New Covid Strain Considered "Hypercontagious"

The BA.5 omicron subvariant, which is now the most prevalent coronavirus strain in the United States, is four times more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study.

The strain, which is considered "hypercontagious," according to the Mayo Clinic, is more defiant against messenger RNA vaccines, which include Pfizer and Moderna.

The BA.5 strain represented 65% of cases from July 3 to 9, according to data from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

It is contributing to increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care units across the country.

But vaccines still provide much better protection than going without the safeguards.

Unvaccinated people have about a five times higher chance of contracting the virus than those who are vaccinated and boosted, while chances of hospitalization are 7.5 times higher, and chances of death are 14 to 15 times higher, said Dr. Gregory Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group.

More at source: Mayo Clinic

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Headed in a bad direction’: Omicron variant may bring second-largest US Covid wave

“Covid-19 is very clearly not over. We’re seeing dramatic increases in the number of cases and hospitalizations in many places throughout the United States,” said Jason Salemi, an associate professor of epidemiology at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health.

As BA.5, one of the Omicron sub-variants, begins buffeting the US, “we’re headed in a bad direction”, Salemi said. “We’ve seen it coming for a while … We’ve seen it go pretty unabated.”

More than one in three Americans live in a county at medium risk from Covid, and one in five are at high risk, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) . That’s the highest proportion of the country facing risks since February, Salemi said.

More at source: Guardian

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Top NY Doctor: New COVID Wave Is Starting, With the ‘Worst Version' of Omicron

A new COVID wave appears to be starting in New York City, fueled by the strongest subvariant of the omicron strain of coronavirus to date, one of the city's top epidemiologists said Tuesday.

The BA.5 subvariant, first seen in South Africa and then Portugal, is considered by some experts to be the "worst version" of omicron seen yet, given its apparent capacity to escape prior immunity and transmit more readily.

Dr. Jay Varma, a Weill Cornell epidemiologist and formerly then-mayor Bill de Blasio's top public health advisor during the pandemic, said infections appear to have stabilized at a high level in the city, rather than dropping.

"The decline of reported #COVID19 cases in NYC has stopped. Reported cases are at a high plateau, which means actual transmission is very high when you account for the >20x under-counting. This is likely the beginning of a BA.5 wave," Varma tweeted.

More at Source: NBCNY

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Nearly 1 in 5 adults who had COVID have lingering symptoms - U.S. study

June 22 (Reuters) - Nearly 1 in 5 American adults who reported having COVID-19 in the past are still having symptoms of long COVID, according to survey data collected in the first two weeks of June, U.S. health officials said on Wednesday.

Overall, 1 in 13 adults in the United States have long COVID symptoms lasting for three months or more after first contracting the disease, and which they did not have before the infection, the data showed...

More at source: Reuters

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FLORIDA COVID-19 CASES CLIMB AS NEW VARIANTS SPREAD

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — With COVID-19 cases in the Tampa Bay area climbing again, 8 On Your Side looked into what’s driving the spike and whether the old treatments still work.

You might feel like more people around you are getting coronavirus. It’s not in your head.

Data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows an uptick. Experts say new sub-variants of Omicron are spreading around the state. Most of those in the Tampa Bay area are in a neighborhood with levels of COVID-19.

More at source: WFLA

Florida COVID-19 cases climb as new variants spread

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — With COVID-19 cases in the Tampa Bay area climbing again, 8 On Your Side looked into what’s driving the spike and whether the old treatments still work.

You might feel like more people around you are getting coronavirus. It’s not in your head.

Data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows an uptick. Experts say new sub-variants of Omicron are spreading around the state. Most of those in the Tampa Bay area are in a neighborhood with levels of COVID-19.

More at source: WFLA

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CDC raises monkeypox alert as global cases surpass 1,000

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped up its monkeypox guidance, urging people to take extra precautions as global cases of the virus surpass 1,000.

The CDC ramped up its alert to LEVEL 2 on Monday, encouraging people to “practice enhanced precautions” to stem the outbreak, which has spread to 29 nonendemic countries in the past month. The highest level alert — level 3 — would caution against nonessential travel.

While the public health body said the risk to the general public remains low, the heightened alert encourages people to avoid close contact with sick people, including those with skin or genital lesions, as well as sick or dead animals. It also urges those displaying symptoms of the virus, such as an unexplained rash and lesions, to avoid contact with others and to reach out to their health-care provider for guidance.

The CDC originally recommended on its website that travelers wear face masks to help prevent the spread of monkeypox but later removed it.

Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus, with symptoms including rashes, fever, headaches, muscle ache, swelling and backpain. 

It is typically endemic to Central and West African countries, but the recent outbreak across North America, Europe and Australia has confounded health professionals and raised fears of community spread.

More at source: CNBC

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Indoor Mask Mandate In Los Angeles Will Return This Month If Covid Hospitalization INCREASES

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said today that at the current pace of increases in local Covid-related hospitalizations, the county will move into the federal government’s “high” virus activity category within a few weeks, possibly by the end of June. Ferrer has frequently said — and repeated today — that that would trigger a return of mandatory indoor mask wearing in the county, a requirement that was dropped on march 3 of this year. She noted that the rate of hospitalizations could decrease or increase, depending on residents’ actions.

There were 524 Covid-positive patients in county hospitals on Thursday, up from 502 a day earlier. The number of patients at which the mask mandate would be triggered is about 1,000, among other measures.

More at source: Deadline

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The real COVID surge is (much) bigger than it looks. But don't panic

Cases of COVID-19 are – yet again – on the rise. The U.S. is seeing an average of more than 100,000 reported new cases across the country every day. That's nearly double the rate a month ago and four times higher than this time last year.

And the real number of cases is likely much higher than that, according to health officials. Because many people now rely on at-home tests, "we're clearly undercounting infections," White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters at the most recent COVID press briefing. Hospitalizations are trending upwards too, though only gradually in most places.

Yet in most places, health officials haven't called for any new COVID restrictions. So how big is the surge, really? And is there anything you should be doing about it?

More at source: NPR

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STATE OF THE PANDEMIC - Let's Pretend It's Not Happening 

The problem we have is this illusion or deception that the pandemic is over, when, in fact, these variants that we're seeing are coming at a much faster clip. There's an accelerated evolution of the virus. And these are more troubling variants. They're not more mild.

In fact, they have more immune escape. So they're transmitting at levels that is really inconceivable and starting to approach the level of measles, one of the most spreadable pathogens we have ever encountered.

So we have trouble right now. As you mentioned, we are seeing at least 600,000, 700,000 real cases a day, and, likely, it's going to continue to increase in this country as we confront this so-called BA.2.12.1 variant, one of the several of the Omicron family.

More at source: PBS

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