The Biden administration will significantly loosen federal mask-wearing guidelines that advised Americans to wear masks in indoor public settings on Friday, according to two people familiar with the matter.https://t.co/gaPeausGDq
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 24, 2022
… The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday will announce a change to the metrics it uses to determine whether to recommend face coverings, shifting from looking at COVID-19 case counts to a more holistic view of risk from the coronavirus to a community. Under current guidelines, masks are recommended for people residing in communities of substantial or high transmission — roughly 95% of U.S. counties, according to the latest data.
The new metrics will still consider caseloads, but also take into account hospitalizations and local hospital capacity, which have been markedly improved during the emergence of the omicron variant. That strain is highly transmissible, but indications are that it is less severe than earlier strains, particularly for people who are fully vaccinated and boosted. Under the new guidelines, the vast majority of Americans will no longer live in areas where indoor masking in public is recommended, based on current data.
The new policy comes as the Biden administration moves to shift its focus to preventing serious illness and death from COVID-19, rather than all instances of infection, as part of a strategy adjustment for a new “phase” in the response as the virus becomes endemic…
The change comes as nearly all U.S. states that had put in place indoor mask-wearing mandates for the winter omicron surge are letting them lapse as cases have precipitously dropped nationwide. Some have eliminated the mandates entirely, while others have kept mask-wearing requirements in place for schools and medical facilities.
It was not immediately clear how the new CDC guidance would affect U.S. federal mandates requiring face coverings on public transportation.
Moderna Inc executives said on Thursday they believe a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot will be needed late this year due to waning protection from earlier doses, which could push up sales in the second half of 2022. https://t.co/oqZ8fbvM60
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
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Negotiations on new rules for dealing with pandemics will begin at the World Health Organization, with a target date of May 2024 for a treaty to be adopted by 194 member countries. https://t.co/5d9WZTfxmf
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
Sad global impact: More than 5 million kids have been orphaned as a result of the pandemic, according to new estimates. Updated model finds “heartbreaking” levels of orphanhood in 2021 https://t.co/qCBJQMqwDP
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 25, 2022
Mainland China posts highest number of imported COVID cases in nearly 2 years https://t.co/QtgZELZ20f pic.twitter.com/aJjTCi9nyz
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 25, 2022
… The mainland detected a total of 142 imported cases with confirmed symptoms for Thursday, the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Friday.
That marks the highest imported caseload since the authority began classifying domestically transmitted cases and infected travellers from outside the mainland separately, in March 2020.
More than 100 imported cases came from Hong Kong, with 47 reported in the southern city of Shenzhen and 51 in the eastern municipality of Shanghai, local health authorities’ bulletins showed. The capital Beijing also detected seven symptomatic cases arriving from Hong Kong.
Dozens of truck drivers who travel between Shenzhen and Hong Kong tested positive for the virus this month, data from the Shenzhen authority showed.
Shenzhen, which has suspended or terminated quarantine exemptions for 882 cross-border drivers who violated virus control rules, said it would have patrol and video cameras in place to prevent breaches by drivers…
No new deaths were reported, leaving the death toll at 4,636.
As of Feb. 24, mainland China had reported a total of 108,604 cases with confirmed symptoms, including both local and imported ones.
Analysis: China steps in to steer Hong Kong’s COVID crisis as risks loom https://t.co/VaM2Czro2G pic.twitter.com/JmtcGgyaji
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 25, 2022
“Hong Kong, once known as the freest economy on earth and ‘Asia’s World City,’ is now second only to Pakistan as the worst place to live during Covid”https://t.co/vVx591Nw2m pic.twitter.com/takCHFi1dU
— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) February 25, 2022
A tale of two cities.
Rivals Singapore and Hong Kong have become pandemic polar opposites, the former opting to live with the coronavirus and reopen to the world while the latter doubles down on zero-Covid and its international isolationhttps://t.co/kU8vovFv8T pic.twitter.com/YN4V5EomYr
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) February 25, 2022
Japan said on Thursday international travellers showing proof of a COVID-19 vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot would be allowed in and be eligible for a shorter time in quarantine when border controls are eased next month. https://t.co/59J7xgrpHo
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
Japan’s Shionogi seeks approval for COVID-19 pill https://t.co/2aVrwlWIgh pic.twitter.com/xoWzMkF3Vm
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 25, 2022
New Zealand reports 12,011 new coronavirus cases, nearly doubling yesterday’s record
— BNO Newsroom (@BNODesk) February 25, 2022
Russia faking Covid data
“A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that such a low-variation week would occur by chance once every 2,747 years.”https://t.co/BuO2zLJVua on work by @hippopedoid pic.twitter.com/OPqWzQ4BsZ— Eric Topol (@EricTopol) February 24, 2022
Another casualty of Russia’s invasion: Ukraine’s ability to control the coronavirus. Ukraine’s civilian population has been forced into a mass migration into crowded subways, which are serving as bomb shelters https://t.co/I2EVW05lAK & https://t.co/2HPsKIMXO8
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 25, 2022
… The coronavirus outlook for those fleeing the fighting is grim, according to Dr. Eric S. Toner, a senior scholar at the Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University…
Senior Biden administration officials say that between one million and five million people in Ukraine could seek safety in some other part of that country or in neighboring countries. On Thursday, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said that it was already increasing its operations in Ukraine and neighboring countries.
Dr. Toner said that he expected Ukraine’s neighbors to see a rise in their Covid case numbers and additional stress on their health care systems from refugees, but those problems will be worse inside Ukraine.
“They’re going to be caring for Covid patients, along with war victims,” he said. “They’re going to be understaffed because of the war, and it’s going to harm their chances of keeping patients in isolation or have social distancing. It’s going to be a mess.”
Ukraine is reporting an average of about 26,000 new cases a day, or 63 new cases per 100,000 people, according to the Our World in Data project at the University of Oxford. Only about one-third of Ukraine’s 44 million people are fully inoculated against the coronavirus, though Ukrainian officials said this month that the army had a 99 percent vaccination rate…
The Russian invasion is also likely to hurt Ukraine’s ability to track the virus, Dr. Toner said. If the county’s data becomes unreliable, that would be a particularly important loss for epidemiologists because the country is in the heart of Eastern Europe.
“I would suspect that we’re going to stop getting a lot of data from Ukraine,” Dr. Toner said. “The hospitals and local health departments are not going to have that as a priority. ”
The European Union’s health regulator on Thursday backed giving a booster shot of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents aged 12 and over, as well as the expanded use of Moderna’s shot in children ages six to 11. https://t.co/09Z0lUAMOr
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 25, 2022
Covid: Millions of vaccine doses destroyed in England https://t.co/8AIUaPry1J
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 25, 2022
London drops Tube mask rule as part of “living with the virus.”
Is the U.K. ready? https://t.co/QtxZUMcFGB
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 25, 2022
The Omicron BA.2 sub-variant of COVID-19 appears to be more infectious than the original BA.1 sub-variant, but does not cause more severe disease, the head of Africa’s top public health body said on Thursday citing data from South Africa. https://t.co/zTaJujTufH
— Reuters Health (@Reuters_Health) February 24, 2022
A new distribution system is helping African countries ramp up vaccinations. Previously, the WHO sent doses to African countries as they became available. Since January, countries have requested vaccines as needed, resulting in an increase in vaccinations https://t.co/hSTwsvjjSp
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 24, 2022
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How we already understand long-term Covid vaccine safety https://t.co/AnqZXbHvuL
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) February 25, 2022
Newly diagnosed diabetes in Covid patients may be transitory. New Harvard study. High diabetes rates have been diagnosed in Covid patients. Yet, even w/ the new finding it’s still unclear if some of these are new cases or previously undiagnosed ones https://t.co/Q2rYoOEE9W pic.twitter.com/pR78dxu6kW
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 24, 2022
SARSCoV2 is moving between humans & wildlife in the U.S. Pre-pandemic, coronaviruses were linked to common cold strains & specific animal diseases. As the pandemic wears on, multiple species are affected by SARS2 —& are capable of passing it back & forth https://t.co/0xbc4f7fB9 pic.twitter.com/iItZkslF40
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 24, 2022
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Nurses have finally learned what they’re worth. As the coronavirus spread, demand for nurses came from every corner. Some jobs for traveling nurses paid more than $10,000 a week. Question: will the boom last? https://t.co/pjZYSCHUQA pic.twitter.com/KtF0BCclMO
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 24, 2022
Kentucky is one of the least vaccinated states in the country & still struggles w/ the coronavirus. It has a high positivity rate & high Covid hospitalizations. Average Kentucky positivity rate is ~11% compared w/ 2% in NY where #omicron has already peaked https://t.co/ezBS3WNhVl pic.twitter.com/I2wYJPd9uA
— delthia ricks ? (@DelthiaRicks) February 25, 2022
COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, Feb. 24-25Post + Comments (49)