LONDON Looking at the Covid case data in the U.S., U.K. and the rest of Europe, you'd be forgiven for thinking that, despite 18 months of a global health crisis and advanced vaccination rollouts, we're in just as bad a situation as we ever were. The death rate in Hong Kong has soared this month, surpassing 25 per 100,000 residents in the past week. About a third of Americans now live in an area with medium or high COVID-19 rates, withreported cases up26% from last week, said Dr. RochelleWalensky, director of theCenters for Disease Control an Prevention. As a result, the virus has already swept through these communities, conferring at least some immunity on many people. Elsewhere, France, Switzerland, Italy and the Netherlands are also seeing Covid infections start to rise again, aided and abetted by the relaxation of coronavirus measures and the spread of a new subvariant of omicron, known as BA.2. Nearby counties Placer, Yolo and El Dorado are also at the medium . The death rates in those countries are far lower than in Hong Kong, because of higher vaccination rates. Heis fully vaccinated and boosted. Yes, behavior change is tough. But the Omicron variant is so contagious that it overwhelmed Hong Kongs zero-Covid strategy. Dr. Andrew Freedman, an academic covering infectious disease at Cardiff Medical School, told CNBC he doesn't think we need to be too concerned about BA.2, despite the fact that it is slightly more contagious. There are now at least four omicron subvariants circulating in the United States. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, most children in Erasmo da Rotterdam high school in the Nichelino district attend alternate days of distance learning and in-class participation as part of the school district's hybrid education model. Waning immunity and relaxation of public policies and infection prevention measures also played a role. For example, in a tweet that he has since deleted, Scott Atlas, MD, who is a neuroradiologist and not an infectious disease or pandemic expert, suggested that people should rise up against Covid-19 coronavirus prevention measures, measures that real public health experts have been promoting: Atlas has certainly not been the only person (or bot) urging people to not cooperate with Covid-19 coronavirus control measures. Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes. ", As long as the virus continues to spread and replicate, particularly in populations which are undervaccinated or where vaccine-induced immunity is decaying, "it will throw up new variants and these will remain a continual threat even to those countries with high rates of vaccination," Young noted. ", How COVID-19 has changed our society after two years. 20% . BA.2, known as the "stealth"omicron variant, is making up a growing number of cases in some countries, andsome studiesshow that itmay be up to 30% more transmissible than the original omicron variant. What kind of questionable information is still being spread about the pandemic? When looking at deaths by week, nine were reported for the first week of February, according to the latest data available. Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London, explained to CNBC that societies need to assess to what extent they will tolerate the virus. And some states may block access to abortion pills, which can be sent through the mail. Of the 43,089 inpatient beds being used in Florida, 1,472, or about 3% of the beds, are being used for COVID-19, according to data from the U.S . All Rights Reserved. Public health officials and scientists are closely monitoring BA.2, which has been described as a "stealth" variant because it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to distinguish from the delta variant using PCR tests, compared with the original omicron variant, BA.1. While many of those 55 percent may have had an earlier version of Covid, immunity can wane over time. "At this point, a new wave COVID-19 anywhere ought to be viewed as a potential new wave worldwide," Omenka said. OK, the flu and other respiratory viruses may not have arrived in full force yet. Summertime Gallery is redefining what outsider means, one art show at a time. When a person is exposed to the coronavirus, it can take up to two weeks before he or she becomes ill, gets tested and the case is counted in the data. They are working with manufacturers to stock up on equipment, and they are continuing their policies for protecting patients and staff members. P.S. COVID-19 infections continue to rise, driven by new and more infectious omicron subvariants, waning immunity from both vaccines and previous infections and fewer people masking up, health officials said at a White House briefing Wednesday. Both inpatient and ICU COVID-19 hospitalization cases make up about 3% of bed occupancy in their respective departments. Colder temperatures, increased socialising, waning immunity and Omicron subvariants are all causing a coronavirus increase in the UK. Omicron immunity should protect against new BA.2 Covid variant, says Dr. Scott Gottlieb. The QR code system was followed at most nightclubs as well. The sign included the phrase, Theyre lying to you here.. Even though the U.S. has a lower vaccination rate than Western Europe, this country may still have built up more immunity thanks to our politically polarized response to the virus. Others are dubious of Western medicine or have been influenced by misinformation, as my colleagues Alexandra Stevenson and Austin Ramzy have reported. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. A second booster of Pfizers Covid vaccine provides modest additional protection against Omicron, a study in Israel found. By March, the daily number of new infections had steeply declined, and April through June saw those numbers go down even further. When these arent automatically present anymore, youve got to add more cheese please. But the government has warned that as cases rise, hospital admissions, too, could see an uptick in the near future. Heres todays Mini Crossword, and a clue: Cake levels (five letters). But the good news, said Ott, is if they get vaccinated they have a shot at "super immunity.". It's not believed currently that the BA.2 variant causes more severe illness or carries an increased the risk of being hospitalized, however further research is needed to confirm this, according to a U.K. parliamentary report published last week. But negotiations offered a glimmer of hope. After 97 days, India reports more than 300 coronavirus cases. Assuming that you dont have a gigantic space heater and humidifier, theres not much you can do about the change in seasons. While the . 4. Learn more about coronavirus variants. Cases of BA.2 made up an estimated 11.6% percent of cases in the United States as of March 5, according to CDC data, up from 6.6% Feb. 26. 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And spread. I wont get vaccinated as long as I have a choice.. The current 7-day . Just as the U.S. has finally turned the corner on a wave of COVID-19 cases caused by the omicron variant, multiple countries in Europe are showing an increase in infections - fueling concerns . Coronavirus cases are on the rise in Florida largely among two groups of people -- the young and the unvaccinated. All of this has been about as surprising as the movie Mars Needs Moms being a box-office flop. More people are gathering indoors to eat, drink, celebrate and socialize without physical distancing. In fact, the government blamed young people for faking QR codes just to get into these venues. After. "The extremes of the argument are, either that, at least until we see what happens in autumn/winter, we've achieved our goal as relatively high vaccine rollout has meant that hospitals can just about cope Or, the other view is that we'll never have normality unless we strive for a zero-Covid strategy, which would need to encompass vaccination in our schools to stop spread there," he noted. An increase in the number of COVID-19 cases or hospitalizations is typically not seen until weeks after a policy or behavior change occurs. Both incidentally were records. Anyone can read what you share. Hundreds of satellites and spacecraft are watching Russias nuclear forces. XBB, BQ.1.1, BA.2.75.2 a variant swarm could fuel a winter . Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins Medicine, sheds light on what we know now about COVID-19 in communities and why the number of infections increases during certain times. "Living safely with Covid doesn't mean ignoring the virus and hoping it will go away forever.". Covid cases are higher in the UK than in any of those countries - but we can't necessarily say that one is causing the other. Farnaz Fassihi is The Timess next United Nations bureau chief, and Zachary Woolfe will become the classical music critic. In December 2022 about one in five hospital patients was reported to have COVID-19. This may sound like a broken record, but the U.S. response to the pandemic has been, in the words of Lovelytheband, broken. That should be highly protective, Andy Slavitt, a former Biden administration adviser, wrote yesterday. ", Another factor at play in the rise of cases and a possible next wave: human behavior surrounding virus prevention measures. Zelensky also stepped up his appeals to Russian soldiers and citizens to end the fighting. New Zealand is maintaining its strategy, for now. The newer strains are even more infectious than previous strains, adding to the increase in cases. Support our coverage by becoming a . According to the data released by the Dutch public health institute, four in 10 of the new infections were contracted in bars and clubs. It may be too early to see a signal, Jennifer Nuzzo, a Brown University epidemiologist, told me. Most cases are now caused by the BA.2 variant of Omicron. Get this delivered to your inbox, and more info about our products and services. We want to hear from you. Under 25. Help wanted: Adjunct professor, must have doctorate. The latest rise in cases in today's ONS figures is very modest compared to the surges in the Delta and Omicron waves. A Times classic: How social isolation hurts your health. About a year ago, more than 100 entertainment-industry choreographers began creating the Choreographers Guild, which is now in the process of becoming an official labor union, Margaret Fuhrer writes in The Times. Advice from Wirecutter: Stainless steel cookware sets that last. Covid death rates have been much higher in counties that voted for Donald Trump than those that voted for Joe Biden. Instead, thefindings showed people infected with omicron onlyget protection against infections fromomicron subvariants, not infections fromotherstrains of the virus. Over 2.4 million COVID-19 cases have been tallied in Arizona with a recent increase of more than 26,000. But this has become a broken record. The possible European surge also comes alongside conflict in Ukraine after the Russian invasion, leading to rising concerns about a public health crisis in the region sparked bydensely crowded shelters andforced travel across borders. A Division of NBCUniversal. A lot of the debate around Covid currently, Altmann said, "comes back to that policy/philosophy debate about what we're now trying to achieve.". A blog post from the state health department reported most of the newly reported cases are due to a lab failing to report case data from 2022. Europe isn't the only part of the world seeing a spike in COVID-19 cases. This makes the emergence and growing prevalence of the BA.2 variant a point of concern for the U.S. where cases have nose-dived recently to reassuring lows. The shutdowns could ripple across the global economy, exacerbating goods shortages and inflation. (Photo by Pablo Monsalve/VIEWpress via Getty Images), Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images), school on November 23, 2020 in Turin, Italy. Epidemiologists and public health experts have long-expressed the view that Covid-19 is just something we're going to have to get used to, that the virus will become endemic and cannot now be eradicated. The Times has launched a channel on the app Telegram to reach people in Russia and Ukraine. Its something that Ian M. Mackay, PhD, a scientist and an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland illustrated in the following tweet: As you can see, all organizations such as businesses and schools needed to have multiple layers of protection in place because any single intervention alone like the plot of the movie The Dark Knight Rises would have lots of holes. The skateboarder Tony Hawk has originated over 100 skateboard tricks, according to a gripping documentary about his bumpy rise to fame. "Those catching Covid now are a mixture of unvaccinated, partially vaccinated and double vaccinated people. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has mutated (changed), resulting in variants of the virus. Its also a reason for the federal government and states to expand access to both Evusheld a drug that can help protect the immunocompromised and Paxlovid a post-infection treatment. Daily new covid hospital admissions are now above 9,000 after hovering between 5,000 and 7,000 for much of autumn. To many peoples surprise including mine new Covid-19 cases in the U.S. have not begun to rise. The BA.2 variant is now responsible for over half of the new cases in Germany and makes up around 11% of cases in the U.S. That number is expected to rise further, as it has in Europe. The only restriction that remained was a mandatory 1.5-metre social distancing norm. Despite the sharp rise in cases, the number of vaccines being administered across the country has petered out in the last few weeks. Fewer people are vaccinated, which means a large number of people are vulnerable to infection. The pangram from yesterdays Spelling Bee was captivity. Why? Satellite image of massive Oregon wildfires goes viral on social media, Copyright 2023 The Indian Express [P] Ltd. All Rights Reserved, Explained: Why Covid-19 cases in Netherlands surged by 500% in a week, Shoppers, some wearing face masks, at a food market in Amsterdam on Oct. 17, 2020. Note: Chart shows the seven-day averages. The Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has already resulted in over 265,000 deaths in America, a number [+] that will likely increase significantly over the coming months. According to the data released by the Dutch public health institute, four in 10 of the new infections were contracted in bars and clubs. Commuters at Grand Central Terminal during morning rush hour in Manhattan last week. China ordered a lockdown of the residents of the city of Changchun, closed schools in Shanghaiand urgedthe public not to leave Beijing this weekendamid a new spike in cases in the area likely fromomicron. Lives Lived: Bobby Rydell became a teenage idol in the 1950s. Jha is on leave from his position as dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and began his newWhite House position in March. In comparison, only 3,379 cases were added in last week's state update. The Dutch government has blamed nightlife settings and parties for the surge. If you do nothing about a contagious virus, the virus will continue to spread. By hindustantimes.com. Even if clinical studies show that the delta variant reduces the efficacy of vaccines, Altmann noted "there's so much protective headroom that 'most' people should be safe.". Hospitalisations increased by 11 per cent over the past week, according to the Dutch Institute for Public Health. These factors include the effectiveness of vaccines over time, human behavior, infection prevention policies, changes to the coronavirus itself, and the number of people who are vulnerable because they have not developed some immunity, whether from natural infection or through vaccination. It takes even more time for additional people to become ill after being exposed to that person, and so on. Sequenced data from Feb. 27 to March 6 found that 68.6% of cases were omicron lineage BA.2, with just 31.1% omicron BA.1. While viruses always mutate, there's a higher threat for populations when COVID-19 is active and able to spread in communities, according to Omenka. By July 10, cases rose to 10,345. This would be a lot more threatening and keep people more on the alert. The cartoonist David Sipresss memoir Whats So Funny? is endearingly vulnerable, Alexandra Jacobs writes. But stay tuned. Remember: About 45 percent of Americans were infected with Omicron, which leaves about 55 percent who were not. according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Those calling for a zero-Covid strategy encompassed people who believed that "we're sitting ducks in perpetuity for ever more cases, until we allow through a much more resistant variant to really scupper us," Altmann said. The Netherlands is among several European nations that are currently combating a surge in cases, largely attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant of the novel coronavirus. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. "However, our protection seems less robust against delta than we'd predicted when you consider that in the U.K. there are around 40,000 cases per day including many of these breakthroughs [and] people becoming significantly unwell though not hospitalised," he said, noting that data from Israel on giving booster shots showed that additional jabs could re-boost antibody levels and combat breakthrough cases. But like those, it could be partly driven by new sub-variants of the virus. Yesterday, outbreaks led to the closures of many theaters and restaurants in Shanghai, while several large factories including a major maker of iPhones suspended production. Ivanka Trump testified before the Jan. 6 committee. Instead, Swiss cheese should have been in place everywhere. Lets check back at these and see how we are doing with each: 1. (If youre looking for one of them, click on this link for Evusheld and this one for Paxlovid.). Why? Traditional dal takes about an hour to cook. Or more specifically: the elderly vaccination rate.. Note: Chart shows seven-day averages as of March 13. The current 7-day moving average is 123.6% . Thats not as high as New Yorks peak death rate in the spring of 2020, but it is higher than in any country today. P.S. Among the countries whose data has chartedan increased in cases, some have also seen a rise in hospitalizations, including Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. "The delta variant is highly contagious and this accounts for the continuing high number of cases now that we are mixing much more freely since most restrictions were eased," Andrew Freedman, a reader in infectious disease at Cardiff University School of Medicine, told CNBC Thursday. According to the New York Times, November 20 had over 194,000 new reported cases and over 82,000 people hospitalized due to Covid-19. Got a confidential news tip? 2023 CNBC LLC. Re-opening with too many holes can can leave you with a whole lot of trouble, which in turn can make you say hole-y bleep. Certainly the number of Covid cases being recorded daily in the West remains high, and even resembles earlier peaks at different points, or Covid waves, during the pandemic. Seemingly every day there is a new record number of reported Covid-19 coronavirus cases in the U.S. And Friday, which also happened to be National Absurdity Day, was no different. England, Spain and Franceare amongEuropean countries that recently announced a shift in pandemic strategy: treating the virus as a part of daily lifewithout full shutdowns. Former President Barack Obama tests positive for COVID-19, a lockdown of the residents of the city of Changchun, recently reversed its stance on booster shots, Global deaths from COVID may be more than 3 times higher than official toll, study says, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. It accounted for about 12 percent of newly diagnosed cases last week, according to the C.D.C. Yes. Of all the variants, only the original Omicron was so contagious that it spread around the world in predictable ways, he said. That's bad news for anyone who expects arecent case of COVID-19 will protect them against future cases of the rapidly mutating virus. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/briefing/covid-hong-kong-omicron-surge.html. This marked a drastic change in stance as Rutte had earlier defended the easing of restrictions as a logical step, and had denied that his government had any role to play in the surge. Advice from Wirecutter: The best travel gear. From left, the choreographers Aakomon Jones, Kathryn Burns and Kyle Hanagami. But a new wave looks less certain than it did a few weeks ago. Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way. That may sound delicious. Vincent Paterson, who created dances for Michael Jackson and Madonna in the 80s and 90s, said he felt optimistic about the unionization efforts because of dances current ubiquity in popular culture. The police arrested a suspect in a series of shootings of homeless men in New York and Washington. The UKHSA has done a preliminary analysis comparing vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease for BA.1 and BA.2 infections and found that the levels of protection are similar, with efficacy of up to 77% soon after a booster shot, although this wanes over time.