symptomatic or asymptomatic people, are many times higher.

People who have very mild symptoms, such as a cough or sniffles, and who dont know that they have COVID may also be going out under the assumption that they have a cold or allergies, Wachter said.

How can people protect themselves? The high asymptomatic test rate combined with the plateau in infections in recent weeks has public health experts recommending outdoor dining, voluntary indoor masking and opting for a road trip versus a flight.

I prefer not to take those risks, Wachter said.

Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com

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What are the odds you'll get COVID from someone who's asymptomatic? Here's how to measure the risk now - San Francisco Chronicle

Cracking a window can help reduce the risk of indoor COVID transmission. Tanishka R./NPR hide caption

Cracking a window can help reduce the risk of indoor COVID transmission.

We regularly answer frequently asked questions about life during the coronavirus crisis. If you have a question you'd like us to consider for a future post, email us at goatsandsoda@npr.org with the subject line: "Weekly Coronavirus Questions." See an archive of our FAQs here.

Over the past two years, we've all had a crash course in understanding how to prevent respiratory infections.

And we've learned that clean air via ventilation (i.e. fresh air flow via open windows and doors) and filtration (removing particles from the air with a filtering device) is really important for preventing COVID and other respiratory illnesses. It's something many experts knew all along. Now the public is catching on.

"Most of the air that we breathe in our lifetimes, we breathe indoors," says Richard Corsi, dean of the University of California Davis College of Engineering. And virus particles can linger in the air of unventilated places, increasing chances of getting sick.

Of course, those particles are not visible. "If people could see COVID in the air, it would make a lot more sense that what you need to do is clean the air in your house, exchange the air out, get fresh air in, improve ventilation so that you don't have a lot of air hanging around where other people can breathe it in and get infected," says Abraar Karan, an infectious disease physician at Stanford University.

So what can you do, as an individual at home, work, school, the gym to make the air cleaner and safer?

That's what we asked three experts.

What's the most basic way I can improve ventilation?

"Just getting more air flow into the house itself" helps, Karan says.

Open windows if you can, says Linsey Marr, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech. "Especially if you can open them on opposite sides of the room, so you get some cross-ventilation air coming in one and going out the other."

Even if you can't open all of the windows or can't open them all of the way, cracking windows a little bit is still very helpful. "They don't have to be wide open," Marr says.

Opening doors in shops and gyms also helps.

Marr worked with the owner of her local gym to improve ventilation early in the pandemic. The gym didn't have central air conditioning, so it couldn't rely on filtration. The easiest option was to open the doors. "I estimated how much benefit we would get from opening the doors and it was a ton, so we kept them open all winter," Marr says.

And there was no known transmission in the gym, says Marr, who advised the facility and kept track of COVID developments. Even when staff picked up the virus from other places, they don't seem to have passed it on at work, she says.

How can I improve my home filtration system?

If you have an HVAC system forced air heating/cooling/ventilation you can do two main things: run the fan more and upgrade the filter in order to catch more viral particles. Every HVAC system has replaceable filters that trap allergens and dust in the air and viral particles, too.

HVAC systems typically don't circulate air 24/7, only running part of the time when indoor temperatures drop or rise.

To make sure the air is getting filtered through the HVAC system, "if you can, run the fan continuously," Corsi says.

When the windows are open, you can also turn on other fans, like the bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans, to "help pull in that clean air from the outside and flush out the virus," Marr says. True, they can be noisy, but they can create some air flow by pulling the air up toward the ceiling and out of the room.

But when the windows are closed, most home HVAC systems simply recirculate the same indoor air, and the standard filters you use may not be effective at catching the tiny virus particles. So you can also look into replacing those filters with higher-quality options, like a filter with a minimum efficiency reporting value (MERV) of 13.

"If you can put a MERV-13 filter in your HVAC system and if the fan is recirculating continuously, then you're going to remove a lot of the aerosol particles," Corsi says.

The majority of school ventilation systems can also be upgraded to MERV-13 filters, he says.

But, he cautions, not all systems can handle the more effective filters, so it's a good idea to have an HVAC specialist inspect yours. You don't want your whole system to break down because it is too strained trying to pull air through incompatible filters.

HEPA is another kind of filter that is even more effective at removing viruses from the air, but most home HVACs don't work with HEPA filters. However, you can get a portable HEPA air purifier.

Can portable purifiers help?

"If it says HEPA, then it's going to filter out over 99% of the air that passes through it," Marr says. "In general, price goes with size in terms of how much air it moves through it." That means the bigger the unit, the more it costs.

It's important to find the right-sized unit to purify the air of a room in an hour or two. "There's a big difference between like a $50 one that can clean the air in a closet in a reasonable amount of time and a much bigger one that probably costs $200 or $300 and can clean the air in a bedroom in a reasonable amount of time," Marr says.

But, she says, there are cheaper options: for eaxmple, a do-it-yourself system involving a simple box fan a portable model that is typically square, has a propeller blade and can often fit in a window and MERV-13 filters. That "is actually more effective in many cases" than expensive HEPA units, says Marr.

Known as the Corsi-Rosenthal box after its creators, this DIY filter is easy and inexpensive to make: you create a square shape with four filters making up four sides and the fan, pointing up toward the ceiling, duct-taped on top. A piece of cardboard is taped to the bottom, and the homemade air purifier can be put anywhere a more expensive purifier might go.

Karan agreed. "The Corsi-Rosenthal box is basically a very low-cost way to get better ventilation."

Corsi also agreed and only partly because he was one of the inventors. When he first sketched out the idea early in the pandemic, he thought it might be a more cost-effective way to offer some air filtration. And it is the materials cost between $80 and $100.

"But I also didn't realize how incredibly effective it would be," Corsi says.

The boxes can be up to 2.5 times more effective than a $300 HEPA filtration unit, according to a study by other researchers.

No matter what portable filtration system you go with, make sure you position it carefully. Don't put the device in a corner, where it might just recirculate the same air. Keep your purifier a foot or so away from the wall for the same reason.

For larger rooms, two or more units can be a good idea, says Corsi, and you can put them across the room from each other so all the air in the room gets filtered well.

What about those little travel-size air filters? Any benefit?

You might have seen little HEPA purifiers about the size of a water bottle that you can stash in a purse or backpack. But do these small devices actually help?

"They should, and you'd want to direct the airflow," Marr says. "That can clean a small area of a small amount of air."

Just make sure you position the stream of clean air as close to your face as possible, setting it on the table or desk in front of you.

"If you're using them so that the air is right in front of you working at your desk and it's blowing the air up toward your face, it can reduce the concentrations of aerosols as you're breathing," Corsi says. "I wouldn't overemphasize their benefit, but there can be some benefit."

Such purifiers, which cost $30 to $50, can add another layer of protection while you're traveling, eating at restaurants or going to work or school.

Should I buy a CO2 monitor to check how good the ventilation is in different places I go?

"If you are a very cautious person, then that can be a good tool to help you gauge the risk in different spaces," Marr says.

CO2 monitors measure how much carbon dioxide is in the air. They can't tell how much COVID is in the air, but if there is a lot of CO2 in a space, then it's not well-ventilated.

If the CO2 readout is under 1,000, that's pretty good. Anything over 1,800 is a warning sign that a space is poorly ventilated. At high rates, you're breathing in a lot of "other people's exhaled breath like drinking backwash," Marr says a nice way of saying drinking other people's spit while sharing a drink.

But these are loose rules that depend on how big the space is, how many people are there, whether they are masked, and how many cases are circulating in the community.

"I'm not a big fan of using CO2 monitors for very specific analysis," Corsi says. "They're not exact." But, he says, they are very useful for telling you when air quality is very good or very poor.

Does improving ventilation mean I can skip wearing a mask?

Improving air quality means you're less likely to get sick, because there's less virus in the air. But it's not 100% effective.

The experts all agreed that wearing a mask is one of the most effective ways to reduce your chances of getting sick even further, or if you're sick passing the virus on.

That means you should continue to mask up in indoor public places when cases are high, as they are in the U.S. right now.

And if you're sick or someone in your household is, wearing a mask can keep the virus from transmitting even at home.

"If you have someone who is sick, then you want to try, if it's reasonable, to have them wear a mask because that will reduce the amount [of virus] that gets into the air in the first place," Marr says. And it's a good idea to mask up when you are around them to protect yourself.

If a family member gets sick, will good ventilation keep me from catching COVID?

Yes! It may take a little work, but it is possible to stop transmission in the home.

As an infectious disease doctor, Karan has seen many patients who got sick at home from other family members. "That's the one thing that we have a really hard time with right now," he said.

But "I know that there are ways you can make the home safer I've done it myself," Karan says.

All of the advice the experts offer here is especially important to keep cases from spreading at home: open windows, have a fan blowing air out the windows, wear masks as source control, improve air filtration.

In the sick person's room, try to keep the door closed and face a fan to blow out the window, so "what they're emitting into their room doesn't get back into the rest of the house underneath the door and that kind of thing," Corsi says. "That'll actually go a long way to helping others in the house not get infected."

Should I press for better air quality in public spaces?

Sometimes you will be in places where you can't control air quality, like at work, school, restaurants or businesses.

But it doesn't hurt to ask what improvements such places have made to air quality. If you're worried about your kid returning to school in the fall, for instance, you can talk to the teacher about opening windows or using a portable air filter.

"We need to be holding businesses and then the government responsible," Karan says, to make sure they upgrade ventilation and establish new indoor air quality standards.

"It's not just about COVID," he says. Cleaning the air can reduce other respiratory viruses, like the flu and RSV, as well as mold and allergens.

It's easy to want to give up on COVID precautions, thinking this is the best we can do. But "people need to hear that there is a way to solve this problem," Karan says.

"We're not going to eliminate COVID. But what we can do is we can reduce COVID transmission significantly."

His verdict: "Ventilation is the way forward."

Melody Schreiber (@m_scribe) is a journalist and the editor of What We Didn't Expect: Personal Stories About Premature Birth. c

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Tips to improve indoor air flow to reduce the risk of catching COVID : Goats and Soda - NPR

On a cold, damp Monday just over a year into the pandemic, Jacob Hopkins tilted his head back in a London hospital and did something no other human had ever done before: He allowed five doctors in full hazmat garb to dribble into his nostrils a precisely calibrated suspension of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

Hopkins would go on to become one of the more than 546 million people across the globe to be infected with the virus known to scientists as SARS-CoV-2.

He did it for science.

Hopkins was the first of 36 healthy young Britons to participate in a human challenge study of the most consequential virus on the planet. The experiment was widely accepted in the United Kingdom as an efficient way to gain insights into how, where and for how long the virus establishes itself in people.

Knowing the minute details of a coronavirus infection is critical to vaccine and drug designers, to public health officials, and to those caring for patients. Many of those details remained elusive until the studys findings were published this spring.

Jacob Hopkins rests his arm near vials of blood that were drawn to study what the coronavirus does inside the body.

(Jacob Hopkins)

Hopkins had only a fuzzy sense of how his act might help others. As a teenager, he had responded to a cousins leukemia by signing up with a stem cell registry, and ended up donating bone marrow. This time, he hoped his participation might speed the development or testing of vaccines for low-income countries.

I would have been devastated if I couldnt take part, he said.

In the United States, deliberately infecting humans with the coronavirus was so controversial that American officials declared it a last resort. They argued that scientists could find ways to unlock the virus secrets without exposing volunteers to even a tiny risk of death.

Human challenge studies were Plan D, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who contemplated them only as a way to put a new vaccine through its paces.

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Experiments that intentionally expose healthy volunteers to serious harm pose deep quandaries. Thats especially true when too little is known about a virus to predict its impact, and when effective treatments arent available.

But in the next pandemic, or even later in this one, some U.S. scientists say they may rethink their resistance.

We can learn things more quickly by doing challenge studies, said Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a University of Pennsylvania vaccinologist who was a leading voice in calling for such research.

When an infectious disease is spreading out of control, saving time may be worth the risk, said Arthur L. Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University.

If volunteers were willing to be infected, you could prevent potentially millions of deaths, he said.

::

Jacob Hopkins took this selfie while he was participating in a human challenge trial to help scientists learn more about SARS-CoV-2.

(Jacob Hopkins)

Jacob Hopkins path to becoming a human guinea pig wasnt particularly fraught. He had always been fit, he said, and volunteering felt like something I could do.

Hopkins was a 22-year-old history student at Newcastle University when Britain imposed the first of several strict lockdowns. He went home to live with his parents in Birmingham after his school closed.

In the final months of 2020, Hopkins was working in a grocery store and scrolling through his social media feed when he saw an ad with pictures showing attractive people masked and socially distanced, but otherwise equipped with the usual accoutrements of young adulthood backpacks, schoolbooks and earbuds.

Help us fight COVID-19, said the advertisement. Stripped across the bottom, in fine print, was a disclaimer: You may suffer COVID-19 symptoms if you take part.

It seemed like a way to help the world get back to normal faster. Hopkins first love, backpacking abroad, was not an option. Nor was socializing at home. His studies in Cold War history had been put on hold. But the prospect of playing some small role in this historical moment gave him a sense of mission.

In fact, hands shot up across the world. Hopkins was one of nearly 37,000 people who expressed initial interest in participating in the study. Researchers screened 6,135 by phone, winnowing the unresponsive, the unsure and those who were too old or too sick. With 187 potential candidates left, they pruned people whod become infected, lost interest or had gained access to vaccine. Thirty-six, including Hopkins, were deemed healthy, stable, ready to go.

His parents were definitely not happy, Hopkins said. But he was determined to see it through. While his countrymen were letting down their guard after a third round of lockdowns, Hopkins double- and triple-masked when in public. If he got infected before the study began, hed be disqualified

I never wanted to get COVID, Hopkins said, and then quickly corrected himself. Well, I did want COVID, but I wanted it at the right time.

::

In the U.S., scientists at the National Institutes of Health took a step toward launching a U.S. human challenge trial early in the pandemic. The government ordered up SARS-CoV-2 viral samples that could be used to deliver precise, genetically identical doses to human subjects.

But that, Fauci told CNN at the time, was an absolutely far-out contingency.

He stands by that decision nearly two years later. Even if researchers had an urgent need to test a new vaccine, they could do so without infecting volunteers because the coronavirus is readily available in the world at large, he said in an interview.

Plotkin was among the scientists who lobbied the NIH to conduct a human challenge trial. He said officials were concerned that a volunteer would be harmed and that if that happened, the reputation of the NIH would be harmed.

The British, by contrast, were interested right from the beginning, he said.

A daytime view of London from Jacob Hopkins hospital room.

(Jacob Hopkins)

The United Kingdom was uniquely positioned to move ahead quickly with a human challenge study. The National Health Service provides care for all Britons, so participants medical and mental health histories are readily available. Its universal healthcare system also means that research subjects would never be refused follow-up care if something went awry. (Neither is the case in the U.S.)

British researchers had a long tradition of studying infectious diseases including influenza, common cold viruses and malaria using controlled human infection models. The practice came of age in 1946, when Britain repurposed a wartime hospital in Salisbury as a Common Cold Research Unit.

Compensation was the principal inducement for participation, and it remained that way for decades. Healthy people with time on their hands could spend a couple of weeks in what was sometimes billed as Flu Camp. Theyd depart well-fed and rested, with some cash in their pockets.

With the COVID-19 study, it was clear that volunteers motives were overwhelmingly altruistic, said Carol Dalton, a spokeswoman for hVIVO, the clinical research company that carried out the COVID-19 study with scientists from Imperial College London. Participants earned 4,565 British pounds (about $5,500) for a 17-day hospital stay and several follow-up visits, though the pay was not a prominent feature of the hVIVO advertisements.

Separately, more than 38,000 people reached out to 1DaySooner, an online clearinghouse for people willing to participate in human challenge studies. Hopkins signed up on that website, as well as on the studys official enrollment site.

There was no precedent for so many volunteers asking scientists to put their own health at risk in such a trial, said Abie Rohrig, a student of bioethics at Swarthmore College who helped set up 1DaySooner.

::

One of Jacob Hopkins meals during his hospital stay.

(Jacob Hopkins)

Hopkins took that risk in stride. He said he understood he was taking a chance, but he was more concerned about developing long COVID, an array of lingering post-infective symptoms, than he was about catching COVID-19 itself.

As he anticipated spending weeks holed up in St. Marys Hospital in Londons Paddington quarter, he had high hopes for using his time well. He thought he might learn British sign language online and stream some movies for fun.

But the schedule didnt leave much time. Participants started each day in front of a laptop, churning through a battery of odious cognitive tests. There was also a daily scratch-and-sniff smell test and the hour he spent with his face buried in a plastic mask that measured his respiratory output. Research staff, often unrecognizable under layers of protection, were in and out of his room all day taking vital signs and drawing blood.

Meals were tasty but spartan. A bag of crisps showed up on his tray once or twice, prompting great excitement.

Strictly isolated in his hospital room, he gazed out the window at the London Eye, the citys famous Ferris wheel, and lost himself in the reassuring nostalgia of classic video games like The Sims and Ratchet & Clank.

On two occasions, Hopkins was bundled into his own hazmat suit and wheeled to a CT scanner. Those days were rare treats, when we were seeing something other than the four walls of a very sterile room, he said.

Getting the study underway took a year of debate and preparation. By the time British scientists deliberately infected Hopkins on March 2, 2021, several COVID-19 vaccines were beginning to go into arms across the United Kingdom. It was a milestone but it threatened to derail the human challenge study, which had been intended to help with vaccine development.

We had to completely rethink what this study was for, said Dr. Christopher Chiu, an immunologist and infectious disease specialist who led the team from Imperial College London. With so much still unknown about the virus, there was still a public health need, Chiu said. And researchers testing antiviral medications would still need to know how much virus it took to seed an infection.

So the aim was recast. The trial would identify the exact dose at which an exposure to SARS-CoV-2 virus would infect half of healthy young people. And it would track the coronavirus behavior and its interaction with its hosts across the length of infection.

The studys findings were reported this spring in the journal Nature Medicine.

Among its insights:

Even at the lowest concentration measurable in a lab, SARS-CoV-2 virus established a beachhead in the throats of just over half of the young, healthy subjects within two days.

The viral loads in their noses reached peak concentration an average of five days after exposure.

Whether or not subjects developed COVID-19 symptoms, they were capable of infecting others for an average of five more days.

None of the infected became seriously ill, but 83% lost their sense of taste or smell; in most cases, it returned slowly over three months. None experienced lung damage.

The findings made powerfully clear that young people have been potent drivers of pandemic spread. Further analysis of the findings is expected to yield insights into how the immune system resists infection, and why some people become infected while others do not.

So were these insights worth the risk taken by Hopkins and his fellow volunteers?

Chiu, the senior author of the paper detailing the studys findings, thinks so.

Theres unique strength to the findings from this kind of study, Chiu said. You capture every part of infection from the point of exposure to the end.

In the U.S., Caplan said he was frustrated that so much of the medical establishment was wary of allowing healthy Americans to be deliberately infected, when doing so could have yielded lifesaving insights.

People who sign up for such experiments must never be compelled to do so, Caplan said, nor induced with extravagant rewards. But people in many walks of life from test pilots and deep-sea divers to virologists who collect bat guano from caves take risks for science, he said. Every day, regular folks volunteer for early clinical trials of experimental drugs, where the correct dose is unknown and its safety is still very much in question.

Its a noble thing to do, he said, adding that many Americans wanted to do it: We knew because wed been asked.

::

This hospital room was Jacob Hopkins home for 17 days while he weathered a case of COVID-19 for the sake of science.

(Jacob Hopkins)

Hopkins said hed do it again, in a heartbeat.

Though the virus plunged him into a two-day ordeal of feeling rubbish, it was an enormous relief to realize he had become infected. After the tests he endured to get into the study, and after fending off so many COVID-19 surges, he finally had something to offer. He high-fived one of the doctors who dribbled virus down his nose.

During his entire bout, researchers tracked hour by hour the rise and fall of his vital signs, his viral loads, his altered cognitive state and his immune systems strenuous effort to clear the virus.

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When at last it did after 17 days, Hopkins received a check for 1,535 British pounds (nearly $1,900); the remainder was held in reserve pending follow-up visits.

All I did was sat in a room, said Hopkins, who now counsels low-income Britons on how to secure access to nutritious food. But I was so proud and happy to be a part of this. I was really part of something special.

On his last day at the hospital, as Hopkins slung his rucksack over his shoulder and marched toward the exit, the men and women who had taken his vital signs, delivered his meals and monitored his progress showed up to applaud him.

It was a heros farewell.

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What it's like to catch the coronavirus for the sake of science - Los Angeles Times

Duration of Shedding of Culturable Virus in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (BA.1) Infection | NEJM  nejm.org

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Duration of Shedding of Culturable Virus in SARS-CoV-2 Omicron (BA.1) Infection | NEJM - nejm.org

GENEVA -- The number of new coronavirus cases rose by 18% in the last week, with more than 4.1 million cases reported globally, according to the World Health Organization.

The U.N. health agency said in its latest weekly report on the pandemic that the worldwide number of deaths remained relatively similar to the week before, at about 8,500. COVID-related deaths increased in three regions: the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas.

The biggest weekly rise in new COVID-19 cases was seen in the Middle East, where they increased by 47%, according to the report released late Wednesday. Infections rose by about 32% in Europe and Southeast Asia, and by about 14% in the Americas, WHO said.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said cases were on the rise in 110 countries, mostly driven by the omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5.

This pandemic is changing, but it's not over, Tedros said this week during a press briefing. He said the ability to track COVID-19's genetic evolution was under threat as countries relaxed surveillance and genetic sequencing efforts, warning that would make it more difficult to catch emerging and potentially dangerous new variants.

He called for countries to immunize their most vulnerable populations, including health workers and people over 60, saying that hundreds of millions remain unvaccinated and at risk of severe disease and death.

Tedros said that while more than 1.2 billion COVID-19 vaccines have been administered globally, the average immunization rate in poor countries is about 13%.

If rich countries are vaccinating children from as young as 6 months old and planning to do further rounds of vaccination, it is incomprehensible to suggest that lower-income countries should not vaccinate and boost their most at risk (people), he said.

According to figures compiled by Oxfam and the People's Vaccine Alliance, fewer than half of the 2.1 billion vaccines promised to poorer countries by the Group of Seven large economies have been delivered.

Earlier this month, the United States authorized COVID-19 vaccines for infants and preschoolers, rolling out a national immunization plan targeting 18 million of the youngest children. American regulators also recommended that some adults get updated boosters in the fall that match the latest coronavirus variants.

Follow APs coverage of the pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic

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WHO: COVID-19 cases rising nearly everywhere in the world - ABC News