COVID-19 claims 900,000 US lives: Omicron may live longer
The U.S. has surpassed 900,000 COVID-19 deaths, as health officials urge for more people to get vaccinations and boosters.
STAFF VIDEO, USA TODAY
The pace of new coronavirus cases in the United States has fallen by more than two-thirds from its peak just weeks ago, Johns Hopkins University data shows.
Still, the nation is reporting 1.86 million cases a week, and about 2,500 COVID-19 deaths continue to be reported every day. But at least four states expect continued improvement, announcing this week they would be ending statewide mask mandates in schools within the next two months as indoor masking requirements continue to lift across the country.
Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey and Oregon’s governors all said Monday they would end mandatory masking in schools by the end of February or March, while Pennsylvania made the decision to remove its statewide mandate last month.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, however, is waging a court battle to keep his mask mandate for schools alive. The state attorney general this week appealed a judge’s ruling that invalidated Pritzker’s mandate.
“Absent a stay, students, teachers and other school employees will be further exposed to COVID-19, leading to additional and likely widespread transmission within schools and in the broader community, increased hospitalizations and deaths, and school staff shortages requiring full remote learning or even school closures,” the appeal stated.
Also in the news:
► The California Legislature has approved a measure requiring many companies to give workers up to two weeks of paid time off if they get sick from the coronavirus. The bill, backed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, is retroactive to Jan. 1 and expires in September.
► Lawmakers in Uganda are considering legislation that would mandate vaccination and authorize a six-month jail term for failure to comply.
► The weekslong protest in Canada over COVID-19 vaccine mandates spilled over into Detroit late Monday when authorities closed the Ambassador Bridge. The protesters blocked traffic on the massive international suspension bridge.
► Spain is dropping its mandate to wear masks outdoors beginning Thursday. Masks will remain mandatory in indoor public spaces.
►China ordered inhabitants of the southern city of Baise to stay home and suspended transportation links amid a surge in infections in the city of 1.4 million people near the Vietnam border.
Today’s numbers: The U.S. has recorded more than 76.9 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 906,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Global totals: More than 399 million cases and over 5.7 million deaths. More than 212 million Americans – 64.1% – are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
What we’re reading: ‘He deserves to be up there with us.’ After a positive COVID test, a U.S. skater misses out on celebrating silver.
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A Texas man has pleaded guilty to threatening an advocate for COVID-19 vaccines in Maryland. Scott Eli Harris, 51, of Aubrey, Texas, pleaded guilty Monday to threats transmitted by interstate communication, U.S. Attorney for Maryland Erek Barron announced. According to his plea agreement, Harris sent a threatening message from his cellphone to the doctor identified only as “Dr. L. W.”
Harris’ message included violent statements that included: “Never going to take your wonder drug. My 12 gauge promises I won’t. .… I can’t wait for the shooting to start.” Harris’ message also made reference to the doctor’s Asian American background and national origin. Harris faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison at sentencing on April 21.
There is a potential link between low vitamin D status and poorer clinical outcomes from COVID-19, a new study found. Among hospitalized COVID-19 patients, pre-infection deficiency of vitamin D was associated with increased disease severity and death, a team of Israeli scientists determined. Patients in the study with vitamin D deficiency were 14 times more likely to have severe or critical disease.
“Vitamin D deficiency is a global health problem,” the study published in the journal PLOS One found. “Randomized controlled trials conducted between 2007 and 2020 suggest that vitamin D supplementation reduced the risk of acute respiratory infection.”
Most Caribbean destinations have reopened to international travelers, but visitors will need to be aware of their destination’s COVID-19 travel restrictions before boarding their flight. Entry requirements vary across each island; some require testing, some ask for masks to be worn in public, and others enforce a curfew on certain businesses. Travelers can expect the rules to be in flux as countries adjust to match the evolving pandemic. Entry requirements for some of the most popular Caribbean island destinations are explained here.
– Bailey Schulz
A recent lawsuit filed by one Wisconsin health system that temporarily prevented seven workers from starting new jobs at a different health network raised eyebrows, including those of Brock Slabach, chief operations officer of the National Rural Health Association.
“To me, that signifies the desperation that hospital leaders are facing in trying to staff their hospitals,” said Slabach. His concern is for the smaller facilities that lack the resources to compete.
Already strained by the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals around the country are desperate to staff their facilities as the highly transmissible omicron variant spreads. Governors in states such as Massachusetts and Wisconsin deployed the National Guard to help hospitals combat the surge. Six hospitals in Cleveland took out a full-page ad in the Sunday Plain Dealer with a singular plea to the community, “Help.” CoxHealth is among the medical systems in Missouri to ask its office staff to help out on the front lines.
Smaller facilities – particularly rural ones that have struggled for years to stay afloat – are finding it difficult, if not impossible, to compete for health care workers in this labor market. If a hospital is unable to maintain safe staffing levels, it could be forced to curtail services or possibly close, a devastating blow for both the patients and economies of those communities. Nineteen rural hospitals closed in 2020 alone.
– Bram Sable-Smith, Kaiser Health News
Contributing: Mike Stucka, USA TODAY; The Associated Press
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