More than seven in 10 people in England have been infected with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The estimate, the most detailed analysis to date, suggests 71% of people in England had caught Covid between 27 April 2020 and 11 February 2022. The proportion is likely to have risen further in the most recent Omicron wave, during which there was the highest prevalence at any time in the pandemic, including in older age groups that had previously had relatively low rates of infection.
Prof James Naismith, the director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute at the University of Oxford, said: The total number of infected people was rising rapidly when the data stopped. The bottom line is the majority of people in the UK have had Covid-19.
The analysis used a sample of 535,116 people who completed one or more tests as part of the UK coronavirus infection survey (CIS), which covers people over the age of two years living in private households.
Slightly lower proportions of the population were estimated to have been infected in Wales (56%) and Scotland (52%), but the figures are not directly comparable as the data covered a shorter time period, with Welsh data starting in June 2020 and Scotland in September 2020. In Northern Ireland, 72% of the population were estimated to have been infected.
Duncan Cook, the deputy director for the Covid-19 infection survey, said: Todays release is a valuable piece of the puzzle for understanding the impact of the pandemic across the UK.
The analysis suggested that by October 2021, about one in three people in England had been infected and the proportion remained lower than a half until the emergence of the Omicron variant, which triggered a rapid rise in cases.
The proportions infected are likely to be even higher than the ONS estimates as in the most recent Covid wave, which coincided with the lifting of restrictions, there was a surge in the number of cases in the oldest age groups.
In some regions of England today I would predict the portion of those who have had Covid-19 will easily exceed 80%, said Naismith.
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The findings come as the latest ONS survey shows Covid rates are continuing to fall across the UK, with about 3,218,700 people in England one in 17 having Covid in the week ending 16 April, down from about one in 15 the week before. Decreases were also seen in Wales (one in 15), Northern Ireland (one in 30) and Scotland (one in 19) and across all age groups.
We continue to see a welcome decrease in infections across England, Northern Ireland and Scotland in todays data. For the first time in several weeks, we are also seeing a decrease in Wales too, said Cook.
Its encouraging to see that infections have decreased in all age groups across England. Despite the decrease in infections, its important to note that levels remain high. We continue to monitor these going forward.
According to the latest government figures, the number of Covid patients in hospital and the number of weekly deaths linked to Covid is also falling in the UK.
CNN
When Delta Air Lines referred to Covid-19 as an ordinary seasonal virus after a federal judge struck down the Biden administrations mask mandate for public transportation, they were partly right: there is some evidence that it is seasonal. But it is far from ordinary, and its still not the same as the flu.
The lifting of the transportation mask mandate marks another turning point in the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States, and there are many ways to describe the situation at this inflection point.
While not ordinary, Covid-19 certainly is common.
Over the past two years, official case counts suggest nearly a quarter of the country has been infected with coronavirus, and the number of actual infections is estimated to be many times higher than what has been reported.
Despite a drastic drop in cases over the past couple of months, more than 35,000 people in the US are infected daily, according to data from Johns Hopkins University enough to fill Madison Square Garden nearly two times over every day.
States in the Northeast are seeing cases tick up faster than others, leading what may turn out to be a broader national wave, just as the region has over the past two springs.
This year, Covid-19 is also fightable.
Vaccines have proven to be remarkably effective. In February, fully vaccinated people were five times less likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 and 10 times less likely to die, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The risk was even lower for those who also had a booster shot.
Some treatments have held up against Omicron, too, and the federal government is shipping out hundreds of thousands of antivirals each week.
But Covid-19 is still not normal.
Even as measures of severe Covid-19 drastically improve, they remain much worse than even the most severe flu.
The 2017-18 flu season was one of the worst in decades. An estimated 710,000 people were hospitalized and 52,000 died.
Daily Covid-19 deaths are nearing their lowest point in a year now but even with a relatively low rate of 400 deaths a day, the virus has still killed more people in two months than flu did over a full year at its worst. At the height of the Omicron surge just a few months ago, more people died of Covid-19 in just a few weeks than a full year of flu.
Covid-19 hospitalizations have recently hit the lowest point on record and new admissions over the past week were still three times higher than the latest weekly admissions for the flu, CDC data shows.
And Covid-19 is still unpredictable.
Covid-19 has some similarities to the flu, but its not the same, said Dr. Arnold Monto, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Michigan and acting chair of the US Food and Drug Administrations Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.
Were in uncharted territory, he said. With flu, we know what to expect pretty much, but with Covid were learning every day.
Two preprint papers published last year describe the seasonal patterns of the pandemics waves so far and suggest that these patterns may repeat in subsequent years.
These seasonal patterns can help leaders anticipate surges and places like health care facilities prepare appropriately, but theyre not always dominant, said Dr. Donald Burke, an infectious disease expert and former dean of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health who co-authored the papers with Dr. Hawre Jalal. They have not yet been peer-reviewed.
If something like a particularly transmissible strain comes into play like Omicron then that can overwhelm and change the patterns, Burke said. Omicron really disrupted things.
Back in December, Sen Pei, an assistant professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Universitys Mailman School of Public Health, told CNN that we were still far away from an endemic stage of the pandemic.
A large majority of the population would need to have immunity from the virus from either infection or vaccination before reaching that point, he said then.
The Omicron surge raised the level of immunity in the US population dramatically and brought us closer to that point, but the future of Covid-19 is still unclear.
Long term, I think it largely depends on whether there will be new variants coming out, which is highly unpredictable at this point, he said Tuesday.
Its not clear what the endemic pattern will look like and whether we have entered that phase right now.
After pushback from the White House, Delta Air Lines adjusted the way it characterized Covid-19, lauding the lifting of the transportation mask mandate as Covid-19 transitions to a more manageable respiratory virus.
But the CDC still recommends wearing masks on planes.
Conflicting opinions about next steps in the Covid-19 pandemic exist within the public health community and sometimes, even within individuals themselves.
Monto says dropping the mask mandate now, at what he hopes is the tail end of the rise of the BA.2 variant, may not be all that bad but it may also be a few weeks too early because were not sure where were going.
In any case, continued vigilance remains critical.
We have to be watchful and respond to what is going on, he said. Weve never seen a coronavirus pandemic before.
washington
Most Americans support a flexible approach to the lingering COVID-19 pandemic, with cities reimposing mask mandates when cases surge, even as a growing number are eager to get on with their lives, a Reuters/Ipsos poll completed Friday found.
The results of the two-day poll illustrate the balancing act facing U.S. officials as they navigate a health crisis that will not go away.
Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults including 83% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans said cities and states should impose mask mandates for indoor public places if there is a resurgence of COVID-19 in their area, the poll found.
At the same time, 44% of respondents said that Americans need to get back to normal and get on with their lives, up from 36% in a poll completed in early February.
The tension between the two sentiments was apparent this week in Philadelphia, which on Monday became the first major U.S. city to reimpose a mask mandate in settings including restaurants, schools and businesses following a rise in local COVID-19 cases, only to reverse course days later.
City officials in Philadelphia, which like most big American cities is run by Democrats and overwhelmingly voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, on Thursday said decreasing hospitalizations and a leveling of case counts warranted a recommendation that residents wear masks in indoor public spaces, rather than a mandate.
The city is the largest in the state of Pennsylvania, which will be a key battleground in November 8 midterm elections when Democrats will wage an uphill battle to preserve slim majorities in Congress.
More than two years into a public health crisis that has killed nearly 1 million Americans, most U.S. states and localities have eased mask and vaccination requirements.
Mixed results
A bipartisan majority of poll respondents, including 53% of Democrats and 78% of Republicans, said the coronavirus pandemic has reached the point at which decisions to wear masks or vaccinate should be left to individuals rather than the government.
At the same time, just over half of respondents in the poll said they were more likely to support candidates in November that support continued rules, including mask requirements, to combat the pandemic.
Sixty-five percent of respondents supported mask requirements on airplanes, trains and public transport, even after a federal court on Monday struck down a federal mask mandate on public transportation and airplanes.
The Biden administration is appealing the court ruling, however, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the measure was still needed.
Only 44% of respondents said Biden has delivered on his 2020 election campaign pledge to try to control the pandemic, and just 35% said he had delivered on his promises to restart the economy hit by the health crisis.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, in English, throughout the United States, gathering responses from 1,005 adults. It has a credibility interval, a measure of precision, of about 4 percentage points.
Total vaccine doses distributed: 720,813,845
Patients whove received the first dose: 257,058,180
Patients whove received the second dose: 219,160,055
% of population fully vaccinated: 66%
% of infections tied to the Omicron Variant: 100%
There was one new death attributed to COVID-19 in Hardin County, the sole death reported in the five-county region over the past week.
The number of cases per 100,000 population remains low for most of the region but has increased in Hardin County, which claimed the 24th highest per capita rate in Ohio with 67 new cases per 100,000 people over the last two weeks.
Allen County ranked 58th with 43 cases per 100,000 people, while Auglaize County ranked 63rd at 39.4 cases, Putnam ranked 70th at 32.5 and Van Wert ranked 72nd at 31.8 cases per 100,000 people.
Allen County
Cases ` 27,471 ` +22
Deaths ` 477 ` 0
Recovered ` 26,866 ` +11
Auglaize County
Cases ` 11,590 ` +13
Deaths ` 189 ` 0
Recovered ` 11,311 ` 0
Hardin County
Cases ` 7,087 ` +8
Deaths ` 158 ` +1
Recovered ` 6,902 ` +6
Putnam County
Cases ` 8,462 ` +5
Deaths ` 156 ` 0
Recovered ` 8,271 ` +8
Van Wert County
Cases ` 6,713 ` +5
Deaths ` 145 ` 0
Recovered ` 6,561 ` +4
Ohio
Cases ` 2,688,327 ` +6,890
Deaths ` 38,360 ` +94
Recovered ` 2,632,226 ` +3,197
Recovered defined as symptom onset more than 21 days prior, not deceased. Only verified deaths included now.
Source: coronavirus.ohio.gov
Updated 2 p.m. 4/21/22
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TAMPA, Fla. COVID-19 cases are beginning to rise again across the United States and Florida. Experts are watching the omicron subvariant and its mutations.
The cases are actually increasing both in Florida and across the United States right now, said Dr. Thomas Unnasch, Distinguished USF Health Professor.
This thing is really now vying with measles for the most infectious respiratory virus known to man, Unnasch added.
The original omicron variant caused a record number of COVID-19 cases at the beginning of the year. Researchers say BA.2 is not likely to make that big of an impact.
Case numbers are going up a little bit, with doubling time now of about once every two weeks, were seeing a doubling in case numbers, but thats a lot slower than what we saw with the omicron variant back in January where it was doubling once every three and a half days which was really, really scary, said Unnasch.
Researchers believe the BA.2 subvariant has mutated a few times, increasing its infectiousness even more.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates BA.2 and its mutation have accounted for about 93% of new COVID-19 cases in the United States last week.
Im thinking that were probably going to be reaching a peak of cases averaging about maybe about 3,000 or 4,000 a day maybe in the next 10 days or so and then were going to start to see a decline, said Unnasch.
Health officials say the most important thing we need to pay attention to right now is hospitalizations and death.
So we may see an uptick in cases but Im not really thinking that were going to see a really serious uptick in hospitalizations and deaths, said Unnasch.
Which indicates I think that theres enough immunity out there right now that people are getting pretty well protected against severe disease, he added.
The one thing experts say could increase this peak is more people not wherein masks in crowded spaces.
I think anytime weve seen before, weve seen a loosening of any of the public health measures, weve seen a little bump up in the total case numbers, said Unnasch.
THE TIMES OF INDIA | Apr 23, 2022, 02:01:28 IST
Delhi on Friday reported 1,042 fresh Covid-19 cases, 757 recoveries, and 2 deaths in the last 24 hours. While the active cases have reached 3,253, the positivity rate stands at 4.64 per cent. Stay with TOI for latest updates:Read Less
To date, a total of 2,448 cases with SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified and investigated in residents of Dallas County, including 246 cases of B.1.1.7 (Alpha); 4 cases of B.1.351 (Beta); 1,810 cases of B.1.617.2 (Delta); 15 cases of B.1.427 (Epsilon); 28 cases of P.1 (Gamma); 12 cases of B.1.526 (Iota); 5 cases of C.37 (Lambda); 4 cases of B.1.621 (Mu); 323 cases of B.1.1.529 (Omicron); and 1 case of P.2 (Zeta). Four hundred and twenty-two cases have been hospitalized and 52 have died. Forty-five COVID-19 variant cases were reinfections. Seven hundred and one people were considered fully vaccinated before infection with a COVID-19 variant.
As of 4/15/2022, a total of 384 confirmed and probable cases were reported in CDC week 14 (week ending 4/9/22), which is a weekly rate of 14.6 new cases per 100,000 residents.
As of the week ending 4/9/2022, about 81% of Dallas County residents age 12 years and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, including 98% of residents age 65 years and older; 86% of residents between 40-64 years of age; 78% of residents 25-39 years of age; 68% of residents 18-24 years of age; and 62% of residents 12-17 years of age. In the cities of Addison, Coppell, Highland Park, Irving, and Sunnyvale, greater than 94% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. In the cities of Cedar Hill, Desoto, Farmers Branch, Garland, Lancaster, and University Park, greater than 81% of residents 18 years of age and older have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
About 45.7% of COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Week 14 were Dallas County residents who were not fully vaccinated. In Dallas County, 50,891 cases of COVID-19 breakthrough COVID-19 infections in fully vaccinated individuals have been confirmed to date, of which 3,936 (7.7%) were hospitalized and 679 have died due to COVID-19.
Of all Dallas County residents tested for COVID-19 by PCR during the week ending 4/9/2022 (CDC week 14), 3.0% of respiratory specimens tested positive for SARS-CoV-2. For week 14, area hospital labs have continued to report elevated numbers and proportions of respiratory specimens that are positive for other respiratory viruses by molecular tests: parainfluenza (5.39%), rhinovirus/enterovirus (32.87%), and RSV (3.0%).
There are currently 9 active long-term care facility outbreaks. A cumulative total of 6,447 residents and 4,362 healthcare workers in long-term facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19. Of these, 1,335 have been hospitalized and 910 have died. About 16% of all deaths reported to date have been associated with long-term care facilities.
There has been 1 outbreak of COVID-19 in a congregate-living facility (e.g. homeless shelters, group homes, and halfway homes) reported within the past 30 days. A cumulative total of 1,135 residents and 295 staff members in congregate-living facilities in Dallas have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
New cases are being reported as a daily aggregate, with more detailed data dashboards and summary reports updated on Friday evenings, available at: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/2019-novel-coronavirus/daily-updates.php.
Local health experts use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and ER visits as three of the key indicators as part of determining the COVID-19 Risk Level (color-coded risk) and corresponding guidelines for activities during our COVID-19 response. The most recent COVID-19 hospitalization data for Dallas County, as reported to the North Central Texas Trauma Regional Advisory Council, can be found at www.dallascounty.org/covid-19 under Monitoring Data, and is updated regularly. This data includes information on the total available ICU beds, suspected and confirmed COVID-19 ER visits in the last 24 hours, confirmed COVID-19 inpatients, and COVID-19 deaths by actual date of death. The most recent forecasting from UTSW can be found here.The most recent COVID-19 Data Summaries for Dallas County, TX can be found at the bottom of this page.
Talk to your doctor about whether you should get antibody or antiviral treatment, and where you can find treatment.Therapeutics are authorized for people who meet select high-risk criteria. Vaccinations remain the best way to protect from COVID-19.
Providers or patients in need of assistance locating an infusion site or connecting with a clinical trial, call the Monoclonal Antibody Therapy Call Center.English: 877-332-6585Spanish: 877-366-0310.
The Biden administration is appealing a judges order that voided the federal mask mandate on planes and trains and in travel hubs. The notice came minutes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention asked the Justice Department to appeal the decision handed down by a federal judge in Florida earlier this week.
The CDC says it is its continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.
People in Philadelphia could be excused if they felt a sense of whiplash Friday as the city abandoned its indoor mask mandate just days after becoming the first U.S. metropolis to reimpose compulsory masking in response to an increase in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. City officials who had previously stressed the need to head off a new wave of coronavirus infections by requiring people to mask up indoors abruptly called it off after what they said was an unexpected drop in the number of people in the hospital and a leveling-off of infections.
Meantime, Boston urged people to start wearing masks after the Boston Public Health Commission noted a rise in hospitalizations, as well as a 65% increase in cases and an even larger spike in COVID-19 levels in local wastewater samples. It also stressed that the guidance was merely a recommendation, not an order.
Los Angeles County bucked national trends and said Thursday it will still require masks on public transit including trains, subways, buses, taxis and rideshares. Cases have risen in the past week and hospitalizations have plateaued after falling the previous two months.
The country is wrestling with how to deal with the next phase of the pandemic and find the right balance in enacting health measures at a time when many Americans are ready to move on after two exhausting years.
A federal judge in Florida this week threw out a national mask mandate on mass transportation, and airlines and airports responded swiftly Monday by repealing their requirements that passengers wear face coverings. That put the Biden administration in the position of trying to navigate an appeal that could have sweeping ramifications over the power that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has in regulating future health emergencies.
The Justice Department is filing an appeal seeking to overturn the judges order.
The CDC said in a statement that it is its continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health.
It remained unclear whether the Biden administration would ask the appeals court to grant an emergency stay to immediately reimpose the mask mandate on public transit. An emergency stay of the lower courts ruling would be a whiplash moment for travelers and transit workers. Most airlines and airports, many public transit systems and even ride-sharing company Uber lifted their mask-wearing requirements in the hours following Mondays ruling.
After a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant that prompted record hospitalizations, the U.S. has seen a significant drop in virus spread in recent months, leading most states and cities to drop mask mandates.
In Canada, unvaccinated children aged 5 to 11 traveling with a fully vaccinated adult will no longer need a COVID-19 test to enter Canada beginning Monday. Pre-entry tests will still be needed for partially vaccinated or unvaccinated travelers over the age of 12 who are eligible to travel to Canada. Children under five years of age dont currently require a COVID-19 test to enter Canada. Government officials announced several other small changes to ease restrictions for international travelers taking effect on Monday. Fully vaccinated travelers, and children under 12 accompanying them, will no longer need to provide their quarantine plans when they enter the country.
If you are traveling
What do you do if you are traveling? Dr. John Brooks, the CDCs chief medical officer for the COVID-19 response, has some practical advice:
Arm yourself. Get vaccinated, and if youre fully vaccinated, get boosted. If youve had two or three shots of Pfizers Comirnaty or Modernas SpikeVax vaccine and its been four months since your last shot, another dose is advised. Give yourself a week or so for another jab to refresh your immune systems supply of antibodies.
If you have certain medical conditions, cant be vaccinated, or take medications that weaken your immune systems ability to fight off infections, see if you can get a dose of Evusheld, a form of passive defense that can help protect you.
Patients in active treatment for cancer, or people who received a stem cell transplant for blood cancer in the past two years, may not have mounted a strong response to the vaccine. They need the extra boost of immunity that the monoclonal antibodies in Evusheld provide. Patients who take long courses of high-dose steroids or a range of other medications to treat auto-immune diseases such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis or multiple sclerosis may be in the same boat. And anyone who has had a solid organ transplant needs more protection to compensate for the powerful medications they take to prevent rejection.
Slightly more than a million doses of the protective medication have been distributed, mainly to hospitals and health care systems across the country. That wont cover everyone who probably needs it. If you think it could help you, the rheumatologist, oncologist or transplant team that treated you is best positioned to help you get it.
Do wear your mask, and make sure its a good one. In a crowd, the more people are masking, the less virus will be suspended in the air to be breathed in, so more masking is better. But correct and consistent wearing of a mask that molds close to your face can protect you from breathing in those lingering viral particles, or limit how much you take in. That, in turn, could mean the difference between warding off infection and becoming ill.
Youve heard this before, but its worth repeating: A cloth mask wont cut it, given how readily the omicron variant spreads. If you love your cloth mask, put a disposable surgical mask over it: theyre designed to draw in and trap virus on their surface. But your best bet is to wear an N95 respirator, which pinches around your nose and has ear loops or head straps that hold the mask tight to your face.
Before you go on an airplane, practice at home to make sure you can wear it comfortably, correctly and consistently, Brooks said. Theyre itchy and scratchy and the air is hot for some people. But millions of health care providers have learned how to wear them, and you can too.
Mind the transitions, and take a direct flight if you can. The filtration systems of most commercial jets are fully engaged when theyre traveling above 10,000 feet, Brooks said, and they are powerfully effective at cleaning the air under those conditions. But when jet engines are idling on the ground (and passengers are boarding or deplaning), those systems are not doing that job. And the efficiency of those air filtration systems also suffers as the plane ascends or descends.
So be sure to wear your mask during those transitions. And taking direct flights where possible limits the amount of time youre sitting in a crowded metal tube with a filtration system thats going to let more virus slip through than it will at cruising altitude.
Reserve a window seat, board last, and sit near the front so you can deplane quickly. The principle here is to spend the least amount of time possible on a plane thats still on the ground, Brooks explained. You also want to sit where any virus emitted by passengers and staff in the aisles is least likely to reach you.
Seeking special favors from airlines is either costly or difficult. But most will let you choose your seat for an extra charge, and if you can do that, look for one that gives you some distance from passers-by but also lets you make a fast get-away.
Eat or drink with caution. Youll probably be hungry and thirsty if youre taking a long trip. But if other travelers are largely unmasked, your snack or swig of soda is an opportunity for their virus to enter your respiratory tract.
Brooks notes that a straw can be inserted right under a mask, limiting the broken seal. He suggests eating in the airport rather than on the plane, and munching your meal in an unpopulated corner of the gate area. Wash your hands before eating.
Know the community transmission level where youre going, and behave accordingly. Going to a hotspot of new cases, or passing through one on the way to your destination? Find out before you go so you know where masking and social distancing are still a good idea and where you can afford to loosen up. Visit the CDCs community website and click on the counties youll be traveling from, to and through.
Stock up on rapid tests and prepare to spring into action if you have a positive result. It makes sense to test yourself before you travel, to make sure youre good to go. But bring another test and take it four days or so after youve been in a high-exposure situation like an airport, or if you develop COVID-19 symptoms.
Getting the earliest possible indication of infection is all the more important because antiviral medications such as Paxlovid and molnupiravir are now available, and they can shorten the duration and/or lessen the severity of an infection. But they must be taken as soon as symptoms start, and no more than five days after symptom onset.
--The Associated Press and Los Angeles Times contributed to this report
