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Covid Infections Rising in All But Four U.S. States, Nursing Homes Are Falling Behind in Inoculating Patients, and Today’s Statistics

Photo caption: Founding Father Benjamin Franklin at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,577th day and the 5rd of...

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Covid Infections Rising in All But Four U.S. States, Nursing Homes Are Falling Behind in Inoculating Patients, and Today’s Statistics​

JONATHAN SPIRA
JUL 08, 2024

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Photo caption: Founding Father Benjamin Franklin at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,577th day and the 5rd of July, the day after the Declaration of Independence had been adopted by the Second Continental Congress and the day that the Olive Branch Petition was adopted by congress in a final attempt to avoid war between Great Britain and the 13 Colonies in America.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: We are happy to report that we have decided on a new data source for global case and death toll data, KFF, a non-partisan health research organization. Figures from KFF appear in the first section under Pandemic Statistics, under Global Figures at a Glance.
IIn news we cover today, nursing homes in the United States are falling precipitously behind in ensuring their patients are inoculated against SARS-CoV-2, all but four U.S. states are seeing a fairly dramatic rise in new cases, and new health issues stemming from SARS-CoV-2 infections as many as three years ago are popping up in many places.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On July 6, 2020, the United States recorded the third of three daily highs for new case figures and fourteen states reported new single-day highs. Since the start of the month, over 250,000 cases were recorded by health officials there.
Broadway actor Nick Cordero died from complications from Covid-19. He had been 41. Cordero won an Outer Critics Circle award for his role in “Bullets Over Broadway,” and he had also been nominated for a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award for that role.
Health officials in both Florida and Texas reported over 200,000 new cases.
Experts believe that the coronavirus can float in the air. Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland who studies how viruses are transmitted, led a group of 239 scientists who an open letter to call attention to the potential airborne transmission of coronavirus.
After shutting down 16 weeks ago, the Louvre, a Paris landmark and the world’s most-visited museum, reopened.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 11.5 million, an increase of over 189,689 people in the prior 24 hours, based on figures compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 5135,464, up 4,494 in the same period.
In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases was at 2.97 million, an increase of 55,464over the previous 24 hours, while the death toll stood at 130,284, an increase of 2,073 in the same period.
UNITED STATES
SARS-CoV-2 infections are growing in number in almost all states except for four, namely Minnesota, Missouri, New York, and Ohio, new data shows.
A new report found that nursing homes are falling behind on vaccinating patients for SARS-CoV-2. An April report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that just four out of ten nursing home residents in the country have received the most recent coronavirus vaccine, which was released last fall.
The report was based on data from the period October 16, 2023 through February 11, 2024.
The CDC report also found that, during January 2024’s peak in Covid cases, the rate of hospitalizations amongst nursing home residents was more than eight times higher when compared to all U.S. adults, age 70 and older.
New health issues may be stemming from SARS-CoV-2 infections from as many as three years ago, even from mild ones, a new study published in the journal Nature suggests.
The study, entitled “Three-year outcomes of post-acute sequelae of Covid-19,” found that people have a greater risk of problems in the gut, brain, and lungs, including irritable bowel syndrome, mini-strokes and pulmonary scarring, some three years after an infection.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a new Alzheimer’s treatment that has been shown in trials to slow decline in memory. The drug, known as donanemab, is the second treatment available in the country that has been shown in trials to modestly help Alzheimer’s patients with memory and thinking difficulties.
The Biden administration announced heat protections for workers. A new regulation would protect 36 million workers from the harmful effects of exposure to extreme heat.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
GLOBAL FIGURES AT A GLANCE
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe as of June 16, 2024 stands at 775,645,882, an increase of over 30,316 people in the prior 7 days, according to data compiled by KFF, a non-partisan health research organization.
The death toll stands at 7,051,876, an increase of 553 in the preceding 7 days.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending June 22, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on June 28 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 8.1%, and the trend in test positivity is +1.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9%, and the trend in emergency department visits is +23.3%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 was no longer being reported as of the end of May. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.8%, a figure that is up 14.3% over the past week’s figures.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.58 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and the seven-day-average of the number of daily doses of vaccine administrated was 8,159 as of June 26, 2024.
Meanwhile, only 32.8% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.

 

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Amid an expected "bump" in summer COVID-19 cases, data indicates the southern and western U.S. are seeing the largest increases.

abcnews.go.com

Where COVID cases are increasing in the US amid summer 'bump'​

Wastewater data indicates COVID activity is increasing in the western U.S.
ByMary Kekatos
July 9, 2024, 1:08 PM

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COVID-19 numbers likely growing in nearly 40 states
COVID-19 case numbers are on the rise in 39 states for the summer while hospitalization...Show More


COVID-19 cases are rising in several regions of the United States as summer gets underway.
For the week ending June 29, the latest date for which data is available, COVID test positivity was 9% across the U.S., an increase of 0.8% from the previous week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is higher than levels seen during early May 2024 but lower than several points during the pandemic.
Test positivity was highest in the Southwest and western U.S. with 15.7% positivity in the region comprised of Arizona, California and Nevada, CDC data showed.

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Additionally, wastewater data from the CDC shows that COVID viral activity is low nationally but has been steadily rising over the last month-and-a-half. For the week ending June 22, levels were classified as "high" in the West and "moderate" in the South.
Wastewater tracking is often used as an early detection tool for monitoring potential future upticks, although it can be inconsistent.

COVID viral activity levels in wastewater
ABC News, CDC
Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said the country has traditionally seen increases in COVID every summer, so a "bump" at this point in the year was to be expected, as experts had predicted.
"We had anticipated that there would be something of a summer bump because we have seen that in the past ... COVID hangs around during the summer and even gets a little more active, unlike influenza, which virtually disappears during the summertime," he told ABC News. "Now this bump will go down, and then, of course, we'll get the conventional winter surge later."
Weekly hospitalizations are still near record lows but have been ticking up over the past few weeks, according to CDC data. The highest rates are among those aged 65 and older with a rate of 7.7 per 100,000 for the week ending June 15, the latest date for which data is complete.
Comparatively, adults between ages 18 to 49 and children aged 4 and under have a rate of 0.5 per 100,000, the data showed.
Schaffner said the groups making up hospitalizations are those with chronic illnesses -- such as heart disease or lung disease -- or those who are immunocompromised.

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"Particularly older people … with chronic illnesses, the immune-compromised, particularly if they are not up to date in their vaccination, that's the population we see now contributing to that bump in hospitalizations," he said.
Meanwhile, deaths have been steadily dropping since January of this year and continue to remain low, CDC data indicate. For the week ending June 8 -- the latest date for which complete data is available because deaths are subject to reporting delays -- just 283 COVID deaths were reported, which is a record low.
Currently, KP.2 and KP.3, offshoots of the omicron variant, are the dominant COVID-19 variants in the U.S. making up nearly half of all cases.
CDC officials told ABC News in a statement on Monday that there is "no evidence that KP.2, KP.3, or any other recent variant, causes more severe disease."
The CDC added that it is tracking all variants and recommended vaccination as the most effective way to prevent severe illness from COVID-19.

Stock photo
Westend61/Getty Images
Schaffner agreed that the best way to prevent severe illness is to be up to date on vaccinations. High-risk groups that haven't received a COVID-19 vaccine since last fall are currently eligible for another dose to carry them through the summer.
"Be sure this fall, when we have yet another updated vaccine, to get that vaccine along with your influenza vaccine," he said. "We update both of them now on an annual basis, and that should be certainly a fall routine for all of us, but especially people in high-risk groups."
He recommended those in high-risk groups, or people who will be around high-risk groups, to consider masking in indoor crowded areas, and – if they test positive – to receive early treatment with antiviral medication such as Paxlovid.
ABC News' Youri B