This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 31st, 2022. It’s just one city, but it’s a big one. The number of new cases in New York has fallen by more than half in a week according to the Governor’s office. The statewide positivity rate dropped to 5.73% Friday. Hospitalizations dropped from over 10,000 a week ago to 7,675 Friday. Russia's in the news a lot these days, but not for COVID. Regardless, their daily count of new infections surged...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 28th, 2022. The European Medicines Agency has recommended Pfizer's coronavirus antiviral drug be authorized for use in the European Union. That’s the first time the agency’s recommended a pill for COVID. They said approving Paxlovid could help the infected avoid more serious disease and hospitalization. The drug’s been cleared in the U.S. and Britain, but the problem is supplies are extremely...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 27th, 2022. The World Health Organization said there were 21 million new cases last week and that’s the highest weekly number of the entire pandemic. However, despite that, the number of deaths was mostly unchanged. It also said the rate of increase appears to be slowing, with only half of regions reporting an increase. The biggest increase was seen in the Middle East.  The restrictions have begun...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 26th, 2022. The U.S. administration has thrown in the towel, withdrawing its rule requiring workers at big companies get vaccinated or face regular testing. The rule would have impacted more than 80 million U.S. workers and was to go into effect January 4. The Supreme Court halted the plan saying the Occupational Safety and Health Administration overstepped its authority. The battle over facemasks...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 25th, 2022. The head of the World Health Organization says it’s a mistake to think Omicron is the last variant that will emerge. And as sorta proof, a sub-lineage of Omicron, BA.2, is under formal investigation by the UK Health Security Agency. 426 cases in the UK so far, and it’s been spotted in the United States. It’s called “stealth Omicron” because it can’t be distinguished from other variants...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 24th, 2022. So with things winding down for the moment, just how many more boosters are we going to need? The CEO of Pfizer says a once a year shot should eventually do the trick, and that would, for any number of reasons, be preferable to a booster shot needed every four months. He said Pfizer could be ready to file for approval of a redesigned vaccine to fight Omicron, and mass produce it, as...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 21st, 2022. Spain is planning a different approach to future surges of infection. It won’t be treated as an emergency, it’ll be seen as an illness that’s here to stay. Portugal and Britain are taking similar steps. “Learning to live with the vaccine” used to be a philosophy attacked as anti-science and irresponsible government, but the tune is changing. The World Health Organization actually has no...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 20th, 2022. Now you’ll start to hear stories about the quest to return to normalcy. In the U.K., masks will no longer be mandatory in public places and COVID passports won’t be required for large events. Why? They’re seeing infections level off. Scientists there believe the Omicron surge “has now peaked nationally.” The Prime Minister also said hospital admissions and patients in ICU are...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 19th, 2022. The U.S. quietly launched its website for Americans to request free at-home COVID tests a day early. It’s COVIDTests.gov and the order form is run by the U.S. Postal Service. You can get four at-home tests per residential address. The White House said, “tests will typically ship within 7- 12 days of ordering” and they are anticipating a “bug or two.” The World Health Organization’s...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 18th, 2022.   Brace yourself, here’s a story about how more vaccine shots may not always be the answer. An Israeli hospital’s preliminary research suggests a fourth dose of vaccine adds only limited defense against Omicron. That makes things a little tricky politically because Israel just started giving people over age 60 fourth shots.   The US Surgeon General says don’t get too enamored of the...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 17th, 2022. The US Department of Health and Human Services extended the Covid public health emergency for another 90 days. This will allow many public health protections and financial aid programs to keep going at least another three months. And states have been promised 60 days’ notice prior to any expiration of the emergency status in the future. This is the eighth extension. France approved a...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 14th, 2022. The highest court in the land has ruled against the White House’s requirement that large businesses require employees to get a vaccine or test regularly and wear a mask on the job. And enforce all that. The good news for the White House is the court is allowing it to proceed with vaccine mandates for most healthcare workers.  Looks like supply chain problems also apply to COVID drugs....

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 13th, 2022. A report says around 458 local, state, tribal, and federal law enforcement officers died in the line of duty in 2021, an increase of 55% and the most since 1930. 301 of those were Covid-related, making that the leading cause of death. That was also true in 2020 when at least 182 officers died of the virus. You’ll notice that even as the vaccines open up to new, younger groups of people,...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 12th, 2022. Reinforcing just how lucky we are that Omicron is mostly mild, the World Health Organization says the variant is on track to infect more than half of all Europeans. The organization added they don’t think it should be viewed as a flu-like endemic illness yet either. The acting head of the FDA said most Americans will get COVID. Quebec is going to start charging adults who won’t get...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 11th, 2022. Free tests are coming for American citizens, perhaps just in time for you to not need them. Starting Saturday, private health insurers must cover up to eight home COVID tests per month for people on their plans. Everyone else can submit receipts for reimbursement. This depends on your ability to find COVID tests. Later this month, the government is launching a website to start making...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 10th, 2022. COVID cases might be beginning to slow down. Looking just at New York, for the first time since mid-December, hospitalizations decreased by almost 100 patients Saturday. The daily percentage of new positive cases declined slightly for the third day in a row. This mirrors the trajectory in South Africa, which was a large spike, followed by a steep decline. No steep decline yet in the...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 7th, 2022. As with previous variants, Omicron is sidelining people we really need. More than 800 Los Angeles city police and fire personnel have been sidelined, which is adding to 911 response times. There’s also the absent health care workers and teachers. One in six of San Francisco's 3,600 teachers were out Thursday. Administrators and substitutes are stepping in but there’s not enough...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 6th, 2022.   So what’s really going on at hospitals? We hear Omicron is mild yet hospitalizations are so high systems are breaking. Mostly, the pain is from staff shortages, a combination of self-imposed shortages due to vaccine mandates and staff home sick with Omicron. ERs are getting crushed with people trying to just get tested for COVID. And two-thirds of patients in some places, test positive...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 5th, 2022. The U.S. added more than 1 million people to its case count Monday that encompasses a surge in infections over the holidays. It doesn’t really count as a single day record since much of the reporting was delayed and came in all at once. But on the other hand, many are testing at home and don’t report to authorities, which means the numbers are probably being underestimated if anything....

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 4th, 2022. Another Covid variant has reportedly been found in France. The mutant strain has 46 mutations. About 12 cases have been spotted near Marseille, with the first linked to travel to Cameroon. But there’s little sign it’s outcompeting the dominant Omicron variant, which now makes up more than 60% of cases in France, and the strain has not spread rapidly since its discovery December...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for January 3rd, 2022. Top federal health officials in the U.S. are now looking to add a negative test along with its five-day isolation restrictions for Americans who test positive but have no symptoms. You keeping up with all this? The CDC is adding the test not because of science, but due to pushback on its new recommendations of last week that isolation be shortened from 10 days to five. Does anyone...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for December 31st, 2021. Lots of concern about the number of children being hospitalized with COVID, and most of them aren’t vaccinated. The CDC says during the week of Dec. 22-28, an average 378 children 17 and under were admitted daily with the coronavirus, a 66% increase from the prior week. While it’s not being reported whether these cases are Delta or Omicron, the kids do seem less sick than those who...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for December 30th, 2021. Whoops. Germany’s health minister said their infection rate is likely two to three times higher than the statistics that have been reported. He said there’s a shortfall in staff that becomes particularly noticeable over holiday periods at local health offices, and that’s a key part of Germany's reporting chain. France is taking the record-breaking surge seriously, increasing the...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for December 29th, 2021.   The US Tuesday broke the previous record for most daily cases as infections accelerate. And most experts are saying Omicron is going to make for a very difficult January. One CNN medical analyst thinks the US could see half a million cases a day sometime over the next week to 10 days. The rate of booster doses has actually fallen in recent weeks. Only 32.7% of the U.S.’s fully...

This is Covid 411, the latest on Omicron and other COVID variants, and new hotspots for December 28th, 2021. The CDC shortened its isolation and quarantine recommendations for Americans based on data that if you’re infected, you’re most contagious two days before and three days after symptoms show up. If you’re infected, regardless of vaccination status, when you test positive you should isolate for five days, instead of the previously recommended 10. After that, if you have no symptoms,...