Category: Covid-19

Local health officials are urging residents to stay cautious and get vaccinated against COVID-19 as local case numbers climb.

There has been a rise in cases across the county due to the highly-contagious coronavirus variant the BA.2 omicron subvariant. New York state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett reported at a COVID-19 briefing last week that BA.2 made up about 42% of all COVID-19 cases in the state. Bassett said that while the new variant is more contagious than previous iterations of the virus, it doesnt appear to cause more severe illness or evade vaccinations better than other variants.

Essex County reported 2,783 new cases throughout the omicron spike January an average of 90 new cases per day, according to data from the Essex County Health Department. Coronavirus spread in the county slowed down through February. There was an average of eight new daily cases in the county in the first week of March. However, numbers have risen slightly in the past couple of weeks. The most recent data available from the ECHD, released on Monday, showed a seven-day average closer to 14 cases per day.

Franklin County also had a decrease in cases following the omicron wave. Franklin County reported 2,599 new cases throughout January, with a daily average of 84 new cases, according to Franklin County Public Health. In the first week of March, the county had an average daily count of 24 new cases. The last available data from the county, released Wednesday, shows a seven-day average closer to 15 cases per day.

Bassett said its no surprise that cases are climbing as pandemic-related restrictions are falling. However, Bassett said health officials dont expect to see a steep surge in cases in New York from the new variant, which she said has shown less growth and dominance here than in the U.K. and European countries. Still, Bassett urged New Yorkers to get vaccinated and boosted in a statement Monday.

Hospitalizations remain low, according to the ECHD, though hospitalizations often lag behind case increases by a few weeks.

Franklin County is classified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having a high risk COVID-19 community level spread, and Essex County moved back to a medium risk level from a low risk level this week. The CDC uses the classification system based on COVID-19 hospital admissions, cases and the percentage of people with COVID-19 who are occupying hospital beds so communities can make decisions about daily operations and precautions based on the local state of the pandemic.

ECHD Public Health Director Linda Beers said in a statement that residents who have a higher risk of becoming seriously ill with COVID-19 should still consider layers of precaution, like limiting close social contact, mask wearing, and planning for testing and treatment should the need arise.

People who were infected with omicron during the post-holiday surge of the variant might still benefit from natural immunity against the virus, according to the ECHD. The department said that vaccines should offer combined protection to prevent the kind of widespread spikes in cases seen during previous waves. Still, the department warned, keeping people healthy hinges on a community effort of getting vaccinated and boosted when eligible, getting tested after exposure to the virus or if symptoms develop, and staying home when sick.

Remember, children younger than 5 are still not eligible for vaccination and our vaccination rates in youth under 12 remain lower than wed like. Its important to stick with layered prevention strategies to protect these groups, as well as others who are more vulnerable, Beers said.

The Federal Drug Administration on Wednesday amended the emergency use authorizations for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines so that people 50 or over, and people with certain immune conditions, can get a second booster shot. The ECHD offers weekly vaccine clinics, and the department plans to incorporate the new booster regulations as soon as the state approves them.

To make an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination or booster shot at the ECHD, go to http://www.co.essex.ny.us/Health/covid-vax-appointments or call 518-873-3500. To make an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccination or booster shot in Franklin County, go to http://www.franklincountyny.gov/residents/covid-19_guidance/index.php.

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COVID-19 cases on the rise again | News, Sports, Jobs - The Adirondack Daily Enterprise

COVID-19 and pregnancy: More new mothers dying, increasing women's fears during tense time  The Columbus Dispatch

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COVID-19 and pregnancy: More new mothers dying, increasing women's fears during tense time - The Columbus Dispatch

USA TODAY's Women of the Year Iowa honoree improved COVID testing

Here's how a crop scientist in Iowa convinced her company to create a COVID-19 testing lab at the height of the pandemic. She is the Iowa honoree for USA TODAY's Women of the Year.

Kelsey Kremer, Des Moines Register

The number of people hospitalized in Iowa with COVID-19 rose for the first time in ten weeks, but remained low, according to data released Wednesday by the Iowa Department of Public Health and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Last week, the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 fell below 100 for just the second time since the pandemic ramped up in 2020. It remained below 100 this week, but increased slightly, from 67 to 74.

The number of people requiring intensive care for COVID-19 complications also rose this week, from 11 to 15. Both numbers are much lower than they've been for most of the pandemic.

New reported COVID-19 cases, however, continued to decline. There were 478 new COVID-19 cases reported this week, or an average of about 68 per day. That would make this the week with the third-fewest new reported cases since April 2020.

That data would not include people who do not take COVID-19 tests because they have asymptomatic cases, or people who do not report the results of their at-home tests to the health department.

There were also fewer COVID-19 deaths reported this week: 43, the first time there have been fewer than 50 COVID-19 deaths reported in one week since September 2021. Deaths tend to lag behind new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, and may not be reported publicly on the state's COVID-19 website until several months after they occur.

There was no visible increase in the percentage of Iowans fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the state health department. That percentage remained at 58.2%, meaning any increase would have been less than one-tenth of 1% of the state's population.

Read more on COVID-19 in Iowa:

The latest data, as of 12 a.m. Wednesday, March 30, compared to the previous Wednesday:

Note: Data on total tests, positivity rate, and total recovered Iowans are no longer available on the health department's updated COVID dashboard.

Note: Hospitalization data for COVID-19 is no longer available through the Iowa Department of Public Health. The data below is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The number of patients on ventilators is no longer included.

In Polk County, 65.9% of residents are fully vaccinated, about the same number as one week ago.

In Dallas County, 66.6% of residents are fully vaccinated, an increase of 0.3 percentage points.

The five counties in Iowa with the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated as of March 23 are Johnson (69.6%), Buena Vista (67.1%), Dallas (66.6%), Polk (65.9%) and Linn (65%) counties.

Tim Webber is a data visualization specialist for the Register. Reach him at twebber@registermedia.com, 515-284-8532, and on Twitter at @HelloTimWebber.

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COVID-19 cases keep falling in Iowa, but hospitalizations rise over previous week - Des Moines Register

A recent work posted to theResearch Square* preprint server and under consideration at Scientific Reports assessed infection control strategies for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in hospital consultation rooms.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 is a serious concern for human health and the global economy. COVID-19 primarily spread through indirect and direct contact with respiratory droplets. Recently, airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has also been reported.

Healthcare professionals are at the front lines of SARS-CoV-2 patient care and have an increased risk for viral infection due to their close interaction with COVID-19 patients. Moreover, the safety of healthcare staff is critical to the healthcare system's long-term viability.

Despite the recommended infection control procedures for healthcare professionals, many have been infected during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that the existing infection control techniques are ineffective. Furthermore, data regarding environmental variables' impact and proof-based approaches to lower SARS-CoV-2 infection risk in healthcare settings are lacking.

In the present work, the scientists modeled COVID-19 patients' exhalation of tiny and large aerosol particles in a hospital outpatient room for otolaryngologic examination, where medical processes need face mask removal. The study interrogated the impacts of environmental elements, aerosol suction equipment, and ventilation on SARS-CoV-2 spread via aerosols. The influence of coughing, humidity as a regulable environmental element, and suction apparatus as an efficient regulatory approach in COVID-19 transmission from patients to healthcare personnel were analyzed.

The researchers established a virtual simulation of an otolaryngology consultation room in the outpatient setting at Chiba University Hospital, Japan, using Fusion 360, a three-dimensional (3D) computer-aided design software. The k shear stress transport turbulence prototype was used to solve the 3D unsteady Reynolds-averaged NavierStokes equations. For this, the STAR-CCM+ software consisting of a second-order stratified flow solver centered on the semi-implicit strategy for pressure-related equations was used. The working fluid air at normal temperature (25C) and pressure (1 atm) and relative humidity of 100% (RH100) and 75% (RH75) were analyzed.

Simulations were conducted in the presence and absence of suction apparatus near the COVID-19 patient. The suction apparatus was anticipated to be the size suited to the room, and its 3D structure was established by employing computer-aided technology. Aerosols and air were drawn to the suction port at the tip of a flexible arm at 6.71 m/s rates and vented from the exhaust outlet at the device's back at 5.66 m/s rates. A filter in the suction apparatus was expected to eliminate the aspirated aerosol. Simulations were also undertaken considering the suction device was positioned 35 cm from the patient's mouth and near their mouth to explore the influence of the suction device's position on aerosol removal.

The results demonstrated that aerosols expelled from a COVID-19 patient's nose or mouth in a consultation room, where removal of the face mask was necessary, were significantly influenced by the rooms' airflow. In addition, the chances of these aerosols' deposition on the medical practitioner and in other places in the room could not be overlooked.

The present findings were congruent with the authors' prior research on infection control strategies in healthcare settings. In addition, when aerosol movements were modeled under the premise that a patient coughed, the aerosol number deposited on the doctor was equivalent to that occurring from normal patient expiration, despite tiny aerosols diffused extensively across the room.

The present models revealed that the large aerosol particles' diameter was decreased within seconds at RH75, which is greater than that of New York City, USA, all year. This indicates the need for greater emphasis on regulating smaller aerosols to minimize airborne SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The number of deposited, excluded, and suspended particles at RH75 was less than RH100 since most particles evaporated in around seven seconds. This suggests that humidity had a remarkable impact on particle size. In addition, streamlines replaced particles with very low mass in this investigation.

A suction device may more efficiently remove aerosol dispersion during coughing and normal expiration than depending on the maximum airflow capacity in the rooms. The particle removal capacity of the suction apparatus was lower during coughing relative to normal exhalation.

Hence, more efficient infection control methods were required to combat more infectious illnesses and mutants that cause high rates of sneezing and coughing. Notably, positioning the vacuum inlet of the suction apparatus in a direction toward the mouth of the patient instead of space closer to the patient exhaling pathogenic aerosols was found to be critical.

The present theoretical study findings illustrated that a suction apparatus could reduce healthcare workers' aerosol exposure from COVID-19 patients by substantially removing both small and large aerosol particles. Nevertheless, the expulsion efficiency of coughing patients correlates inversely with particle size, and humidity has a significant impact on aerosol behavior, emphasizing the necessity for interventions against smaller aerosols.

Altogether, the study points to the benefits and drawbacks of deploying a suction device to safeguard against COVID-19 and potential respiratory infections in the future. The comprehensive risk estimation approach employed in the study could be flexibly adopted into clinical practice for effective infection control against respiratory illnesses, including SARS-CoV-2.

Research Square publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.

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Study models the airborne transmission of COVID-19 in a hospital outpatient examination room - News-Medical.Net

Deir Ez-Zor Tuesday, 29 March 2022- The SRTF is pleased to announce the successful completion of its health intervention "Emergency Response for COVID-19 in Deir ez-Zor", which aimed to serve people across the Deir ez-Zor Governorate by establishing a fully equipped COVID-19 center to provide healthcare and treatment to COVID-19 patients and combat the spread of the pandemic and improve the overall health system in NES which suffered from lack of health services, especially the advanced services such as intensive care unit (ICU).

As part of this intervention, the SRTF rehabilitated two buildings at a hospital to respond to the emergency of COVID-19 pandemic in Deir ez-Zor. The hospital was equipped with a 10-bed ICU section, 30-bed medical ward, and two isolation centers with a capacity of 50 beds each (50 for women and 50 for men) to treat mild, moderate and critical cases infected with the novel COVID-19 virus.

During the six months' implementation, the hospital served a total of 584 patients, of which 578 patients were admitted in the inpatient unit, and 110 were admitted to the ICU. During the moths of April and May 2021, the hospital received 200 and 137 patients respectively, the highest numbers recorded throughout the project period.

Additionally, a total of 89 staff were recruited of which nine were administrative, and 80 were field staff, including physicians, medical support, non-technical support staff and guards. As part of the services delivered under this intervention, multiple training sessions to 79 staff (62 males and 17 females) throughout the intervention period. Training sessions were either on-site workshops or virtual sessions.

In total, around 630,000 of the residents of Deir ez-Zor governorate and Northeast Syria benefited from the advanced medical care services provided by the established center in an area where medical services had been very limited or non-existent when the intervention started as most facilities that served COVID-19 patients were either closed or about to close. Additionally, free-of-charge COVID-19 services reduced the suffering of financially overburdened Syrian people.

The intervention completed activities using a total budget of EUR 1.49 million with a EUR 209.97 surplus which will be released back to the available funds for future SRTF Stabilization Interventions under Filling the Void project.

For further information on the project, please see:

Emergency Response for Covid-19 in Deir Ez-Zor Governorate

For more information on the SRTF visit:

http://www.srtfund.org

Media outlets may contact:

communications@srtfund.org

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The SRTF Completes a Health Intervention Aimed at Combating COVID-19 & Improving Health Systems in Deir ez-Zor - Syrian Arab Republic - ReliefWeb

BOSTON, March 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Despite a COVID-19 disease diagnosis, hospitalization and severe outcomes from COVID-19 illness in children and young people with childhood-onset rheumatic diseases were not commonly reported, announced the Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA).

"It feels like knives or forks like stabbed into your joints," says 11-year old arthritis patient Megan Kohlheim.

In collaboration with the University of Manchester (UK), CARRA investigators at Boston Children's Hospital (US) teamed to conduct the largest-ever study of COVID-19 in children and teens with childhood-onset rheumatic diseases. The findings, published in the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, involved reports on patients from investigators across 25 countries.

The Arthritis Foundation estimates there are nearly 300,000 children and teens with arthritis in the United States.

Researchers found that less than 10% of pediatric patients with rheumatic diseases who were diagnosed with COVID-19 required hospitalization. Those patients receiving treatment with TNF-alpha inhibitor "biologic" medication did not appear to face increased risk of hospitalization or death when compared to children with childhood-onset rheumatic diseases not receiving these drugs.

The international research team evaluated patient records collected by the CARRA Registry, the CARRA-sponsored COVID-19 Global Pediatric Rheumatology Database (COVID-19 GPRD), and the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) COVID-19 Registry.

The study examined records of 607 children and youth below age 19, including a majority with juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA, 378 patients) as well as systemic lupus erythematosus/mixed connective tissue disease (SLE/MCTD), vasculitis, and other related rheumatic diseases (87 patients), and auto-inflammatory syndromes (78 patients). Patients with SLE/MCTD or vasculitis were more likely to be hospitalized due to COVID, as were those with obesity (body mass index 30) who also had anyrheumatic disease.

Dr. Marc Natter, assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital, and a pediatric rheumatologist at MassGeneral Hospital for Children, led the study for CARRA and said, "The collective experience is that children, especially younger children, with juvenile idiopathic arthritis appear less likely to develop severe COVID-19 than adults with rheumatic disease, and reports of severe disease and death occur much less commonly than in adults with rheumatic diseases."

Min-Lee Chang, co-author of the paper from Boston Children's Hospital, who led the data analysis for the CARRA data sets, commented, "We of course agree that protective measures remain important to follow to minimize the risk of acquiring SARS-CoV-2 infection."

Dr. Lianne Kearsley-Fleet, an epidemiologist at The University of Manchester and co-author who led the data analysis for the EULAR and combined data, said, "We know from research that most children and young people, unlike vulnerable adults, do not experience severe COVID-19, with many of these children being asymptomatic or showing only mild symptoms."

"However, we as pediatric rheumatology researchers felt it was important to find out if the same was true for children with arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases. The good news is that most children do appear to do well and experience only mild COVID-19 disease," Dr. Kearsley-Fleet said.

Professor Kimme Hyrich from The University of Manchester and a consultant rheumatologist said, "The data are very reassuring, but do show again the important association between obesity and more severe COVID-19 outcomes, supporting the view that protection measures in those children should be strictly followed."

All cases of COVID-19 occurred before vaccinations were available in the young people in this study.

Although the majority of children did well, 43 patients (7%) were hospitalized. Where hospitalizations did occur, they were less likely to occur in patients with JIA and more likely among those with rheumatic musculoskeletal diseases that are often more severe, such as lupus or vasculitis and require involve greater suppression of their immune system. As in other studies, it was also found that obese children were four times more likely to be hospitalized. However, even among those hospitalized, most patients avoided severe illness, with less than one-in-five needing oxygen or mechanical breathing support.

About Childhood-onset Rheumatic Diseases

Childhood-onset rheumatic diseases include different types of arthritis and other rheumatic and inflammatory diseases that develop in children and teens. These conditions are estimated to affect nearly 300,000 kids and teens in the United States (Arthritis Foundation).

About Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA)

Formed in 2002, CARRA's mission is to conduct collaborative research to prevent, treat, and cure pediatric rheumatic diseases. CARRA is a 501(c)3 registered non-profit organization. For more information, please visit https://carragroup.org/.

Media Contact:John SengChildhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA)(202) 468-7682John@GrayscaleLLC.com

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SOURCE Childhood Arthritis and Rheumatology Research Alliance (CARRA)

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Researchers Find Lower Risk of Severe COVID-19 Infection in Most Children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis - BioSpace

March 28, 2022

OSWEGO COUNTY The Oswego County Health Department announced that an additional 531 residents tested positive for COVID-19 from Monday, March 21 through Sunday, March 27. This includes results from lab-confirmed tests and at-home tests.

COVID-19 virus activity has increased in our county, said Oswego County Public Health Director Jiancheng Huang. The total new cases in the past seven days are more than the previous 14 days (March 7 to 20) all together.

He added, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Omicron BA.2 has become the dominant variant in the northeastern U.S., including New York State. According to a recent study on the vaccine and the Omicron variant (https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.13.22272308v1), it was reported that vaccine protection against COVID-19 hospitalization and death is strong and durable after the second dose, but it is more robust after a booster dose. We ask all eligible individuals to get vaccinated or boosted to help protect our more vulnerable populations.

The following report reflects data collected from Monday, March 21 through Sunday, March 27:

An additional 20 Oswego County residents were hospitalized due to COVID-19 between Sunday, March 20 and Saturday, March 26, according to the hospitalization report received by the Oswego County Health Department. New hospitalization numbers are not part of a running total of hospitalizations. For hospitalization details such as age groups and vaccination status, go to the Oswego County COVID-19 Dashboard at https://oswegogis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/3fd162cd12264b418dc03bdebd7f5300.

The Oswego County Health Department holds weekly COVID-19 vaccination clinics and vaccines are also available at local pharmacies and health care provider offices. Face masks are required at all clinics and at-home COVID-19 test kits will be distributed to those getting vaccinated at a County clinic while supplies last.

Go to health.oswegocounty.com/vaccines for a full list of upcoming clinics.

The Oswego County Office for the Aging can help people aged 60 and older who need help navigating the internet to make appointments. Call 315-349-3484.

Free transportation is provided to residents to go to COVID-19 testing and vaccination sites through a partnership between Oswego County and Oswego County Opportunities, Inc. Rides are available between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. Call 315-598-1514 to schedule a ride in advance.

Oswego County Medical Director Christian Liepke, M.D. said, While vaccination continues to be our best defense against COVID-19, its also good to know that there are now medicines that have received emergency use authorization from the FDA and the CDC for the treatment of the virus. People who test positive for COVID-19 should contact their primary care provider right away to find out if they meet certain eligibility criteria to begin treatment.

Oswego County developed a portal for residents to report positive at-home COVID-19 test results, exposure to the virus and get the necessary isolation/quarantine paperwork for schools and employers. Go to https://health.oswegocounty.com/COVID-19 and click on the appropriate link.

Test results received from doctors offices, pharmacies and other testing sites DO NOT need to be self-reported. However, if isolation orders are needed for school, employers or other reasons, people can request these documents using the portals Report a Positive (Laboratory) Test option.

The health department encourages residents who test positive to immediately notify any close contacts. The close contact should then go to the States website at https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/new-york-state-contact-tracing to find out if they meet the criteria for quarantine. If they do, they should report the exposure on the County Health Departments online portal.

Residents are urged to continue taking precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 including:

For more information, go to the Oswego County Health Departments COVID-19 page at https://health.oswegocounty.com/COVID-19 or call its COVID-19 Hotline at 315-349-3330. Callers may need to leave a message and a staff member will return the call.

Residents should also contact their medical providers directly for personal medical advice about COVID-19 and vaccinations or booster shots.

For information about emotional supports, visit the Oswego County Department of Social Services Division of Mental Hygiene at http://www.oswegocounty.com/mentalhygiene.

Under New York State Public Health Law, the Oswego County Health Department is the local public health authority regarding the COVID-19 pandemic response within the County of Oswego. The Oswego County Health Department works closely with New York State Department of Health regarding COVID-19 monitoring, response, and reporting.

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A New Study Shows Benefit of COVID-19 Vaccine - Oswego County

At 16, ShaNiyah McGee could see her future clearly. She wanted to go to college to become a pediatrician and own a nail salon and somehow, some way, she wanted her younger siblings to come to a university with her.

Shes that kind of person, her grandmother, Laurena Ellis, said. She didnt have a bad bone in her body.

Laurena Ellis holds a photo of her granddaughter, ShaNiyah McGee, left, with her siblings when ShaNiyah was 15 years old. ShaNiyah was 16 and a junior at Berkner High School in Richardson when she died unexpectedly after contracting COVID-19 in September 2021. Credit: Shelby Tauber for The Texas Tribune

But unfortunately, none of this will come to pass. On Sept. 28 the day ShaNiyah emerged from her bedroom where she spent days recovering from COVID-19 to return to school she collapsed in her Dallas home and died, becoming one of over 100 Texas coronavirus fatalities under the age of 19.

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As the coronavirus pandemic moves into a third year, recent data provides a clearer picture of COVID-19s deadly impact in Texas. Today marks the one-year anniversary of when vaccines were widely available to anyone over the age of 16 and in that time, deaths have slowed considerably.

Vaccines became available to those older than 12 last May. Between then and January, COVID-19 killed about 29,000 Texans. About 82% of those deaths, including ShaNiyahs, were among people who had not been vaccinated.

Behind these figures are real families, broken by the deaths of loved ones lost too early to a disease that often infects several members of a family at once. ShaNiyahs mother, Felicia Boulden, eventually recovered only to arrange her oldest daughters funeral.

Ellis said her granddaughter ShaNiyah had planned to get the shots after she fully recovered from COVID-19. Now, everyone eligible in the family has received the vaccines. Ellis and Boulden have struggled to understand how Boulden lived but ShaNiyah died.

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We think she bargained with God to leave her mother for her sisters and her brother, Ellis said.

Jared Earles father, Brent Dean Earles, died from COVID-19 four days after his 65th birthday. Credit: Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune

Vaccination has dramatically changed the impact of the coronavirus, which first appeared in the United States in early 2020. Before vaccines were available to everyone a year ago, Texans 80 and older died most frequently from COVID-19.

But when the coronavirus delta variant hit last September, a high vaccine rate for older Texans protected them, while deaths among younger residents began rising. Adults in their 60s died more often than any other age group during the surge, followed by those in their 70s and those in their 50s.

Brent Earles, 65, of Dallas, was one of those Texans in January. He worked as a shopping mall Santa for years, hoisting children onto his lap and listening to their Christmas wishes.

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My mom commented that it was probably one of the happiest times that shes ever seen him was being Santa at this [last] event, but it is almost certainly where he contracted COVID, his son Jared Earles said.

On New Years Eve, doctors rushed an unvaccinated Brent Earles, as he struggled to breathe, into the intensive care unit, where he remained for a near monthlong fight against COVID-19.

On Jan. 25, he died four days after his 65th birthday, one of the nearly 2,000 Texans in their 60s who have died in the first two months of this year from the virus.

Its the natural order of things that at some point in your life, your parents die, Earles said. Certainly, I didnt want or expect it to be like this, so suddenly and so needlessly. My dad had a lot of living left and he had a lot more to give.

In the beginning, Earles family and doctors thought Brent would make it. He had battled with COVID-19 pneumonia in both lungs. Two weeks in the hospital stripped him of 20 pounds, but he had improved enough that doctors prepared to move him out of the ICU.

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In those early days at the hospital, Jared said, his father began to think seriously for the first time about getting the shots.

Brent had held concerns about the vaccines safety, which he and his son regularly discussed. His son wanted him to get vaccinated, but the older man refused. That seemed to be changing as Brent slowly regained his strength.

Jared Earles shows a photo of him and his father on his phone. Credit: Ben Torres for The Texas Tribune

On one hand, my dad is a number. To most people, hes just one of an unnecessarily large number. And he also fits in that unvaccinated camp, But, Jared Earles added, He was much more than a statistic to me.

As Brent was preparing to move out of the ICU, Brents mother, who was unvaccinated, died of COVID-19. Soon after, new scans revealed a severe regression in Brents lungs.

His lung scans kind of went from mostly clear to terrible, Jared said. [For] COVID cases, its a long, slow, arduous recovery, and setbacks are extremely fast and often fatal. And thats what happened.

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In Brents last moments, the father passed the torch to his son. Jared had moved back to Texas seven years ago to work with his father.

He told me that I had surpassed him, Jared said. And it was my time to continue on.

About two months have passed since the omicron surge, which took the lives of at least 6,000 Texans, and the state is seeing a relative respite from the pandemic as COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift.

Texas is now averaging about 60 deaths a day, down from over 200 daily deaths at the height of omicron. During the delta variant peak, there was an average of 300 deaths in one day.

While death rates have slowed, the United States is still on track to reach 1 million COVID-19 deaths in the coming weeks. Texas leads the nation with the second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths behind California, which records about 2,000 more deaths despite having 10 million more people. Overall, Texas has had 296 deaths per 100,000 residents since the pandemic began, ranking it roughly in the middle of all states.

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However, other variants will be coming. A mutation of omicron, called BA.2, is currently causing surges across Europe. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it is at least 50% more transmissible than its predecessor but does not appear to cause a deadlier illness. Federal data showed the new strain accounting for 1 in 4 new U.S. COVID-19 cases.

While Fauci is expecting an uptick in domestic cases, it is unclear if the increase will reflect the intense surges seen this past January and last September.

Rebecca Fischer, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health, said Texans should keep their guard up.

Were doing OK right now, but this is the time to gain ground on the virus, Fischer said. By no means is this a time to act like the pandemic is over.

Despite the virus mutations, vaccines are still the best defense against COVID-19. Right now, the states fully vaccinated rate sits at just below 60%. Booster rates are even lower and now theres a second booster to be made available this month. Only 22% of Texans have received a booster shot. Increasing these rates will not only prevent death but will make the emergence and transmission of new variants more difficult.

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Fischer does believe there will come a time where the individual and public health measures will have largely suppressed the virus, and that time could be close, but only with significant investment in public health services.

Public health [experts] have been screaming this forever. But now, its becoming really apparent, Fischer said.

Earlier this month, Republican pushback prompted Congress to cut $15.6 billion for COVID-19 relief that would have paid for treatments, vaccines and testing. If Congress does not release additional funds, the money for COVID testing and treatment for Americas tens of millions of uninsured people could likely run out in April.

As global COVID-19 cases rise, Fischer said the United States must move aggressively before the wave hits here to combat future deaths.

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When I look at the numbers that 100 Texans a day are dying, I think the numbers are a little bit down now, but thats not OK. Its never been OK, Fischer said. Its never been OK to see those numbers and think that we dont need to do anything and its all OK and normal now.

Disclosure: Texas A&M University has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribunes journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

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The stories behind the Texans lost to COVID-19 - KPRC Click2Houston

DENVER (KDVR) After weeks of declining COVID-19 cases in Colorado, several counties saw a rise in cases over the last seven days.

As of Monday, the states seven-day positivity rate was 3.33%, which is up from2.56% seven days ago. Positivity rate measures the amount of COVID positive tests to the total amount of tests taken.

Overall, 13 counties saw a decrease in COVID-19 positivity, 35 counties saw a rise, nine counties stayed the same, and seven counties administered fewer than 10 tests.

According to theColorado Department of Public Health and Environment, incidence are down slightly over the last week.

Heres a look atpositivity rates for every county over the last seven days:

According toJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the percent positive is exactly what it sounds like: the percentage of all coronavirus tests performed that are actually positive, or: (positive tests)/(total tests) x 100%. The percent positive (sometimes called the percent positive rate or positivity rate) helps public health officials answer questions suchas:

The percent positive will be high if the number ofpositive testsis too high, or if the number oftotal testsis too low. A higher percent positive suggests higher transmission and that there are likely more people with coronavirus in the community who havent been tested yet, Johns Hopkins shared.

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These 35 counties saw a rise in COVID-19 over last week - WesternSlopeNow

Just over two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, experts are still unraveling the mysterious impacts the coronavirus has on almost every part of the body from the heart, lungs, and brain to the eyes, skin, and reproductive organs.

While most studies on COVID-19s effect on fertility have focused on women, emerging research on men is starting to show that the infection may lead to a temporary dip in male fertility and sexual function.

A study published in November 2021 in the Journal of Endocrinological Investigation found that men whod had COVID-19 were over 3 times more likely to experience erectile dysfunction than men whod not had COVID-19. Still, this accounted for less than 5 percent of people in the study whod been infected.

According to Kevin Chu, MD, an andrology fellow at the University of Miami, the discovery of the coronavirus in penile and testicular tissue raised questions that required answers.

Finding virus in this tissue is what first drove researchers to look at certain parts of the body that werent initially looked at, says Dr. Chu. There is still so much we dont know.

For astudy published in February 2022 in the journal Sexual Medicine, Chu and his coauthors hypothesized that because COVID-19 can result in the constriction of blood vessels around the heart, it might affect a mans ability to have an erection.

You need good blood flow into the penis to get good erections, and if thats impacted, that could cause erectile dysfunction, says Chu.

He and his team reviewed electronic medical records of millions of patients in the United States, identifying over 230,000 adult men who had COVID-19 and comparing them with a similar number of men who were not infected. Their conclusion: COVID-19 can be linked to erectile dysfunction.

According to Chu, experts should continue to review new data as it comes out.

Looking for associations is an important first step, but we need to then identify these cause-and-effect correlations, he says.

Its important to note that erections are not purely biological. They require psychosocial factors and that needs to be looked at, too, Chu says, explaining that the mental strain from being sick or even the stress of the pandemic might come into play.

Scientists have long documented the toll that stress takes on libido and sexual function, but the research on how pandemic-related stress is affecting peoples sex lives has produced mixed results.

A meta-analysis published in January 2022 in the journal BMC Public Health looked at 26 studies involving nearly 2,500 women and 3,800 men. Overall, the researchers found that there was an association between the COVID-19 pandemic and reduced sexual activity, especially in women, and that fear of contracting or transmitting COVID-19 had the greatest impact on the occurrence of sexual dysfunction.

But a small study published in February 2021 in the journal Sexual Medicine, which included 76 male cannabis users, found that the pandemic didnt appear to influence sexual function and actually increased sexual activity.

The research on how COVID-19 may impact male fertility is also new, but a growing body of evidence suggests it might have a negative effect, at least in the short term.

A study of 120 men published in February 2022 in the journal Fertility and Sterility found that 60 percent of those whod had COVID-19 experienced reduced sperm motility (referring to sperms ability to move) in the month following infection, even though the virus was not detected in the sperm itself.

Because the research is still new, its not clear how long this drop in fertility lasts, though the authors estimated around three months.

A separate study, published in January 2022 in the American Journal of Epidemiology, included more than 2,100 couples. Researchers found that while COVID-19 in women didnt appear to impair their ability to get pregnant, COVID-19 in men did seem to reduce fertility. Compared with males who did not have COVID-19 within the last 60 days, men who did were almost 20 percent less likely to conceive during that time frame.

We assume that the effects wont be permanent but we dont know that yet, says Chas Easley, PhD, an associate professor of environmental health science at the University of Georgia School of Public Health in Athens, who was not involved with the research.

According to Dr. Easley, all viruses target different receptors, or proteins, to gain entry into cells. The coronavirus behind COVID-19 targets two proteins: ACE2 and TMPRSS2. Easley and some other experts hypothesize that organs that contain both these proteins are particularly susceptible to infection by the COVID-19 virus. The testes, which are the organs responsible for making sperm, contain both.

Sertoli cells, a type of cell in the testes, also contain these proteins. These cells form a physical barrier that separates blood vessels from the testes, called the blood-testis barrier. When the virus latches onto these proteins, it disrupts the function of Sertoli cells in multiple ways.

If you screw up the Sertoli cells, you lose the ability to promote the spermiogenesis required to create real sperm, says Easley.

He advises people whove had COVID-19 and are having difficulty conceiving to consider testing to evaluate sperm count and sperm motility.

According to Easley, none of the COVID-19 vaccines reduce male fertility. The vaccine cant cause infertility but the virus can, he says.

The study published in January 2022 in the American Journal of Epidemiology found no difference in male or female fertility among uninfected people who were vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines compared with uninfected people who were not vaccinated.

The new study backs up prior research on mRNA vaccines. An investigation published in June 2021 in JAMA, which included 45 men who received two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, found that the vaccine did not lower sperm counts. In fact, sperm counts increased, from a median count of 26 million per milliliter at baseline to 30 million per milliliter after the second shot.

According to Easley, getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is an important way for men to protect their fertility.

"Even mild cases of COVID can lead to decreased sperm counts, lower sperm motility, and increased DNA fragmentation in sperm, and we predict that vaccines will prevent this damage," he says.

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COVID-19 and Sex: What Men Need to Know - Everyday Health