Surgeon general says peak yet to come: The United States has not yet reached a national peak of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned Sunday. He urged caution amid an apparent plateau or even downturn of cases in some areas. “We shouldn’t expect a national peak in the next coming days — the next few weeks will be tough,” Murthy said in a CNN interview. Some regions, particularly on the East Coast, that saw early omicron surges have started to level off or slow.
Omicron accounts for virtually all new cases in US: The highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus accounts for 99.5% of new infections in the United States, according to data published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The variant, which in early December accounted for about 0.6% of new cases nationwide, has crowded out the delta variant, which makes up the remaining 0.5% of new cases in the latest report.
You can now order your free COVID test kit: The government’s website offering free coronavirus at-home test kits — which was slated to launch on Wednesday — went live Tuesday morning. Americans can now order free tests through the special federal website or the United States Postal Service. The new program follows a federal requirement that took effect Saturday under which private insurers must reimburse people for up to eight rapid home tests per month. Free kits can be ordered at: covidtests.gov or https://special.usps.com/testkits. Read more about the program here.
U.S. faces fresh wave of COVID deaths: The rapidly spreading coronavirus could lead to 58,000 to 305,000 more American deaths by the time the current omicron surge subsides in mid-March, the Associated Press reports, citing research models. The seven-day rolling average for daily new COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. has been trending upward since mid-November, reaching nearly 1,700 on Jan. 17. That’s still below the peak of 3,300 in January 2021. But the unprecedented scale of infections is certain to push that number up even though patients with omicron generally have lower risk of hospitalization and death. “Overall, you’re going to see more sick people even if you as an individual have a lower chance of being sick,” said Katriona Shea of Pennsylvania State University, who co-leads a team that pulls together several pandemic models and shares the combined projections with the White House. The models project 1.5 million Americans will be hospitalized from mid-December through mid-March.
California tops 7 million cases in all: More than 7 million Californians now have been infected by the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, analysis of state data by The San Francisco Chronicle shows. As of Tuesday morning, the cumulative cases stood at just over 7.1 million. The Bay Area is nearing 1 million infections — 956,561.
Moderna plans to sell dual COVID-flu booster shot by next year: Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said the drugmaker hopes to begin selling a booster shot by fall 2023 intended to protect against both COVID-19 and the flu. During a discussion at the World Economic Forum Monday, Bancel said the dual dose could help ensure people remain inoculated against both viruses, without having to return multiple times a year for both shots.
Oakland students say they’ll walk out Tuesday unless COVID safety demands are met: More than 1,200 Oakland students have signed a petition pledging to skip classes this week starting Tuesday, organizers said, in protest of what they say are inadequate safety measures on campuses in the face of a nationwide surge of COVID-19 cases. Read the full story here.
Too soon to know if omicron will end pandemic, Fauci says: Asked Monday at the online World Economic Forum if the coronavirus could become endemic this year — meaning it’s circulating but not disruptive — Dr. Anthony Fauci said “it is an open question.” The top White House medical adviser said the high volume of cases from the highly contagious omicron variant could boost collective immunity, but new variants could escape the immune response, the New York Times reported. He described what he saw as five pandemic phases, with the world still in the first “truly pandemic” phase, “where the whole world is really very negatively impacted,” followed by deceleration, control, elimination and eradication.
Israeli data shows fourth vaccine dose “probably not enough” against omicron: A fourth dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine can boost antibody to levels above a third dose — but possibly not high enough to protect against breakthrough infections from the omicron variant, early data from Israel indicates. In a study that started in December, 154 health workers were given a fourth Pfizer dose, 120 were given a Moderna fourth dose and a control group was not given a fourth dose, CNN reported. The Pfizer dose yielded “an enhancement or increase in the number of antibodies and neutralizing antibodies,” Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infection Prevention and Control Unit at Sheba Medical Center, said Monday. She added that results were similar for Moderna. “Yet, this is probably not enough for the omicron,” she said.
