Category Archives: Corona Virus

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the chief medical advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, joined SiriusXM Doctor Radio's "Doctor Radio Reports" and spoke with host Dr. Marc Siegel about the idea of an Omicron-specific booster and next-generation vaccines, responds to personal attacks and says how they're distracting from important questions. He also opened up about how villainizing him and other scientists endangers lives, and goes on to clarify his position about the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Read onand to ensure your health and the health of others, don't miss these Sure Signs You've Already Had COVID.

"We always have to keep an open mind on this Marc, as always, but if you talk to the real card carrying molecular virologists and molecular viral genesists they feel that the evidence and the circumstances weigh very, very strongly that this is a natural occurrence in the sense of jumping from an animal species, a bat, maybe to an intermediate host, to a human. Very similar to what was proven to be the case with SARS CoV1, as well as with MARS, with the bat to the camel, to the human. Again but you always have to keep an open mind that it could have been something that had been put into a lab to be studied and perhaps leaked out. But most, if not all, of the real card carrying virologists feel that it was a naturally occurring out of the environment from an animal to a human," said Dr. Fauci.

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"As you know, Pfizer has already initiated studies that are multi-tiered. There's one that takes people who've been fully vaccinated with the standard mRNA and boosting them with either the standard mRNA or an Omicron specific boost. In another set of studies, they're gonna use Omicron as the primary vaccination and those who've not been vaccinated to see what the relative capability of Omicron boost versus standard boost to enhance the response. That's what's going on with Omicron specific boost. Your first question about where do we go now with different platforms? There's a big effort, and I'm gonna be talking about this tomorrow at the White House press conference is the efforts that we're putting in to develop a pan-coronavirus vaccine, which is gonna be multiphasic. It's not gonna be trying to get a vaccine against all the coronaviruses all at once, but start with a vaccine that covers all the different variants of SARS CoV2. And then get a pan-sarbecovirus which includes SARS CoV1 and SARS CoV2..a lot of activity that's going on in that regard," he said.

RELATED: 6 Safest Things to Do Right Now, During Omicron

"It's unfortunate Marc, as you well know, you've known me for decades. The only thing that I care about, that I've devoted my entire professional career, including the almost 40 years that I've been director of NIAID is to get the basic and clinical science to work for the safety and the health of the American public. And since the United States is a leader in the world, indirectly, we do it for the rest of the world. It is very unfortunate the distraction of those who would politicize me by saying things that just don't make any sense, Marc because the only thing I talk about out is things like getting vaccinated, getting boosted, wearing a mask, getting us to do the research, to be able to get interventions. And for that, by some people I've been villainized. I don't quite get that, except that that's the hard knocks of being in a situation that's become politicized. It's so unfortunate that in our era now, where we're all trying to fight against a common enemy, which is the virus, that some people use that for political purposes. And that's really unfortunate because that does nothing, but endanger the lives of our citizens," he said.

RELATED: Never Say These Words to a Doctor

"Well, it's unfortunate. Of course it doesn't feel good, Marc. It doesn't make any sense. It's purely political. And then I feel worse about, I feel less worried about the attacks on me than I feel about the politicization of a pure public health issue. We should not be doing that. We should be all pulling together to end this pandemic rather than making it ad hominems, which are really preposterous. I mean, you've seen them, those at the hearings and other places where instead of asking questions that are important questions about where we're going with the outbreak, it becomes pure ad hominem, which of course doesn't feel good, but it doesn't make any sense either" he said.

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Follow the public health fundamentals and help end this pandemic, no matter where you liveget vaccinated or boosted ASAP; if you live in an area with low vaccination rates, wear an N95 face mask, don't travel, social distance, avoid large crowds, don't go indoors with people you're not sheltering with (especially in bars), practice good hand hygiene, and to protect your life and the lives of others, don't visit any of these 35 Places You're Most Likely to Catch COVID.

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Dr. Fauci Opens Up About Origins Of COVID Virus Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

A new study suggests that getting infected by the novel coronavirus before or after COVID-19 vaccination can create so-called super immunity from COVID-19 although experts dont want you trying to deliberately catch the coronavirus.

The news: Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University found that getting a vaccine shot after recovering from coronavirus provides protection similar to getting COVID-19 after vaccination, which has been noted to create super immunity.

Flashback: The Oregon Health & Science University previously published a study for the Journal of the American Medical Association that found breakthrough infections from the delta variant created a robust immune response against the delta variant or super immunity.

Why it matters: People who have this so-called super immunity are better protected from COVID-19 infection and severe symptoms, the researchers said.

What theyre saying: These results, together with our previous work, point to a time when SARS-CoV-2 may become a mostly mild endemic infection like a seasonal respiratory tract infection, instead of a worldwide pandemic, said study co-author Marcel Curlin, per The Oregonian.

Yes, but: Senior co-author Fikadu Tafesse told The Oregonian this is not a reason for people to intentionally catch COVID-19, saying there are long-term consequences to a COVID-19 infection that arent worth it.

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COVID infection before or after vaccination creates super immunity - Deseret News

A computer-generated image of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Uma Shankar Sharma/Getty Images hide caption

A computer-generated image of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

Just as the omicron surge starts to recede in parts of the U.S., scientists have their eye on another coronavirus variant spreading rapidly in parts of Asia and Europe. It's officially called "omicron BA.2," and this week scientists detected cases of it in several U.S. states, including California, Texas and Washington.

Although BA.2 is currently rare in the U.S., scientists expect it to spread in the country over the next month. There's growing evidence that it's just as contagious as or possibly a bit more contagious than the first omicron variant, called "omicron BA.1."

"It could be that BA.2 does have some small advantage," says Emma Hodcroft, an epidemiologist at the University of Bern who has been tracking variants all around the world throughout the pandemic via the Nextstrain project. "BA.2 might well be, like, 1% to 3% more transmissible, or something like that."

So the big question now is, will that small difference be enough for this variant to lengthen the ongoing surge in the U.S., as it has in Denmark?

You can think of BA.2 as a sibling of BA.1, Hodcroft says. They share a bunch of mutations about 30 or so but they also have a bunch of mutations that are unique.

"They are quite similar, but they're also different," she says. "So very much like siblings, in my opinion. Different but obviously related."

Back in November, when scientists in South Africa and Botswana discovered omicron, they didn't find just one version. They found three, called BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3 by the Phylogenetic Assignment of Named Global Outbreak Lineages at the University of Edinburgh.

The first one, BA.1, took off rapidly and spread around the world, including in the United States. And initially, it looked like BA.2 and BA.3 were weaker and less able to keep up with BA.1.

"We thought, 'OK, BA.2 is just not as fit as its sibling BA.1, and it will kind of peter out,' " Hodcroft says.

But that's not what happened not at all.

Over the past several weeks, omicron BA.2 has begun to surprise scientists. And it's starting to look like it can, in some countries, outcompete its sibling omicron BA.1 and, really, any other variants.

Back in December, omicron BA.1 caused a massive surge in cases in Denmark, similar to the surge in the United States. But then, just as cases began to decline, BA.2 started spreading very rapidly in Denmark. After only a few weeks, BA.2 took over the outbreak there and has lengthened Denmark's surge. Denmark's cases are climbing steeply, with more than 40,000 recorded each day. Since the second week in January, BA.2 has caused more than 50% of those cases, according to the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen.

People queue for rapid coronavirus tests at a center set up at a church in Aalborg, Denmark, where a second omicron variant has fueled a surge. Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

People queue for rapid coronavirus tests at a center set up at a church in Aalborg, Denmark, where a second omicron variant has fueled a surge.

Omicron BA.2 is also growing exponentially in England and Germany, where it's causing at least 5% of cases in both places. Scientists are concerned it could lengthen surges in those locations as well as possibly in the United States.

Together, this data indicates that BA.2 is not BA.1's weaker sibling, but rather that BA.2 is quite strong and possibly more contagious.

Many studies have shown that infections with omicron BA.1 carry a reduced risk of severe disease compared with the delta variant of the coronavirus.

Preliminary evidence from Denmark suggests this will also be the case with omicron BA.2, says Dr. Peter Chin-Hong at the University of California San Francisco.

"Scientists there have found that there was no increased risk in going to the hospital if you have BA.2 compared to if you have BA.1," Chin-Hong says. "That could change, but that's what we know so far."

And there's cautious optimism about inoculations. Preliminary data from the U.K. government shows that a third shot of a COVID-19 vaccine protects against an infection of BA.2 just as well as it does against BA.1. In both cases, it reduces the risk of a symptomatic infection by about 60% to 70%. In addition, there are many similarities between BA.1's and BA.2's spike proteins the part of the virus that many antibodies target.

So Chin-Hong expects the vaccines will likely provide superb protection against severe disease.

"I have no guarantee that you won't get infected or possibly reinfected [if you've already had COVID-19], meaning that you might have the sniffles or feel like you have another cold, but I feel very, very confident that you would be protected from serious disease in the general population."

And Chin-Hong says that this distinction is critical for the future of COVID-19. Going forward, he says, communities need to shift their focus from stopping all infections to keeping everyone safe from severe disease and hospitalization.

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New omicron variant is putting scientists on alert. Here's what to know : Goats and Soda - NPR

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didnt reach its shores for nearly two full years.

Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nations citizens. Many of those aboard were missionaries who had left Kiribati before the border closure to spread the faith abroad for what is commonly known as the Mormon church.

Officials tested each returning passenger three times in nearby Fiji, required that they be vaccinated, and put them in quarantine with additional testing when they arrived home.

It wasnt enough.

More than half the passengers tested positive for the virus, which has now slipped out into the community and prompted the government to declare a state of disaster. An initial 36 positive cases from the flight had ballooned to 181 cases by Friday.

Kiribati and several other small Pacific nations were among the last places on the planet to have avoided any virus outbreaks, thanks to their remote locations and strict border controls. But their defenses appear no match against the highly contagious omicron variant.

Generally speaking, its inevitable. It will get to every corner of the world, said Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccine expert at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Its a matter of buying enough time to prepare and getting as many people vaccinated as possible.

Only 33% of Kiribatis 113,000 people are fully vaccinated, while 59% have had at least one dose, according to the online scientific publication Our World in Data. And like many other Pacific nations, Kiribati offers only basic health services.

Dr. Api Talemaitoga, who chairs a network of Indigenous Pacific Island doctors in New Zealand, said Kiribati had only a couple of intensive care beds in the entire nation, and in the past relied on sending its sickest patients to Fiji or New Zealand for treatment.

He said that given the limitations of Kiribatis health system, his first reaction when he heard about the outbreak was, Oh, my lord.

Kiribati has now opened multiple quarantine sites, declared a curfew and imposed lockdowns. President Taneti Maamau said on social media that the government is using all its resources to manage the situation, and urged people to get vaccinated.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, based in the U.S. state of Utah, has a strong presence in many Pacific nations, including Kiribati, where its 20,000 members make it the third-largest Christian denomination. The church has about 53,000 missionaries serving full time around the world, working to convert people.

The pandemic has presented challenges for their missionary work, which is considered a rite of passage for men as young as 18 and women as young as 19.

As the pandemic ebbed and flowed, the church responded. Itrecalled about 26,000 missionaries who were serving overseasin June 2020, reassigning them to proselytize online from home before sending some back out into the field five months later.

When COVID-19 vaccines became widely available in many countries in April 2021, church officialsencouraged all missionaries to get inoculated and required it of those serving outside their home countries.

Church spokesperson Sam Penrod said the returning missionaries remained in quarantine, were cooperating with local health authorities and would be released from their service upon completion of their quarantine.

With Kiribatis borders being closed since the onset of the pandemic, many of these individuals have continued as missionaries well beyond their 18 to 24 months of anticipated service, with some serving as long as 44 months, he said.

Before this months outbreak, Kiribati had reported just two virus cases: crew members on an incoming cargo ship that ultimately wasnt permitted to dock.

But the Kiribati charter flight wasnt the first time missionaries returning home to a Pacific island nation tested positive for COVID-19.

In October, a missionary returning to Tonga from service in Africa wasreported as the countrys first and so far only positive case after flying home via New Zealand. Like those returning to Kiribati, he also was vaccinated and quarantined.

Tonga is desperately trying to prevent any outbreaks as it recovers from adevastating volcanic eruptionandtsunamiearlier this month. The nation of 105,000 has been receiving aid from around the world but has requested that crews from incoming military ships and planes drop their supplies andleave without having any contactwith those on the ground.

Theyve got enough on their hands without compounding it with the spread of COVID, said Petousis-Harris, the vaccine expert. Anything they can do to keep it out is going to be important. COVID would be just compounding that disaster.

In the long term, however, it is going to be impossible to stop the virus from entering Tonga or any other community, Petousis-Harris said.

Nearby Samoa, with a population of 205,000, is also trying to prevent its first outbreak. It imposed a lockdown through until Friday evening after 15 passengers on an incoming flight from Australia last week tested positive.

By Thursday, that number had grown to 27, including five front-line nurses who had treated the passengers. Officials said all those infected had been isolated and there was no community outbreak so far.

While the incursion of the virus into the Pacific has prompted lockdowns and other restrictions, there were signs that not all traditional aspects of island life would be lost for long.

Government has decided to allow fishing, Kiribati declared on Thursday, while listing certain restrictions on times and places. Only four people will be allowed to be on a boat or part of a group fishing near shore.

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COVID hits one of the last uninfected places on the planet - WPRI.com

JOHANNESBURG Lions at a South African zoo that caught the coronavirus from their handlers were sick for more than three weeks and continued to test positive for up to seven weeks, according to a new study that raised concerns about the virus spreading among animals in the wild.

It is not clear how much virus the lions were carrying or whether they were actively infectious for the whole period that they tested positive. But prolonged periods of infection in big cats would raise the risk that an outbreak in the wild might spread more widely and infect other species, researchers said. That might eventually make the virus endemic among wild animals, and in a worst case, give rise to new variants that could jump back to humans.

The study at the University of Pretoria is likely the first of its kind in Africa. Researchers began to monitor captive wildlife in zoos and conservation sanctuaries after a tiger at the Bronx zoo got sick with the coronavirus in April 2020, according to Professor Marietjie Venter, the principal investigator on the study.

The research team monitored two pumas that contracted the coronavirus at a private zoo in July 2020, during South Africas first pandemic wave. The pumas, which are not native to South Africa, started showing symptoms, including loss of appetite, diarrhea, runny noses and persistent coughs. Both cats made a full recovery after 23 days.

About a year later at the same zoo, three lions began to show similar symptoms. One of the lions, an older female, developed pneumonia. The lions handler and an engineer at the zoo also tested positive for the virus.

This time, researchers were able to sequence the samples and found that the lions and their handler were infected with the same Delta variant. The illness developed by the lions, particularly in the older female, showed that animals, like people, could develop severe symptoms from Delta, which drove South Africas deadliest pandemic wave.

The lions recovered after 25 days, but had positive P.C.R. tests for more than three additional weeks. P.C.R. tests amplify the viruss genetic material and therefore can detect even very small amounts. The data suggested that the amount of virus the lions were carrying decreased over those weeks, and it was not clear precisely how long they were infectious.

In a captive environment, the animals were kept in quarantine, but in larger parks dotted around South Africa, where lions are a common public attraction, controlling an outbreak could prove very, very difficult, the study said, particularly if it were undetected. These lions are often fed by humans rather than hunting for themselves, increasing their exposure.

If you dont know that its Covid, theres a risk that it can then spread to other animals and then potentially back to humans, said Dr. Venter, a professor of medical virology, who teamed up with a wildlife veterinary scientist for this study. The animals were infected long enough that the virus can actually undergo mutations, she said, but the risk is more that if youre in a wildlife reserve and it spreads into the wild it can then become endemic.

The coronavirus driving the global pandemic likely originated in bats and eventually jumped to humans, in what is known as spillover infections.

Scientists warn that spillback infections of humans infecting animals as have occurred with mink, deer and domestic cats could ravage whole ecosystems in the wild. Infections that reached the wild could also expand the viruss potential to spread unchecked and mutate in animals, potentially into variants dangerous to humans.

One well-studied phenomenon involves infections among large populations of captive mink. At one mink farm in Denmark, the virus mutated into a new strain during the switch from human to mink, prompting the mass slaughter of the animals throughout that country and Europe to prevent its spread back to humans.

By contrast, the South African study involved small outbreaks, but Dr. Venter noted that the spread in mink shows the potential danger of larger outbreaks in wildlife.

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Lions Infected With Covid Spur Concern Over Virus Spread In the Wild - The New York Times

In Marvell, Ark., a tiny Mississippi Delta town of 855 residents tucked into a sea of cotton, soy bean and corn fields, Lee Guest is a particularly essential essential worker.

He is the mayor and the assistant fire chief, and his day job is as a rural mail carrier. If the four employees of the local water utility dont show up, he knows enough about the system to keep the water flowing, too.

Theres a handful of us we can go get stuff taken care of, he said.

So when he was away from work for a week after contracting Covid-19 at the beginning of the year, the worn engine of small town governance and administration in Marvell, about a 90-minute drive southwest from Memphis, sputtered and coughed, but it chugged on.

Out of 13 full-time and 11 part-time employees, six have gotten Covid-19. One, who went to a hospital but wasnt admitted, got sick in 2020. The rest of the cases have tested positive in the last three weeks.

Its a familiar story in small towns across the country, where the spike in infections from the Omicron variant hit local governments with particular force. The virus has ripped through big cities like Los Angeles and New York, sidelining thousands of police officers and transit operators. In many, leaders have rushed to reassure residents that firefighters and paramedics will show up when they call amid record absences.

But in small communities, the people responsible for keeping crucial public services up and running say the strain is acute: With bare-bones workforces already stretched thin, there is no margin for error when multiple workers have to call in sick.

Excerpt from:

For small U.S. towns, just one coronavirus infection can put governance at risk. - The New York Times

(WXYZ) With coronavirus cases slowly declining in the state, and new numbers coming out Monday, many people are wondering if metro Detroit has come out on the other side of the omicron variant.

The variant has become the dominant strain in Michigan. Breakthrough cases are more common with omicron.

On Friday, the state posted an average of over 16,700 cases per day over a two-day period.

Medical experts we spoke with say we could be on the other side of the surge, but say we shouldn't let our guard down just yet.

Last week, the state said that cases in metro Detroit appeared to have plateaued. Henry Ford Health System also said there was a glimmer of hope with hospitalizations down across their system.

The state hospital association said that they are optimistic, seeing statewide hospitalizations also declining.

"In metro Detroit, we are finally over the hump of omicron. It doesn't mean we can take our masks off and go have our big parties again," Dr. Molly O'Shea with Birmingham Pediatrics said. "Just because we are over the hump doesn't mean we are in a low-disease burden state."

Experts are continuing to remind people to wear your masks, and wear a KN95 or N95 mask.

Dr. Anthony Fauci is as confident as he can be that most states will reach a peak of omicron cases by mid-February.

"Things are looking good. We don't want to get overconfident, but they look like they're going in the right direction right now," he said.

"But, nationwide, some states are seeing a rise in deaths from COVID-19.

Additional Coronavirus information and resources:

View a global coronavirus tracker with data from Johns Hopkins University.

See complete coverage on our Coronavirus Continuing Coverage page.

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Is Michigan over the COVID-19 peak? New numbers to be released Monday - WXYZ

The latest:

Sunday shoppers streamed back into Quebec stores for the first time in three weeks as a measure meant to curb soaring COVID-19-related hospitalization rates in the province came to an end amid declining patient numbers.

The positive signs were not confined to the province. Virus-related hospital admissions either decreased or held steady in other jurisdictions, such as Ontario and Nova Scotia.

Ontario reported a drop of 229 patients in hospitals with COVID-19, though officials noted that not all health-care facilities share data on weekends.

Quebec, meanwhile, said 12 fewer patients were hospitalized Sunday. But the two long-standing virus hotspotsstill had more than 7,000 hospitalizations between them as of Sunday.

The numbers came as most Quebec stores reopened their doors following a three-week ban on Sunday shopping imposed by the government in a bid to curb hospitalization rates that soared once the pandemic's Omicron-driven wave took hold. The province closed non-essential businesses for three Sundays starting Jan. 2, making exceptions only for pharmacies, convenience stores and gas stations.

The move one of a suite of measures implemented to bring hospitalizations under control appeared to be bearing fruit, as the number of patients in provincial facilities has declined for four days in a row.

Quebec is also set to expand its vaccination passport program as of Monday, making it mandatory to show proof of immunization in order to enter a number of retail settings.

They include big-box stores with areas of 1,500 square metres or more. As of Jan. 18, proof of vaccination also became mandatory to enter the province's liquor and cannabis stores.

Vaccines and other protective measures were the focus of fresh comments from Canada's top doctor on Sunday.

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam issued a statement saying vaccines and virus treatments are keeping Canadians better protected against the ongoing pandemic even as she predicted more difficult weeks ahead.

"Among adolescent and adult age groups, vaccine coverage with two or more doses ranges from 83 per cent to 96 per cent, with room for improvement particularly on booster dose coverage for adults, which ranges from 21 to 75 per cent," Tam said.

Health Canada data from early January show fully vaccinated cases were 80 per cent less likely to be hospitalized and 80 per cent less likely to die as a result of their illness.

With lab-based testing capacity deeply strained and increasingly restricted,experts say true case counts are likely far higher than reported. Hospitalization data at the regional level is also evolving, with several provinces saying they will reportfiguresthat separatethe number of people in hospital because of COVID-19 from those there for another medical issue who alsotest positive for COVID-19.

For more information on what is happening in your community including details on outbreaks, testing capacity and local restrictions click through to the regional coverage below.

You can also read more from thePublic Health Agency of Canada, whichprovides a detailed look at every region,includingseven-day averagetest positivity rates,in itsdaily epidemiological updates.

InBritish Columbia,a "Freedom Convoy" of big-rig trucks is slated to roll out from theprovince Sunday en route to Ottawa for a demonstration against the federal government's vaccine mandate for truckers. The convoy is separate fromtheroad safety convoyin B.C. that started Saturday.

In the Prairies, anorthern First Nation inManitobaisfacing criticism forits lockdown measuresafter a group of mothers left to buy groceries on Thursday and an attempt was made to prevent them from returning to the community. InSaskatchewan, hospitalizationsrose by eight on Sunday, while ICU admissions remained at 26. InAlberta, the Omicron wave has left Edmonton-area schools dealing with their most challenging staffing issues in the pandemic, with about 10 per cent of staff absent.

In the Atlantic provinces,four more people are in hospital in Newfoundland and Labrador because of COVID-19 on Sunday; Prince Edward Island registered its sixth death of the pandemic;Nova Scotia says there are 85 people in designated COVID-19 hospital units, including 11 people in intensive care; and more than 1,000 people marched inNew Brunswick to protest government-imposed restrictions and vaccination mandates;drivers also slowedtraffic along theborderbetween Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

In the North,Northwest Territorieshealth officials sayits modelling suggeststhe peak of the Omicron wave "may have already passed mid-January" in the territory.Hundreds of people protested inYukon against public health measures over the weekendandNunavutreported 26 new cases on Sunday.

As of Sunday, more than349.6 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University's coronavirus tracker. The reported global death toll stood at more than 5.59million.

In Europe, police in Belgium fired water cannons and tear gas in Brussels on Sunday to disperse protesters marching against COVID-19 vaccinations and restrictions.

InAsia, South Korea posted7,630 new cases its second highest daily number despite extended restrictionsand a high vaccination rate, raising concerns of further spread during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday.

InAfrica,the World Bank has approved a loan of $750 million US to South Africa linked to COVID-19, aiming to help protect the poor and support economic recovery from the pandemic, the National Treasury said.

In theAmericas,the world-famous Carnival festivities in Rio de Janeiro will be held in late April rather than the final weekend of February, as the number of coronavirus cases in Brazil spikes and the Omicron variant spreads.

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Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and around the world on Jan. 23 - CBC News

Cases, hospitalisations and deaths

If you don't see your state or territory yet, don't worry - these numbers are updated throughout the day.

For a detailed breakdown of cases across the country, check outCharting the Spread.

NSW:24deaths and 15,091 cases;2,816 people in hospital, including 196 in ICUs. Read more here. Re-watch the press conference here.

ACT: 2 deaths and756new cases; 68 people in hospital, including 3 in ICUs.

Victoria:17 deaths and 11,695 cases;998 people in hospital, including 119 in ICUs. Read more here. Re-watch the press conference here.

Tasmania:619 cases; 41 people in hospital, including 3 in ICUs. Read more here.

Queensland: 13deaths and 10,212 cases; 878 people in hospital, including 50 in ICUs. Read more here.Re-watch the press conference here.

South Australia:2 deaths and2,009 cases;294 people are in hospital, 29 in the ICU. Read more here.Watch the press conference at12:15pm local time (12:45pm AEST).

Northern Territory: 286 new cases; 78 people are in hospital, four in ICU. Read more here.Watch the press conference at 11:30am local time (1:00pm AEST).

Western Australia:TBD

More here:

COVID live updates: All the coronavirus news from across Australia in the one place - ABC News

COVID-19: Tips to find at-home tests

Starting January 19, Americans will be able to have at-home COVID-19 tests shipped to their homes, for free.

Staff Video, USA TODAY

While cases of coronavirus may be on the downswing, COVID-19 deaths on the Cape and across Massachusetts are climbing and most likely will continue to do so in the coming weeks, health officials said.

During the last 14-day interval reported Thursday by the state Department of Public Health, 16 people with COVID-19 in Barnstable County died.

The county 14-day fatality toll reported a week ago on Jan. 13 was even higher, with 21 people dying.

Those sorts of numbers havent been seen on Cape Cod since 18 Cape Codders with coronavirus diedin a two-week periodin late March 2021 during a surge in cases.

Statewide, deaths of people with COVID-19 are in a third wave that on Friday surpassed the daily count recorded in January 2021, when far fewer people were vaccinated than now.

Health officials say that while the hypertransmissible omicron variant may cause less severe disease for most, the sheer number of people being infected means that many susceptible people will have serious illness.

Tracking the virus: Cape records 4,880 new COVID-19 cases in last two weeks

A lot of people are still going to die because of how transmissible omicron has been, University of South Florida epidemiologist Jason Salemi told The Associated Press.

It unfortunately is going to get worse before it gets better.

The AP said models forecast 50,000 to 300,000 more Americans could die of coronavirus by the time the surge subsides in mid-March.

The number of new daily cases on Cape Cod has declined a bit in recent days.

The trend: Barnstable County has 4,540 new COVID-19 cases in 2 weeks more than twice report last week

State Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, estimates that the peak of omicron in Barnstable County was Jan. 3-11, when seven-day case averages crushed previous records and reached into the 400s.

The number of new cases reported Friday, Thursday and Wednesday were 323, 324 and 347 by contrast.

The trend toward hospitalization, intensive care intervention and death tends to trail new case numbers by weeks, said Dr. William Agel, chief medical officer for Cape Cod Hospital and Cape Cod Healthcare.

I dont think were out of the woods yet, Agel said.

The 102 new daily COVID-19 deaths statewidereported by the DPH Fridayrepresents an omicron peak and tops the peak of 94 daily deaths reported Jan. 26, 2021.

Effects of the surge: Record-high COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations on Cape Cod omicron likely the cause

On highly vaccinated Cape Cod, the numbers show a slightly different picture. Death counts, while the highest they have been in months, are not as high as this time last winter.

The number of daily COVID-19 deaths in Barnstable County from early January to mid-February 2021 ranged from the low 30s to the mid-40s.

The 14-day death count didnt drop into the 20s until Feb. 24, 2021,when 24 people with coronavirus on Cape Cod were reported to have died during the preceding two weeks.

Through most of the summer and fall, the Cape's death count remained in the single digits, with an upward trend starting Dec. 23, when 11 people were reported to have died in the past 14 days.

CDC studies: Booster shots needed against omicron

Three studies released Friday offered more evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are standing up to the omicron variant, at least among people who received booster shots. (Jan. 21)

AP

Hope for a decline: Nantucket COVID-19 wastewater data shows decline in viral levels

A difference between this year and last winter is that Massachusetts residents with COVID-19 who are currently dying tend to be younger, said Brennan Klein, a postdoctoral researcher in the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University.

The demographics skew younger than the last wave, Klein said.

During last winters surge from Dec. 1 to Jan. 19, 58.6%of those with COVID-19 who died were over 80 years old, compared to 40.5% during that time period this year, he said.

By contrast, the number of people in the five youngest demographic groups who died during the same periods have more than doubled.

The percentage of those up to 19 years old who died climbed from 0.14to 0.40%.

For those 20to 29 years old, the jump was from 0.52to 1.10%; 30to 39 years old, 0.78to 1.95%; and for 40to 49 years old, 1.46to 3.98%. Those in the 50-59 age group went from making up 3.80% of COVID-19 deaths to 9.95%.

The age groups of 60-69 and 70-79 also comprise more of the COVID-19 death toll, going from 12.65to 16.51% and from 21.97to 25.59%, respectively.

The numbers have a lot to do with case demographics andwho is getting infected, Klein said.

Younger people are less likely to be fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC said last month that about 75% of people who are unvaccinated are under age 50.

Theres a three tofour times higher likelihood of death for unvaccinated people, and thats not even including booster data, Klein said.

The DPH reported that, as of Jan. 15, 5,152,666 people in Massachusetts have been fully vaccinated.Of that number, 348,510 or 6.8% were diagnosed with breakthrough COVID-19 cases,5,437 of whom were hospitalized and 1,244 of whom died.

So far the percentage of those fully vaccinated who have died is 0.02%, state public health officials said.

Klein said he shies away from calling omicron mild. It is quite a risky thing to be infected with.

He said the coronavirus fatality toll will continue to climb for a while since there tends to be lag of as much as four weeks between infection and death.

I expect it will continue to increase over the next two to three weeks, Klein said.

He said people should continue to take preventative measures, including wearing good quality masks and using prudent social behaviors.

Agel said people should get vaccinated and boosted and talk to their physician about alternative treatments if they are immune compromised.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.Cynthia McCormick can be reached at cmccormick@capecodonline.com and @Cmccormickcct.

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COVID-19 deaths still on the rise across Cape Cod and state - Cape Cod Times