Category: Corona Virus

The coronavirus pandemic is spreading unchecked across Europe, causing rising death rates and pushing hospitals to their limits.

On January 10, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated: In December, almost 10,000 deaths from COVID-19 were reported to WHO, and the number of hospital admissions increased by 42 percent compared to November with the number of ICU admissions at 62 percent. However, the trends [on mortality] are based on data from fewer than 50 countries, mainly in Europe and the Americas. It is certain that there is also an increase in other countries that is not being reported.

The current wave is being driven primarily by the JN.1 (Juno) variant. It is an offshoot of BA.2.86 (Pirola). Pirola has more than 20 mutations on its spike protein, Juno has just one more. However, this makes the variant significantly more immune-resistant.

The British Office for National Statistics also recently reported that, in addition to the normal symptoms of a coronavirus infection, Juno can also cause sleep problems and anxiety. According to the survey by British scientists, 10.8 percent of those infected experienced sleep problems and 10.5 percent reported anxiety disorders.

The variant is already occurring in many European countries, including Iceland, Portugal, Spain, France, Germany and the Netherlands. A number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe also reported a significant increase in respiratory illnesses at the end of last year. In Spain and Italy, the rising numbers of patients have pushed hospitals to their limits. The COVID wave also coincides with rising flu and RSV infections across Europe.

In the UK, Juno is causing new record highs. At the end of October, the JN.1 share was still at 1 percent, in mid-November it was at 5 percent, but by Christmas had risen to 51.4 percent. Professor Steve Griffin, a virologist at Leeds University, said, There has clearly been a massive surge in COVID infections in recent weeks. This is undoubtedly due to socialising indoors over the festive period. It is also likely that the return to schools, universities and businesses will increase this even further.

Asked if the UK could set a new record this month, he replied, Yes, I think we could see something similar to BA2 [the previous record wave]. Data scientist Professor Christina Pagel from University College London also expects infections to rise for another week or two, equalling or even surpassing the record waves at the beginning of 2020.

In Germany, the number of infections reached a record high at the end of the year, with hospitalisation rates on a par with previous waves. Although the wave receded in the first weeks of January, according to data from Fluweb, the incidence rate remains at 500. Almost 8,000 people had to be hospitalised in the first three weeks of the year and 1,316 have already died.

The situation in Spain is particularly dramatic. Hospitals have been under increasing pressure since the beginning of the year as a result of a triple-demic of COVID-19, influenza A and RSV. In large parts of the country, emergency departments are heavily overloaded due to the high volume of patients. The Universitario La Paz hospital in Madrid, which treats around 500,000 patients, making it one of the largest hospitals in Spain, has had to postpone operations to make room for new patients.

Due to the dramatic situation, the Spanish government was forced to reintroduce compulsory masks in healthcare facilities. However, local governments, such as those in the Basque Country, have reacted by taking legal action against the mask requirement.

The rising number of deaths from flu and COVID-19 is even putting pressure on funeral services. According to an article in Euro Weekly News, funeral service operators are warning they will struggle to cope with the rising number of deaths by the end of January.

Manuel Tejadas, head of the Interfunerarias funeral service chain in Catalonia, said, We are overwhelmed. I havent seen such an increase in deaths since the pandemic.

Piles of corpses are also being reported in hospitals in the regions of Madrid and Valencia. Hospitals are continually calling us to collect bodies and we are very overloaded here, explains Tejadas. In some cases, families have to wait up to four days for a funeral. That is twice as long as the usual period of between 24 and 48 hours.

Mehring Books

COVID, Capitalism, and Class War: A Social and Political Chronology of the Pandemic

A compilation of the World Socialist Web Site's coverage of this global crisis, available in epub and print formats.

Doctors and local newspapers in Italy are also warning that hospitals could be overwhelmed by the flu and COVID wave. Hundreds of patients are having to wait days to be transferred to normal hospital wards or intensive care units. According to the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), cases of respiratory infections reached record levels in the last two weeks of 2023, surpassing corresponding periods during the pandemic. At the end of December, the number of deaths peaked at 425 per week, and the figure remained at 371 in the first weeks of January.

Foce, the Italian association of oncologists, cardiologists and haematologists, issued an appeal to the Italian government, warning: For some weeks now, we have been observing the phenomenon of worsening chaos in our emergency systems. Emergency departments are in a nightmare situation and hospital wards are under siege. It continues: It is clear that the claim made at the end of July that the COVID pandemic is numerically over is not true. The virus never disappeared.

In Portugal, Health Minister Manuel Pizarro also publicly admitted that he was concerned about the increase in admissions to intensive care units as a result of respiratory infections. The virus is causing very serious illnesses, he explained. At the beginning of January, there were long waiting times of sometimes more than 10 hours in hospitals across the country.

The massive new coronavirus wave is a direct result of the ruthless pandemic policy of all European governments. They are putting profits before the lives and health of the population and have long since cancelled all measures to contain the pandemic.

The necessary fight against the pandemic must therefore come from below and be linked to the fight against capitalism and the reorganisation of society on a socialist basis. The only way to stop the pandemic is a globally-coordinated elimination strategy, in which the entire worlds population acts in solidarity and with a collective determination to enforce a broad-based public health program, writes the WSWS in its New Years perspective.

And further: After four years of the pandemic, it is abundantly clear that such a global strategy will never arise under world capitalism, which subordinates all public health spending to the insatiable profit interests of a money-mad financial oligarchy. The very idea that an illness should be eliminated or eradicated, a central concept in public health, has been abandoned. Only through world socialist revolution will it be possible to end the pandemic, as well as stop the further descent into capitalist barbarism and World War III.

Join the fight to end the COVID-19 pandemic

Someone from the Socialist Equality Party or the WSWS in your region will contact you promptly.

See the rest here:

Massive wave of COVID infections throughout Europe - WSWS

Nearly four years into the pandemic, Australia, like many other countries, is still seeing large numbers of COVID cases. Some 860,221 infections were recorded around the country in 2023, while 30,283 cases have already been reported in 2024.

This is likely to be a significant underestimate, with fewer people testing and reporting than earlier in the pandemic. But the signs suggest parts of Australia are experiencing yet another COVID surge.

While some lucky people claim to have never had COVID, many are facing our second, third or even fourth infection, often despite having been vaccinated. You might be wondering, how long does immunity last after a previous infection or vaccination?

Lets take a look at what the evidence shows.

To answer this question, we need to understand a bit about how immunity to SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) works.

After being infected or vaccinated, the immune system develops specific antibodies that can neutralise SARS-CoV-2. B cells remember the virus for a period of time. In addition, the immune system produces memory T cells that can kill the virus, and remain in the blood for some months after the clearance of the infection or a vaccination.

A 2021 study found 98% of people had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2s spike protein (a protein on the surface of the virus that allows it to attach to our cells) one month after symptom onset. Six to eight months afterwards, 90% of participants still had these neutralising antibodies in their blood.

This means the immune system should have recognised and neutralised the same SARS-CoV-2 variant if challenged within six to eight months (if an infection occurred, it should have resulted in mild to no symptoms).

Read more: What happens in our body when we encounter and fight off a virus like the flu, SARS-CoV-2 or RSV?

As we know, SARS-CoV-2 has mutated over time, leading to the emergence of new variants such as alpha, beta, delta and omicron. Each of these variants carries mutations that are new to the immune system, even if the person has been previously infected with an earlier variant.

A new variant likely wont be perfectly recognised or even recognised at all by the already activated memory T or B cells from a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection. This could explain why people can be so readily reinfected with COVID.

A recent review of studies published up to the end of September 2022 looked at the protection conferred by previous SARS-CoV-2 infections.

The authors found a previous infection provided protective immunity against reinfection with the ancestral, alpha, beta and delta variants of 85.2% at four weeks. Protection against reinfection with these variants remained high (78.6%) at 40 weeks, or just over nine months, after the previous infection. This protection decreased to 55.5% at 80 weeks (18 months), but the authors noted there was a lack of data at this time point.

Notably, an earlier infection provided only 36.1% protection against a reinfection with omicron BA.1 at 40 weeks. Omicron has been described as an immune escape variant.

A prior infection showed a high level of protection against severe disease (above 88%) up to 40 weeks regardless of the variant a person was reinfected with.

Read more: There are still good reasons to avoid catching COVID again for one, your risk of long COVID goes up each time

So far almost 70 million COVID vaccines have been administered to more than 22 million people in Australia. Scientists estimated COVID vaccines prevented around 14.4 million deaths in 185 countries in the first year after they became available.

But we know COVID vaccine effectiveness wanes over time. A 2023 review found the original vaccines were 79.6% and 49.7% effective at protecting against symptomatic delta infection at one and nine months after vaccination respectively. They were 60.4% and 13.3% effective against symptomatic omicron at the same time points.

This is where booster doses come into the picture. Theyre important to keep the immune system ready to fight off the virus, particularly for those who are more vulnerable to the effects of a COVID infection.

Plus, regular booster doses can provide immunity against different variants. COVID vaccines are constantly being reviewed and updated to ensure optimal protection against current circulating strains, with the latest shot available designed to target the omicron variant XBB 1.5. This is similar to how we approach seasonal flu vaccines.

A recent study showed a COVID vaccination provides longer protection against reinfection than natural protection alone. The median time from infection to reinfection in non-vaccinated people was only six months, compared with 14 months in people who had received one, two or three doses of vaccine after their first infection. This is called hybrid immunity, and other research has similarly found it provides better protection than natural infection alone.

It also seems timing is important, as receiving a vaccine too soon after an infection (less than six months) appears to be less effective than getting vaccinated later.

Everyones immune system is slightly unique, and SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate, so knowing exactly how long COVID immunity lasts is complicated.

Evidence suggests immunity following infection should generally last six months in healthy adults, and can be prolonged with vaccination. But there are exceptions, and all of this assumes the virus has not mutated so much that it escapes our immune response.

While many people feel the COVID pandemic is over, its important we dont forget the lessons we have learned. Practices such as wearing a mask and staying home when unwell can reduce the spread of many viruses, not only COVID.

Vaccination is not mandatory, but for older adults eligible for a booster under the current guidelines, its a very good idea.

See the original post:

How long does immunity last after a COVID infection? - The Conversation

A new study in Science is shining a light on the continuing impact of long COVID, with research revealing further and continuing health concerns for some of the 16 million sufferers in the U.S.

Long COVID is a syndrome, or collection of symptoms, that continue or develop after an acute COVID-19 infection and can last weeks, months or years. There is no test to confirm if symptoms are related to long COVID. Some scientists suggest that long COVID is caused by overactive immune cells, but the exact cause remains unclear.

The study followed 113 patients at four different hospitals in Switzerland with mild and severe COVID-19 and found that 40 had symptoms of long COVID at six months, 22 of whom had persistent symptoms at 12 months.

Researchers looked at blood samples from the 40 who experienced long COVID symptoms, compared them to controls who were not infected with COVID-19, and found that those who had long COVID had evidence of inflammation (increased complement activity), blood cell dysregulation (hemolysis and platelet activation) and tissue injury in their blood.

The specific details from the small study may help provide "a basis for new diagnostic solutions," according to the researchers, for the condition with no known cure or FDA-approved treatments.

While these results finding evidence of inflammation in patients with long COVID symptoms are not entirely surprising nor specific to long COVID, they are a step forward in identifying the cause of long COVID.

It's more than just researchers, though, looking into developments in our understanding of the syndrome. The condition received renewed attention from the federal government last week, as the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions convened a group of patients and experts to testify about the impacts of long COVID before a bipartisan group of Senators.

In the Senate's first-ever hearing on this topic, Sen. Tammy Baldwin said researchers and government officials need to "increase the sense of urgency" over understanding and treating the condition.

For Sen. Bernie Sanders, chairman of the committee, more needs to be done.

"We think we haven't done anywhere near enough, and we hope to turn that around," he said.

Medical experts testified at the hearing, telling the committee that the condition can emerge in patients of all ages and backgrounds, that the risk increases with multiple infections, and rates of long COVID are higher in minority communities.

"The burden of disease and disability from long COVID is on par with the burden of cancer and heart disease," Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, M.D., a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University, said. "We must develop sustainable solutions to prevent repeated infections with SARS-CoV-2 and long COVID that would be embraced by the public."

Angela Meriquez Vazquez, a long COVID patient from California, testified that she has helped over 15,000 sufferers through online advocacy.

"We are living through the largest mass destabilizing event in modern history," she told the Senators.

As she told her own story, Meriquez Vazquez, a former runner, said she is currently on 12 medications. Although she said she has managed to continue working, and she has health care, the condition has forced her to work from home, lying down to minimize her symptoms.

"Not since the emergence of the AIDS pandemic has there been such an imperative for large-scale change in healthcare, public health, and inequitable structures that bring exceptional risks of illness, suffering, disability, and mortality," Meriquez Vazzque said.

One of the Senators -- Republican Roger Marshall -- shared his own testimony, revealing to the committee that one of his loved ones "is one of the 16 million people" who has "suffered for two years" with the condition.

He told the committee his family member's illness is "like mono(nucleosis) that does not go away," adding that the person has seen 30 doctors in an attempt to find help.

Marshall said there needs to be more focus on treatments for long COVID at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"I'm frustrated that our CDC is more focused on vaccines than they are on treatments," he said.

Dr. Al-Aly, while testifying, repeatedly called on our country's leaders and medical experts to come together to tackle the ongoing health crisis.

"We are the best nation on earth, and we can solve this," he said.

One of his proposed solutions is establishing a new multidisciplinary research institute to address infection-associated chronic conditions.

Research into the condition has been "slow," Dr. Charisse Madlock-Brown, Ph.D. from the University of Iowa, said at the hearing. She noted clinical trials are in the "experimental medicine" phase and pushed for more investment to identify proven treatments.

Sen. Tim Kaine said the National Institutes of Health has been provided more than $1 billion since 2020 to study long COVID, and he urged representatives from NIH to testify before the committee. In 2021, the NIH launched the Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery initiative to identify further risk factors and causes of long COVID.

"We can't take two years just to get 'geared up,'" he said.

According to the most recent information from the CDC, long COVID can cause up to 200 symptoms, including chronic fatigue, blood clots, gastrointestinal issues, brain fog and heart issues. Symptoms can last from months to years following a COVID infection. Risk factors for developing long COVID after a COVID-19 infection that have been identified include severe COVID-19 illness, underlying health conditions (such as asthma, diabetes, obesity or autoimmune diseases) and not getting the COVID-19 vaccine.

While the interest from the Senate and the new study in Science are promising, more research needs to be done to find the specific cause of why some people get long COVID from COVID-19, and others do not, and to find effective treatments.

Erin Hannon, MD, contributed to this report. Hannon is a resident physician in pediatrics from Columbia University/New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

Link:

New long COVID study uncovers high inflammation in patients as Senate calls for more research on 'crisis' - ABC News

Using US Census Bureau state unemployment insurance data, researchers from Johns Hopkins University documented a significant job turnover among healthcare workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic, which suggests long-term implications for the US healthcare sector.

The study was published today in JAMA Health Forum and is based on data collected from January 2018 through December 2021. The researchers assessed job exit and entry data quarterly.

In quarter 1 of 2020, approximately 18.8 million people (14.6 million women [77.6%] and 4.2 million men [22.4%]) were working in the healthcare sector in the study sample.

Arkansas, Mississippi, and Tennessee were not included in the study.

In 2018, the average healthcare worker exit rate per quarter was 5.9 percentage points. In the first quarter of 2020 it climbed to 8.0 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI], 7.7 to 8.3).

Though quarter 1 of 2020 saw the highest exit rate, the percentage remained high throughout the study period, with an exit rate of 7.7 (95% CI, 7.4 to 7.9) percentage points in quarter 4 of 2021.

Reasons for exiting the healthcare workforce differed across the study period. In quarters 1 and 2 of 2020, most workers exited the job and entered unemployment. By late 2021, the reason was to switch to a different job sector.

In 2020, 5.7 percentage points were attributable to people exiting into nonemployment compared with a baseline mean of 3.2 percentage points per quarter in 2018, a 78% increase, the authors noted.

In quarter 4 of 2021, the last quarter assessed, the exit rate of healthcare workers into unemployment was 4.0 percentage points (95% CI, 3.8 to 4.3), a 25% increase from baseline, and the exit rate into a non-healthcare sector was 3.6 percentage points (95% CI, 3.5 to 3.7), a 38% increase, the authors found.

By the end of 2021, there were an increase in entrants to the healthcare sector. However, the entry into the sector came mostly from unemployed workers, suggesting that healthcare organizations after the pandemic subsided are operating with more staff with less experience than in the prepandemic period, the authors note.

In 2020, states in the Northeast region saw the greatest increases in health care worker exit rates.

The investigators also found geographical differences in exit rates. In the early part of the pandemic, more New England states reported exit due to nonemployment. In 2021, the exit due to unemployment increased in the South and West.

"In 2020, states in the Northeast region saw the greatest increases in health care worker exit rates vs their prepandemic mean values, comprising 8 of the top 10 states with the largest increases in health care worker exit rates," the authors wrote.

Overall, the study findings suggest workforce turnover may pose "substantial costs for both organizations and patients, as it implies potentially disrupted continuity of care and fewer staff with industry- and firm-specific experience," the authors concluded.

Read the rest here:

Pandemic resulted in high healthcare worker turnover - University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Jacqui Wise reports on further evidence from witnesses in Scotland, with experts and the current first minister taking the stand this week

Previously (19 January) the inquiry heard that Jason Leitch, Scotlands national clinical director, had messaged a colleague that, WhatsApp deletion is a pre-bed ritual.1 Giving evidence on 23 January, Leitch said that his message was slightly flippant and an exaggeration.2 He said the record retention policy was that you could use informal messaging systems for Scottish government business but that any advice or decisions should be recorded by email or in a briefing document and then the informal messaging could be deleted. Giving evidence on 25 January, Humza Yousaf, former health secretary and now first minister, told the inquiry he used personal phones rather than a government device for WhatsApp messages during the pandemic.3 He said he deleted messages but was able to recover some from an old handset which he handed over to the inquiry. He confirmed there would be an external review into the use of WhatsApp and non-corporate technology in the Scottish government.

Leitch said as the country reopened there was ambiguity around mask wearing. He said he had the impression that hardly anyone followed the rules about masking when standing up during a meal, at the time when dining was allowed unmasked. He told Yousaf in a message, Officially you should wear a mask but literally no one does. Have a drink in your hand at all times. Then youre exempt. So if someone comes over and you stand, lift your drink. He said he understood the rules but the reality of life suggests this guidance was nuanced rather than entirely right.

Devi Sridhar, chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh, said the UK had had time to learn from other countries and from what had happened on the Diamond Princess cruise ship but had failed to do so. Giving evidence on 23 January, she said Ebola had caused lockdowns and school closures in West Africa in 2014 so in those countries such measures did not feel like a crazy idea. But Sridhar said that there was a sense of complacency across high income countries: Well, well be fine because we always are, and this is a low income issue and it wont come here. She said, There was a lack of humility in terms of learning from the experience of teams in countries such as Senegal and South Korea who had worked day to day to manage infectious diseases.

Sridhar, who became a member of the Scottish governments covid-19 advisory group in April 2020, told the inquiry she thought the UK had moved too quickly from containment to mitigation. That pivot happened too early, given that other countries were showing that containment was possible. She argued that Britain got stuck because it spent a long time discussing whether testing would make a difference outside of hospitals. There was that feeling that testing was for poor countries. We can treat our way through this. We have a health service. She said the UK was slower than other countries in buying the reagents for testing and setting up testing systems. She also said that borders should have been better controlled, such as in Australia and Norway, to control the influx of cases. Other countries also moved more quickly in adopting face coverings. Sridhar also said the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies was incredibly secretive in terms of who was on the committee and what evidence they had. In the case of a pandemic, transparency should have been much better.

Mark Woolhouse, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and a member of the Scottish governments covid-19 advisory group, told the inquiry that medical advisers were not listening to his warnings in the early months of 2020.4 He had sent an email in January 2020 warning that the health system would become overwhelmed within a year if action was not taken but felt that medical advisers to the government froze when confronted with the data. Giving evidence on 24 January he said he was frustrated that a detailed report into the management of influenza in Scotland in 2009-10 had not been acted on. This had made a series of recommendations including the need for mechanisms of obtaining, sharing, and analysing data which should be ready to go should another pandemic arise. He said the advice not to bother the NHS unless it was absolutely necessary led to thousands of deaths across the UK and probably hundreds in Scotland. Most of the hospitals in Scotland had their quietest time in living memory during the first lockdown because no one else was going to hospital.

The inquiry was shown messages in which Nicola Sturgeon, the former first minister, described Boris Johnsons announcement about a second covid lockdown in England as fucking excruciating.5 In messages to Liz Lloyd, her former chief of staff, Sturgeon said, His utter incompetence in every sense is now offending me on behalf of politicians everywhere. She added, He is a fucking clown. Lloyd was asked if the relationship between Sturgeon and Johnson had broken down and replied, I think broken down overstates what was there to break. She said previously there was politeness between the two leaders but the relationship became much harder during the pandemic. She said there was better communication between the two governments, particularly on health, but that discussions with the prime minister didnt get us anywhere. Sturgeon is to give evidence to the inquiry next week.

Excerpt from:

Covid inquiry: What did we learn this week? - The BMJ

by Timothy McQuiston, Vermont Business Magazine COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations fell last week after a long period of edging higher since last summer. Cases and hospitalizations were both down about 20 percent from the week. Hospitalizations are about what they were last winter. Fatalities have not seen a related spike nor decline. There were 6 deaths reported by the Vermont Department of Health last week and 6 the week before, for a pandemic total now of 1,100 as of January 13, 2024 (the most recent data available). Deaths have been running at about that level for several months.

The VDH reported January 17, 2024, that COVID-19 hospitalizations were down 9 last week to a statewide total of 50. COVID-19 activity remains in the "Low" range, according to the VDH. Reported cases last week were 365, down 90 for the week.

VDH reported 15 COVID-related deaths in March, 20 in April, 10 in May, 10 in June (these are fewest since the summer of 2021), 11 in July, 15 in August, 17 in September, 25 in October, 19 in November and 15 in December and 5 so far in January 2024 (there were 33 in October 2022 and 47 in October 2021 and zero in October 2020, which was the last month since the beginning of the pandemic to record no COVID-related fatalities).

Of the total deaths to date, 884 have been of Vermonters 70 or older. There have been 3 deaths of Vermonters under 30 since the beginning of the pandemic.

CDC states that already an estimated 97% of Americans have some level of immunity, from either vaccination or infection or both, which they said will help keep down new transmission and lessen serious outcomes.

New COVID-19 variant JN.1: Experts explain symptoms, how to spot and treat the new strain

(see data below)

Report Timeframe: January 7 to January 13, 2024

The hospitalizations dataset contains day-level data reported from all Vermont hospitals each Tuesday. Reported numbers are subject to correction.

The number of reportable COVID-19 cases is still available in this report, below. Laboratory-confirmed and diagnosed COVID-19 cases and COVID-19 outbreaks must still be reported to the Vermont Department of Health.

There were 3 outbreaks last week, 2 at schools, and 1 at long-term care facilities (LTC). There were 10 outbreaks the week before.

Vermont Department of Health recommendations: Preventing COVID-19 (healthvermont.gov)

Vermont has the second lowest fatality rate in the US (127.3 per 100K; Hawaii 102.2/100K). Mississippi (439/100K) and Oklahoma (436.7/100K) have the highest rates. The US average is 292.8/100K (CDC data).

There has been a total of 1,169,666 COVID-related deaths to date in the US (CDC) and 7,012,986 globally (WHO).

Following an analysis of COVID-19 data, the VDH reported in January 2023 a cumulative 86 additional COVID-associated deaths that occurred over the course of the pandemic but had not been previously reported. Most of those deaths occurred in 2022.

COVID-19 Update for the United States

Early Indicators

Test Positivity

% Test Positivity

11.8%

(January 7 to January 13, 2024)

Trend in % Test Positivity

-1% in most recent week

Emergency Department Visits

% Diagnosed as COVID-19

2.5%

(January 7 to January 13, 2024)

Trend in % Emergency Department Visits

-19% in most recent week

These early indicators represent a portion of national COVID-19 tests and emergency department visits. Wastewater information also provides early indicators of spread.

Severity Indicators

Hospitalizations

Hospital Admissions

32,861

(January 7 to January 13, 2024)

Trend in Hospital Admissions

-9.6% in most recent week

Deaths

% of All Deaths in U.S. Due to COVID-19

4.3%

(January 7 to January 13, 2024)

Trend in % COVID-19 Deaths

+10.3% in most recent week

Total Hospitalizations

6,727,163

CDC | Test Positivity data through: January 13, 2024; Emergency Department Visit data through: January 13, 2024; Hospitalization data through: January 13, 2024; Death data through: January 13, 2024. Posted: January 22, 2024 3:33 PM ET

The Delta variant took off in August 2021, which resulted in the heaviest number of deaths before vaccines and their boosters helped alleviate serious COVID cases. Multiple Omicron variants are now circulating and appear more virulent than previous variants, but perhaps not more dangerous, according to the CDC.

AP April 5, 2023: WHO downgrades COVID pandemic, says it's no longer a global health emergency

Walk-in vaccination clinics run by the state closed on January 31, 2023. Learn more

Vermonters are reminded that all state COVID testing sites were closed as of June 25, 2022. PCR and take-home tests are available through doctors' offices, pharmacies and via mail from the federal government. The federal government officially ended its pandemic response as of May 11, 2023. See more information BELOW or here: https://www.healthvermont.gov/covid-19/testing.

Starting May 11, 2023, the CDC and Vermont Department of Health will no longer use the COVID-19 Community Level to measure COVID-19 activity in the U.S. and Vermont. Instead, Vermont's statewide COVID-19 level will be measured by the rate of COVID-19 in people being admitted to the hospital, per 100,000 residents.

Focusing on hospitalization data is a better estimate of how COVID-19 is impacting the community now that reported COVID-19 cases represent a smaller proportion of actual infections. This also allows us to compare Vermonts hospitalization levels with other parts of the country.

The Delta variant caused a surge in COVID-related fatalities last fall and into the winter.

The highest concentration of deaths was from September 2021 through February 2022. Overall, December 2020 and January 2022 were the worst months with 72 fatalities each.

The US confirmed its first case of COVID-19 on January 20, 2020.

Vermonters ages 6 months and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines. Getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is the safer way to build protection from serious illnesseven for those who have already had COVID-19. Learn more about COVID-19 vaccines (CDC)

COVID-19 vaccines are free and widely available. Anyone can get vaccinated in Vermont, including those who live in another state, are non-U.S. citizens, or who have no insurance. See Vermont's current vaccine rates

Know your rights when getting free vaccines.

You are considered up-to-date if you are over the age of 6 years old and have received a bivalent (updated) COVID-19 vaccine.Learn more about kid vaccines

If you are unable or choose not to get a recommended bivalent mRNA vaccine, you will be up to date if you received the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine doses approved for your age group.

Find more on recommended doses from CDC

COVID Vaccine Information for Health Care Professionals

More on COVID-19 Vaccines (CDC)

Recommended COVID Vaccine Doses (CDC)

Find a COVID-19 vaccine near you.

Image

Use Vaccines.gov to find a location near you, then call or visit the location's website to make an appointment.

Vaccines.gov

Everyone 6 months of age and older is eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccination.Most children are also now eligible for a bivalent dose that offers increased protection against the original strain and omicron variants.

See more on recommended vaccine doses by age group (CDC)

Resources for parents and caregivers

Confident Care for Kids

Tips for Helping Kids Feel Ready for Any Vaccine (Vermont Family Network)

#factsheet

What Families with Children Should Know About COVID-19 Vaccines (translated)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWcqHOgQIVg&t=5s

Conversations About COVID-19 Vaccines for Children with Vermont Pediatricians (American Academy of Pediatrics)

If you cannot get vaccines through any of the options above, our local health offices

offer immunization clinics by appointment.

Need a ride? If you do not have transportation to get a free COVID-19 vaccine or booster, please contact your local public transportation provider or callVermont Public Transportation Association (VPTA)

at 833-387-7200.

English language learners, or immigrant or refugee community members, who would like to learn about more about vaccine clinics can contact theAssociation of Africans Living in Vermont

(AALV) at 802-985-3106.

If you lost your vaccine card or your information is wrong:

Recommendations for keeping your vaccination card and record up to date

Find more COVID-19 translations

COVID-19 resources for people who are deaf and hard of hearing

Report your COVID-19 test results

Link:

VDH: COVID cases and hospitalizations fall 20 percent - Vermont Biz

January 23, 2024

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Risks for adverse outcomes associated with COVID-19 at delivery stayed high during the omicron variant window, despite possible immunity from previous SARS-CoV-2 infection, vaccination or testing differences, researchers reported.

If you are pregnant or planning pregnancy, it is important to stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations to reduce the risk of getting very sick and experiencing problems from COVID-19 and to protect the health of your baby, Jeffrey Carlson, PhD, an epidemiologist at the CDCs National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, told Healio. Although studies have suggested less severe outcomes during omicron compared to prior variant periods, the risk of complications for pregnant women with COVID-19 remained elevated during the omicron period compared with pregnant women without COVID-19.

Carlson and colleagues conducted a cross-sectional observational study assessing data from 2,990,973 U.S. women with delivery hospitalizations from the Premier Healthcare Database from February 2020 to August 2023. Researchers categorized February 2020 to June 2021 as the pre-delta period, July to December 2021 as the delta period and January 2022 to August 2023 as the omicron period. COVID-19 exposure was identified via diagnostic code during delivery hospitalization.

Overall, 1.9% of women in the study had COVID-19 at delivery hospital admission discharge. Of these, 20,031 women had COVID-19 at delivery during the pre-delta period, 10,534 during the delta period and 26,053 during the omicron period.

Compared with pregnant women without COVID-19, those with COVID-19 had significantly higher prevalence of adverse maternal and pregnancy outcomes during delivery across all variant periods, according to researchers.

Women with COVID-19 at delivery during the omicron period had significantly increased risks for maternal sepsis (0.4% vs. 0.1%; adjusted prevalence ratio = 3.32; 95% CI, 2.7-4.08), acute respiratory distress syndrome (0.6% vs. 0.1%; aPR = 6.19; 95% CI, 5.26-7.29), shock (0.2% vs. 0.1%; aPR = 2.14; 95% CI, 1.62-2.84), renal failure (0.5% vs. 0.2%; aPR = 2.08; 95% CI, 1.73-2.49), ICU admission (2.7% vs. 1.7%; aPR = 1.64; 95% CI, 1.52-1.77), mechanical ventilation (0.3% vs. 0.1%; aPR = 3.15; 95% CI, 2.52-3.93), in-hospital mortality (0.03% vs. 0.01%; aPR = 5; 95% CI, 2.3-10.9), stillbirth (0.7% vs. 0.6%; aPR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1.01-1.36) and preterm delivery (12.3% vs. 9.6%; aPR = 1.28; 95% CI, 1.24-1.33) in adjusted models compared with women without COVID-19.

These data only included COVID-19 infections at delivery, so more information is needed about the potential impacts of COVID-19 infections earlier in pregnancy, Carlson said. These findings underscore the importance of continued surveillance, research and monitoring of maternal, pregnancy and infant outcomes as new variants emerge.

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Disclosures: Carlson reports having previously owned Moderna stock. Please see the study for all other authors relevant financial disclosures.

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High risks for adverse outcomes linked to COVID-19 with omicron variant at delivery - Healio

In a recent study published in Nature Cardiovascular Research, researchers review the cardiovascular effects of long coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Post-COVID-19, which is also referred to as long COVID and post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), is a novel condition affecting 10-60% of COVID-19 survivors, which amounts to 70-420 million individuals throughout the world. Long COVID is characterized by the persistence or, in some cases, development of novel symptoms following recovery from COVID-19.

The World Health Organization (WHO) and United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that long COVID symptoms can persist for months or even years following initial infection recovery, thereby resulting in significant loss of quality of life (QoL) for affected individuals.

Since 2020, over 23,000 publications on long COVID have been released. Despite the increased focus on the prevalence and definition of the condition, some studies have aimed to understand the pathophysiology and underlying mechanisms of the disease, with the shared aim of discovering a cure.

Significant progress notwithstanding, a targeted treatment for long COVID remains elusive. Thus, synthesizing the rapid scientific progress in post-COVID-19 research will both highlight recent advances and underscore critical gaps in the literature.

Despite being a predominantly respiratory condition, a growing body of evidence reports the systemic effects of COVID-19. This feature is shared by long COVID, with over 20 symptoms identified to date across respiratory, cardiovascular, neurological, gastrointestinal, and endocrine systems. Common nonspecific complaints include dizziness, fatigue, and memory loss.

Due in part to the novelty of the condition, clinical diagnostic tests for post-COVID-19 syndrome remain theoretical. As a result, the National Institutes of Health Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative 12-symptom checklist is the current gold standard in long COVID diagnosis.

Recent cardiovascular-focused research has devised cardiovascular-centric guidelines, including the American College of Cardiology practice guideline document.

Although the cardiovascular complications of the post-COVID-19 condition are highly publicized, the sequelae from this virus are not particularly unique. Cardiovascular effects including myocarditis have been long described following other viral illnesses such as influenza and Epstein-Barr virus. However, the mortality rate and incidence of vascular complications is far greater in COVID-19."

Long COVID is confirmed through various clinical tests including complete blood counts, basic metabolic panel, troponin, C-reactive protein, and pro-brain natriuretic peptide levels, electrocardiograms (ECGs), and echocardiograms. In severe cases, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and chest X-rays may be used.

Long COVID-associated cardiovascular pathophysiology can be classified as immune dysregulation and inflammation, endothelial dysfunction, microvascular injury, and neurological signaling dysfunction. Two main long COVID phenotypes have been identified, of which include overt cardiovascular disease after COVID-19 (PASC-CVD) and those with cardiovascular symptoms despite lacking clear disease markers (PASC-CVS).

PASC-CVD patients are often older and are at an increased risk of endothelial dysfunction, inflammation, and microvascular injury. Comparatively, PASC-CVS patients are typically younger and at a greater risk of neurological signal dysfunction and immune dysregulation.

The mechanisms responsible for the cardiovascular effects of long-COVID can be immediate through direct cytotoxic injury or delayed, which is attributed to a cascade of immune-overstimulation-mediated responses.

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is one of the most commonly researched cardiovascular symptoms and is characterized by a sudden increase in one's heart rate when transitioning between sitting, lying down, and standing. POTS was identified at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the highest prevalence in the PASC-CVS phenotype.

The most common test for POTS is a head-up tilt-table test (HUTT); however, several studies have found that many POTS patients remain undetected by HUTT. As a result, POTS prevalence estimates may be severe underestimates.

Myocardial injury is another common characteristic of post-COVID-19, which, unlike POTS, has clear biomarker evidence of its prevalence through the troponin test. Myocardial injury is also much better characterized, as it arises both from general critical illness outcomes of acute COVID-19 like hypoxemia and shock, as well as from cardiac structural pathology.

Recent studies have elucidated the role of COVID-19 in causing myocardial injury through hypercoagulability. Subsequently, myocardial injury increases the risk of heart failure and myocarditis.

Arrhythmias, or irregular heartbeat, have been identified through their comorbidities, including inflammatory cytokine release, myocardial scarring and fibrosis, persistent immune dysfunction, and potential gap junction dysfunction.

While no curative therapies for long COVID have been identified, long COVID cardiovascular symptoms can be managed on a symptom-by-symptom basis. These interventions are often based on routine cardiovascular care with generally beneficial outcomes.

Advances in post-COVID-19 diagnostic tests, which are currently under development, must be fine-tuned to better inform policymakers and clinicians. Additional progress is also needed to identify long COVID-associated cardiovascular risk factors. The development of novel therapeutic interventions to treat the entire condition of long COVID is also crucial, rather than managing each of its numerous symptoms individually.

Large-scale longitudinal studies are needed to better understand the medium-term and long-term implications of the post-COVID-19 condition."

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Long COVID's impact on cardiovascular health: what we do and do not know - News-Medical.Net

January 26, 2024

By Audrey Smith

Ralph S. Baric, PhD, began studying coronaviruses decades before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. There is still much to learn about this family of viruses, and the Baric Lab remains among the worlds leaders in coronavirus research, exploring questions like Where did COVID-19 originate? and developing treatments for future coronaviruses.

Baric, who is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor of epidemiology at the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, was senior author on two recent coronavirus research papers. The first, published in the journal Nature Microbiology, investigated a pangolin SARS-CoV-2-like virus, including its biological capabilities, ability to elicit an immune response and ability to transmit between species. The second, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, sought to identify broad therapeutics that can treat future outbreaks of MERS-CoV (the coronavirus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome) and other similar coronaviruses.

Our understanding of the way that animal coronaviruses spill into human populations is incomplete and only partially understood. Some researchers have always argued that the SARS-CoV-2 virus which causes COVID-19 began in bats and then was transmitted to a key intermediate host species, where strains of the virus circulate and mutate, allowing it to be transmitted to humans. In this theory, the intermediate reservoir host species, in which the virus circulated freely and evolved, was critical to explaining how viruses spread into human populations. Yet, a reservoir species with a circulating virus has not been discovered.

Baric and team, however, believed that some zoonotic SARS-like viruses have the intrinsic properties necessary to replicate and transmit easily between multiple mammalian host species, eliminating the need for a reservoir species.

In the paper recently published in Nature Microbiology, Baric and team examined whether the SARS-like coronavirus found in pangolins, small mammals that are often called scaly anteaters, carries these intrinsic properties. The pangolin coronavirus is closely related to SARS-CoV-2, but it has never infected people.

Dr. Ralph Baric

We want to understand how viruses move between species because this information helps to establish research priorities that are designed to protect global health, Baric said. For example, this information can identify hosts and environments that inadvertently promote virus jumping between species, providing us with the knowledge to identify and regulate high-risk environments, like open markets in dense population centers. The information helps to minimize the threat potential by informing the development and testing of diagnostics that can find early cases, and identifying broadly acting countermeasures that are effective. As a consequence, both the public health and medical communities will be positioned to rapidly implement intervention and treatment strategies in an emerging outbreak setting, saving lives.

The team reconstructed the pangolin coronavirus using the genome length sequences for pangolin coronaviruses that had been reported in previous studies. The studies were performed under stringent containment conditions in the laboratory, and the pangolin virus was found to efficiently use the same receptor protein from more than 20 species of mammals, including pangolins, humans, mice and hamsters. They also found that the virus grew at similar numbers as SARS-CoV-2, it could naturally be transmitted between hamsters, and it was killed by the existing monoclonal antibodies, antiviral drugs and vaccines that target the original SARS-CoV-2 strain.

As the virus could transmit between non-reservoir hosts, the data argues that a reservoir species is unnecessary and that some SARS-like animal viruses have the intrinsic capabilities to infect and transmit naturally across multiple species without setting up a large reservoir. SARS-CoV-2 also readily transmitted between deer, mink and humans. This intrinsic capability to transmit across species potentially explains how SARS-CoV-2 emerged to cause the COVID-19 pandemic and why researchers have yet to identify this hypothetical reservoir host.

Most United States citizens think that the COVID-19 pandemic is over and done, but we disagree, said Baric. Our data suggests that zoonotic coronavirus emergence events will accelerate throughout this century and that we need to remain aware and prepared with things like state-of-the-art diagnostic tests, global surveillance systems in place to catch these events early, and a supply of broadly effective antiviral drugs and vaccines to protect the public.

Over 1 million people died before the first countermeasure was available to treat COVID-19. To save lives during future coronavirus outbreaks, broad-based drugs and vaccines capable of providing an immediately available treatment are needed for global health preparedness.

In a paper recently published in Science Translational Medicine, Baric and team were the first to study the bat coronavirus BtCoV-422, which is similar to MERS-CoV. MERS-CoV is a coronavirus that emerged in 2012, causes Middle East respiratory syndrome, has a 35% mortality rate in humans and is still circulating at low levels in the Middle East and East Africa.

The team investigated whether antibodies that neutralize MERS-CoV and antivirals that inhibit SARS-CoV-2 would provide effective treatment strategies against this important group of MERS-like viruses.

The team analyzed the potential range of hosts that the MERS-like BtCoV-422 virus could infect by investigating its ability to use DPP4 entry receptors from multiple species, including humans, and its reliance on external proteases. The MERS-like virus was found to have broad host range potential, and BtCoV-422 replicated efficiently in multiple primary human cells, including airway epithelia, lung fibroblasts and lung endothelial cells. The data also indicated that BtCoV-422 has crossed multiple barriers that typically impede coronavirus emergence potential in humans, such as infectivity in human cells and the efficient use of human entry receptors. However, the virus has reduced growth potential in the human upper respiratory tract, which suggests that further mutations would be required for this virus to threaten human populations.

The researchers then tested current therapeutic countermeasures, including drugs, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and vaccine-elicited murine serum, and structurally characterized a group 2c CoV (also known as betacoronavirus) broadly cross-reactive epitope, all with the hope of informing future coronavirus global health preparedness strategies. Importantly, several SARS-CoV-2 drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and one highly potent MERS-CoV human monoclonal antibody, JC57-11, potently neutralized BtCoV-422, providing ready countermeasures for future use. The virus replication was also potently inhibited by antivirals such as remdesivir and nirmatrelvir. This means that multiple therapeutics that have already been approved for use against SARS-CoV-2 by the FDA are ready for immediate testing against MERS-related viruses, providing several different and immediate treatment strategies for patients in an outbreak setting.

The teams findings also support the hypothesis that these drugs should be evaluated in the context of early treatments for MERS-CoV infection. If approved, these drugs would be valuable tools to treat people experiencing new SARS- and MERS-like coronavirus infections.

Its vitally important that we have broad therapeutics immediately available to treat new emerging viruses, said Baric. We had done extensive studies that had shown that both remdesivir and molnupiravir were highly potent broad-spectrum coronavirus drugs, years prior to the emergence of COVID-19. In fact, thats why these drugs were so quickly approved for human use. We know that there will be other zoonotic coronaviruses that infect and emerge to cause serious diseases in human populations and we need multiple broad-based drugs that can be accessed immediately if were going to protect the health of future populations. We also need effective policies that control ecologic settings for zoonotic virus emergence, like closing open markets and preventing the illegal trade of wildlife.

Importantly, MERS-422 and the pangolin SARS-like coronavirus are being used to demonstrate the performance and breadth of broadly protective vaccines that protect against zoonotic, epidemic and pandemic SARS and MERS-related viruses that threaten human populations. The teams ongoing studies have already contributed to the development of pan-coronavirus vaccine products that are moving toward human clinical research studies.

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomm@unc.edu.

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Continuing to learn about coronaviruses - UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health

Over the past month, global COVID-19 cases rose slightly, with a steady drop in deaths from the virus, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its latest monthly update.

However, the group cautioned about interpreting the data, given that less than half of countries reported their COVID metrics during the latest reporting period, which covers December 11, 2023, to January 7.

"According to estimates obtained from wastewater surveillance, clinical detection of cases underestimates the real burden from 2 to 19-fold," the WHO said.

In the final week of 2023, the JN.1 variant made up 65.5% of sequences, up sharply from 24.8% the month before.

In its analysis of regional trends, the WHO said cases rose in two regions. Numbers were up sharply in the South East Asia region, with a more modest increase in the Western Pacific region. In South East Asia, countries reporting some of the highest increases were India and Indonesia. JN.1, part of the BA.2.86 family, became dominant in India in the first week of January.

Meanwhile, in the Western Pacific region, Malaysia and Singapore reported the biggest case rises. Information on Malaysia's health ministry website show that cases in the current wave peaked just before Christmas and are declining steadily. Singapore's health ministry data show a similar pattern.

Deaths declined or remained stable across five of WHO's regions, with only South East Asia reporting a rise, which was sharp. The region's highest numbers were from India, Indonesia, and Thailand.

The WHO closely monitors hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) indicators to look for any changes in illness severity. Very few countries regularly report their hospitalizations and ICU admissions for COVID. Of 22 countries that do, 36% saw a 20% or more rise in hospitalizations over the past month, which included Indonesia, Malta, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Greece, Singapore, the United States, and Ireland.

And of 18 countries regularly reporting ICU data, 44% reflected a rise of 20% or more in admissions for COVID. They include Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Estonia, Ireland, the Netherlands, Greece, and the Czech Republic.

As part of severity monitoring, the group also tracks ICU-to-hospitalization and death-to-hospitalization ratios, which it said are still subject to the same incomplete reporting constraints. The WHO said ICU-to-hospitalization ratios have been decreasing since the peak in July 2021, with a stable trend in recent weeks.

The death-to-hospitalization ratio has also been declining since July 2021, and since January 2023 has remained under 0.15. "This is an encouraging trend indicating a lower mortality risk among hospitalized individuals," the WHO said. It said multiple factors may be responsible, including infection- or vaccine-derived immunity, earlier diagnosis and treatment, and reduced strain on health systems.

Also, the WHO included a caveat that it's not possible to saybased on ratio tracking-if the newer SARS-CoV-2 variants are less virulent.

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Latest global COVID snapshot shows rising cases, drop in deaths - University of Minnesota Twin Cities