New York City's surge of COVID-19 cases fueled by the omicron variant appears to be falling just as quickly as it rose.
Tens of thousands of infections are still being reported every day, and the test positivity rate is still above 20%. However, after new cases increased 26-fold in just one month, they have now fallen by 57% over the last week, an ABC News analysis found.
After a single-day peak of 50,803 COVID-19 cases reported on Jan. 3, just 9,202 cases were reported on Jan. 14, according to data from the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene.
In addition, hospitalizations are declining, and the number of wastewater samples that have detected the virus have also plunged.
"Infections are coming down, even visits to the emergency room are coming down," Dr. Ali Mokdad, an epidemiologist with the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, told ABC News. "And usually we see when there is a surge, we see visits to the emergency rooms going up."
New York City COVID-19 cases per day
Mokdad, who helps lead a model that projects COVID-19 cases around the country, added, "All the indications of the people being tested and found to be positive show that [omicron] appears on its way down."
On Dec. 2, the first case of omicron tied to New York City was reported in a Minnesota resident who had traveled to the Big Apple in November to attend an anime convention.
From there, COVID-19 cases began spiking. Within two weeks, the city was reporting an average of nearly 7,600 infections per day, up from 1,600 per day.
Studies have since shown that omicron is more likely to pass between vaccinated people than prior variants, though vaccines still dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness.
Coupled with the cold weather and people gathering for the holidays, Mokdad said it is no surprise the virus spread as quickly as it did.
People wait in line to receive a COVID-19 test, Jan. 4, 2022, in New York. The U.S. recorded more than 1 million cases on Jan. 3, 2022, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, as the Omicron variant spread at a blistering pace.
Even coronavirus levels in wastewater samples were showing that a surge was coming, according to wastewater analytics company Biobot.
"The scale of the amount of virus that was detected in wastewater was far greater than any point in the pandemic, so much so that [the company] had to rebuild some of the graphs around the scales, because so much more virus was being collected more than any time," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist who is a member of Biobot's board of advisers and an ABC News contributor. "It gave us that early sense that we were going to deal with this massive surge."
However, there are signs the city may have hit its omicron peak.
New York City has been reporting nearly 12 straight days of COVID-19 case declines and is averaging about 15,000 new infections per day, down from roughly 36,000 just two weeks ago.
In yet another sign that the city's surge may be ebbing, New York City no longer holds the nation's highest case rate -- Rhode Island now does, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitalizations have also declined from an average of 992 new admissions on Jan. 6 to 496 as of Jan. 15, according to the city's health department.
Mount Sinai Health System, one of New York City's largest hospital systems, has seen new daily COVID-19 hospital admissions remain relatively flat over the last week to 10 days. About one-third of patients are admitted for other reasons and then test positive during their stays, Dr. Bernard Camins, medical director for infection prevention at Mount Sinai, told ABC News.
A person walks past a COVID-19 testing tent during the coronavirus pandemic in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Jan. 14, 2022.
He said hospitalizations will not significantly come down until two or three weeks from now, because they are a lagging indicator.
"When people get sick enough with COVID, now they are going to come into the hospital, and it does take a delay," Camins said. "Sometimes people start having symptoms but they're not sick enough to need the hospital until Day 7 or 10 days later."
He added, "Eventually the ones who were coming into the hospital with 'moderate symptoms' or maybe severe enough to need oxygen, it does take them a few more days lag in terms of needing ventilators."
A rapid rise in cases followed by a dramatic decline is similar to what has been seen in other countries that detected omicron before the U.S.
In South Africa, where the variant was first identified, the surge looked like an "ice pick," according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky. In early December, the country was averaging about 10,000 cases per day, quickly rising to 20,000 by mid-December.
People wait in line at a COVID-19 testing site in Times Square, New York, Dec. 13, 2021.
But, by early January, when New York City was experiencing its peak, the average number of COVID-19 infections in South Africa had already fallen to about 8,000 per day.
"What we know and are certain about from data from South Africa and the U.K., when omicron takes hold in a location, it takes about a month to go up and a month to come down," Mokdad said.
Even though the surge is not entirely over yet, Mokdad said New York's decline is a signal for the rest of the country, with the Midwest about one week behind and the West Coast two or three weeks behind.
The University of Washington's own model suggests that the U.S. will peak at about 1.2 million cases Jan.17, and then all states will be on their way down by the end of January, Mokdad said, adding that he is still encouraging vaccination and mask-wearing.
"Everybody who's out and about will be infected by then," he said. "This is like infecting everybody out there, so basically, it's running out of people to infect and it's going to start coming down because there's no more people to infect."
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) reports as of January 19, 2022, there are currently 15,906 active COVID-19 cases statewide. There have been 15 deaths reported since the last report, with a total of 5,576 deaths attributed to COVID-19.
DHHR has confirmed the deaths of a 79-year old male from Cabell County, a 66-year old male from Mercer County, a 77-year old female from Mercer County, an 80-year old male from Cabell County, a 75-year old male from Berkeley County, a 67-year old male from Cabell County, a 57-year old female from Raleigh County, an 80-year old male from Harrison County, a 67-year old female from Mercer County, an 85-year old male from Cabell County, a 94-year old female from Cabell County, a 90-year old male from Berkeley County, a 64-year old female from Raleigh County, and an 86-year old female from Berkeley County.
Included in the total deaths reported on the dashboard as a result of the Bureau for Public Healths continuing data reconciliation with the official death certificate is a 78-year old female from Jefferson County. This death occurred in December 2021.
"Vaccination helps prevent the most tragic outcomes from COVID-19, hospitalization and death," said Bill J. Crouch, DHHR Cabinet Secretary. "I urge every eligible West Virginian to choose to be vaccinated today."
CURRENT ACTIVE CASES PER COUNTY: Barbour (78), Berkeley (1,203), Boone (248), Braxton (84), Brooke (138), Cabell (995), Calhoun (40), Clay (82), Doddridge (36), Fayette (529), Gilmer (47), Grant (89), Greenbrier (300), Hampshire (148), Hancock (180), Hardy (114), Harrison (537), Jackson (77), Jefferson (580), Kanawha (1,672), Lewis (100), Lincoln (172), Logan (279), Marion (532), Marshall (320), Mason (132), McDowell (105), Mercer (444), Mineral (238), Mingo (178), Monongalia (862), Monroe (145), Morgan (139), Nicholas (205), Ohio (454), Pendleton (42), Pleasants (56), Pocahontas (43), Preston (262), Putnam (550), Raleigh (935), Randolph (260), Ritchie (71), Roane (126), Summers (83), Taylor (121), Tucker (10), Tyler (83), Upshur (144), Wayne (358), Webster (53), Wetzel (124), Wirt (50), Wood (796), Wyoming (257). To find the cumulative cases per county, please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov and look on the Cumulative Summary tab which is sortable by county.
Delays may be experienced with the reporting of information from the local health department to DHHR. As case surveillance continues at the local health department level, it may reveal that those tested in a certain county may not be a resident of that county, or even the state as an individual in question may have crossed the state border to be tested. Please visit www.coronavirus.wv.gov for more detailed information.
West Virginians ages 5 years and older are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. Boosters are also available for those 12 and older. To learn more about the vaccine, or to find a vaccine site near you, visit vaccinate.wv.gov or call 1-833-734-0965.
Free pop-up COVID-19 testing is available today in Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Braxton, Cabell, Doddridge, Fayette, Greenbrier, Hampshire, Harrison, Jefferson, Lincoln, Marion, Marshall, Mercer, Mineral, Mingo, Monroe, Morgan, Nicholas, Ohio, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Taylor, Tyler/Wetzel, Upshur, Wayne, and Wood counties.
Barbour County
7:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Community Market, 107 South Main Street (across the street from Walgreens), Philippi, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVBBC)
1:00 PM - 5:00 PM, Junior Volunteer Fire Department, 331 Row Avenue, Junior, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Berkeley County
8:30 AM - 3:30 PM, Airborne Church, 172 Creative Place, Martinsburg, WV
8:30 AM - 4:00 PM, Shenandoah Community Health, 99 Tavern Road, Martinsburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, 891 Auto Parts Place, Martinsburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Boone County
10:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Boone County Health Department, 213 Kenmore Drive, Danville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Braxton County
7:30 AM - 1:30 PM, Braxton County Memorial Hospital (parking lot), 100 Hoylman Drive, Gassaway, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=Braxton)
Cabell County
8:00 AM- 4:00 PM, Marshall University Campus (parking lot), 1801 6th Avenue, Huntington, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
9:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Cabell-Huntington Health Department (parking lot), 703 Seventh Avenue, Huntington, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=MavCabell)
Doddridge County
9:00 AM - 12:00 PM, Doddridge County Farmers Market Pavilion, Rt. 18 (beside old high school football field), West Union, WV
Fayette County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Fayette County Health Department, 5495 Maple Lane, Fayetteville, WV
Greenbrier County
9:30 AM - 3:00 PM, State Fair of WV, 891 Maplewood Avenue, Lewisburg, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVGBC)
Hampshire County
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Hampshire Memorial Hospital, 363 Sunrise Boulevard, Romney, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Harrison County
10:30 AM - 2:00 PM, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 315 E. B. Saunders Way, Clarksburg, WV
Jefferson County
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Hollywood Casino, 750 Hollywood Drive, Charles Town, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Lincoln County
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Lincoln County Health Department, 8008 Court Avenue, Hamlin, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Marion County
10:00 AM - 6:00 PM, Dunbar School Foundation, 101 High Street, Fairmont, WV
Marshall County
9:00 AM - 1:00 PM, Marshall County Health Department, 513 6th Street, Moundsville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://roxbylabs.dendisoftware.com/patient_registration/)
Mercer County
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Mercer County Health Department, 978 Blue Prince Road, Bluefield, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMHCT13
Mineral County
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Mineral County Health Department, 541 Harley O. Staggers Drive, Keyser, WV
Mingo County
9:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Chattaroy Volunteer Fire Department, 8 Firefighter Avenue, Chattaroy, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMGC)
Monroe County
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Appalachian Christian Center, 2812 Seneca Trail South, Peterstown, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMRC)
Morgan County
11:00 AM - 5:00 PM, War Memorial Hospital, 1 Health Way, Berkeley Springs, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Nicholas County
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Summersville Regional Medical Center, 400 Fairview Heights Road, Summersville, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVNL)
Ohio County
9:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Ohio Valley Medical Center (parking lot of former VPC South Building at the top of 22nd Street), 2000 Eoff Street, Wheeling, WV (optional pre-registration: https://roxbylabs.dendisoftware.com/patient_registration/)
Putnam County
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Putnam County Health Department (behind Liberty Square), 316 Putnam Village Drive, Hurricane, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Raleigh County
9:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Beckley-Raleigh County Health Department, 1602 Harper Road, Beckley, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=MavBeckleyRaleigh)
Randolph County
8:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Randolph-Elkins Health Department (parking lot), 32 Randolph Avenue, Elkins, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVRDC)
Ritchie County
1:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Ritchie Regional, 135 South Penn Avenue, Harrisville, WV
Taylor County
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM, Grafton-Taylor Health Department, 718 West Main Street (parking lot at Operations Trailer), Grafton, WV (optional pre-registration: https://wv.getmycovidresult.com/)
Tyler/Wetzel Counties
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM, Sistersville Volunteer Fire Department, 121 Maple Lane, Sistersville, WV
Upshur County
8:00 AM - 3:30 PM, Buckhannon Fire Department (parking lot), 22 South Florida Street, Buckhannon, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVUSC)
Wayne County
10:00 AM - 2:00 PM, Wayne County Health Department, 217 Kenova Avenue, Wayne, WV (optional pre-registration: https://unityphr.com/campaigns/wvlabs/covid)
Wood County
7:30 AM - 3:00 PM, Vienna Baptist Church, 3401 Grand Central Avenue, Vienna, WV (optional pre-registration: https://labpass.com/en/registration?access_code=WVMavWood1)
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 334.1 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.55 million. More than 9.73 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
Japan is set to widen COVID-19 curbs to the capital, Tokyo, and a dozen regions covering half the population as the Omicron COVID-19 variant drives record new infections.
There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said yesterday.
China has reported its lowest daily count of local confirmed COVID-19 infections in two weeks.
The US government's new website that allows American households to order four free COVID-19 tests is up and running ahead of its official launch today, the White House said yesterday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned against travel to 22 countries and territories as a result of rising COVID-19 cases.
Finland is set to ease COVID-19 restrictions from mid-February, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said yesterday.
Britain has reported its highest daily COVID-19 death toll in almost a year, with 438 new deaths.
Viet Nam has reported its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the community, state media has reported.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.
Image: Our World in Data
As part of work identifying promising technology use cases to combat COVID, The Boston Consulting Group recently used contextual AI to analyze more than 150 million English language media articles from 30 countries published between December 2019 to May 2020.
The result is a compendium of hundreds of technology use cases. It more than triples the number of solutions, providing better visibility into the diverse uses of technology for the COVID-19 response.
To see a full list of 200+ exciting technology use cases during COVID please follow this link.
Countries around the world continue to report record daily COVID-19 infections as the Omicron variant causes cases to surge.
The Czech Republic has reported 28,469 new COVID-19 cases - the highest figure since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
In Bulgaria, more than 11,000 confirmed daily COVID-19 cases have been reported for the first time, as infections hit 11,181. Total confirmed infections are more than 840,000 in the eastern European nation.
Mexico has reported its own record daily confirmed caseload - some 49,343 in a single day.
New daily COVID-19 cases have crossed 100,000 in Germany for the first time, reporting 112,323 on Wednesday.
And in Brazil, 137,103 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
An expert panel has told a Davos Agenda virtual session that vaccine equity is vital to getting out of the pandemic phase of COVID-19.
World Health Organization's (WHO) Emergencies Director Mike Ryan said that over half of the world's population has received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, but only 7% of the population has been fully vaccinated in Africa.
"The problem is we are leaving huge swathes of the world behind...But vaccines are absolutely central. There is no way out of the pandemic right now without vaccines as the central strategic pillar."
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, said it was "unacceptable" that Africa was lagging so far behind other countries in vaccination and called it 'collapse of global cooperation and solidarity'
"The only way to prevent other variants challenging the global efforts and advances we have seen is to vaccinate on scale, including Africa," said John Nkengasong.
Written by
Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
"I regret the symbolism" of Ibiza, Jean-Michel Blanquer told lawmakers on Tuesday.
However he did caveat his regret. "In winter it's not at all like in summer," he told French TV channel TF1 Tuesday, "I was just outside, in contact with the government."
Blanquer announced the measures in a telephone interview with French newspaper Le Parisien, published on January 2, the magazine's editor said on Twitter, although reporters did not know he was in Spain at the time.
The measures included increased testing for school-age children following a classmate testing positive, to avoid closing classes.
"There's really a break between what Ibiza represents and what colleagues were living daily the day before this return to school," Guislaine David, spokersperson for teaching union SNUipp-FSU told French broadcaster Franceinfo Wednesday. French teachers went on strike on January 13 over the new Covid-19 measures.
Speaking before the National Assembly, Blanquer said that his presence in Ibiza did not affect his decision about schools' Covid-19 protocols, or his ability to perform his functions as minister of education. Blanquer did not break French travel restrictions by holidaying in Spain.
France on Tuesday reported a record high of 464,769 new Covid-19 cases in a day, surpassing its previous daily record registered last week by nearly 100,000 cases, according to French health ministry data. There were 375 more fatalities, bringing the country's death toll to 128,629, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Health care providers have been the frontline of our nations battle against the Covid-19 pandemic, and they have responded heroically. That said, the initial set of seemingly insurmountable challenges that hospitals had to overcome in every community across the U.S. like accessing sufficient personal protective equipment so they could safely provide care have now been replaced with a new problem of epic proportions: a tsunami of staffing and labor challenges.
These challenges were the number one issue that CEOs and CFOs from 20 of Americas most prominent health systems shared at this years recently concluded 40th Annual J.P. Morgan Health Care Conference. While nearly every industry is currently facing staffing problems, the issue in health care is especially acute due to the demands and burnout associated with being on the frontlines of care throughout the last two years.
This stress is contributing to a perfect storm driving significant staffing shortages. All hospitals and health systems are seeing increases in turnover, with major increases in early retirements, job changes to other opportunities, and exits to other professions. They are also seeing major increases in wages and taking on significant incremental costs due to the need to leverage agency and traveling nurses, whose rates typically come at a 200% to 300% premium. Since staff salaries represent more than 50% of a hospitals budget, executives and leadership must think strategically about how best to manage these issues.
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The scale of the financial aspect of this challenge is stunning, as there are thousands of open roles at provider organizations across the country and the problem is only expected to get worse. New York and California, for example, are each projected to fall short by 500,000 health care workers as early as 2026. In response, organizations like Northwell Health in New York have been hiring 250 full-time employees per week just to keep pace with its current needs.
Many organizations, including Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare and Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, built good karma with their workforce at the beginning of the pandemic by not furloughing non-essential personnel, not cutting pay, and not taking away bonuses. But that was then, and those actions and the good feelings that came from them are water under the bridge. Leadership teams at all hospitals are now huddling to determine how to address these problems right now.
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Based on the presentations major health systems made during the JPM conference, here is a summary of what I see as the top five actions organizations are taking to help address their staffing challenges:
Investing in their current workforce. AdventHealth, headquartered in Florida, has invested more than $440 million in additional compensation for employees. Many health systems are also putting additional incentives in place for 2022, including offering additional benefits such as enhanced training for their teams. One example is Intermountain Healthcare, which is partnering with inStride to offer an education platform for caregivers and their families. Other critical investments include workflow tools that reduce administrative burdens on staff, like budgeting and planning, and help improve the productivity of their teams.
Accelerating clinician education. Many health care systems have invested in advanced training programs. CommonSpirit Health, the largest health system in Illinois, now has the largest nurse residency program in the country. Prisma Health, the largest health system in South Carolina, is partnering with colleges and universities to build out and accelerate training programs and, in some cases, will offer help with tuition. Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia shared at JPM that in order to address this issue in the long term, its focus may extend to high schools and even earlier.
Looking outside the U.S. for recruiting. Henry Ford Health in Michigan, which had already been recruiting nurses from Canada, is now looking to the Philippines for nurses, which it last did back in the 1980s. Many other organizations are also trying to develop international relationships to help develop long-term recruiting pipelines.
Developing a flexible approach to staffing. Some organizations are creating their own float pools of nurses. They are also cross-staffing between departments and facilities, as well as flexing from inpatient to outpatient. This approach also extends to non-caregivers. Ascension, a national health care system, currently has 40,000 employees working remotely, and many organizations will use remote employees on a permanent basis.
Deploying telehealth to increase access and efficiency. The rise in the use of telehealth spiked in mid-2020, as it was required due to limited access to in-person visits. According to data from the StrataSphere data consortium, which represents a cohort of the 2,000 hospitals my colleagues and I work with at Strata Decision Technology, the percentage of potential ambulatory visits that are now being conducted virtually has normalized at about 7%. In addition to other benefits like improving access to care, telehealth, E-ICUs, and other virtual platforms will be essential in ensuring a more efficient use of limited staff.
Its clear that health systems have developed some strategies to better weather the Covid-19 storm, which has given them the ability to start looking to the future. However, no strategy or initiative will be successful without the resources to support it, and the primary focus for health systems right now must be addressing their labor challenges. As the last two years have proven, there is no one more important on the frontlines than caregivers.
Dan Michelson is the CEO of Chicago-based Strata Decision Technology, which provides a cloud-based financial planning, analytics, and performance platform that serves more than 2,000 hospitals.
Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 334.1 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.55 million. More than 9.73 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.
Japan is set to widen COVID-19 curbs to the capital, Tokyo, and a dozen regions covering half the population as the Omicron COVID-19 variant drives record new infections.
There is no evidence at present that healthy children and adolescents need booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine, the World Health Organization's chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said yesterday.
China has reported its lowest daily count of local confirmed COVID-19 infections in two weeks.
The US government's new website that allows American households to order four free COVID-19 tests is up and running ahead of its official launch today, the White House said yesterday.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned against travel to 22 countries and territories as a result of rising COVID-19 cases.
Finland is set to ease COVID-19 restrictions from mid-February, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said yesterday.
Britain has reported its highest daily COVID-19 death toll in almost a year, with 438 new deaths.
Viet Nam has reported its first cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in the community, state media has reported.
Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people in selected countries.
Image: Our World in Data
As part of work identifying promising technology use cases to combat COVID, The Boston Consulting Group recently used contextual AI to analyze more than 150 million English language media articles from 30 countries published between December 2019 to May 2020.
The result is a compendium of hundreds of technology use cases. It more than triples the number of solutions, providing better visibility into the diverse uses of technology for the COVID-19 response.
To see a full list of 200+ exciting technology use cases during COVID please follow this link.
Countries around the world continue to report record daily COVID-19 infections as the Omicron variant causes cases to surge.
The Czech Republic has reported 28,469 new COVID-19 cases - the highest figure since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
In Bulgaria, more than 11,000 confirmed daily COVID-19 cases have been reported for the first time, as infections hit 11,181. Total confirmed infections are more than 840,000 in the eastern European nation.
Mexico has reported its own record daily confirmed caseload - some 49,343 in a single day.
New daily COVID-19 cases have crossed 100,000 in Germany for the first time, reporting 112,323 on Wednesday.
And in Brazil, 137,103 new confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said yesterday.
An expert panel has told a Davos Agenda virtual session that vaccine equity is vital to getting out of the pandemic phase of COVID-19.
World Health Organization's (WHO) Emergencies Director Mike Ryan said that over half of the world's population has received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, but only 7% of the population has been fully vaccinated in Africa.
"The problem is we are leaving huge swathes of the world behind...But vaccines are absolutely central. There is no way out of the pandemic right now without vaccines as the central strategic pillar."
John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control, said it was "unacceptable" that Africa was lagging so far behind other countries in vaccination and called it 'collapse of global cooperation and solidarity'
"The only way to prevent other variants challenging the global efforts and advances we have seen is to vaccinate on scale, including Africa," said John Nkengasong.
Written by
Joe Myers, Writer, Formative Content
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
NEW DELHICovid-19 cases in New Delhi and Mumbai have fallen sharply in recent days as a surge of the Omicron variant peaks in some of Indias biggest cities, raising hopes that prior infections will offset a relatively low vaccination rate and help prevent a repeat of last years catastrophic wave.
India is still a few weeks away from a nationwide peak, as the virus continues to spread in rural areas and smaller cities, according to doctors and public-health experts, who also warn that daily hospitalizations and deaths will likely continue climbing even as infections slow down.
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) The Utah Department of Health is reporting 39,882 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, January 18, and 28 new deaths since Friday.
Cases
With 39,882 new COVID-19 cases reported, Utahs case total has reached 790,216.
Of todays new cases, 8,490 are school-aged children. UDOH is reporting 2,556 cases in children ages 5-10, 1,875 cases in children ages 11-13, and 4,059 cases in children ages 14-17.
Vaccines
A total of 4,723,232 vaccine doses have been administered in Utah.
This is an increase of 27,470 doses since Friday.
Vaccinated vs. unvaccinated risk ratio
In the last 28 days, people who are unvaccinated are at 13.3 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, 6.1 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 2.3 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people.
Since February 1, 2021, people who are unvaccinated are at 6.8 times greater risk of dying from COVID-19, 4.9 times greater risk of being hospitalized due to COVID-19, and 1.6 times greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people.
Lab tests
Lab reports from the Utah Department of Health show 4,611,947 people have been tested. This is an increase of 78,112 since Friday.
UDOH reports a total of 8,484,276 total tests, an increase of 151,176 tests since Friday.
Trends
The rolling 7-day average for positive tests is 10,652 per day.
The rolling 7-day average for percent positivity of people over people is 41.3%. The rolling 7-day average for percent positivity of tests over tests is 29%.
Hospitalizations
There are 681 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Total hospitalizations from the beginning of the outbreak are 29,496.
Deaths
There are 3,979 total deaths, which is 28 more deaths than Friday.
As we approach a two-year milestone in pandemic response and stare down the omicron variant, COVID-19s impacts have become increasingly wide and increasingly disparate.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. attributed to Ian Maclaren, pen name of the Rev. John Watson
April 8, 2020: Four weeks since Michigan Tech announced a switch to remote instruction and two weeks since Michigans Stay Home, Stay Safe protocol took effect.
Campus is closed.
At home, an administrator from Department MTU stares at his computer screen, reflecting on the trepidation he initially felt at the transition to remote work. Most of those fears have been put to rest hed quickly grown comfortable with the technology, all Zoom meetings had run smoothly (for the most part) and interruptions were sparse. More time with the dog was an unexpected benefit. Thus far, the administrator thinks, time spent in lockdown has been minimally stressful and largely productive. But then the phone rings the administrators aging parent, who falls within the viruss high-risk group, has tested positive for COVID-19.
A few streets away, a Department MTU researcher exits a Zoom call after her toddler crashed the meeting for the third time in 10 minutes. The call was intended to be a brainstorm with colleagues on how to keep research afloat in the face of a closed lab and looming deadlines. It had been scheduled during a timeframe in which she was responsible for child care; her partner will be watching the kids in the afternoon during the researchers online lectures. At this rate, she expects her work to be delayed by months, possibly years. She takes a deep breath, turns on a Disney movie (screen time restrictions are officially out the window) and tries to prepare for the afternoons classes.
Across town, one of Department MTUs administrative assistants tries not to think about the rumors that have been circulating since the lockdown was announced. Layoffs and furloughs are coming. The states economy might never recover. Not too long ago, the assistant thought COVID-19 restrictions would be short-lived a month-long blip in an otherwise normal year. With two kids in college and a partner laid off from the service industry, the assistant makes a mental note to take some time over the weekend to revisit the family budget and strike out all but the essentials. He prays the safety net will hold.
January 19, 2022: Weve been at this for almost two years now. Weve stayed six feet apart, worn face coverings and tried to flatten the curve. Weve gotten tested, debated whether to homeschool our kids, and read up on the pros and cons of vaccination. Weve shared all the memes, rolled all the eyes and cried all the tears (mostly in private, but sometimes in public).
Our latest hurdle is the omicron variant which experts say causes milder illness but is far more contagious. Throughout the country, were facing new variations of a shutdown: facilities are closed and shelves are empty due to sick employees and supply chain disruptions. Parents in the local community are gearing up for what might be an inevitable announcement that schools need to close.
To put it mildly, we are beyond ready for the pandemic to end. As writer Glennon Doyle says, Were over it, but its not over. The impacts of COVID-19 continue, and each of us is facing down different stressors and disruptors. All of us are fighting a hard yet different battle.
Throughout the fall 2021 semester, we dedicated Unscripted space for community members to share their personal pandemic stories and describe the challenges they face and the solutions theyre working on to uplift their research, scholarly work and creative endeavors. None of them told the same story and all of their stories are ongoing.
A Facilities building mechanic who cant work from home. A principal investigator whose face-to-face data collection has been significantly disrupted. A faculty member still dealing with the fallout of the initial lockdown kids at home, research halted, supply chain upended more than a year after the strictest restrictions were lifted. Each of them (and all of us) could use a little grace and space as the pandemic drags on.
If you missed any of the installments in our pandemic impacts series, you can find them here:
Michigan Technological University is a public research university founded in 1885 in Houghton, Michigan, and is home to more than 7,000 students from 55 countries around the world. Consistently ranked among the best universities in the country for return on investment, the University offers more than 125 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, computing, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, social sciences, and the arts. The rural campus is situated just miles from Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, offering year-round opportunities for outdoor adventure.
People wearing protective face masks walk through Waterloo train station, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in London, Britain, January 3, 2022. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
LONDON, Jan 19 (Reuters) - The United Kingdom reported 108,069 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, leaving the seven-day tally down by 37.2% on the previous week.
It reported 359 deaths of people who had tested positive for the disease within the previous 28 days. The seven-day total for deaths was up 8.2% on the week before, following a record spike in infections in recent weeks.
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Reporting by William Schomberg. Editing by Andrew MacAskill
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