Category: Corona Virus

As tens of millions of at-home COVID-19 tests from the government make their way to Americans in the mail, many parts of the country are facing sub-zero temperatures.

So what happens if your test kit freezes on the way to your house? Can you still use it?

All at-home COVID-19 tests should be stored within a certain temperature range, usually 3686F (230C).

The temperature range for your test will be listed on the instructions that came with the box or on the manufacturers website.

Storage of these kinds of rapid antigen tests for extended periods outside this range can produce less accurate results, according to a study last year in the Journal of Clinical Virology.

How much the results are impacted depends on how long the kit has been hot or cold and whether it went through repeated cycles of freezing and thawing.

At-home COVID-19 tests contain liquid and other components that, if frozen or too cold for a long time, can skew the results.

To ensure that the test will work as intended, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends that people follow the instructions that come with the test or online, which includes temperature and other storage guidelines.

Manufacturers have also developed the tests with temperature fluctuations during shipping in mind.

Since shipping conditions may vary, test developers perform stability testing to ensure that the test performance will remain stable when tests are stored at various temperatures, the FDA said, including shipping during the summer in very hot regions and in the winter in very cold regions.

Dr. Amy Karger, chair of the College of American Pathologists Point-of-Care Testing Committee, thinks we need more independent study of the impact of temperature fluctuations during shipping on at-home tests.

However, there havent been any reports or any evidence to suggest that the kits are compromised by shipping temperatures, she said. So I would cautiously say that they should be fine.

In addition, a single freeze-thaw isnt going to destroy the rapid antigen test, epidemiologist Dr. Michael Mina wrote on Twitter. [It] may reduce sensitivity a little bit, but not much.

A spokesperson for Abbott Laboratories, maker of the BinaxNOW test, confirmed this.

If the test is stored outside the [35.686F] temperature range for a relatively short period of time for a couple of hours up to a day or two it will be fine to use, the spokesperson told Healthline.

If your at-home test arrives in the mail very cold or frozen, the FDA recommends that you bring the package inside your home and leave it unopened at room temperature for at least two hours before opening it.

If you were to perform the test with a kit thats too cold or too hot, that does affect the accuracy of the test, said Karger.

Room temperature for most at-home tests is approximately 5986F (1530C). But again, check the instructions that came with your test.

You probably wont know if your at-home test froze and thawed several times during shipping, but Karger said there are some signs that a test may not be working properly.

Most tests have a control line that should always appear whether youre positive or negative for the coronavirus.

Karger said if the control line doesnt show up, takes longer to appear than indicated on the instructions or appears before you run the test, you should not rely on the result.

The Ellume COVID-19 Home Test has an internal control that will trigger a Test Error result if the product is exposed to extreme temperature and humidity that could be damaging to the test reagents.

If you think your test may not be working properly, take another test, either an at-home test or a PCR test.

High temperatures can also cause a problem with at-home COVID-19 tests.

The maximum storage temperature for most COVID-19 tests is 86F (30C), but check the instructions that came with the test.

Very high heat can cause a lot of damage to a rapid antigen test, wrote Mina on Twitter. Dont let your test boil in the sun in the summer the proteins can fall apart and the test can be irreparably harmed.

The instructions for some tests also recommend against placing the test in direct sunlight, which may damage the components in the test. This is a good rule of thumb to follow for all tests.

If your at-home COVID-19 test is positive, thats a good indication that you have a coronavirus infection. For most tests, the chance of a false positive occurring is small.

In this case, follow the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidelines, including isolating and wearing a well-fitting face mask if you have to be around others.

A negative test indicates that no coronavirus was detected in your sample.

This might be because you dont have a coronavirus infection. However, a negative result can also happen for other reasons.

If you get a negative result, especially if you have [COVID-19] symptoms, you should take that negative with a grain of salt, said Karger.

For example, if you take the test early during a coronavirus infection, the test can give a negative result because the amount of virus in your body isnt high enough for the test to detect. There could also be a problem with the test kit.

If you do get a negative result and youre symptomatic, you should still stay at home, said Karger.

You should still behave as if you have COVID and continue to test on a daily basis, for a few days at least, because some people are reporting not turning positive until day three and even four.

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Can Freezing Temps Affect COVID-19 Tests Delivered to Your Mailbox? - Healthline

LANSING, Mich. The Michigan House has passed a $1.2 billion plan that would expand aid for COVID-19 patients, healthcare employees and students.

Rep. Thomas Albert says if the bill is signed into law, it would keep students in the classroom, address shortages in hospitals and expand capacity for early treatment for patients battling COVID-19.

This plan addresses some of the most important COVID-related issues facing Michigan today, says Albert. It will help more people infected with the virus recover faster and more fully. It will help keep our kids in school so they can catch up on lost learning. And it will provide reinforcements for weary workers at short-staffed hospitals and other health care providers who have bravely battled this pandemic the past two years.

Albert highlights the following details laid out in House Bill 5523:

The bill is currently awaiting Senate approval.

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Bill to help expand access to COVID treatment, keep students in classroom passes House - Fox17

Living with the virus

More governments across the world are saying theyre ready to live with the virus.

Australia, a nation that once imposed lockdowns in response to handfuls of cases, now says that its done with all that even as cases soar. New Zealand plans to reopen to travelers, if gradually. Britain, France, Spain, Sweden, Norway and other European countries are also beginning to treat Covid more like the flu.

On Tuesday, Denmark essentially declared an end to the pandemic in the country, lifting most of its remaining Covid restrictions and making it among the first E.U. members to abandon rules in favor of treating the virus as endemic.

For a look at the new approach, I spoke to Camilla Holten Moller, the head of the expert group for mathematical modeling at the Statens Serum Institute, the public health agency in Denmark that tracks the virus and advises the government on how to approach Covid.

Your institute recommended that the government remove virus restrictions. Why did you do that, given that cases in Denmark are rising?

We based it upon a really precise picture of the development of the epidemic, and what we saw with the Omicron variant taking over in the country.

Overall, the Omicron variant is less severe. So even though we see really high case counts, we dont need to flatten the curve like we used to, simply because we dont see as severe a picture as we used to with Delta for instance.

When we look deeper into the numbers of hospitalizations, what we see is that we have a low and stable number of admissions to intensive care units. Yesterday I think we had 26 admissions to I.C.U.s, which is really low given that we also had 55,000 new cases.

So for us, here in Denmark, it is extremely important that we can accept to not flatten the curve, to let loose the epidemic, to accept that it can grow, as long as it doesnt cause severe illness.

How are people in Denmark feeling about the lifting of restrictions?

I think overall the majority are simply happy that the restrictions are lifted and that we can start to get back to normal. The main task now is to protect those who are still at risk, like the elderly population or the immunocompromised. And there are still some measures in place that protect those who are at risk. We still recommend mask-wearing and taking a test before visiting hospitals and nursing homes.

In general, people are still wearing masks in some places in the supermarkets or in the metro but I think overall people may accept that its their responsibility to take care of those who need to be protected. But its more up to you to do that sort of risk assessment of your own.

What does your modeling say about the countrys future?

We released the latest modeling results just before Christmas, and we projected that we would see the peak of the epidemic here in late January, with hospitalizations peaking a little bit later, in mid-February. But what weve seen is that BA.2 [the Omicron subvariant] is more transmissible, theres no doubt about it. And that means that we would expect the peak be to be a little bit higher and maybe extend a little bit into February.

Feb. 5, 2022, 2:25 p.m. ET

But so many people have had an infection or have been vaccinated in certain geographical areas and in certain age groups that it simply slows down the growth of the epidemic. Of course, opening up and lifting all restrictions could lead to additional growth, especially when you open the nightlife. But we still see that the population immunity is so high that we still expect the peak to come within the coming weeks.

So is this the end in Denmark?

No. We are quite alert that something new could happen. And both the Epidemic Commission and the government have clearly stated that they are ready to act accordingly.

What we know is that immunity from SARS-CoV-2 isnt lifelong immunity, like the immunity from measles, for instance. That means we will have waning immunity. We know what waning immunity looks like from the seasonal flu. Each winter people get back together inside, immunity starts to wane, you have new strains, and you start to see a rise in the flu and a small epidemic occur.

Its also possible that we still have Omicron in the fall, and we see another peak then, simply because immunity will start to wane in the population. And that would probably mean we would do something, maybe start vaccinating again, or testing to a higher degree, or whatever other tools we have to contain that wave.

Last January, researchers searching for the coronavirus in New York Citys wastewater spotted something strange in their samples: viral fragments with mutations that had never been reported before in human patients potentially a sign of a new undetected variant.

The state of the virus in the U.S. The coronavirus has now claimed more than 900,000 livesacross the country, and the Covid death ratesremain alarmingly high. The number of new infections, however, has fallen by more than half since mid-January, and hospitalizations are also declining.

Boosters. New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that booster doses are most beneficial to older adults. For younger Americans, vaccination decreased the risk of hospitalization and death so sharply that the additional shot did not seem to add much benefit.

Around the world. Several countries are easing their pandemic protocols, though publichealth leaders at the World Health Organization continued to urge caution about relaxing restrictions. In Austria, a sweeping Covid vaccine mandate is set to become law.

These oddball sequences, or what the scientists call cryptic lineages, have continued to pop up in the citys wastewater over the past year, my colleague Emily Anthes reports. There is no evidence that the lineages pose an elevated health risk to humans, but the researchers are torn about their origins.

Some suspect that the virus is coming from people whose infections arent being sequenced. But others think that the lineages may be coming from virus-infected animals, possibly wait for it the citys enormous population of rats.

Read more about the mysterious fragments.

I am still isolating most of the time, although I think the risk is much reduced in my area, and Im fully vaxxed. The reason? My professor is immunocompromised, and is still as much at risk as he was during the worst of times, even with three jabs. Im timing my shopping and socializing so as to reduce the likelihood of infecting him, and using one of the government rapid tests if I think I may have been exposed, in case I do become infected. As a nation we seem to be willing to ignore the needs of those who cant protect themselves. In some cultures they used to put their old people out in the snow to die of exposure. We dont seem to have moved beyond those times.

Meg, Chicago

Let us know how youre dealing with the pandemic. Send us a response here, and we may feature it in an upcoming newsletter.

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Email your thoughts to briefing@nytimes.com.

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Coronavirus Briefing: Living With the Virus - The New York Times

Heres the latest news from the pandemic.

In this week's editionof theCovid Q&A, we look at how to tell which variant of the virus you haveand whether that even matters.Inhopes of making this very confusing time just a little less so, each week Bloomberg Prognosispicksone reader question and puts it toexperts in the field. This weeks question comes to us from Juan in Mexico City. He asks:

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Coronavirus Daily: In the US, Identifying Variants Isn't Easy - Bloomberg

The UK has reported 54,095 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, as well as a further 75 deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to the latest government figures.

It follows 60,578 new cases and a further 259 deaths reported on Saturday, and 69,007 new cases and 91 deaths reported last Sunday.

In total more than 17.7 million people in the UK have tested positive for COVID-19, and more than 158,000 people have died within 28 days of a positive test.

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The most recent data says that as of Thursday 3 February, there have been more than 452 million virus tests conducted in the UK.

As of the same date there are 14,634 patients in hospital with COVID-19, 478 of whom are in ventilation beds.

As of Saturday there have been more than 138 million vaccinations given in total, including more than 52 million first doses, 48 million second doses, and 37 million booster or third doses.

It comes as a director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) said Europe is entering the "plausible endgame" of the coronavirus pandemic.

Dr Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said the region had recorded 12 million new COVID-19 cases in the last week, with 30% of all cases since the pandemic began being reported this year.

But, he said, "for now, the number of deaths across the region is starting to plateau".

Professor Sir David Spiegelhalter, chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk of Evidence Communication at Cambridge University has confessed he didn't take the virus "seriously enough" at the start of the pandemic.

He added that he had a naturally optimistic personality "and that's why I'm very glad I'm not a government adviser".

"The pandemic has been a net lifesaver for younger people, if you look at people between 15 and 30 in 2020, 300 fewer died than would normally have died and that includes the 100 that died from COVID sadly," Sir David said.

"So that's 300 fewer families mourning the death of a young person because of the pandemic.

"Now that's because young people were essentially locked up, they couldn't go out driving fast, they couldn't go out and get drunk, and they couldn't get into fights and whatever, and so all these lives were saved."

However, the professor said that this doesn't necessarily mean he advocates for lockdowns, because "on the flip side of that you have a big increase in mental health problems".

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COVID-19: UK reports 54,095 new cases of coronavirus and further 75 deaths - Sky News

Oregon health officials reported 4,872 new coronavirus cases Friday, reflecting a continuing and swift downward trajectory in new daily cases.

Almost two weeks ago, Oregon logged more than twice the number of cases in one day as the current daily average, state data show, and cases are expected to continue to decline. Test positivity rates have fallen dramatically, as well, from around 27% of COVID-19 tests reported Jan. 20 coming back positive to 16% of the ones reported Friday.

Hospitalizations are expected to peak in the coming days, if they havent already, according to the most recent Oregon Health & Science University forecast.

Where the cases are by county: Baker (23), Benton (98), Clackamas (377), Clatsop (25), Columbia (46), Coos (84), Crook (48), Curry (24), Deschutes (258), Douglas (79), Grant (15), Harney (24), Hood River (28), Jackson (240), Jefferson (40), Josephine (129), Klamath (133), Lake (5), Lane (517), Lincoln (120), Linn (262), Malheur (46), Marion (563), Morrow (8), Multnomah (524), Polk (169), Sherman (1), Tillamook (40), Umatilla (107), Union (43), Wallowa (5), Wasco (31), Washington (641) and Yamhill (119).

Deaths: A 30-year-old woman from Deschutes County who tested positive Jan. 21 and died Feb. 3 at St. Charles Bend.

A 71-year-old man from Washington County who tested positive Dec. 28 and died Jan. 6 at Providence Portland Medical Center.

A 25-year-old man from Multnomah County who died July 23 at his residence.

A 61-year-old man from Marion County who tested positive Dec. 27 and died Jan. 3 at Samaritan Memorial Hospital.

A 66-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Dec. 29 and died Jan. 3 at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.

An 83-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive on Jan. 5 and died Jan. 8 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

An 86-year-old man from Multnomah County who became symptomatic on Dec. 10 and died Dec. 12 at his residence.

A 71-year-old man from Columbia County who tested positive Dec. 5 and died Jan. 7 at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center.

An 88-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive Dec. 23 and died Dec. 26 at Providence Portland Medical Center.

A 94-year-old woman from Yamhill County who tested positive Sept. 9 and died Dec. 18 at her residence.

A 78-year-old man from Curry County who tested positive Dec. 8 and died Dec. 29 at Curry General Hospital.

A 102-year-old man from Clackamas County who tested positive Dec. 5 and died Dec. 27 at his residence.

An 87-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive Nov. 18 and died Dec. 23 at his residence.

A 98-year-old woman from Lane County who tested positive Dec. 18 and died Jan. 12 at her residence.

A 69-year-old man from Marion County who tested positive Dec. 21 and died Jan. 5 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

An 86-year-old man from Josephine County who became symptomatic on Dec. 7 and died Dec. 18 at his residence.

A 73-year-old woman from Clackamas County who tested positive Jan. 2 and died Jan. 6 at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center.

An 80-year-old man from Lane County who tested positive Jan. 24 and died Feb. 1 at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend.

A 78-year-old man from Yamhill County who tested positive Jan. 30 and died Feb. 1 at his residence.

A 72-year-old woman from Union County who tested positive Jan. 30 and died Feb. 2. Location of death and presence of underlying conditions are being confirmed.

A 90-year-old woman from Union County who tested positive Jan. 30 and died Feb. 2 at Grande Ronde Hospital.

A 63-year-old woman from Union County who tested positive Jan. 13 and died Feb. 2 at Grande Ronde Hospital.

A 76-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Jan. 4 and died Jan. 27 at Adventist Health Portland.

A 68-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Jan. 27 and died Jan. 28 at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.

A 72-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Jan. 20 and died Jan. 31 at Adventist Health Portland.

A 67-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Jan. 18 and died Feb. 1 at Adventist Health Portland.

A 65-year-old woman from Multnomah County who tested positive Jan. 12 and died Jan. 28 at Adventist Health Portland.

An 83-year-old man from Multnomah County who tested positive Jan. 9 and died Jan. 27 at Adventist Health Portland.

A 37-year-old woman from Marion County who tested positive Jan. 18 and died Feb. 2 at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

A 73-year-old man from Marion County who tested positive Dec. 28 and died Jan. 1 at Salem Hospital.

A 75-year-old woman from Marion County who tested positive Aug. 31 and died Sept. 5 at Salem Hospital.

A 47-year-old woman from Douglas County who tested positive Feb. 1 and died Feb. 3 at Mercy Medical Center.

A 75-year-old man from Clackamas County who tested positive Jan. 6 and died Jan. 28 at Adventist Health Portland.

All had underlying medical conditions or the state was confirming whether they did.

Hospitalizations: 1,092 people with confirmed cases of COVID-19 are hospitalized, up five from Thursday. That includes 172 people in intensive care, down 11 from the previous day.

Since it began: Oregon has reported 654,343 confirmed or presumed infections and 6,214 deaths, among the lowest per capita numbers in the nation. To date, the state has reported 7,232,829 vaccine doses administered, fully vaccinating 2,833,424 people and partially vaccinating 300,445.

To see more data and trends, visit https://projects.oregonlive.com/coronavirus/

Fedor Zarkhin

503-294-7674; fzarkhin@oregonian.com

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Coronavirus in Oregon: 33 deaths and 4,872 new cases as reported infections continue to decline - OregonLive

Fourmore Mainers have died and another 1,095coronavirus cases reported across the state, Maine health officials said Saturday.

Saturdays report brings the total number of coronavirus cases in Maine to 181,010,according to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats up from 179,915 on Friday.

Of those, 133,351have been confirmed positive, while 47,059were classified as probable cases, the Maine CDC reported.

Three men and a woman have succumbed to the virus, bringing the statewide death toll to 1,804.

Two were from Androscoggin County, one from Kennebec County and one from Somerset County.

Of those, one was 80 or older, two were in their 70s and one in their 60s.

The number of coronavirus cases diagnosed in the past 14 days statewide is 14,112. This is an estimation of the current number of active cases in the state, as the Maine CDC is no longer tracking recoveries for all patients. Thats down from 14,224 on Friday.

The new case rate statewide Saturday was 8.18 cases per 10,000 residents, and the total case rate statewide was 1,352.43.

The most cases have been detected in Mainers younger than 20, while Mainers over 80 years old account for the largest portion of deaths. More cases have been recorded in women and more deaths in men.

So far, 4,019 Mainers have been hospitalized at some point with COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. Of those, 339 are currently hospitalized, with 83 in critical care and 36 on a ventilator. Overall, 47 out of 379 critical care beds and 245 out of 328 ventilators are available.

The total statewide hospitalization rate on Saturday was 30.03 patients per 10,000 residents.

Cases have been reported in Androscoggin (18,232), Aroostook (8,615), Cumberland (37,861), Franklin (4,451), Hancock (5,296), Kennebec (17,441), Knox (4,284), Lincoln (3,815), Oxford (8,849), Penobscot (20,308), Piscataquis (2,274), Sagadahoc (3,776), Somerset (7,610), Waldo (4,473), Washington (3,161) and York (30,592) counties. Information about where an additional two cases were reported wasnt immediately available.

An additional 440 vaccine doses were administered in the previous 24 hours. As of Saturday, 978,717 Mainers are fully vaccinated, or about 76.4 percent of eligible Mainers, according to the Maine CDC.

As of Saturday afternoon, the coronavirus had sickened 76,379,284 people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as caused 901,703 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine.

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4 more Mainers have died and another 1,095 coronavirus cases reported across the state - Bangor Daily News

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. After a surge of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases due to the omicron variant, many parents of K-12 students across the United States say that schools should offer a mix of in-person and online instruction in the winter season, a new survey by the Pew Research Center found.

The survey found that 53% of parents say schools should provide the mix of both types of instruction while 37% say schools should be fully in-person only, and 9% say schools should be fully remote.

When asked what factors schools should consider about offering in-person instruction this winter, many parents said schools should consider that students would fall behind academically (67%) or that their emotional well-being will be negatively impacted (61%) if they stay remote. Some parents (52%) also said they wouldnt be able to work if their kids are home for remote learning.

Other factors if kids went to school in-person include the risk to students or teachers of getting COVID-19 (43%) and spreading it (39%), and the financial cost to school systems to follow health guidelines to keep schools open safely (26%).

While a majority of parents think schools should offer a mix of in-person and remote instruction this winter, just 16% say this is the type of instruction their children are currently getting, according to the survey.

About 71% of parents said their kids are getting in-person instruction only, and 5% say their child is only learning remotely.

According to Pew, The analysis is based on a survey of 2,241 U.S. parents of children in K-12 schools who live in their household. The data was collected as part of a larger survey of 10,237 adults conducted Jan. 24-30, 2022.

In New York City, public schools have stayed open for in-person instruction for the 2021-2022 school year, even as cases rose because of the omicron variant.

As part of that effort to keep schools open safely, the city launched its Stay Safe and Stay Open plan that would double the number of students randomly tested at school, provide rapid at-home tests which reduced both the number of students who need to quarantine if exposed to COVID-19, as well as limit classroom and school closures.

Under this plan, students who are exposed to COVID-19 at school are required to take two rapid at-home tests over the course of five days. If the tests come back negative and students dont have COVID-like symptoms, they can continue to attend school as normal.

Since it was enacted, the number of classroom closures has been seemingly nonexistent. The DOE hasnt reported full or partial classroom closures in the city and therefore, no school investigations or closures have been reported.

Ahead of the midwinter break, New York City education officials announced last week it would update the coronavirus policy to increase the number of students tested in the citys weekly in-school random surveillance testing program.

It anticipates students and staff are now more likely to engage in activities and settings with less stringent health and safety measures. in response, the DOE is increasing the number of students who will be PCR tested for COVID-19 in schools starting Monday.

Starting Feb. 7, schools will test the larger of either 10% of the schools student enrollment in grades 1-12, up to a cap of 250 students; or 20% of the schools unvaccinated student population.

This change, the DOE said, will allow schools with a high number of vaccinated students to test a larger group every week.

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Should school be fully in-person during coronavirus? Heres what U.S. parents think. - SILive.com

Just getting on the ice on Sunday felt like a victory.

Tahli Gill of Australias mixed doubles curling team had her bags packed and a flight booked to return home. Any hopes of finishing her Olympic run had seemingly been dashed by a series of positive coronavirus tests.

Yet, after a whirlwind of developments on Sunday, Gill and her partner, Dean Hewitt, notched Australias first-ever wins in curling. The pair beat Switzerland, 9-6.

I only had time to pull out my uniforms, Gill told reporters after the match, recounting the dizzying turn of events that led to health officials delivering an unexpected reprieve that sent her scrambling to make the game. I only played with one glove!

She had been excluded from her final two matches after a series of positive tests on Saturday, Australian Olympic officials said. Gill had alternated between positive and negative tests in recent days, which she had blamed on the residual effects of contracting the virus in December.

The call came late on Sunday when Chinese officials decided that Gills CT levels, a measure of how much viral material is detected, were within an acceptable range.

It was a sudden turn after Australian Olympic officials said that discussions with the health authorities and the International Olympic Committee went late into Saturday without success. By Sunday, Australian officials said, they were making plans to get Gill and Hewitt home after Gill had been moved into an isolation hotel.

When word started trickling in of a possible reprieve, Hewitt said he was reluctant to believe it. Dont do this to us, please! he said of the tantalizing possibility of returning. Are you serious?

The news was true.

It was just crazy, mate, Hewitt said after the game on Sunday. The excitement in the room was unbelievable.

That excitement, Hewitt said, fueled their play on Sunday. You dont realize what youve got until its gone, he said. The win? That was a bonus.

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For Australian Curler, a Positive Covid Test and Then a Surprise Win - The New York Times

Jerusalem, February 6, 2022- An additional grant of US$3.75 million was allocated to the ongoing West Bank and Gaza COVID-19 Emergency Response. The additional financing will continue to support the Palestinian Authority's response to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic while ensuring continuity of essential health services and contributing to long-term resilience.

The grant will be contributed from the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response (HEPR) Multi-donor Trust Fund administered by the World Bank. It is a flexible mechanism for rapid financing to support countries and territories to improve their capacities to prepare for, prevent, respond to, and mitigate the impact of epidemics on populations.

"*COVID-19 continues to pose a high risk of morbidity and mortality, as well as a burden to healthcare systems. Due to low capacity of testing in the Palestinian territories, the number of COVID-19 cases are underestimated. Still, the numbers of new infections reported daily continue to reach new highs. The additional financing will support the original project by providing immediate response to COVID-19, but also contributing to long-term resilience,*" said Kanthan Shankar, World Bank Country Director for West Bank and Gaza.

Beyond strengthening the overall healthcare services and clinical capacity in immediate response to COVID-19 under the framework of the parent project, the new grant focuses on procuring supplies and equipment that could be utilized to promote resilience to future pandemics and health shocks. These include medicines for the treatment of health emergencies and chronic conditions as well as emergency medical devices and equipment including defibrillators, vital-signs monitors, emergency trolleys, patient beds, mobile blood banks, ultrasound machines, generators, and more.

The operation will also seek to reduce limitations to access to healthcare experienced by rural and marginalized communities. For instance, women in remote areas often find it difficult to access health services due to distance to health facilities and lack of transportation. Mobile clinics financed through the additional financing will ensure equitable access to quality care for populations that are often left behind. The World Bank will continue to strengthen resilience and pandemic preparedness in the health system through technical and operational engagement with the Ministry of Health and other partners in the sector.

Mary Koussa

+(972) 2-2366500

mkoussa@worldbank.org

Serene Jweied

+1 (202) 473-8764

sjweied@worldbankgroup.org

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New US$3.75 million Grant to Help Palestinians Fight the Coronavirus Outbreak and Future Health Shocks - occupied Palestinian territory - ReliefWeb