LOS ANGELES COUNTY CORONA-VIRUS PLAGUE DEATHS HIT A NEW WINTER HIGH; NEW YORK CITY ISSUES PLEA AS THE “MOST TRANSMISSIBLE FORM OF THE CORONAVIRUS PLAGUE WE KNOW OF TO DATE” SPREADS

Claire Altieri sets up a testing site for coronavirus variants at Tom Bradley International Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday. (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times) © (Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)

LOS ANGELES COUNTY CORONA-VIRUS PLAGUE DEATHS HIT A NEW WINTER HIGH; NEW YORK CITY ISSUES PLEA AS THE “MOST TRANSMISSIBLE FORM OF THE CORONAVIRUS PLAGUE WE KNOW OF TO DATE” SPREADS

The number of COVID-19 deaths reported weekly in Los Angeles County has hit the highest point of the season, underscoring the continued deadly risks of a disease that has ripped through the community for nearly three years.

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L.A. County recorded 164 COVID-19 deaths for the seven-day period that ended Wednesday, a new high that exceeds the summer peak of 122 deaths for the week that ended Aug. 6. That tally was the worst in 10 months. The rolling weekly death tally declined slightly for the week that ended Thursday, to 163.

“Deaths are high, and it’s really upsetting,” L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Thursday. Nationally, many more people are still dying from COVID-19 — about 36,000 since early October — than the flu — estimated to be about 14,000 over the same period.

But the distressing development comes even as other metrics show a relatively promising picture. L.A. County’s latest death tally is a fraction of last winter’s maximum, when 513 deaths were reported for the week that ended Feb. 9.

The number of coronavirus-positive patients hospitalized statewide and in L.A. County has remained substantially lower than last winter and is showing early signs of decreasing from a potential early winter peak.

A feared COVID-19 wave that officials warned could crest following travel and gatherings over the winter holiday season has also failed to materialize. Case rates in L.A. County and across California have fallen in recent weeks, as have coronavirus levels in wastewater.

Source: MSN, Luke Money, Rong-Gong Lin II

To read more, click here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/la-county-covid-19-deaths-hit-a-new-winter-high-why/ar-AA16hQRd

NYC ISSUES PLEA AS THE “MOST TRANSMISSIBLE FORM OF THE CORONAVIRUS PLAGUE WE KNOW OF TO DATE” SPREADS

In addition to being “the most transmissible” to date, NYC health officials say XBB.1.5 may also be more likely than other variants to infect people who already had COVID or have been vaccinated.

  • You’ve probably heard about the XBB.1.5 variant; it’s the latest “most transmissible COVID variant yet” and appears to be better at binding to human cells, which may make it more adept at infecting
  • There’s no evidence at this point that the strain, a combination of two prior omicron subvariants, is more lethal or more likely to cause COVID complications, but NYC health officials say XBB.1.5 may be more likely than other variants to infect vaccinated people and people who already had COVID
  • Nowhere is XBB.1.5 more prevalent than in the northeastern United States, according to the CDC — and rolling hospitalization and death rates, along with cases, are climbing accordingly

The unprecedented infectiousness of XBB.1.5 prompted renewed calls for public caution Friday from New York City health officials, who announced the latest omicron descendant, widely believed to be behind the latest case wave, now accounts for nearly three-quarters of all coronavirus circulating across the five boroughs.

A new COVID variant, marking a fusion between two recent strains that is even more contagious than its predecessors, is beginning to take hold in the U.S., but what exactly is it, how serious is it and what are the symptoms?

Calling the new strain “the most transmissible COVID variant we know of to date,” the city’s health department said XBB.1.5 is now responsible for 73% of all COVID cases sequenced in New York City. Omicron, and its litany of descendants including XBB.1.5, is the only variant of concern still currently in circulation, public health officials say.

Health data, though, only reflects sequenced cases through the first of the year, and a relatively small share of positive cases undergo the exhaustive process required to isolate variants (just 3% in the city’s latest week of available data and trending downward). That means XBB.1.5’s actual prevalence is likely considerably higher than reported.

According to CDC variant data updated Friday, XBB.1.5 accounts for an estimated 82.7% of COVID circulating in the New York region, which also includes New Jersey, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, and could represent as many as 88.2% of cases. That’s up from a 72.7% baseline estimate and 81.2% high in last week’s report.

City health officials also noted that XBB.1.5 may be more likely to infect people who have been vaccinated or already had COVID — a reality that Dr. Ashish Jha, head of the White House COVID Task Force, acknowledged last week.

As Jha put it, if you haven’t had COVID since July or were last vaccinated prior to the bivalent update in September, “Your protection against an XBB.1.5. infection is not that great.”

Reinfection data from the state underscores the point. The 11.7 per 100,000 reinfection rate for New York City in the prior week is on par with the reinfection numbers seen during the initial omicron wave downswing in January 2022. The numbers are starkest on Long Island, with has a 15.8 per 100,000 reinfection rate, mirroring mid-January 2022.

Source:  Jennifer Millman

To read more, click here: https://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/health/covid-variant-xbb-1-5-prompts-nyc-health-department-update/4046083/

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