Category: Corona Virus

New York City officials are working to bolster the citys testing infrastructure as coronavirus cases rise largely fueled by a highly contagious subvariant of the virus but an election-year dispute in Washington, D.C., means some New Yorkers may have to pay to get tested.

Because federal emergency aid for testing, vaccines and therapeutics is stalled, certain providers are no longer able to provide testing to everyone free of charge, regardless of their insurance status. But New York City officials have said that tests at city-run sites will remain free for all.

Coronavirus cases in New York City have risen 77 percent in the past two weeks, according to a New York Times tracker. The increase is driven largely by BA.2, a highly contagious subvariant of the Omicron strain, and a loosening of pandemic restrictions.

City officials have said that testing is a crucial tool not only for tracking the spread of the virus, but also for stopping transmission. Heres what you need to know about getting tested in New York City.

Senators struck a $10 billion deal this week on emergency aid for testing, vaccines and therapeutics, but it has stalled amid an election-year dispute over immigration policy. With Congress set to leave for a scheduled two-week recess, final passage might not occur until later this month, meaning some uninsured people may have to pay out of pocket for tests.

April 8, 2022, 3:25 p.m. ET

Mayor Eric Adams and health officials announced on April 1 that the city wouldnt let the delay in Washington prevent the city from providing free testing and vaccination services through New York City Health and Hospitals.

We believe that health care is a human right, and we serve every New Yorker regardless of their ability to pay or their immigration status, said Dr. Mitchell Katz, the hospitals president and chief executive.

A number of other providers offer testing across the city. The citys website includes a list of them, including ones that arent part of the citys health system. The state health department also lists testing sites on its website.

But if you are getting tested at a site that is not run by the city or state, it is best to ask ahead of time whether you will be charged. It is also a good idea to check with your insurer about whether there will be any fees involved for testing.

New York State officials have run a number of mass testing sites, including in New York City, throughout the pandemic. They scaled down many of them as the winter Omicron surge waned. The state has the capacity to reopen the sites through June if needed.

City officials have suggested that all New Yorkers get tested, including those who do not have Covid-19 symptoms or are at increased risk of developing serious illness from the virus.

Some testing sites do, however, have age requirements. For example, many of the mobile testing sites run by N.Y.C. Health and Hospitals only test people over age 4. And the at-home kits are for people over age 2.

And sites that arent run by the city or state may have other restrictions for testing, such as requiring recent exposure to the virus, so it is best to ask ahead of time.

Policies at the various private testing tents on sidewalks throughout the city vary widely, so check before you swab.

Outside Columbia Universitys gates in Manhattan, workers at two of three testing tents said they were continuing to offer free tests to people without insurance.

Workers at C19Testing, which had a blue and orange tent, and LabQ Diagnostics, which had a blue and red tent, both said there had been no policy change. But across the street, a worker at a RapidNYC tent, which was black and red, said he could not run the tests without insurance information.

The organizations website explained further: We will only be able to accept patients who are fully insured and have been exposed to COVID-19 for testing.

Also look out for possible hidden charges. In Times Square, a worker at a green and white EZTestNY tent on 41st Street and Broadway said he could run a PCR test for free with no insurance, but a rapid test would cost an uninsured person $30.

The companys website, however, said that uninsured patients could no longer be tested at all without payment or a billing agreement as of March 18. We regret any inconvenience that this may cause our valued customers, the company wrote.

Sharon Otterman and Emily Cochrane contributed reporting.

View original post here:

How to Get a Free Covid Test in NYC - The New York Times

Protesters challenged House Speaker Sherman Packard at a September rally in front of the State House, saying he was doing too little to stop federal vaccine mandates. Packard later sponsored House Bill 1455, which would prohibit the state from enforcing those federal mandates. (Annmarie Timmins-New Hampshire Bulletin)

In its nationwide survey of Covid-19 legislation seeking to limit the authority of public health officials, the Network for Public Health Law put New Hampshire in the top 10 with 16 bills. The real number is closer to 60 unprecedented or close to it according to state and local organizations.

In all my years of following the New Hampshire General Court, I cannot recall ever seeing so many bills clustered around a single topic, said Anna Brown, director of research and analysis for Citizens Count, a nonpartisan nonprofit that seeks to inform New Hampshire voters about issues and candidates. To put the number of coronavirus-related bills in perspective, consider the other hot topics in the Legislature this year: I counted about 30 bills related to election security this year, about two dozen bills related to education freedom accounts, and about 20 aimed at housing development.

Describing the bills as a wide-ranging attack on public health, more than 50 business leaders, healthcare institutions, and advocacy groups announced in January they had formed the 603 Coalition to defeat what they saw as a dangerous threat to public health.

The group has responded to every bill, often with in-person and written testimony. Part of the job has been debunking misinformation.

I am certainly concerned that people continue to make arguments that are against evidence-based science, said Steve Ahnen, president of the New Hampshire Hospital Association, a coalition member. I think we just need to continue to make the case why certain provisions or certain measures are counter to public health, and well continue to do that.

Their efforts have been matched by RebuildNH, a Covid-19-inspired advocacy group that lists among its goals protecting personal liberty and safeguarding the republic form of government enshrined in the state constitution.

RebuildNHs social media and email outreach, in addition to its multiple training sessions, has led 200 to 300 followers to contact lawmakers on dozens of bills.

Both sides have had mixed success.

About 20 of the nearly 60 bills introduced in January survived crossover day, meaning they still have a chance at becoming law. (One, House Bill 440, prohibiting the suspension of civil liberties during a state of emergency, was signed by Gov. Chris Sununu Monday.)

Here, there, everywhere

The 50-state survey made clear New Hampshire is not unique.

Nationwide, the Network for Public Health Law counted 234 bills restricting vaccine requirements in schools and workplaces; 204 prohibiting the closure of business and limits on visiting loved ones in hospitals or long-term care facilities; 114 taking away the authority of public health officials; 109 tied to emergency orders; and 50 on masking mandates.

Each issue has been the subject of at least one bill in New Hampshire, ranging from efforts to ease access to ivermectin and broaden exemptions to vaccine mandates to outlawing masks at schools and limiting the governors authority in future public emergencies.

Following 9/11, many states passed legislation with respect to public health emergency preparation and authority, said Donna Levin, national director of the Network for Public Health Law, in an email. However, at least according to my recollection, the recent legislation related to the limitation of measures taken to protect the publics health during the Covid-19 pandemic may be unprecedented.

Rep. Melissa Blasek, a Merrimack Republican and RebuildNHs executive director, said theres a reason the fight against pandemic safety measures has continued long after those measures have ended: a perceived ongoing threat to personal freedom.

We realized how much peoples privacy, how much their choice in medicine, can be stripped away by the government, she said. There will be other diseases. There will be other emergencies. These medical freedom bills were filed (because people) realized that government majorly overstepped and intervened in peoples right to choose what happens to their own body.

Defeated or diminished

Many bills have not only failed but did so quickly, never making it from one chamber to the other.

Those include severance pay and a generous six months of unemployment for workers fired after refusing a vaccine mandate; limits on workplace masking and testing requirements; allowing students to transfer to another school if their school required masks; and requiring a Covid-19 vaccine to attend school.

Also killed were bills allowing minors over 16 to get a vaccine without parental consent and making a positive case of Covid-19 an allowed exemption from a mandate.

Others remain in play but have been diminished by amendments.

Couple holding signs in front of the NH State House supporting vaccines

A bill that would have allowed families to opt out of all school vaccines with a vague conscientious objection now would simply make it easier for parents to file a religious exemption.

Another bill would have removed the Covid-19 immunization records of as many as 790,000 people immunized during an emergency order that prohibited them from opting out of the registry. The bill now would require the state to widely advertise an option to withdraw.

Another bill sought to require state-run hospitals and county nursing homes to honor a moral objection to vaccine mandates. Public health leaders warned lawmakers that allowing such a broad and vague exemption would render mandates meaningless, and put vulnerable patients and nursing home residents at risk.

That is not the argument that persuaded House members to amend the bill and drop the moral objection exemption, however. They cited the potential loss of $160 million in state funding if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services concluded the exemption violated its rules.

Ones to watch

Surviving crossover day is a step toward victory but no guarantee. Because a vast majority of the Covid-19 inspired bills came from House members, it will be the Senate, a very different body, that will largely determine their fate.

Some of these bills may face an uphill battle in the Senate, Brown said. Very generally speaking, the Senate is more moderate and cautious than the House when it comes to changing state law.

There are a few big ones to watch.

House Bill 1210 would require colleges, universities and public and private employers that receive money from the federal or state government to honor not just religious and medical objections to a vaccine mandate but also moral objections.

Ahnen worries passage of that bill could cost private hospitals the same loss of funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and risk the health of patients and staff.

And it just really puts the state in position to be telling private employers what they should and shouldnt be doing with respect to trying to ensure the health and safety of their staff, their employees, their customers, and in our case, the patients that we serve, he said.

Its not the bill Blasek wanted either. She wanted it to apply to all employers regardless of whether they received public funding.

Its not as strong as I would personally prefer, but its what we are going to get this year, she said. This is where we are. Its definitely a big step.

House Bill 1606 sought to make it harder for the state to record a persons immunization in the states new vaccine registry by requiring a person to agree to have their information included rather than ask to be exempted. Only Texas and Montana operate their registries this way.

Public health officials, who say the registry is one of the most important public health tools for tracking a states protection against communicable disease, warned changing the registry from opt-out to opt-in would discourage people from participating.

The House amended the bill to require providers to ask a person each time they get a vaccine whether they want their immunization record included in the registry or excluded. Healthcare providers are glad to see opt-out dropped but are worried about the administrative burden the amended version creates.

Blasek calls this compromise a win: This effort failed last year and she believes the amended version still makes the registry opt-out.

Essentially a person will never be automatically put into the system, she said. That is clear in the bill.

House Bill 1131 would prohibit mandates in schools. A Senate committee heard from nearly 40 people during a three-hour hearing last week, all but eight of whom supported the bill.

House Bill 1379 would limit the Department of Health and Human Services power to require childhood vaccinations for diseases not already identified in state law. To add a new vaccination requirement, the department would need a three-fifths vote from the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services.

Lawmakers must wrap up their work in about two months. Thats a long way off in Ahnens eyes.

I think we just need to continue to make the case why certain provisions or measures are counter to public health, he said. And we just have to continue to share information to make sure lawmakers hear from their local hospitals, doctors, nurses, teachers, advocates, education folks, so that theyre hearing the facts of why its important to support public health in their communities. I dont think weve turned that corner on misinformation.

More:

The Covid session: Of nearly 60 coronavirus-related bills filed, about 20 are still standing - New Hampshire Business Review

Experts say XE may be more contagious than omicron subvariant BA.2, though more evidence is needed.

Though COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to fall worldwide, medical experts and public health agencies continue to identify new variants of the virus.

BA.2, a subvariant of omicron that experts believe is more contagious than the original BA.1, became dominant in the U.S. in late March.

More recently, some people have expressed concerns online about a potential new coronavirus variant called XE, with one Twitter user claiming that it was found in the United Kingdom and could be the most transmissible variant yet. Another person said XE combines BA.1, the original version of omicron, and omicron subvariant BA.2.

THE QUESTION

Is there a new coronavirus subvariant called XE?

THE SOURCES

THE ANSWER

Yes, there is a new coronavirus subvariant called XE. It combines the BA.1 and BA.2 versions of omicron.

WHAT WE FOUND

Viruses like the one that causes COVID-19 mutate as they replicate. People can be infected with different strains of a virus at the same time and sometimes they combine during replication, Saralyn Mark, M.D., former senior medical advisor to the White House and American Medical Women's Association COVID-19 Lead, explained.

In its weekly epidemiological update released on March 29, the World Health Organization (WHO) said XE is a recombinant variant, or combination, of the BA.1 and BA.2 versions of omicron. It was first detected in the United Kingdom on Jan. 19.

The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said in an update on March 25 that 637 cases of XE had been confirmed in the country so far. In the last week alone, more than 333,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in the UK, the agency reported on April 8.

A small number of XE cases have been detected in the US, where the new subvariant is considered another lineage of omicron and not a new variant of interest or concern, a spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told VERIFY.

Is XE more contagious than other COVID-19 strains?

Early data show the XE subvariant may be about 10% more transmissible than BA.2, but its too early to know exactly how contagious it is, the WHO and other experts say. According to UKHSA, the data cannot yet be interpreted as an estimate of growth advantage for the XE subvariant.

If XE is 10% more transmissible than BA.2, that would make it one of the most transmissible viruses in the world, Mark said.

Medical experts dont have enough evidence yet to draw conclusions about severity or vaccine effectiveness either. But the CDC expects the XE subvariant to behave similarly to BA.2 because they share the same spike protein.

Some medical experts believe BA.2 is about 50% more contagious than BA.1. But vaccines provide the same level of protection against severe illness and hospitalization of BA.2 compared to other variants.

How common are recombinant variants?

Recombinant variants are not an unusual occurrence, particularly when there are several variants in circulation, and several have been identified over the course of the pandemic to date, Professor Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor with UKHSA, said.

Another recombinant variant identified during the pandemic is a combination of the delta and omicron variants that some have called deltacron. Delta-omicron recombinant cases are exceedingly rare in the United States, the CDC previously told VERIFY.

Most recombinant variants die off relatively quickly, Hopkins said. Its unclear right now if this will happen with the XE subvariant.

Though immunity to BA.1 and BA.2 currently remains high due to COVID-19 vaccines and natural infection, it could wane over time and allow a new subvariant like XE to take hold in the US, Mark said.

The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter, text alerts and our YouTube channel. You can also follow us on Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Learn More

Text: 202-410-8808

More here:

Yes, there is a new coronavirus subvariant called XE - WCNC.com

A look at some of the top headlines trending online today including the latest updates on the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Donald Trump and coronavirus news and much more.

Russian attack on railway station in eastern Ukraine leaves dozens dead, officials say (Fox News)

Ukraine Calls for More Arms, Girds for Heavier Fighting Against Russia in East (WSJ)

Russian troops discussed killing Ukrainian civilians in radio transmissions intercepted by Germany, source says (CNN)

Zelenskyy says situation in Borodyanka is much worse than in Bucha (CBS)

Food prices soar to record levels on Ukraine war disruptions (AP)

Senate confirms Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court (NPR)

New York Attorney General asks judge to hold Donald Trump in contempt for stonewalling on documents (CNBC)

Criminal investigation into Trump and his company continues as prosecutors review new evidence, NY DA says (CNN)

Trump says Secret Service blocked him from joining Jan. 6 march to the Capitol (Politico)

US likely to see a surge of Covid-19 in the fall, Fauci says (CNN)

New wave of Covid cases hits U.S. officials, rattles Washington (NBC)

Pelosi tests positive for COVID-19 a day after event at White House with Biden (PBS)

Federal appeals court upholds Biden vaccine rule for all federal employees (CBS)

Tiger Woods pleased with 1-under 71 in return at Masters, but knows long way to go at Augusta (ESPN)

Opening Day in MLB: New No. 21 patches, NL DHs and Guardians (AP)

Pink Floyd reunite for Ukraine protest song (BBC)

Ferrero recalls some Kinder chocolates from U.S. over salmonella fears (Reuters)

Read more:

Ukraine updates, Donald Trump, coronavirus & more: Whats trending today - cleveland.com

Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is airborne. That simple declaration from the White House is what some experts around the world have known since 2020 and it could have major implications for U.S. businesses and organizations.

Dr. Alondra Nelson, head of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and deputy assistant to President Joe Biden, announced the highly-awaited words in a recent statement.

"The most common way COVID-19 is transmitted from one person to another is through tiny airborne particles of the virus hanging in indoor air for minutes or hours after an infected person has been there," she said.

That single sentence confirms what was first uncovered in a March 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH) officials. However, that information was not relayed to Americans until several months later.

It took even longer for both the CDC and WHO to acknowledge COVID's spread via aerosols, despite growing evidence.

"SARS-CoV-2 remained viable in aerosols throughout the duration of our experiment (3 hours)" and was more stable on non-porous surfaces, the study said.

The latter point was emphasized by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a month later, without acknowledging the former. Eventually, the U.S. adopted the idea that transmission in the air was dominant, but through larger particles, or droplets, in the summer of 2020.

Why droplets were favored over aerosols has to do with the difference in the way aerosol experts and public health experts define the size of the particle. A tug-of-war between both sides made headlines in the first few months of the pandemic and have continued under the radar ever since.

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden listens to Dr. Alondra Nelson, his pick for OSTP Deputy Director for Science and Society (Reuters)

Deeming the coronavirus airborne places a burden on businesses, schools, and other indoor venues to ensure proper masking when COVID-19 levels are high in an area. In addition, it also presents the problem of revamping air systems or adding filtration and ventilation.

Story continues

Marina Jabsky, an industrial hygienist with the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, explained how to think about it.

"If you've ever been in the same room as somebody who's smoking, regardless of how far apart form them you're standing, you're gonna smell the smoke, right? Because the air particles will expand to fill the space," Jabsky said.

And size matters. The larger the space with fewer people in it, the lower the concentration is going to be.

"If you do not have a solid, well-functioning ventilation system, you're going to have a buildup of concentration of particles, and that's where the risk really increases," Jabsky said.

That's the reason behind the push for better quality masks, which the U.S. government has provided to Americans via retail pharmacies and community health centers for free. It's also why the American Rescue Plan (ARP) included $122 billion for schools and $350 billion for state, local and Tribal governments to help provide better ventilation systems.

One industry in particular was forced to quickly figure out how to keep its employees safe. After facing a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) at the start of the pandemic, hospitals are now able to regularly supply PPE to their staff. However, the cost of that PPE has gone up significantly compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Hospitals also adapted by either putting in better filtration systems, adding ventilation, or increasing the number of isolation rooms as needed. The steps to ensure filtration and ventilation came after it was discovered the virus was airborne.

"If it were droplet, and only droplets, then some of the masking requirements and some of the ventilation requirements might not be necessary," said Nancy Foster, vice president of quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association.

Foster told Yahoo Finance that for droplets, proper masking is still be necessary, but some of the bigger facility upgrades might not be.

A person wearing a mask walks out of a store past a "Wear a face mask" sign, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., February 9, 2022. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

There is lingering pressure from some experts to maintain droplets as part of the definition of how the virus is transmitted. And that can impact the difference in which protective gear is used by health professionals.

Dr. Abraar Karan, an infectious disease doctor at Stanford, explained why.

He said droplets may not be the primary route, but they aren't excluded in the range of particle sizes.

Scientists have noted "both droplets and aerosols, and particles of sizes in between the two" hold the potential for spread, Karan said.

"People can still have larger droplets that land in their mucosa or land in other exposed areas. So it doesn't make sense to completely remove the idea of droplets," he said.

In a February interview with Yahoo Finance, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky didn't call it airborne, but noted Sars-Cov-2 was like any other respiratory virus and that masking and ventilation are essential to curb transmission.

Kim Prather, an aerosol expert at UC San Diego, is another expert who has consistently asked for widespread acknowledgement of airborne transmission, pointing to another coronavirus, SARS, noting it was airborne as well.

"One of the biggest lessons learned (then) was you've got to follow the precautionary principle. If you think it has any chance of being airborne, that has to be out there....whether it's the dominant (pathway) or not," she said.

OSTP's Nelson agreed, citing the CDC's latest definition of the spread of the disease that included "small droplets and aerosol particles that contain the virus."

It's why in her statement, Nelson included ways to cost-effectively upgrade air systems for businesses.

"Were saying it more loudly now and with a unified voice across the federal government that the most important mitigation measures for restaurants and businesses are masking, distancing, and dilution or removal of COVID-19 virus particles in the air. These actions are more effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19 than sanitizing surfaces, which the CDC has said is not a substantial contributor to new infections," Nelson said.

But, according to Dr. Georgia Lagoudas, sanitizing is still a useful strategy.

"Over the past two years, we've had to deal with an evolving virus and learning new science," said Lagoudas, OSTP's Senior Advisor for Biotechnology and Bioeconomy.

In April 2020, (the same day former President Donald Trump infamously suggested digesting disinfectant to get rid of COVID-19), DHS acting under secretary Bill Bryan said the virus could survive on surfaces for up to 18 hours in low humidity, low temperature environments.

The idea of aerosolized virus staying suspended for up to three hours wasn't discussed. Officials were mostly focused on symptomatic or asymptomatic spread, in addition to figuring out how to detect and curb transmission, as well as identify what substances break down the viral particles.

However, identifying aerosols became especially important after it became clear asymptomatic spread was occurring at a higher rate than expected. It's why masking was recommended soon after Bryan's presentation.

"Those two things have made the difference for this over every other disease process that we've seen in our lifetimes," said Dr. Joe Vipond, an emergency room doctor in Calgary, about asymptomatic and airborne spread.

"But neither of these changes, by the WHO or the CDC, were done in an open fashion," Vipond added.

Linsey Marr, an aerosol expert and professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, noted the reliance on droplets missed the mark of how easily and effectively COVID-19 transmits.

Nelson used "strong, powerful, clear words that we should have heard from the CDC two years ago," Marr said.

Saskia Popescu, an assistant professor in the biodefense program at George Mason University, recently told Yahoo Finance the topic remains important.

"We definitely need to talk about aerosol transmission," she said.

"We need to make it very clear to people you can get infected by breathing it," Popsecu added.

Dr. Leyla Asadi, an infectious disease doctor, expressed a similar sentiment.

I think that the word airborne is very straightforward. It gives you a really excellent mental model, you dont need a complicated chart," she said.

Jose-Luis Jimenez, an aerosol expert and chemistry professor at the University of Colorado, has been one of the leaders of the effort to ensure global understanding of the virus's route of transmission.

He and Marr penned a recent op-ed highlighting the problem now is too many people will remember what they were first told which was that the virus didn't spread far. This is why the combination of COVID-fatigue and politically-aligned resistance to mask use will remain an obstacle for ending the pandemic, they wrote.

However, the outlook isn't entirely grim. With the White House now behind the push, improving indoor air quality is a goal that can be worked toward beyond COVID.

It's "something we should be thinking about not just because of COVID, but because of general health," Popescu said.

There have long been studies showing those in urban or lower-income areas suffer from chronic health issues related to poor air quality. With upgraded air systems, that could improve overall health.

Its a chronic problem of not investing in infrastructure, not investing in ventilation, NYCOSH's Jabsky said.

Prather noted, "We clean our water, we will not drink unfiltered water, but we will breathe unfiltered air. I mean, how does that make sense? We need cleaner indoor air."

Jabsky hopes the pandemic acts as a catalyst for the cause.

At this point, if were having a global pandemic that is due to a disease that is airborne (and that is) not incentive enough to deal with our ventilation issues, I just dont know what is going to be the stimulant, she said.

Marr explained what's needed is an overhaul of regulations and standards.

"I think there's longer term changes, in terms of how we design and operate our buildings that we should be thinking about. And, ultimately, to put some teeth into this, there will need to be standards and regulations. And those will take years," she said.

Follow Anjalee on Twitter @AnjKhem

Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance

Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn

Follow this link:

US, WHO officials and experts agree (sort of) on how COVID-19 spreads - Yahoo Finance

Daily coronavirus case counts in Massachusetts are hovering just above 1,000, representing a slight uptick in recent weeks. On Greater Boston, local doctors said the pandemic still isn't over, so it's important to keep your COVID-19 supplies stocked up to protect yourself and your loved ones.

"As much as we wish to put this behind us, it is still very much with us. We need to understand that increasingly, we see more severe COVID among people who are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated," said Dr. Cassandra Pierre, medical director of Boston Medical Center Public Health Programs.

Coronavirus hospitalization rates in Massachusetts have stayed low. Dr. Lakshman Swamy, critical care physician with Cambridge Health Alliance, said he currently doesn't have any COVID-19 patients in the ICU.

But, he added that COVID-19 is always on the horizon and it's important to have masks and testing kits at home. Swamy said indoor public spaces are still a good time to wear a mask and he also recommends testing at home before attending gatherings.

Another key step in this stage of COVID-19 is talking to your doctor as soon as you test positive to get access to prescription coronavirus treatments.

More broadly, Pierre said protecting yourself from COVID-19 starts with maintaining good overall health by getting screenings and taking care of chronic illness.

"That's going to put you in good stead for so many things including COVID, and this is the right time to do it. The weather is great and you want to make sure that you have a good summer," Pierre said.

Watch: How you can prep for COVID

Visit link:

The pandemic isn't over. What should you have in your COVID kit? - GBH News

Total vaccine doses distributed: 708,450,345

Patients whove received the first dose: 255,975,678

Patients whove received the second dose: 218,135,613

% of population fully vaccinated: 65.7%

% of infections tied to the Omicron Variant: 100%

Excerpt from:

Coronavirus Omicron variant, vaccine, and case numbers in the United States: April 8, 2022 - Medical Economics

Americans dont need to worry yet about a new coronavirus wave from the BA.2 variant, according to Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration.

The news: Gottlieb told CNBC Tuesday that he believes the United States will avoid a spring coronavirus wave from the BA.2 variant, which is a subvariant of the omicron variant.

Yes, but: Gottlieb said theres a chance COVID-19 cases are higher right now than believed, since people can get COVID-19 testing at home, which limits data collection of the national numbers.

The bigger picture: Experts have been debating whether the new BA.2 subvariant will cause a wave in the United States since it started to break out in Europe and Asia, as I reported for the Deseret News.

Read more:

Will there be a new COVID-19 wave from the BA.2 variant? - Deseret News

LONDON (AP) In the latest Senate package targeted at stopping the coronavirus, U.S. lawmakers dropped nearly all funding for curbing the virus beyond American borders, a move many health experts slammed as dangerously short-sighted.

They warn the suspension of COVID-19 aid for poorer countries could ultimately allow the kind of unchecked transmission needed for the next worrisome variant to emerge and unravel much of the progress achieved so far.

The U.S. has been the biggest contributor to the global pandemic response, delivering more than 500 million vaccines, and the lack of funding will be a major setback. The money has paid for numerous interventions, including a mass vaccination campaign in the Cameroonian capital that saw hundreds of thousands of people get their first dose, as well as the construction of a COVID-19 care facility in South Africa and the donation of 1,000 ventilators to that country.

Other U.S.-funded vaccination campaigns in dozens of countries, including Uganda, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Mali, could also come to a grinding halt.

READ MORE: Biden orders research push on long COVID, a still mysterious condition

Any stoppage of funds will affect us, said Misaki Wayengera, a Ugandan official who heads a technical committee advising the government on the pandemic response. He said Uganda has leaned heavily on donor help it received more than 11 million vaccines from the U.S. and that any cuts would make it very difficult for us to make ends meet.

This is a bit of a kick in the teeth to poor countries that were promised billions of vaccines and resources last year in grand pledges made by the G7 and the G20, said Michael Head, a global health research fellow at Britains Southampton University.

Given how badly weve failed on vaccine equity, its clear all of those promises have now been broken, he said, adding that without concerted effort and money to fight COVID-19 in the coming months, the pandemic could persist for years.

While about 66 percent of the American population has been fully immunized against the coronavirus, fewer than 15 percent of people in poorer countries have received a single dose. Health officials working on COVID-19 vaccination in developing countries supported by the U.S. say they expect to see a reversal of progress once the funds disappear.

Vaccination will stop or not even get started in some countries, said Rachel Hall, executive director of U.S. government advocacy at the charity CARE. She cited estimates from USAID that the suspended funding would mean scrapping testing, treatment and health services for about 100 million people.

Although vaccines are more plentiful this year, many poorer countries have struggled to get shots into arms and hundreds of millions of donated vaccines have either expired, been returned or sat unused. To address those logistical hurdles, U.S. aid has financed critical services in countries across Africa, including the safe delivery of vaccines, training health workers and fighting vaccine misinformation.

For example, in November the U.S. Embassy in the Cameroonian capital set up a tent for mass vaccination: Within the first five days, more than 300,000 people received a dose. Those kinds of events will now be harder to conduct without American funds.

Hall also noted there would be consequences far beyond COVID-19, saying countries struggling with multiple disease outbreaks, like Congo and Mali, would face difficult choices.

They will have to choose between fighting Ebola, malaria, polio, COVID and more, she said.

Jeff Zients, the outgoing leader of the White House COVID-19 task force, expressed regret the legislation doesnt include resources for the international pandemic fight, noting that would also compromise efforts to track the virus genetic evolution.

It is a real disappointment that theres no global funding in this bill, he said. This virus knows no borders, and its in our national interest to vaccinate the world and protect against possible new variants.

Still, Zients announced the U.S. would be the first to donate tens of millions of doses for children to poorer countries and said more than 20 nations had already requested the shots.

J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, lamented that lawmakers were erring on the side of optimism about the pandemic precisely when another surge might be arriving.

Weve made that mistake several times in this pandemic. And we may be making that mistake again, he said. In recent weeks, COVID-19 cases caused by the hugely infectious omicron subvariant BA.2 have surged across Europe, and American officials say they expect a U.S. spike soon.

Other experts worried the suspension of U.S. global support for COVID-19 might prompt officials to drop current vaccination goals. The World Health Organization had set a target of immunizing at least 70 percent of people in all countries by the middle of this year, but with nearly 50 countries vaccinating fewer than 20 percent of their populations, hitting that target is highly unlikely.

Instead, some organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation have pushed for officials to refocus vaccination goals away from vaccinating 70 percent of all adults by summer to vaccinating 90 percent of those most at-risk in each country, in what some critics say is an implicit acknowledgment of the worlds repeated failures to share vaccines fairly. Others point out there shouldnt be competing vaccine targets and that health authorities simply need to do more, rather than adjusting global goals.

In Nigeria, which has so far received at least $143 million in COVID-19 aid from the U.S, authorities dismissed suggestions their coronavirus programs would suffer as a result of lost funding. The Nigerian presidents office said help from the U.S. was mostly in kind via capacity building, research support and donations of laboratory equipment and vaccines. We are confident that this will not cause any disruption of our current programs, it said.

READ MORE: GOP blocks $10 billion Senate COVID bill, demands votes on immigration

However, others warned the U.S. decision set an unfortunate precedent for global cooperation to end the pandemic at a time when fresh concerns like the Ukraine war are drawing more attention.

U.S. President Joe Biden originally planned to convene a virtual summit in the first quarter of this year to keep international efforts on track, but no event has been scheduled.

In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, we dont yet have a final date for the summit, but we are working closely with countries and international partners to advance commitments, said a senior Biden administration official who was not authorized to comment publicly.

As of this month, WHO said it had gotten only $1.8 billion of the $16.8 billion needed from donors to speed access to coronavirus vaccines, medicines and diagnostics.

Nobody else is stepping up to fill the void at the moment and the U.S. decision to suspend funding may lead other donor countries to act similarly, said Dr. Krishna Udayakumar, director of Duke Universitys Global Health Innovation Center.

Keri Althoff, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, described the U.S. suspension of funding as devastating.

How could this possibly be what were debating right now? she asked. Its a moral obligation to the rest of the world to continue to contribute to this global pandemic response, not only to protect ourselves but to protect people from around the world.

AP writers Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda; Mogomotsi Magome and Andrew Meldrum in Johannesburg, and Chinedu Asadu in Lagos, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

Read this article:

Experts say U.S. suspension of international COVID aid will prolong pandemic - PBS NewsHour

Oneida County is distributing 4,000 more COVID-19 home test kits in Rome and Utica on Friday.

This is part of an effort at the state and local levels to increase accessibility to testing to curb the spread of COVID-19.

At this stage in the pandemic, testing is essential to keep us on the road to normalcy, Picente said. Home test kits make it extremely easy to ensure you are not spreading the virus to your family, friends, co-workers or among school populations. Oneida County will continue to make sure these tools are available to everyone who needs them.

The tests will be distributed from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Griffiss International Airport, 706 Hangar Road in Rome, and on Water Street in Utica. Those going to the Water Street giveaway should enter from Whitesboro Street by PJ Green and exit on Railroad Street by Union Station.

Each car will receive four test kits while supplies last.

Read the original post:

Free COVID-19 at-home test giveaways in Rome, Utica - WKTV