Monthly Archives: January 2022

CHAMPAIGN The stretch before New Years is usually a productive one for Black Dog Smoke and Ale House in downtown Champaign. Family and friends reunite there after returning to town for the holiday season.

Thats what owner Mike Cochran was gearing up for until he received calls, day and night, from employees whod gotten sick from COVID-19 or other illnesses.

Black Dog offered less seating, but it surprisingly met demand. Cochran said business was down 25 to 35 percent from what he expected last week probably from customers getting sick and being careful, he said.

When it comes to the pandemic and its effects, our crystal ball broke a long time ago, and the new one has been on back-order due to shipping delays, Cochran joked.

A new year has brought new precautions. State Farm Center is requiring vaccine or test to enter. Drivers facilities are closed for two weeks. The Esquire Lounge bar, with heavy hearts closed at 4 p.m. on New Years Eve.

A year out from the advent of several effective vaccines 204 million Americans, around 62 percent, have gotten their shots. Roughly 30 percent of those vaccinated have received a booster, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Yet the emergence of the delta and omicron variants in fall and winter, both known for their transmissibility, have wreaked havoc this holiday season.

Hours-long testing lines have snaked across the country, while states and counties, including Champaign, are setting new case records 21 months and change into the pandemic. COVID-19 patients majority unvaccinated are absorbing health-care resources.

Our health-care staff are exhausted and really feeling the strain of the surge in our community right now with more people than ever in our hospitals, emergency rooms and ICUs, said Carle Chief Medical Officer Dr. Charles Dennis. This can have a critical impact on our ability to deliver timely, non-COVID-19-related care, especially in our more rural locations.

So the question is: where do we go from here? What could the third calendar year of dealing with this virus have in store?

We asked Dennis and local epidemiologists Rebecca Smith and Awais Vaid to lay out their best- and worst-case scenarios for COVID-19 in 2022.

First, the hopeful: Omicron could burn itself out and prove to be less pathogenic, Smith said, and we could see cases lull near the start of spring.

Perhaps the emergency-use authorization to vaccinate the youngest children will be approved earlier than expected, and the Biden administrations proposed rollout of rapid tests will go smoothly and help contain spread, she added.

We are probably experiencing the worst-case scenario with the current wave, the pandemic however will end, said Vaid of the C-U public health district.

Conversely, the omicron spike could continue to grow if we throw caution to the wind. Despite its seemingly milder nature and widespread vaccination, the sheer volume of new cases could continue to overwhelm healthcare providers across the country.

Vaccinations could stagnate, Smith said, and a delay in vaccine authorization for young children may persist, leading to more cases and spread in schools and daycares.

A poor testing rollout, with technical glitches and/or low uptake, could combine with the CDCs new shortened asymptomatic isolation policy to result in more people working while infected, eventually shutting down businesses more due to sickness than would have been solely due to the 10-day isolation, Smith said.

Regardless of how the current surge pans out the last few COVID-19 spikes have petered within four to eight weeks endemic COVID-19, where cases remain in certain areas at a stable rate, will stay with us for a very long time, Vaid said.

In the short-term, vaccinations and boosters, indoor masking, testing and staying home, improved ventilation and personal hygiene are still our primary defense system. No variant so far has changed that.

Without everyones commitment to taking the preventative measures we know it will continue to be a challenge to stop the spread, Dennis said. We dont want to let this virus continue freely mutating and continuing to infect people and impact our way of life.

These days, Pastor Matt Matthews of First Presbyterian Church preaches behind a pane of Plexiglas, to a masked audience in the pews and dozens more watching a live-stream of the service at home.

He opts for it for the congregation members who are hearing-impaired, and wouldnt be able to understand him otherwise.

I look like the President behind bulletproof glass, he said. But change is the name of the game.

For other churches, businesses, schools and more, looking ahead has often proved to be a futile exercise.

On the recommendation of the churchs own COVID-19 response team, led by a retired doctor, First Presbyterian has vowed not to have congregation-wide dinners until cases are far lower or until people of all ages have access to a vaccine.

We want to include all our children, for us thats an extension and a natural part of our baptismal vows we take, Matthews said. We raise them in the faith and support them. We would not be doing that if we had a congregation-wide dinner, and exposed them to COVID.

The Stephens Family YMCA has had to adapt its exercise programming constantly to keep up with pandemic-era adjustments. Its mask mandate was temporarily lifted for fully vaccinated individuals, until cases rose again and state guidance changed.

Could more health precautions be on the way?

Obviously there are things being discussed like requiring vaccination for entry, vaccinating staff or testing, reservations for classes and pool usage, said Stephens YMCA CEO Jeff Scott. We arent excited about any of these options, but we will do them if it is absolutely necessary to help keep the community safe.

Rising cases havent quelled local interest in their facility: In the last 2 months, nearly 500 families have signed up for YMCA memberships. More aquatic classes were offered once it became clear that pool environments posed less of a risk for spread, Scott said.

Still, sports communities especially school teams are playing on pins and needles. Monticellos high school basketball and wrestling teams have managed to evade COVID-19 pauses or cancellations, but after this weeks tournaments? Who knows.

If you think back, we thought 1,200 cases in the state was a lot, and everyone was getting shut down, said Monticello Athletic Director and Assistant Principal Dan Sheehan. Now theres 22,000 cases, and its like, OK were playing basketball.

I wake up every day thinking Oh, great, were going to get an announcement, theres going to be some new statewide rules. You dont know whats coming next, and thats whats kind of scary.

Espresso Royale General Manager Aaron Bradley would usually be on break right now, if it werent for staff members at a different location testing positive and going into quarantine.

As a business, its about straddling that line between taking it very seriously and adapting to our new reality, Bradley said. We cant put the toothpaste back in the tube, the name of the game now is learning how to live in this world where COVID is a thing.

What hes concerned about, outside of the university community he usually serves, is how COVID-19 will continue to distort our information economy, or expose its flaws.

We cant move on to higher level problems, if were still talking about what two plus two equals, Bradley said. The pandemic wouldve been fixed if we didnt have this problem.

The grief of these last few years is incalculable. The virus has claimed more than 5 million lives worldwide, including more than 820,000 in the U.S.

Vaid, too, has lost close family and acquaintances to the virus. But even he can find reasons for optimism.

Our scientific community is collaborating and innovating at scale never imagined or done before in history, he said. We are much better prepared and have many more tools to respond as compared to March of 2020.

To some, the pandemic exposed cracks in institutions that needed upheavals.

There were some parts of our educational systems that needed to be changed in certain ways and benefited from the sense of urgency that our pandemic caused, said Franklin STEAM Academy Principal Sara Sanders, days before her school reopens.

Beyond health measures, officials across the board preached kindness. The mental health toll of this pandemic has been pervasive.

While we dont have the power to change what has happened, we do have the power to be humane to one another while we work through the debris of this pandemic, Sanders said.

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Coronavirus response | Where could the virus take us in 2022? - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

JERUSALEM Israel's prime minister is warning that the country will soon see tens of thousands of new coronavirus cases a day.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke at the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. He said that despite rolling out more than 4.2 million coronavirus booster shots to the country's population of 9.3 million since July, the storm is coming to us these very days.

Daily cases in Israel have risen in the past two weeks from around 700 to the more than 4,000 reported on Sunday.

These are numbers that the world has not known, and that we also havent known, Bennett said.

He said that the governments aim is to allow the economy to function as much as possible, while protecting the most vulnerable among us.

Israel has recorded at least 8,244 deaths from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

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Israel's PM warns of coming COVID-19 'storm' - News 5 Cleveland

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) The Ohio Department of Health has released the latest numbers related to the coronavirus pandemic in the state.

The reported numbers on Sunday will reflect the past 48 hours of data with the Ohio Department of Health not reporting numbers on New Years Day.

Numbers as of Sunday, Jan. 2 follow:

The 21-day case average is just under 13,000.

The department reported 1,619 people started the vaccination process, bringing the total to 7,003,020, which is 59.91% of the states population. And6,076received booster shots.

The Ohio Hospital Association reported the following numbers related to COVID-19 patients:

Top federal health officials are looking into adding a negative test along with its five-day isolation restrictions for those who are asymptomatic. Schools across the country are returning from winter break with COVID-19 protocol tweaks. More than 200 Marines were separated from service for refusing the Pentagons COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

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Coronavirus in Ohio Sunday update: More than 37,000 new cases over past two days - NBC4 WCMH-TV

The latest:

Ontario hospitals are feeling the brunt of soaring COVID-19 case counts as the virus rips through the province at record speed and infects high numbers of patients and health-care workers.

The situation has become so serious that some hospital networks are reporting that hundreds of their staff members have tested positive for the virus, are symptomatic or are in isolation after an exposure.

Kevin Smith, president and CEOof Toronto's University Health Network, says those factors combined have resulted in at least 100 staff absences per day as the highly transmissible Omicron variant drives case counts to unprecedented highs across the province.

"There aren't health-care workers growing on trees, so it's a very, very limited supply, and they're in hot demand everywhere," Smith said in a telephone interview.

The number of staff unable to work at UHN's five facilities in recent weeks including Toronto General, Toronto Western and Princess Margaret hospitals is higher than what the facilities experienced in previous waves of the virus.

The high number of unavailable staff comes as Smith has noticed fewer critically ill people entering hospital from the virus. This is despite the fact that Public Health Ontario reported 16,714 new infections on Sunday and a record 18,445 cases on Saturday, noting both figures are considered underestimates.

The number of active cases in the province has now crossed the 100,000 mark.

While Smith said staff are managing the current volumes well, he worriesabout the situation changing.

"I'm obviously worried that as we get people engaged in larger and larger amounts of social interaction, including in schools and other environments, there is risk of additional and significant spread," he said.

"Our hope is that populations like those wouldn't require hospitalization, but we have to be prepared for the fact that they will because in other countries, we're seeing kids' admissions going up."

To prepare, Smith is urging Health Canada to immediately approve Paxlovid, Pfizer's antiviral COVID-19 pills, for emergency use.

He is also looking at redeploying staff to areas most in need and pulling hospital doctors and nurses back from vaccine clinics, where they can be replaced with other regulated health-care workers.

West of Toronto, similar moves are being considered at Hamilton Health Sciences, which runs Hamilton General Hospital.

Earlier in the week, organization president and CEO Rob MacIsaac asked vacationing, part-time and casual staff to pick up extra hours in exchange for premium pay up until Wednesday.

He made the appeal as the new year began with at least 411 of his staff in isolation at home and numerous outbreaks across his hospital sites.

"Unfortunately, the Omicron variant has set us back several steps," MacIsaac said in a news release. "Consequently, we are once again facing immense pressures around hospital occupancy and staffing."

Hospitals were experiencing an increase in patients who tested positive for COVID-19. Many were admitted due to medical conditions not linked to the virus, he said.

More than 100 in-patients at his hospitals were positive for COVID-19 as of Dec. 31, and 13 were in intensive care units.

Emergency department volumes were simultaneously exceeding pre-pandemic volumes and seeing an increase in the number of patients arriving to the hospitals by ambulance on a daily basis.

On top of asking health-care workers to pick up extra shifts and hours, MacIsaac said his organization would turn to "extraordinary measures," such as ramping down "procedural and scheduled care" beginning on Tuesdayto divert resources to areas of "greatest need."

He also said he would soon share more information on plans to call back asymptomatic staff with a negative rapid antigen test, who are currently isolating at home, as well as efforts to deploy workers from ambulatory areas to support in-patient care.

With testing capacity strained,experts say true case counts are likely far higher than reported. Hospitalization data at the regional level is also evolving, with several provinces saying they will begin to report more precise data that separates the number of people in hospital because of COVID-19 from those in hospital for another medical issue who also happen to test positive for COVID-19.

In British Columbia, Pacific Coastal Airlines an operator that serves smaller communities throughout the province'sWest Coast and Interior has suspended operations for two days due to Omicron cases at its operational control centre at the South Terminal of the Vancouver International Airport.

In the Prairies, Manitoba is now permitting workers at child-care facilities, child and family services and others who have mild COVID-19 symptoms but have tested negative for the virus to return to work. Meanwhile, a number of trials and appearances scheduled to get underway in Alberta courts this month will be postponed following the enactment of stricter pandemic measures.

In Quebec,demonstrators in Montreal defied acurfew on Saturday evening to protest against measures imposed on residentsin an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19. The province reported15,845new casesofCOVID-19 on Sunday and 13new deaths.

In the Atlantic region, Newfoundland and Labrador has set asingle-day record for COVID-19 infections for asixth straight day with 466 cases announced on Sunday. Meanwhile,Nova Scotia logged1,893 infections over the past two days, and Prince Edward Island announced 137 cases since its last update onDec. 31. And starting Tuesday at 11:59 p.m., PCR tests will be available only for select populations deemed high risk in New Brunswick.

In the North, Nunavut confirmed another 22 caseson Sunday raising the territory's active case count to 196 and residents in the N.W.T. capital in need of a COVID-19 test will be able to attend a walk-in clinic on Monday morning.

As of Sunday, roughly289.4million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.4 million.

In Asia,India reported more than27,000 newcases on Sunday, data from the Health Ministry showed, amid growing concerns of a potential new surge stoked by the Omicron variant.

In Europe,the British government has been making contingency plans in case hospitals, schools and other workplaces are hit by major staff shortages amid the country's record-breaking spike in coronavirus infections.

In the Americas, passengers on the cruise ship MSC Preziosa had to wait more than six hours to disembark at Rio de Janeiro Sunday due to an inspection by Brazilian health authorities that confirmed 28 cases of COVID-19 on board 26 among passengers and two in crew members.

In Africa,South Africa has lifted a midnight to 4 a.m. curfew on people's movements, believing the country has passed the peak of its Omicron-driven fourth wave.

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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Sunday - CBC News

An unvaccinated couple with four children died on the same day after contracting COVID-19.

Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez, of Loma Linda in Southern California, died within hours of each other on 19 December, their family said.

Mr Fernandez, 44, was hesitant about getting a COVID vaccination so had not got his jab before developing symptoms a few days before. His wife, 42, was also unvaccinated.

Read more: What does the latest death and hospitalisation data tell us about Omicron?

His sister, Alma Hernandez, told Sky News affiliate NBC Los Angeles: "He wanted to wait and do more research. He googled information. He didn't want to believe everything that was on the news.

"This is kind of an eye-opener for everybody in my family that whoever is not vaccinated definitely should have their vaccinations."

She added that her brother suffered from underlying health problems, including diabetes.

Alvaro and Sylvia Fernandez had been together since she was 15 after meeting at high school, and were married for 25 years.

They both tested positive for COVID days before dying due to complications from the virus, Mr Fernandez's sister said.

The couple leave behind four children, including twins aged 17.

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"My brother and my sister-in-law, they were very close," said Salvador Fernandez, Alvaro's brother. "They were high school sweethearts. They've been together since she was 15.

"One couldn't live without the other."

An online fundraiser set up by Mr Fernandez's sister to help support their children had reached nearly $20,000 (14,800) by 2 January.

California has been experiencing a rise in COVID hospital admissions, with an increase of about 12% in the last seven days to 4,401.

However, this is less than half the late summer peak and a fifth of a year ago, before vaccines were widely available.

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COVID-19: Couple with four children die on same day after contracting coronavirus - and family encourages others to get vaccinated - Sky News

JETTE, Belgium (StudyFinds.org) People with long COVID may have suffered heart damage if they are still struggling to breathe during exercise a year on, researchers warn. Medical scans show patients who experience breathlessness a year after leaving hospital are more likely to experience cardiovascular problems, even if they never have before.

There is increasing evidence that coronavirus and its long-lasting symptoms such as shortness of breath, also known as dyspnoea, could cause heart issues. Belgian scientists have confirmed that those long COVID symptoms could be linked to the toll the virus takes on peoples hearts.

New scanning techniques could help identify patients who areat risk of developing long COVIDafter being infected.

The findings could help to explain why some patients with long COVID still experience breathlessness one year later and indicate that it might be linked to a decrease in heart performance, says study author Dr. Maria-Luiza Luchian, of University Hospital Brussels in Belgium, in astatement.

Researchers examined data from 66 patients without previous heart or lung diseasewho were hospitalized with COVID-19between March and April 2020. The patients lung capacity and longterm COVID symptoms were assessed a year after being discharged from hospital using special x-ray equipment known aschest computed tomography. Ultrasounds and a more modern imaging technique known asmyocardial workwere also carried out to examine patients heart health.

Scans of patients who continued to be short of breath a year after being hospitalized with COVIDshowed greater heart damage, the researchers report.

Our study shows that more than a third ofCOVID-19 patientswith no history of heart or lung disease had persistent dyspnoea on effort a year after discharge from hospital, says Dr. Luchian. When looking in detail at heart function by cardiac ultrasound, we observed subtle abnormalities that might explain the continued breathlessness.

According tothe American Academy of Physical and Rehabilitation, approximately 10% to 30% of Americans with COVID report having at least one symptom after six months.

New imaging techniques like myocardial work could help doctors keep an eyeon peoples heart healthafter recovering from COVID.

Myocardial work could be a new echocardiographic tool for early identification of heart function abnormalities in patients with long COVID-19, who might need more frequent and long-term cardiac surveillance, says Dr. Luchian. Future studies including differentCOVID-19 variantsand the impact of vaccination are needed to confirm our results on the long-term evolution and possible cardiac consequences of this disease.

The findings were presented at EuroEcho 2021, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology.

South West News Service writer Tom Campbell contributed to this report.

Continued here:

Long COVID sufferers may have heart damage if battling shortness of breath a year later - KFOR Oklahoma City

A daycare in Tolland is closed through Jan. 10 after someone in one of their classrooms tested positive for COVID-19.

Several staff members at the Tolland Kids Academy Child Center were directly exposed to the individual and need to quarantine for 10 days as a result, owner Lori Jackman said.

Someone within the two-year-old classroom tested positive for the virus over the weekend.

"With having to quarantine this many staff, it will be impossible for us to remain open this week and still maintain state ratios," Jackman said.

Jackman said exposed staff and children have to quarantine for 10 days.

The childcare center is recommending anyone who was in the two-year-old classrooms last week get COVID-19 tested.

"We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this causes and we appreciate your understanding," Jackman said.

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Tolland Daycare Closed For the Week After Positive COVID-19 Case, Staff Quarantine - NBC Connecticut

Citing a near-record-high surge of COVID-19 patients across its four suburban hospitals, Main Line Health announced Sunday that it will pause all elective surgeries and procedures for the next two weeks to ensure theres staffing and room to accommodate its rapidly rising caseload.

Jonathan Stallkamp, chief medical officer for Main Line Health, said COVID-19 cases have increased exponentially ever since Thanksgiving and the health system which includes Lankenau Medical Center, Bryn Mawr Hospital, Paoli Hospital, and Riddle Hospital is approaching its high, which was nearly 300 cases set in December 2020.

Were not the only ones, either, Stallkamp said. Every other health system in the area is either at or approaching their high, as well.

Although Main Line Health doesnt test for variants, a vast majority of its COVID-19 cases are believed to be the omicron variant, Stallkamp said. The contagious nature of the variant coupled with in-person holiday gatherings is a driving factor in the surge of cases, he said.

Before, where you would take precautions and see a little bit of spread, its nothing like the spread of omicron, Stallkamp said. And it really hit Philly right before Christmas.

The majority of COVID-19 patients at Main Line Health, about 70%, remain unvaccinated, he said.

We do see some breakthrough cases but people are definitely not as sick as they would be if they werent vaccinated, Stallkamp said.

Looking at the projections, Stallkamp said Main Line Health will most likely exceed its record number of COVID-19 patients this month. And with some vaccinated staffers forced to call out with breakthrough cases and winter being a normally high-volume time anyway, the decision was made to postpone elective surgeries to make more room for patients and the beds and staff needed to cover them.

Its the worst to cancel on a patient the night before their surgery, Stallkamp said. Looking at our numbers, we said we need to do this now to be fair to our patients and staff and be ready for any additional cases of COVID that hit us.

While such surgeries as knee and hip replacements are on hold, other procedures, such as those for broken arms and coronary bypasses, remain ongoing, according to Stallkamp.

Main Line Health, which has also updated its visitor policy on its website, will continue to monitor case numbers and reassess the situation in two weeks. Stallkamp said hes hopeful that elective surgeries and procedures will be resumed quickly.

Its a little dj vu, per se, but Im optimistic that this may be the last big hurrah of it, and I think a lot of people are going to get it and maybe not realize they get it because theyre vaccinated, he said. And at that point, I think well have developed pretty decent herd immunity and be back to normal in springtime.

It was unclear whether any other area hospitals or health systems were considering halting elective surgeries and procedures, but at least one, Penn Medicine, has placed stricter guidelines on its masking requirement as a result of the rise in COVID-19 cases.

As of Jan. 3, visitors to Penn Medicine must wear surgical masks, N95 masks, or KN95 masks. Cloth masks, gaiters, bandanas, masks with exhalation valves, gas masks, and face shields (unless for medical reasons) are not permitted.

Meanwhile, in New Jersey, where more schools are deciding to go virtual because of the rising tide of COVID-19 cases, the states first lady, Tammy Murphy, tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.

According to officials, Murphy, who is vaccinated and received a booster, is asymptomatic. Her family members, including Gov. Phil Murphy, have tested negative.

This article contains information from the Associated Press.

Originally posted here:

Main Line Health pauses elective surgeries and procedures amid a surge in COVID-19 cases - The Philadelphia Inquirer