Category: Corona Virus

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) The Ohio Department of Health has released the latest numbers related to the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

Numbers as of Sunday, Jan. 9 follow:

The 21-day case average is above16,200.

The department reported5,521people started the vaccination process, bringing the total to7,056,859, which is 60.37% of the states population. And20,648received booster shots.

The Ohio Hospital Association reported the following numbers related to COVID-19 patients:

Gyms in Central Ohio are reinforcing its COVID protocols amidst the ongoing surge of cases. Services in areas across the country are breaking down due to the omicron variant. The omicron variants mutation is causing more breakthrough cases among fully vaccinated individuals and even individuals with a booster shot.

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Coronavirus in Ohio Sunday update: Just over 19,000 new cases and less than 100 new hospitalizations - WKBN.com

We asked readers who are immunocompromised, along with their family members, to share their pandemic experience and their outlook for the year ahead. Their responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.

I feel like Im required to be my own epidemiologist. Theres not enough known about Covid and people on B-cell inhibitors. Im trying to give myself the grace to be imperfect in figuring this out, and to give other people space to do their own risk calculations. But its not always easy. You dont want to always be arguing for your right to not be killed by other peoples decisions. I assume Ill wear a mask for the rest of my life. It actually feels empowering to admit to being immunocompromised although it also feels like its taken two years for people to be able to have some understanding of what that means. Adria Quiones, New York, N.Y.

I have been on immunosuppressants for nine years as a result of a bone-marrow transplant. I feel left behind by friends who are moving on with their lives, free to socialize in their vaccinated bubbles, and who fear being near me since they do not want to risk infecting me. I fear I will lose my identity and individuality and continue to shrink into anonymity. Risk-free options do not exist for me, and I do not see them coming anytime soon. Shari Kurita, Oakland, Calif.

I have serious lung disease and until vaccination was locked away in my house like Rapunzel. The pandemic cost me my relationship, social life and livelihood. Since being vaxxed, Ive been able to get out and about, see friends and family, even attend a few concerts. I flew to New York over Thanksgiving without ill effects. Ive figured out ways to teach private music lessons safely. Now, with Omicron spreading so fast, Im back in lockdown. Ill be wearing a mask in public spaces for the rest of my life. I doubt Ill have the same parade of private students through my living room again. T.P., Los Angeles

How do you describe the feeling of suddenly being trapped? It feels worse when I realize theres nothing holding you back except the selfishness of others. I could go to the movie theater when cases are low, but if just one jerk comes in and refuses to wear their mask, I could potentially end up in the hospital. I could go on dates and be careful, but if my date is careless, I could bring it home to my also-immunocompromised mom. It was a relief for me when things got worse and Governor Newsom reimposed the mask mandate because at least Im safer when Im out at a store. Daniella Gruber, Orange County, Calif.

Having cancer in a pandemic has, at least for now, turned me into a wary misanthrope. Neighbors I used to greet cheerily on the elevator, or acquaintances I see on rare trips to the grocery, are sometimes unmasked even indoors when signs are posted. They really dont care if I die is a recurrent thought, and I fear Ill never return fully to my openhearted self. Ann Bancroft, Coronado, Calif.

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Coronavirus Briefing: A Pandemic of the Forgotten - The New York Times

As omicron spreads, filling hospital beds and flooding emergency rooms and urgent cares with anxious patients, the employee hotline at Lehigh Valley Health Network has been ringing nonstop: Doctors, nurses, and other workers are calling out sick because of COVID-19. One day last week, the line was averaging more than one call a minute and some of the people who would usually be taking the calls were out sick, too.

In the last week, the unprecedented number of infections has sidelined teachers, bus drivers, trash collectors, and others in significant numbers, in some cases disrupting services and schools. The omicron variant is more transmissible and can evade vaccine protection; as health-care workers also catch the fast-spreading virus, it has added a new challenge for hospitals already strained by the worsening surge.

This particular wave has been intensified and has been magnified by the superimposed staffing crisis, said Timothy Friel, the chair of the department of medicine at Lehigh Valley Health Network. That has just made it even tougher.

Geisinger Health, which operates nine hospitals in northeastern and central Pennsylvania, had more than 10% of its staff in quarantine or isolation. About 270 Penn State Health employees a larger than usual number, but just over 1% of its staff were out of work Thursday.

Right now it seems like everybody knows many people who are infected, said Gerald Maloney, chief medical officer for health services at Geisinger. The number of people sick is crazy.

Some hospital leaders said their contact-tracing efforts showed workers generally catch the virus while out in the community, like everybody else, rather than at work.

READ MORE: Pa. nurses after 22 months of COVID-19 and a new surge: It is so defeating

Last month, several Pennsylvania hospitals, mainly in the western and central parts of the state, were already at capacity.

Since, the number of new infections has skyrocketed and the crisis has worsened hospitalizations, mainly of unvaccinated people, have increased from about 4,700 to more than 6,400 statewide just since Christmas causing even facilities in the Philadelphia region to cancel elective surgeries or tighten visitation policies.

Every day feels like a crisis, Friel said. The challenge is not knowing where the crisis is going to be what practice, what locations are going to have the most employees out sick.

In Pennsylvania, nearly a quarter of all COVID-19 tests are coming back positive, up from 15% last week. New Jersey officials said hospitals were preparing to see up to 30% of staff out because of COVID-19 exposure based on the states positivity rate.

Other places were reporting even higher numbers: Philadelphia, for example, had a nearly 40% positivity this week. And officials believe the number of cases is being undercounted because many people are testing at home or unable to find tests.

At hospitals, staffing was already a challenge, said Donald Yealy, chief medical officer at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Now you add on this short-term threat.

Gov. Tom Wolf on Friday announced the Department of Health and Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency would set up overflow sites and send medical staff, a signal of how critical the situation has become.

The regional sites will not open until February, however, and it was unclear when support staff would arrive. A spokesperson for the governor said the administration had not yet identified where the sites would open or which staffing agencies they would use. The office did not answer other questions about the plan. A few hospitals said they were waiting to learn more.

READ MORE: Why is it so hard to find a COVID-19 test? Sites are short-staffed, and rapid supply is low.

In York and Scranton, Department of Defense medics sent by the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived at two hospitals this week and are set to stay 30 days. New Jersey has also requested FEMA help, while the state National Guard will assist long-term care facilities, officials said.

The virus-related absences mean some are now having to move workers to different jobs or ask employees to pick up extra work. It also contributes to longer waits and backlogs, already a problem due to the high volume of patients and existing staffing shortages.

Geisinger has been recruiting staff to do additional jobs for extra pay, Maloney said for example, a pathologist whose workload is lighter than normal because the hospital has postponed many surgeries could pick up shifts giving vaccinations.

WellSpan Healths York Hospital has opened nearly 200 extra beds and converted spaces into patient wards and was so short on staff that it received the military medics from FEMA.

Theyre expecting those numbers to keep rising, which could put the hospitals ability to deliver care in jeopardy, CEO Roxanna Gapstur said Thursday.

No hospital is yet at a point where administrators say they are unable to provide acute care. But existing fatigue and burnout are compounding for employees at work.

I dont want anyone to think we are compromising on care, said Deborah Addo, Penn State Healths executive vice president and chief operating officer. But it might mean we are compromising on the livelihood of a caregiver.

As the United States continues to see a sharp, steady climb in the numbers of people infected and hospitalized, hospital rates in Pennsylvania and New Jersey were higher than the national average, according to federal data analyzed by the New York Times.

New Jersey had more than 5,600 people hospitalized on Friday, the highest number since the states spring 2020 peak. Pennsylvania had more than 6,400, its average number of daily hospitalizations climbing toward the winter 2020 peak.

ICU beds have steadily filled over the last few weeks. On Friday, the percentage of available beds ranged from 14% in northwest Pennsylvania to just under 10% in the northeast.

Hospitals in Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties still had capacity this week.

But the strain was intensifying in Philadelphia and Delaware County. Health Commissioner Cheryl Bettigole said the citys hospitals were extremely stressed on Tuesday, and the city on Thursday reported 1,162 COVID-19 patients in hospitals.

READ MORE: About 90% of COVID-19 patients in some of Pa.s hardest-hit hospitals are unvaccinated

We are getting close to the kind of dire situation we all dread in which treatable conditions can be fatal, she said, because our hospitals simply dont have room.

Delaware County medical adviser Lisa OMahony said medical reserve corps workers are being called in to fill staffing gaps, while all of the countys six hospitals were at capacity.

Some of the Pennsylvania hospitals that were overwhelmed a few weeks ago with COVID-19 patients say they are doing even worse now, and they expect it to get tougher before the surge abates. Geisinger was above capacity systemwide, and all UPMC facilities were at or near capacity.

If the situation worsens at Guthrie, it may have to designate one hospital for COVID-19 patients and others for non-virus-related care, said Michael Scalzone, chief quality officer.

South Jerseys hospitals are fuller than in April 2020, and more children are currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in New Jersey than at any point during the pandemic, Health Commissioner Judith Persichilli said.

Exhausted hospital workers are hoping models predicting that the omicron surge could soon peak New Jersey officials said that could be as soon as Jan. 14 for hospitalizations prove accurate.

One hope that we cling to is [given] how quickly omicron has driven up numbers, we will see a rapid decline, said Friel, of Lehigh Valley Health. We keep telling each other, One more week, two more weeks, we can keep doing it.

Read more here:

COVID-19 surge has overwhelmed some Pa. hospitals and now their workers are getting sick, too - The Philadelphia Inquirer

In Italy, it is now obligatory for people aged 50 or over to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Greece is pondering a similar move. In France, which has seen record numbers of positive cases, President Emmanuel Macron has also announced that he wants to piss off the unvaccinated, while Austria is contemplating a law to make the vaccine mandatory for all its citizens. By contrast, in the UK, Boris Johnson has confined himself to accusing anti-vaxxers of talking mumbo-jumbo.

But is that enough? Should the UK take a harder line on those who refuse to be vaccinated? After all, this is a virus that threatens to overwhelm the NHS. As doctors continue to point out, hospital beds are now filling up with more and more seriously ill Covid patients, many of whom are unvaccinated. So, should vaccines against Covid be made mandatory, not just in certain workplace settings but for all individuals?

What is the case for making Covid vaccines mandatory?

Most British scientists believe that increasing numbers of vaccinated people will give a major boost to efforts to limit hospitalisations from serious Covid complications. However, many question the wisdom of doing this by making vaccination mandatory. The issue is summed up by vaccine expert Peter English.

Unvaccinated people are very much more likely to become ill and consume disproportionate healthcare resources. A single case of Covid-19 requiring admission to an ICU can block a bed that could be used for many critical operations, he told the Observer. However, the backlash that could occur as a result of compulsory vaccination which is not part of our culture, unlike in Italy might mean even fewer people coming forward for vaccination, so it is not something that I would recommend.

What vaccines are mandatory in the UK?

The answer to this is straightforward, said child health expert, Professor Helen Bedford of University College London. We dont mandate any vaccine in the UK. We recommend that people have certain vaccines and advise parents to have their children vaccinated against particular diseases but we do not enforce that in law. In fact, the only vaccine we have ever mandated in Britain was smallpox and the legislation enforcing its use was repealed in the 1940s.

Other countries have more of a tradition for mandatory vaccinations, however. For example, Italy now has a total of 10 vaccines that are mandatory.

What has been the impact of the Omicron variant, which is easier to catch but is thought to be less likely to cause serious illness?

This is a key question, said psychologist Marie Juanchich of Essex University. I believe Omicron is changing things. People feel a bit safer with it. It may spread really rapidly but its severity is perceived to be lower. People are much more concerned about the severity of an illness and less concerned about the infectiousness of the virus that causes it.

This point is backed by psychologist Simon Williams, at Swansea University. There is now a widespread perception that Omicron is milder and I think a lot of people have taken that to mean they dont have to worry about it and are not adjusting their behaviour., he said.

A particular problem was the take-up of the booster vaccine last month, which was helped by the publics wish not to disrupt the festive season with the virus. The fact that this risk has passed might have removed some of the drive to take up the vaccine, Williams added. One of the things we have come across is a factor we call variant fatigue, which translates as people saying: Oh, here we go again, a new variant. This is what viruses do; we just need to get on with our lives. Thats not great from a public health perspective.

So how should we improve Covid-19 vaccination rates?

An important issue is to differentiate between a diehard anti-vaxxer and someone who has nagging doubts about getting a vaccine, said Bedford. If you lump them together, you will miss the chance to persuade those who have genuine concerns but who could change their minds and get vaccinated.

We need to get to the people in this latter category although that takes time and resources. Some GPs have been ringing up all their unvaccinated patients to have a chat and that has proven to be effective. However, it is hard work. Nor does it have to be a doctor, it might be a religious leader or community leader.

Certainly, from my own experience, I find that if you actually sit down with a doubter, listen to what their concern is, and respond appropriately, very often, you can encourage them to be vaccinated. Certainly, I dont think we should be thinking about mandating or making a vaccine compulsory.

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Coronavirus: should the UK make vaccination mandatory? - The Guardian

Reports about dual infection with the flu virus and the coronavirus have been making sensational headlines recently. Last week Israel confirmed its first case of flurona, in an unvaccinated woman, followed by a growing number of cases in children in the United States. None were seriously ill, but the name flurona stuck.

It sounds like sharknado, Dr. Saad B. Omer, the director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, said. But its not a known medical term.

As flu season sets in and the Omicron variant continues to surge, how worried should we be? We spoke to experts to better understand what it could mean to test positive for both infections. Heres what we learned.

People have been testing positive for both Covid-19 and influenza, or flu, since the pandemic began.

From late January to late March 2020, researchers in China found almost 100 cases of patients testing positive for both illnesses in Wuhan. The Atlantic reported on a family in Queens that tested positive for both infections that February. And researchers in Barcelona published a paper in May 2020 describing four people with both illnesses in the early months of the pandemic.

At the time, before vaccines were available, such dual infections, or what infectious disease experts call co-infections, appeared to be uncommon. A spring 2020 study in New York City, for instance, found that after about 1,200 Covid-19 patients were tested for other respiratory viruses, such as those causing influenza or the common cold, just 36, or less than 3 percent, had simultaneous infections. Last winter was also a notably subdued cold and flu season, with fewer people socializing and many wearing masks.

The reason we havent talked about it much is that its not been clinically a challenge yet, said Dr. Jonathan D. Grein, an infectious disease physician and the director of hospital epidemiology at Cedars Sinai Medical Center. We anticipate that as flu becomes more prevalent, we will see more co-infections. If it becomes a serious problem, experts expect to know a lot more about it in the coming months.

A co-infection doesnt immediately mean that a patient will be doubly sick. A strong immune response may actually help the body fight off pathogens of all types, so one infection could stimulate some additional protection.

An infection to one might help to aid your immune response to another, Dr. Grein said, because its activating that same immune response thats going to be effective in fighting both.

Still, scientists dont know for sure yet, because so few people have tested positive for both Covid-19 and influenza. But judging from past trends, doctors are not overly worried.

The majority of people who have influenza do just fine. The majority of people who have Covid do just fine, especially if theyre vaccinated, said Dr. Andrew D. Badley, an infectious disease specialist and the chair of the SARS-CoV-2 Covid-19 Task Force at the Mayo Clinic. It is hard to predict, he continued, but we expect that the majority of people who are co-infected with the two viruses will also do just fine.

But as Dr. Badley and other experts pointed out, its generally better to have one infection rather than two. Theres more chance for complications with two infections, and its a bigger strain on the body.

The human immune system can create antibodies for multiple pathogens simultaneously, said Dr. Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and associate professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, who studies influenza.

But given the choice between being infected with one or two, I would always choose one, he continued, adding, I cant tell you that two is so much worse than one, but the less viral threats, the better.

Jan. 9, 2022, 3:48 p.m. ET

Dr. Omer, who is also a professor of infectious disease and epidemiology at Yale, identified two groups he thought could be most susceptible to co-infection.

First: unvaccinated adults. Based on previous work on vaccinations, people who refuse one vaccine might refuse others as well, he said. He said he expected there to be a significant overlap between people who refuse both vaccines.

Second: children, especially those under 5, who are too young to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Kids are also petri dishes, as any parent will tell you, and have lived through fewer cycles of the flu. So even if a child got a flu shot, Dr. Omer said, their library of protection is narrow against the many viral flu strains that can emerge each year.

Experts agreed that a patient who is already vulnerable to severe disease from one illness may suffer even more if doubly infected.

It is probable that those people who would have had a bad outcome from flu will have a very bad outcome from the combination of flu and Covid, Dr. Badley said.

Pediatricians were optimistic that flurona would not overwhelm most children. Thats because kids may be more likely than adults to get multiple infections at the same time.

Its not that surprising to most of the people who work in pediatrics, said Dr. Frank Esper, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Cleveland Clinic Childrens Hospital. We see co-infections all the time.

Co-infections with coronavirus are expected, Dr. Esper continued. I do not find it to be alarming. His research team has found that co-infections with a variety of respiratory viruses are more common in children than adults. Other earlier studies likewise suggest that infection with two concurrent viruses do not make a child sicker, he said.

Dr. Aaron M. Milstone, a professor of pediatric infectious disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, also said he was cautiously optimistic. Just because a child has two viruses, he said, doesnt mean that the immune response will be twice as aggressive or generate twice as many symptoms.

Because the viruses have been co-circulating, it is very reassuring especially for parents that we have not seen a lot of children coming into the hospital with severe co-infections, Dr. Milstone said. He added, Were not all of a sudden seeing more kids in the intensive care unit.

First and foremost: Dont panic. It may be extra stressful, but that doesnt mean youre about to get extra sick. Also, its possible that you may have already had one virus and recovered from it, but that its still showing up in your test results.

If your symptoms are serious, or you have trouble breathing, call your doctor. Doctors said they would probably treat a patient who had both infections similarly to the way they would treat someone who had just one. Experts do not believe the treatments would work against each other or cause problems in the patients body.

The decision to treat for Covid has to do with how sick you are, Dr. Badley said. That would not change if you had flu at the same time. What might change is that you might also get therapies that are directed toward influenza.

On this one, the medical advice remains consistent: Get vaccinated for both Covid and flu. And get vaccinated right now.

Both kids and adults can get both vaccines at the same time. Children ages 5 years and older are eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine, and children older than 6 months can get vaccinated against the flu.

We have given multiple vaccines at the same time for decades, Dr. Badley said, with no ill effects. The side effects are the same when administered together, and the side effects for both vaccines are very, very low.

In addition, experts agree you should wear masks and maintain social distancing measures when appropriate. Both flu and the coronavirus are airborne viruses, so limiting your exposure cuts down on your chances of getting infected.

If you dont want to get the coronavirus, and you dont want to get flu, Dr. Esper said, the best thing you could do is: Do basically everything you did last year.

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Flu and Covid at the Same Time? Your 'Flurona' Questions, Answered - The New York Times

"It really is, right now, a viral blizzard because there's a lot of infections," said Dr. Samer Antonios, chief clinical officer at Ascension Via Christi Health in Kansas, where Gov. Laura Kelly signed a state of disaster emergency this week due to Covid-19 challenges.

Because of staffing shortages in some health care systems around the country, through illnesses or people quitting because of exhaustion, the nation "cannot provide that same quality of care to 130,000 patients now like we did last year," Dr. Taison Bell, director of the medical intensive care unit at the University of Virginia Health, told CNN Saturday.

In New York, 40 hospitals -- mainly in the Mohawk Valley, Finger Lakes and central regions -- have been told to stop nonessential elective operations for at least two weeks because of low patient bed capacity, the state health department said Saturday.

Vaccine requirements changing

The US Food and Drug Administration on Friday amended the emergency use authorization for Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine, shortening the period of time between initial vaccination and the booster shot from at least six months to five months for those over the age of 18.

"Vaccination is our best defense against Covid-19, including the circulating variants, and shortening the length of time between completion of a primary series and a booster dose may help reduce waning immunity," said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.

The FDA has already shortened the time needed before receiving a booster shot of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine from six to five months. The Pfizer booster is authorized for everyone age 12 and older.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday she is mandating all healthcare workers to get a Covid-19 booster shot within two weeks of eligibility.

"Healthcare workers will be asked to do this with no exemptions other than a medical exemption and no test out options," Hochul said. All healthcare workers were previously required to be fully vaccinated in September.

Neighboring Connecticut issued a similar order Thursday, as long-term care staff and hospital employees are mandated to receive booster doses in the upcoming weeks.

Debate over Covid-19 safety measures in schools

At Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), the positivity rate for children tested for Covid-19 has increased from 17.5% in December to 45% to date in January, according to CHLA Medical Director Dr. Michael Smit.

CHLA currently has 41 patients in-house who have tested positive for Covid-19, and roughly one quarter of the children admitted to the facility with Covid-19 require admission to the pediatric ICU, with some requiring intubation, Smit told CNN Saturday.

In response to rising pediatric hospitalizations, disputes over whether in-person learning is ideal during the Omicron surge and how students can safely attend school are playing out in various school districts this week.

Nearly 13% of New York City students tested positive for Covid-19 over a 24-hour period, according to sample testing from the city's department of education Thursday. No schools are closed at this time due to Covid-19 cases, according to additional DOE data, but six school classrooms remain closed.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) had voted to teach remotely due to the Covid-19 surge, but the school district canceled classes, saying it wanted in-person learning.

The CTU presented a new proposal to Lightfoot on Saturday the union said would provide clarity on a return to the classroom, create increased safety and testing protocols and restart the education process for students.

CPS rejected the proposal, saying it looked forward "to continued negotiations to reach an agreement."

The school district did agree with CTU's request they provide KN95 masks for all staff and students for the remainder of the school year and said they will continue to provide weekly Covid-19 testing to all students and staff.

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said in a statement Saturday his office had helped secure 350,000 rapid antigen tests for Chicago Public Schools.

"I am committed to seeing our kids and teachers safely in classrooms ASAP," he said in the statement.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, students and employees will need to show a negative Covid-19 test result before in-person learning resumes Tuesday.

The baseline test requirement was implemented at the beginning of the school year in August, and the district announced a week ago both the baseline test, along with required weekly testing for all employees and students would continue through January, given the current Omicron surge.

"Ghostbusters-level" sanitation practices, along with other protocols like universal masking, have allowed every one of the district's more than 1,000 schools to stay open for in-person learning this academic year, LAUSD Chief Communications Officer Shannon Haber told CNN Saturday.

The Georgia Department of Public Health posted an updated administrative order Wednesday allowing teachers and school staff -- regardless of vaccination status -- to return to work after a Covid-19 exposure or a positive Covid-19 test if they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask while at work.

"Students, parents, and educators have made it clear to us that they want to be in the classroom, and we are looking into many methods to continue safe, in-person learning -- including updated quarantine and isolation protocols, reduced contact tracing requirements, and augmented testing opportunities," the letter from Kemp and Toomey said.

Local school districts may still develop and follow their own quarantine and isolation requirements, according to the order.

CNN's Natasha Chen, Naomi Thomas, Deidre McPhillips, Kaitlan Collins, Chris Boyette, Michelle Watson, Carma Hassan, Laura Dolan, Steve Almasy, Melissa Alonso, Raja Razek and Rob Frehse contributed to this report.

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States are scrambling to keep up with an increase in Covid-19 hospitalizations and the demand for testing - CNN

The UK has recorded 141,472 new COVID-19 cases and a further 97 deaths in the latest 24-hour period.

The latest government figures compare to 146,390 infections and 313 fatalities recorded on Saturday, which took the UK's total COVID-related death toll to more than 150,000.

This time last week, 151,663 cases were reported along with 73 deaths.

Follow the latest COVID updates from the UK and around the world

Since the beginning of the pandemic, 150,154 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus.

A total of 47,677,951 people have now been double jabbed after 45,468 received their second dose - which is 82.9% of the population aged 12 and over.

Another 225,541 people were given a booster or third dose, bringing the total to 35,499,486 - 61.7% of eligible people in the country.

Cabinet minister in favour of cutting self-isolation period

Meanwhile, Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi has told Sky News he is in favour of reducing the COVID-19 self-isolation period from seven days to just five.

At the moment, people in England who test positive can come out of isolation if they receive a negative lateral flow test on days six and seven - with the tests taken 24 hours apart.

If they still test positive, they have to continue to isolate for 10 days.

Mr Zahawi said the possible reduction is being looked at by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and stressed the government would have to be "careful" about making the change.

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"It would certainly help mitigate some of the pressures on schools, on critical workforce and others," Mr Zahawi told Trevor Phillips on Sunday.

"But I would absolutely be driven by advice from the experts, the scientists, on whether we should move to five days from seven days.

"What you don't want is to create the wrong outcome by higher levels of infection."

No plans to scale back free lateral flow tests

It comes following a report in The Sunday Times that the government is looking to scale back free lateral flow tests to high-risk settings - something Mr Zahawi said is "absolutely not" where ministers are at.

He confirmed that there were no plans to stop handing out tests free of charge, adding he did "not recognise" the story that they could be limited to care homes, hospitals, schools and people with symptoms.

Following the newspaper's report, Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned the UK government about scaling back tests, saying it would be "utterly wrongheaded".

"Hard to imagine much that would be less helpful to trying to 'live with' COVID," she tweeted.

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COVID-19: UK records 141,472 new cases and further 97 coronavirus-related deaths - Sky News

On Thursday, the Journal of the American Medical Association(JAMA)published three opinion articles by six former advisers to the Biden administration. They were part of the transition team about a year ago when President Biden took office and include people likeLuciana Borio, a former acting chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration and oncologist, and former adviser in the Obama administrationEzekiel Emanuel, who is a medical ethicist andprofessorat theUniversity of Pennsylvania.

Each opinion article addresses a different aspect of a national strategy:a new normal life with COVID-19, testing and mitigation, andvaccines and therapeutics.In the first piece outlining a new normal, the authors write, In delineating a national strategy, humility is essential. The precise duration of immunity to SARS-CoV-2 from vaccination or prior infection is unknown.

They continue, It is imperative for public health, economic, and social functioning that US leaders establish and communicate specific goals for COVID-19 management, benchmarks for the imposition or relaxation of public health restrictions, investments and reforms needed to prepare for future SARS-CoV-2 variants and other novel viruses, and clear strategies to accomplish all of this.

The experts write that the goal for a new normal is not eradication of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, or what other countries are calling "zero COVID." They call for the recognition that this coronavirus is one of many types of viruses that circulate regularly in our population, saying we should focus instead on the aggregate risk of all respiratory virus infections.

Our country is in a historic fight against the coronavirus. Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.

In theJAMApiece about testing, surveillance and mitigation strategies,the experts call for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to "collect and disseminate accurate real-time, population-based incidence data on COVID-19 and all viral respiratory illnesses.They say the U.S. needs a comprehensive testing and reporting system and needs to be linked to sociodemographic, vaccination, and clinical outcomes data.The authors also point out the need forlow-costtesting, such as rapid at-home antigen tests. The Biden administration does have plans to distribute 500millionof these, but experts question whether it will be enough and whether the process for getting the tests will be clear and equitable.

Regarding surveillance, the experts highlight the need for environmental surveillance with wastewater and air sampling. They also call for more genomic surveillance tomonitor fornew variants. The US needs to establish a real-time, opt-out digital surveillance system to monitor all vaccinated individuals for the frequency and severity of adverse effects, postvaccination infections, and waning immunity, write the authors. Two years into the pandemic, the US is still heavily reliant on data from Israel and the UK for assessing the effectiveness and durability of COVID-19 vaccines and rate of vaccine breakthrough infections.

The former advisers think that updated vaccines will eventually be necessary, but they also say that the government will need to do more for the developmentand efficient deployment of them. Achieving 90% population vaccination coverage will require mandates write the authors. Few countries have ever achieved such levels of coverage of any vaccine without vaccination requirements.

TheseJAMAopinion articles were shown to White House officials before they were published, and the authors say that they wrote them partly because discussions with them had not led anywhere, according to The New York Times.Borio says, according to the Times,From amacroperspective, it feels like we are always fighting yesterdays crisis and not necessarily thinking what needs to be done today to prepare us for what comes next.

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Health experts want to focus on 'new normal' with the coronavirus | TheHill - The Hill

CHICAGO (AP) Talks between Chicago school leaders and the teachers' union resume Sunday amid a standoff over remote learning and other COVID-19 safety measures.

The situation looms over the start of a second week of school after three days of canceled classes in the nations third-largest district.

Chicago schools face the same pandemic issues as others nationwide, with a growing number of districts reverting to remote learning as infections explode during the omicron-fueled surge and sideline staff members.

But the situation in union-friendly Chicago has been amplified in a labor dispute thats familiar to families in the mostly low-income Black and Latino district whove seen several similar disruptions in the last few years.

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Chicago's COVID-19 fight with teachers hangs over a 2nd week - KMTV - 3 News Now

(THE CONVERSATION) The omicron variant quickly took over the global coronavirus landscape after it was first reported in South Africa inlate November 2021. The U.S. became the24th country to reporta case of omicron infection whenhealth officials announcedon Dec. 1, 2021, that the new strain had been identified in a patient in California.

How do scientists know what versions of the coronavirus are present? How quickly can they see which viral variants are making inroads in a population?

Alexander SundermannandLee Harrisonare epidemiologists who studynovel approachesforoutbreak detection. Here they explain how the genomic surveillance system works in the U.S. and why its important to know which virus variants are circulating.

What is genomic surveillance?

Genomic surveillance provides an early warning system for SARS-CoV-2. The same way a smoke alarm helps firefighters know where a fire is breaking out, genomic surveillance helps public health officials see which coronavirus variants are popping up where.

Labs sequence the genome in coronavirus samples taken from patients COVID-19 tests. These are diagnostic PCR tests thathave come back positive for SARS-CoV-2. Then scientists are able to tell from the viruss genome which coronavirus variant infected the patient.

By sequencing enough coronavirus genomes, scientists are able to build up a representative picture of which variants are circulating in the population overall. Some variants have genetic mutations that have implications for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. So genomic surveillance can inform decisions about the right countermeasures helping to control and put out the fire before it spreads.

For example, theomicron variant has mutations that diminishhow well existing COVID-19 vaccines work. In response, officialsrecommended booster shotsto enhance protection. Similarly, mutations in omicron reduce the effectiveness of some monoclonal antibodies, which are used both to prevent and treat COVID-19 in high-risk patients. Knowing which variants are circulating is therefore crucial for determining which monoclonal antibodies are likely to be effective.

How does genomic surveillance work in the US?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention leads a consortium called the National SARS-CoV-2 Strain Surveillance (NS3) system. It gathers around 750 SARS-CoV-2-positive samples per week from state public health labs across the U.S. Independent of CDC efforts, commercial, university, and health department laboratories sequence additional specimens.

Each type of lab has its own strengths in genomic surveillance. Commercial laboratories can sequence a high number of tests, rapidly. Academic partners can provide research expertise. And public health laboratories can supply insight into local transmission dynamics and outbreaks.

Regardless of the source, the sequence data is generally made publicly available and therefore contributes to genomic surveillance.

What data gets tracked?

When a lab sequences a SARS-CoV-2 genome, it uploads the results to a public database that includes when and where the coronavirus specimen was collected.

The open-access Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data (GISAID) is an example of one of these databases. Scientists launchedGISAIDin 2008 to provide a quick and easy way to see what influenza strains were circulating across the globe. Since then, GISAID has grown and pivoted to now provide access to SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences.

The database compares a samples genetic information to all the other samples collected and shows how that particular strain has evolved.To date, over 6.7 million SARS-CoV-2 sequences from 241 countries and territories have been uploaded to GISAID.

Taken together, this patchwork of genomic surveillance data provides a picture of the current variants spreading in the U.S. For example, on Dec. 4, 2021, the CDC projected that omicron accounted for 0.6% of the COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Theestimated proportionrose to 95% by Jan. 1, 2022. Surveillance gave a stark warning of how quickly this variant was becoming predominant, allowing researchers to study which countermeasures would work best.

Its important to note, however, that genomic surveillance data is often dated. The time between a patient taking a COVID-19 test and the viral genome sequence getting uploaded to GISAID can be many days or even weeks. Because of the multiple steps in the process, themedian time from collection to GISAIDin the U.S. ranges from seven days (Kansas) to 27 days (Alaska). The CDC uses statistical methods to estimate variant proportions for the most recent past until the official data has come in.

How many COVID-19 samples get sequenced?

Earlier in 2021, the CDC and other public health laboratories were sequencing about 10,000 COVID-19 specimens per week total. Considering thathundreds of thousands of caseshave been diagnosed weekly during most of the pandemic, epidemiologists considered that number to betoo small a proportionto provide a complete picture of circulating strains. More recently, the CDC and public health labs have been sequencing closer to around60,000 cases per week.

Despite this improvement, there is still a wide gap in the percentages of COVID-19 cases sequenced from state to state, ranging from a low of 0.19% in Oklahoma to a high of 10.0% in North Dakotawithin the past 30 days.

Moreover, the U.S. overall sequences a much smaller percentage of COVID-19 cases compared to some other countries: 2.3% in the U.S. compared to the 7.0% in the U.K., 14.8% in New Zealand, and 17% in Israel.

Which COVID-19 tests get sequenced?

Imagine if researchers collected COVID-19 tests from only one neighborhood in an entire state. The surveillance data would be biased toward the variant circulating in that neighborhood since people are likely transmitting the same strain locally. The system might not even register another variant that is gaining steam in a different city.

Thats why scientists aim to gather a diverse sample from across a region. Random geographically and demographically representative sampling gives researchers a good sense of the big picture in terms of which variants are predominant or diminishing.

Why dont patients in the US get variant results?

There are a few reasons patients are generally not informed about the results if their specimen gets sequenced.

First, the time lag from specimen collection to sequence results is often too long to make the information clinically useful. Many patients will have progressed far into their illness by the time their variant is identified.

Second, the information is often not relevant for patient care. Treatment options are largely the same regardless of what variant has caused a COVID-19 infection. In some cases, a doctor might select the most appropriate monoclonal antibodies for treatment based on which variant a patient has, but this information can often be gleaned fromfaster laboratory methods.

As we begin 2022, it is more important than ever to have a robust genomic surveillance program that can capture whatever thenext new coronavirus variantis. A system that provides a representative picture of current variants and fast turnaround is ideal. Proper investment ingenomic surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogensand data infrastructure will aid the U.S. in fighting future waves of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.

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From delta to omicron, heres how scientists know which coronavirus variants are circulating in the US - KRQE News 13