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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COVID claims 1 million U.S. lives

NEW YORK, May 11 (Reuters) - The United States has now recorded more than 1 million COVID-19 deaths, according to a Reuters tally, crossing a once-unthinkable milestone about two years after the first cases upended everyday life and quickly transformed it.

The 1 million mark is a stark reminder of the staggering grief and loss caused by the pandemic even as the threat posed by the virus wanes in the minds of many people. It represents about one death for every 327 Americans, or more than the entire population of San Francisco or Seattle.

More at source: Reuters

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NYC Raises COVID Alert Level as New Cases Surpass Key Threshold

New York City raised its COVID alert level to medium on Monday as cases surpassed a rate of 200 per 100,000 people in the five boroughs, health officials said. It marks the first time the health department has adjusted that level since debuting the new system under Mayor Eric Adams' administration earlier this year.

Manhattan and Staten Island, respectively, have the highest transmission rates per 100,000 residents, the latest health data show, but it's the first borough that is having a disproportionate impact on the city's overall rolling new case rate.

Those two boroughs are also now classified as "medium" COVID alert counties by the CDC. And while the new case rates are clearly ascending, they remain well below what they were during omicron's peak surge in January.

More at source: NBC New York

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UCLA study, limited understanding of the causes of long COVID makes treating the condition challenging

A possible contributor of Long COVID -19 may actually be an abnormally suppressed immune system, and not a hyperactive one, according to a UCLA- led research group. The study, recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

It contradicts what scientists previously believed, which was that an overactive immune response to SARS-CoV-2, often referred to as a "cytokine storm," was the root cause of the perplexing syndrome. Health experts told Fox News this "cytokine storm" is an over-reactive inflammatory response in the infected person that can potentially cause damage to lungs and other organs, possibly creating severe illness or even death....

More at source: Fox News

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About 30 percent of COVID patients develop 'Long COVID,' research finds

Of the 309 people with long COVID studied, the most persistent symptoms were fatigue and shortness of breath (31% and 15%, respectively) in hospitalized persons, and loss of sense of smell (16%) in outpatients.

The incidence and risk factors of Long COVID, and even how to define the syndrome, have remained unclear throughout the pandemic. The researchers sought evaluate its association with demographics and clinical characteristics in order to devise the most effective treatments.

The UCLA researchers studied 1,038 people who were enrolled in the UCLA COVID Ambulatory Program between April 2020 and February 2021. Of those, 309 developed Long COVID. A person was determined to have the syndrome if they reported persistent symptoms on questionnaires 60 or 90 days after infection or hospitalization.

More at source: Science Daily

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