If the vaccine is authorized within weeks, children would probably begin to get their first shots as the omicron surge is expected to be receding. They would begin to build immunity that might offer protection against future variants.
The latest surge in coronavirus cases has prompted school and day-care closures and has thrust parents back into familiar terrain — trying to balance work obligations with a changing patchwork of testing protocols, quarantines and a possible return to virtual schooling.
Here’s what to know
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer tests positive for coronavirus
Return to menuHouse Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) said Tuesday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the latest House leader to report an infection despite being vaccinated.
Hoyer, 82, is fully vaccinated and boosted. In a statement, he said he tested positive Tuesday afternoon and is experiencing less severe symptoms.
“In line with CDC guidelines and guidance from the Office of the Attending Physician, I will be working from home this week during my isolation period, and in order to protect the safety of other Members, staff, employees, and visitors to the Capitol, I will utilize proxy voting,” Hoyer said. “I look forward to returning to the Capitol once my isolation period is over to continue carrying out the important work of leading House Democrats as we govern responsibly For the People.”
Unvaccinated 23 times as likely to be hospitalized as those with boosters amid omicron, study says
Return to menuUnvaccinated adults in Los Angeles County were 23 times as likely to be hospitalized with covid-19 as vaccinated adults with booster shots at a time when the omicron variant was widespread, according to a new study.
The study shared Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adds to growing research demonstrating that booster shots protect well against severe illness, even though omicron is better at evading vaccines’ defenses.
Vaccination was even more protective when the delta variant prevailed, the researchers in Los Angeles County found. In the two weeks leading up to Dec. 11, unvaccinated people were 83 times as likely as vaccinated people with boosters to end up in the hospital with covid-19, and 12 times as likely to get infected, they said.
During that period, the unvaccinated were also about 13 times as likely to be hospitalized as vaccinated people without booster shots.
The earliest known omicron infection in Los Angeles County was in late November, and omicron became dominant there in the week ending Dec. 18. By the first full week of January, omicron accounted for 99 percent of all “sequenced specimens,” the study says.
During the week ending Jan. 8, the study states, unvaccinated people were 3.6 times as likely to be infected and 23 times as likely to be hospitalized as vaccinated people with boosters. Compared with fully vaccinated people without a booster, the unvaccinated were twice as likely to be infected and more than five times as likely to be hospitalized.
The study, which spanned Nov. 7 to Jan. 8, notes that hospitalization counts may include people admitted for other reasons. The research focused on hospital admissions occurring within two weeks of a laboratory-confirmed positive test for the coronavirus.
Quebec backs down from proposal to financially penalize the unvaccinated
Return to menuTORONTO — Quebec Premier François Legault backed down Tuesday from a contentious proposal to levy a financial penalty on the unvaccinated, saying the measure “divides Quebecers” at a time when unity is critical.
Legault floated the measure last month but provided few details about what the proposed “health contribution” tax would entail. He said then that officials were working through the legalities and that further details would be forthcoming in a bill that would be put before provincial lawmakers.
“My role is to try to bring Quebecers together, to stay united as a people,” Legault said at a news conference on Tuesday. “This is why we won’t go ahead with the health contribution. I understand this divides Quebecers.”
When Legault announced the proposal, he said that unvaccinated people were putting “a very important burden” on the health-care system and that it was “normal that the majority of the population is asking that there be a consequence.”
But the plan drew criticism. Some said it could violate Canada’s public health-care law. Others warned that it would punish and alienate marginalized people “who may be most in need of public health supports.”
White House calls Spotify disclaimer about covid misinformation a ‘positive step,’ says more needs to be done
Return to menuWhite House press secretary Jen Psaki said Spotify adding a disclaimer about coronavirus misinformation in response to growing criticism that the tech company is allowing covid conspiracy theories to run rampant is a “positive step.” But much more needs to be done, she added.
“Our hope is that all major tech platforms and all major news sources, for that matter, be responsible and be vigilant to ensure the American people have access to accurate information on something as significant as covid-19,” Psaki said Tuesday. “That certainly includes Spotify.”
“So this disclaimer, it’s a positive step, but we want every platform to continue doing more to call out misinformation and disinformation while also uplifting accurate information,” she added.
Hundreds of medical professionals criticized Spotify last month for letting popular podcaster Joe Rogan spread “false and societally harmful assertions” about the coronavirus and vaccines. A growing number of musicians and podcasters have pulled their work from the streaming service after it continued to allow Rogan on its platform.
Rogan posted a video Sunday saying he will make some changes to his show to decrease the spread of misinformation, including featuring mainstream experts along with guests who espouse more fringe opinions.
Rogan said he will “do his best” to better research the subjects he and his guests discuss.
Moving forward, the podcaster said, he will more deeply research discussion topics, “the controversial ones in particular — and have all the pertinent facts at hand before I discuss them,” Rogan said. “I don’t always get it right.”
New York cases down more than 90% as omicron wave recedes
Return to menuCoronavirus cases and hospitalizations in New York have fallen sharply in the past few weeks, officials said Tuesday, bolstering hopes that the omicron wave is ebbing in some cities.
“We anticipated the surge. The surge came,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said at a news conference at North Central Bronx Hospital. “And now it’s starting to go away. Just like the snow is melting, we hope that this winter surge is also melting away.”
“Look at those numbers,” she said as she showed charts representing declines in infection. “That is a beautiful sight, my friends.”
In early January, Hochul said, at the height of the omicron variant’s onslaught, New York reported 90,000 new coronavirus cases in a day. On Tuesday, the state reported about 7,100 new cases, down more than 90 percent from January’s peak. Covid-19 hospitalizations have nearly halved since a mid-January peak.
Hospitalizations and deaths typically lag behind case counts.
“We’re still losing New Yorkers,” Hochul said.
Key coronavirus updates from around the world
Return to menuHere’s what to know about the top coronavirus stories around the globe:
- Portugal’s prime minister said Tuesday that he has tested positive for the coronavirus, two days after his landslide election victory and just as he starts forming his new government. António Costa said he will self-isolate for seven days, in accordance with his country’s pandemic rules.
- Denmark on Tuesday became the first European Union country to lift all of its coronavirus restrictions, relying on vaccinations to tackle the omicron variant. The country said it will remove requirements for masks and covid passes and scrap limited opening hours for shops and restaurants. Neighboring Norway said it will scrap most of its remaining lockdown measures, effective immediately, as a spike in infections is unlikely to jeopardize health services.
- Pakistan will begin a nationwide door-to-door vaccination drive starting Tuesday, its National Command and Operation Center said. About 55,000 mobile vaccination teams will provide the doses, including boosters, and aim to vaccinate more than 35 million people.
- Rwanda reopened its border with Uganda to truckers this week, after nearly three years. Regular travelers will still be restricted to only essential trips, authorities said, a decision that disappointed traders hoping for a return to normal business.
- As the Beijing Winter Olympics kick off later this week, officials in China said Tuesday that the Games’ coronavirus situation is within the “expected controllable range,” despite a number of positive cases being detected. About 200 cases have been reported since Jan. 23 among airport arrivals and those in the “closed loop” area of the Games.
Democratic senators urge Justice Department to ramp up efforts to prevent sale of fraudulent face masks
Return to menuDemocratic Sens. Edward J. Markey (Mass.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.) are urging Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department to ramp up efforts to prevent the sale of counterfeit face masks in the country.
In a letter, the three Democrats asked that the Justice Department investigate reports of the “proliferation” of fraudulent face masks sold by retailers in the United States. They cited reports claiming that “retailers where many consumers go to purchase high-quality masks sell counterfeit and fraudulent products; this is especially true of online marketplaces where consumers cannot physically inspect and verify product quality.”
The senators call on the Justice Department’s COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to ramp up efforts to get the fake masks off the market.
“During this critical time, American consumers need assurances that the products they purchase to protect themselves and their loved ones are safe, effective, and legitimate,” the senators wrote. “Americans trying to protect themselves, their families, and their communities should not face potentially life-threatening exploitation by unscrupulous actors.”
6 questions about travel after recovering from covid-19, answered
Return to menuIf you’re among the millions of people who tested positive for the coronavirus during the omicron surge, you might be feeling confident about traveling as soon as you have recovered. But how soon after an infection is too soon, especially since it’s possible to test positive long after you have stopped being contagious? With a recent infection behind you, will you still need to follow the same international testing rules for travel?
Anyone flying into the United States is required to test negative for the coronavirus within one day of entering the country. But people who have recovered from the virus in the past 90 days can bypass that testing requirement, with the right documentation.
So what should that ever-expanding group of people do? Victor Tarsia, a co-founder of the telemedicine service MDAnywhere and an urgent-care physician, is hearing that question a lot. The company offers online doctor visits and evaluations to provide clearance to travel when patients have met the criteria.
“It’s exploded in the last month or two,” Tarsia said. “We’ve been seeing a lot of people.”
Most of them, he said, have recently recovered and are preparing for upcoming trips. This is what people in that situation need to know, based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
No indication new version of omicron causes more severe illness, WHO says
Return to menuWorld Health Organization officials said Tuesday that a new version of the omicron variant known as BA. 2 appears to be slightly more transmissible. But they said there is no evidence that it causes more-severe disease and cautioned that information is still limited.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference Tuesday that the global health organization is tracking four “sublineages” of the omicron variant, which has fueled a new wave of infections, hospitalizations and deaths. “This virus will continue to evolve,” Tedros said, adding that vaccines also may need to evolve.
Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on covid-19, said the agency is working with thousands of experts to track the coronavirus. There is “no indication that there’s a change in severity” with BA. 2, she said.
Officials said the WHO will share more information on BA. 2 as it is available.
WHO leaders also expressed concern about a recent rise in covid-19 deaths in most regions of the world, and Tedros said more cases have been reported in the past 10 weeks — since omicron was identified — than in all of 2020.
Asked about countries that have moved to lift coronavirus restrictions, Van Kerkhove said: “Many countries have not gone through the peak of omicron yet. … Now is not the time to lift everything all at once.” She urged countries to increase vaccination and to use mask-wearing and distancing to slow the virus’s spread, although she acknowledged that each country’s situation is different.
Tedros said the WHO’s goal to have 70 percent of the global population vaccinated by this summer remains attainable.
“Ending this pandemic is not a matter of chance,” he said. “It’s a matter of choice.” By meeting vaccination goals, he said, the world “can end the pandemic.”
D.C.-area covid hospitalizations fall, but hospitals are still suffering
Return to menuCoronavirus hospitalizations are falling across the Washington region as the omicron wave begins to recede, but experts say hospitals are still coping with staff shortages that will outlast the pandemic.
Hospitalizations due to covid-19 are down by about half in Maryland and about 25 percent in Virginia, both of which had seen record highs this month, prompting Govs. Larry Hogan (R) and Glenn Youngkin (R) to declare limited states of emergencies. But the staffing crisis remains acute.
“People are still worn out. There’s no doubt about it,” said Gabe Kelen, chair of the emergency medicine department at Johns Hopkins University. “Even though numbers are down and a little more doable, it doesn’t mean the crisis has passed. We are seeing a light at the end of the tunnel for this particular surge.”
Pregnant journalist says she’s returning to New Zealand after strict covid rules left her in Afghanistan
Return to menuA pregnant journalist who said she chose to stay in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because her native New Zealand did not allow her to return due to strict coronavirus restrictions said the government reversed course — and that she would be going home “at the beginning of March to give birth to our baby girl.”
Charlotte Bellis, 35, from Christchurch, said in a statement Tuesday that her emergency application to return despite New Zealand’s closed border was approved overnight after a public back-and-forth with the government.
Bellis attracted international attention when she said in a New Zealand Herald column on Friday that the Taliban offered her “safe haven” as a pregnant and unmarried woman — whereas her own government refused her application for an emergency medical exemption to the lottery system that assigns returning citizens a spot in “managed isolation and quarantine,” or MIQ.
New Zealand officials said Tuesday that Bellis was given a voucher for a spot in government-mandated quarantine because they assessed that she faced threats to her safety in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press.
Bellis, who says she does not feel like she is in danger in Kabul, said in her statement the government should expand its criteria for medical exemptions, which currently rely on travel being time-critical.
D.C. Health adds ‘test-to-stay’ guidance for District schools
Return to menuD.C. Health issued new guidance Monday that recommends how schools considering “test-to-stay” programs should roll out the initiative as an alternative to quarantining and to keep more students in school.
Test-to-stay allows unvaccinated students who are identified as close contacts of a classmate with the coronavirus to test at school and go to classes if they test negative. Unvaccinated students and staff typically have had to quarantine for 10 days if they are an identified close contact.
To participate in test-to-stay, the exposure has to take place at school, and both the person who contracted the virus and the person exposed had to have been masked, according to D.C. Health’s guidelines.
The latest in covid dining etiquette? South Korea’s new nose-only mask.
Return to menuA South Korean company has released a new mask designed to help people feel more comfortable dining indoors by covering just their nose while they are eating or drinking. Behold: The “kosk.”
The mask has gone viral on social media and in various online forums, after it was recently unveiled by a South Korean company, Atman. It can be used folded up when eating just to cover the nose, and unfolded to cover both the nose and the mouth after eating. It is available on an online shopping website for about $8 for a box of 10.
The new mask is called “kosk,” or a nose mask — a portmanteau of “mask” and “ko,” the Korean word for nose. “Kosk” is typically used to describe people who wear their masks over their mouth, with their nose revealed.
Florida school district says it will no longer allow excused absences due to covid
Return to menuA school district in Florida — the ninth largest in the United States — says it will no longer provide “excused absences” to students kept home during the coronavirus pandemic as of Monday. However, it said parents should still keep children at home when “exhibiting illness or symptoms” of the virus.
Orange County Public Schools is the fourth largest district in Florida, according to its website. The district serves more than 206,000 students at 202 schools and has more than 25,000 employees.
“This is an update regarding parents keeping students home during the increased COVID-19 cases. Beginning January 31, we will no longer be able to provide excused absences in such cases,” it said. The change was due both to the number of coronavirus cases declining and the “additional strain on our teachers as they continue to manage assignments for large numbers of absent students,” the school district said.
However, it will continue to require masks for adults and strongly encourages them for students through February. It also suggested that parents wishing to keep their children out of school could consider enrolling them in home-school programs.
The district has confirmed 20,362 coronavirus cases in total, the vast majority among students, according to its covid-19 dashboard. In Florida, new daily reported deaths were on the rise over the past week but both the number of cases and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus were down, per a Washington Post tracker.
In a statement posted on social media last week it said the change would be implemented starting Jan. 31.
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