Daily Archives: March 26, 2022

Delivery workers passed food over a barrier at the edge of a locked-down Shanghai neighborhood on Wednesday.Credit...Aly Song/Reuters

The surge of Covid cases across China, driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, is straining hospitals and prompting lockdowns of neighborhoods in Shanghai, which until recently had been held up as a crown jewel in the governments strategy for fighting the pandemic.

Shanghai, Chinas largest city, has seen few cases until recently. Now, it is reporting more than 1,500 a day, and many residents are expressing anguish and dismay over Chinas zero-tolerance approach to the virus.

On Friday, anger and grief welled up online after a Shanghai hospital confirmed reports that a nurse who worked there, Zhou Shengni, had died from an asthma attack after finding the doors of its emergency department shut because of Covid restrictions.

Due to pandemic prevention needs, the emergency department of our hospitals southern campus had been temporarily closed, Shanghai East Hospital said on its website. Ms. Zhous family rushed her to another hospital, but she died late Wednesday after attempts to save her failed, Shanghai East said.

Just think, this happened in Shanghai, and it was a medical worker treated like this, read one of many comments about Ms. Zhous death on Weibo, a popular Chinese social media platform. What about regular folks? Not just in Shanghai, but other parts too.

The outbreak has fanned a rising debate in China over whether the government should rethink its stringent zero Covid strategy of eliminating all infections with relentless force, rather than finding a way to cope with higher levels of infection, as most countries have.

But officials across China have given no indications that the government is reworking its strategy. Instead, they insist that any easing of restrictions could exacerbate the surge of infections and further strain the medical system.

We hope that everyone slows down their life at this time, cutting down on outings and moving around, Wu Jinglei, the director of the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission, said at a news conference on Thursday. Pandemic prevention in our city has entered the most critical stage.

On Friday, Shanghais health commission reported that it had identified 1,609 Covid cases the previous day, 1,580 of which were asymptomatic. China has recorded over 29,000 cases so far in March. That represents a significant spike for the country, which has kept cases low since quashing the worlds first outbreak, which began in the city of Wuhan, in 2020.

The current outbreak has strained Shanghais medical system as hospitals and isolation hotels are crowded with patients, residents have said on social media. The city government has started issuing a daily list of hospital clinics that have suspended outpatient and elective treatments and surgeries in order to cope with the Covid cases.

Zhang Wenhong, one of Shanghais leading infectious disease experts, told residents on Thursday to be patient while the authorities worked to curb the outbreak.

All of a sudden medical resources are under strain in Shanghai, Dr. Zhang wrote in a long post on Weibo. If we dont counter its speed with our own, we wont have a chance to beat the Omicron race, he wrote, adding that the government would need to ramp up its vaccination campaign.

Beneath his post, many commenters insisted that China rethink its approach to the virus.

Exhausting social resources, degrading the quality of life and existence, dragging down economic development and urban vitality wheres the sense in this pandemic prevention, one commenter wrote. The zero-infection strategy needs thinking over.

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Covid Updates: Glaxo Antibody Drug Is Restricted in the Northeast - The New York Times

COVID-19 hospitalizations in Oregon could climb to around 300 this spring due to a particularly infectious coronavirus subvariant and the states decision to lift mask requirements, a new Oregon Health & Science University forecast predicted Friday.

The projected bump in hospitalizations is minuscule compared to the peaks reached during the delta and omicron waves. About half of those in the hospital would be there to get treatment for a different condition but would test positive for COVID-19, according to the universitys estimates. Hospitalizations would then fall by around mid-June, according to the forecast.

Cases and hospitalizations have been dropping precipitously since the omicron surge peaked in January. Daily average cases are now as low as they were before the delta wave. Hospitalizations Friday were down to 157 occupied beds, 86% lower than the omicron peak.

Forecasting for the unpredictable coronavirus has been challenging throughout the pandemic, sometimes underestimating the likelihood of surges until they are in full swing and other times projecting dire situations that dont materialize.

Experts have previously said that the BA.2 omicron subvariant is unlikely to drive a major surge in cases, given existing levels of immunity. But officials have said they do expect some rise in cases from the subvariant, which is estimated to be about 50% to 60% more contagious than the original omicron.

Fedor Zarkhin

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Small COVID-19 hospitalization bump forecast for spring in Oregon - OregonLive

The number of coronavirus infections across the UK rose by an estimated 1m compared with the previous week, with figures in Scotland at a record high, data from the Office for National Statistics has revealed.

According to the latest information from the ONS, based on swabs collected from randomly selected households, an estimated 9% of the population in Scotland had Covid in the week ending 20 March, about one in 11 people. The figure is the highest recorded by the survey since it began looking at the situation in Scotland in October 2020.

Infection levels also increased in England and Wales, although they decreased slightly in Northern Ireland, with data revealing that about one in 16 people in England had Covid in the most recent week, compared with one in 20 the week before, a rise from about 2,653,200 to 3,485,700 people.

The figure is just shy of the all-time high for England, when about 1 in 15 were estimated to have Covid in the week between Christmas and New Years Eve last year, at the height of the Omicron wave.

Experts have suggested that the recent surge in infection levels in the UK is owing to a number of factors, including the lifting of Covid restrictions to various degrees across the UK, changes in behaviour, waning immunity after the booster programme and crucially the rise of the BA.2 variant, which appears to be more transmissible than the earlier form of Omicron.

The percentage of people with infections compatible with the Omicron BA.2 variant increased in England, Wales and Scotland and decreased in Northern Ireland, the ONS report states.

Previous ONS figures have suggested that Northern Ireland experienced a rise in BA.2 before other parts of the UK.

On Friday, the UK Health Security Agency reported that cases of the BA.2 Omicron variant were increasing 75% faster than the original variant, BA.1, and now made up almost 89% of Covid infections sequenced in England. There is no evidence that BA.2 causes a greater risk of hospitalisation.

The agency is also monitoring three recombinant forms of the coronavirus that can occur when a person is infected with two Covid variants at once. The first, a mix of Delta and BA.1, known as XF, caused a small cluster in the UK but has not been spotted since mid-February. The second, XE, is a combination of BA.1 and BA.2 and is spreading about 10% faster than BA.2 in the UK, with 637 cases identified as of 22 March.

The third, XD, is another blend of Delta and BA.1. While it has not yet reached the UK, it has surfaced in France, Belgium and Denmark, and scientists are watching it closely because it is essentially the Delta variant with the Omicron spike protein.

The ONS figures also show that infection levels rose in all age groups in England. While the percentage of people testing positive was highest in children between two years old and school year 6, infection levels reached unprecedented levels in older adults: among those who are 70 or over, the figure hit an estimated 5.7% on 19 March.

While all regions of England experienced a rise, the highest levels of infection were in the south-east, with about 7.5% of people or one in 13 estimated to have had Covid during the week.

Sarah Crofts, the head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 Infection Survey, said: Our latest data show infection levels have continued to increase in England, Wales and Scotland, driven by the rise of the Omicron BA.2 variant.

Northern Ireland was a few weeks ahead of the rest of the UK in this rising variant, where we now see a welcome decrease. Meanwhile, Scotland has now reached the highest level of any UK country seen in our survey.

Across England, infections have increased in all regions and age groups, notably the over-50s, who are at their highest levels since our survey began.

The figures come the week before free community testing ends for most people. After 1 April, most people in England will have to pay to take a Covid test, while advice to stay at home if someone has Covid symptoms is also set to be scrapped.

While vaccinations, improved treatments and a shift in variant severity have all helped to weaken the link between infections, hospitalisations and deaths, the recent surge in the number of people with Covid has nonetheless affected the NHS, with an uptick in hospitalisations including an increase in those primarily being treated for Covid increasing concerns about infections in vulnerable people and posing logistical challenges. Some hospitals have suspended visiting because of rising infection levels.

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Weekly Covid cases in UK increase by 1m, figures show - The Guardian

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Wyoming nursing homes hit hard by COVID-19 omicron variant - Wyoming Tribune

The worst of the Covid-19 pandemic may be behind us, but pretending that it is over will not make it so. A new Omicron subvariant, BA.2, is driving up coronavirus case counts in Europe and Asia, and experts predict it soon will account for the majority of new cases in the United States. The impact is uncertain. On the one hand, many Americans have already been infected by a similar strain of the virus. On the other hand, BA.2 arrives as people increasingly are resuming prepandemic behaviors, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, roughly one-third of Americans have not completed their initial round of vaccinations, and more than 70 percent have not received booster shots.

In the face of this uncertainty, it would be reckless for the government to reduce its efforts to minimize new cases and help those who fall ill. Yet that is exactly what is happening after Congress recently failed to approve $15.6 billion for tests, treatments and vaccines.

Denied the funding it needs, the Biden administration is curtailing its efforts to combat the virus. Last week, the administration said that it would reduce the distribution of highly effective monoclonal antibody treatments by more than 30 percent and that it would be forced to end shipments this spring. It also stopped accepting reimbursement claims for Covid-19 tests and treatments from uninsured Americans; vaccine reimbursements will be accepted only through April 5. And the government said that it lacked sufficient funds to place an order for enough doses of vaccines to ensure the availability of booster shots later this year.

Congress must approve more funding immediately. Ensuring that Covid tests, treatments and vaccines remain readily available is the best way to prevent new waves of infections and to preserve the progress so far toward the end of the pandemic.

Failing to maintain adequate public funding means Americans increasingly will have to rely on their own resources. In effect, the United States is reverting to its usual approach to health care: Those with money and insurance will be able to get tests and treatments; those without may not. The price for a dose of monoclonal antibody treatment can approach $2,000, and even the relatively modest cost of test kits or vaccinations can discourage people from taking the basic steps necessary to protect themselves and others.

A bill to fund the government, which passed this month, initially included $15.6 billion in Covid aid, which would have provided the administration with much of the $22.5 billion it has requested. But the funding was stripped because House Democrats were unable to resolve an internal squabble. The bill would have repurposed unused money from earlier rounds of Covid aid, but some Democrats resisted, insisting the government should provide new funding.

To pass a new bill, Democrats will need the support of at least 10 Senate Republicans, and those most amenable want to use money from prior appropriations.

That should not be a deal breaker. States have received more federal aid in the past two years than they know what to do with; some state coffers are overflowing. Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia signed legislation this week that will send up to $500 to Georgia households to help with the rising cost of food, gas and other essentials. About a dozen other states, including California, are considering similar distributions of surplus cash. But while higher prices are a real challenge for many Americans, policymakers must also remain focused on preventing fresh outbreaks of Covid-19, which could be even more economically painful.

A chunk of the funding requested by the Biden administration, for example, was earmarked to help lower-income countries fight the coronavirus. The United States has a moral obligation to provide this humanitarian aid, and there are diplomatic benefits to helping other nations. In addition, it will help the whole world get closer to the end of the pandemic. Allowing the virus to continue to run rampant in some parts of the world increases the chances that new variants will continue to develop and spread.

It is worth underscoring that much of what the Biden administration is requesting should not require emergency funding. The United States ought to maintain funding for public health, including the resources to monitor infectious diseases and to develop new vaccines and treatments, in the same way that it maintains funding for other forms of national defense. The gaping holes in the nations public health infrastructure, which the pandemic exposed, were created by exactly the kind of shortsightedness now on display.

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Opinion | Congress Needs to Fund the Fight Against Covid-19 - The New York Times