Category Archives: Covid-19

For the past few years, COVID-19 has dominated public discourse. At first, countless conflicting reports led to confusion that it was just like the flu, and that it didnt have the same impact on children as it did on adolescents and adults.

As we head into our third year of research on COVID-19, more is known about how the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 affect various people in our communities. We now know that pediatric infection rates are similar to that of adults, though many children may not have any symptoms.

In fact, researchers in one 2022 pediatric study examined antibody tests. They found evidence that up to 77% of children have already had COVID-19. We now know that children can, in fact, contract the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

For parents and caregivers, this can cause anxiety is that cough and runny nose just a cold thats circulating through day care, or something more serious?

This article sheds light on the most common symptoms of COVID-19 in children, and what to do if you suspect your child has it.

Experts note that COVID-19 symptoms in children are similar to those documented in adults. However, the symptoms in children are usually not as severe.

In many cases, children may be asymptomatic. This means that no symptoms may be present even though they test positive.

Common symptoms of COVID-19 include:

Its important to keep in mind that as new coronavirus variants emerge, new symptoms may arise. Others can shift in severity.

For example, when COVID-19 first appeared globally in 2019, a loss of smell and taste was one of the hallmark signs that a person might have contracted the virus.

But with later variants, such as many of the Omicron variants, a loss of taste and smell is less frequently reported as a primary symptom, whereas a sore throat is often more common.

When in doubt, its always best to reference the latest information shared by reliable health organizations, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Also note that many common COVID-19 symptoms are similar to those of the common cold, flu, stomach flu, and other upper respiratory infections.

Before jumping to conclusions, get your child tested to confirm they have COVID-19.

Even though children tend to have a less severe reaction to COVID-19 than older populations, one serious risk COVID-19 poses to children is the potential to develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).

Researchers still dont fully understand the link between MIS-C and COVID-19. But they do know that since the appearance of the novel coronavirus, many children with MIS-C had either an earlier coronavirus infection or were exposed to someone who had COVID-19.

MIS-C can affect multiple organ systems across the body, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal system, and brain. If left untreated, MIS-C can be deadly. In most cases, its easily treated.

If your child has symptoms of MIS-C, get them evaluated by a doctor immediately. Symptoms associated with MIS-C include:

Another potential symptom of COVID-19 in young children is croup. Croup is the inflammation of the airways that causes:

If your child has symptoms of croup, its worth getting evaluated and tested for COVID-19 or other possible causes.

Studies are still being conducted to determine how COVID-19 specifically affects babies.

One 2022 study from Poland looked at infections in infant populations (newborns up to 12 months old) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (March through December 2020). Researchers noted the majority of cases in this group were mild.

Of the infant cases reviewed even though 94% were hospitalized 276 cases were mild, six were moderate, 32 were asymptomatic, and none were reported as severe cases.

Similar to adults, the most common symptoms were low and high grade fevers. However, other reported symptoms included:

Researchers noted that one of the most common secondary diagnoses that followed COVID-19 in infants was pneumonia. It was found in 70 of the 300 cases reviewed.

On the whole, the Polish study noted that infant cases of COVID-19 tend to represent only 1% to 2% of all cases, even when looking at general case counts in other countries. But, in countries with more prevalent testing, this percentage could increase to a range of 5% to 13%.

Still, infant cases were generally mild compared with adult cases, which were often more severe.

A 2022 study from Germany suggests that at-home rapid antigen tests tend to be less precise or accurate than the RT-PCR test, which healthcare professionals perform.

Experts have consistently questioned the effectiveness of at-home tests because of known issues regarding low sensitivity to detect the coronavirus across all age groups.

This means theres a higher possibility of false negatives for at-home rapid tests. Coupled with a heightened chance of improper nasal swabbing in younger populations, theres an increased risk of getting incorrect results from an at-home rapid antigen test performed on children.

Parents and caregivers should keep in mind that a rapid test only offers results for a snapshot in time. It can only provide sufficient results if theres enough viral load for the test to pick up.

The coronaviruss incubation period ranges from 2 to 14 days, with the average being 3 to 6 days, depending on the coronavirus variant.

So, a negative rapid test result doesnt necessarily mean youre in the clear if the test is taken fewer than 14 days after a known exposure. It could mean the virus is not yet detectable.

If you suspect that your child may have been exposed to COVID-19, your first step should be to get them tested.

While at-home tests might provide an initial answer, its always best to take your child to a physician or clinic for an RT-PCR test. This test type offers higher accuracy and has a lower false-positive rate.

Plan to keep your child at home from day care or school if COVID-19 is suspected to reduce the risk of transmitting the virus to others.

Currently, theres only one antiviral medication for COVID-19 thats approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in babies and children under the age of 12: remdesivir (Veklury).

Its only administered intravenously at healthcare facilities and used for children with an increased risk of developing severe symptoms.

The CDC currently recommends that if your child tests positive for COVID-19, treat the day you first noticed symptoms as day 0 and the following day as day 1. The organization recommends that children be kept at home for at least 5 days. Ideally, try to isolate them from other members of the household.

Depending on the severity of the disease, isolation may end on different dates. Children with mild symptoms who show improvement with no symptoms on day 5 of isolation can end isolation.

If symptoms persist or worsen, continue isolation until your child is fever-free for 24 hours without the need for fever-reducing medication and until symptoms begin to improve.

If youre not sure when to end isolation, talk with a healthcare professional.

When youre caring for small children, isolating them from yourself or other family members can be a tall order especially if theyre babies and not self-sufficient enough to manage basic tasks without adult supervision.

In this case, youll want to wear a mask when interacting with your child. Wash your hands frequently to avoid transmitting the coronavirus to other surfaces or family members.

Additionally, avoid sharing personal items, like cups, utensils, towels, and bedding. Likewise, be sure to regularly clean and disinfect surfaces throughout shared areas of the home, like the kitchen, living room, and bathrooms.

Anyone can contract the coronavirus and develop COVID-19. But according to health organizations around the world, babies and children consistently tend to contract the virus less frequently and in a milder form than in older populations.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, as of early September 2022, there have been a total of 14.7 million cases of COVID-19 reported in children in the United States since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

Thats out of a total of 79.4 million cases across all age demographics in the country. The child case count represents 18.4% of the total U.S. case count.

With an active case of COVID-19, its important to talk with a doctor to determine what type of treatment is needed.

Depending on your childs age and the severity of their illness, a doctor may recommend different treatments. A very mild case may just need home remedies and rest. Others might be better served by introducing a therapeutic or antiviral medication.

Regardless of which option a doctor recommends, keeping your little one hydrated and trying as best as possible to isolate them from other members of the household is important.

Preventive solutions are often best at minimizing your childs risk of severe COVID-19. This means that if your child is of an approved age to get any of the COVID-19 vaccines, its recommended that they get vaccinated according to the recommended schedule and receive boosters as needed.

Its important to note that COVID-19 vaccines prevent severe infections that could lead to serious illness, hospitalization, or death. However, they do not necessarily prevent contracting the virus itself.

To date, COVID-19 vaccines have been proven safe and effective for babies, children, and adults. Getting vaccinated is one of the best measures to prevent severe COVID-19.

The CDC offers comprehensive information regarding which vaccines are approved in which age groups, and the recommended schedules for receiving them.

COVID-19 continues to be an issue of concern. While babies and children tend to contract the coronavirus less frequently and usually develop a milder case of COVID-19, they are not immune to it.

To date, vaccination is the best preventive method to reduce the chances of hospitalization, getting very sick, or dying from COVID-19. If your baby or child contracts the coronavirus, seeking immediate medical attention can ensure that they receive treatment that can help recovery and reduce symptoms.

When in doubt, follow the guidelines as outlined by authoritative health organizations such as the CDC and NIH. If your child has any COVID-19 symptoms, get them tested.

Read more:

COVID-19 Symptoms in Kids: What to Know - Healthline

In the beginning it was a lifeline, an organized collection of facts amid a swirl of coronavirus uncertainty and misinformation.

Feels like this is going to be another day where its a battle to do anything while staring at the Johns Hopkins dashboard, an editor in Michigan tweeted on April 13, 2020, along with a screenshot of the global death toll to date at that time: 114,983.

Nearly 2 years later, more than 6.5 million people have died from COVID-19, hundreds of millions of infections have been recorded, and Lauren Gardner, the Johns Hopkins engineer who led the creation of the universitys lauded COVID-19 dashboard, has been recognized with a major prize.

On Wednesday, Gardner won the 2022 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award. Past honorees include Doctors Without Borders and Dr. Anthony Fauci.

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Bestowed by the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation for achievement in medical science, the Lasker awards are sometimes referred to as Americas Nobels, and many honorees go on to win Nobel prizes.

The dashboard set a new standard for disseminating authoritative public health data in real time, the judges said, and cut through the noise of misinformation and became the most authoritative and trusted source of information for the COVID pandemic.

The COVID-19 dashboard: Tracking a pandemic in real time

In an ironic twist, the prize was announced while Gardner, 38, was riding out a coronavirus infection at the home in Baltimore she shares with her husband, toddler daughter and their dog. It also comes a week after Johns Hopkins announced that its scaling back the tracker due to the declining quality of data from U.S. states.

Were not magically creating any of this COVID data. Its all 100% collected from whats been publicly reported, Gardner said. With resources being diverted away from COVID-19, the accuracy and timeliness of the data simply arent what they used to be, she added, which is disheartening.

Before the pandemic, the Texas-born Gardner was an academic specializing in modeling infectious diseases. She returned from an eight-year stint at Australias University of New South Wales in 2019 to take a position as an associate professor at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering.

In January 2020, Gardner was talking with her graduate student Ensheng Dong, who had been worriedly checking for updates on family in Chinas Shanxi province. Gardner suggested he create a map to track the virus globally. Dong built a website in a day, and after a few tweaks it was live.

The dashboard debuted to the public later that month, when the majority of people in the U.S. were still blithely going about their business, with only glancing acknowledgment of the virus spreading through Wuhan, China.

In the early days, as the pair worked to import data manually, they imagined the map as a valuable tool for a relatively small community of academics and researchers monitoring the virus spread.

Then the stay-at-home orders hit. In their shock and confusion, people went searching for reliable information on the spread of a virus upending their lives. They found the Hopkins dashboard. In March 2020 the website that hosted the map, arcgis.com, registered nearly 1 billion visits.

Gardner and her students knew the work mattered. But they were shocked to realize how many people were relying on it.

We knew it was important. I knew that the data had a lot of value, because I always did work where we needed that kind of data and didnt have it, Gardner said. But I guess I didnt expect to be the sole source of it.

Johns Hopkins professor Lauren Gardner was recognized with the Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award for mobilizing her lab to quickly engineer the COVID-19 dashboard.

(Lasker Foundation)

Both the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization were overwhelmed at the pandemics start.

In the absence of a steady flow of data from reliable government sources, and with misinformation swirling on the internet, the tracker let policymakers, healthcare providers and average people make responsible decisions.

When I could see numbers rising in the U.S. and nearby states, we started to implement procedures to see our immunocompromised patients virtually and keep them protected, said Dr. Michelle Rheault, a pediatric nephrologist at the University of Minnesota childrens hospital.

While it was terrifying to watch some days, it provided the knowledge that I needed to do my job.

As COVID-19 cases multiplied around the world, so did the behind-the-scenes work to keep the dashboard going. More and more countries were reporting deaths and cases, which meant more data to gather, verify and standardize. Manual updates were no longer feasible, so the team built automated scrapers to gather data from official health databases around the world that were available to the public.

It was really just a continually adaptable system that we were having to develop, Gardner said. We were just working around the clock for that year.

When stay-at-home orders came to Maryland, the group had to disperse to home offices. (Thats also when Gardner learned she was pregnant. Her first child was born in December 2020.) Nonetheless, the dashboard kept growing.

It appeared behind President Trump at news briefings. Its figures were cited in news reports and factored into policy decisions.

The team had a rule to include only publicly available data so that anyone who wanted to could verify the dashboards sources. When state or regional agencies contacted the group privately to offer case counts they didnt want to report officially, the Johns Hopkins engineers declined.

Make it public, and then well put it on our data file, too, Gardner said she told them. But were not just accepting things behind the curtain.

Often, it worked. The bigger the tracker got, the more willing agencies were to provide data the team asked for, including race and ethnicity breakdowns. The dashboard would eventually expand to include testing and vaccination numbers.

That power, just because we had so many eyeballs, was something that was really helpful, Gardner said. But it didnt last.

As Gardner noted, its value was dependent on the quality of the data reported. As the pandemic dragged on and health budgets scaled back, mandatory testing programs ended and home tests that didnt have to be reported became more available, the quantity of good, accessible data fell.

Weve all just lived through a massive public health crisis that has underscored the value of having reliable, quality data to base decisions on. What frustrates Gardner is that we seem to be emerging from that crisis with no more willingness to ensure such data are available the next time one comes around. Basic standards for public health data reporting would go a long way, she said. If data were reported uniformly, it would be easier for the next group to gather and share in an accessible way.

The Johns Hopkins team showed that its possible. But right now, theres no rule or agency with enforcement authority to make sure that it happens.

The research is amazing. Our science is amazing, Gardner said. Our science has taken a big step up. I think the problem is the communication and translation from science to policy to the general public just has not evolved at the same rate. Weve just really dropped the ball in the second half of that.

In addition to honoring Gardner, the foundation gave this years prize for basic medical research to Richard O. Hynes, Erkki Ruoslahti and Timothy A. Springer for discoveries related to integrins, a family of cell receptors that play an important role in cell growth, migration and signaling.

Yuk Ming Dennis Lo won the award for clinical research for his discovery of fetal DNA in maternal blood, reducing the need for invasive and potentially harmful prenatal test procedures.

See the article here:

This COVID-19 tracker changed how we saw the pandemic. Its creator fears it won't be useful much longer - Los Angeles Times

Washington, D.C. 28 September 2022 (PAHO/WHO) The burden of mental health conditions has increased in the Americas due to COVID-19, and this situation has been exacerbated by social determinants of health such as poverty, high level health officials concluded during a side event at the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference.

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely impacted the mental health and wellbeing of everyone, everywhere, the PAHO Director, Dr. Carissa Etienne said at the opening of the event yesterday, Leveraging Lessons Learned from the COVID-19 Pandemic to Address the Regions Mental Health Challenges for the Future.

We have seen rates of stress, depression and anxiety soar in our Region, and persons living in conditions of vulnerability, who have traditionally experienced a higher burden of mental health conditions and unequal access to care, were among those most affected, Dr. Etienne added, highlighting that young people have also been disproportionately impacted.

A report published by the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that the global prevalence of anxiety and depression increased by 25% in the first year of the pandemic alone.

But in the Americas, COVID-19 exacerbated an already critical issue. The region faces increasing suicide rates, with some countries experiencing the highest suicide rates in the world.

Mental health services have been chronically underfinanced in the region, with resources directed only to mental institutions rather than to first level of care within the community. There is frequently also a lack of qualified health professionals, and stigma and discrimination are common barriers to care, in addition to policies that fail to promote and protect the human rights of persons with mental health problems.

The event examined these multiple factors contributing to poor mental health with the aim of prioritizing mental health as a pillar to advance health and noting that there is no health without mental health as the Americas recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic.

PAHO Member States found innovative approaches to respond to mental health demands during the COVID- 19 pandemic, including the use of telehealth, the PAHO Director said. But much more is needed to ensure a true transformation of mental health through political actions at the highest level, strengthened multisectoral partnerships, investments in infrastructure, human resources and services.

During the 30th Pan American Sanitary Conference, Member States also discussed and approved a Policy for Improving Mental health, which aims to help countries strengthen and implement policies to improve mental health in the region.

In May 2022, PAHO also established a High-Level Commission on Mental Health and COVID-19 to support Member States in improving and strengthening mental health across the Americas.

Its clear that the COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to our health care system. But we can also see that it has acted as a catalyst for people to perhaps be more open about their mental health, reducing stigma and helping us work towards positive change with impressive innovation, especially virtual care.

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly highlighted, in a massive way, that mental health is interconnected with all other complex public health challenges so using a public health approach to mental health can help us advance our efforts to promote positive mental health, build a system and population resilience and respond more effectively to mental health needs during times of crisis.

We live in very uncertain times, but we are aware that climate change is real, not only affecting our fragile economies but affecting individuals, their families and communities on a very persona level.

Every hurricane season for the last ten years was more active than the previous year. Heatwaves are becoming more common, and floods and droughts are commonplace. People across the region are becoming increasingly worried about climate change, with anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorders and climate change trauma becoming increasingly more prevalent.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of individual and collective care and consensus building for psychosocial well-being, health promotion and the capacity to provide a networked response in the event of any type of emergency.

We need to prioritize mental health in all policies, to understand that mental health is fundamental to the full enjoyment of rights - it is necessary to position the commitment of the member states in achieving universal health coverage of human rights for all people.

While we long for a return to normalcy coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we must not accept the business as usual model for mental health. Such an outcome will fail to guarantee each individual his or her fundamental right to mental health, and deprive individuals and communities the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Furthermore, we will be left vulnerable to ongoing threats to our mental health, such as future pandemics and most notably climate change.

The fight has to be maintained. We need to make sure that mental health is constantly on the agenda and that we invest in it and that it is taken seriously.

At WHO we have to keep it visible, talk about it daily and mobilize our political leaders to lead on this.

Follow this link:

COVID-19 presents an opportunity to strengthen mental health in the Americas - Pan American Health Organization

COVID-19 vaccination is associated with a small, temporary increase in menstrual cycle length; CMS announced a 3% reduction in Medicare Part B premiums; Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced Kenvue as the name of its new consumer health company set to launch next year.

A large study funded by the National Institutes of Health confirmed findings from a previous study linking COVID-19 vaccination with a small temporary increase in menstrual cycle length. The study included nearly 20,000 people from North America and Europe and found an average increase in menstrual cycle length of less than 1 day, but this increase was not associated with changes in the number of days of menstrual bleeding. Compared with individuals who did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine and compared with at least 3 cycles prior to vaccination, individuals experienced a .71 day increase in cycle length after their first dose and a .56 day increase after their second dose, on average. Those who received both doses in a single cycle saw the greatest change in menstrual cycle length, with a 3.91 day increase, on average. The study included 9 different vaccines and found no changes based on which vaccine an individual received. More research is needed to understand why these changes are occurring.

The Biden administration announced a reduction in Medicare Part B premiums in 2023, marking the first time these costs will be lowered since 2012, The Hill reported. CMS specifically said there will be a 3%, or $5.20, reduction, with premiums going from $170.10 to $164.90 per month. The annual deductible will also drop by $7, from $233 to $226. The year 2022 saw the greatest increase in Medicare Part B premiums with a 14.5% increase linked to the FDA-approval of Alzheimer drug Adulhelm.

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) announced Kenvue as the name of its new consumer health company set to launch in 2023. J&Js consumer health segment generated $14.6 billion in revenue in 2021, and Kenvue as a standalone company is expected to generate sales in over 100 countries. In the news release, J&J noted this planned separation is subject to legal requirements, such as consultations with works councils and employee representatives.

Read the rest here:

What We're Reading: Effects of COVID-19 Vaccination on Menstrual Cycles; Reduced Medicare Part B Premiums; J&J Announces Kenvue - AJMC.com Managed...

CHINAS CENSORS are fast. When a mysterious illness struck Wuhan in December 2019, relevant content was swiftly scrubbed from the internet. But Chinese citizens also went looking for forbidden information. A virtual private network (VPN) can mask the location a user is browsing from. That allows Chinese netizens to get around the great firewall, the digital barricade the state has built to block sensitive online content. In late January, when Wuhan and surrounding cities locked down, VPN downloads jumped. So did searches for politically sensitive content.

A paper published in PNAS, an academic journal, argues that covid-19 inspired Chinese citizens to circumvent censorship and access sensitive content on banned websites. Although most VPN applications are blocked in China, the researchers found one available on Chinas Apple App Store. They noted a sharp increase in downloads of the app, sending its App Store ranking higher, just as Wuhan, and the wider Hubei province of which it is part, went into lockdown (see chart). This, say the authors, opened a gateway to other politically taboo information.

Twitter, for example, is banned in China. But in Hubei the number of Chinese-language accounts geo-tagged, or assigned a location, in China grew by 40% between January and mid-March 2020, when the lockdown was lifted. By July activity was still 10% higher than in January. Hubei, the area worst hit by covid-19, gained more users than any other Chinese province. Twitter volume there doubled from its pre-lockdown average.

The new Twitterati flocked to Chinese citizen journalists, who gained 42% more China-based followers between December 2019 and April 2020, as well as to foreign media (31%) and political activists (23%). By contrast Chinese politicians, entertainers and state media saw no significant increase. (Though Twitter is banned in China, many officials and state-run media accounts use the platform to broadcast the party line.) This trend was sustained: one year after the pandemic began roughly 90% of these new Twitter-joiners were still following accounts that were likely to disseminate politically sensitive information.

Activity on the Chinese-language edition of Wikipedia tells a similar story. Its daily page views increased from 12.8m in December 2019 to 13.9m during the lockdown period between January and March 2020. The trend continued even after the lockdown was lifted, with daily page views reaching 14.7m by the end of April 2020.

Wikipedia pages on covid saw the largest increases. But traffic also jumped on the pages for Xu Zhiyong, a human-rights lawyer awaiting trial for subversion; Tibetan Uprising Day; Ai Weiwei, an activist artist; and the bloody crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in June 1989. During normal times Chinese citizens may be content to browse within the firewall. But a crisis can change incentives. Longer-term trends are not accounted for in the paper, but with millions of people still in lockdown, Chinas censors may continue to be challenged.

The rest is here:

Covid-19 inspired people to circumvent censorship in China - The Economist

CLEVELAND, OhioAn analysis of the electronic medical records of over 1 million children worldwide suggests that COVID-19 infection may make children more susceptible to developing type 1 diabetes, say researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

The study found that there was a 72% increase in the number of type 1 diabetes diagnoses of people under age 18 in the six months following a confirmed case of COVID-19, compared with children who had another type of respiratory infection.

Unlike type 2 diabetes, which is the result of decreased sensitivity to insulin and occurs primarily in adults, type 1 diabetes is more frequently diagnosed in children and occurs when the bodys immune system attacks and destroys the insulin producing cells of the pancreas.

Type 1 diabetes is considered an autoimmune disease, said Pamela Davis, a professor of medicine at CWRU School of Medicine and one of the studys authors. COVID has been suggested to increase autoimmune responses, and our present finding reinforces that suggestion.

Age was not a significant factor in the results. The diabetes risk in younger children, from birth to 9 years of age, was similar to that in older children aged 10 to 18.

Families with high risk of type 1 diabetes in their children should be especially alert for symptoms of diabetes following COVID, and pediatricians should be alert for an influx of new cases of type 1 diabetes, especially since the omicron variant of COVID spreads so rapidly among children, Davis said.

We may see a substantial increase in this disease in the coming months to years. Type 1 diabetes is a lifelong challenge for those who have it, and increased incidence represents substantial numbers of children afflicted.

Further research is needed to determine which children are most vulnerable, whether the increased risk of diabetes persists beyond 6 months, and how to treat COVID-19 associated type 1 diabetes in children, said co-author Rong Xu, a CWRU professor of biomedical informatics.

We are also investigating possible changes in development of type 2 diabetes in children following SARS-CoV2 infection, Xu said.

About 187,000 people under 20 live with type 1 diabetes nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The conclusions were published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association Network Open.

More:

Juvenile type 1 diabetes associated with COVID-19 infection in children, CWRU study finds - cleveland.com

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) The COVID-19 death toll throughout the pandemic is at 3,021 in South Dakota.

According to Wednesdays update to the South Dakota Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard, the deaths are up four from 3,017 the previous week. The new reported deaths include two males and two females in the following age categories: 1 in 70-79 and 3 in 80+. New deaths were reported in the following counties: Brule, Day, Hand and Pennington.

Active cases are now at 540, down from the previous report (709).

As of September 28, 53 of South Dakotas 66 counties are listed as having high or substantial community spread. High community spread is 100 cases or greater per 100,000 or a 10% or greater PCR test positivity rate.

There are now 81 people hospitalized due to COVID-19, down from last week (94). Throughout the pandemic, there have been 11,768 total people who have been hospitalized.

There were 732 confirmed and probable COVID-19 cases reported.

The states total case count is now at 261,371, up from last week (260,639). That total does not include at-home positive results as those are not required to be reported to the state.

The latest seven-day PCR test positivity rate for the state is 13.8% for September 20-26.

The number of recovered cases is at 257,810.

The number of Omicron cases detected in South Dakota through sentinel monitoring is now at 1,659. The state is also reporting 164 Omicron BA.2 cases.

There have been 1,720 Delta variant cases (B.1.617.2 and AY lineages) is detected in South Dakota through sentinel monitoring. There have been 176 cases of the B.1.1.7 (Alpha variant), 4 cases of P.1. (Gamma variant) and 2 cases of the B.1.351 (Beta variant).

For COVID-19 vaccines, 77% the population 5-years-old and above has received at least one dose while 61% have completed the vaccination series. For booster doses, 34% of those eligible have completed their booster dose.

There have been 761,133 doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered, 513,911 of the Moderna vaccine and 38,368 doses of the Janssen vaccine.

There have been 1,313,439 total doses administered in South Dakota with 536,433 total persons receiving the vaccine.

Originally posted here:

COVID-19 in South Dakota: Hospitalizations, active cases down as 4 new deaths reported - KELOLAND.com

By Anchorage Daily News

Updated: 2 hours ago Published: 4 hours ago

There were 34 COVID-positive patients hospitalized in Alaska as of Wednesday, according to the state health department. Hospitalizations were down from the previous week, when 37 COVID-positive patients were reported.

Here are other highlights from this weeks updated COVID-19 data from the Alaska Department of Health:

The state health department reported no additional COVID-19 deaths among residents. There have been 1,329 COVID-19 deaths reported among Alaska residents since the beginning of the pandemic.

In Alaska, 800 new cases were reported over a seven-day period, a decrease from 1,111 cases reported last week. That data doesnt include at-home tests, which dont get reported.

Alaskas seven-day case rate per 100,000 fell to 32nd among U.S. states, according to a CDC tracker.

Statewide, 68.1% of Alaskans six months and older had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 28.3% had received at least one booster shot.

[Five things about COVID we still dont understand - at our peril]

Note: The state health department said that it will no longer release a weekly COVID-19 data overview on Wednesdays, but it will continue to produce a weekly update on COVID-19 and flu that contains similar information.

Read more here:

Tracking COVID-19 in Alaska: State reports another week of declining cases and hospitalizations - Anchorage Daily News

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness, so its not surprising that exposure to poor air quality worsens patient outcomes. But how does air pollution affect people who are vaccinated?

To answer that question, a team of researchers analyzed data from more than 50,000 COVID-19 patients across Southern California. By comparing publicly available air quality monitoring data with deidentified patient medical records, they first established that regardless of air pollution exposure, vaccines go a long way in reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations.

Fully vaccinated people had almost 90% reduced risk of COVID hospitalization, and even partially vaccinated people had about 50% less risk, saidZhanghua Chen, PhD, assistant professor of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and co-first author of the study.

But air pollutantsin particular fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2)are still harmful. Even among people who were vaccinated, exposure to those two pollutants over the short or long term increased the risk of hospitalization up to 30%.

Among vaccinated people, the detrimental effect of air pollution exposure is a little smaller, compared to people who were not vaccinated, Chen said. But that difference is not statistically significant.

The study was just published in theAmerican Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. The research builds on the teamsearlier findings, which helped establish the link between air pollution exposure and COVID-19 severity.

These findings are important because they show that, while COVID-19 vaccines are successful at reducing the risk of hospitalization, people who are vaccinated and exposed to polluted air are still at increased risk for worse outcomes than vaccinated people not exposed to air pollution, said corresponding author Anny Xiang, PhD, MS, a senior research scientist at Kaiser Permanente Southern Californias (KPSC) Department of Research & Evaluation.

Short-term and long-term exposures

The researchers analyzed medical records, which were deidentified to protect patient privacy, from KPSC patients. Across the health care network, 50,010 patients, ages 12 and up, were diagnosed with COVID-19 in July or August of 2021, when the Delta variant was circulating and many people had been vaccinated.

Then, the researchers calculated estimated air pollution exposure levels for each participant based on residential addresses. They looked at average PM2.5, NO2, and ozone (O3) levels during the one-month and one-year periods before each patient received a COVID-19 diagnosis.

We investigated both long-term and short-term air pollution exposure, which may influence COVID-19 severity through different mechanisms, said Chen.

Over the long term, pollution is linked to increases in cardiovascular and lung diseases, which are in turn linked to more severe COVID-19 symptoms. In the short term, air pollution exposure may worsen inflammation in the lungs and could even alter the immune response to the virus.

Chen, Xiang, and their colleagues found that among 30,912 people who were unvaccinated, high short-term PM2.5 exposure increased the risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations by 13%, while long-term exposure increased the risk by 24%. For NO2, short-term exposure raised hospitalization risk by 14% and long-term exposure raised the risk by 22%. The pollutant O3 was not significantly associated with COVID-19 hospitalizations.

For those who were partially or fully vaccinated, the hospitalization risks related to air pollution exposure were slightly lowerbut the difference was not statistically significant.

Using data from medical records and neighborhood-level databases, the researchers were able to control for the effects of vaccination status, age, sex, race/ethnicity, health insurance status, body mass index, smoking history, health comorbidities, education level, income level and population density.

Improving indoor air quality

The findings suggest that in order to reduce severe cases of COVID-19, we need to improve air quality. This spring, the Biden Administration launched theClean Air in Buildings Challenge, an effort to install high-efficiency particulate absorbing(HEPA) filters in schools and other public buildings.

Chen recently received funding to conduct clinical trials of HEPA filters to determine whether they reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Her team will also continue their collaboration with KPSC to study the direct impacts of indoor air purifiers on COVID-19 patients.

About this study

In addition to Chen and Xiang, the studys other authors are Brian Z. Huang and Frank D. Gilliland of the Department of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of USC; Margo A. Sidell, Ting Chow and Mayra P. Martinez of the Department of Research & Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California; and Fred Lurmann of Sonoma Technology, Inc.

This work was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health [3R01ES029963-01] and the Keck School of Medicine of USCs Department of Preventive Medicine COVID-19 Pandemic Research Center (CPRC).

About Keck School of Medicine of USC

Founded in 1885,theKeck School of Medicine of USCis one of the nations leading medical institutions, known forinnovative patient care, scientific discovery, education and community service. Medical and graduate students work closely with world-renowned faculty and receive hands-on training in one of the nations most diverse communities. They participate in cutting-edge research as they develop into tomorrows health leaders.The Keck School faculty are key participants in training of 1200 resident physicians across 70 specialty and subspecialty programs, thus playing a major role in the education of physicians practicing in Southern California.

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

Meta-analysis

People

The independent effect of COVID-19 vaccinations and air pollution exposure on risk of COVID-19 hospitalizations in Southern California

20-Sep-2022

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Exposure to air pollution worsens COVID-19 outcomes, even among the fully vaccinated - EurekAlert

Nows the time to get the COVID-19 booster and flu shots especially with winter approaching.

Mark Mirko

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Connecticut Public

We hit 400 patients with COVID in the hospital about a week ago, said Dr. Manisha Juthani, Connecticuts public health commissioner.. I do expect that that number will continue to rise over the next couple of weeks.

Juthani told Connecticut Public Radios Where We Live that her department is also monitoring the flu across the state. Less mask usage this winter may result in more flu cases.

Flu has been low for the last couple of years, Juthani said. We do anticipate its going to be much higher this year; we already see activity. Were expecting a worse flu season than usual.

Still, theres good news. According to the CDC and hospital systems, with vaccines, people are protected against the severity of both the flu and COVID-19. Juthani said the new COVID bivalent booster would prevent people from getting severely sick. Connecticut has administered close to 100,000 doses since early September.

Workforce shortages

Ahead of the anticipated uptick in COVID and flu cases, Connecticut, like the rest of the U.S., is facing nursing shortages.

Healthcare workers are still doing their part that they do every single day in hospitals, Juthani said. There are people who certainly have left the workforce. There have been several state initiatives to bolster workforce development. But these types of initiatives take time.

Connecticut launched a higher education program earlier this year to build up the pipeline of nurses, funded by the American Rescue Plan Act.

Emily Caminiti contributed to this report.

See the article here:

Expect an uptick in COVID-19 and flu cases, Connecticut's public health expert warns - Connecticut Public