Featured Headlines

Philadelphia brings back mask indoor mandate as covid cases rise – Washington Post

Public health officials in Philadelphia announced on Monday that the city’s indoor mask mandate would return beginning April 18 as coronavirus cases there rise, making it the first major U.S. city to reinstate a mask mandate this spring.

Covid Could Be Surging in the U.S. Right Now and We Might Not Even Know It – Bloomberg

Experts warn America is missing data that could prevent it from being ready for the next wave. Testing and viral sequencing are critical to responding quickly to new outbreaks of Covid. And yet, as the country tries to move on from the pandemic, demand for lab-based testing has declined and federal funding priorities have shifted. The change has forced some testing centers to shutter while others have hiked up prices in response to the end of government-subsidized testing programs.

Is This What Endemic Disease Looks Like? – NYT

For months, some American and European leaders have foretold that the coronavirus pandemic would soon become endemic. Covid-19 would resolve into a disease that we learn to live with. According to several governors, it nearly has.

Study details COVID’s toll on essential workers, health workers – CIDRAP

Of all essential workers in Sweden in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare professionals and immigrants were at highest risk for infection, hospitalization, and admission to an intensive care unit (ICU), according to a study late last week in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

U.S. orders consular staff to leave Shanghai amid COVID surge – NPR

The U.S. has ordered all non-emergency consular staff to leave Shanghai, which is under a tight lockdown to contain a COVID-19 surge. The State Department said the order is an upgrade from the “authorized” departure issued last week that made the decision voluntary.

A BA.2 Surge Could Wreak Unequal Havoc – MedPage Today

Weeks after political leaders and media elites put the U.S. on a course to “return to normalcy,” the country finds itself again contending with an uptick in cases fueled by the highly transmissible BA.2 Omicron subvariant and the ending of public health measures. Some regions and cities, like Washington, D.C. and New York, are seeing particularly sharp rises in new daily cases. Many lawmakers and Biden administration officials have tested positive in recent weeks, including from a super-spreader event at the Gridiron Club.

COVID-19 cases rising in Northeast, partly fueled by BA.2, experts say – ABC News

Four of the five states with the highest seven-day case rates per 100,000 are in the Northeast. In the 10 states with the highest seven-day rates, seven are Northeastern, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WHO on alert over new omicron subvariants – DW

The World Health Organization has announced it is monitoring two new subvariants. A politician in Thailand could be jailed for criticizing the monarchy in relation to the country’s vaccine campaign. DW has the latest.

What to Know About the XE Variant – Time

A new strain of Omicron, called XE, is spreading in the U.K., and a few cases have been identified elsewhere in the world. Here’s what we do—and don’t—know about the variant.

Should We Be Worried About XE, The New COVID Hybrid? Here’s The Science – Science Alert

XE is a combination of the highly transmissible BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron variants and was first detected in the UK in mid-January. Its spike protein derives from BA.2, which is potentially good news for New Zealand since this is the dominant variant (more than 90 percent of recent infections) and people who have been infected should have some protection against XE.

Much of Europe remains at the CDC’s highest travel risk as other regions improve – CNN

For the third week in a row, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not add a single new destination to its highest-risk Level 4 category for travel.
In fact, seven destinations in Asia and the Caribbean moved to the CDC’s lowest-risk category for travel during the pandemic, which is Level 1. Moving into that enviable ranking on Monday were island getaways the Philippines and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

Virus outbreaks are pushing some U.S. universities to reinstate mask mandates – NYT

A small number of U.S. colleges and universities are reinstating mask policies, citing coronavirus outbreaks on campus. Their regulation changes come as a highly transmissible Omicron subvariant, known as BA.2, has become the dominant version among new U.S. cases, which are ticking up.

Study sheds light on death spike in Hong Kong COVID-19 surge – CIDRAP

The recent Omicron variant surge in Hong Kong came with a mortality rate among the world’s highest yet in the pandemic, a troubling development in a region known for its strong pandemic measures, and today researchers from the United States, Hong Kong, and China who dug into the data suggest that vaccination lapses in older people played a major role.

72 people at high-profile D.C. dinner test positive for Covid – NBC News

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo were among the guests at the annual Gridiron Dinner.