Alameda County will reinstate the inner mask mandate
Alameda County is the first in the Bay Area to regain its inner mask mandate, which expired in February as the rise in the winter omicron slowed, and officials cited a sharp increase in hospitalizations for COVID-19 during the last month. County health officials announced that masks will be required in most indoor public settings starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, June 3rd. The order does not apply to the city of Berkeley, which has its own health department. The county said it will monitor cases and hospitalizations to determine when the order can be lifted safely. “The increase in COVID cases in Alameda County is now making more people hospitalized, and today’s action reflects the gravity of the moment,” said Dr. Nicholas Moss, Alameda County Health Officer. in a statement. “We can’t ignore the data and we can’t predict when this wave may end. Putting our masks back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged wave on our communities.” Read the whole story.
The United States is unprepared for the fall, warns White House COVID coordinator
The White House is stocked with vaccines and therapeutics to overcome a coronavirus surge in the summer, but things look bleak for the fall, according to COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. “If you want to ask what keeps me awake at night is that we will run out of vaccines,” he said during a briefing on Thursday. “We will run out of treatments. And we will run out of diagnostic tests, probably in late fall through early winter, if we have a significant increase in infections. We don’t have the resources to buy these things and these purchases have to be do it now “. Jha again urged Congress to increase and provide the $ 22.5 billion funding request needed to bolster the nation’s response to COVID-19, which has been backed by the Republican opposition.
The White House expects vaccinations for younger children before June 21
Biden administration co-ordinator COVID Dr Ashish Jha said during a briefing on Thursday that federal officials expect COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of 5 to start on 21 June, if the Food and Drug Administration grants them emergency use authorization and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends them. “We know many parents are eager to vaccinate their youngest children,” he said.
ESPN announcers come out with COVID before the NBA Finals
ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy and journalist Adrian Wojnarowski are expected to miss the first game of the NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors at the Chase Center on Thursday night due to the COVID, confirmed a league source to The Chronicle. Van Gundy and Wojnarowski join their partner, Mike Breen, on the COVID list. As of 9 a.m. Thursday, Breen’s status for Game 1 remained in motion.
BA.5 provides highly vaccinated Portugal with the second highest infection rate in the world
The highly infectious omicron BA.5 subvariant is causing another surge in Portugal. Although more than 90% of the country’s population is fully vaccinated, it now has the second highest infection rate in the world, according to data from the National Institutes of Health analyzed by Reuters. Portugal recorded 2,447 new cases per million people in the last seven days, compared to 449 in Spain and 70 in the United Kingdom. BA.5, which accounted for almost 90% of new COVID-19 infections in the country during this period, is on the rise. land in the US The subvariant, classified together with BA.4 under the umbrella B.1.1.529 by the CDC, accounted for 6.1% of cases here over the past week, almost doubling in proportion to the seven-day period previous.
Los Angeles County reports the first suspected case of monkeypox
Los Angeles County health officials on Thursday reported the first suspected case of monkeypox in the region in an adult resident who recently traveled and had known close contact. The patient, who is symptomatic, is isolated while the county awaits confirmation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But officials say the monkey’s smallpox risk to the general population remains “very low.”
Hospitalizations for COVID in California have increased 54% in the past two weeks
While new coronavirus cases may appear to be stabilizing, the number of patients in hospitals with COVID-19 is on an upward trend in California, according to public health data analyzed by The Chronicle. The state reported 2,526 people hospitalized with the virus on Wednesday, compared to 1,642 reported two weeks earlier, an increase of 54%. Hospitalizations, a delayed indicator of pandemic trends, have been on the rise in California since mid-April, when they briefly fell below 1,000 for the first time in more than a year. Deaths remain below previous wave levels, with California reporting an average of 9 deaths a day for most of May.
The survey suggests that COVID cases in the US could be 30 times higher than reported
A New York City adult survey during the BA.2 / BA.2.12.1 coronavirus surge between April and May found that COVID-19 cases were likely to be counted significantly due to the prevalence of coronary artery disease. home testing kits and the reduction of public testing sites. “Official case counts appear to be underestimating the true burden of infection by about 30 times, which is a big surprise,” said Denis Nash, study author and professor of epidemiology at City University of New York School of Public Health told the Guardian. The study estimates that one in five New Yorkers over the age of 18 probably had COVID during the two-week survey period, equivalent to about 1.5 million adults. Nash said the results apply to other parts of the country, but due to the disparity in numbers, many people do not realize that the United States is in the midst of another increase, although government leaders have put the burden of risk assessment on individuals.
COVID cases in the bay area have reached a plateau so far
The number of new coronavirus cases in the bay area appears to have stabilized temporarily, according to state data released Wednesday by The Chronicle. The region has an average of just over 51 confirmed daily cases per 100,000 population, a slight decrease from 55 per 100,000 reported a week earlier. San Francisco, which is once again leading the state with the most infections in relation to its population, has 57 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, compared to 62 last Monday. Other counties in the Bay Area are reporting similar falls in the case count. Hospitalizations in the region, a delayed indicator of the virus’s impact, have faltered slightly, but remain as high as early March. While the numbers are promising, health experts say the bay area is still rooted in the sixth rise in the virus and Memorial Day weekend activities, graduation parties and field trips. summer could easily increase the numbers again, especially if subvariants like BA.4 and BA.4. BA.5 settles in the region.
Pfizer sends a vaccine application for children under 5 to the FDA
Pfizer and BioNTech have filed an application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a three-dose vaccine against COVID-19 in children 6 months to less than 5 years old, ABC News reports. “Pfizer and BioNTech have completed an ongoing application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for 3 µg Emergency Use Authorization (US) [microgram] dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years (also known as 6 months to less than 5 years) on June 1, 2022, “the companies said in a statement. “We acknowledge that parents are eager to vaccinate their young children against COVID-19, and although the FDA cannot predict how long it will take, data and information evaluation, we will review any US applications we receive as soon as possible through a scientific paper. “The vaccine could be available to the younger age group, which is not the last to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination in late June.”
The real-world study on the effectiveness of Paxlovid shows benefits for people 65 and older
Paxlovid reduced COVID hospitalization by 67% and reduced death by 81% among people aged 65 years or older, compared with those in this age group who did not take the oral antiviral. according to an Israeli study of about 109,000 people who had an omicron infection. But younger adults, those in their 40s and 64s, showed no significant benefit from taking Paxlovid, the study found. Most people in the study had some immunity, either from vaccination, previous infection, or hybrid immunity. The research, which has not been peer-reviewed, was published on Wednesday and is one of the first real-world analyzes of the effectiveness of Paxlovid during omicron. Clinical trials of the drug were performed when circulating delta and other previous variants and found that Paxlovid reduces hospitalization or death by 88%.
The CDC predicts up to 5,400 new deaths from COVID-19 next month
There will be up to an additional 5,400 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. during the week ending June 25, according to forecasting models used by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. California is projected to have a total of 400 deaths, according to the models. The United States now has an average of about 301 COVID deaths a day, 10% more than the previous week. Nearly 3,500 Americans are hospitalized daily with COVID-19, as the country has an average of 94,260 new cases a day.
Dogs are better than rapid tests for COVID, the study suggests
Dogs are better …