Total vaccine doses distributed: 632,575,655
Patients who've received the first dose: 245,653,518
Patients whove received the second dose: 207,016,514
% of population fully vaccinated: 62.4%
% of infections tied to the Omicron Variant: 95.4%
% of infections tied to the Delta Variant: 4.6%
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) The Ohio Department of Health has released the latest number of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Numbers as of Thursday, Jan. 6 follow:
The 21-day case average is above 14,900.
The department reported9,738people started the vaccination process, bringing the total to7,032,160, which is 60.16% of the states population. And31,977received booster shots.
The Ohio Hospital Association reported the following numbers related to COVID-19 patients:
Ohios nursing homes said theyre facing a staffing shortage that is getting worse every day. The official number of reported COVID-19 cases could be significantly underestimated, according to health leaders. The disparity comes from an unknown number of unreported at-home rapid test results. Influential government advisers are strongly urging that teens as young as 12 get COVID-19 boosters as soon as theyre eligible, a key move as the U.S. battlesthe omicron surgeandschools strugglewith how to restart classes amid the spike.
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Coronavirus in Ohio Thursday update: Another day of more than 19,000 new cases - WKBN.com
On November 24, 2021, scientists in South Africa revealed that they had discovered a worrying new variant of SARS-CoV-2.
They reported that the variant was spreading very rapidly in southern Africa and contained a large number of unusual mutations likely to make the virus more infectious than previous variants.
Within days of the scientists announcement, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the new variant, called Omicron, was a variant of concern.
Confirming the scientists early fears, by early January 2022, Omicron was driving an unprecedented surge in cases worldwide.
Many of the mutations that health experts identified in Omicron are rare among previously sequenced variants of the virus.
This presents a puzzle for scientists because there are no known intermediate variants to reveal how Omicron evolved. It is almost as if the new variant appeared out of nowhere.
There are three alternative theories for the origin of Omicron:
The second theory is the most popular among virologists and epidemiologists.
However, some experts have argued that other viruses, such as the influenza virus, tend to become less infectious over time in individuals with compromised immune systems.
They cite evidence that while such viruses evolve adaptations to their hosts immune system, they accumulate other mutations that make them less able to cause infections in other people.
However, Omicron appears to be more infectious than all previously known variants.
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing have now found evidence that Omicron may have evolved its large collection of unusual mutations in mice.
They believe that an earlier variant, from the lineage known as B.1.1, jumped from a human into a mouse in mid-2020. Over time, it evolved a range of adaptations to its new host before causing an infection in another human in late 2021.
They identified 45 point mutations in the RNA of Omicron that they propose occurred after the variant split from its last known common ancestor in humans.
Point mutations are substitutions of single chemical letters, known as bases, in the four-letter genetic code.
Past research suggests RNA viruses tend to pick up more mutations in particular bases, according to which animal host they are replicating inside.
Using this knowledge, the authors of the new paper have previously identified the mutation signature of different animal hosts of SARS-CoV-2.
Their new study found that the relative frequency of the new point mutations in Omicron is characteristic of evolution in a mouse host rather than a human host.
They discovered that the mutation signature of Omicron is different from several variants known to have evolved in humans, including three variants isolated from patients with chronic COVID-19.
The scientists also found that several mutations in Omicrons spike protein, which SARS-CoV-2 uses to cause infection in host cells, help the virus bind more tightly to its target receptor in mice.
They have published their findings in the Journal of Genetics and Genomics.
In the paper, they conclude:
Collectively, our results suggest that the progenitor of Omicron jumped from humans to mice, rapidly accumulated mutations conducive to infecting that host, then jumped back into humans, indicating an inter-species evolutionary trajectory for the Omicron outbreak.
Biologist Matt Ridley, author of Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19, responded to the study on Twitter:
Looks like Omicron developed from a human variant in a mouse. The question is: what mice and where? House mice in homes? Or lab mice in labs?
We believe that Omicron likely evolved in a wild mouse population, the senior author of the study, Wenfeng Qian, Ph.D., told Medical News Today.
He said that mutations in the spike protein of Omicron significantly overlapped with mutations in SARS-CoV-2 viruses that have adapted to a mouse host.
However, 18 out of a total of 25 mutations in the Omicron spike were not present in any of the SARS-CoV-2 viruses they studied that were adapted to lab mice.
In addition, he pointed out that Omicron appears to have diverged from the B.1.1 lineage, with which it shares seven mutations.
It is implausible that a lab will use a B.1.1 variant for their mouse adaptation experiments, he commented. Instead, he said they would most likely use a strain of SARS-CoV-2 that researchers sequenced at the start of the pandemic, known as Wuhan-Hu-1.
Evolutionary biologist Mike Worobey, Ph.D., of the University of Arizona in Tucson, said the most plausible theory remained that Omicron evolved in an immune-compromised patient with a protracted [SARS-CoV-2] infection.
I think their approach is really interesting, but I still think it is more likely that the unusual array of mutations in Omicron occurred in a chronically human [with the infection], he told MNT.
For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.
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Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that 10 hospital-based COVID-19 testing sites will be fully operational by the end of next week, part of a larger effort to increase testing in Maryland.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Thursday that 10 hospital-based COVID-19 testing sites will be fully operational by the end of next week, with 10 more to open after that as part of a larger effort to increase coronavirus testing throughout the state.
The goal, the governor said, is to keep people from going to crowded emergency rooms to get a test.
Hogan spoke at the University of Maryland Laurel Medical Center, which will serve as one of the 10 soon-to-be-opened sites. Another testing site will also launch in partnership with the federal government at St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, where the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide staffing support.
They will join two hospital-based testing sites that opened last week: the University of Maryland Chesapeake Medical Center and the Luminis Health Anne Arundel Medical Center.
All sites will be open daily to walk-ups, with no appointment necessary.
Were making progress, Hogan said. Weve opened up a couple now already, and with the additional 10 sites by the end of next week and another 10 after that, hopefully its going to make a difference.
Hogan said hes already noticed a dramatic difference at the Chesapeake Medical Center, which has reported a 72% drop in emergency room visits since the outside testing site was set up.
More Coronavirus News
Looking for more information? D.C., Maryland and Virginia are each releasing more data every day. Visit their official sites here: Virginia | Maryland | D.C.
We dont need to go to an emergency room to get a test, Hogan stressed. Theres people really sick that are coming to the emergency rooms that our health care heroes need to take care of.
Hogan said Maryland has an abundant supply of PCR tests.
In addition, were in the process of distributing 1 million at-home rapid tests through local health departments, and were finalizing numerous additional emergency procurements to acquire as many more rapid tests as we possibly can from multiple sources, he said, noting that Maryland is on track to receive another 500,000 at-home rapid tests in the next week.
The surge in demand for testing has been largely driven by the rapid spread of the omicron variant. Hogan said omicron now accounts for 90% of lab-confirmed COVID cases and 90% of COVID hospitalizations in the state.
Mohan Suntha, president and CEO of the University of Maryland Medical System, said hospitals are seeing a sharp rise in patients because of the omicron variant stress that is borne by our front-line health care workforce.
Across our health system at the University of Maryland Medical System, a month ago, we had 200 patients with COVID-19. Today, that number stands at 800, Suntha said.
He said that 75% of the patients who are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated, while less than 5% of patients are vaccinated and boosted.
So an important message in helping support our health care workforce is to be vaccinated and to be boosted because the data I just gave you are facts.
Suntha said that includes children, who are now eligible to be vaccinated, noting that the state has also seen a rise in the hospitalization of children with COVID.
Hogan said hes excited that 12- to 17-year-olds now qualify for booster shots. He said that while Maryland is one of the most vaccinated states in the country, with 92% of its residents vaccinated, his administration will continue hammering home the message that people need to get vaccinated and boosted.
Although its a small number of people here in our state 8% of the people who have refused to get the vaccine we just still encourage you to do it, Hogan said, pointing out that less than 8% of the people are responsible for 75% of the hospitalizations and deaths. I mean, I dont know how much clearer to make it to you the vaccines and boosters work.
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Hogan says 10 new hospital-based COVID testing sites to open in Maryland - WTOP
by: Eli Sherman, Nexstar Media Wire
Eleanor Slater Hospital (Credit: WPRI)
CRANSTON, R.I. (WPRI) A Rhode Island hospital is grappling with an outbreak of coronavirus cases among patients just days after the state-run facility called in COVID-19-positive workers to help cover shifts amid an ongoing staffing shortage.
Eleanor Slater Hospital in Cranston on Thursday reported 28 patients had tested positive for the virus as of that morning, totaling about 14% of the facilitys roughly 200 patients. The outbreak of cases comes in the wake of the state announcing it would align with federal guidance and permit COVID-positive health care workers to continue treating patients.
Eleanor Slater used two asymptomatic COVID-positive workers to staff operations on Saturday and three more on Monday, according to the states website.
As Eleanor Slater Hospital takes steps to control COVID infections, staff and administrators are working very hard under incredibly challenging conditions to provide the best care for ESH patients, spokesperson Randy Edgar wrote in a statement. Eleanor Slater, like other hospitals, is facing added staffing challenges because of COVID.
Edgar did not immediately respond to a question about whether the hospital could determine if the 28 patient cases were connected to the COVID-positive workers.
Eleanor Slater was one of two health care facilities earlier to use COVID-positive workers under the new policy.
The lack of health care workers available to cover shifts reflects an ongoing staffing crisis in Rhode Island that has worsened in recent months. The states largest private, nonprofit hospitals earlier this week said they have not yet had to use the new policy.
Edgar said the state would continue to update its website on a regular basis to inform the public about future COVID-related information, including new cases moving forward.
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Outbreak hits Rhode Island hospital after COVID-positive staff called in to work - fox4kc.com
The World Health Organization says that it is monitoring a coronavirus variant detected in a small number of patients in France, but that, for now, there is little reason to worry about its spread.
The B.1.640.2 variant was first identified in October and uploaded to Gisaid, a database for disease variants, on Nov. 4. Only about 20 samples have been sequenced so far, experts said this week, and only one since early December.
Abdi Mahmud, a Covid incident manager with the W.H.O., told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the variant had been on the agencys radar since November, but added that it did not appear to have spread widely over the past two months.
That virus has had a lot of chances to pick up, he said.
By contrast, the Omicron variant, which was first uploaded to Gisaid on Nov. 23, has more than 120,000 sequences in the database. (The vast majority of Omicron cases have not been sequenced.) It has been detected in at least 128 countries, according to the W.H.O., and is fueling record-high case numbers in many parts of the world.
Concerns over the variant in France arose after researchers found that it contained 46 mutations that differed from the original version of the coronavirus. Omicron also has a high number of mutations, which researchers believe made it far more transmissible.
According to a research paper that was published on a preprint server in late December, but that has not been peer-reviewed, the B.1.640.2 variant was first detected in southeastern France in a vaccinated person who had recently traveled from Cameroon. Researchers found a total of 12 cases in the area and named the variant I.H.U., after the research institute in Marseille that helped identify it.
It is too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this I.H.U. variant based on these 12 cases, researchers wrote.
Numerous coronavirus variants have emerged over the past two years, and the reasons that some spread widely while others do not are complex. For now, several independent researchers say there is little reason to be concerned about the I.H.U. variant.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College in London, tweeted this week that, so far, this virus has had a decent chance to cause trouble but never really materialised.
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W.H.O. Downplays Threat From New Virus Variant in France - The New York Times
King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Queen Silvia, his wife, tested positive for the coronavirus on Monday evening, the Swedish Royal Court said in a statement Tuesday.
The king, who is 75, and the queen, who is 78, have mild symptoms and feel well under the circumstances, the statement said. Both were fully vaccinated and had received booster shots.
The statement said the royal couple had isolated themselves in the home in accordance with current rules of conduct, and infection tracking is ongoing.
Sweden has been something of an outlier in Europe in its response to the pandemic. While other European nations were imposing lockdowns in March 2020, hoping to flatten a steeply rising curve of new infections, Sweden kept the country open and asked residents to follow health precautions voluntarily.
Though Sweden remained better off than some countries that enforced strict lockdowns, the early months of the pandemic were far deadlier in Sweden than in many of its neighbors, and by December 2020 King Carl XVI Gustaf was calling the nations coronavirus policies a failure because of the lost lives.
Since then, Sweden has seen major surges in cases in the winter and spring of 2021, and new cases are soaring again now as the highly transmissible Omicron variant spreads in much of the world.
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Swedens king and queen test positive for the coronavirus. - The New York Times
A patient receives a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) test at Sparrow Laboratories Drive-Thru Services in Lansing, Michigan, U.S., December 27, 2021. REUTERS/Emily Elconin
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Jan 4 (Reuters) - The Omicron variant was estimated to be 95.4% of the coronavirus strains circulating in the United States as of Jan. 1, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Tuesday.
The variant has swiftly spread across the country since its detection on Dec. 1, replacing Delta as the dominant strain and sparking a new wave of infections that pushed daily cases near the 1 million mark on Monday.
The CDC said the variant accounted for an estimated 77% of cases in the week ended Dec. 25, up from the 58.6% projection it had disclosed last week.
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The fast-spreading variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong in November and has since swept through the globe at lightning speed, although signs that it may cause milder symptoms than previous strains have offered some relief.
The CDC had last week lowered its estimate for cases Omicron accounted for in the week ended Dec. 18 to 22% from 73%, citing additional data and discrepancies caused by the variant's rapid spread. read more
The Delta variant accounts for 4.6% of all U.S. COVID-19 cases as of Jan. 1, the CDC data showed.
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Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni
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Omicron estimated to be 95.4% of coronavirus variants in U.S. - CDC - Reuters
People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 test on Tuesday in New York. The U.S. recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 cases on Monday. Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 test on Tuesday in New York. The U.S. recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 cases on Monday.
Things might seem pretty grim on the pandemic front right now. The U.S. is only a few days into the third calendar year of the pandemic and nearly 500,000 new COVID-19 cases are being counted daily.
The country hit another record high on Monday with 1,082,549 infections. So if it's hard to find a glimmer of hope, you're not alone. But Dr. Bob Wachter has a bit of hope to share.
Wachter chairs the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and took to Twitter last week to share his thoughts and predictions on how the country "could be in good shape, maybe even great shape in six to eight weeks."
He joined NPR's All Things Considered to talk about the current case rates and hospitalization rates and how they might trend, the new antiviral COVID-19 pills and what the omicron variant will likely mean for the unvaccinated population.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Yeah, I think that's the likeliest outcome. I should always caveat it by the fact that over the past two years, every time things have started looking good, something bad happens. So it's possible that will happen again. There'll be another variant that will be a curveball. But if that doesn't happen, I think the likeliest outcome for February and March is that we'll be in pretty good shape.
This virus being so transmissible but now, as we understand it, being milder than the prior variants could turn out to be very good news after a very awful January.
What's happening now is the cases are exploding, as we've never seen before, and that really is a manifestation of how extraordinarily infectious omicron is. What we're not seeing is the same relationship between cases and hospitalizations. So the average case of omicron has about a 60% lower chance of landing you in the hospital than the average case of delta.
Now you might hear that and say that doesn't make sense. Why are the hospitals filling up? And the reason is, even if the average case is less likely to land you in the hospital, if there are twice or three or five times as many cases, then you will have more people laying in the hospital. So the short-term risk and we're seeing it all over the country is the hospitals will get filled with patients with omicron.
A fair number of doctors and nurses will be out sick with omicron. And so we have a pretty miserable month, even though the average patient has a lower chance of ending up in the hospital than he or she would have had if they had a case of delta, particularly if they're vaccinated.
But very importantly, for the people that chose not to be vaccinated I think a very terrible choice, but who made that choice there's a pretty good chance they're going to get a case of omicron, which will give them some immunity. And it's those two things combined the fact that the average case is going to be milder, and more and more people are going to be immune to this virus that gets us out of this pickle, I think, in February.
Yeah, it's an important new part of our armamentarium. Up till now, we've really just had monoclonal antibodies to give to people at very high risk who got COVID but were not sick enough yet to be in the hospital. But two new pills have come out. The Pfizer is a much bigger deal than the Merck. The Merck lowers the probability that someone who gets a case of omicron will land in the hospital by 30%, the Pfizer by 90%.
So, it's in short supply. The supply is growing. Within a month or two, there will be a decent supply. So that is another very important tool that we'll have.
[They're] just starting to be available. We have them in some of our pharmacies, but we're having to triage them quite severely and be very selective about who gets them, but I think they'll become more and more available over time. It's a pretty tricky chemical compound to produce. So it is taking the company some time to produce them, but the supply should grow steadily over the next couple of months.
If you are unvaccinated and you're not being super careful, by which I mean wearing an N95 mask all the time if you're going indoors, it's almost hard to believe that you will not get this virus.
The problem is, people who are unvaccinated are hearing that the average case of omicron is milder. It is milder, but it's particularly milder for people that are vaccinated. For the people that are unvaccinated, the best estimates from the science so far are that maybe it's about 25% less likely to land you in the hospital, and you might say, "That's OK, good, it's milder." But if it's 25% less likely to land you in the hospital and you have a five times greater chance of becoming infected in the next month, that math doesn't land you in a good place.
That means that there are going to be more and more unvaccinated people who get omicron. A lot of them will end up in hospitals. A lot of them unfortunately will end up in ICUs, and a fair number of them will be the ones who die over the next four to six weeks as this hurricane sort of rampages through our country.
Yeah, I can understand how people would feel that, but that's just not right. The vaccines and boosters are miraculous, and they are miraculous because what they do is markedly lower the probability that you will get very sick, go to the hospital, go to the ICU, end up on a ventilator and die.
There's no question that there are more breakthrough cases. This virus is very good at sidestepping some of your immunity, but the kind of case that you're going to have if you've had particularly three shots is so much more likely to be a mild case of a couple of days of cold or flu symptoms than it would be for the unvaccinated person. Those are the ones who are landing in the hospital, landing in the ICU, and ultimately, the deaths that we will have from omicron will be almost entirely in unvaccinated people.
Sure. Two big questions going forward in terms of how rosy the future might be. One is, how good is the immunity that a case of omicron gives you against another case of either omicron or another variant? I'm sure it'll be fine for a while. But does it last for three months or a year? That will make a difference in terms of whether the risk goes up, let's say, next winter.
And the second, of course, is this great unknown, which is, will there be another variant? And anybody who tells you they can predict that is making it up because nobody I know predicted delta. Nobody I know predicted omicron. And all that means is there could be something even nastier than omicron on the horizon. And that will change the projections. But for now, I think things look pretty good.
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US COVID cases are on the rise, but this doctor sees hope on the horizon : Coronavirus Updates - NPR
Seth Meyers and host Jimmy Fallon appear on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 28, 2014, in New York City. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images hide caption
Seth Meyers and host Jimmy Fallon appear on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon on Jan. 28, 2014, in New York City.
As the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to spread across the U.S., both of NBC's late-night talk show hosts, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, have announced they've tested positive for COVID-19.
"The bad news is, I tested positive for COVID (thanks, 2022!)," Meyers said in a tweet Monday. "The good news is, I feel fine (thanks vaccines and booster!)."
Meyers said the network had canceled the remainder of shows scheduled from Tuesday to Friday.
"Tune in next Monday to see what cool location we will try and pass off as a studio!!!" Meyers added.
News of Meyers' positive case comes a day after Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon announced he had tested positive for the coronavirus right before Christmas.
In his latest Instagram post, Fallon, who appears to have recovered, says he had received a COVID-19 vaccine and booster shot and experienced only mild symptoms.
"Thank you to the doctors and nurses who work so hard around the clock to get everyone vaxxed," Fallon wrote. "Thank you to NBC for taking the testing protocols so seriously and doing a great job - and also thanks for putting me in the 'What 'chu talkin' about Willis?' isolation room when they told me the news."
Other celebrities who've recently tested positive for the coronavirus include Whoopi Goldberg, Hugh Jackman, Debra Messing and LL Cool J.
The U.S. reported a record 1,082,549 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University that probably includes numbers from the holiday weekend. The seven-day daily average for infections is currently 480,273.
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Late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers test positive for COVID-19 - NPR
