New Coronavirus News from 27 Jan 2022

Japan in Turmoil Over Omicron – The Diplomat [The Diplomat, 27 Jan 2022]

By Thisanka Siripala

Japan has put two-thirds of the country under quasi-emergency measures as it struggles to curb the latest explosion of COVID-19 infections.

Japan is in the grip of its worst COVID-19 wave of infections, driven by the Omicron variant. In less than two months the number of coronavirus infections across Japan has surged more than 1,000-fold, with daily cases nationwide topping 70,000 for the first time. Japan has expanded its quasi-emergency measures to 34 prefectures in an effort to bring the latest outbreak of COVID-19 under control.

The number of severely ill patients has jumped roughly eight-fold since the start of the new year. Infections among children and the elderly have also spiked and there is growing concern hospital beds could reach capacity before the “sixth wave” reaches its peak.

The Tokyo Metropolitan government has raised the COVID-19 alert to the highest possible level, warning residents of the large-scale spread of coronavirus. The alert for the local medical system has also been raised to the second highest level, indicating that medical services are partially restricted.

Currently, Tokyo and Osaka, the two worst affected cities, have a rapidly increasing hospitalization rate for people with mild to moderate symptoms. In Tokyo, hospital beds designated for COVID-19 are being taken up at a rate of 200 beds per day. The bed utilization rate in Tokyo has reached approximately 43 percent and 48 percent in Osaka. The government is mulling whether to introduce a state of emergency in the capital as the hospital bed utilization rate approaches 50 percent.

With the number of infections rising, so are the number of people deemed close contacts of a confirmed case, which requires a self-isolation period of 10 days. There are concerns over how businesses and essential services will be able function with so many staff absent. Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said authorities would consider shortening the isolation period but did not give a deadline for the decision.

In Osaka prefecture there have been incidents where people needing urgent medical attention are not able to be treated at local hospitals due to a shortage of staff or the limited scope of medical services. People showing COVID-19 symptoms or deemed close contacts to an infected person have also been turned away. Some hospitals and public health services are running low on coronavirus testing kits and have been unable to provide an official diagnosis.
Local governments are being allowed to adopt flexible measures based on the varying levels of strain facing local public health services. In Osaka, authorities decided to relax mandatory isolation at a private facility for people deemed close contacts due to the risk that the facilities would reach 50 percent capacity in under three weeks. The government is also encouraging phone or online consultations, and it has approved treatment for people with symptoms of coronavirus without a positive test.

In Japan the number of COVID-19 patients recuperating at home exceeded 30,000 for the first time on Monday. The switch to home care has led to greater strain on outpatient appointments and doctors undertaking home visits. In Osaka prefecture there have been some 2,000 calls each day to the telephone counseling service from home care patients concerned about their condition.

Last month the government announced that antigen and PCR tests would be made free to those without symptoms. But Japan’s test capacity remains one of the lowest in the developed world. Currently, capacity stands at approximately 380,000 per day but Japan is testing well below its capacity with some 110,000 PCR tests conducted on January 24. Globally, Japan’s current rate of PCR testing per one million is ranked below Malaysia, Peru, Argentina, Colombia, India, Iran, Ukraine, South Africa, and Brazil.

The quasi-emergency measures in place for three weeks have focused on curbing the number of people dining out rather than banning outdoor social outings entirely. The Tokyo Metropolitan government is allowing some restaurants and bars to choose to serve alcohol if they have been certified for COVID-19 prevention measures. But restaurants are being encouraged to take alcohol off the menu or stop serving alcohol by 8 p.m. and close at 9 p.m. The government’s subsidy for cooperating eateries starts at approximately $260 per day.

Japan is getting ready to administer booster shots to the general population aged 18 and over where six months have passed since their second dose. At this stage roughly 20 percent of the population have received a booster shot, which has been prioritized for medical workers and the elderly.

More COVID cases confirmed in Israel in January than all of 2021, data shows [The Times of Israel, 27 Jan 2022]

960,500 people tested positive in 2021, compared to 1,160,000 this month so far; PM announces immediate addition of 45 more hospital beds in intensive care wards

There were more COVID-19 cases identified in Israel during January this year than the entirety of 2021, according to a report released Thursday.

The Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center said some 960,500 coronavirus cases were identified during 2021, while in January alone, as of Wednesday, more than 1,160,000 have tested positive.

The massive rise in cases has been blamed on the fast-spreading Omicron variant. On Wednesday, 67,723 new cases were recorded, according to Health Ministry data published Thursday. With more than 307,000 PCR and antigen tests carried out on Wednesday, the positivity rate stood at 24.58 percent.

As of Thursday afternoon, 480,501 Israelis were actively infected, with 2,483 hospitalized, 931 of those in serious condition, and 212 of them on ventilators. A week ago, serious cases stood at 587, and two weeks ago the figure was just 283.

Over the past week, more than 520,000 Israelis have tested positive for COVID, with experts believing that the actual figure could be several times higher. Also in the past week, 146 Israelis with COVID died — a 73.8% increase over the previous week — bringing the total death toll since the start of the pandemic to 8,541. A month ago, the average weekly death toll was less than 10.

In response to the rise in COVID-related hospitalizations, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, and Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman announced Thursday a plan to immediately implement 45 more hospital beds in intensive care wards in medical centers around the country.

“The health system is working around the clock, day and night, to safeguard public health. Now we are further strengthening the intensive care wards. We are in the height of the wave and soon we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. We will get through this wave together,” Bennett said in a statement released by his office.

As of Thursday afternoon, hospital occupancy nationwide stood at 82.1%, and more than 9,800 medical staffers were out from work due to COVID, including 1,282 doctors and 2,793 nurses.

Starting Thursday, schoolchildren are exempt from needing to quarantine if they come into contact with a coronavirus carrier, despite concerns from health officials that the scheme could end up putting more kids in the hospital with COVID complications.

Health experts had initially supported the move to end precautionary isolation for children who come into contact with confirmed carriers when the plan was announced last week, but many reversed course amid reports of increased pediatric hospitalizations and instances of PIMS, a rare but dangerous condition affecting children after they recover from the virus.

Nachman Ash, director general of the Health Ministry, said Thursday that health experts are under constant personal attacks, especially after the government moved ahead with the plan notwithstanding their concerns.

“It is unfortunate that baseless accusations continue. Our decision-making is purely professional. If there is disagreement on the part of one party or another, our door is open to hearing any different opinion,” Ash said in a briefing, slamming those who use anonymous press briefings to attack health experts. “It must stop,” he said.

Under the new rules, all students both vaccinated and unvaccinated will need to take two home antigen tests a week, on Sundays and Wednesdays, and report negative results to an Education Ministry portal.

Children who test positive for COVID-19 at home will need to take an official antigen test at a state facility and isolate for five days if that test also shows a positive result.

Some officials have warned that the necessary test kits had not yet been delivered to all students as promised by the government, with the Education Ministry saying there was a nationwide shortage of tests.

Yes, Omicron Is Loosening Its Hold. But the Pandemic Has Not Ended. [The New York Times, 27 Jan 2022]

By Apoorva Mandavilli

With spotty immunity in the population and a churn of new variants, the coronavirus is likely to become a persistent but hopefully manageable threat.

After a frenetic few weeks when the Omicron variant of the coronavirus seemed to infect everyone, including the vaccinated and boosted, the United States is finally seeing encouraging signs.

As cases decline in some parts of the country, many have begun to hope that this surge is the last big battle with the virus — that because of its unique characteristics, the Omicron variant will usher Americans out of the pandemic.

The variant spiked in South Africa and Britain, then fell off quickly. Twitter is agog over charts showing declining virus levels in sewage in Boston and San Francisco. On Monday, the top European regional official of the World Health Organization suggested that “Omicron offers plausible hope for stabilization and normalization.”

“Things are looking good,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Biden administration’s top adviser on the pandemic, said on Sunday. “We don’t want to get overconfident, but they look like they’re going in the right direction right now.”

What’s driving the optimism? The idea is that so many people are gaining immunity through vaccination or infection with Omicron that soon the coronavirus will be unable to find a foothold in our communities, and will disappear from our lives.

But in interviews with more than a dozen epidemiologists, immunologists and evolutionary biologists, the course of the virus in the United States appeared more complicated — and a bit less rosy.

By infecting so many people, Omicron undoubtedly brings us closer to the end of the pandemic, they said. The current surge in infections is falling back, and there is reason to hope that hospitalizations and deaths will follow.

The path to normalcy may be short and direct, the goal just weeks away, and horrific surges may become a thing of the past. Or it may be long and bumpy, pockmarked with outbreaks over the coming months to years as the virus continues to find footing.

In any case, it is not likely that the coronavirus will ever completely disappear, many scientists said, and herd immunity is now just a dream. The population’s immunity against the virus will be imperfect, for a variety of reasons.

“Maybe there was a short while where we could have reached that goal,” said Shweta Bansal, an infectious disease modeler at Georgetown University. “But at this point, we are well beyond that.”

Instead, the coronavirus seems likely to become endemic — a permanent part of American lives, a milder illness, like the flu, that people must learn to live with and manage.

But the future also depends on a wild card: new variants. Omicron surfaced only at the end of November. Most researchers believe other variants are coming, because too little of the world is vaccinated. Eventually some may be both highly contagious and have a knack for short-circuiting the body’s immune defenses, lengthening the misery for everyone.

“This is a choose-your-own-adventure story, and the ending is not written yet,” said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. “Nobody is going to be able to tell us what will happen.”

As of Wednesday, the United States was reporting more than 650,000 new cases daily, on average, down from more than 800,000 two weeks ago. Deaths continue to rise, at more than 2,300 per day, on average, but hospitalizations seem to be nearing a plateau, at about 155,000 per day, on average.

In the best-case scenario, as those numbers fall, many Americans may soon be able to reclaim much of their prepandemic lives. Perhaps by the spring in the Northeast, and probably later in other regions, many Americans may go to work mask-free, send their children to school and socialize with family and friends without worry.

Only those at high risk from Covid — because of their age, health status or occupation — would need regular boosters tailored to the latest variant.

“If we could keep people out of the hospital and not get terribly ill, I think we could get back to normal basically with the tests and with vaccines,” said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York.

In the long run, many of us might experience a mild infection every few years, as with coronaviruses that cause the common cold, but would not become seriously ill.

The idea of Omicron as the last stand of the coronavirus holds enormous appeal. It’s what everybody wants, every scientist hopes for. But to get there, Americans would need to be both lucky and smart.

An endemic virus does not necessarily indicate a minor threat. Tuberculosis is endemic in India and other countries, and kills more than a million people each year. In African countries, measles is endemic. That virus constantly circulates at low levels and periodically triggers large outbreaks.

The Coronavirus Pandemic: Latest Updates

Earlier in the pandemic, health officials estimated that for the coronavirus, vaccinating about 70 percent of the population might get us past the herd immunity threshold, meaning the coronavirus becomes a negligible threat.

But the more contagious a variant, the higher the percentage of vaccinated people needed to reach the threshold. When the Alpha variant surfaced, scientists revised the level to 90 percent.

By early last year, they acknowledged that the herd immunity goal was probably out of reach.

Imperfect Immunity
How big a threat the coronavirus remains depends in part on the level of immunity that the country maintains over time. That’s a difficult assessment to make.

There are still millions in the United States and elsewhere who have no protection from the virus and no plans to be immunized. Booster shots are needed to prevent Omicron infection, and only about half of eligible Americans have received them.

Moreover, scientists know little about the strength or duration of immunity left by an Omicron infection, and they do know that the protection against infections conferred by vaccines wanes after a relatively short period. (The protection against hospitalization and death remains strong over a longer period.)

If the population’s protection against the virus is weak or transient, as is possible, then Americans may continue to experience outbreaks large enough to flood hospitals for years. To contain them, people would have to line up for annual coronavirus shots, perhaps in the fall, as they do for flu shots.

If the virus persists as an endemic threat, the number of people vulnerable to it will also change over time. Young people will age into higher risk groups or develop conditions that put them at risk, and babies will arrive without immunity.

“Whether it’s because of evolution, whether it’s because of waning or whether it’s because of population turnover, we’ve got an influx of susceptibility which allows for future transmission,” said Adam Kucharski, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

The lack of widespread vaccination, in the United States and worldwide, coupled with the uncertainty regarding the strength of immunity left behind by Omicron, opens the door to the possibility of new variants. Someday, one of them may dodge immune defenses as well as, or even better than, Omicron does.

“I consider Omicron an example of what endemic Covid-19 looks like,” said Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. “But this doesn’t end with Omicron, because future variants will emerge.”

The Coronavirus Pandemic: Key Things to Know
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Omicron in retreat. Though the U.S. is still facing overwhelmed hospitals and more than 2,500 deaths a day, new cases are falling rapidly across the country. But experts warned that spotty immunity and the threat of new variants mean the virus is not likely to ever completely disappear.

Covid shots. More than 10 billion vaccine doses have been administered globally according to the University of Oxford, though distribution is uneven. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that third vaccine shots reduced the hospitalization risk for immunocompromised people.

Around the world. China has instituted a wide range of high-tech controls on society as part of a mostly successful effort to stop Covid, but the sharpened surveillance may last beyond the pandemic. In England, officials are extending the country’s vaccine rollout to vulnerable children ages 5 to 11.

Neither vaccines nor infections offer so-called sterilizing immunity, meaning that the protection they offer appears to weaken over time. The protection gained from a Delta or Omicron infection may not be as effective against new variants, as the virus is changing unexpectedly quickly and in unusual ways.

Viruses typically evolve in a ladderlike pattern, with each new variant developing from the one before it. But the three riskiest variants of the coronavirus — Alpha, Delta and Omicron — evolved independently. The coronavirus wasn’t building on previous work, so to speak — it repeatedly reinvented itself.

As more and more of the world is vaccinated, evolution will favor forms of the coronavirus that can sidestep antibodies and other immune defenses.

“We could get another variant kind of out of the blue that’s responding to a selection pressure that we hadn’t really thought about, or with mutations that we didn’t really put together,” said Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

Contrary to popular myth, the coronavirus is not guaranteed to transform into a milder form over time. A virus may evolve to be less virulent if it kills its hosts before it has been passed on to others, or if it runs out of hosts to infect. Neither is true of the coronavirus.

“It doesn’t kill enough of us, to be perfectly blunt, to actually deplete its reservoir of people to infect,” said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University. “And it certainly is passed on from an infected person long before the virus kills.”

Even if the next variant is as mild as Omicron or even milder, a highly contagious variant may still wreak havoc on the health care system.

“When you’ve got something as transmissible as Omicron, you don’t need it to be incredibly severe to really screw things up,” said Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Treading Carefully
The future will also depend on our risk tolerance, both as individuals and as a nation. The most relevant comparison is to the flu virus, which has survived alongside humans for hundreds of years.

Like the coronavirus, the flu is primarily a threat to certain groups — in this case, older adults, children under age 5, and those with weaker immune systems.

The rest of the population takes few precautions. Businesses and schools don’t require negative tests for those who have had the flu, nor do people wear masks to protect themselves against it. Only about half of adult Americans choose to be vaccinated each year.
With the coronavirus, public health officials are just now wrestling with what normal should look like, including which trade-offs are acceptable. But they do acknowledge that trade-offs are coming.

“We don’t have a vision of what level of control we’re aiming for,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. “I just don’t think zero cases is the target for any of us.”

This month, a group of former advisers to President Biden called on the administration to plan for a “new normal” that entails living with the coronavirus and the flu long term. Like Dr. Nuzzo, they argued that the administration should set targets for the number of hospitalizations and deaths that would trigger emergency measures.

Given how frequently the coronavirus has upended expectations, Americans should hope for the best — but be prepared for living a bit longer with something short of that.

“We all want this to be over,” Dr. Shaman said. “But I think we have to be a little more agnostic in our approach to this whole thing.”

“We don’t know,” he added. “We just don’t know.”

COVID: 'Stealth' Omicron Found Near New York, May Be More Contagious [Hudson Valley Post, 27 Jan 2022]

BY Bobby Welber

Health officials are now worried about what’s called "stealth" Omicron. It's a relative of the super-spreading variant, which was just detected very close to New York. Officials think it may be even more infections.

The latest COVID numbers in New York show COVID continues to be on the decline. On Wednesday, Gov. Katy Hochul reported 7.18 percent of COVID tests came back positive in the previous 24 hours.

The number of cases continues to decline in all regions of the state and there were 500 fewer New Yorkers hospitalized with COVID since the previous report.

Health officials are now worried about what’s called "stealth" Omicron.

"I am grateful for all the hard work New Yorkers have put in to bring infections down, but our fight is not over yet." Hochul said. "It is important that we continue to wear our masks and get vaccinated. For the parents hesitating to get their children vaccinated, thousands of young New Yorkers across the state have already gotten their shot - it is safe, free, widely available, and the best way to protect your children and keep them in school."

That's the good news. The bad news, health officials are now worried about a COVID Omicron sub-variant.

The first case of a COVID-19 Omicron sub-variant has been detected in Connecticut. The sub-variant is called "stealth" Omicron because it's harder to detect.

Officials think it may be even more infections.

The Omicron variant led to a record number of COVID cases in New York State.

Health officials say the sub-variant, called BA.2, has the same roots as the highly contagious Omicron variant. It's not a new variant. Officials describe it as a relative of Omicron, also known as BA.1.

The Omicron variant led to a record number of COVID cases in New York State.

Experts believe "stealth" Omicron is potentially more infectious than Omicron, NBC reports.

The reported case of "stealth" Omicron was found in person from Fairfield County.

Omicron Variant Dominating New York, Signs You May Have COVID

Experts: 'Stealth Omicron' could be even more contagious | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis [Asahi Shimbun, 27 Jan 2022]

By KAI ICHINO

A health ministry advisory board warned on Jan. 26 that another version of the Omicron variant spreading overseas could be 18 percent more contagious than the one currently dominant in Japan.

The new form of the Omicron variant is being called “stealth Omicron,” as some of the tests conducted in other countries have not been able to identify it as the Omicron variant.

But experts at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said PCR tests conducted in Japan can still identify it as the Omicron variant.

Omicron is split into lineages, including “BA.1” and “BA.2,” depending on its genetic traits. The form of Omicron dominant throughout the world, including in Japan, is BA.1, but BA.2 is currently making gains in other countries.

“The spread of the Omicron variant is being driven further as BA.2 keeps replacing BA.1. We should be aware of BA.2’s contagiousness,” said Takaji Wakita, chair of the advisory board and head of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases.

The advisory board said the same day that some people in Japan have been identified as being infected with BA.2 through genome sequencing after undergoing tests at Japanese airports or other places within the country. The board has argued that genome sequencing should be conducted on more Omicron patients.

The board also said it cannot yet say how many people have been identified as infected with BA.2 in Japan because officials are still compiling the data.

It said that according to information from Denmark, BA.2’s effective reproduction number, which represents how many people become infected through one carrier, is 18 percent higher than BA.1.

Hiroshi Nishiura, a professor at Kyoto University who analyzed this information, said a roughly 20 percent increase in the effective reproduction number is not as great as the difference between the Delta variant and the standard Omicron variant. But it still shows that BA.2 is much more contagious than BA.1.

In countries such as Demark and Israel, where BA.2 is increasingly replacing BA.1 as the dominant Omicron strain, Omicron infections are spreading once again after having already peaked.

However, experts also suggested it may be the case that the hospitalization rates of patients infected with Omicron would not greatly differ between those infected with BA.1 and BA.2.

Moderna official shares insight into omicron vaccine, stealth variant - WBBJ TV [WBBJ-TV, 27 Jan 2022]

by Ashley Luningham

Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Paul Burton says they have already started giving out doses.

“The first person got their first dose of it yesterday. We aim to enroll about 600 people. It will probably take about two months to enroll and complete that study to get data from it,” Burton said.

Burton says once they have collected enough data, it will be available for the general public.
“Our hope is that we will then be able to start producing that and be in a position to have it supplied and ready to go for boosting of people in the autumn of 2022,” Burton said.
While they hope to fight the omicron variant, Burton says new variants could pop up at any time.

So he says they are preparing for that future.

“Make sure that we are ready with a vaccine to protect people, specifically against omicron and against delta, and maybe other variants as we then get ready for the next winter. That is why people may be protected now, but we can’t rest on our lows. We have to be prepared with that next vaccine,” Burton said.

He says the COVID-19 virus has proven to evolve in unpredictable ways. And now the omicron variant has its own variant.

“There is a stealth variant that is called BA-2 of omicron that now accounts for 50% in Denmark, doubling every four days in the United Kingdom,” Burton said.

Burton says the stealth variant has already made it to the United States. But they are unsure how dangerous it is.

That is why he says it is important to try to stay one step ahead at all times.

“The only way we can do that is to get as many people vaccinated and as many people boosted as possible to protect them,” Burton said. “We at Moderna will continue to do the great science that we do to try to get as many new vaccines that are specifically engineered against these variants.”

Burton says the stealth variant is still too new to know how it relates to other COVID-19 variants, but he hopes to know soon.

COVID-19: New 'Stealth Omicron' Strain Identified In New York [Pleasantville Daily Voice, 28 Jan 2022]

BY Zak Failla

The newly emerging “stealth” Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has been confirmed throughout the region, according to an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), Omicron, which is known as B.1.1.529, has three sub-variants: the original BA.1 that remains the dominant strain, the “stealth” BA.2, which is picking up steam, and the more elusive BA.3.

Recently, the new “stealth” variant - named for its difficulty to identify due to a lack of certain genetic characteristics - has been becoming more of a concern, and it most recently made its way into Connecticut in Fairfield County.

To date, there have been approximately 100 BA.2 cases sequenced across the country, including at least 10 from Massachusetts and four in New York, making it likely that it would spread to neighboring Connecticut.

“We detected the first BA.2 Omicron case in Connecticut,” professor Nathan Grubaugh posted to Twitter this. “(The) sample (was) collected on (Saturday), Jan. 8 from Fairfield County.”
Officials noted that just because the variant was first detected in one area of the state, it doesn’t preclude it from having spread to other parts of the state.

Grubaugh cautioned that BA.2 is more transmissible than BA.1, and that in approximately a month it became the dominant strain in Denmark, which has been among the hardest hit by the variant early on.

However, the professor said that immunity from BA.1 “should” protect against BA.2, which “probably” won’t be any worse for vaccines, though the data is still pending.

“BA.2 is not yet a significant proportion of the cases in (the region). But considering its first detection from a sample collected on Jan. 8, that could be changing soon,” Grubaugh explained.

“I want to note that I do not think that BA.2 will lead to a significant resurgence of COVID-19 cases. While it’s more transmissible than BA.1, there is a lot of recent population immunity from the BA.1 wave, and hopefully not as many susceptible people to infect.”

Health Officials Tracking New ‘Stealth’ Omicron Variant Spreading In Europe, Detected In U.S. [CBS New York, 27 Jan 2022]

NEW JERSEY (CBSNewYork) — The first cases of a new Omicron subvariant are beginning to be seen in the Tri-State Area.
They arrived as an Appeals Court prepares to rule on the New York state mask mandate, CBS2’s Dick Brennan reported Thursday.

The crucial hearing will be held Friday, as the court will hear more arguments to decide whether to eliminate the state-wide requirement to cover up.

“There are good points and bad points, but I think it’s good in general for everybody wear masks,” said Nicholas Ng of Massapequa.

A lower court struck down the mandate, but it was temporarily reinstated until the Appeals Court can rule.

“Everybody should do what they feel comfortable doing and if there is a mandate to wear a mask then I will certainly do it,” said George Trapp of Hell’s Kitchen.

The showdown on masks comes as a new Omicron subvariant has been detected, raising new fears.

Some scientists worry it could be more contagious, but say there’s a lot they still don’t know about it, CBS2’s Meg Baker reported Thursday.

“They’re giving it the name the ‘stealth’ variant because it’s really, really easily transmissible,” Dr. Perry Halkitis of Rutgers School of Public Health said.

The latest version of the coronavirus that scientists are calling BA.2 is considered stealthier than the original. It’s genetic traits make it harder to detect and more contagious.

“We are putting up all these barriers for virus to transmit, like with vaccines and people having natural immunity and the combination of both,” Halkitis said. “As the virus mutates, it’s trying to find smarter ways to get in.”

It is also harder to classify positive cases of the new variant as Omicron in PCR tests.

“The cause of concern is that it seems to be spreading very fast in some European countries, for example in Denmark, and they’re already saying that it could be one and a half times more infectious than the Omicron,” Epidemiologist Ayman El-Mohandes, dean of CUNY Graduate School of Public Health, said. “It represents more than half the cases, 60% of the cases. There is no indication that it’s more severe than the original Omicron variant.”

“As far as I know, it’s been diagnosed in Washington state. It’s been diagnosed in California and in Texas. But it will not surprise me at all that soon thereafter we will see it all over the country,” he added.

El-Mohandes urged people to use common sense and remain vigilant, wear masks, avoid crowded places and stay home when feeling sick.

These strategies can help protect the most vulnerable, he said, like children younger than five (who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated), older adults and those who are immunocompromised.

Health officials continue to say the best protection from serious illness comes from being fully vaccinated and boosted.

Hong Kong’s battle with ‘stealth Omicron’ may provide critical clues about the rapidly spreading COVID subvariant [Fortune, 27 Jan 2022]

BY GRADY MCGREGOR

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From late December to mid-January, the Omicron substrain BA.2 outpaced Omicron’s parent strain, called BA.1, in Denmark to become the dominant version of COVID-19 in a matter of weeks. Now it’s hitting Hong Kong, a city that may be a perfect laboratory to better understand how contagious and deadly the subvariant really is.

On Thursday, Hong Kong recorded 164 cases of COVID-19, the most infections in one day since the beginning of the pandemic.

"Most of the infected cases are Omicron," Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's chief executive, said in a press conference on Thursday. "We are still in a severe stage of the pandemic, and there’s been major outbreaks in the community."

The record infections come as the city doubles down on its COVID-zero, or "dynamic zero," strategy that does not tolerate even one infection within its borders. Last year, Hong Kong went seven months without recording community spread of COVID-19. That streak came to an end on Dec. 31, pushing the city to impose some of its harshest social distancing restrictions since the beginning of the pandemic. Since Jan. 5, Hong Kong has closed all sporting and entertainment venues; shut down all bars, restaurants, and shops after 6 p.m.; placed thousands of people into government-run quarantine camps; locked down crowded apartment complexes; banned all flights from eight nations; and culled thousands of pet hamsters that were suspected of transmitting the virus.

But the measures have not appeared to hold up against the Omicron BA.2 substrain, which is often dubbed “stealth Omicron” due to a now-debunked theory that it was harder to spot on PCR tests. The variant has rapidly spread in individual apartment buildings, infecting hundreds of people living in the same block and prompting authorities to seal residents in the complexes for up to a week. Scientists believe the substrain could be as much as 30% more transmissible than Omicron’s original strain, and some say it will likely outpace Omicron’s original strain and rise to become the next variant of concern.

But little else is known about stealth Omicron, and the World Health Organization this week called for scientists to research how it behaves.

If the substrain spreads further in Hong Kong, the city may provide some clues.

For one, scientists are not sure what exactly makes stealth Omicron more transmissible. It might be more infectious or simply better at evading vaccines. Among vaccinated populations, it is difficult to tell the difference. Hong Kong has fully vaccinated 64% of its population, similar to the U.S. But its elderly population has lagged behind, with a fully vaccinated rate among people over 80 of 20%.

The low vaccination rate means that if the substrain spreads among unvaccinated populations in Hong Kong, scientists can gauge its transmission versus how quickly it's spreading in more vaccinated populations elsewhere. The evidence could provide clues about stealth Omicron's ability to evade vaccines versus its base level of contagiousness.

Gabriel Leung, Hong Kong’s top epidemiologist and adviser to the government on the pandemic, tells Stat News that only 16% of people in Hong Kong's nursing homes are vaccinated. He explained that if different strains of Omicron spread in different nursing homes, scientists could better understand the differences in how quickly, say, Omicron variant BA.1 and BA.2 spread. “Ironically, and, paradoxically, Hong Kong’s nursing homes…would be the perfect laboratory to sort this out," Leung told Stat News.

Michael Diamond, a viral immunologist at Washington University in St. Louis, also told Stat News that because so many Hong Kongers have been neither vaccinated nor previously infected, the city could provide important clues about how deadly stealth Omicron is.

“The key measure of whether this is less pathogenic [or less severe]—apart from the animal studies—is in naive people, meaning those who have never been vaccinated and never been infected. Are they getting severe disease or not?” he said.

Hong Kong, meanwhile, is hoping to halt the spread of the variant as soon as possible to avoid becoming the subject of scientific inquiry.

"We are racing against Omicron," Lam said Thursday. "We do have the ability to stop the spread of the disease in Hong Kong…[but with this variant] exponential growth in the number of cases in the community can happen at any time."

U.S. COVID daily death toll at highest level since last winter's peak, and WHO says global case tally set record in latest week [MarketWatch, 27 Jan 2022]

By Ciara Linnane

Numbers reflect the speed with which omicron variant spread in December and January

The U.S. daily death toll from COVID-19 rose on Tuesday to its highest level since last winter’s peak, according to a New York Times tracker and other sources, after the surge in cases in December and January driven by the highly transmissible omicron variant.

Deaths lag cases and hospitalizations, with the former now finally coming down from their highs, while the latter appear to be reaching a peak.

The U.S. is averaging 2,362 deaths a day, the tracker shows, up 35% from two weeks ago. But cases are down 14% at 652,278 and hospitalizations are up 9% at 155,247.

Cases are falling fastest in northeastern states that were first to see waves of omicron cases and remain at undesirably high levels in states that were hit later, including Alabama, North Dakota and Kansas.

Most COVID deaths are happening in unvaccinated people, who remain at high risk from omicron. Those who are vaccinated and have had a booster shot are still seeing high protection from severe illness and death and while there have been many breakthrough infections in that group, most suffer mild symptoms or are unsymptomatic.

The stark reality of the risk to unvaccinated people is illustrated in this chart from data group

The World Health Organization said there was a record of more than 21 million new cases of COVID globally in the week through Jan. 25, a 5% increase from the week before. That was the most since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

The highest number of new cases were in the U.S., France, India, Italy and Brazil. The U.S. also had the higher number of fatalities, followed by Russia.

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The WHO highlighted that omicron has fast become the leading variant in most countries and confirmed that data continue to show it to be more contagious but less lethal than other variants.

“However, due to the very high numbers of cases, many countries have seen a significant increase in the incidence of hospitalization, putting pressure on healthcare systems,” the agency said in its weekly epidemiological update.

The update did not mention a new subvariant of omicron that has been named BA.2 for now, although WHO earlier this week said officials should start investigating it to see if it is more risky than the original omicron variant, now called BA.1. In a statement on its website, WHO said BA.2, which differs from BA.1 in some of its mutations, “is increasing in many countries.”

“Investigations into the characteristics of BA.2, including immune escape properties and virulence, should be prioritized independently (and comparatively) to BA.1.,”
said the statement.

• Prime Minister Boris Johnson is bracing for the conclusions of an investigation into allegations of lockdown-breaching parties, a document that could help him end weeks of scandal and discontent, or could bring his time in office to an end, the Associated Press reported. Allegations that the prime minister and his staff flouted restrictions imposed on the country to curb the spread of the coronavirus have caused public anger, led some Conservative lawmakers to call for Johnson’s resignation and triggered intense infighting inside the governing party.

• A study conducted by researchers at the universities of Düsseldorf and Reading of 257 soccer players who contracted COVID found that their performance was diminished after recovery, AFP reported. The study found that players’ passing-success rate fell by up to five percentage points and that the virus affected footballers over the age of 30 more seriously. It also suggested that teams with the most players who had recovered from COVID had worse results than their rivals. “So far, the results suggest a permanent alteration in the player’s abilities,” said James Reade, director of the economics department at the University of Reading and co-author of the study, albeit with a caveat: “The majority of players had not been vaccinated (at the time of the study) and this remains a complicating factor.”

• Quest Diagnostics DGX, -0.24% is now offering consumers a new COVID-19 testing option that allows them to order a rapid at-home test and then collect the swab sample while being monitored by remote healthcare professionals. Quest said the new service can be used to complete proctored testing requirements for international travel, verification of a positive test to get a prescription from a doctor, and to return to work or school.

• Russia reported a record number of new coronavirus infections for a sixth straight day, the Moscow Times reported. A total of 74,692 new infections and 657 deaths were recorded over the last 24 hours. Russia has reduced the quarantine period for patients to seven days from 14, despite the high numbers. Germany also hit a new daily record of 164,000 COVID-19 infections on Wednesday as the lower house of parliament prepared to debate proposals to either require or robustly encourage residents to be vaccinated, Reuters reported.

Here’s what the numbers say
The global tally of confirmed cases of COVID-19 rose above 359.8 million, and the death toll is now above 5.61 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University.

The U.S. leads the world with 72.2 million cases and 872,828 fatalities.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker is showing that 210.6 million people living in the U.S. are fully vaccinated, equal to 63.5% of the total population.

Some 84.8 million have received a booster, equal to 40.3% of the fully vaccinated.

WHO staff complaint, email allege racism and abuse in Asia [Associated Press, 27 Jan 2022]

By MARIA CHENG

Current and former staffers have accused the top director of the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific of racist, unethical and abusive behavior that has undermined the U.N. health agency’s efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

The allegations were laid out in an internal complaint filed in October and again in an email last week, sent by unidentified “concerned WHO staff” to senior leadership and the executive board and obtained by the Associated Press. Two of the authors said more than 30 staffers were involved in writing it, and that it reflected the experiences of more than 50 people.

The internal complaint and the email describe a “toxic atmosphere” with “a culture of systemic bullying and public ridiculing” at WHO’s Western Pacific headquarters in Manila, led by Dr. Takeshi Kasai, director of a vast region that includes China and his home country of Japan. The AP also has obtained recorded snippets of meetings where Kasai is heard making derogatory remarks about his staff based on nationality. Eleven former or current WHO staffers who worked for Kasai told the AP he frequently used racist language.

Staffers, who did not identify themselves to WHO “for fear of retaliation,” said in the email that Kasai’s authoritarian style has led to the departure of more than 55 key staff in the past year and a half, most of whom have not been replaced. This resulted in a lack of understanding and involvement with member countries that “significantly contributed” to a surge of cases in many countries in the region, they said. However, other WHO staffers pointed out that spikes in COVID cases were due to numerous reasons, including countries’ own resources and the timing of their national efforts.

The complaint and message also accused Kasai of improperly sharing potentially sensitive vaccine information with Japan, one of 37 countries in the region he leads.

In an email to the AP, Kasai denied allegations of racism and unethical behavior. He said that after receiving the email last week, he immediately took steps to communicate with all his staff.
“I ask a lot of myself, and our staff,” he said. “This has particularly been the case during the COVID-19 response. But it should not result in people feeling disrespected.”

Kasai said he was committed to making changes that would ensure “a positive work environment” for all WHO staff in the region. However, an internal WHO message seen by the AP shows that in a meeting last week, Kasai ordered all his senior directors and country representatives to “reject” the accusations made in the email and to “totally support” him.

Among the most damning claims is that Kasai made “racist and derogatory remarks to staff of certain nationalities.” The internal complaint filed to WHO alleges that Kasai once aggressively questioned a Filipino staffer during a coronavirus meeting, saying: “How many people in the Pacific have you killed so far and how many more do you want to kill further?” The complaint said he then asked “if she was incapable of delivering good presentations because she was Filipina.”

Several WHO officials present when the statements were made confirmed to the AP that the regional director has made numerous racist comments in meetings denigrating people from countries including China, the Philippines and Malaysia. They said the harassed staffers were sometimes driven to tears.

The email also said Kasai had blamed the rise in COVID cases in some countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomic level.” Three WHO staffers who were part of the agency’s coronavirus response team in Asia told the AP Kasai said repeatedly in meetings that the COVID response was hampered by “a lack of sufficiently educated people in the Pacific.”

Kasai rejected allegations that he had ever used racist language.

“It is true that I have been hard on staff, but I reject the suggestion that I have targeted staff of any particular nationality,” he said. “Racism goes against all of the principles and values I hold dear as a person….I believe deeply and sincerely in WHO’s mission to serve all countries and people.”

The claims add to a litany of internal protests from WHO personnel about the agency’s management of the pandemic during the last two years, including privately complaining about China’s delayed sharing of information while publicly praising the government. In their complaint, WHO staff admonished Kasai for “not daring to criticize the Chinese authorities” and failing to disclose what happened during a trip to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping shortly after the coronavirus was identified in Wuhan.

“We request your urgent intervention to address our serious concerns...which is negatively impacting WHO’s performance to support (countries) in the region and WHO’s ability to function as an effective public health organization, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the staffers wrote.

Kasai is a Japanese doctor who began his career in his country’s public health system before moving to WHO, where he has worked for more than 15 years. He is credited with developing the region’s response to emerging outbreaks after the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University, said he was in contact with many people at the office in the Western Pacific, and knew they felt battered during the pandemic.

“Dr. Kasai came into office with a good reputation, as a reasonably strong public health leader with his country’s support,” Gostin said. “But I was not surprised to hear these allegations.”
Gostin said racism in a WHO office at the center of the pandemic would be “unconscionable,” and that the allegations wounded WHO’s credibility and capacity to do what was needed during the pandemic.

“If you ever needed WHO and its key regional offices to be acting with a single voice, with a single purpose and with great energy, it would be now,” he said. “And the fact that the staff are so demoralized, feel so defeated, so humiliated and morale is so low, it hurts the pandemic response in the region.”

In the email, staffers accused Kasai of not respecting WHO’s own guidelines in the pandemic through a forced return to the office and to commutes during strict lockdown in Manila. In an internal email to staff from April 1, 2020, he said that three people on the Manila team had COVID but that “we must remain functional….This has meant keeping our country offices and the Regional office open to some level.” Some staffers were concerned that parts of the advice — including car-pooling with other staff and continuing to share desks — could put them at higher risk of catching COVID-19.

WHO staffers also alleged that Kasai abused his position to aid the Japanese government in COVID-19 vaccination planning by providing confidential data. Many countries expect WHO not to share details on sensitive issues like disease rates or vaccination unless they explicitly consent.

A WHO scientist who worked on COVID-19 vaccination in Asia told the AP that Kasai shared data with Japan so that the government could decide how to donate doses to its regional neighbors for a political advantage. The staffer, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said Kasai also pressured WHO personnel to prioritize vaccine donations from Japan over the U.N.-backed COVAX effort.

In his response to the AP, Kasai disputed that he had ever inappropriately shared information with Japan.

“At no time have I pressured staff to facilitate donations from Japan rather than COVAX,” he said. “The vast majority of Japan’s vaccine donations to other countries in the Western Pacific Region have been through the COVAX (effort.)”

Japan has donated about 2.5 million doses to countries in WHO’s Western Pacific region via COVAX since June, according to data this month from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By contrast, Japan has donated more than 11 million doses bilaterally over the same period to countries including Vietnam, Malaysia and the Philippines.

WHO has dealt with internal complaints from staffers alleging systemic racism, sexism and other problems before; its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus ordered an internal probe in January 2019 to assess such allegations. Last year, the AP reported that senior WHO management was informed of multiple sexual abuse reports involving its own staffers during the Ebola outbreak in Congo, but failed to act.

The authors of the WHO email in the Western Pacific said most of them had “exhaustively” filed complaints through various WHO mechanisms, including its ombudsman, ethics hotline, staff association and office of internal oversight, but have not been informed of any investigation into their allegations.

Under WHO’s governance structure, regional directors are largely answerable only to the member countries that elect them and to the executive board that confirms their selection. Kasai was elected by member countries in the Western Pacific in 2019 and could run again next year.

WHO’s headquarters in Geneva said in an email that it was “aware of the allegations and is taking all appropriate steps to follow up on the matter.” Kasai said in a statement that he was “ready to cooperate fully with any process to investigate the concerns which have been raised.”

Kasai does not technically report to Tedros, but “all staffers are subject to the authority of the Director-General,” according to the agency’s staff rules. During a press briefing last April, Tedros praised Kasai as “my brother” and thanked him for “everything you continue to do to serve the people of the Western Pacific.”

At a virtual meeting this week, WHO’s executive board is slated to discuss issues including the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also on the agenda are various “management matters,” including the prevention of abuse and harassment and “increased efforts to address racism.”

Japan lets in 87 international students [Inside Higher Ed, 27 Jan 2022]

By Pola Lem

Country lets in 87 international students out of 147,000 waiting to return.


In a fresh upset to international students hoping to enter Japan, government officials said the country will let in only 87 overseas learners next month.

The chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, told national media that the selected students—who are funded through the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology—will be allowed into the country because they are due to graduate within the year.

“We decided to allow them to enter the country, taking into account their individual circumstances from the perspective of public interest and urgency,” he said.
The announcement comes as the country tackles a spike in COVID-19 infections. On Jan. 19, Japan reported more than 40,000 cases in a day for the first time—triple the caseload it reported a week prior, according to Nikkei Asia.

In a briefing with reporters, an official reportedly said that the government understands the importance of international students to Japan’s economy and research—and that it would continue to review its approach regarding other students.

But the message appears not to have reassured many of those waiting. More than 28,000 people have signed a petition urging the government to reopen to international students as soon as possible.

In November, students saw a flicker of hope when Tokyo said it would begin allowing their limited entry in late 2021. But before the month was over, the country had shut its borders to all international visitors, with concerns mounting over the spread of the highly infectious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

Davide Rossi, founder of the site EducationIsNotTourism.com—who has been advocating for international students’ return to Japan and is among those who have signed the petition—called the recent government move a “minor exception its rigid border rules.”

“This is only 0.06 percent of the total number of students waiting to enter the country, some of them for two years,” said Rossi, who estimated that about 147,000 students are waiting to enter Japan. “Disappointment is growing.”

The current approach unfairly penalizes international students, added Rossi.

“The majority of people in Japan can go out and in, while only a minority is stuck in limbo. If it’s OK for re-entry to go out and then re-enter Japan, why is it not OK for new entry such as international students, skilled workforce and spouses and dependents?” he said.

Rebecca Mazzocchi, a master’s student from Italy studying environmental studies at Japan’s Sophia University since September 2021, tried to see the silver lining in the situation.

“For the government to still activate a plan to let—still very few—students in could be a beginning for them to do something more in time for the spring semester,” she said.

But she was not getting her hopes up too high. “We will see what happens,” said Mazzocchi.
“Nonetheless, I am preparing for alternative options if in spring nothing has moved.”

Day cares struggle to stay open as COVID-19 surges across Japan [The Japan Times, 27 Jan 2022]

BY KANAKO TAKAHARA

Naoko Muto feels it is just a matter of luck that the day care center she runs hasn’t had any COVID-19 cases despite the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

With heaters on full blast, the Takakura day care center in Nagoya keeps its windows slightly open all day to improve ventilation, while everything from nursing rooms to staff break rooms are disinfected daily. Basically, Muto says, her team is doing everything it can to prevent one of its employees or children from getting infected, which would force the facility to close down.

“Day cares have a societal role that allows working parents to go to work,” said Muto, whose facility has 121 pre-schoolers up to the age of 6 under its care. “But even if we do everything possible, we may not be able to prevent one of us from being infected.”

Muto is one of the scores of day care operators nationwide fearful of having to close down if a child or staffer gets infected with the coronavirus.

On Monday, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced that a record 327 licensed day care facilities nationwide were closed as of Jan. 20 due to the virus. The figure exceeded the 185 facilities forced to shut down in early September during the fifth wave.

Day care closures are much more than an inconvenience for parents and can affect all sectors of society by forcing essential workers, among others, to take time off and care for their children.

In Japan, licensed day care centers are for households where both parents work or cannot take care of their child during the day for various reasons. Parents are screened by municipalities in order to be eligible to enroll their children.

When a day care shuts down, parents are typically forced to take time off work or work remotely from home if they can’t get help from family or friends.

A 38-year-old mother of two who lives in Kawasaki had to scramble to adjust her work plans last week when her 4-year-old son’s day care closed for four days after a COVID-19 case was detected in the facility.

“I had to go to the office on the Wednesday and my husband can’t work from home so he took the day off to take care of our son,” said Nori Kawashima, who works in Yokohama as an administrative staff member.

Kawashima worked from home for the remaining days while her son binge-watched Disney movies.

“He was laying around on the floor all day and only got up to go to the bathroom,” she said.
“He didn’t eat much for lunch because he wasn’t hungry.”

One of Kawashima’s friends was off on Friday, so her son was able to go out and play at a nearby park in the afternoon with her friend and her child.

The health ministry is asking day care facility operators to stay open as much as possible, but it is up to municipalities to decide whether or not to close down if a teacher or child is infected.

In Nagoya, day care centers will close if a staffer or child is a close contact of a COVID-19 patient. If one of them gets infected, facilities will close for 10 days, retroactive to the day after the infected individual was last at the center.

“At day care centers, children of all ages spend time together in the same room in the mornings or in the evenings, so we can’t just shut down one classroom like elementary schools,” said Yasunori Nagata, an official in charge of day cares at the Nagoya Municipal Government.

Still, the city allows day cares to reopen some classrooms after several days, provided they have enough teachers who are not close contacts to take care of children. As of Tuesday, 150 day cares in Nagoya were closed, but 28 of those facilities had partially reopened.

Many other municipalities under quasi-emergency measures are now asking parents to keep their children home in order to decrease the number of children at local day care centers, and, in turn, lower the infection risk.

In the latest wave, younger people are getting infected more often compared to other age groups, with those under the age of 19 accounting for 26.1% of the cases based on data from Jan. 1 to Jan. 24, according to the health ministry. The figure was higher than the 20.7% rate for December.

Takaji Wakita, head of the ministry’s COVID-19 expert panel, said Wednesday that infections are spreading, especially among children age 9 and younger, in elementary schools, kindergartens and day care centers.

Classes at elementary, junior high and high schools are shutting down as well due to students and teachers testing positive for COVID-19. The education ministry is currently compiling data on the number of schools that have shut down nationwide.

Still, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Tuesday the government has no plans to close schools nationwide, unlike in the early days of the pandemic in 2020.

Vaccines have only been administered to people age 12 and older. The health ministry has approved Pfizer’s jab for children between the ages of 5 to 11, but the rollout won’t start until around March at the earliest. As of Monday, 74.48% of people age 12 to 19 have been vaccinated with two shots, slightly lower than the 78.7% rate for the population as a whole.
Mask-wearing is mandatory at schools, but the health ministry is advising against them for those younger than 2 at day cares, since they would likely struggle to take them off on their own or tell their teachers when they are not feeling well.

In the end, there may not be much more day care operators can do to keep their doors open given the size of the current COVID-19 wave, which has highlighted the vital role such facilities play in keeping the country running.

“About 20% to 30% of the parents at our day care are essential workers, working as medical and health care providers,” noted Muto, the head of Takakura day care. “But all of the parents, in one way or another, work to keep society functioning.”