New Coronavirus News from 1 Oct 2022

COVID in California: Emerging coronavirus subvariants gain ground in U.S. [San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Oct 2022]

by Aidin Vaziri

The newer BA.4.6 and BF.7 versions of the coronavirus are nibbling away at the dominance of omicron subvariant BA.5, according to the CDC.

UPDATE: Here are the latest updates on COVID in the Bay Area and California.

Three out of four Americans are now living in areas designated by the CDC as having “low” community levels of COVID-19. California COVID deaths have dropped 20% statewide, but the number of people still dying from coronavirus infections did not budge. Scientists at Scripps Research have developed a drug that turns the coronavirus against itself. And a group of doctors issued guidance for diagnosing and treating long COVID in children.

Latest updates:
BA.4.6 and BF.7 subvariants expand their reach in U.S.

The omicron BA.5 subvariant continues to lose ground to newer sublineages of the virus, according to data published Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BA.5 made up an estimated 81% of sequenced cases last week, down from nearly 90% a month ago. Emerging subvariants are growing in proportion, including BA.4.6 at 12.8% (up from 11.9% last week) and BF.7 at 3.4% (up from 2.3%), while BA.2.75 holds at 1.4%. Public health experts believe those strains may have mutations that can help them evade immunity and could make some COVID-19 treatments ineffective. “We are monitoring variants and their impacts in the US and around the world,” said Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, the White House COVID-19 Data Director.

S.F. public pool cancels programs due to COVID outbreak
One of San Francisco’s public swimming pools has temporarily canceled several of its programs due to a COVID-19 outbreak among the staff. Swim lessons, lap swim and family swim session at the Martin Luther King Jr. Pool in the city’s Bayview district are suspended until at least Sunday due to staffing shortages, the Recreation and Park Department said in a bulletin.

Hospital data show unsafe wait times during surges
Emergency department patients during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic had to wait an average of 6.6 hours before getting a bed during virus surges — a substantially longer period than the four-hour boarding standard established by The Joint Commission, according to a research letter published Friday in JAMA Network Open. The long wait times, which required patients to remain in hallways or waiting rooms when hospital occupancy exceeded 85% to 90%, put individuals at risk and have been associated with excess mortality, according to the report, which parsed monthly hospital data from January 2020 to December 2021. “The harms associated with ED boarding and crowding, long-standing before the pandemic, may have been further entrenched,” researchers from Yale University and the University of Michigan wrote.

Older people hit hardest by rising European cases
COVID-19 cases among people aged 65 years and older across Europe rose by 9% compared with the previous week, driven by a recent uptick in infections in 14 countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in its weekly update. Increases in overall rates for all ages have been reported for two consecutive weeks for the first time since the most recent BA.5 wave abated. Of the 27 countries reporting hospitalization data, 14 observed an increase in patients compared to the previous week.

Half of U.S. adults know little or “nothing at all” about new boosters, survey finds
About half of adults have heard “little” or “nothing at all” about the the updated COVID-19 jabs, according to a survey published Friday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Awareness about the bivalent booster that targets both the newer omicron variants and the original strain of the virus is relatively modest, with another half of respondents saying they’ve heard “a lot” (17%) or “some” (33%) about the new shots. Older adults and Democrats are somewhat more likely than their counterparts to say they have heard at least “some” about the new boosters, but fewer than a quarter across these groups report hearing “a lot” about the new shots, the report said. Four in ten fully vaccinated adults say they are not sure if the CDC has recommended that people like them get the bivalent booster, including about half of fully vaccinated rural residents (54%), Hispanic adults (51%), and those without a college degree (49%) who say they are not sure. The CDC has recommended that all adults get a bivalent COVID-19 booster at least two months after they complete their primary vaccine series.
Rising cases in New York State “tip of the iceberg”

While most regions of the U.S. are showing improved COVID-19 community levels, cases continue to rise in New York State. Nine out of the state’s 62 counties moved into the “high” tier this week for the first time since the summer, according to updated data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In Onondaga County, cases and hospitalizations rose to the highest in four months. “I think it’s the tip of the iceberg,” Dr. Mitchell Brodey, an infectious disease expert who runs the Family Care Medical Group, told Syracuse News. New York state ended its COVID state of emergency earlier this month and lifted the mask requirement on public transportation.

State’s COVID sick pay program extended through end of year
Among the many bills Gov. Gavin Newsom approved on Friday was AB 152, which extends California’s COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave program through Dec. 31. The law, which was originally enacted in February and applies only to businesses that employ 26 or more people, allows workers in the state who get infected with COVID to claim up to 80 hours of paid leave. It was set to expire on Friday. Read more about the bill and Newsom’s signing.

Sweden to stop recommending vaccines for teenagers
Sweden’s Public Health Agency said on Friday it will no longer recommend that children aged 12 to 17 get vaccinated against COVID-19, saying there is a “very low risk of serious illness and death” for children and adolescents. The general recommendation will go into effect on Oct. 31. “Overall, we see that the need for care as a result of COVID-19 has been low among children and young people during the pandemic, and has also decreased since the omicron virus variant began to spread,” Sören Andersson, head of the Public Health Agency’s vaccination department, said in the statement. “At this stage of the pandemic, we do not see a continued need for vaccination in this group.”

In February, Sweden halted wide-scale testing for COVID-19 even among people showing symptoms of an infection. For most of the pandemic, Sweden stood out among European nations for its comparatively hands-off response. It never went into lockdown or closed businesses, largely relying instead on individual responsibility to control infections. An independent commission that looked into Sweden’s handling of the pandemic in 2020 determined government failed to sufficiently protect the elderly in care homes from COVID-19 and is ultimately responsible for the pandemic’s effects on the country.

Jane’s Addiction guitarist backs out of tour due to long COVID
Dave Navarro, a television personality and the guitarist for Jane’s Addiction, said on Friday he is pulling out of the band’s upcoming tour due to ongoing symptoms of long COVID. “I had hoped for a full recovery by October but I am still very fatigued and will not be able to join this leg,” Navarro said in an Instagram post. “I am personally gutted as our original bass player has returned, Eric Avery. We wanted to bring you the original lineup but that will have to wait until I am recovered. While the band is touring, I will be working on some new Jane’s material in the studio here in L.A.” Navarro was initially diagnosed with COVID-19 in December. He will be replaced on tour by Troy Van Leeuwen, who has played with bands such as Queens of the Stone Age and A Perfect Circle.

Experts warn of “a wake-up call” as cases rise by 14% in U.K.

The U.K. has registered its highest rise in new COVID-19 cases since the summer, with a 14% increase in the past week. The Office for National Statistics has also detected a rise in virus-related hospital infections. “The fact there are people getting so seriously ill they need to go into hospital is a wake-up call to us all that COVID is still here,” Dr Thomas Waite, deputy chief medical officer for England, told BBC News. He said that number of new subvariants of omicron were circulating at low levels, and could be behind the hospital figures. The U.K.
recorded 1.1 million new infections last week. UCSF’s Bob Wachter earlier this week warned that what happens abroad may be a “harbinger” of things to come for the U.S., which has traditionally followed the virus waves seen in the U.K.

COVID can infect fat cells. That may explain why some people get much sicker
The virus that causes COVID-19 can infect and replicate in fat cells, and cause inflammation in fat tissue, Stanford researchers found in a new study that could help explain why obese people are at higher risk for severe COVID. Since the early days of the pandemic, doctors and researchers have observed that people who are obese, across many ethnic groups, experience disproportionately bad COVID outcomes, including hospitalization, ICU admission, mechanical ventilation and death. But it wasn’t clear how or why. Read more about the study here.

Less than 4% of eligible Americans have gotten updated boosters
About 3.2 million Americans got bivalent COVID-19 vaccine shots last week, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 7.6 million people have received the new booster doses since they became available on Sept. 1, representing less than 4% of the eligible population. The CDC recommends that everyone over 12 years and older receive an updated Pfizer or Moderna booster at least two months after their last shot.

Omicron spreads faster at home than delta, study finds
The omicron COVID variant is substantially more transmissible among household members than the earlier delta, with an estimated secondary attack rate of 46% in people who received three doses of an mRNA vaccine, compared with 11% for delta, according to a study published Thursday in Nature Communications. Researchers at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health used contact tracing data to track the infection rates among 1,122 index patients infected with omicron or delta and 2,169 household contacts from December 2021 to January 2022 for this study but noted it had some limitations. “Household exposure is often prolonged and repeated compared to social contacts in society, and preferably a complete evaluation should consider all close contacts,” they wrote.

Three out of four Americans have “low” community levels
For the first time since April, more than three-quarters of Americans live in areas with “low” COVID-19 community levels, based on hospitalization and case rates, according to updated data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That includes nearly all Californians. Most regions nationwide are showing improving trends with 77% of Americans living in a region classified as being in the “low” tier, 21% in “medium” and 2% in “high.” Based on a separate metric that tracks the rates of new cases and positive tests, about 70% of all counties remain in the “high” virus transmission category, which under the CDC’s revised rules for health care settings means universal masking is still required in nursing homes and hospitals.

Cases drop 20% statewide, but deaths plateau
COVID infections continue to slide in California. As of Thursday, the state was reporting on average about 3,500 cases a day, down 20% from the previous week, according to health department data. That means California is tracking about 9 daily cases per 100,000 residents, marking the first time the figure has dipped below 10 per 100,000 since early April. The statewide test positive rate is now down to 4.8%, although a near record low number of coronavirus tests were administered at sites that report results to the state. There are about 2,000 hospitalized patients with COVID, down from a summer peak of 4,654 in early August.

The only number not showing significant improvement is is the number of deaths, which remain at about 30 a day — the same figure as the previous week.

New drug takes “revenge on the virus”
California scientists have designed a new drug that causes COVID-19 to turn against itself. The drug, NMT5, coats SARS-CoV-2 with chemicals that can temporarily alter the human ACE2 receptor—the molecule the virus normally latches onto to infect cells. That means that when the virus is near, its path into human cells via the ACE2 receptor is blocked, according to the study by Scripps Research in La Jolla published on Thursday in described in Nature Chemical Biology. “What’s so neat about this drug is that we’re actually turning the virus against itself,” said senior author Stuart Lipton, a research professor. “We’re arming it with little molecular warheads that end up preventing it from infecting our cells; it’s our revenge on the virus.”

Qatar says World Cup fans must test before arrival
International fans attending the FIFA World Cup matches in Qatar this fall will be required to provide a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival in the country, regardless of vaccination status, event organizers announced Thursday. “Any visitor aged six and over is required to present an official negative COVID-19 PCR test result taken no more than 48 hours before departure time or an official negative Rapid Antigen Test result no more than 24 hours before departure time.

The test result will need to be submitted at the airport check-in counter,” the guidelines said.

Self-administered rapid tests are not valid. The organizers added that anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 while in Qatar will be required to isolate in accordance with Ministry of Public Health guidelines.

New Coronavirus News from 2 Oct 2022

Covid-19: UK hospitalisations on the rise, Germany’s cases double [Newsbook, 2 Oct 2022]

By Michaela Pia Camilleri
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After a summer of calm, Covid-19 cases are back on the rise in parts of Europe, with the UK experiencing a rise in hospitalisations, and Germany’s number of active cases doubling within a week.

According to British health leaders, every hospital in the UK is currently under significant pressure, as a new Covid-19 surge is proving to be “a very heavy straw on the camel’s back”.

Last week, some eight hospitals have declared a critical accident, cancelled operations, or even asked patients not to come to A&E unless seriously ill.

It appears that there is a link between such accidents and the rapid rise in hospitalisations related to Covid-19, which have risen by nearly 37 per cent in a week, reaching 7,024.

In the meantime, Germany’s residents will have to adjust to a new set of rules aimed at curbing the spread of the virus, as infections have doubled within a week.

From Saturday, passengers on long-distance trains over the age of 14 will be obliged to wear FFP2 masks rather than the less-protective surgical masks that have hitherto been compulsory.

All 16 German states have agreed that passengers on local buses and trains will be required to wear at least surgical masks, although that is not mandatory under the new federal rules.

Officials have recorded 96,367 new cases in the past 24 hours, in a country with a population of over 80 million.

A week ago, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz tested positive for Covid-19.

New York is also experiencing a rise in cases, with the U.S. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommending the use of masks in Central New York.

While most of the US is at low risk, nine counties in New York state are now at a high risk, including Onondaga County, Oswego County and Jefferson County. Masks are being recommended in these high-risk areas.

In fact, daily cases in Oswego County have doubled from 20 on 8 September to an average of 40 this week.

Meanwhile, the situation in Malta has proven to be quite calm, with number of active cases currently at 271, and just 9 new cases on Sunday.

COVID-19 world weekly cases drop 5% but some European nations surge [UPI News, 2 Oct 2022]

By Allen Cone

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to drop, including fatalities the lowest since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, but cases are spiking in European nations, including Germany, Austria, Italy, France at least 33% each.

The seven-day moving average for deaths was down to 1,191, the fewest since 1,074 March 21, 2020, 10 days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, according to Worldometers.info. In one week deaths declined to 8,029, a 20% drop, with the cumulative 6,550,670 Sunday.

And cases' moving average was at 419,734, which is the least since 397,470 July 5, 2021. In one week they declined 5% to 2,938,462 with the total 623,459,880 but Europe rose 5% over seven days.

Daily deaths worldwide dropped to 524 Sunday, the fewest since 424 March 14, 2020, after 841 Saturday and 867 last Sunday.

Cases were 240,236 Saturday, the lowest number since 230,983 on Aug. 30, 2020, after 302,672 Saturday. The last time cases were above 1 million was July 31.

Some nations do not report data on weekends. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention doesn't report data on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays.

The records were 3,846,212 cases on Jan. 21, during the height of the Omicron subvariant, and 16,815 deaths on Jan. 21, 2021, when the Delta subvariant was at its peak.

Few big countries reported increases in both categories in the past week, mainly in Europe.
Germany posted the most weekly cases, 434,179, which is a 60% gain, and the fourth-most deaths at 606, a 15% rise.

Japan had the second-most cases, 318,384, which dropped 24 percent. In deaths, the United States was No. 1 at 1,751, which decreased 32%, and a 1,000 more than second-place Russia at 710, a 1% drop.

In the past week, Asia reported 33% of the world's cases though it dropped 15% for a cumulative 190,058,096, according to Worldometers.info. The continent has 59% percent of the world's population.

Europe's cases rose 11%, for a cumulative world-high 227,735,916. Also increasing were Africa 6% for 12,648,930. Decreasing were Oceania 37% for 12,404,333, North America 33% for 116,486,955, South America 5% for 64,124,929.

Oceana is the sole one to gain in deaths, 7% for 21,002. Decreasing were North America 37% for 1,540,110, Africa 31% for 257,633, Europe 13% for a world-high 1,921,347, Asia 13% for 1,480,575, South America 11% for 1,329,979.

The United States leads with 1,084,891 fatalities and 98,248,623 infections. The nation also holds the world record for daily cases at 906,886 on Jan. 7. Brazil is second in deaths at 686,366, including 62 Suday and fourth in cases at 34,721,228, including 791 Sunday, the first time under 1,000 since the start of the pandemic.

India is second in cases at 44,594,487, including 3,375 Sunday and third in deaths at 528,673, including 18 Sunday, including 11 reconciled by Kersala state, with single deaths also reported in April and zero the last time on March 24, 2020.

India has the daily deaths record at 4,529 on May 18, 2021, with no adjustments from regions.
Case increases in the past week with more than 25,000 in descending order were France 34% at No. 3 312,126, Taiwan 5% at No. 4 293,330, Italy 59% at No. 5 215,534, Austria 62% at 77,717, Brazil 2% at No. 10 47,216.

Also in the top 10 for most cases but dropping: No. 5 Russia 272,779 with 25%, No. 6 United States 248,729 with 32%, No. 7 South Korea 201,678 with 14%.

Among nations reporting more than 100 deaths with increases in the past week: Brazil 9% at No. 5 467, Taiwan 8% at No. 6 307, Australia 19% at No. 10 256, Poland 35% at No. 15 142, Chile 7% at No. 16 132, Indonesia 9% at No. 17 124.

Also in the top 10 for most deaths but decreasing: No. 3 Japan with 632 at 13%, No. 7 South Korea 15% at 305, No. 8 Britain with 285 at 33%, No. 9 Italy 18% at 26.

In the top 10 for deaths, Mexico is fifth with 330,131 and 19 Sunday, Peru sixth with 216,578 and three Saturday, Britain seventh with 190,317 with no data on weekends, Italy eighth with 177,150 including 20 Sunday, Indonesia ninth with 158,014 including 10 Sunday and France 10th with 155,112 with no change on the weekend.

In the top 10 for cases, France is third with 35,475,260 including 37,453 Sunday, Germany is fifth with 33,386,229, Britain seventh with 23,672,855, Italy eighth with 22,529,252 including 29,906 Sunday, Russia 10th with 21,049,027 including 30,085 Sunday.

European nations are experiencing case surges, the first spike since the most recent BA.5 wave, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said in a weekly update.

In the report, cases among people 65-plus years rose by 9% in one week, driven by increases in 14 of the 26 countries reporting data. But the pooled death rate fell by 20%.

"Changes in population mixing following the summer break are likely to be the main driver of these increases, with no indication of changes in the distribution of circulating variants," the ECDC said.

The cumulative uptake of a first booster was 64.9% among adults aged 18 years and older, 84.1% among individuals aged 60 years and older and 53.9%in the total population.

Germany's rate is 77.9% for one shot among the entire population.

Germany has instituted some new mandates amid the spike.

Passengers older than 14 on long-distance trains will be obliged to wear N95-type respirators. Also, health ministers in all 16 German states have agreed that passengers on local buses and trains will be required to wear at least surgical masks.

The respirator masks are now also to be worn in hospitals, nursing homes and doctors' offices. Also before visiting a nursing home or hospital, a negative test must be presented and employees there facilities must be tested several times a week.

"We have a particularly difficult winter ahead of us due to the energy crisis, we don't want to make it worse through the Covid crisis," German Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said at a news conference Friday.

England's hospital admissions for patients with COVID-19 rose 48% in one week with most of the surge is driven by the disease acquired in hospital.

Britain's one-shot rate for the entire population is 69.6%, which is much lower than other nations. The best rate in Europe among large nations is Portugal at 94.6%.

"It is clear now that we are seeing an increase which could signal the start of the anticipated winter wave of COVID-19," Dr. Mary Ramsay, who directs Britain's Health Security Agency, posted on Twitter. "Cases have started to climb, and hospitalizations are increasing in the oldest age groups," Ramsay said.

In all, more than 12.7 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered worldwide, a gain of less than 100 million in one week, with the world's population of 7.9 billion, according to Bloomberg tracking. Mainland China leads with 3.5 billion doses administered and a 92.4% one-shot vaccination rate among the 1.5 billion population, the most in the world. India is second with 2.2 billion among the 1.4 billion population and a 74.4% rate.

Some of the most recent hotspots -- Japan and South Korea -- are subsiding. On Sunday, Japan added 29,492 infections, an 15% decline from the previous week, for a total of 21,359,708 in ninth worldwide with the record 255,534 six weeks ago.

Also, Japan gained 71 deaths for a total of 45,107 in 25th globally, 29 days after a record 291.
Japan, which has an 82.8% one-shot vaccination rate among all residents, is in the midst of a seventh wave amid the BA.5 Omicron variant.

On Oct. 11, Japan plans to drop a ban on individual tourist visits and remove a 50,000 cap on daily arrivals. Those were the strongest restrictions among the Group of Seven nations.

Japan has 358 deaths per million, which is 145th in the nation, with the world at 840.4 and Peru No. 1 at 6,430. In cases, Japan's rate is 169,851 per million in 196th place with the world 79,975 and Austria the highest among large countries at 568,502 with Portugal 541,739, France 540,338 and Denmark 533,294. Japan's population is 125 million.

South Korea posted the eighth-most weekly cases 201,678, a 14% decrease, for a total of 23,569,192, but only 23,597 Sunday, in sixth place. The nation added 44 deaths for a cumulative 28,489 in 37th, including a 15% weekly loss at 305, seventh-most worldwide.

South Korea's records are 621,328 cases in March 17 and 470 deaths on March 24.

But South Korea's cases are at three-month lows with a seven-day moving average of 28,741. In late June it was around 7,000. The daily record was 621,328 on March 17.

Starting last Monday, the nation will no longer require masks for outdoor group activities.
General outdoor use ended May 2. South Korea plans to keep the indoor mask mandate, because of a projected resurgence in COVID-19 infections during the fall and winter seasons.

"For nearly two years, students have been forced to cover their faces all day at school without any exemption. A lot of them have been suffering from allergies, skin inflammation, irritated eyes and even breathing difficulties," Shin Min-hyang, head of the solidarity of human rights for parents and students, a civic group against mask mandates, told The Korea Times on Friday.
"Moreover, recent studies show that facemasks are slowing children's language and social development. The developmental delays will have lasting effects on the young generation."

But North Korea apparently has brought back its mask mandate. The official Korean Central News Agency released photos of elderly people wearing masks while attending the previous day's celebrations of the International Day of Older Persons.

The nation has reported no cases or deaths since July.

China, where COVID-19 emerged more than 2.5 years ago, has reported 5,226 deaths. Before a spike in April, it was 4,636, which stayed at that number since early February 2021. On Sunday, China reported 179 cases with 5,659 on April 29. Those are confirmed cases with illness. Asymptomatic ones are reported separately in Mainland China.

Lockdowns have been removed in big metropolitan areas. But data for September indicated that while manufacturing improved slightly, the services industry contracted for the first time since May.

"The data show that the foundation for an economic recovery is still unstable," said Bruce Pang, chief economist at Jones Lang Lasalle Inc., told Bloomberg. "Of the triple whammy of shrinking domestic demand, supply disruption and weakening expectations, consumption is the most prominent."

Hong Kong, like China, has adopted a "zero tolerance" for coronavirus. But since Monday, people arriving will no longer have to go into mandatory hotel quarantine. They cannot enter common areas, restaurants or shopping malls, for the first three days after arrival. They also have to undergo PCR tests on day two, four six.

Hong Kong reported 6 deaths and 3,569 cases Sunday with the record 79,876 on March 3.
The BA.5 Omicron strain has become the most dominant in the world, accounting for 84.8% of cases in the United States, according to the CDC projections through Saturday. The strain was first tracked in late April.

The Centers f Dave Navarro to miss Jane's Addiction tour due to battle with 'long COVID'
or Disease Control and Prevention has classified 3% of counties, districts and territories with a "high" category level, compared with 33.9% "medium" and 73.7% "low." In "high" locations, masks are urged indoors.

The seven-day moving average for cases Thursday was 45,725, the lowest since 45,348 April 22, according to the CDC. And the deaths average Thursday fell to 325, the lowest since 318 on June 22.

New weekly hospitalizations in the United States to Tuesday were 3,773, which is a 7.4% weekly drop. A total of 5,353,767 have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since its inception with a population of 332 million. The U.S. total reported Sunday was 27,344, which is 3.91% capacity, and far below the record 160,113 (20.6%) on Jan. 20, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

On Thursday in its weekly report, the CDC said the U.S. adult one-shot vaccination rate was 90.5% with completed primary service at 77.6% and one booster at 51.9%. The full population rates are 79.5% for one shot, 67.9% for two, 48.7% for three, 36.6% for four with only those 50 and older allowed to get the second booster.

The CDC says 3.5% of eligible people older than 12, around 7.5 million, have received the updated booster that targets Omicron after the rollout four weeks ago.