Tag Archives: pandemic

Gallup reports: The steady increase in COVID-19 cases this past month is not disconcerting to Americans, as they are less worried now about the coronavirus than they were at the start of the year, and fewer are social distancing. Fewer than one in three U.S. adults (31%) say they are “very” or “somewhat worried” about getting COVID-19, statistically similar to …

NBC New York reports: The lingering impacts of the coronavirus pandemic continue to be felt in Manhattan, where fewer than 10% of office workers at major employers are returning to work five days a week. On any given day, a new survey out by the Partnership for New York City found that fewer than 40% of the island’s one million …

The Hill reports: The White House is preparing for as many as 100 million Americans to get infected with COVID-19 during a wave this fall and winter, a senior administration official said Friday, but warns there will not be enough vaccines or treatments to protect everyone unless Congress provides new funding. A senior administration official told a small group of …

The BBC reports: The Covid pandemic has caused the deaths of nearly 15 million people around the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. That is 13% more deaths than normally expected over two years. The WHO believes many countries undercounted the numbers who died from Covid – only 5.4 million were reported. In India, there were 4.7 million Covid …

The New York Daily News reports: New York City Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan declared Monday morning that the city has elevated its COVID threat level to a “medium risk alert” due to a recent increase in cases. It’s the first time Mayor Adams’ administration has upgraded the COVID threat level since he took control of City Hall on Jan. 1. …

The New York Times reports: Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are rising in a majority of American states, in what appears to be the first widespread increase since the peak of the Omicron surge in January. Reports of new cases were nearly flat in the United States at the beginning of April, but as the month draws to a close, they …

NBC News reports: For the second year in a row, Covid was the third-leading cause of death in the U.S., according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released Friday. In both 2020 and 2021, the only conditions that killed more people than Covid were heart disease, which caused 693,000 deaths last year, and cancer, at 605,000 deaths …

NY1 reports: New York City is expected to move to a “medium” COVID-19 alert level within the next week as its case count continues to rise, the city’s health commissioner said Friday. In an interview with NY1 on Friday afternoon, Dr. Ashwin Vasan [photo] said cases in the five boroughs were “rising steadily.” As of Wednesday, the department said the …

UPI reports: COVID-19 causes loss of sense of smell in some of those infected by not only damaging the tissue in the nasal cavity, but also the area of the brain responsible for controlling the senses, a study published Monday by JAMA Neurology found. The white matter region of the brain plays a key role in communication between cells in …

The Washington Post reports: The number of attendees who have tested positive for the coronavirus after last weekend’s Gridiron dinner has risen to 67, organizers say, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack [photo], who became the third member of Biden’s Cabinet in attendance who was infected. The new figures, released Saturday evening by the organizers of the dinner, do not include …

ABC News reports: The U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program is now estimated to have prevented 2.2 million deaths, 17 million hospitalizations and 66.1 million additional infections through March 2022, according to updated modeling from the Commonwealth Fund, an organization advocating for improved healthcare for marginalized communities. In the analysis of recent trends, researchers estimated that the daily peak of deaths pre-omicron, …

Courthouse News Service reports: Brain injuries that result from Covid-19 infections, such as small bleeds and intense inflammation, are present in primates who have been infected, even when the infections were mild, according to a new study published Friday. This new finding from researchers at Tulane University was published in an article in the science journal, Nature Communications. It is …

Bloomberg News reports: The omicron subvariant BA.2 is continuing to gain ground in the U.S., according to Covid-19 tests sequenced over the last two weeks. Helix, a San Diego-based genomics firm, has been watching the BA.2 variant since it first popped up in the U.S. in early January. Although it was initially slow to take hold, Helix now estimates that …

CNBC reports: Pfizer plans to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration for a fourth Covid shot soon, and it’s working on a vaccine that protects against all coronavirus variants, CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC. “I think we’re going to submit to FDA a significant progress of data about the need for a fourth dose, and they need to …

Nature Magazine reports: The number of people who have died because of the COVID-19 pandemic could be roughly three times higher than official figures suggest, according to a new analysis. The analysis, published on 10 March in The Lancet, says that the true number of lives lost to the pandemic by 31 December 2021 was close to 18 million. That …

The Associated Press reports: The official global death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 6 million on Monday — underscoring that the pandemic, now entering its third year, is far from over. The milestone, recorded by Johns Hopkins University, is the latest tragic reminder of the unrelenting nature of the pandemic even as people are shedding masks, travel is resuming and businesses …

Salon reports: A new study conducted by Tulane National Primate Research Center has collected data pointing towards evidence that the coronavirus has a negative impact on four different areas of the male genital tract. The 500-acre primate center where the study was conducted is located in Covington, Louisiana and houses upwards of 4,800 primates. Results concluded that three male rhesus …

Ars Technica reports: An estimated 140 million people in the US—around 43 percent—have had COVID-19, according to the latest analysis by the CDC using data from the end of January. The estimate of people infected with COVID-19 is nearly double the CDC’s cumulative tally of cases reported at the end of January, which totaled around 74 million. These numbers are …

The Associated Press reports: The number of new coronavirus cases reported globally dropped by 16% last week, marking a month-long decline in COVID-19 infections, according to figures from the World Health Organization. In its weekly report on the pandemic issued late Tuesday, the U.N. health agency also said that deaths fell by 10%, continuing a drop in fatalities first seen …

CBS News reports: Americans in parts of the country deemed to have “low” levels of the disease — currently about 29.5% of the population — no longer need to wear masks indoors, according to the CDC’s new framework. Residents of counties at “medium” risk — around 42.2% of the country’s population – should wear masks if they are at heightened …