Global covid-19 death toll tops 6 million, another grim milestone in the pandemichttps://t.co/LkBtO7Ya9U
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 8, 2022
… Even as vaccination rates rose in parts of the world, the daily average of covid deaths stood at 9,000 during the past 28 days, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
About 4 percent of all covid deaths worldwide were recorded in the past month.
“The idea we would get to 6 million is really inconceivable when I think back to two years ago,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of AVAC, an HIV prevention organization that also advocates for global coronavirus vaccine equity. “Everything that has happened in the last 12 months, though, is a marker of our inability of translating the remarkable scientific progress, the remarkable product development into impact.”…
No matter where it happens on the map, the more the virus spreads, the more likely new variants are to emerge, said Aditi Nerurkar, a Harvard Medical School physician and lecturer on global health. The omicron variant was first detected in southern Africa late last year and quickly spread to other continents, leading to a resurgent wave of the pandemic.
Nerurkar said the new global death total showed that the United States cannot declare victory against the pandemic while the virus continues to spread across an under-vaccinated globe.
Coronavirus indicators already were relatively high in Eastern Europe before Russia invaded Ukraine. Nerurkar said global conflicts historically have accelerated the spread of infectious diseases. Researchers say the 1918-1919 flu pandemic was worsened by global movements during World War I…
A roadmap to get from the Covid pandemic to the 'next normal' – STAThttps://t.co/ilLk8oku2C
— Global Health Observ (@GlobalPHObserv) March 7, 2022
… The report plots a course to what its authors call the “next normal” — living with the SARS-CoV-2 virus as a continuing threat that needs to be managed. Doing so will require improvements on a number of fronts, from better surveillance for Covid and other pathogens to keeping tabs on how taxed hospitals are; and from efforts to address the air quality in buildings to continued investment in antiviral drugs and better vaccines. The authors also call for offering people sick with respiratory symptoms easy access to testing and, if they are positive for Covid or influenza, a quick prescription for the relevant antiviral drug.
The 136-page report was written by nearly two dozen experts, a number of whom have advised the Biden administration on its Covid-19 policies. Thirty other experts contributed to the report, entitled “Getting to and Sustaining the Next Normal: A Roadmap to Living with Covid.”…
The authors sketch out three scenarios the country may face in the near future with Covid-19 — one optimistic, one pessimistic, and the third midway between the two. Which will come to pass will depend on how well immunity to the SARS-2 virus — immunity acquired through vaccination or infection — holds up and whether mutations to the virus make it more infectious and/or more lethal.
In the optimistic scenario, where immunity holds up and the virus doesn’t evolve to trigger more severe disease, it’s possible that annual Covid deaths could be kept to between 15,000 and 30,000, the experts predict. At the other end of the scale, if a more virulent variant emerges and immunity wanes — leading to a substantially higher attack rate in a given year — the death toll could be nearly 10 times that of the optimistic scenario, they warn. In the intermediate scenario, they estimate that between 30,000 and 100,000 people could die from Covid annually.
The group suggests the country should aim to keep the annual death toll from respiratory infections like Covid, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus to about 60,000 a year — roughly the number of deaths that influenza causes in a bad flu season…
For people who never got COVID, what are the odds they never will?
Here’s what experts say: https://t.co/1sIzbhnyRG
— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) March 7, 2022
… While during the omicron surge experts and public health officials cautioned that the highly contagious variant would infect many people, they don’t think ending up with the virus is inevitable, at least in the near future. But, they say, it’s going to require a fine balance as we transition into the endemic stage of COVID-19.
“From my perspective, no, it’s not inevitable” over the next year or two, said UCSF Chair of Medicine Dr. Bob Wachter, who also hasn’t gotten COVID yet. He said when case rates are low, as they are now in the Bay Area, the roughly 60% of the population that has not had COVID is unlikely to get it, “since they won’t be exposed very much.”
Those who are vaccinated and boosted, he added, “will remain relatively protected even if they do get exposed.”
Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at UCSF, agreed, adding that as long as we’re in the transition period into the endemic stage of the virus, there’s no clear answer for whether you’ll inevitably get COVID in the long run — but it doesn’t have to be now.
“Are we all going to get it? Yes, biologically, that might happen,” he said. “Are we at a time to embrace that philosophy? No, because the virus is still causing a lot of suffering. Almost 2,000 deaths per day is no walk in the park.”…
Experts also said there are benefits to avoiding infection for now, even if it’s possible you contract the coronavirus later: The longer the pandemic goes on, the more we understand about the virus, they said, which means that treatments are likely to be better and more accessible.
“Delaying infections is actually an undervalued or underappreciated point,” Karan said. “Who knows what we’ll have six months or a year from now, right? We’ll have even more things that we can offer patients.”
While there are no guarantees in a pandemic, experts said, the most important thing is for people to start finding ways to return to life while staying flexible as the virus continues to fluctuate.
“Even for the highest risk population, there’s a balance,” Chin-Hong said. “It’s about engaging with life and not being lonely, but also being responsible at all levels.”
U.S. CDC urges Americans to avoid travel to Hong Kong, New Zealand https://t.co/G3eOBpgAXQ pic.twitter.com/sPfsTKhP9R
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 8, 2022
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The official global death toll from COVID-19 has eclipsed 6 million — underscoring that the pandemic is far from over.
Here are the stories of some of the people who died during the pandemic, and the impact they had on those they left behind.⬇️https://t.co/KeadgFsUEW pic.twitter.com/36WYqvEDgy
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 7, 2022
These stories are part of an @AP series remembering people who have died from coronavirus around the world, the lives they lived and the impact they had on those they left behind.https://t.co/MtHeiprU4H
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 7, 2022
A surge in cases is challenging China's "zero Covid" approach. The country is facing its biggest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic with more than 800 new cases rover the weekend — almost as many as were reported during the previous week. https://t.co/mU9xyy2Lvj
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 7, 2022
Omicron has been unstoppable everywhere it's gone. Can't see China being different. https://t.co/aDR5NJ0jXi
— Helen Branswell ?? (@HelenBranswell) March 7, 2022
… China’s National Health Commission said Monday that it had detected 526 domestic infection cases, 214 of which were symptomatic, on the prior day, marking the single highest daily tally by either measure since the initial pandemic outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in early 2020.
Most of those who tested positive on Sunday were in the eastern port cities of Qingdao and Shanghai, with others detected in the southern province of Guangdong and the northeastern province of Jilin.
For now, China is sticking to what it calls a “dynamic clearing” policy that requires local authorities to bring any outbreak under control as quickly as possible by identifying the source of the outbreak and isolating all infected patients and their close contacts.
At the same time, Chinese health experts have begun exploring options to pivot away from the current pandemic-response model, such as tinkering with its current combination—effective but laborious and costly—of digital surveillance, tight border controls, mass testing and targeted lockdowns to prevent and suppress larger outbreaks.
The flareup in Qingdao centers on middle-school students and teachers in Laixi county, accounting for most of Monday’s 163 newly identified cases in the city. All of them were found to have been infected with the highly virulent Omicron strain and were identified through mass testing of more than 3,000 people classified as close contacts of several infected students, according to data provided by local health authorities.
The roughly 60 new cases in northeastern Jilin were detected during a round of citywide mass testing, according to local media reports.
In Shanghai, almost all of the 48 cases identified there were travelers from Hong Kong who were undergoing a 14-day hotel quarantine…
As of Sunday, Chinese health authorities said they had officially recorded 102,722 symptomatic Covid-19 cases in mainland China, resulting in 4,636 deaths, since the beginning of the pandemic.
China says Hong Kong's priority is to cut COVID infections, deaths https://t.co/mXsTgV9uEm pic.twitter.com/2a7Jq7WrbL
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 8, 2022
Hong Kong reported 25,150 new coronavirus infections and 280 deaths on Monday, as authorities struggle to contain a worsening COVID-19 outbreak which has torn through hundreds of nursing homes and hit many of the city's unvaccinated elderly. https://t.co/iq20UUxBUP
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 7, 2022
PHOTOS: The omicron variant is overwhelming Hong Kong, prompting mass testing, quarantines, supermarket panic-buying and a shortage of hospital beds. Even the morgues are overflowing, forcing authorities to store bodies in refrigerated shipping containers. https://t.co/LVzvYmyEXE
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 8, 2022
India Records 3,993 Fresh Covid Cases, Lowest In 662 days https://t.co/FGlVTbyzDB pic.twitter.com/5q0wEAXIJg
— NDTV News feed (@ndtvfeed) March 8, 2022
"We would like the government to declare [the coronavirus as] endemic as soon as possible," said the Japan Business Federation, the country's top business lobby.https://t.co/4FeksHKiFd#Japan #COVID19 #Japantravelban #Japanentryban
— Nikkei Asia (@NikkeiAsia) March 8, 2022
Bali scraps quarantine requirement for foreign visitorshttps://t.co/CF1lZwofPj
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 7, 2022
Moderna has picked Kenya as the location for its first mRNA vaccine factory in Africa and said it expects to invest $500 million in the facility https://t.co/cQ4ZQzordH pic.twitter.com/5phAsvYz14
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 8, 2022
Mexico reported 42 more confirmed fatalities from COVID-19 on Monday, bringing the total death toll in the country since the pandemic began to 319,901, according to health ministry data. https://t.co/RE5oqjwmOx
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 8, 2022
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COVID-19 can cause the brain to shrink, reduce grey matter in the regions that control emotion and memory, and damage areas that control the sense of smell, an Oxford University study has found. https://t.co/Mqf5qdWtPT
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 8, 2022
New #COVID19 diagnoses are declining worldwide — except in Asia — and #Omicron is 99% of it. But analysis of subvariants shows the original form is overtaken now by types 1.1 and 2.0. Significance? A matter of debates.https://t.co/9fLHc7DNjX pic.twitter.com/ToroojXQJE
— Laurie Garrett (@Laurie_Garrett) March 7, 2022
Omicron infections contagious for at least 6 days; Takeda drug shows promise as COVID treatment https://t.co/JbELAEW4UH pic.twitter.com/Lo9LMt43Xb
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 8, 2022
Scientists have pinpointed 16 new genetic variants in people who developed severe COVID-19 in a large study published on Monday that could help researchers develop treatments for very sick patients. https://t.co/LgSjlhI6JS
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) March 8, 2022
Covid vaccines not linked to deaths, major US study finds https://t.co/pgRl3XsGfy
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 8, 2022
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Rural areas are losing hospitals at a rapid pace. But in states where Covid hit hardest & where hospitals are closing, residents are still harassing public officials.
Boise's mayor says she faces death threats bc people don't like public health protections https://t.co/bCFgiO7D0k https://t.co/HdrsibCSd1— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 7, 2022
Some major school districts in the U.S. are allowing students into classrooms without masks for the first time in nearly two years. Throughout the pandemic, mask requirements stirred up intense fights among educators, school boards and parents. https://t.co/RqwVMOhuWA
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 8, 2022
New York City residents sounded cautiously optimistic as indoor venues, such as restaurants, fitness centers and entertainment spaces, are no longer required to check customers’ vaccine status before entry pic.twitter.com/tT9Dl2uxXc
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 8, 2022
Puerto Rico, among the last U.S. holdouts with a mask mandate, has decided to ease precautions as Covid cases subside. The governor has lifted the territory’s mask mandate for most places. Although they are still required in healthcare facilities https://t.co/9mzLwyNEBS pic.twitter.com/AJQfZswEFW
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) March 8, 2022
Florida's top health official said the state would recommend against the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children, breaking with guidance from the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention https://t.co/cDp7nRFHVX pic.twitter.com/m7WyjeO8t0
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 8, 2022
None of the experts I spoke to today think Florida's recommendation against Covid vaccination for healthy kids holds any legal sway. @doritmi called it "performative." But that doesn't mean it won't have impact, they warn. https://t.co/LG8nok26V5
— Helen Branswell ?? (@HelenBranswell) March 7, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Update: Monday / Tuesday, MarchPost + Comments (55)