New Coronavirus News from 19 Mar 2022

COVID-19 Safety at Easter and Passover [Everyday Health, 19 Mar 2022]

By Becky Upham

The rollout of vaccines will change how a lot of us celebrate spring holidays like Easter and Passover this year. But with coronavirus infection rates still high, scientists have some words of caution.

As Easter and Passover approach, celebrating pandemic-style may feel a lot more joyful than it did in 2020, for good reason: As of March 19, over 67 percent of Americans age 65 and over have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, as have close to 30 percent of all adults.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released a new set of guidelines for fully vaccinated people that allow for indoor and mask-free socializing in certain scenarios.

“It’s been a crazy roller coaster ride over the last year, but right now there’s a lot of optimism because of the vaccines, and obviously a lot of effort going into distribution and rollout and making sure that we prioritize the people that need the vaccine quickly,” says Paul K. Drain, MD, associate professor of allergy and infectious diseases at the University of Washington School of Public Health in Seattle.

Although the vaccine effort is picking up steam, the majority of Americans haven’t been fully immunized, according to the CDC. This has led to concern that the huge spike in cases that followed Thanksgiving could repeat itself after the spring holidays because of the new, more contagious coronavirus variants coupled with people being more relaxed about gathering or wearing masks, Dr. Drain says.

“My advice to everyone is to err on the side of caution when it comes to taking precautions against the virus. I’m hopeful that we’re reaching the tail end of COVID-19, but it’s going to take all of us continuing to be vigilant and following guidelines. We need to be extra careful in what are hopefully the final months of widespread infections and mortalities,” says Drain.

How careful, you ask? Keep reading to find out answers to your questions about celebrating the upcoming holidays and planning spring travel.

What Is the Safest Way to Celebrate Easter or Passover?
First, the good news: If you are fully vaccinated, you can gather indoors and mask-less with unvaccinated people from one other household, according to the CDC. That means, for instance, that vaccinated grandparents can celebrate with their unvaccinated children and grandchildren from a single household, as long as none is at risk for severe COVID-19 because of factors such as pregnancy or an underlying medical condition.

If you have not yet been vaccinated against COVID-19, the CDC recommends that you continue to avoid social gatherings with anyone outside your household who has also not been vaccinated.

If you choose to get together with people you don’t live with, remember that small gatherings are safer, according to the agency.

“At this time, just given where we are and having relatively few people vaccinated, the recommendations are still to avoid medium and large in-person gatherings,” says Drain.

Participating virtually in a religious service is the safer way to worship this year. There are many online options, and you could even do a group chat or video call at the same time as a way to feel more connected to loved ones.

If you are going to gather with people you don’t live with, follow these tips from the CDC to make the event as safe as possible:
• Wear a mask with two or more layers. Make sure the mask fits securely under your chin and cover your nose and mouth.
• Wear your mask indoors and out except when eating or drinking.
• Stay at least six feet away from people from outside your household.
• Avoid direct contact, such as handshakes and hugs.
• Gathering outdoors is safest. If you must gather indoors, keep rooms ventilated by opening doors and windows wherever possible.
• If your gathering involves food or drink, it’s better when guests bring their own. If that’s not possible, have one person serve all the food.
• People should wash their hands thoroughly (for at least 20 seconds) with soap and water when arriving at and leaving any social gathering. People should also wash their hands before serving or eating food. For drying hands, it’s recommended that people use disposable hand towels or paper towels rather than sharing a towel.
• If there is no available place to wash hands, people should use hand sanitizer with at least 60 percent alcohol.

What Does It Mean to Be Fully Vaccinated?
The CDC released updated guidelines for people who have been fully vaccinated. For the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, you are not considered fully vaccinated until two weeks after receiving the second dose. For the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after getting the shot.

“That’s just accounting for the time period that it takes to build up the immune response and the antibodies. People need to keep that window in mind and know that you’re not automatically protected as soon as you get your shot,” says Drain.

If You’ve Been Vaccinated, Do You Still Need to Wear a Mask if You’re Getting Together With a Lot of People?
The CDC says it’s okay for fully vaccinated people to gather without masks and indoors with other fully vaccinated people as long as it’s a small group, says Drain.

This is not the case for larger gatherings that include people from multiple households, including unvaccinated adults. Scientists are still gathering data to determine whether vaccinated people can transmit the virus even if they don’t get sick themselves, so at this point public health experts urge caution.

“The recommendation is really to work to accommodate those people that have not been vaccinated,” Drain says. That means continuing to follow all the precautions around masking and social distancing, he adds.

Is It Safe to Participate in an Easter Egg Hunt or an Outdoor Religious Service?
The safest type of Easter egg hunt would only include people from your household, according to the CDC. The next safest would be a small outside gathering where everyone attending can maintain at least six feet of distance from each other. Everyone should wear a mask if the gathering includes people from more than one household.

A medium or large Easter egg hunt would carry more risk, says Drain. “You’d also have to assume that there’s going to be some people there who have not been vaccinated. In that case, the recommendation would be that anybody who participates in outdoor gatherings, Easter egg hunts, or anything else should wear a mask and practice social distancing and take the typical precautions,” says Drain.

Whether it’s safe to participate in this type of gathering also depends on whether anyone in attendance is at high risk for severe COVID-19, he says.

“For example, if there is a family member who is either elderly or pregnant or has underlying lung conditions or deficiencies, and they haven’t been vaccinated, the recommendation would still be that they themselves, as well as members of their household, avoid large or medium public gatherings even outdoors,” says Drain.

Everybody who attends that type of event should be wearing a mask and practicing social distancing, he adds.

Do Children Need to Wear Masks?
According to the CDC, everyone 2 years old and up should wear a mask when around people outside their household. If that’s not possible for a child due to certain disabilities, the agency suggests asking your healthcare provider for alternative ways to reduce the risk of transmission.

“Children younger than 2 years old shouldn’t wear a mask due to safety risks,” says Drain.

Is It Okay to Travel for Spring Break?
There are indications that people have begun traveling this spring and may continue to do so over the holiday break. U.S. airports had close to 1.4 million people pass through on Friday, March 12 — the most on any day since last March.

Travel increases the chances of getting and spreading COVID-19, and the CDC recommends delaying nonessential travel, whether or not you’re vaccinated.

There is good reason to postpone that family trip until more of the population is vaccinated and the virus is better contained. Since the pandemic began, there have been COVID-19 surges after the mass travel that occurs on holidays, according to CDC director Rochelle Walensky, MD, in a March 12 interview on MSNBC.

Keep in mind that if you do travel in the United States, you are required to wear masks on planes, buses, trains, and other forms of public transportation. If you travel outside the country, you will need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result or documentation of recovery before you board a flight to return to the United States, according to the CDC.

If I’ve Been Vaccinated, Can I Give Someone Else COVID-19 or Vice Versa?
Those studies are still evolving, and there really isn’t good data on that yet, says Drain. “We also need additional data about reinfection among those people that have already been vaccinated as well. Over the next couple of months and certainly through the summer we will be getting a lot more information on vaccinated people regarding whether or not they can become re-infected or if they can spread the virus to other people.”

“All the vaccines lower the chances of getting COVID-19 if you encounter the coronavirus, but they also help prevent people from developing severe infection and death. So, it’s possible for a person who is vaccinated to acquire the virus and potentially pass it on to other people, whether that’s as an asymptomatic infection or a very mild infection,” says Drain.

Will We See Another Spike in COVID-19 Cases After the Spring Holidays?
“There’s a lot of concern that the new coronavirus variants, with their increased transmission and infectivity, are going to drive the number of cases back up again,” says Drain. The new variants of the virus that causes COVID-19 seem to spread more easily and quickly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Whether that happens or not depends, in large part, on how vigilant people are about following public health guidelines. “If we see people start to gather and congregate without masks and without social distancing, we’re certainly going to see cases go back up in the regions where that’s happening,” says Drain.

If people can keep their guard up and continue to practice the safety measures that have been discussed and implemented over the last year, then we should continue to move in a very positive direction, he adds.

“I feel like we’re at another precipice where it can really go either way, and it’s really going to depend a lot on the behaviors of people in the general population,” says Drain.

Boris Johnson says UK is readying fourth Covid vaccine rollout: 'We're going to need it' [iNews, 19 Mar 2022]

By Nick Duffy

‘We’re getting ready for a fourth jab, because we’re going to need it,’ the PM told Tory members

The UK will roll out another coronavirus vaccine booster shot, Boris Johnson has said.

Mr Johnson revealed the planned booster rollout on Saturday in an address at the Conservative Party’s spring conference.

In his speech, Mr Johnson praised the “instinct” of the British population to “choose freedom every time,” noting that they had “come forward to be vaccinated at such incredible speed, voluntarily, unlike many other countries.”

Mr Johnson claimed that while “part of it was that they wanted to avoid catching Covid,” many did so because “they wanted to get on with their lives, and were fed up being told what to do by people like me.”

Addressing the audience, he added: “I hope you’ve all had your boosters? Well, we’re getting ready for a fourth jab, because we’re going to need it.”

A fourth jab is already set to be rolled out for over-75s, care home residents and the immunocompromised in the coming weeks.

However, Health Secretary Sajid Javid suggested earlier this week that a fourth jab rollout for the general population will follow by the end of 2022.

He told ITV’s Peston: “When it comes to vaccinations I think we rightly take the advice of our clinicians.

“(The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) look at the data very, very carefully and their latest advice as you say is that there should be a second boost – or let’s call it a fourth dose – but to focus on those over 75, those in care homes, those who are immunosuppressed.”

When pushed as to whether this would be widened to the general population – not just those who are considered vulnerable, Mr Javid said: “I think at some point they will… their most recent advice is that they think that towards the end of this year, maybe in the autumn, there will be a need to give a lot more people a boost, but I’ll wait for that advice.”

Around one in 20 people in private households in England had Covid-19 in the week to 12 March, data from an Office for National Statistics (ONS) infection survey revealed on Friday, as infections continue to rise across most of the UK.

The figure, equivalent to 2.7 million people, is up from one in 25, or 2.1 million people, in the previous week.

Despite plans to abolish free testing and the lifting of all remaining Covid rules in England, NHS leaders have warned a surge in Covid admissions is having a “significant impact” on the health service including longer waits for emergency beds and delays to operations.

Precaution needed in view of fresh Covid surge in South Korea, China: Tope [Business Standard, 19 Mar 2022]

When asked if a fourth wave of coronavirus was imminent, he said, 'We must continue taking precautions, that is all we can do'

Looking at the new surge in coronavirus cases in South Korea, China and Europe, we can not let our guard down as yet, Maharashtra Public Health Minister Rajesh Tope said here on Saturday.

The Union health ministry had sent a letter to the states a day before about the need to remain alert, he told reporters here.

When asked by reporters whether masks should still be mandatory considering that new daily cases in Maharashtra are fast dwindling, Tope said, "The Union government's letter clearly says that we can not be careless, looking at rising cases in China, South Korea, Europe. We must continue to be alert."

South Korea, whose population is only half that of Maharashtra, is reporting more than one lakh infections a day and there were reports of hospital bed shortages in that country, he said, adding that "we must become wise from others' experience."

When asked if a fourth wave of coronavirus was imminent," he said, "We must continue taking precautions, that is all we can do."

Maharashtra on Saturday reported 97 new coronavirus infections and one death.

S. Korea adds 381454 new COVID-19 cases as of Saturday [The World On Arirang, 19 Mar 2022]

South Korea added more than 381-thousand new coronavirus cases on Saturday, with the figures slightly down from yesterday.

The authorities say, though, that it remains to be seen whether the caseload is actually on the decline.

Cases were heavily concentrated in the capital regions, with Gyeonggi-do Province reporting over 101-thousand and Seoul adding some 82-thousand.

The number of deaths was over 300, and severely ill patients were over 1-thousand.

Starting from Monday, people can gather up to eight instead of six for a private gathering.