Category: Covid-19

CDC removes COVID risk warning for passengers going on cruise ships

The CDC dropped its risk assessment of cruise travel after more than two years of warning travelers against the dangers of COVID on a cruise ship.

USA TODAY

The lifting of most external pandemicprotections this wintercould increase the risk of catchingCOVID-19 from someone without a mask who's infected.

For the most part, people need to protect themselves and assume risk, but there are cases when a person with the virus is accountable for spreading it.

In some cases, a person saying they'd intentionallyspreadCOVID-19 resulted in an arrest for making a terrorist threat.

But can you sue in court and win against someone who knowingly has COVID-19 and gave it to you?

Theoretically, yes if you couldprove the person infected you intentionally andyou didn't get it from someone else.

In California, the general rule is that all persons have a duty to use ordinary care to prevent others frombeing injured as the result of their conduct. Redding attorney Catie Barrsaid.

'It feels like its almost a punishment':Millions of people could lose health insurance coverage when the COVID-19 emergency ends

In 2006, the California Supreme Court ruled a person has a duty to avoid knowingly transmitting an infectious disease. It compared being stricken with a disease dueto someones negligence as no different than being hit by a car due to the drivers negligence. Therefore, the intentional spread of an infectious diseasecouldbe prosecutedcivilly, Barr said.

The trouble is proving the person intentionally gave you COVID-19.

Just being exposed to the disease by someone and contracting it isnt enough.

There must be proof that the individual knowingly transmitted the disease and (you were)actually harmed by that specific conduct," Barr said. "This would be incredibly difficult to prove.

Past successful cases dealt withintentional transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, like HIV, Barr said. Establishing proof in those situations is likely easier thanproving transmission of COVID-19.

California Safety Code 120290 says a person is guilty of intentional transmission of an infectious or communicable disease if:

You'd have to prove all five pointstoshow a violation, according to California Safety Code 120290.

To read the complete code go to bit.ly/3qsBc6J.

Intentionally spreading or threatening to spread COVID-19 could be considered a terrorist act, according to the U.S. government.

On March 24, 2020 about a week after the national shutdown the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memorandum regarding COVID-related criminal behavior, including "threats targeting specific individuals or the general public" and "the purposeful exposure and infection of others with COVID-19."

The documentclassified thecoronavirus as a biological agent and said spreading it couldfall under nationalterrorism-related statutes.

COVID-19: New coronavirus omicron variant BA.2 enters Shasta County

The next day, USA Today reporteda Missouri man was arrested and charged with making a second-degree terrorist threat after Warrenton police saidheposted video of himself saying "Who's scared of coronavirus?" and licking stock at a Walmart.

Other cases involve people posting they planned to spread COVID-19on social media ordeliberately coughing on others while claiming they had the virus.

To read the memorandum, go tobit.ly/3K0Aup5.

This story resulted from a reader question. Do you have a question on a North State issue that you want us to investigate? Share with us questions you have about health care, retail, restaurants, housing or anything else that's affecting your wallet.

Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and entertainment stories.Followher on Twitter @RS_JSkropanicand on Facebook. Join Jessica in theGet Out! Nor Calrecreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.

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Can you win a court case against someone who gives you COVID-19? We asked a Redding attorney - Record Searchlight

Researchers have identified a family of proteins that is significantly elevated in the saliva of patients hospitalized with COVID-19. The proteins, known as ephrin ligands, could potentially serve as a biomarker to help doctors identify patients who are at risk for serious illness.

Ephrins are detectable in saliva samples and could serve as adjunct markers to monitor COVID-19 disease progression. We can collect saliva without harm or discomfort for most patients, which can reveal patient responses to COVID-19 and potentially guide care."

Erika Egal, DVM, PhD, study author, postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Patrice Mimche, PhD, Department of Pathology.University of Utah Health in Salt Lake City

Egal will present the findings at the American Physiological Society annual meeting during the Experimental Biology (EB) 2022 meeting, held in Philadelphia April 25.

For the study, researchers analyzed saliva samples collected from patients admitted to the University of Utah Hospital emergency department with respiratory symptoms. Sixty-seven of the patients tested positive for COVID-19 while 64 patients did not. They found that the presence of ephrin ligands in saliva was strongly associated with the diagnosis of severe COVID-19.

Researchers said the study findings could help shed light on the biological processes involved in severe reactions to COVID-19 infection. Previous studies suggest ephrins play a role in injury and inflammation. The scientists say more research is needed to determine whether ephrin concentrations are linked with a higher likelihood of hospitalization, critical illness or death. In addition, as new viral variants emerge, it can be difficult to tell whether existing COVID-19 tests are able to accurately detect infections involving new variants. Looking for ephrins in saliva could offer a simple, non-invasive way to provide corroborating evidence when there is inconsistency between test results and the clinical picture, Egal said.

"Saliva is packed with information beyond detecting the COVID-19 infection itself," said Mimche. "We demonstrate that immune cells, cytokines and soluble proteins can be reliably measured from saliva samples. Our findings provide a starting point for investigations looking into causal pathways between infection and bad medical outcomes."

The research was overseen by Mimche in collaboration with Theodore Liou, MD and My N. Helms, PhD, from the Department of Internal Medicine at University of Utah Health, as part of a multidisciplinary project to better understand the biology of SARS-CoV-2 and how it causes serious COVID-19 infections.

Egal will present this research from 2:453 p.m., Monday, April 4, in Room 204 B, Pennsylvania Convention Center (abstract) and from 10:15 a.m.12:15 p.m., Tuesday, April 5, in Exhibit/Poster Hall A-B (abstract). Contact the media team for more information or to obtain a free press pass to attend the meeting.

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Proteins in saliva strongly associated with the diagnosis of severe COVID-19 - News-Medical.Net

A total of three lawsuits have been filed against a Vernon bakery and cafe recently, each relating to what plaintiffs say are issues of managerial indifference around health and safety protocols in the early days of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The plaintiffs blame Vie de France Yamazaki Inc. for employee deaths and long-term COVID-19 illnesses that they say directly stem from mismanagement of health and safety protocols on company property.

The original suit was filed by Ana Eveline Perez on March 25, reports KFI-640. Her suit alleges that she was obese and suffered from allergies and atherosclerosis, which put her at higher risk of death or severe illness from COVID-19 while working at the bakery. Her suit states that she contracted the disease while at work as a result of lax health and safety protocols, and now her entire family suffers from long COVID-19 symptoms.

Alex Hernandez and wife Gracie Hernandez separately filed a wrongful death suit against Vie de France, alleging that Alex Hernandez caught COVID-19 while at the bakery. Hernandez then went on to infect his stepdaughter, 42-year-old Valerie Esquivel, who died in April 2020, the suit alleges. On March 30, Vie de France Yamazaki mechanic Pascual Alvarado Hernandezs widow Maria Martha Alvarado also filed a wrongful death suit, claiming that there were concerns that employees were coughing and clearly sick with a respiratory illness, but not being screened or sent home.

Have a listen to Yuko Kitchen owner Yuko Watanabe on KCRW, where she shares her journey to open her Mid-Wilshire and DTLA restaurants.

Are Los Angeless bagel shops and Jewish delis sharing trade secrets? The Los Angeles Times explores the question of collaboration by chatting with the owners of Wise Sons, Belles Bagels, the Bad Jew, and Wexlers Deli.

Its a big question for any city, let alone LA: What exactly does fine dining mean? Legendary chef Michael Cimarusti and co-owner/general manager Donato Poto talk about their own experiences and shifts over the decades for Zagat.

Slow Bloom Coffee came about after a now-shuttered Redlands coffee chain fired its staff for unionizing. Its a fascinating come-up story one that involves the National Labor Relations Board and ultimately a worker-owned cooperative. Redlands Daily Facts has the full story.

Los Angeles Times reviewer Bill Addison helped connect LAs sushi family tree a bit with his latest piece about Shunji Nakao and his new Santa Monica location for Shunji.

On Instagram, Sunset Beer Co. announced it will close permanently. The 11-year-old business cited landlord problems, namely commercial real estate company Red Car Ltd./Industry Partners.

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Employees Sue Vernon Bakery For Alleged COVID-19 Deaths And Longterm Illnesses - Eater LA

SAN DIEGO

Several business leaders and city officials, including three San Diego City Council members, tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after returning from a four-day lobbying trip to Washington, D.C., that was organized by the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Council President Sean Elo-Rivera, Councilmember Stephen Whitburn and Councilmember Jennifer Campbell all tested positive after returning home March 30.

Chamber officials sent an email to the more than 140 business and civic leaders who made the trip warning them they could be at risk.

It has come to our attention that there have been delegates who have tested positive for COVID since returning home from D.C., the email says. We are letting all delegation trip participants know so that you can take appropriate action, including testing and symptom monitoring, to protect yourself and any close contacts.

In an email Monday afternoon, chamber Chief Executive Jerry Sanders said the chamber maintained strict adherence to all COVID-19 protocols on the trip.

As we adapt to life in a world that includes COVID, this is a reminder of our new reality and it reinforces the importance of vaccines in our ability to resume more regular activities and continue moving forward, Sanders said.

Elo-Rivera said on Twitter that his symptoms have felt like a nasty cold. A spokesperson for Whitburn said he is experiencing mild symptoms. Campbells chief of staff said she is not feeling too great.

The goal of the trip was lobbying federal officials for help with local infrastructure projects, upgrades to the U.S.-Mexico border and economic initiatives.

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Several San Diego leaders test positive for COVID-19 after lobbying trip to Washington, D.C. - The San Diego Union-Tribune

People who lived in the nations poorest counties have died from COVID-19 at nearly twice the rate of people in wealthier counties, according to a new report released Monday.

And death rates in poor counties compared to those in wealthy ones grew even more sharply over the last year, in a series of successive COVID waves, states the report, produced jointly by the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Poor Peoples Campaign.

At a press conference Monday morning the Rev. Dr. William Barber II, co-leader of the Poor Peoples Campaign, called the findings shameful. The press conference was livestreamed from Washington, D.C.

We cannot say, based on the research, that this is because of individual choices or behaviors, Barber said. COVID-19 did not discriminate, but we did. And our discrimination created terrible blind spots that produced the burden of death on so many families that did not have to experience it.

COVID-19 data doesnt systematically track information about the incomes or occupations of people who have fallen ill or died from the pandemic. The study instead compares the overall wealth or poverty in a county with that countys COVID-19 death rate.

The nations more than 3,000 counties were sorted based on the collective income of each county and sorted from most wealthy to least wealthy into 10 groups of counties relatively equal in size. The counties were compared on the basis of their COVID-19 death rates as well as other demographic information.

Overall, in the poorest counties, where median incomes ranged from $12,000 to $46,000 a year, COVID-19 death rates were more than double those in the wealthiest counties, with median incomes of $90,000 to $142,000 a year, said Alainna Lynch of SDSN.

In setting a threshold for defining who is poor or near-poor, the report uses $28,000 for a single person and $54,000 for a family of four. Those numbers are twice the federal poverty guidelines, which researchers say dont sufficiently measure poverty in the U.S.

What this allows us to see is both the true extent of poverty and economic insecurity, which we dont always see because of those definitions, said Shailly Gupta Barnes, policy director for the Poor Peoples Campaign.

When the counties are sorted by the percentage of people whose incomes are below the reports poverty threshold, the least-poor counties, with 8% to 19% of people who had incomes below that cut-off point, had about half the COVID-19 deaths as the poorest counties, where between 42% and 94% of people had incomes below the reports standard.

Marathon County in central Wisconsin falls between those two extremes. The countys median income of $62,000 a year is higher than in many other places, the report observes. At the same time, one in four residents of the county has an income below the reports poverty threshold. The countys COVID-19 death rate is 342 per 100,000 population, according to the report.

At times, our countys rate of hospitalizations and COVID deaths and hospitalization led the state, said Bruce Grau, a coordinator for the North Central Wisconsin chapter of the Poor Peoples Campaign.

Nationwide, death rate gaps were even larger in more recent phases of the pandemic. In the third wave, from late 2020 to early 2021, death rates were four and a half times higher in low-income counties than they were in high-income counties, said Lynch. And death rates were five times higher in low-income counties in the surge of the delta variant, which began in mid-2021, and three times higher during the omicron variants surge in late 2021 and early 2022.

One of the main points in this report is that practices before COVID-19 created the conditions for unequal pandemic outcomes, Lynch said. Well before March 2020, the U.S. was lagging behind other high-income countries around the world when it came to measures of population health such as life expectancy, she added.

Vaccine rates dont explain the difference, said Lynch. There is, however, evidence of racial difference, she added: counties with a larger proportion of people of color had higher death rates, a pattern especially visible in the South and Southwest.

Barber called attention to the reports data showing that, in raw numbers, many more white people have died from COVID-19 than other groups. But the studys data showed that among people of color, a larger percentage died. Both details are important, he said: We have to tell both stories.

The report also adds further impetus for the Poor Peoples Campaign planned June March on Washington to draw attention to the issue of poverty and income inequality in the U.S. Barber renewed the organizations call for President Joe Biden as well as other leaders to meet with the campaign and put addressing poverty and low wealth at the front and center of our nations moral agenda.

The reports findings confirm other research that has shown the link between poverty and COVID-19, says Tiffany Green, a University of Wisconsin economist who researches the impact of race and economics on health.

This is not about individual behavior, Green said in an interview. Its about what kinds of social conditions place people at risk.

Early in the Wisconsin pandemic, outbreaks occurred in the meatpacking industry in Brown County. And because of the way our occupational system is structured, they were disproportionately likely to be Hispanic immigrants, Green says. And they were working under conditions that were not properly regulated, that were not safe, when it comes to trying to prevent COVID.

For people with lower incomes, Theyre more likely to work in these industries that are not protected, she adds. And so its not surprising that these are the folks that would be disproportionately affected.

Thats a central point of the report as well.

Too often, we blame the poor for what are really systemic policy decisions that are outside their hands, decisions that are made for poor communities, but decisions they would never make themselves, said Gupta Barnes, the Poor Peoples Campaign policy director.

She listed the minimum wage, access to health care, paid family leave and child care for workers, and access to enough food and to clean water at work and child care. These are all policy decisions, choices meaning that policymakers decide these questions, not the people whose lives are impacted by those decisions, she said.

And who died in the pandemic was also a policy choice, Gupta Barnes said. It was a choice to not see poverty whether it was white, Black, Latina, native, indigenous, or all of the above. It was a choice to have these death rates, and to not prioritize the poor across race, across geography, in the worst public health crisis in this country.

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Report ties COVID-19 deaths to poverty, systemic policy failures - Wisconsin Examiner

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky announced in an email on Monday that the agency will be revamped.

The CDC has been criticized for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, accused of everything from sending mixed messages to the public about masking and vaccines to delaying the development of COVID-19 tests. In an email sent Monday to all employees obtained by The Washington Post, Walensky wrote it is "time to step back and strategically position CDC to support the future of public health." To start, Walensky has hired a senior federal health official to conduct a one-month review that will "kick off an evaluation of CDC's structure, systems, and processes."

The revamp will focus on "core capabilities," she wrote, including strengthening the country's public health workforce, data modernization, laboratory capacity, and rapid response to disease outbreaks, thePostreports.

In the last year, Walensky said, several employees have shared they "would like to see CDC build on its rich history and modernize for the world around us. I am grateful for your efforts to lean into the hard work of transforming CDC for the better. I look forward to our collective efforts to position CDC, and the public health community, for greatest success in the future."

Walensky also released a statement about the revamp, saying that during the pandemic, the CDC has had to "make decisions so quickly, based on often limited, real-time, and evolving science. ... As we've challenged our state and local partners, we know that now is the time for CDC to integrate the lessons learned into a strategy for the future."

The review will begin on April 11, the Post reports, and will be led by Jim Macrae, associate administrator for primary health care at the Health Resources and Services Administration, which like the CDC is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Read more at The Washington Post.

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CDC director says agency will be revamped, following COVID-19 criticism - The Week

Oregon has reported more new COVID-19 cases so far this week than during the same time period last week, signaling if not the beginning of a new coronavirus bump, then a substantial slowdown in the post-omicron plunge in cases.

The increase in newly reported cases in Oregon this week has been relatively small, with the one-week daily average climbing from 200 cases Monday to 252 Friday. But the bump comes after nine consecutive weeks of rapid declines and it could presage more infections in the weeks ahead.

The up-and-down trajectory of infections has shifted often throughout the pandemic. Oregon set record case numbers during the January omicron surge by averaging more than 8,000 cases a day before falling to the lowest levels since last summer.

That puts the new increase in perspective, and many federal health officials have said they dont expect a large surge nationally driven by the even-more contagious BA.2 subvariant of omicron.

According to Oregon Health & Science University modeling, that subvariant, combined with the lifting of pandemic restrictions, could produce a bump in COVID-19 hospitalizations that would peak May 9.

About half of the estimated 293 hospitalizations would be people who happen to test positive for COVID-19 and are at a hospital to be treated for something else, OHSU analyst Peter Graven previously said in an email. The universitys modeling has both underestimated and overestimated past surges.

The BA.2 subvariant has already led to a surge in cases in Europe, a region that in the past has served as an early indicator of what could await the United States. Seventeen states have reported cases gains in recent weeks, according to The New York Times.

For now, coronavirus hospitalizations in Oregon remain near 110 occupied beds. The number of patients in intensive care unit beds has also fallen to lows unseen in months, with 15 occupied ICU beds reported Wednesday the lowest single-day number since the first pandemic wave in spring 2020.

In light of the falling hospitalizations and cases, the Oregon Health Authority said beginning Monday it will no longer release detailed news releases daily about the state of the pandemic. While much of the information will be available and updated each business day on the agencys online data dashboards, the state will no longer provide detailed information about those who died, including their age, county of residence, date they tested positive and the date and location of death.

Fedor Zarkhin

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COVID-19 cases start to climb in Oregon again - OregonLive

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise in England, the country is also experiencing a surge in reinfections.

Provisional data shows that, as of the week ending March 20, 2022, laboratory-confirmed reinfections -- two positive tests taken more than 90 days apart -- have surpassed 50,000 per week in England, 10.7% of all cases, according to a weekly report from the U.K. Health Security Agency published Thursday.

This is a jump from the less than 20,000 weekly reinfections recorded during the last week of February in England.

The weekly rate is increasing in all age groups and has nearly doubled in one week among those aged 30 and older, the report shows.

Vaccination rates are high in England with 85.8% of those aged 12 and older fully vaccinated and 66.8% boosted.

Additionally, as of Friday, 99% of the adult population in England is estimated to have detectable COVID-19 antibodies either from previous infection or from vaccination, according to the U.K. government.

There were only 7,093 reinfections reported in Scotland, 10.4 percent of all cases, in the week ending March 27. Recent data on reinfections were not readily available for Wales and Northern Ireland.

A person stands outside a COVID-19 testing center in London, Feb. 21, 2022.

So, with such high coverage, why have so many in England been reinfected with COVID-19?

Experts said there are a few reasons for the uptick including the spread of the BA.2 variant, waning immunity and the further relaxing of COVID-19 mitigation measures in England.

BA.2 is more transmissible

Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News the spread of the BA.2 variant is undoubtedly playing a role in the rise of reinfections in England.

"BA.2 is more infectious so more people can be infected by being exposed to it," he said. "The time needed for you and me to sit close together to get the infection is much shorter."

BA.2, which is a subvariant of the original omicron variant, has become the dominant variant in England.

Data from the UKHSA estimates BA.2 currently accounts for 93.7% of all COVID-19 cases in England. Less than two months ago, it made up less than 5% of cases

A preprint from Sweden, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, suggests BA.2 may be more contagious due to higher viral loads in the nose and throat than the original BA.1 variant.

Early data from the U.K. and Denmark also suggests it is possible to be infected with BA.2 after having been infected with BA.1, although this is less likely.

Mokdad said the numbers from these studies are too low to warrant any serious concern.

It is unclear from the U.K. data how many of the reinfected cases are among those who are fully vaccinated and those who are boosted.

However, several studies have shown booster shots lower the risk of reinfection.

An Israeli study published in JAMA Internal Medicine in November 2021 found 1.8% of COVID-19 tests were positive in adults that were boosted compared to 6.6% in adults that had two shots.

While BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, it does not appear to increase the risk of hospitalization.

A passenger passes a sign for a Walk Through Coronavirus Testing Centre at London Stansted Airport, on Jan. 10, 2022.

Professor David Heymann, from the department of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said the rise of reinfections should not concern people because the number of hospitalizations and deaths remains low.

"The vaccines are suppressing serious illness and death, even if you get reinfected," he told ABC News. "What we do know is there's no cause for real alarm at present because the hospital surveillance is showing COVID remains a minor disease" for the vaccinated.

Waning immunity

Mokdad said many people who got their second dose, or even their third dose, received it five to six months ago so their immunity will have waned by now.

"What we know from the data -- and we have a lot of evidence, including from the UK -- is that, starting at three months your immunity, especially against infection, drops rapidly," Mokdad said. "And by five months, your immunity against infection is basically 20%."

A January report from the UKHSA found the effectiveness of two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is what most people in the U.K. have received, dropped from 50% against omicron to virtually no effect 20 weeks later.

A booster from either Pfizer or Moderna raised the protection against omicron to around 60%, but it fell to as low as 40% 10 weeks later.

Mokdad said for those who weren't infected with the original omicron variant during the last wave, this also increases the risk of reinfection because contracting the virus will have acted like a natural booster shot for most healthy individuals.

Behavioral changes

Experts say behavioral changes after restrictions were lifted are also likely playing a role in the rise of reinfections.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had been lifting COVID restrictions in England since the beginning of the year and, on Feb. 25 dropped all remaining rules for the country, including the requirement to self-isolate after testing positive, contact tracing and free administration of rapid tests.

The announcement applied only to England, which is home to 56 million of the U.K.s 67 million people, the Associated Press reported in February.

People queue outside a coronavirus disease testing facility in central London, Jan. 2, 2022.

This means many people are no longer wearing masks or staying home from work or school, or self-isolating if they are ill.

"Suddenly, they lifted these mandates," Mokdad said. "People are tired and have changed their behavior. Suddenly, you have 30% or 40% susceptible because of waning immunity and the fact they have not been exposed to BA.1, and BA.2 is circulating, then you see this rapid increase in cases.

When Johnson lifted the mandates, he gave a speech to the House of Commons in which he stated he wanted England to pivot away from preventing COVID-19 and "learn to live with this virus."

Professor Daniel Altmann, from the department of immunology and inflammation at Imperial College London, said this has led to "confusion" about how to prevent reinfection.

"This means that people are confused about safety -- many are going out to work and school when knowingly infected, fewer wearing masks," he told ABC News. "It looks like an untenable policy when one considers omicron, somewhat milder but poorly immunogenic and able to reinfect people sometimes over and over at intervals of a few weeks."

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Why COVID-19 reinfections are surging in England - ABC News

As of Friday, there are 16,138 people in the hospital with Covid-19 -- fewer than there have ever been since the US Department of Health and Human Services first started tracking in July 2020. Just 2% of hospital beds are currently in use for Covid-19 patients.

Previously, the lowest point was in late June 2021, just before Delta became the dominant variant in the country. Covid-19 hospitalizations reached a peak in January 2022 amid the Omicron surge, when more than 160,000 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 at one time.

While the strain on the US hospital system directly related to treating Covid-19 patients has been significantly reduced, experts say that many hospitals are still burdened by staffing shortages and other patients who are coming in sicker after postponing care during the height of the pandemic.

"I can't hear that (data on Covid-19 hospitalizations) without shouting 'hallelujah' because the stress and strain of the last two years has been so enormous," Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association, told CNN. "But there are a number of things going on now that continue to make hospitals and their staff very busy."

She says hospitals expected an influx of patients who had delayed care, either by choice or because the hospital system couldn't accommodate them.

"But I think it is that combination of having more people needing care than we had anticipated and having more staffing issues than we had anticipated that is really the biggest challenge right now," she said.

The broader snapshot of hospital capacity offers a stark contrast to the CDC's "COVID-19 Community Levels" map, which tracks new hospital admissions and beds in use specifically for Covid-19 patients.

The CDC map is nearly all green, with 95% of US counties considered to have a "low" community level of Covid-19.

But HHS data shows that more than three-quarters of inpatient beds are currently in use in hospitals across the country, and there are nine states where more than 80% of all beds in the state are occupied.

Experts say it's important to monitor both broader hospital capacity and the burden specifically from Covid-19.

"From an endemic Covid monitoring perspective -- at least that's where we hope we're heading -- we need to be able to tell whether we're in a state that requires public health measures," Dr. Stephen Parodi, national infectious disease leader for Kaiser Permanente, told CNN.

But the pandemic has dramatically shifted the way hospitals operate. Pre-pandemic, there was typically seasonal variation in how many beds were filled, with more patients expected during flu season in the winter and a lighter volume over the summer.

"What's different now, since the pandemic, is essentially we're running full all the time," Parodi said. "That calculation of a plan -- when it comes to staffing those beds, having the workforce available, the doctors, nurses, the support services like laboratory and radiology -- it's changing our thinking about what we need to plan for an entire year as opposed to just one particular season."

Parodi and others expect the continued strain on capacity to persist at least through the end of the year.

Overall since August 2020, there have been about 4.6 million total hospital admissions for Covid-19 in the US, according to data from the CDC. More than a third of hospital admissions have been among seniors age 70 and older.

Black and Hispanic people have been hospitalized with Covid-19 at more than twice the rate of White people, and American Indians have been more than three times as likely to be hospitalized.

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Covid-19 hospitalizations hit a pandemic low in the US, but strain on hospitals persists - CNN

As COVID numbers fall and mandates lift, the question remains: Is it possible to avoid trade-offs between returning to pre-pandemic lifestyles and an uptick in COVID-19-related deaths?

To find an answer, investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Medical Center, and Georgia Tech conducted a simulation study that projected the future of the COVID-19 pandemic in every state.

The analysis, which is published inJAMA Health Forum, assumes the current pace of vaccination is maintained into the future, and models different dates of lifting mandates. In most states, relaxing masking mandates and other restrictions resulted in some rebound in COVID-19-related deaths; however, delaying the date of lifting mandates did little to lessen the eventual rise in deaths.

The inevitable rebound in mortality was directly attributable to the Omicron variant when we repeated the analysis, assuming the infectivity of the previous Alpha and Delta variants, the model did not project such rising mortality after relaxing mask mandates, says co-first authorBenjamin P. Linas, a professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine.

One of the strongest predictors of the extent of the rebound surge in mortality after relaxing mandates was the degree of immunity in the community at the time of lifting the mandate. Therefore, communities with a high percentage of residents who are vaccinated and/or who have had COVID-19 are likely to have lower death rates.

A difficult trade-off lies on the horizon, says co-senior author Jagpreet Chhatwal, director of MGHs Institute for Technology Assessment. While there is ample evidence in our analysis that a March 2022 lifting date leads to rebound mortality in many states, the simulation also suggests that with the Omicron variant, whenever states do remove mandates will face the same difficult choice between increased COVID-19 mortality and the freedoms of returning to a pre-pandemic norm.

The one intervention that can mitigate this impossible choice is ongoing COVID-19 vaccination with boosters, adds Chhatwal, who is also an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School.

One of the strongest predictors of the extent of the rebound surge in mortality after relaxing mandates was the degree of immunity in the community at the time of lifting the mandate. Therefore, communities with a high percentage of residents who are vaccinated and/or who have had COVID-19 are likely to have lower death rates.

Even though a delay in lifting mask mandates or restrictions on social gatherings will likely not entirely prevent future surges in COVID-19-related deaths, the findings could potentially aid state public health officials as they weigh different options. Arguments to remove restrictions must explicitly make the case for lifting restrictions within a cost-benefit framework examining the cost of restrictions versus the cost of COVID-19 mortality, says cofirst author Jade (Yingying) Xiao, a PhD student at Georgia Tech. At the same time, those who favor maintaining restrictions must recognize that just a little longer will not suffice.

The researchers note that the highly transmissible Delta and Omicron variants will likely continue to take a major toll across the country, but if a less transmissible viral strain were to become dominant, rebounding morbidity and mortality rates would be substantially lower. Were this the case, it would likely be possible to more safely remove restrictions at the beginning of the second quarter of 2022, says cosenior author Turgay Ayer, director of Business Intelligence and Healthcare Analytics at the Center for Health and Humanitarian Systems at Georgia Tech.

Additional co-authors include Ozden O. Dalgic, Peter P. Mueller, Madeline Adee, and Alec Aaron.

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Study predicts COVID-19 deaths will rebound when all restrictions are lifted - Harvard Gazette