Category: Covid-19

The omicron surge is on its decline, as new cases are plummeting as fast as they climbed, providing hope for relief from the record-breaking wave of infection. As the country begins to relax, the question is: Whats next?

In the last two weeks, Pennsylvanias average daily number of new infections has dropped to about 14,000 from a peak of more than 28,000. The case numbers are now similar to where they were on Dec. 31 though they still remain higher than in any previous wave.

The Northeast, including New Jersey, has seen a similar drop, while the nationwide case numbers have peaked but are falling more slowly, according to data analyzed by the New York Times.

As the surge wanes, the country is likely to get a reprieve from high COVID-19 spread, particularly once the winter ends. The lull will provide an opportunity to prepare for the potential next wave, using lessons learned from the omicron surge.

Omicron is not the end, said Temple University chief medical officer Tony Reed. This virus is still out there [and] will mutate. So itll be back.

READ MORE: Declining omicron surge is a promising sign for Pa. and N.J. hospitals. But its not over yet.

Federal and state governments found themselves reacting to the omicron surge after it had begun. In some cases, including in Pennsylvania, aid is now coming to residents or hospitals but not arriving until weeks after the peak.

The lag, experts say, is because the infrastructure for it wasnt in place. Pennsylvanias acting health secretary, too, noted at a news briefing last week that it had taken some time to get funding in place for the states recent initiatives.

My hope is that the next time, we dont wait until were mid-surge, said Courtney Boen, a University of Pennsylvania professor and sociologist.

To meet the challenge, hospital officials around Pennsylvania used strategies developed throughout the pandemic, pivoting frequently and moving staff between jobs. In the next few weeks, some that have been overwhelmed hope to restart elective procedures, see patients who delayed care, and examine their responses.

In interviews, public health experts and hospital leaders talked about what hospitals and the public need before the next surge. Here are some of those steps:

Continuing the push for vaccination is key, experts said, both in the United States and globally, because new variants will be able to emerge until most of the population is vaccinated.

Data from the omicron surge show that people who had received booster shots were highly protected from severe cases and hospitalization. A lull will provide an important window for vaccination efforts, allowing people time to complete immunizations before the next wave. It takes several months to get all three shots, so people who need first, second, or third doses should start now, experts said.

READ MORE: Omicrons toughest foe is a booster shot, yet many in the Philly region are skipping theirs

County, state, and federal governments efforts to improve vaccine access and outreach and employer vaccine requirements remain key, experts said. Some also recommended state or federal vaccine mandates.

When you have unvaccinated people, you have variants, said Jennifer Kolker, a public health professor at Drexel University. [Some people] are nearer to getting vaccinated, and we need to stay with them and continue to talk to them.

As omicron infected even people who were vaccinated, wearing masks again became paramount. Now, experts said, communication is essential to help the public better understand when to wear masks and to combat confusion and fatigue.

The public should view taking precautions as good not just for me as an individual, but its good for the community that Im around every day, and its good for my region, said Jack Lynch, CEO of Main Line Health.

And states should consider imposing mask policies tied to virus transmission levels, experts suggested. That would mean a mask mandate would automatically go into effect if another surge arrived but would be dropped as soon as case spread improved.

If the state wants to be serious about protecting health-care infrastructure, Boen said, they really have to take mask mandates seriously.

During the surge, hospitals often had nowhere to send patients who needed further recovery but were ready to be moved out of acute care wards. Not being able to transfer patients to nursing homes and rehabs because of a lack of available beds or staff can cause a backlog of patients in emergency rooms.

Strengthening that system, known as post-acute care, before the next wave is critical, said several hospital officials.

Pennsylvania is aiming to address that temporarily with eight overflow sites that will take patients from hospitals. The sites will be at existing skilled nursing facilities; theyll open sometime in February and operate for about two months, a spokesperson said. Up to four more sites will open later in February.

That type of aid really would be a big help, said Donald Yealy chief medical officer at UPMC.

But hospitals needed the aid a few weeks ago, Geisinger Health chief medical officer Gerald Maloney said last week. We will still have people in the hospital three weeks from now who would benefit from that, so well take it if thats what we get. But if we could get it today, that would be even better.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health defended its timing, with a spokesperson saying the impact on hospitals will continue for weeks and asserting the aid is not specifically tied to the surge in cases caused by the omicron variant.

The department is working aggressively to support our health-care facilities, said spokesperson Mark ONeill.

Increasing access to testing, masks, and other supplies is also critical.

During the lull, a plan should be established, experts said, that would allow measures like the federal governments plan to provide free at-home tests to households to take effect more quickly. And after omicron, it may be more politically palatable, Penns Boen suggested.

Within the last two or three weeks, things that at one time felt like there was a lot of political resistance against, like providing free masks, like providing free tests to people, all of a sudden became doable, Boen said.

READ MORE: How to get free COVID-19 tests from the federal government

Having already seen an influx of patients who put off medical care earlier in the pandemic, doctors will also use the coming months to treat patients who need overdue care. That also includes hospitals resuming elective surgeries that were delayed during the surge.

If there are patients who put off general care, Reed said, its incumbent on our primary care groups to make sure theres nobody outstanding.

Solving the health-care staffing crisis that is impairing hospitals nationwide is one of the most urgent needs, short- and long-term, but possibly among the toughest to address. Hospitals are hoping to hire over the next several months, but with so many workers having left, that pipeline is going to take time to rebuild, said Yealy of UPMC.

And hospitals, which have partly weathered the surge by moving workers between jobs, could potentially reconsider how they use their workforce, Yealy said. They also may craft new contingency staffing plans or seek ways to relieve exhausted workers.

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

Were running folks ragged because we dont have the systems in place to efficiently transition people, said Matthew Ferrari, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics at Pennsylvania State University.

Meanwhile, Gov. Tom Wolfs administration offered what acting Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter called a short-term fix last week, launching a strike team program allowing hospitals to request extra workers for seven- to 14-day periods.

Since its start, the pandemic has laid bare the gaps in public health investment and infrastructure. More government funding would put public health entities in a stronger position for the next crisis, experts say whether it means they have better capacity to open testing sites or more funding to cover higher supply costs and salary increases.

Theres going to have to be relief from the federal and state governments, like they did in 20 and 21, said Lynch of Main Line Health. Were losing money.

Wolf and a bipartisan group of lawmakers last week announced the passage of a law that would inject $225 million of federal COVID-19 relief funds into hospitals and behavioral health centers for recruiting and retaining staff, as well as helping nurses repay student loan debt.

Federal funding is also key for the production of treatments and supplies and continued research.

Unlike the past, where we didnt know what the future was and we didnt know how bad it could be, said Ferrari, of Penn State, now we dont know what the future could be, but we know how bad it can be. We learned the downside of inaction.

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What can we learn from omicron? Here are 7 steps public health leaders say we should take before the next surge. - The Philadelphia Inquirer

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didnt reach its shores for nearly two full years.

Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nations citizens. Many of those aboard were missionaries who had left Kiribati before the border closure to spread the faith abroad for what is commonly known as the Mormon church.

Officials tested each returning passenger three times in nearby Fiji, required that they be vaccinated, and put them in quarantine with additional testing when they arrived home.

It wasnt enough.

More than half the passengers tested positive for the virus, which has now slipped out into the community and prompted the government to declare a state of disaster. An initial 36 positive cases from the flight had ballooned to 181 cases by Friday.

Kiribati and several other small Pacific nations were among the last places on the planet to have avoided any virus outbreaks, thanks to their remote locations and strict border controls. But their defenses appear no match against the highly contagious omicron variant.

Generally speaking, its inevitable. It will get to every corner of the world, said Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccine expert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Its a matter of buying enough time to prepare and getting as many people vaccinated as possible.

Only 33% of Kiribatis 113,000 people are fully vaccinated, while 59% have had at least one dose, according to the online scientific publication Our World in Data. And like many other Pacific nations, Kiribati offers only basic health services.

Dr. Api Talemaitoga, who chairs a network of Indigenous Pacific Island doctors in New Zealand, said Kiribati had only a couple of intensive care beds in the entire nation, and in the past relied on sending its sickest patients to Fiji or New Zealand for treatment.

He said that given the limitations of Kiribatis health system, his first reaction when he heard about the outbreak was, Oh, my lord.

Kiribati has now opened multiple quarantine sites, declared a curfew and imposed lockdowns. President Taneti Maamau said on social media that the government is using all its resources to manage the situation, and urged people to get vaccinated.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in the U.S. state of Utah, has a strong presence in many Pacific nations, including Kiribati, where its 20,000 members make it the third-largest Christian denomination. The church has about 53,000 missionaries serving full time around the world, working to convert people.

The pandemic has presented challenges for their missionary work, which is considered a rite of passage for men as young as 18 and women as young as 19.

As the pandemic ebbed and flowed, the church responded. Itrecalled about 26,000 missionaries who were serving overseasin June 2020, reassigning them to proselytize online from home before sending some back out into the field five months later.

When COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in many countries in April 2021, church officialsencouraged all missionaries to get inoculated and required it of those serving outside their home countries.

Church spokesperson Sam Penrod said the returning missionaries remained in quarantine, were cooperating with local health authorities and would be released from their service upon completion of their quarantine.

With Kiribatis borders being closed since the onset of the pandemic, many of these individuals have continued as missionaries well beyond their 18 to 24 months of anticipated service, with some serving as long as 44 months, he said.

Before this months outbreak, Kiribati had reported just two virus cases: crew members on an incoming cargo ship that ultimately wasnt permitted to dock.

But the Kiribati charter flight wasnt the first time missionaries returning home to a Pacific island nation tested positive for COVID-19.

In October, a missionary returning to Tonga from service in Africa wasreported as the countrys first and so far only positive case after flying home via New Zealand. Like those returning to Kiribati, he also was vaccinated and quarantined.

Tonga is desperately trying to prevent any outbreaks as it recovers from adevastating volcanic eruptionandtsunamiearlier this month. The nation of 105,000 has been receiving aid from around the world but has requested that crews from incoming military ships and planes drop their supplies andleave without having any contactwith those on the ground.

Theyve got enough on their hands without compounding it with the spread of COVID, said Petousis-Harris, the vaccine expert. Anything they can do to keep it out is going to be important. COVID would be just compounding that disaster.

In the long term, however, it is going to be impossible to stop the virus from entering Tonga or any other community, Petousis-Harris said.

Nearby Samoa, with a population of 205,000, is also trying to prevent its first outbreak. It imposed a lockdown through until Friday evening after 15 passengers on an incoming flight from Australia last week tested positive.

By Thursday, that number had grown to 27, including five front-line nurses who had treated the passengers. Officials said all those infected had been isolated and there was no community outbreak so far.

While the incursion of the virus into the Pacific has prompted lockdowns and other restrictions, there were signs that not all traditional aspects of island life would be lost for long.

Government has decided to allow fishing, Kiribati declared on Thursday while listing certain restrictions on times and places. Only four people will be allowed to be on a boat or part of a group fishing near shore.

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COVID-19 hits one of the planets last uninfected places - KFOR Oklahoma City

Lonnie Gee contracted COVID in June of 2021, and now, seven months later, she is still fighting with the virus everyday. The symptoms have never gone away, even though her test results are negative.

CHICO, Calif. - Tens of thousands of people across the country are still fighting with Coronavirus even after beating it, and health experts say there are probably millions of 'long haulers' around the world.

She has been suffering through COVID-19 symptoms for seven months now.

A study done by U.C. Davis shows one in four cases of COVID-19 could bring long term symptoms.

"I could say I was looking standing on the cliff and looking to hell, that's what it felt like," said Lonnie Gee.

She has been battling COVID-19, and it's long term symptoms, for seven whole months now.

"I got COVID back in June last year, it just hit me all of a sudden, then I got so sick I had to call the ambulance and then I ended up in the ER," she said.

She's one of thousands of people who have won the war with COVID-19, but are struggling to win the battles, day in and day out.

"It got worse and worse and worse," she said.

"The weakness is still there, the appetite is not all the way back yet. Battling to go back to work and to even go back out to life again. It's a scary thing because I'm scared I might catch it again," Gee said.

"They looked at 175 patients with COVID and followed them over a year," said Dr. Jeanette Brown a Comprehensive COVID-19 Clinic Doctor at the University of Utah Health.

She is working with long haulers to see if they can tell who will have long term effects from COVID-19.

"They felt like it was about 75% effective at predicting who is going to have persistent symptoms," said Brown.

But Gee feels, this isn't enough.

"They need to do more things for the long haulers, there needs to be clinic for long haulers," said Gee.

"When you think you're just getting out of it, its slaps you right back down again."

Gee says she was unvaccinated when she got sick, and is now looking into getting the shot and how her being a long hauler affects her.

Throughout the whole process of fighting the virus, she's lost 30 pounds.

UC Davis is the closest post-COVID-19 clinic in our area.

If you would like to schedule an appointment, CLICK HERE.

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Long hauler shares her ongoing seven month fight with COVID-19, hoping for more help - Action News Now

Bronson Hospital to honor healthcare workers, lives lost to COVID-19 with virtual vigil  WWMT-TV

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Bronson Hospital to honor healthcare workers, lives lost to COVID-19 with virtual vigil - WWMT-TV

The University of Rochester is requiring all faculty and staff to receive a booster vaccination against the COVID-19 virus by February 21, 2022, or within 30 days of becoming eligible, if that is a later date. The CDC recommends booster shots for all eligible adults. Vaccination, especially followed by a booster, has shown to be highly effective in preventing serious illness against the Omicron variant. Additionally, New York State recently passed a booster mandate for health care workers, which covers many of our Universitys employees. Our epidemiologists, public health experts, and scientists continue to stress the effectiveness and safety of COVID vaccines and we believe requiring a booster vaccination is in the best interest of the health and safety of our University community and the individual employee.

Individuals are eligible for a booster vaccination five months after completing the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna series, and two months after the initial J&J/Janssen vaccine.

Employees who received their booster dose at an Employee Health vaccine clinic in LeChase Assembly Hall are already recorded and no further action is required. Employees who have received their booster at any other location, including UR Medicine locations, will need to submit proof of the booster vaccination through the University portal. (Please note: You must be on the Universitys network or VPN to access the portal.)

The University will notify eligible employees who do not have a booster on record as well as those who are not yet eligible by email in the coming days. Those with current approved exemptions will be honored and must continue to follow the protocols set by the University. Any new exemption requests must complete the steps to apply on the University portal by selecting update status.

As a reminder, consistent with the requirements of the state mandate and applicable laws for healthcare workers, the University maintains a process to consider reasonable accommodation requests from covered personnel based on sincerely held religious beliefs that would prevent individuals from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine. However, compliance with the state mandate may significantly limit the availability of such accommodations.

The Finger Lakes COVID-19 Vaccine Hub has information on where vaccines are available across the region. The University provides four hours of paid time off for booster vaccine appointments, and one day of paid time off after receiving the booster vaccines for employees who may experience side effects.

To learn more about the Universitys booster vaccine requirement, visit these FAQs.

For questions not covered in the FAQs or for other concerns, please contact your manager or your Human Resources Business Partner.

Sincerely,

Sarah C. MangelsdorfPresidentand G. Robert Witmer, Jr. University Professor

Mark B. TaubmanCEO, University of Rochester Medical Center and Dean, School of Medicine and Dentistry

Sarah E. PeyreInterim Provost

Kathleen GallucciVice President and Chief Human Resources Office

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COVID-19 booster requirement for all faculty and staff - COVID-19 Resource Center - University of Rochester

Pauline Brantley doesnt know where she got COVID-19. She does know where her three kids and her husband picked it up, though: They got it from her.

Brantley, 51, of Los Angeles is vaccinated and regularly wears an N-95 mask but still got COVID. And even though she isolated immediately after testing positive and wore the mask at home, two days before Christmas every member of her family got it too.

They went down like dominoes, Brantley says. She has been coping with the guilt of passing COVID on ever since.

As the highly contagious omicron variant races around the world, managing to evade masks, vaccines and boosters, it feels easier than ever to get COVID-19 and easier than ever to give COVID to someone else. For Brantley, a lot of her initial guilt came from ruining the holidays, and once she realized her kids were suffering, her guilt intensified.

I didnt really have a fever, but the kids all had fevers and they were really just miserable. So once ... I saw them suffering I felt worse than I did before, she says. It sucks to be sick, especially over Christmas. I just felt so bad.

Brantley is not alone in feeling guilty about passing along the virus. Its something that Elizabeth Cohen, a therapist in New York City, is seeing in her patients. A lot of people are grappling with the guilt of having passed COVID to someone else, she says. People feel like, If Im a good person, I would have protected everybody. And its like, no, you are a good person its that this virus is super sneaky.

Lucy McBride, M.D., an internist in Washington, D.C., is also seeing feelings of shame among her patients who have contracted COVID-19. A common theme is when my patients call me they say, I feel so guilty. I feel so badly that I am sick when I was so careful, she says. You have to understand that when you have a highly transmissible variant like omicron in circulation, its not a failure of our mitigation efforts. Its really just the intrinsic nature of the virus.

Thats why she gets frustrated when she hears her patients are feeling culpable. If its a hurricane and you get wet, thats not your fault, right? McBride says.

Still, like most mothers, Brantley couldnt help but feel terrible watching her kids (and husband) get sick, especially since she brought the virus into the home.

She was surprised, though, at how badly she felt about exposing her coworkers when she went into the office one day before she knew she was infected. Even more surprising was how bad they made her feel about it.

I spent a lot of time worrying that I put them at risk, Brantley says. But they spent a lot of time being mad at me for possibly putting them at risk, even though there's no way I could have known.

Its that mentality that frustrates McBride. We have to realize that getting COVID and spreading COVID is not a moral failure, she says. It's really important to take the shame away from getting sick and accidentally infecting someone else, because this virus is so contagious. It's sort of inevitable that we will all be exposed to it at some point.

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How to Shake the Guilt When You Give Someone COVID-19 - AARP

Alaskas largest hospital on Monday reported no available intensive care beds as the states health care system grapples with growing pressure from the ongoing COVID-19 surge linked to the highly contagious omicron variant.

State health officials on Monday also reported 21 more deaths in Alaskans with COVID-19, three of them recent.

Generally, the variant is thought to lead to less severe infections but its impact is being felt in health care worker absences compromising Alaskas hospital capacity, as well as continued illness, long-term complications, and death.

Together, the states two largest hospitals Providence Alaska Medical Center and Alaska Native Medical Center on Monday reported limited ICU space, a situation that started several weeks ago with staff outages linked to the virus and worsened recently amid rising hospitalizations of COVID-positive people.

Jeannie Monk, a state hospital association executive, tuned into a regular call with health-care administrators around the state Monday morning after spending the weekend in a world where everything seemed normal, as she put it.

But on that hospital call, Monk said, she heard only fatigue, stress and frustration.

Unprecedented employee outages one Anchorage facility on Monday reported more than 100 workers out are hitting not just health professionals but custodians and others, she said.

Some hospitals are pausing all but essential surgeries. A few nursing homes reported not being able to take new admissions because they dont have enough staff. A shortage of food workers at one hospital shuttered the cafeteria.

Health care workers are tired, theyre traumatized, theyre beleaguered, Monk said. They have been through many surges at this point. And they continue to show up and take care of people with COVID and all of the other things that bring people to a hospital.

Alaskas daily case counts showed a slight decline over the weekend, though its not clear whether that trend will continue or whether it reflects rising reliance on at-home tests, which arent part of state data, or recently limited testing capacity in Anchorage.

[Omicron peak in Alaska could be a few weeks away as new COVID-19 case numbers continue to shatter records]

The combination of rising COVID-19 cases and workers out sick and in isolation are leading to shortages of space at the biggest hospitals in the state in Anchorage, which typically treat the states sickest patients. As of Monday morning, there were just six ICU beds available at Anchorage hospitals, where 14% of patients were COVID-positive.

Providence Alaska Medical Center had no available ICU beds as of mid-afternoon Monday, hospital spokesman Mikal Canfield said. Between 80 and 100 employees were out Monday at the hospital, the states largest, which often receives patients who need higher levels of care from outlying facilities.

Now the number of patients and staffing shortages could affect our ability to accept patient transfers from other facilities, Canfield said in an email.

Alaska Native Medical Center on Monday had just under 300 employees on a COVID-19 tracking grid at varying stages of recovery, with about 100 who are not yet cleared to return to work because they have yet to get out of quarantine, spokeswoman Shirley Young said in an email. In general, the hospital remains at or near capacity regularly.

As of Monday morning, ANMC had a few open ICU beds, Young said, but that can change quickly through the day.

Alaska Regional Hospital paused visitors last week but otherwise is operating relatively normally, according to spokeswoman Kjerstin Lastufka.

Hospitalizations statewide are still climbing, though not yet to the 200-plus record levels last fall when the delta variant was circulating broadly.

The Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association, where Monk serves as senior vice president, was reporting 150 COVID-positive people hospitalized on Monday.

The state on Monday reported 139 COVID-positive Alaskans hospitalized as of Sunday, up from 135 reported Friday, according to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.

It wasnt clear how many were admitted to the hospital with the virus, as opposed to testing positive while being treated for other medical problems. But public health officials point out that any COVID-positive patient requires more PPE and other time-consuming measures to protect workers and other patients.

The state reported a total of 5,759 new COVID-19 cases in a three-day period from Friday through Sunday including a near-record of 3,083 resident cases Friday. The highest one-day resident tally was 3,282 on Jan. 19. There were 1,490 resident cases reported Saturday and 1,081 Sunday.

The state reported another 105 cases in non-residents during that period.

The virus-related deaths reported Monday included three that occurred recently, after omicron became the dominant variant in Alaska.

Eleven resident deaths in people with the virus occurred in December, according to a health department spokesman. Five occurred in November and two in October. Omicron was first detected here in mid-December.

The people who died were a female resident of Anchorage aged 80 or older; a female resident of Anchorage in her 70s; a male resident of Anchorage in his 70s; a male resident of Anchorage in his 70s; a male resident of Anchorage in his 60s; a male resident of Anchorage in his 50s; a female resident of Anchorage in her 50s; a female resident of Anchorage in her 50s; a male resident of the Copper River Census Area in his 60s; a male resident of Fairbanks in his 60s; a female resident of the Kenai Peninsula aged 80 or older; a male resident of the Kenai Peninsula in his 60s; a female resident of the Kenai Peninsula in her 60s; a female resident of Ketchikan in her 60s; a male resident of Ketchikan in his 60s; a male resident of Ketchikan in his 50s; a male resident of the Northwest Arctic Borough in his 70s; a male resident of Palmer in his 60s; a male resident of Soldotna in his 40s; a female resident of Wasilla aged 80 or older; and a female resident of Wasilla in her 60s.

Alaska on Monday ranked the lowest in the nation for seven-day death rate per 100,000 residents, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The state ranked sixth lowest for COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020 after once holding the lowest or near lowest rate.

There have been 1,039 deaths in Alaskans from COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Thirty-three nonresidents have died from the virus.

Public health officials continue to emphasize vaccination -- as well as social distancing and masking -- as the best way to combat the omicron variant. As of Monday, just over 61% of residents and military members or veterans over 5 had completed their primary series of vaccinations. Only about a quarter of eligible residents had received booster shots.

The national average for fully vaccinated people is 63%. Alaska ranked 30th among states for fully vaccinated residents on Monday.

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Anchorage ICU space limited as Alaska reports 21 COVID-19 deaths and rising hospitalizations - Anchorage Daily News

In the first half of January, an estimated 8.8 million U.S. workers were reported to have stayed home either because they were sick with COVID-19 or were caring for someone who was sick.

According to Stastia, a consumer data provider, this is not only an increase of more than two million people year over year, but also the biggest workforce shortage since the start of the pandemic.

The news comes as some workers are running out of employer-provided sick days, or dont have enough earned sick days to begin with.

Genesis Mantuano, a factory worker in Elk Grove, took unpaid leave for five days to care for her 3-year-old son who tested positive for COVID-19.

My son tested positive for COVID and he has had a fever for about three days. When I found out, I told my supervisor that my son tested positive but I didn't, Mantuano said in Spanish. [My employer] had me quarantine and just told me that because I didnt test positive, that they couldnt pay me. I had known that previously they did pay you if a family member tested positive. In this case, the rules [at my work] have changed and they're not paying for sick leave anymore.

When the pandemic first hit, the Department of Labor enacted the Families First Coronavirus Response Act requiring employers to provide paid sick leave to employees who are unable to work due to a quarantine related to COVID-19, including caring for sick family members. It has since expired.

That ended in December of 2020, said Jorge Mjica, a strategic organizer for the community labor advocate organization Arise Chicago.

Mjica said there hasnt been anything similar passed in Illinois to replace the expired federal act.

People are still asking employers to pay for their quarantine but employers are gladly denying that petition, Mjica said. You get sick, you go home and you lose your pay. In March of 2021, there was also a provision to get paid but that expired too.

Mantuano said the five-day leave took a toll on her financially.

It has an economic impact because the bills dont wait for you, she said. The rent doesnt wait. One has payments to make. I have to buy a lot of things, especially food.

Nadia Torres, who works full time for two cleaning companies, was out of work due to illness from COVID for more than five days with ongoing symptoms. At one job, she is new and hasnt earned any sick time yet. At the other, she has less than two days of paid sick time.

I feel very alone, Torres told WTTW News in Spanish. I tried doing everything right for the past two years. I got vaccinated, Ive been wearing a mask when I asked my employers for help, they told me the Family and Medical Leave Act didnt apply to me ... I realized Im left to depend on my own resources.

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Some Illinois Workers Are Forced to Take Unpaid Leave as COVID-19 Drags On - WTTW News

The COVID-19 pandemic is still far from over but theres new hope the emergency phase could end this year because of the omicron variants speedy spread around the globe, a top official of the World Health Organization in Europe said Monday.

Omicron offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalization, Dr. Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said in a statement, describing how, with the proper precautions, the next variant could no longer require the return to pandemic-era, population-wide lockdowns or similar measures.

Thats going to take strong surveillance and monitoring of new variants, high vaccination uptake and third doses, ventilation, affordable equitable access to antivirals, targeted testing, and shielding high-risk groups with high-quality masks and physical distancing, he said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top medical adviser to President Joe Biden, also offered some hope of getting COVID-19 infections to below what I call that area of control in the coming weeks, where theyre there, but they dont disrupt society, similar to other respiratory infections.

But appearing Sunday on ABCs This Week, Fauci also said the omicron surge has yet to peak in some parts of the United States. He said there may be a bit more pain and suffering with hospitalizations in those areas of the country that have not been fully vaccinated or have not gotten boosters.

That includes in Utah, which currently is tied with Rhode Island for the nations second-highest number of cases per 100,000 people behind Wisconsin, according to data collected by The New York Times. The newspaper cited Utah on Monday as a state lagging in vaccinations but reporting record case counts and hospitalizations.

Omicron, a less severe but incredibly transmissible COVID-19 variant that has overwhelmed hospitals as it sweeps around the globe because of the sheer number of new infections, is not expected to be the last version of the deadly virus that first surfaced more than two years ago.

This pandemic, like all other pandemics before it, will end, but it is far too early to relax, Kluge said. With the millions of infections occurring in the world in recent and coming weeks, coupled with waning immunity and winter seasonality, it is almost a given that new COVID-19 variants will emerge and return.

Whether the omicron variant offers protection against future versions of the virus remains to be seen, cautioned Dr. Eddie Stenehjem, an infectious diseases physician with Intermountain Healthcare, the regions largest health care provider.

Theres definitely going to be another variant. I mean, thats what viruses do. Especially if we see worldwide circulation, there will absolutely be another variant. To what extent prior infection with omicron is going to cover the next variant is unclear, Stenehjem told reporters recently.

Studies pitting omicron against prior variants are ongoing and look promising, the doctor said.

That could be a very good thing in terms of us moving forward and having less COVID in our lives, he said, adding the best-case scenario at this point would be if the immune response generated from omicron turns out to be protective.

That would mean our community immunity that weve generated from vaccination and infection will be robust enough to prevent these really significant surges that cause hospitalization numbers to go up, Stenehjem said. Theres plenty of people that think that will be the case. Were really going to have to see what happens.

Han Kim, a professor of public health at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, said omicron is changing COVID-19.

It is spreading so rapidly and exposing so much of the population, Kim said, building immunity that could limit the impact on hospitalizations and deaths from future variants to the point COVID-19 may shift from a pandemic to an endemic like the seasonal flu, that remains deadly but is not circulating as widely.

I think this has the potential to kind of open the door to becoming that endemic disease. Some folks are predicting maybe this summer will be the summer that we wanted last summer. All pandemics eventually end. Its just a matter of when, the professor said.

The Utah Department of Health reported 21,970 new coronavirus cases over the weekend 10,610 on Friday, 6,850 on Saturday and 4,549 on Sunday. While the numbers appear to be dropping, the state continues to advise most Utahns showing symptoms to assume they have the virus and isolate for five days rather than get tested.

I think we are still surging, Kim said, suggesting cases may peak later this week or next in Utah.

As of Monday, the rolling seven-day average for positive tests is 9,677 per day, and the rolling seven-day average for percent positivity of tests is 44.2% when all results are included and 30.1% when multiple tests by an individual are excluded.

The state health department also reported 33 new deaths since last week, bringing Utahs death toll from COVID-19 to 4,063 since the start of the pandemic. Hospitalizations remain at near-record highs, with 738 people currently in Utah hospitals with the virus.

Kim said even after omicron peaks in Utah, the state could still be in for a slower recovery than other places with higher vaccination rates against COVID-19. Less than 60% of all Utahns are fully vaccinated, meaning theyve received the initial series of shots, and 40% of them have also gotten a booster dose.

A new multi-state Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that included data from Intermountain Healthcare in Utah showed that a booster shot has a significant impact against omicron, increasing the effectiveness of vaccination in keeping someone out of the hospital from 50% to 90%.

Intermountain Healthcare tweeted that as of Sunday, 68% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were not vaccinated, 24% had gotten the initial shots and just 8% were also boosted. The numbers are more stark in the ICU: 82% of COVID-19 patients there are unvaccinated; 14% had the initial shots and just 4% were also boosted.

Kim said its incredibly dramatic how differently the virus impacts the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated.

For those who are boosted, and even those who dont have the booster but still have the full vaccine series, we can define this as a fairly mild variant. For most folks, the risk of severe disease is low, he said. But for those who are unvaccinated, this is just as deadly as the original variant.

Read more from the original source:

Does omicron mean the emergency phase of the pandemic is ending? - Deseret News

Lakeland patients part of ivermectin COVID-19 study

Ken Suarez reports

LAKELAND, Fla. - Lakeland Regional Health is taking part in a national study to see if Ivermectin has any effect on COVID-19 patients. So far, the hospital's chief medical officer says there's no evidence the drug works to fight the virus or its symptoms.

"I have not seen any legitimate studies that have proven it to be beneficial," Dr. Timothy Regan told FOX 13.

Ivermectin and two other medicines will be given to people with mild cases of COVID-19 in a double-blind study, with a placebo.

Along with Ivermectin, two other drugs are being tested: Fluticasone, which is typically used for asthma, and Fluvoxamine, which is usually given for depressionand behavioral health issues.

All three are FDA approved, but not for COVID-19.

"There are a lot of different medications out there, and if we find one that we can repurpose and use for COVID, that is the important part of the study," Regan said.

Nationally, about 2,000 patients are enrolled in the study, with about two dozen of them in Lakeland.

The goal is to enroll 15,000 across the country.

"I think, in a lot of ways, the message has been misconstrued to the public," Regan commented. "Physicians and clinicians are not against Ivermectin. Theyre against the concept that people decide one day they want to take a medication that suddenly has become trendy."

"Our job is to look at things scientifically, compare outcomes, and do whats right for our patients," he continued.

The study is expected to take about a year to complete.

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Lakeland hospital taking part in COVID-19 Ivermectin study - FOX 13 Tampa Bay