People living with HIV are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 at hospital admission and in-hospital mortality compared to those without HIV, according to a paper published in The Lancet.
Investigators from Switzerland used World Health Organization data from January 2020-July 2021 to determine whether people living with HIV with COVID-19 had increased odds of severe symptoms and in-hospital mortality compared to HIV-negative patients. The study authors noted that HIV patients have underlying immune issues that put them at risk for severe disease.
The study authors identified 19,655 people living with HIV and 180,524 people that were HIV-negative who were submitted to the WHO Global COVID-19 Clinical Platform during their study period. The population included patients from 38 countries. A majority of the patients living with HIV were from Africa, about 2/3 were female, and the mean age was about 45 years. Nearly all of the patients living with HIV were on antiretroviral therapy (ART), the study authors also reported.
The investigators found that 93% of HIV-negative patients and 96% of HIV patients were admitted to hospitals with lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases. Patients with HIV were more likely to be female and younger than 45 years compared to those without HIV. The study authors also observed that at least 1 underlying condition was more frequent among those with HIV compared to those without. However, they wrote that conditions such as hypertension, neurological disorders, obesity, and diabetes were more frequent in patients that were HIV-negative.
For HIV patients, the most frequent COVID-19 symptoms were cough, fever, and shortness of breath, the study authors learned. They also observed more frequent use of corticosteroids and anticoagulants among HIV patients compared to those without HIV.
Nearly 40% of HIV patients were admitted to the hospital in severe or critical conditions, the study authors said; furthermore, 24% of those patients died. The severe or critical patients were more likely to be older than 45 years, male, and more likely to have diabetes, hypertension, malignancies, cardiac disease, and kidney disease.
The study authors said that having asthma, chronic cardiac, pulmonary and neurological conditions, and being a current smoker did not differ significantly between the groups, but individuals who died in the hospital had higher proportions of diabetes, hypertension, tuberculosis, chronic kidney disease, and malignancies. Those patients with HIV who died were more likely to be admitted with severe or critical disease than those with mild to moderate disease.
After considering age, sex, disease severity at admission, and underlying conditions, the study authors determined that patients with HIV were 38% more likely to die than those without HIV. Additionally, having HIV was associated with 15% increased odds of severe or critical presentation compared to HIV-negative individuals, the study authors said. Median time from hospitalization to death was shorter in those with HIV and severe presentation compared to those without HIV, they said. But for those with mild to moderate presentation, median time from hospitalization to mortality was longer in those with people with HIV compared to those without HIV.
We found that underlying conditions are common and more frequent among people living with HIV than the general population, the study authors concluded. Alongside the response to COVID-19, it is thus critical to maintain access to essential health services for this vulnerable group.
Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery, September 2021. (Emily Mesner / ADN)
A new report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides the most comprehensive look so far at the disproportionate toll COVID-19 is taking on Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Alaska.
Overall, Alaska Native and American Indian people have made up just about a fifth of the states population but nearly a third of all deaths, the report found.
Between the start of the pandemic in March 2020 and last December, Indigenous Alaskans were hospitalized with the virus and died from it at rates three times that of white residents, according to the report released Thursday.
The report is based on data shared with the CDC by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services between March 2020 and December 2021.
Many Indigenous Alaskans face multiple barriers to health equity and access, including historical trauma and structural racism and remote or rural living that makes it harder and more expensive to access care.
The findings from the latest report showed that the viruss mortality rate was about three times as high for Alaska Native and American Indian people living in the state (297 deaths per 100,000) when compared to white Alaskans (104 per 100,000) once adjusted for age.
The adjusted hospitalization rate was similarly high: 742 hospitalizations per 100,000 Indigenous Alaskans compared with 273 hospitalizations per 100,000 white Alaskans representing a nearly three-fold risk for Alaska Native people.
The findings echo previous Alaska studies including those conducted by the state health department and tribal health organizations which found clear, race-based disparities affecting who gets COVID-19, who is hospitalized for it and who dies.
Nationwide, COVID-19 has affected Black, Indigenous, Hispanic and other people of color the most, data has shown.
On its website, the CDC cites long-standing systemic health and social inequities as a major contributing factor to why people from racial and ethnic minority groups are at an increased risk overall of getting sick and dying from COVID-19.
Discrimination, lack of health care access and poverty are all inequities in social determinants of health that put racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk, according to the CDC.
But despite these inequities, predominantly Alaska Native communities have long had some of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in Alaska and in the U.S., to the credit of tribal health organizations and health aides who have deep roots in the communities they serve.
The recent CDC report recommends that public health professionals continue to work with tribal health organizations in Alaska to provide culturally competent and regionally required health interventions, and that existing health care initiatives should respect the knowledge and wisdom of these communities as experts on their own needs.
The authors of a controversial meeting abstract linking ivermectin to lower mortality from Covid-19 have retracted the study, saying that the work has been widely misinterpreted and might be leading to patient harm.
The abstract, Treatment with Ivermectin Is Associated with Decreased Mortality in COVID-19 Patients: Analysis of a National Federated Database, was presented at the 2021 International Meeting on Emerging Diseases and Surveillance.
According to the researchers, from the University of Miami, Covid-19 patients who took ivermectin were about 70% less likely to die of the disease than those who took remdesivir.
Ivermectin use was associated with decreased mortality in patients with COVID-19 compared to remdesivir. To our knowledge, this is the largest association study of patients with COVID-19, mortality and ivermectin. Further double-blinded placebo-controlled RCTs with large samples are required for definite conclusion. In the future, if more publications are published with the similar result to the current analyses, the certainty of evidence will increase.
Not surprisingly, the poster received a significant amount of attention on social media both from ivermectin partisans and skeptics. At the time, the researchers tried to distance themselves from any firm conclusions about the work, stressing that they were reporting an association and not necessarily a causal effect.
Evidently, they felt those protestations were insufficient and indeed, the authors decided not to pursue publication of their work on the ground that the findings were too shaky. As the lead author, Ivakov Efimenko, tweeted:
Heres the notice:
This article has been retracted at the request of the authors. The abstract was presented as a poster in the IMED last year. Our study was about the association of Ivermectin with reduction in mortality in COVID, a retrospective study with many limitations (which is innate in these types of studies). As in any retrospective study, we could not control for all the confounding variables, mainly severity of disease in patients treated with either ivermectin or remdesivir. Another important caveat is that it was conducted in July 2021, eight months ago, when we did not have all the clinical evidence we have right now about ivermectin in COVID-19. We were very clear in the abstract conclusions that our results are only showing an association, they are not definitive, and further randomized clinical trials must be done to prove the efficacy of Ivermectin. However, the study has been misinterpreted by a significant number of people in the scientific community and the general population, stating that based on our study, ivermectin is effective to reduce COVID-19 mortality. We are really concerned about this problem because the patients may start taking or demanding this medication from their physicians, which can potentially be harmful. We know that a retrospective study like ours cannot be used to change or guide clinical practice. Retrospective studies are only helpful to formulate hypothesis that can be utilized to design clinical trials. This misrepresentation of the study may lead to a huge public health problem, since Ivermectin is a medication that is not FDA approved for COVID treatment, and currently has proven to be ineffective in clinical trials, which are truly the gold standard to evaluate the efficacy of a medication.
Because of Elseviers frequent practice of overwriting original abstract pages with retractions without adding new dates, it is unclear when the paper was retracted, although it appears to have happened sometime this week.
By our count, researchers have retracted at least a dozen studies (including the latest one) on the use of ivermectin to treat Covid-19.
Like Retraction Watch? You can make atax-deductible contribution to support our work, follow uson Twitter, like uson Facebook, add us to yourRSS reader, or subscribe to ourdaily digest. If you find a retraction thatsnot in our database, you canlet us know here. For comments or feedback, email us at team@retractionwatch.com.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) A national meatpacking company with a facility in Green Bay has agreed to pay about $15,000 to settle allegations of unsafe practices during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic sickened and killed Wisconsin workers.
The U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration announced the settlement last week, Wisconsin Public Radio reported Thursday. The settlement applies to seven JBS Foods USA plants, including the Green Bay facility.
The company closed that plant in late April 2020 after nearly 150 infections were linked to it. The plant reopened about a week later. OSHA said that by mid-August 357 infections had been confirmed at the plant. OSHA cited the plant in October 2020 on grounds that the company didnt implement timely and effective measures to control the diseases spread.
The agency hailed the settlement as a step toward protecting workers. Jarrett Brown, who worked at the Green Bay plant until early 2020, called the deal a slap on the wrist.
This is not punishment for them, Brown said.
JBS officials said in a statement that theyve established COVID-19 protocols and plan to implement them across their U.S. facilities.
In an interview with Argentinian broadcaster TYC Sports on Monday, Messi noted that when he initially became unwell with Covid-19, he experienced the typical symptoms of the virus -- sore throat, coughing and fever. However, when the initial effects cleared up, the seven-time Ballon D'Or winner continued to struggle with respiratory issues.
"It left me with after effects. It left me with after effects in my lungs. I came back and it was like a month and a half without even being able to run because my lungs were affected," Messi said Monday.
The Argentine forward missed three matches after his positive test in January: two in Ligue 1 and one in the French Cup.
Messi went on to say that he pushed himself to return to the pitch too quickly from the complications which worsened their effects.
"I came back before I should have, and it got worse because I went too fast and it ended up setting me back. But I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted to run, to train -- I wanted to get going. And in the end, it got worse," he said.
"When I was halfway there [towards being at my peak], the Real Madrid thing happened and that killed us," said Messi. "It killed me and the whole locker room in general and all of Paris because we had this big dream in that competition.
"And the way it happened, the game, the result ... it was a gut punch."
Messi is preparing to play with his national team against Italy in the first edition of the Finalissima, a new competition devised by football governing bodies UEFA and CONMEBOL, pitting the winners of Euro 2020 against the winners of the Copa merica. The match takes place on June 1.
CNN's Csar Lpez and Patrick Sung contributed to this report.
Lanzarote latest coronavirus information updated daily
17th March 2022
The government has ceased recording daily covid numbers, instead offering a bi-weekly report. For that reason, well cease to post the numbers daily here and leave this article up to retain the historical data you can see below.
Lanzarote has had 69deaths from Covid 19 since the epidemic began.
Peak Numbers
These are the peak numbers and the date when they occurred:
Active Cases 6651 20th January 2022
In Hospital 66 28th January 2021
In ICU 23 8th February 2021
Stay up to date with the latest information with our famous weekly Lanzarote Newsletter.
For information about what Lanzarote is like for tourists, post Covid lockdown, go here: What is Lanzarote like now?
Lanzarote was locked down on 14th March 2020. All essential businesses were closed, travel to and from the island stopped, and there were very strict rules about leaving your home, with only one person allowed at a time and for essential reasons only.
The first death from Covid was on 25th March 2020, when a 71 year old German resident lost his life. Within two days, two more had died.
On 29th March 2020, the lockdown was extended until 9th April. But this time, there were over 1,000 cases across the islands, and more than 30 people had died.
On 10th April 2020, the lockdown was extended for a further 14 days, and it was noted that Spain had introduced one of the worlds strictest lockdowns, but also that it was having the desired effect in The Canaries, which had one of the lowest infection rates in the world.
On 26th April 2020, Lanzarote moved into the first phase of a Lockdown de-escalation. This was a four phase process, which was aimed at seeing life return to normal over a period of time. At each stage, the rules were relaxed one by one. Lanzarote progressed through the phases quickly, due to very low numbers of infections.
On 21st May 2020, it became compulsory to wear face masks in public indoor spaces, or whenever not able to maintain social distance.
On 28th May, the last patient from the first wave left the ICU. At that point, Lanzarote had only three active cases.
On 22nd June Lanzarote left the final phase of lockdown and entered what was called The New Normality.
In early September 2020, amid rising cases, additional measures were imposed in Lanzarote, which included a requirement to wear masks at all times indoors and outdoors, except while eating and drinking, swimming or sunbathing. This was the second wave.
On 22nd October, air corridors were opened with UK and Germany.
On 26th October, the Spanish government brought back a state of alarm due to rapidly rising numbers in the second wave.
Lanzarote rode the second wave, peaking at over 600 active cases by the beginning of November, but new measures quickly brought the numbers right down again in late November and into December.
In December, the government announced special rules around Christmas, with the aim of allowing smaller gatherings of families, but containing them. At the same time a new system of traffic lights was introduced, with Red, yellow and green options, based on infection rate, and each with its own set of rules.
In early January 2021, Lanzarote moved into the yellow and then the red traffic light zone in consecutive weeks due to rapidly rising numbers following Christmas gatherings.
One 23rd January 2021, a new Brown traffic light level 4, was introduced, as the number of ICU patients in Lanzarote hospital reached a critical point. At this stage, for the first time during the pandemic, there were more than 1,000 active cases on the island, and we were firmly in the third wave.
On 2nd March 2021, Lanzarote was moved to Level 3 of restrictions as the post Christmas peak of more than 1100 active cases finally fell below 300. The island had been in Level 4 for 6 weeks.
On 11th March 2021, it was announced that Lanzarote would move down to Level 2 of restrictions as active cases fell well below 100. We were in Level 3 for 10 days.
On 9th May 2021, Spain State of Alarm ended after 14 months. Control on Covid measures was passed back to the autonomous regions, in our case The Canary Islands.
On 30th June, the last patient left hospital in Lanzarote, and for the first time in almost a year, there were no patients in hospital with Covid.
On 2nd July 2021, Lanzarote was moved to level 1 restrictions, the lowest level.
On 24th July 2021, Lanzarote was moved back to level 2 of restrictions.
On 30th August 2021, a 60 year old man died from Covid, the 51st on the island and the first since May 2021. He had been suffering from various other ailments.
On 3rd September 2021, Lanzarote was moved back to level 1 of restrictions, the lowest level.
On 21st November 2021, Lanzarote was moved once again to level 2, as numbers of active cases increased on the island.
On 10th January 2021, Lanzarote was moved to level 3.
On 20th January, for the first time since late December, the overall number of active Covid cases on the island started falling from a peak of 6651. This was the 6th or Omicron wave.
On 17th March 2020, just over two years after lockdown started, the Canaria government stopped recording case numbers on a daily basis.
The best way to stay in touch with all the Lanzarote news is by subscribing to our famous Lanzarote newsletter, which goes out every Friday morning and is now 700 editions old. Every week, its packed with all the news, latest articles, upcoming events, photos and a video which we shoot fresh from somewhere on the island.
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People who contract Covid-19 are more likely to suffer severe symptoms if they have been exposed to air pollution for long periods.
A study found that people who live in places where there are high levels of the atmospheric pollutant nitrogen dioxide had higher chances of ending up in intensive care units (ICUs) or of needing mechanical ventilation after they had caught Covid.
Nitrogen dioxide is released into the atmosphere when fossil fuels are burned, and the gas is known to have harmful effects on peoples lungs. In particular, endothelial cells which form a thin membrane lining the inside of the heart and blood vessels become damaged, and this inhibits the transfer of oxygen from inhaled breath to a persons blood.
Our results show a positive association between long-term nitrogen dioxide exposure and Covid-19 fatality and Covid-19 incidence rate, said the team of German researchers, who were led by Susanne Koch, of Universittsmedizin Berlin, a large teaching hospital.
Scientists had previously made links between Covid and air pollution, but few studies have concentrated on cases that were particularly severe or on underlying health conditions in those affected by the disease.
Koch and her team used air pollution data to calculate average levels of nitrogen dioxide for each county in Germany. The highest was found in Frankfurt, while the lowest was experienced in Suhl, a small county in Thuringia, the group revealed in its report, which was presented last week to Euroanaesthesia, the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care in Milan.
The group also studied data on how many Covid patients in German hospitals had required ICU treatment and mechanical ventilation during one month in 2020. These figures were adjusted for other factors, such as pre-existing health conditions.
After analysing their results, the team reported that on average, 28 ICU beds and 19 ventilators were needed for Covid patients in each of the 10 counties that had the lowest long-term nitrogen dioxide exposure. These figures contrasted with an average of 144 ICU beds and 102 ventilators needed in the 10 counties with the highest long-term exposure.
The research has worrying implications. In the UK, 75% of urban areas in 2019 had illegal levels of air pollution, underscoring the fact that the British government has made almost no progress on legal obligations that should have been met in 2010. During lockdown, there was a temporary decrease in nitrogen in some areas. However, traffic and pollution are returning to past levels in many towns and cities.
According to the Royal College of Physicians, air pollution causes the equivalent of 40,000 early deaths a year, and has been linked to cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, diabetes, obesity and changes linked to dementia. Now evidence is mounting that Covid should be added to this list.
The German study did not prove a causative relationship between air pollution and severe Covid, the researchers admitted. However, they did suggest a plausible causal link that could explain the relationship between severe Covid and levels of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere.
Coronavirus is known to bind to the Ace-2 receptor when it enters cells after infecting a person. This receptor has many key roles, one of which involves helping the body to regulate levels of angiotensin II, a protein that increases inflammation. In other words, Ace-2 helps to put the brakes on inflammation.
However, when Covid binds to Ace-2, these brakes are removed. It is also known that air pollution causes a similar release of controls over angiotensin II. So the combination of Covid and long-term air pollution exposure would lead to more severe inflammation, more severe Covid and more need for ICUs and mechanical ventilation, the team argued.
Exposure to ambient air pollution can contribute a range of other conditions, including heart attacks, strokes, asthma and lung cancer, and will continue to harm health long after the Covid-19 pandemic ends, added Koch. A transition to renewable energy, clean transportation and sustainable agriculture is urgently needed to improve air quality. Reducing emissions wont just help to limit climate crisis, it will improve the health and the quality of life of people around the world.
Newly identified coronavirus cases fell for the first time since the second omicron wave began in late March, with 13% fewer new infections reported during the week ending Monday as compared to the week ending May 23.
Average daily new cases dropped from a recent peak of nearly 1,690 per day one week ago to about 1,450. State health officials have previously indicated they believe the current COVID-19 wave may be reaching its peak.
But the reported decline comes in conjunction with the Memorial Day holiday weekend, which saw a nearly 20% drop in testing compared to the same timeframe in the previous week. Test positivity rates remain high, averaging 13.7% over the past four days, indicating that more testing would have caught more cases.
The reported decline in cases ends eight consecutive weeks of rising case tallies. The Oregonian/OregonLive calculated the decline using cumulative case numbers reported Tuesday compared to the total from a week earlier, instead of the typical Monday reporting cycle. Thats because the Oregon Health Authority declined to release cumulative counts for the Memorial Day holiday.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations have climbed to 303 and, according to an Oregon Health & Science University forecast, could max out at about 330 occupied beds next week.
Since it began: Oregon has reported 765,449 confirmed or presumed infections and 7,635 deaths.
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Where the newest cases are by county in the eight days since May 23: Baker (16), Benton (334), Clackamas (1259), Clatsop (67), Columbia (124), Coos (135), Crook (61), Curry (38), Deschutes (696), Douglas (211), Gilliam (1), Grant (10), Harney (18), Hood River (65), Jackson (462), Jefferson (54), Josephine (130), Klamath (66), Lake (6), Lane (1064), Lincoln (97), Linn (282), Malheur (18), Marion (862), Morrow (5), Multnomah (2982), Polk (242), Sherman (2), Tillamook (60), Umatilla (73), Union (24), Wallowa (10), Wasco (73), Washington (2114) and Yamhill (212).
Hospitalizations: 303 people with confirmed coronavirus infections are hospitalized, up 25 since Monday, May 23. That includes 29 people in intensive care, up five since May 23.
Vaccinations: As of May 23, the state has reported fully vaccinating 2,913,135 people (68.3% of the population), partially vaccinating 288,435 people (6.8%) and boosting 1,640,138 (38.4%).
New deaths: Since May 23, the Oregon Health Authority has reported 44 additional deaths connected to COVID-19.
Fedor Zarkhin
When COVID-19 finally found its way to Worketu Gigesa after two years of her family protecting her the infection hit her hard.
The 97-year-old was admitted to Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis this week, despite the circulating strains of coronavirus appearing to cause less severe illness than earlier versions in the pandemic.
"She didn't want to eat, she didn't want to drink, and she got weak," said her daughter, Demitu Abdissa. "I didn't know what was going on and I got worried and called 911."
Gigesa's experience reflects a statistical reality, even as the current COVID-19 wave shows signs of receding or leveling off in Minnesota ahead of a predicted milder summer. Whatever COVID-19 risk remains this spring, it has largely shifted back to seniors.
More than 90% of the COVID-19 deaths identified so far in May in Minnesota have been in people 65 and older above the 66% among that population in December, when delta and earlier omicron variants took an elevated toll on younger, unvaccinated adults. The last time more than 90% of the state's pandemic deaths involved seniors was December 2020, before vaccine was widely available.
COVID-19 deaths have declined across all age groups in Minnesota since the start of 2022 just more rapidly among younger adults. Provisional federal data showed a decline in COVID-19 deaths among nonelderly adults in Minnesota from 385 in December to seven so far in May. The comparable decline in senior deaths was 755 to 89.
The declines reflect strong levels of immunity, vaccinations and antiviral drugs to combat the pandemic, but people still need to protect others around them who are vulnerable, said Dr. Ruth Lynfield, state epidemiologist and medical director of the Minnesota Department of Health.
"You need to know your exposure history. Have you been infected recently? Have you been vaccinated and boosted?" she said. "Certainly throwing on a mask should be like carrying an umbrella. It shouldn't be a big deal and, if you're going to interact with someone who is very fragile, absolutely you want to do whatever you can to protect that person."
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Minnesota have increased from a recent low of 183 on April 10 to 446 on Thursday, but many have been incidental meaning the patients were admitted for other reasons and tested positive upon routine screening. The number of patients requiring intensive care has increased over the past week, but still represents only 10% of the total COVID-19 hospitalizations. That rate reached 30% at other severe points in the pandemic.
Patients admitted for COVID-19 this spring are more likely to be seniors than they were during this winter's severe pandemic waves, said Dr. Mark Sannes, an infectious disease specialist for HealthPartners, which includes Regions Hospital in St. Paul and Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. However, these patients tend to also have other health conditions and symptoms.
"Is that COVID, or is that something else?" he said. "That is kind of the nuanced presentation that I think we are seeing in that older population right now."
Seniors still vulnerable
Gigesa lives with her daughter and son-in-law at their home in Minneapolis. Abdissa, a food service worker at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, said she took the threat of COVID-19 seriously when the pandemic emerged.
"I just used a mask and cleaned all the time to protect her," she said.
Abdissa said she hasn't ever tested positive herself and isn't sure how her mother got infected twice this year. The first infection in January was worse, but the second one in May was frightening because it came so quickly and after COVID-19 vaccinations and two booster shots.
The vaccine likely helped, though, the daughter said: "That's why she is alive, I think."
The spread of the coronavirus appears much wider than is reflected in Minnesota's confirmed case counts, which include only publicly reported test results and not popular at-home rapid tests. The virus, as a result, has found its way back to vulnerable seniors and into nursing homes and other congregate-care facilities.
Infections among residents of the facilities reached 455 in the last week of April, according to Minnesota's latest weekly pandemic report. That is the highest total since early February, but still far below the peak in January.
Low staff vaccination rates aren't helping, but many infections are among vaccinated workers as well, said Jean Peters, president of Elder Voice Family Advocates. Lax infection control at understaffed facilities is likely fueling the spread of COVID-19 among residents.
"It is my belief that the temp checks, masking, hand washing, protective eyewear [practices] are not being followed," she said. "How can they be when staffing is stretched, and the staff that is there may not be trained or is overwhelmed as they try their best to provide the basic of cares?"
Nearly 46% of Minnesota's 12,649 COVID-19 deaths have involved long-term care residents. That rate dropped to a low of 20% of COVID-19 deaths in Minnesota this December, but has since increased back to 44% in May.
Hope for declines
Where the pandemic goes from here is unclear. Viral levels have been declining in much of Minnesota based on testing data and sampling of wastewater. However, viral levels are rising in northeastern Minnesota, and sewage sampling in the Twin Cities has found rising rates of the BA.4 and BA.5 coronavirus variants that caused a surge of COVID-19 in South Africa. The surge mostly involved milder illnesses, though.
"We hope now that school is out that numbers will come down even further," Sannes said, "similar to what we have seen the last two Junes."
Breakthrough infections in vaccinated people are more common this spring, but vaccines are still difference-makers in terms of the severity of illness, said Dr. Peter Henry, chief medical officer for the Brainerd Lakes region of Essentia Health. Among the 45 COVID-19 patients admitted to Essentia hospitals on Friday, 36 were unvaccinated or older adults overdue for boosters.
Broader use of the antiviral Paxlovid could help address risks to vulnerable seniors now that supplies have improved. Lynfield said the state has been reaching out to long-term care facilities to make sure they are comfortable determining which residents with COVID-19 qualify for treatment and offering it quickly enough.
Henry said Essentia calls every patient with a positive test and offers treatment if eligible. The doctor took Paxlovid after testing positive for COVID-19 this spring despite receiving two booster doses of vaccine. Worsening symptoms subsided after he took the pills.
"Then for three to four days it was like a cold," he said. "Not even a bad one."
