Tag Archives: pandemic

Axios reports: The summer’s COVID-19 wave is continuing, with the latest wastewater surveillance data detecting “high” virus activity levels across the majority of the U.S. and “very high” levels in 19 states, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The virus is especially prevalent across the western U.S. and the South, in particular a region that includes New Mexico, …

Politico Europe reports: Nearly 17,000 people may have died after taking hydroxycholoroquine during the first wave of COVID, according to a study by French researchers. The anti-malaria drug was prescribed to some patients hospitalized with COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, “despite the absence of evidence documenting its clinical benefits,” the researchers point out in their paper, published …

The New York Daily News reports: With COVID, flu and other respiratory illnesses on the rise, the NYC public hospital system is bringing back masking requirements. The mandate applies to anyone entering New York H+H hospitals, community health centers and nursing homes. It went into effect just after Christmas. “As we’ve seen an increase in COVID, flu and RSV, this …

The Hill reports: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said Thursday he tested positive for COVID-19, amid a nationwide spike in infections. The 82-year-old Sanders, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, he was experiencing “minimal” symptoms and will continue to isolate while working from his home in Vermont. The U.S. is seeing elevated levels of respiratory illness this …

CBS News reports: The new COVID-19 variant that scientists call JN.1 now makes up about 44.1% of COVID-19 cases across the country, the CDC estimated Friday, marking another week of the fast-spreading variant’s steep rise in the U.S. The increase is more than two times larger than the 21.3% that the CDC now estimates the strain made up of infections …

The Messenger reports: Hospitalizations and deaths owed to COVID-19 are rising as the nation heads into the holidays, according to new data from the CDC. The CDC’s most recent report highlights a nearly 18% increase week over week in COVID hospitalizations. Concerningly, the data also shows a 25% increase in COVID deaths during the same week. The CDC estimates that …

Changing America reports: Is it safe to use a COVID-19 test that is past the expiration? The answer, it turns out, depends on what brand of test you have. The FDA has extended that date for a number of different at-home COVID-19 tests. The expiration date for multiple lots of BinaxNow COVID-19 antigen tests that were sold at CVS, for …

The Associated Press reports: Criminals and gangs grabbed the money. But so did a U.S. soldier in Georgia, the pastors of a defunct church in Texas, a former state lawmaker in Missouri and a roofing contractor in Montana. All of it led to the greatest grift in U.S. history, with thieves plundering billions of dollars in federal COVID-19 relief aid …

Politico reports: Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who guided President Joe Biden’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic from his first day in office, is leaving her post, the White House announced Friday. Her announcement comes days before the Biden administration plans to end the public health emergency in place since early 2020, and …

Reuters reports: COVID-19 no longer represents a global health emergency, the World Health Organization said on Friday, a major step towards the end of the pandemic that has killed more than 6.9 million people, disrupted the global economy and ravaged communities. “Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to …

Gothamist reports: The COVID-19 pandemic shortened average life expectancy for New Yorkers by more than four years, hitting the city’s minority populations hardest, according to a report released on Friday. The study by the city’s health department looked at trends in births and deaths in New York City during 2020, the year when COVID-19 arrived. The analysis found that from …

The Washington Post reports: The White House will shut down its covid response team after the public health emergency ends in May, with some staffers already departing and national coordinator Ashish Jha likely to leave the administration once his team is disbanded. The move to disband the White House covid team, created in February 2020 and expanded to about three …

The Associated Press reports: President Joe Biden informed Congress on Monday that he will end the twin national emergencies for addressing COVID-19 on May 11, as most of the world has returned closer to normalcy nearly three years after they were first declared. The move to end the national emergency and public health emergency declarations would formally restructure the federal …

The Associated Press reports: China on Saturday reported nearly 60,000 deaths in people who had COVID-19 since early December following complaints it was failing to release data, and said the “emergency peak” of its latest surge appears to have passed. The toll included 5,503 deaths due to respiratory failure caused by COVID-19 and 54,435 fatalities from other ailments combined with …

ABC News reports: COVID-19 remained the leading cause of law enforcement deaths in 2022 despite the number attributed to the virus dramatically declining. A new report by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund looked at preliminary data and found that 226 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers died last year while in the line of duty. Of …

The Associated Press reports: Patients, mostly older people, laid on stretchers in hallways or took oxygen while sitting in wheelchairs as a COVID-19 outbreak stretched public health facilities’ resources in China’s capital Beijing, even after its reported peak. The Chuiyangliu hospital in the city’s east was packed Thursday with newly arrived patients. Beds ran out by midmorning, even as ambulances …

NBC News reports: A new version of omicron has taken hold in the U.S., according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The subvariant of omicron, named XBB.1.5, has raised concerns about another potential wave of Covid cases following the busy holiday travel season. The CDC projected Friday that about 40% of confirmed U.S. …

CNBC reports: The Biden administration will require airline passengers traveling from China to test negative for Covid before entering the U.S., federal health officials said on Wednesday. All travelers originating from China, Hong Kong or Macau will be required to get tested for Covid two days before their departure to the U.S. The requirements, which apply regardless of nationality and …

Reuters reports: In more than three decades of emergency medicine, Beijing-based doctor Howard Bernstein said, he has never seen anything like this. Patients are arriving at his hospital in ever-increasing numbers; almost all are elderly and many are very unwell with COVID and pneumonia symptoms, he said. “The hospital is just overwhelmed from top to bottom,” Bernstein told Reuters at …

The Daily Beast reports: China’s National Health Commission announced that it will cease publishing national daily COVID-19 case figures amid a surge of infections. Earlier this month, China loosened its stringent “zero-COVID” policy after mass protests. Although the country has narrowed its definition of a COVID death and reported fewer than 10 deaths in the past two weeks, a health …