Its been more than two years since the City of Toronto widely opened its COVID-19 vaccine clinics for bookings, but the municipalitys four remaining facilities are set to close.
Toronto Public Health officials announced its four clinics (Scarborough Town Centre, North York Civic Centre, Cloverdale Mall and Metro Hall) will be closing on Dec. 13. They said its being done because operational funding from the Ontario government as part of its COVID-19 response is expiring at the end of the year.
The move comes amid a recent, increased push to get COVID-19 boosters and influenza vaccines.
The response has been tremendous and certainly our clinics have been fully booked for many, many weeks, and have had a steady flow of people, Dr. Vinita Dubey, Toronto Public Healths associate medical officer of health, told CityNews.
She noted the clinics in more recent months have expanded to provide a number of other shots, including ones students need at school such as HPV, hepatitis B and meningococcal vaccines.
Dubey said public health staff are trying to catch up on youth vaccinations not administered because they were redirected for COVID-19 response and during pandemic-related school closures.
We know that about 250,000 students so thats almost 70 per cent of students according to Toronto Public Health records are missing one or more doses of vaccine, she said, noting various vaccines can fight against measles, mumps, rubella, diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough and chickenpox.
Now that may be because they didnt get the vaccine because of the pandemic or maybe they got it but they didnt report it to us so we want to be able to catch up on all of those.
We know that some of the risk for some of these diseases continues. We know that measles is still spreading. Weve actually had cases of measles come to Toronto that come through travel. But we want to make sure that it doesnt spread same with polio so thats why we have to restart vaccinating.
Dubey said Toronto Public Health staff are looking for $3.8 million from the provincial government over and above base funding to address gaps when it comes to youth vaccinations.
Well continue to provide catch-up opportunities, notifications to parents as we can with some of that base funding, but because we are in a bigger deficit than in usual years we just want to be able to address that as well, she said.
Ontario NDP MPP and health critic France Glinas called for more public health funding, saying clinics are vital for families and can better help address issues people may have versus private-sector pharmacies.
A lot of people trust public health. They will go to a public health clinic and talk to the public health nurse and ask their questions, and make sure that they feel confident that they are making the right decisions for themselves, for their children, for their babies, for their family members, she told CityNews on Tuesday.
They have a lot of catching up to do with the school-aged children but they dont have the resources to do it, so they are asking for a few million dollars so that they can make sure that school-age kids get the vaccinations they need so that we build herd immunity and protect the weaker, more frail children.
CityNews contacted Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones office for comment about the end of funding for Torontos clinics when the facilities are still being used. A spokesperson didnt directly answer the question. Instead, they pointed to past funding for Toronto Public Health programs and one-time grants to help deal with COVID-19.
Our government will restore funding to the level previously provided under the 2020 cost-share formula and is providing a one-per-cent increase in base funding per year for three years beginning in 2024, Hannah Jensen said in an email statement.
This increase in permanent funding each year is in direct response to the asks of public health units, including Toronto Public Health, to the province to provide stabilized funding.
Jensen said there will also be discussions with public health units in Ontario to clarify roles and responsibilities to build a stronger, better connected public health system, but its unclear how that might impact the delivery of vaccines.
Meanwhile, Dubey said she and her staff are hopeful extra money will come and emphasized the provincially funded clinics were helpful.
We do have to recognize that there were some trade-offs in public health and health care (during the COVID-19 pandemic) and so we do actually need to be able to address those as well, she said.
For those who want to book a vaccine appointment at one of the City of Torontos clinics, click here. COVID-19 boosters and flu shots can also be obtained at certain pharmacies.
Covid-19 vaccinations may have prevented thousands of premature births, new research suggests.
Mothers infected with the Covid virus were significantly more at risk of delivering early in the beginning stages of the pandemic, prior to the rollout of vaccines, according to the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The research analysed millions of California birth records from 2014-2023, which are reflective of global pregnancy trends prior to, during and after the Covid pandemic,scientists said.
Covid-19 can endanger pregnancies by causing inflammatory responses, which in turn risks the deterioration of the placenta and an early birth.
From July to November 2020, the risk of a mother delivering at least three weeks before her due date increased by 78 per cent for those infected with Covid-19, and increased by 58 per cent by the autumn of 2021.
However, the risk of a premature birth in mothers infected with Covid-19 returned to pre-pandemic levels by 2022 attributed in large part to the vaccine rollout.
This reduction was recorded almost a year earlier in areas of California with higher vaccine uptake.
In ZIP codes with the highest vaccination rates, the excess risk of preterm birth declines much faster, said Jenna Nobles, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and co-author of the study.
By the summer of 2021, having Covid-19 in pregnancy had no effect on preterm birth risk in these communities. It takes almost a year longer for that to happen in the ZIP codes with the lowest vaccine uptake.
That highlights how protective Covid vaccines have been. By increasing immunity faster, early vaccination uptake likely prevented thousands of preterm births in the US.
However, researchers warned the risk posed by Covid-19 to pregnant women has not completely disappeared.
This is still an evolving epidemic, and the rate of vaccine boosters among pregnant people right now is very low, Ms Nobles said.
The question is: how many more iterations of viral evolution does this need to escape the immunity that we have? Its miraculous and incredible that were now down to essentially zero additional preterm births, but it does not indicate that its going to be that way in perpetuity.
Premature birth can cause a host of short and long-term health conditions, including cerebral palsy, learning difficulties, visual and hearing problems, and behavioural issues. Globally, complications from being born prematurely are the leading cause of death among children under five.
Protect yourself and your family by learning more about Global Health Security
An uptick in COVID-19 cases has triggered a fresh warning for people to isolate if they're unwell and consider a booster vaccination, ahead of another feared "COVID Christmas".
Australia is in the grip of an eighth wave of the virus, and NSW Health says community transmission in the state is "moderate to high".
A growing number of people are becoming infected across the country, including NSW Premier Chris Minns who tested positive on Monday and is now self-isolating at home.
In a social media post, Mr Minns said while there were no rules requiring people to self-isolate, it was strongly recommended they stay at home until symptoms subside to protect the community.
It has been well over a year since laws requiring people to self-isolate and register a positive COVID test were scrapped.
But now there are no longer any hard and fast rules around self-isolation and reporting of COVID infections, what should you do if you get it?
Despite it no longer being mandatory, NSW Health Director of Health Protection Jeremy McAnulty said self-isolation remained an important pillar of managing the virus.
"We're really relying on the community to look after themselves by doing those simple things that we've learned to do," Dr McAnulty said.
Dr McAnulty said people who test positive should stay at home until acute symptoms have gone, which could be up to 10 days.
Those who work in a high-risk setting such as health, disability and aged care are advised to stay away from the workplace for at least seven days, and then until their symptoms have subsided.
"If you do need to go out for essential reasons, use a mask so that can help reduce the risk of spread, and certainly don't go to crowds or parties if you've got symptoms," he said.
People should also avoid contact with anyone at higher risk of severe illness, anyone in hospital or an aged or disability care facility for at least seven days.
Those with a higher risk of severe illness include all people aged 70 years or older, people aged 50 with additional risk factors, pregnant women and people of any age who are immunocompromised.
Dr McAnulty said people in those categories should plan ahead and make prior arrangements with their doctor in the event they test positive to COVID.
"That means if you know it's COVID or flu, the doctor can then make sure you get antivirals which will help in a good outcome for you," he said.
While antivirals can reduce the severity of illness, NSW Health is stressing that they are not a substitute for vaccination.
Anyone aged 75 or over should receive an extra dose of a COVID-19 vaccine if it has been more than six months since their last shot, according to the current recommendations by the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI).
Dr McAnulty said it was still unclear whether the latest wave of the virus would peak before Christmas.
"I think the assumption is that there'll be plenty of COVID around over the festive period, so it's important people do those things to protect themselves and others," he said.
COVID-19 caused an alarming surge in premature births, but vaccines were key to returning the early birth rate to pre-pandemic levels, according to a new analysis of California birth records.
The effect of maternal COVID infection from the onset of the pandemic into 2023 is large, increasing the risk of preterm births over that time by 1.2 percentage points, says Jenna Nobles, a University of WisconsinMadison sociology professor. To move the needle on preterm birth that much is akin to a disastrous environmental exposure, like weeks of breathing intense wildfire smoke.
But the first two years of the pandemic alone were far worse for many pregnancies, according to findings Nobles and co-author Florencia Torche, a Stanford University sociology professor, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jenna Nobles
The virus that causes COVID-19 endangers pregnancies by causing immune and inflammation responses, and via deterioration of the placenta. One consequence is early interruption of the pregnancy and birth well in advance of the end of the expected 39- to 40-week gestation.
As the virus spread from July to November of 2020, the likelihood that a mother with COVID-19 in California would give birth more than three weeks before the due date was 5.4 percentage points higher than anticipated 12.3% instead of 6.9% according to the new study.
The researchers measured the impact of the pandemic with the help of birth records for Californias nearly 40 million people, using information on birth timing and the comparison of sibling births to help control for the pandemics disparate impacts on different demographic groups. They found the excess risk of preterm birth fell slightly in early 2021 before dropping steeply in 2022, at which point maternal COVID-19 infection in pregnancy caused no excess risk of preterm birth for infants.
Vaccines contributed to that decrease, the researchers say, an effect that jumps out when the birth records are divided up geographically.
In ZIP codes with the highest vaccination rates, the excess risk of preterm birth declines much faster. By summer 2021, having COVID-19 in pregnancy had no effect on preterm birth risk in these communities. It takes almost a year longer for that to happen in the ZIP codes with the lowest vaccine uptake, Nobles says. That highlights how protective COVID vaccines have been. By increasing immunity faster, early vaccination uptake likely prevented thousands of preterm births in the U.S.
Preterm birth is associated with a host of short- and long-term health problems and deficiencies for the children and their families. Its the leading contributor to infant mortality, and cutting short development in the womb can require additional medical attention that costs, on average, more than $80,000 per child. Preterm birth by even just a few weeks reduces expected educational attainment, health and earnings as an adult.
And we found similar increases, of about 38%, in the risk of very preterm birth that is pre-32 weeks when a child is likely to need neonatal intensive care, with the possibility of developmental delays and serious implications for their families as well, Nobles said.
The evidence showing the positive effects of vaccination in preventing premature births could help allay some of the most prominent concerns voiced as COVID-19 vaccines became available to pregnant patients.
One big contributor to vaccine hesitancy is that people are worried about safety for the fetus and about the ability to get pregnant, Nobles says. We already know there is very little evidence of adverse effects of vaccination on fetal development. The results here are compelling evidence that what will actually harm the fetus isnotgetting vaccinated. Thats a message practitioners can share with concerned patients.
The results should be a compelling argument in favor of getting vaccinations and boosters, according to the researchers, even after COVID-related premature birth risk ebbed in California.
This is still an evolving epidemic, and the rate of vaccine boosters among pregnant people right now is very low, Nobles says. The question is, how many more iterations of viral evolution does this need to escape the immunity that we have? Its miraculous and incredible that were now down to essentially zero additional preterm births, but it does not indicate that its going to be that way in perpetuity.
This research was supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF2049529) and the National Institutes of Health (R21 HD105361-01).
As Australia grapples with a fresh wave of COVID-19 heading into Christmas, new Australian research is adding to a growing body of evidence showing the debilitating effects of long COVID for some patients.
A peer-reviewed study, by doctors at Wollongong Hospital and researchers at the University of Wollongong, found almost 67 per cent of 339 COVID-19 patients surveyed were experiencing symptoms three months after contracting the virus.
One year on from the infection, almost 45 per cent of participants were still reporting symptoms.
READ MORE: Australia spent almost $48 billion on its response to COVID-19
"Long COVID has definitely left a scar on a significant number of people," the study's lead author, Dr Stuart Tan, who is a trauma and rehabilitation specialist at Wollongong Hospital, said.
The research project started with a small number of participants in the early stages of the pandemic in July 2020 and grew in size to include patients from across Australia with a cross-section of COVID-19 variants taking part.
It was published yesterday in the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (RACP) Journal of Internal Medicine.
The study's findings show a higher prevalence of long COVID in participants than some previous research.
The latest COVID-19 strain spreading across the world
A literature review of long COVID conducted by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in December last year showed the prevalence of patients still suffering symptoms at three months ranged from 8 per cent to 17 per cent in studies from the UK.
One limitation of the Australian study, noted in the research article, was the potential for selection bias, where people experiencing symptoms may be more likely to enrol and continue to participate.
The results of research into the rates of long COVID varied considerably depending on the design of the study, Tan said.
However, his study's results were consistent with one systematic review of almost 10,000 patients which found 73 per cent had at least one persistent COVID-19 symptom, Tan said.
READ MORE: Top doctor rejects return of key pandemic mandate
Fatigue was by far the most common symptom experienced by chronic long COVID sufferers, while respiratory problems tended to ease over time, the study found.
The study confirmed previous research which has shown women appear to be more susceptible to long COVID than men.
Tan said one surprise finding was the marked difference between male and female participants in his study at the three-month post-infection mark - with women being two-and-a-half times more likely to report symptoms than men.
Wollongong man Ben, who asked for his surname to be withheld for privacy reasons, is one of the participants in the study.
Ben, 30, spent a month in a coma at Wollongong Hospital fighting for his life after contracting COVID-19 in June last year - despite being double vaccinated for the virus.
Ben, his wife Samantha and their three-month-old daughter all tested positive to COVID-19 at the same time.
"We had normal symptoms for the most part, but then on day five I woke up and I was kind of delusional," Ben said.
"It hit Sam when I couldn't remember our daughter's name."
"He started deteriorating so quickly," Samantha said.
"He couldn't form actual words. They were jumbled; he thought he was saying something - but it was literally gibberish."
Shortly after arriving at the emergency department, Ben had a seizure.
Doctors diagnosed Ben with having COVID-19-induced encephalitis.
"He was getting quite agitated," Samantha said.
"He didn't know what COVID was. He thought everyone was lying to him, making it up and he was trying to Google it."
Ben's condition continued to deteriorate and he was put in an induced coma. He then suffered a cardiac arrest.
Although doctors managed to revive Ben, they told Samantha to prepare for the worst.
"I got a phone call at 2am telling me to come in and say goodbye," she said.
"His body was just flooded with toxins and his muscles started breaking down.
"The doctors said they'd never seen numbers that high and that he was definitely going to pass, so prepare yourself.
"His whole body just started swelling up like a balloon."
Surgeons performed eight fasciotomies on Ben's legs and right arm, cutting into the muscle compartment to relieve the pressure and debriding his dying muscles.
"They said we're not sure if he'll ever walk again because they took so much muscle," Samantha said.
Ben was in a coma for four weeks and ICU for six weeks before his condition improved enough for him to be moved to the general wards of the hospital.
However, there was another major setback when Ben's skin began to turn yellow and doctors realised he was going into liver failure.
A liver transplant appeared to be the only option, but doctors did not think he would survive the surgery.
Ben's weight had plummeted to 56 kilograms and he was fitted with a nasal feeding tube to help him ingest as many calories as possible.
He also continued working hard with his physio to regain his strength.
"It was a race against the clock because at any point his liver could just completely stop functioning," Samantha said.
Ben was eventually approved for the liver transplant two-and-a-half months later, in October last year.
However, further health complications meant he was not able to have the surgery until February this year.
The young dad surprised doctors with his quick recovery after the transplant, Samantha said.
"He was home in 13 days - on the day of our daughter's first birthday."
However, after months of slowly recovering from the traumatic ordeal, things took another turn for the worse when Ben was re-infected with COVID-19 two months ago.
Ben immediately went into kidney failure and is now undergoing dialysis treatment three times a week.
Doctors have said he will likely need a kidney transplant.
Samantha said she and her husband were constantly being told how rare his body's extreme reaction to COVID-19 was.
"We've had doctors come in and say it's like you have been struck by lightning 600 times - it is just unheard of," she said.
Doctors are now conducting genetic tests on Ben in a bid to understand what appears to be an autoimmune response to the virus.
Samantha said her husband was the last person she expected to develop complications from COVID-19.
"He was 29 when this happened, the fittest person that I know in my life, the healthiest person I know in my life."
Tan said while it was extremely rare for patients to have such a severe reaction to COVID-19 as Ben, his research had shown, contrary to perceptions, it was a virus affecting "not just the lungs".
"We are all familiar with its effect on the lungs, but COVID is a complex illness that can affect multiple organs in the body, including the liver, pancreas and kidneys," he said.
Tan said one positive that could be taken from his research was that it affirmed the protective effect of vaccines.
"The study shows that vaccination does have a protective effect in both reducing the risk of development of long COVID and symptoms and also speed up recovery if you do suffer from symptoms of long COVID," he said.
The findings should be kept in mind as cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Australia on the back of the latest wave, which has prompted recent warnings from NSW Health.
"On the basis of this study, there's definitely an advantage in getting boosters, and ensuring that one is fully vaccinated," Tan said.
Although many participants in the study were plagued by persistent symptoms of long COVID, it was apparent that things did get better, he said.
"Long COVID symptoms do improve over time, and for the long COVID sufferers in our community, there is light at the end of the tunnel with appropriate management," he said.
A study published in PNAS describes the impact of maternal coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) infection on infant health and the importance of vaccination in mitigating negative health outcomes in infants.
Study:Vaccination, immunity, and the changing impact of COVID-19 on infant health. Image Credit:Andrii Vodolazhskyi/Shutterstock.com
The COVID-19 pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has mostly and severely affected elderly people, immunocompromised patients, and those with comorbidities. However, growing evidence suggests that the virus can negatively impact maternal and infant health.
During pregnancy, in utero exposure of infants to SARS-CoV-2 may lead to significant intergenerational health consequences. New viral variants that have emerged throughout the pandemic may have a distinct effect on infant health.
On the other hand, immunity developed from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination may protect infant health.
In this study, scientists have explored the changing impact of maternal COVID-19 on preterm birth and the protective efficiency of COVID-19 vaccination in mitigating this effect.
The impact of maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy on preterm birth risk was investigated in this study using population-level data on maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection and the linked population-level data on infants born between 2014 and 2023 in birth facilities in California, US. The general population of this state accounts for approximately 12% of all births in the US.
Being the main predictor of infant morbidity and mortality in the US, preterm birth influences long-term markers of well-being, including educational and socioeconomic status.
Considering its significance in population health, intergenerational health, and socioeconomic disparities, preterm birth was selected as a marker of infant health in this study.
The analysis of the average impact of maternal COVID-19 on preterm birth over the period of 2020 to 2023 revealed that maternal infection at the time of delivery can increase the risk of preterm birth by 29%.
This estimation was obtained after adjusting for potential birth facility confounders (differences in COVID-19 testing protocols, labor and delivery protocols, and socioeconomic status of patients) and time-of-birth confounders (trends in COVID-19 infection and temporal changes in testing shared across facilities).
A separate set of analyses conducted after adjusting for a wide range of observed maternal sociodemographic and risk factors revealed a 15% increase in the risk of preterm birth if the mother has SARS-CoV-2 infection at the time of delivery.
Over time, a gradual change in COVID-19 health impact has been observed throughout the pandemic.
This could be because of changing infectivity and pathogenicity of new viral variants, as well as the development of herd immunity from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection or COVID-19 vaccination.
Analysis of the changing impact of maternal COVID-19 over time revealed a 78% increase in the risk of preterm birth during the earliest phase of the pandemic (July 2020 to December 2020).
A fluctuation in the preterm birth risk due to maternal COVID-19 was observed during the delta variant-dominated wave in 2021. A complete disappearance of the health impact of maternal infection was observed in 2022, including the period of the omicron-dominated wave.
In California, around 70% of the entire population was vaccinated against COVID-19 by March 2022. However, a significant variation in vaccine uptake rate was observed across the state. While vaccination rate of 86% was achieved in some regions, it reached a maximum of only 51% in some regions.
The comparison of the impact of maternal COVID-19 based on vaccination rates revealed that the negative infant health impact of COVID-19 completely disappeared almost a year earlier in regions with the highest vaccine uptake compared to the regions with the lowest vaccine uptake.
The study finds that maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy can increase the risk of preterm birth, which is associated with many long-term health adversities in infants.
The study also highlights the protective effects of COVID-19 vaccines in mitigating harmful consequences associated with maternal COVID-19.
The largest impact of maternal infection on preterm birth was observed during the earliest phase of the pandemic. This highlights the absence of anti-COVID-19 immunity in the general population because of the unavailability of therapeutics and vaccines.
With increasing vaccine uptake, an initial decline and subsequent disappearance of the impact of maternal infection was observed. This highlights the potential protective efficacy of COVID-19 vaccination.
U.S. District Judge Terence C. Kern sentenced Lauren Michelle Owen, 40, of Jenks, to 27 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release. In January, Owen pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion. Judge Kern further ordered Owen to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution.
Lauren Owen engaged in multiple fraudulent schemes, including taking advantage of her employers kindness solely to enrich her luxurious lifestyle at the expense of others, stated U.S. Attorney Clinton Johnson. This sentencing and restitution will show criminals that fraudulent schemes will not go unpunished.
Miss Owen thought stealing from the government would be a victimless crime, but the money set aside for COVID relief was designed to help small businesses stay open through the pandemic, said Christopher J. Altemus Jr., special agent in charge of the IRS Criminal Investigations Dallas Field Office. Miss Owens actions kept money out of the hands of others who would have used it to pay employees and keep their businesses open, as it was intended. Instead, she used it and other illegal financial activities to elevate her lifestyle. CI and our partners have ensured she has been held accountable for her actions.
According to court documents, in 2010, Lauren Owen was hired by her employer as a secretary. She gained the trust of her employer and was eventually promoted to vice president and sole financial officer. Owens duties included handling the financial books and records for the company, paying bills and preparing checks for legitimate business expenses, overseeing payroll, hiring and firing personnel. She would make unauthorized checks to herself, payments on her personal credit cards, and unauthorized wage payments to herself from her employers accounts. These fraudulent transactions totaled more than $750,000 loss to her employer.
After losing her job, in November of 2021, Owen devised a plan to defraud the Small Business Association (SBA) after Congress passed the CARES Act in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and economic crisis. She falsified an application for a loan, on behalf of Platinum Assets, LLC, a company she owned and controlled. She lied on the application stating that shed never been criminally charged, when in fact she had previously been arraigned in state court for embezzlement. She falsely signed and certified the application that the information she provided was true and correct, to the best of her knowledge. After approving the loan, the SBA deposited more than $384,000 in Owens bank account whereafter Owen improperly misapplied the loan proceeds by purchasing a 2018 Chevrolet Corvette, a 40-foot yacht and paying off a loan on a 2018 Ford F-250.
From 2016 through 2020, Owen further attempted to evade substantial income tax from her misconduct. She failed to report her extra, illegal income she was received from her embezzlement. Owen admitted that she tried to hide her income by making unauthorized transactions. She knew reporting her income correctly would leave her owing more than $61,000 in unpaid taxes and agreed to pay the IRS an additional $67,800 in other unpaid taxes.
Owen was permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility at a later date.
The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney David D. Whipple prosecuted the case.
On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolsters efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the departments response to the pandemic, please visit justice.gov/coronavirus and justice.gov/coronavirus/combatingfraud.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justices National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form
Suffolk County reported the following information related to COVID-19 on November 27, 2023
According to CDC, hospital admission rates and the percentage of COVID-19 deaths among all deaths are now the primary surveillance metrics.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations for the week ending November 18, 2023
Daily Hospitalization Summary for Suffolk County From November 27, 2023
NOTE: HOSPITALS ARE NO LONGER REPORTING DATA TO NYSDOH ON WEEKENDS OR HOLIDAYS.
Fatalities 11/27/23
COVID-19 Case Tracker November 25, 2023
Note: As of May 11, 2023, COVID-19 Community Levels (CCLs) and COVID-19 Community Transmission Levels are no longer calculatable, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
* As of 4/4/22, HHS no longer requires entities conducting COVID testing to report negative or indeterminate antigen test results. This may impact the number and interpretation of total test results reported to the state and also impacts calculation of test percent positivity. Because of this, as of 4/5/22, test percent positivity is calculated using PCR tests only. Reporting of total new daily cases (positive results) and cases per 100k will continue to include PCR and antigen tests.
COVID-19 Vaccination Information
Last updated 5/12/23
Vaccination Clinics
As of September 12, 2023, the Suffolk County Department of Health Services is not authorized to offer COVID-19 vaccines to ALL Suffolk County residents.
The department will offer the updated vaccine to only uninsured and underinsured patients through New York State's Vaccines for Children program and Vaccines for Adults program, also known as the Bridge Access Program.
Those with insurance that covers the COVID-19 vaccine are encouraged to receive their vaccines at their local pharmacies, health care providers offices, or local federally qualified health centers.
The department has ordered the updated COVID-19 vaccine and will announce when the vaccine becomes available.
FOR HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS
New York State Links
CDC COVID Data Tracker Rates of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 hospitalizations by vaccination status
For additional information or explanation of data, click on the links provided in throughout this page.
Vials labelled "VACCINE Coronavirus COVID-19" and a syringe are seen in front of a displayed Novavax logo in this illustration taken December 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration Acquire Licensing Rights
Nov 28 (Reuters) - Novavax's (NVAX.O) updated vaccine has been granted emergency-use authorization by the World Health Organization (WHO) for active immunization to prevent COVID-19 in individuals aged 12 and older, the company said on Tuesday.
The updated Novavax shot, which was authorized in the U.S. last month, targets a descendant of the XBB lineage of the coronavirus that was globally predominant earlier this year.
The emergency use listing helps speed up the regulatory approvals to import and administer the vaccines by member states, according to the WHO.
Novavax missed out on the COVID-19 vaccine windfall, which benefited mRNA rivals, due to manufacturing issues that delayed its filing for regulatory approval during the peak of the pandemic.
Its original COVID shot received U.S. authorization in July 2022, long after Pfizer (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O) vaccines were in use.
Novavax's updated shot uses a more traditional protein-based technology than the mRNA-based vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna.
Shares of Maryland-based vaccine maker Novavax rose 1.8% to $5.6 in premarket trading.
Reporting by Pratik Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Shweta Agarwal
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
November 29, 2023
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Incidence rates for several respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, declined during vs. before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results published in Thorax.
Further, fewer hospitalizations and ED visits related to asthma, COPD and respiratory tract infections took place during this period, according to researchers.
This study confirmed associations between the COVID-19 pandemic, non-COVID-19 respiratory virus prevalence and health care utilization in a large population in Canada, Terence Ho, MB, MSc, FRCPC, assistant professor of medicine at McMaster University, and colleagues wrote. Closely examining health care utilization revealed a new, shared peak for asthma, COPD and respiratory tract infection, which is associated with the re-emergence of rhino/enterovirus.
In a population-based retrospective study, Ho and colleagues evaluated how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the frequency of respiratory viruses unrelated to COVID-19 and usage of health care for asthma, COPD and respiratory tract infections in Ontario, Canada.
To compare trends before and during the pandemic, researchers assessed weekly respiratory virus tests, ED visits and hospital admissions from 2015 to 2021.
Researchers plotted the percent positivity and observed vs. expected number of positive viral cases, and they estimated changes in these data as well as in hospitalization and ED visits through Poisson and binomial logistic regression models.
During the first year of the pandemic, incidence of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, parainfluenza, human metapneumovirus and other coronaviruses dropped by more than 90% vs. before the pandemic.
Notably, the reduction in adenovirus and rhino/enterovirus cases was not as large as the above viruses, with a 77% (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.23; 95% CI, 0.1-0.53) decline in adenovirus and a 48% (IRR = 0.52; 95% CI, 0.18-1.54) decline in rhino/enterovirus during vs. before COVID-19 became widespread.
Researchers also observed declines in ED visits and hospitalization for all three assessed respiratory conditions during the pandemic. The largest drop in these events between the two periods was found for respiratory tract infections, with an 85% decrease in both ED visits (IRR = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.1-0.22) and hospitalizations (IRR = 0.15; 95% CI, 0.09-0.24) when COVID-19 became widespread.
For asthma-related ED visits, the incidence rate ratio was 0.43 (95% CI, 0.37-0.48), signaling a 57% reduction when COVID-19 was prevalent. For hospitalizations pertaining to asthma, this rate was 0.39 (95% CI, 0.33-0.46), signaling a 61% reduction.
Similarly, ED visits and hospital admissions linked to COPD dropped by 63% (IRR =0.37; 95% CI 0.3-0.45) and 45% (IRR = 0.55; 95% CI 0.48-0.62) during vs. before the pandemic.
Notably, children aged 0 to 15 years had larger declines than adults aged 16 years and older in asthma-related ED visits (IRR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.19-0.33 vs. IRR = 0.51; 95% CI, 0.46-0.57) and hospitalizations (IRR = 0.25; 95% CI, 0.17- 0.36 vs. 0.56; 95% CI, 0.5-0.61) and respiratory tract infection-related ED visits (IRR = 0.09; 95% CI, 0.05-0.15 vs. IRR = 0.2; 95% CI, 0.15-0.27) and hospitalizations (IRR = 0.09; 95% CI, 0.05-0.17 vs. IRR = 0.38; 95% CI, 0.32-0.45).
Researchers observed a rise in hospitalizations and ED visits for respiratory tract infections, asthma and COPD during October of the pandemic, which corresponds to the peak of rhino/enterovirus.
This is the first study to demonstrate that during the pandemic, increased rhino/enterovirus prevalence, likely related to alleviation of public health measures, may have contributed to a rebound of health care utilization due to asthma, COPD and respiratory tract infection, Ho and colleagues wrote. Going forward, non-COVID-19 respiratory virus patterns may be altered and lead to atypical peaks in respiratory-related health care utilization, which could have implications on the timing of vaccine administration, development of novel vaccines, hospital bed planning and public health policy.
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Disclosures: AstraZeneca Canada funded this study. Ho reports receiving grants and nonfinancial support from Fisher & Paykel Healthcare; personal fees from AstraZeneca, Sanofi and Valeo outside the study; and support from the McMaster Department of Medicine Early Career Research Award. Please see the study for all other authors relevant financial disclosures.
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