Photos of positive coronavirus tests are once again circulating on social media, while fewer people are going to hospitals than a year ago. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 29,000 coronavirus hospitalizations reported in week before Christmas, highest number yet recent data, compared to 39,000 the previous year. The agency reports an average of 1,400 cases. weekly deaths Since Thanksgiving, the death toll has been less than half of what it was at the same time last year.
Still, COVID-19 remains one of the leading causes of death and the leading cause of hospitalizations due to respiratory viruses. Additionally, there has been an influx of people infected with influenza and RSV, further worsening the burden on hospitals.
“Of the three major viruses, it remains the one that sends the most people to the hospital and kills the most,” CDC Director Mandy Cohen said in an interview Wednesday.
Even mild symptoms can lead to lingering complications caused by long-term COVID-19 infection.
of CDC still recommends People are quarantined for five days after testing positive, but many Americans have stopped quarantining and free tests are becoming harder to come by, making it harder for people to believe that their cold is actually coronavirus. Not knowing something makes it easier for the virus to continue spreading.
“As with any public health advice, it's always difficult to get people to comply,” Chicago Department of Public Health Commissioner Simbo Ige said, urging residents to follow the guidelines. “We believe we can be most effective by appealing to people’s desire to be part of the solution to ending COVID-19 or mitigating its impact.”
Michihiko Goto, an infectious disease specialist who has seen a slight increase in coronavirus cases at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Department, said he believes the return of college students could lead to further infections in the coming weeks. Are concerned.
He said that while the CDC's guidance on quarantining makes sense, the reality is that many people don't have the flexibility to do so at work.
“People who don’t have paid sick leave may not be able to get it. [isolate] Because they have to feed their families,” he said.
Coronavirus cases have spiked every winter since the pandemic began, but the CDC says it is not yet considered a seasonal disease like the flu. Coronavirus infections fluctuate throughout the year, and the typical winter wave can be influenced by other factors such as holiday travel, cold weather forcing people indoors, and the evolution of the virus. The JN.1 variant, now the most common in the U.S., has significantly more mutations than previous variants, which explains why people who avoided infection during the summer infection surge are now becoming sick. It may be possible to explain.
“If you look at the different peaks in cases since the pandemic began, they all coincide with the emergence of new variants,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. ” he said. . “Too many people attribute this to seasonality.”
Few Americans are staying up to date on coronavirus vaccines to train their immune systems to respond to the evolving virus.according to CDC estimatesonly 19 percent of Americans have received the latest version of the vaccine. laboratory experiments show provides more protection against JN.1 variants than the previous formula.
“That alone is not enough to keep the virus from evolving, becoming more powerful and less able to evade,” said Jessica Malati Rivera, an epidemiologist and senior science communications advisor at the public health organization de Beaumont Foundation.
Medical experts and public health officials say skepticism about coronavirus vaccines is growing, especially among conservatives. The latest pushback came Wednesday when Florida's top health official issued a statement warning the public about mRNA coronavirus vaccines, citing false claims that they can contaminate a patient's DNA. He urged them to stop vaccinations.
Mainstream health authorities are encouraging vaccinations, especially for people over 65, to limit the damage caused by the new coronavirus wave.
wastewater tracking With the exception of the Midwest, recent coronavirus levels were slightly lower than at the same time last year, according to a study by Biobot Analytics. This difference may be caused by the following changes: Biobot epidemiologist Marisa Donnelly said the vaccine and its variants will affect the amount of virus people shed.
Donnelly said Wastewater data is best used as a warning sign if levels are rising.
“The very high rates of COVID-19 currently detected in sewage make it difficult for people with weakened immune systems and other risk factors that put them at higher risk of developing severe COVID-19. I’m starting to worry about people who have,” Donnelly said.
While the CDC issues a warning In mid-December, New York and New Jersey were among the first states to see higher rates of infections due to new variants and high levels of respiratory viruses, but hospitals in those states said the trend was slowing down. It says it has not led to a crisis.
“It's not out of control. It's not like we were last year,” said Kathy Bennett, president and CEO of the New Jersey Hospital Association.
Hospital leaders are now talking about the coronavirus in the context of a broader respiratory virus season. RSV is most commonly seen in infants and young children in pediatric wards, but it has already peaked nationally. The flu epidemic started later than usual and is now accelerating, with 136,000 people visiting the emergency room last week for influenza compared to 79,000 for coronavirus.
Northwell Health, New York's largest health system, has seen a spike in positive coronavirus tests among people visiting emergency rooms and outpatient facilities, something that was expected after Thanksgiving. These patients are usually discharged quickly and rarely develop serious symptoms.
“If you're seeing a critically ill patient in the ICU, it's more likely to be influenza than coronavirus,” said Bruce Farber, the system's director of public health and epidemiology. “If you look at the total population of people hospitalized with any type of respiratory disease, it is overwhelmingly COVID-19.”
But the addition of the new coronavirus to the usual winter flurry of respiratory viruses is also straining other hospitals, including in Minnesota, where wastewater levels increased tenfold in the week before Christmas.
“Every pediatric hospital is saturated,” said John Hick, an emergency physician at Hennepin Healthcare in downtown Minneapolis. The hospital has 25 pediatric beds.
Over the past month, hospital officials across the state have asked three times a week which facilities have pediatric beds and whether certain patients can be moved to adult wards, Hick said. A coordination meeting has been held to prioritize the issues. Last week, the hospital again began requiring patients and clinicians to wear masks when interacting with each other.
At Hick's last emergency room, a few days before Christmas, half the patients had either the coronavirus or the flu. He expects more coronavirus cases to emerge in the coming weeks, given low vaccination rates.
The most unfortunate thing is that many of these cases are preventable, he said.
Teddy Amenabar contributed to this report.
