Most people who contract COVID-19 likely won't experience symptoms for more than two weeks at most, but could test positive even after that.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, some people who contract COVID-19 can have detectable virus for up to three months, but that doesn't mean they are contagious.
When it comes to testing, the PCR tests are more likely to continue picking up the virus following infection.
"PCR test can stay positive for a long time," Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said in March.
"Those PCR tests are very sensitive," she added. "They keep picking up dead virus in your nose for sometimes for weeks, but you can't grow that virus in the lab. You can't spread it but it can be positive."
The CDC notes that tests "are best used early in the course of illness to diagnose COVID-19 and are not authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to evaluate duration of infectiousness."
For those isolating due to a COVID infection, there is no testing requirement to end isolation, however, the CDC recommends using a rapid antigen test for those who choose to take one.
Arwady said that guidance is likely related to determining whether or not someone has an "active" virus.
"If you did want to get a test on please don't get a PCR. Use a rapid antigen test," she said. "Why? Because the rapid antigen test is the one that will look to see...do you have a high enough COVID level that you are potentially infectious? Now, a PCR test, remember, can pick up up sort of traces of the virus for a long time, even if that virus is bad and even if it's not potentially transmitting."
So what else do you need to know about testing for COVID?
According to the CDC, the incubation period for COVID is between two and 14 days, though the newest guidance from the agency suggests a quarantine of five days for those who are not boosted, but eligible or unvaccinated. Those looking to get tested after exposure should do so five days after the exposure or if they begin experiencing symptoms, the CDC recommends.
Those who are boosted and vaccinated, or those who are fully vaccinated and not yet eligible for a booster shot, do not need to quarantine, but should wear masks for 10 days and also get tested five days after the exposure, unless they are experiencing symptoms.
Still, for those who are vaccinated and boosted but are still looking to be cautious, Arwady said an additional test at seven days could help.
"If you're taking multiple at home tests, you know, the recommendation is five days later take a test. But if you have taken one at five and it's negative and you're feeling good, chances are very good that you're not going to have any more issues there," she said. "I think if you're being extra careful there, if you wanted to test again, you know, at seven even, sometimes people look at three to get an earlier sense of things. But if you're gonna do it once do it in five and I feel good about that."
Arwady said testing is likely not necessary after seven days following exposure for those who are vaccinated and boosted.
"If you had an exposure, you're vaccinated and boosted, I don't think that there is any need to be testing, frankly, past about seven days," she said. "If you want to be extra careful, you can do it at 10, but just with what we're seeing, I would consider you really in the clear. If you're not vaccinated or boosted, I certainly have a much higher concern that you could get infected. Definitely, ideally, you'd be seeking out that test at five and I would do it again, you know, at the seven, potentially at that 10."
If you had symptoms, the CDC says you can be around others after you isolate five days and stop exhibiting symptoms. However, you should continue to wear masks for the five days following the end of symptoms to minimize the risk to others.
From: Inside Story
COVID-19 cases are surging again around the world amid Omicron variant mutations.
The Omicron variant dominates the recent surge in global COVID-19 infections.
Its two main mutations, known as BA.4 and BA.5, are harder to track and resistant to vaccines.
The next few months will see an increase in global travel, as millions take their summer holidays.
And that is likely to increase the spread of COVID-19.
Those in the pandemic-hit tourism industry were hoping to recover this season, as restrictions began to ease in many places.
But that could change.
The head of the World Health Organization says the coronavirus pandemic is not over.
What should we expect?
Presenter: Rob Matheson
Guests:
Azeddine Ibrahimi Director of med-biotech and professor of medical biotechnology at Mohammed V University
Jeffrey Lazarus Head of Health Systems Research Group at Barcelona Institute for Global Health
Ishwar Gilada Infectious disease specialist and secretary-general of the Organized Medicine Academic Guild
Its really shocking that it was only until 2021 for the FDA to actually issue an alert, said Uch Blackstock, an emergency medicine physician and CEO of Advancing Health Equity. And even in that alert last year, they didnt even mention racial bias or race or racism in it.
The problem raises broader concerns about bias as technology becomes more embedded in health care, and about the governments ability to counteract it through regulation and oversight. Experts warn that disparate outcomes among racial groups could get worse if technology doesnt work for all patients.
Researchers identified problems with pulse oximeters years ago, with small studies pointing to misreadings in people of color in 1990, 2005 and 2007.
The Covid-19 pandemic brought renewed attention to the devices, which commonly come in the form of a sensor on a patients fingertip.
Michael Sjoding, a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of Michigan, conducted a study published in December 2020 in the New England Journal of Medicine that found Black patients between January and July 2020 as well as 2014 and 2015 were about three times more likely than white ones to have low blood oxygen levels go undetected. More than one in 10 Black patients with an oxygen saturation reading of 92 to 96 percent on a pulse oximeter actually had levels below 88 percent when measured by blood tests.
Normal levels range from 95 to 100 percent, while levels below 88 percent are considered dangerous.
Experts also say the problem points to the need to update guidance to compensate for the problem, as well as to diversify clinical trials.
The effect on care is real, Sjoding said. That level of difference, had it been recognized and detected, would have changed how we would care for a patient, he explained. You would give a patient more oxygen or potentially give a patient different treatments.
Experts say the flawed readings are the result of how light is absorbed on different skin shades. Pulse oximeters work by shooting light onto a persons skin and observing how much bounces back, said Achuta Kadambi, an engineering professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Darker skin reflects back a smaller signal than lighter skin, which can corrupt the pulse oximeters reading, he said. Kadambi, who has darker skin, has encountered similar problems with automated soap dispensers, which also rely on light to activate.
The laws of physics are against darker objects, which include skin, Kadambi said, adding that algorithms are one way to correct the issue.
But the research findings so far have limitations because they havent all differentiated by the type of oximeter, said Amira Mohamed, a professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She also noted that generalizing by race can also be tricky.
There are different types of Black people, Mohamed said. Im Black myself and it doesnt mean that its going to work the same way on me like it would for, for example, my husband, whos a darker-skinned Black person.
Mohamed also says that the existing research was conducted mostly on people with white skin and that future studies should focus on people more likely to be affected.
Current FDA guidance recommends manufacturers studies include a minimum of 10 people and at least 2 darkly pigmented subjects or 15 percent of the overall group.
Some experts argue the FDA needs to make that pool larger.
Fundamentally, youre not going to have enough information about the accuracy of the device if youre only testing it on two people, said Sjoding.
More specific FDA guidance on oximeters is warranted, said Ashraf Fawzy, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and lead author of a May study published in JAMA Internal Medicine that found providers were more likely to underestimate the level of disease severity and delay treatment for Black and Hispanic Covid-19 patients.
Quicker action from the agency would have been helpful, Fawzy added. The FDA should consider adding a warning label on the devices, said Kimani Toussaint, a professor of engineering at Brown University who is working on potential fixes.
Some experts, like Blackstock, argue the oximeters should be pulled off the market. Others, such as Mohamed, say there needs to be significantly more research before any conclusions are drawn.
If we are concerned about someones breathing or someones oxygen level, its not safe to completely rely on a pulse oximeter and we always need to confirm it, Mohamed said.
And fixing the issue in the devices themselves could be a heavy lift.
The FDA spokesperson said it is seeking to broaden the available data on the problem by
funding a prospective clinical trial to inform any recommendation changes. It hopes that research can sort out sometimes conflicting data that includes non-public information that manufacturers have provided.
Meanwhile, researchers at Brown University are working on using a single wavelength of light to bypass the skin. That research on healthy patients is in the early stages and saw similar results to commercial devices. The inaccuracies tend to be more prevalent in sicker patients, said researcher Rutendo Jakachira, who works with Toussaint.
Scientists are also looking at using sound as a potential replacement for light as a new method of reading blood oxygen levels.
Meanwhile, with technology playing an ever-increasing role in health care, experts say that clinical trials, in which people of color have long been underrepresented, need an overhaul.
Lawmakers are aware of the issue. The House last month passed FDA medical product user fee legislation that included language aimed at bolstering clinical trial diversity.
Adrian Aguilera, the head of the Digital Health Equity and Access Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, said that absent diverse participants, the trial outcomes wont necessarily reflect what will play out in the real world.
Trials are traditionally conducted in person, necessitating that participants come on-site, which can create barriers for low-income people or those with inflexible jobs. Advocates want to use telehealth to draw in a wider range of participants.
Companies should avoid helicopter research and instead take time to build relationships with community organizations and people on the ground, Aguilera said.
What this pulse oximeter situation exemplifies is that if youre not thinking about bias and racism from the beginning, and youre not intentional about it, its going to be embedded in the technology, Blackstock said.
FRANKLIN For Rick and Leah Veneski and their youngniece, Natasha, the Franklin 4th of July Carnival Celebration was a way to get out of the house and feel safe about celebratingAmericas birthday again.
Earlier: These men have run the Franklin Fourth of July celebration since 2007
Stepping off the Flying Bobs a thrill ride that takes passengers around in a circle in waves, at up to 12 revolutions per minuteLeah said none of them has contractedCOVID-19 but they were nevertheless glad tocelebrate comfortably and safely.
If it was indoors, we would have masks, she said.
Saturday was the third of five days of activities associated with the town celebration. The day was highlighted for the second straight year by a blues festival, which ran from midday until well into the evening, featuringfive acts. Fireworks that were scheduled for 10 p.m. were canceled, however, with officials pointing to a forecast that called for severe thunderstorms in the area.
The air was warm and humid due to another storm the night before, but the smell of hot friend dough still wafted through the fairgrounds.
Leah Veneski leaned down toward her niece.
Are you looking forward to any food?
Cotton candy and face painting and no more scary rides, Natasha answered.
The trio had hopedto see the fireworks, but soon learned that would not be possible.
We were looking forward to fireworks, but maybe we can still find a show in Walpole, Leah Veneski said.
The Veneskis were among thousands throughout the region who were eager to celebrate the Fourth of July with public outdoor activities after COVID-19 canceled such events in each of the past two years.
A young manwho ran one of the game booths and gave only his first name, Brandon, said employees must all be vaccinated and tested weekly for COVID-19. He said working carnivals is kind of a family business that allows him feel closer to his father, who died.
May he rest in peace, he said. Working at a carnival has its ups and downs. Its like a roller coaster.
In Milford, everyone in the community was excited for the return of the annual fireworks show, which took place June 25, according to Ray Auger of the Milford 4th of July Parade Committee. And thousands more could show for Monday's parade, he added.
"We've only heard great things from the community," Auger said. "There was a small kids bike parade last year, and that was nice, but were just looking forward to gettingback out together to celebrate the birthday of America."
For the first time in three years, the Sudbury Companies Militia & Minute on Monday will put on a full performance, complete with parade, reading of the Declaration of Independence andflag change ceremony, event coordinator JohnNeuhausersaid.
About25 people have volunteered to reenact times of the American Revolution to preserve American heritage, he said. However, audiencesat events are sometimes small, he said.
"We'll be there at the Wayside Inn, whether there's one person in the audience or 100," Neuhauser said.
Franklins Blues Fest on Saturday drew both locals and out-of-towners.
Paul George, ofBrockton, drove up with his wife and a friend to see Neal & the Vipers despite steep gas prices, he said.
Theyre a great band, so when I saw them playing here, I figured its worth a trip to come out, George said.
In yet another reflection of Oregons tentative transition out of the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, health officials as of Friday will release coronavirus hospitalization totals only once a week, down from one update for every workday.
Considered a key metric throughout the pandemic, the Oregon Health Authoritys decision to provide fresh numbers only on Wednesdays reflects the states confidence that current trends dont augur a severe wave, as well as the agencys apparent desire to wind down work it believes is no longer necessary.
Oregons understanding of the pandemic has long been hitched to hospitalization counts. Predictions of surge peaks numbering in multiple thousands of occupied beds triggered anxious press events where officials begged Oregonians to save the health care system by masking up. Updates showing steady declines were served up as evidence that citizens efforts to protect each other had paid off.
But even as Oregons seventh COVID-19 wave continues with, as of Thursday, sharply rising hospitalizations, state officials and experts tracking pandemic trends dont believe hospitalizations are the vital data point they once were. Nor do they believe trends indicate the current surge will morph into a wave that could threaten the states health care system.
The Oregon Health Authority will continue to receive and track hospitalization statistics internally, a spokesperson for the agency said, and will resume more frequent publishing of the data if it deems it necessary.
As the pandemic changes, we are constantly balancing the response, information, and resource needs, spokesman Rudy Owens said in an emailed statement. The daily data release was necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic when information was quickly evolving and changing, and when the number of COVID-19 and other patients stretched the capacity of Oregons hospitals.
University of Washington Professor Ali Mokdad, who has been tracking and modeling cases and hospitalizations throughout the pandemic, said the health authoritys decision to reduce reporting is in line with what he has seen elsewhere.
Nationally and in Oregon, cases are leveling off or declining. Hospitalizations are still climbing because they always lag behind cases, but should soon start falling, too, Mokdad said.
Thats a lot of work on a daily basis, Mokdad said of the effort necessary to prepare and publish data.
The number of Oregonians hospitalized with positive coronavirus tests has climbed 26% in the past week but remains far below the nearly 1,200-person record during last years delta wave. Patients requiring intensive care remain comparatively low.
Coronavirus hospitalizations stood at nearly 420 as of Thursday, more than 90 occupied beds higher than what Oregons chief pandemic forecaster believed would be the current waves peak. Even now, that forecaster, Oregon Health & Science Universitys Peter Graven, has delayed release of new projections by a week in part because of difficulty incorporating new omicron subvariants into the model.
Like Mokdad, Graven was mostly unconcerned that OHA will now publish the data weekly as opposed to daily. In theory, he said, delayed data release could result in delayed behavior change, if people dont know about changes in hospitalization trends. But those potential issues could be dealt with if people know where else to find analogous data, including on Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems webpages, which dont precisely match previous state tallies but do indicate general trajectories.
That would require communication, Graven said of alternative sources needing to be more widely known.
And hospitalizations simply arent the statistic they once were. Graven said well over half of the COVID-19 patients at OHSU are incidental cases where the person is seeking care for something other than COVID-19 but tests positive upon admission, a pattern likely seen across hospital systems. He believes emergency department visits for COVID-like symptoms are becoming a more reliable indicator.
Along with the daily hospitalization count, the health authority will also stop daily releases of how many COVID-19 patients are in intensive care units and how many are on ventilators. The same applies to its hospitalization and hospital capacity statistics broken down by Oregon region and each facilitys seven-day hospitalization average.
OHA will continue to monitor these data, Owens said. If circumstances warrant it, OHA would resume more frequent public reporting of hospitalization data.
Fedor Zarkhin
Expect to see spike in COVID-19 cases after 4th of July weekend - CBS Los Angeles
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The rise in COVID-19 cases in Southern California is likely to continue growing as a result to the long 4th of July weekend. Fortunately, hospitals aren't seeing as many people hospitalized with COVID-19, says Dr. Angelique Campen of Providence Saint Joseph medical center.
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New SARS-CoV-2 variants are expected since the virus is continually evolving. The Alpha variant first appeared in early 2021, and the Delta variant emerged later that summer. The Omicron variant, which spread quickly throughout the nation in late 2021 and early 2022, is now the most common variation circulating in the US today.
New research shows that people with weakened immune systems are more likely to get chronic infections and produce virus variants that bear multiple antibody-resistant mutations. However, there is good news. While many distinct variations develop in immunocompromised individuals, their likelihood of spreading is small.
Co-author Adi Stern, a professor at Tel Aviv University. Credit: Tel Aviv University
According to recent research from Tel Aviv University, immunosuppressed chronic COVID-19 patients are thought to be the source of several SARS-CoV-2 variants. The researchers hypothesize that a compromised immune reaction, particularly in the lower airways of these chronic patients, may delay complete recovery from the virus and cause the virus to evolve often during the course of prolonged infection. In other words, the researchers explain that the viruss unrestricted survival and reproduction in the body of the immunosuppressed patient result in the emergence of numerous variants.
Furthermore, the variations reported in chronically sick COVID-19 patients had many of the same mutations in their development as those found in variants of concern for severe illness, notably those linked with evading disease-killing antibodies. The new findings show that, although rapidly-spreading variations are rare among the numerous strains harbored by immunocompromised people, the likelihood increases and they do arise when global infection rates boom.
The study was led by Prof. Adi Stern and Ph.D. student Sheri Harari of the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at the Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University, in collaboration with Dr. Yael Paran and Dr. Suzy Meijer of Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov). It was published in the prestigious journal Nature Medicine on June 20th, 2022.
Prof. Stern explains that since the outbreak of COVID-19, the rate at which the virus evolves has been somewhat puzzling. During the first year of the pandemic, a relatively slow but constant rate of mutations was observed. However, since the end of 2020, the world has witnessed the emergence of variants that are characterized by a large number of mutations, far exceeding the rate observed during the first year.
Various scientific hypotheses about the link between chronic COVID-19 patients and the rate of the accumulation of mutations have surfaced, but nothing definitive has been proven yet. In this new study, Prof. Stern and the team shed light on some pieces of this complex puzzle and try to answer the question of how variants are formed.
Prof. Stern explains: The coronavirus is characterized by the fact that in every population, there are people who become chronically infected. In the case of these patients, the virus remains in their body for a lengthy period of time, and they are at high risk for recurrent infection. In all of the cases observed so far, these were immunocompromised patients part of their immune system is damaged and unable to function. In biological evolutionary terms, these patients constitute an incubator for viruses and mutations the virus persists in their body for a long time and succeeds in adapting to the immune system, by accumulating various mutations.
The study involved an examination of chronic COVID-19 patients at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital). According to Prof. Stern, the results reveal a complex picture; on the one hand, no direct connection was found between anti-COVID-19 drug treatment and the development of variants. On the other hand, the researchers discovered that it is likely the weakened immune system of immunocompromised patients that creates pressure for the virus to mutate.
In fact, the researchers found that there were chronic patients who showed a pattern of apparent recovery, followed by recurring viral infection. In all of these patients, a mutated form of the virus emerged, suggesting that recovery had not been achieved; this is partially reminiscent of the modus operandi of HIV following inadequate drug treatment.
Upon closer examination of some patients, the researchers found that when such a pattern of apparent recovery is observed (based on negative nasopharyngeal swabs), the virus continues to thrive in the lungs of the patients. The researchers, therefore, suggest that the virus accumulates mutations in the lungs, and then traverses back to the upper respiratory tract.
Prof. Stern concludes: The complexity of coronavirus evolution is still being revealed, and this poses many challenges to the scientific community. I believe that our research has succeeded in peeling back a missing layer of the big picture, and has opened the door for further research efforts to discover the origins of the various variants. This study highlights the importance of protecting immunocompromised individuals, who are at high risk for the virus, yet may also be an incubator for the formation of the next variant, posing a risk to all of us.
Reference: Drivers of adaptive evolution during chronic SARS-CoV-2 infections by Sheri Harari, Maayan Tahor, Natalie Rutsinsky, Suzy Meijer, Danielle Miller, Oryan Henig, Ora Halutz, Katia Levytskyi, Ronen Ben-Ami, Amos Adler, Yael Paran, and Adi Stern, 20 June 2022, Nature Medicine.DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-01882-4
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) Reigning Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic famously decided not to get vaccinated against COVID-19 which prevented him from playing at the Australian Open in January following a legal saga that ended with his deportation from that country, and, as things currently stand, will prevent him from entering the United States to compete at the U.S. Open in August.
More than two years after the pandemic began, coronavirus cases are on the rise around the world lately, due mostly to certain variants, and the health and vaccination status of individual athletes is once again a key issue. At Wimbledon, where the All England Club is following British government guidance that requires neither shots nor testing, three of the top 20 seeded men have withdrawn over the first four days of action because they got COVID-19, with No. 17 Roberto Bautista Agut pulling out Thursday.
Thats raised the specter of an outbreak among players at the Grand Slam tournament, where there essentially is an honor system: If you dont feel well, youre encouraged to get a test on your own; if you test positive, youre encouraged to reveal that and take yourself out of the bracket.
I wont lie: When I have a cough or something, I get paranoid. Its what we kind of have to learn to live with. I feel bad for people who test positive. A place like Wimbledon is definitely not where you want to have it, said Ajla Tomljanovic, a 29-year-old from Australia who is ranked 44th and won Thursday to set up a third-round match against 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova.
If you have symptoms or youre feeling under the weather, its your responsibility. I think we all travel with home kits; at least I do. And then once youve tested positive, thats where it comes in that you just say you have it, Tomljanovic said. Because you could have lower symptoms and try to play, but that wouldnt be the right thing to do.
At Roland Garros last month, Krejcikova lost her opening match in singles, then withdrew before trying to defend her doubles championship after saying she tested positive for COVID-19.
Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, said after his second-round victory Thursday that he is not doing much other than coming to the tournament site and staying at the house he is renting in the area, not going out at all anymore.
This is not just a tennis issue, of course. Its something people are grappling with in all lines of work: how worried to be, when to test, whom to tell.
In sports, its arisen in Major League Baseball, where some players have been unable to travel for games at the Toronto Blue Jays because of Canadas rule against allowing entry to unvaccinated foreigners the same sort of restriction that kept Djokovic, a 35-year-old from Serbia with 20 Grand Slam titles, from participating in tournaments in California and Florida earlier this season and would stop him from going to the U.S. Open, because he says he will not get a shot against COVID-19. In the NBA, Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving appeared in only 29 of 82 regular-season games this past season, largely because of his decision not to get vaccinated.
Nearly all women and men in the top 100 of the WTA or ATP tour rankings did get vaccinated. For some, it was all about wanting to avoid getting sick.
Pretty easy: Vaccines work. Everyone has a right to choose, but more or less, the reason we dont die from diseases from 50 years ago is because we got vaccines, said eighth-seeded Jessica Pegula, who is from Buffalo and won Thursday to reach Wimbledons third round for the first time. Of course, it came out really fast, so, sure, theres always that thought: I hope nothing happens. Some people had bad experiences. But for me, I thought it was worth the risk.
For others tennis players, it was more about ensuring they could continue to make a living.
The ATP, similar to the NFL, the NBA, MLB, theyre kind of making you get it, in a way. Theyre saying: If you dont get it, you might not be able to play certain tournaments or in these games, and were going to kind of make things so miserable that youre going to have to get it, said Sam Querrey, an American who reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2017. So for me, it was a combination that I think it was good to get it, and it makes your life a lot easier from a professional standpoint.
Some players say they respect the choice by Djokovic, who has said he got COVID-19 twice, to stick to his no-vax stance even if it hurts his ability to keep pace with Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, in the major trophy count.
The sport needs him needs him in the sport and at big events, said Denis Shapovalov, a 23-year-old Canadian seeded 13th at Wimbledon who said he did not have an easy time deciding whether to get the shots himself but in the end, I figured it was better to be safe than sorry.
All has been back to pre-pandemic normal at Wimbledon this year after 2020, when the tournament was canceled altogether, and 2021, when players were in a bubble-type environment and needed to take COVID-19 tests, and stadium capacity was kept low in Week 1 and spectators were required to wear masks.
An All England Club spokesperson said COVID-19 policies are under constant review and pointed to updates made this week, such as increased cleaning, enhanced ventilation, making masks available to players and recommending that masks be worn on official tournament transportation.
I didnt even know that people were testing positive, said Coco Gauff, the 18-year-old American who was the runner-up at Roland Garros this year, until I saw another player wearing a mask.
Bautista Agut wrote on Twitter on Thursday that his symptoms werent very bad but that withdrawing was the best decision.
One of his coaches, Toms Carbonell, said in his own social media post in Spanish: Roberto could have tried to play the match because his symptoms arent bad. Out of respect to his colleagues and to the tournament, we decided not to go on court, even if the rules would have allowed it.
Bautista Aguts COVID-19 departure followed those of No. 8 Matteo Berrettini, the runner-up to Djokovic a year ago, on Tuesday, and of No. 14 Marin Cilic, the 2014 U.S. Open champion and 2017 Wimbledon runner-up, on Monday.
Asked after her victory Thursday what her level of concern is after the recent run of positive tests, No. 4 seed Paula Badosa replied quickly: Zero.
That, the 24-year-old who represents Spain explained, is both because she is vaccinated and already came down with, as she put it with a laugh, every type of COVID possible.
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More AP Wimbledon coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/wimbledon and https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
Three quarters of adults now have a bank or mobile money account; gender gap in account ownership narrows
WASHINGTON, June 29, 2022The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred financial inclusion driving a large increase in digital payments amid the global expansion of formal financial services. This expansion created new economic opportunities, narrowing the gender gap in account ownership, and building resilience at the household level to better manage financial shocks, according to theGlobal Findex 2021 database.
As of 2021, 76% of adults globally now have an account at a bank, other financial institution, or with a mobile money provider, up from 68% in 2017 and 51% in 2011. Importantly, growth in account ownership was evenly distributed across many more countries. While in previous Findex surveys over the last decade much of the growth was concentrated in India and China, this years survey found that the percentage of account ownership increased by double digits in 34 countries since 2017.
The pandemic has also led to an increased use of digital payments. In low and middle-income economies (excluding China), over 40% of adults who made merchant in-store or online payments using a card, phone, or the internet did so for the first time since the start of the pandemic. The same was true for more than a third of adults in all low- and middle-income economies who paid a utility bill directly from a formal account. In India, more than 80 million adults made their first digital merchant payment after the start of the pandemic, while in China over 100 million adults did.
Two-thirds of adults worldwide now make or receive a digital payment, with the share in developing economies grew from 35% in 2014 to 57% in 2021. In developing economies, 71% have an account at a bank, other financial institution, or with a mobile money provider, up from 63% in 2017 and 42% in 2011. Mobile money accounts drove a huge increase in financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The digital revolution has catalyzed increases in the access and use of financial services across the world, transforming ways in which people make and receive payments, borrow, and save,saidWorld Bank Group President David Malpass.Creating an enabling policy environment, promoting the digitalization of payments, and further broadening access to formal accounts and financial services among women and the poor are some of the policy priorities to mitigate the reversals in development from the ongoing overlapping crises.
For the first time since the Global Findex database was started in 2011, the survey found that the gender gap in account ownership has narrowed, helping women have more privacy, security, and control over their money. The gap narrowed from 7 to 4 percentage points globally and from 9 to 6 percentage points in low- and middle-income countries, since the last survey round in 2017.
About 36% of adults in developing economies now receive a wage or government payment, a payment for the sale of agricultural products, or a domestic remittance payment into an account. The data suggests that receiving a payment into an account instead of cash can kickstart peoples use of the formal financial system when people receive digital payments, 83% used their accounts to also make digital payments. Almost two-thirds used their account for cash management, while about 40% used it to save further growing the financial ecosystem.
Despite the advances, many adults around the world still lack a reliable source of emergency money. Only about half of adults in low- and middle-income economies said they could access extra money during an emergency with little or no difficulty, and they commonly turn to unreliable sources of finance, including family and friends.
The world has a crucial opportunity to build a more inclusive and resilient economy and provide a gateway to prosperity for billions of people,saidBill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the supporters of the Global Findex database.By investing in digital public infrastructure and technologies for payment and ID systems and updating regulations to foster innovation and protect consumers, governments can build on the progress reported in the Findex and expand access to financial services for all who need them.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the lack of an identity document remains an important barrier holding back mobile money account ownership for 30% of adults with no account suggesting an opportunity for investing in accessible and trusted identification systems. Over 80 million adults with no account still receive government payments in cash digitalizing some of these payments could be cheaper and reduce corruption. Increasing account ownership and usage will require trust in financial service providers, confidence to use financial products, tailored product design, and a strong and enforced consumer protection framework.
The Global Findex database, which surveyed how people in 123 economies use financial services throughout 2021, is produced by the World Bank every three years in collaboration with Gallup, Inc.
Regional Overviews:
EAP
InEast Asia and the Pacific, financial inclusion is a two-part story of what is happening in China versus the other economies of the region. In China, 89% of adults have an account, and 82% of adults used it to make digital merchant payments. In the rest of the region, 59% of adults have an account and 23% of adults made digital merchant payments54% of which did so for the first time after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Double-digit increases in account ownership were achieved in Cambodia, Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand, while the gender gap across the region remains low, at 3 percentage points, but the gap between poor and rich adults is 10 percentage points.
ECA
InEurope and Central Asia, account ownership increased by 13 percentage points since 2017 to reach 78% of adults. Digital payments usage is robust, as about three-quarters of adults used an account to make or receive a digital payment. COVID-19 drove further usage for the 10% of adults who made a digital merchant payment for the first time during the pandemic. Digital technology could further increase account use for the 80 million banked adults that continued to make merchant payments only in cash, including 20 million banked adults in Russia and 19 million banked adults in Trkiye, the regions two largest economies.
LAC
Latin America and the Caribbeansaw an 18 percentage -point increase in account ownership since 2017, the largest of any developing world region, resulting in 73% of adults having an account. Digital payments play a key role, as 40% of adults paid a merchant digitally, including 14% of adults who did so for the first time during the pandemic. COVID-19 furthermore drove digital adoption for the 15% of adults who made their first utility bill payment directly from their account for the first time during the pandemicmore than twice the developing country average. Opportunities for even greater use of digital payments remain given that 150 million banked adults made merchant payments only in cash, including more than 50 million banked adults in Brazil and 16 million banked adults in Colombia.
MENA
TheMiddle East and North Africaregion has made progress reducing the gender gap in account ownership from 17 percentage points in 2017 to 13 percentage points42% of women now have an account compared to 54% of men. Opportunities abound to increase account ownership broadly by digitalizing payments currently made in cash, including payments for agricultural products and private sector wages (about 20 million adults with no account in the region received private sector wages in cash, including 10 million in the Arab Republic of Egypt). Shifting people to formal modes of savings is another opportunity given that about 14 million adults with no account in regionincluding 7 million womensaved using semiformal methods.
SA
InSouth Asia, 68% of adults have an account, a share that has not changed since 2017, though there is wide variation across the region. In India and Sri Lanka, for example, 78% and 89% of adults, respectively, have an account. Account usage has grown, however, driven by digital payments, as 34% of adults used their account to make or receive a payment, up from 28% in 2017. Digital payments present an opportunity to increase both account ownership and usage, given the continued dominance of casheven among account ownersto make merchant payments.
SSA
InSub-Saharan Africa, mobile money adoption continued to rise, such that 33% of adults now have a mobile money accounta share three times larger than the 10% global average. Although mobile money services were originally designed to allow people to send remittances to friends and family living elsewhere within the country, adoption and usage have spread beyond those origins, such that 3-out-of-4 mobile account owners in 2021 made or received at least one payment that was not person-to-person and 15% of adults used their mobile money account to save. Opportunities to increase account ownership in the region include digitalizing cash payments for the 65 million adults with no account receiving payments for agricultural products, and expanding mobile phone ownership, as lack of a phone is cited as a barrier to mobile money account adoption. Adults in the region worry more about paying school fees than adults in other regions, suggesting opportunities for policy or products to enable education-oriented savings.
(Precision Vaccinations)
When the U.S. FDAs vaccine committee endorsed the Maryland-produced protein-based COVID-19 vaccine on June 7, 2022, many people expected authorization would immediately follow.
However, according to Novavax Inc.s statement issued on July 1, 2022, this World Health Organization Listed vaccine remains under FDA review.
Novavax stated it is awaiting U.S. emergency use authorization (EUA) for our prototype COVID-19 vaccine, and we are committed to bringing it to market.
Clinical data generated to date demonstrate that this prototype vaccine offers broad immune responses including against circulating variants, such as the Omicron BA.4/5.
Novavax is already well underway in our variant program and will accelerate our focus on Omicron BA.4/5, as recommended by FDA in their guidance on June 30, 2022.
We expect to have additional preclinical data on Omicron BA.4/5 in the late summer or fall, and expect to be in a position to provide an Omicron-containing vaccine in Q4 of 2022.
During the late June FDA meeting, Novavaxs team highlighted data showing the structural features of Novavax's protein-based COVID-19 vaccine displayed epitopes across both the original strain and emerging SARS-CoV-2 virus variants, contributing to the generation of broadly cross-reacting antibodies.
Additional data from Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials and in vitro data on neutralizing antibodies and receptor inhibition from trial participants show cross-reactivity with all virus variants tested, particularly following booster doses.
Novavax continues to believe in the importance of vaccines that offer broad immune responses against a variety of variants, given the fact that COVID-19 will continue to evolve, said the Company.
Novavax originally submitted a request to the FDA for EUA in January 2022.
Another company hoping to bring this non-mRNA vaccine to the USA is the Serum Institute in India (SSI). On June 30, 2022, local media reported SSI is seeking approval to export millions of its version of the Novavax vaccine, Covovax, under the brand name Nuvaxovid, to the USA in July 2022.
As of July 2, 2022, Nuvaxovid has received authorization for use in adults from more than forty countries. Recently, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration granted EUA for Nuvaxovid.
Nuvaxovid (NVX-CoV2373) is a protein-based vaccine engineered from the genetic sequence of the first strain of the SARS-CoV-2 beta coronavirus.
This Novavax vaccine integrates the patented saponin-based Matrix-M adjuvant, which has demonstrated a potent and well-tolerated effect by stimulating the entry of antigen-presenting cells into the injection site and enhancing antigen presentation in local lymph nodes, boosting immune response and helping an immunized person make antibodies against the virus.
In July 2020, Novavax was awarded $1.6 billion by the U.S. federal government to complete late-stage clinical development and deliver 100 million doses of the NVXCoV2373 vaccine.
Note: This vaccine news article is not sponsored content.
PrecisionVaccinations publishes fact-checked, research-based vaccine news curated for mobile readership.
