U.S. coronavirus: States scramble to cope with increase in hospitalizations and demand for testing

Due to staff shortages in some health systems across the country, due to illnesses or people leaving hospital due to exhaustion, the country “cannot provide the same quality of care to 130,000 patients. that we did last year, “Dr. Taison Bell, director of the medical intensive care unit at the University of Virginia Health, told CNN on Saturday.

In New York City, 40 hospitals – mostly in the Mohawk Valley, Finger Lakes and central regions – have been ordered to shut down non-essential elective surgeries for at least two weeks due to low patient bed capacity, the state health department said on Saturday.

Vaccine requirements are changing

The United States Food and Drug Administration on Friday amended the authorization for emergency use of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, shortening the time between the initial vaccination and the booster from at least six months to five months for people over 18 years old.

“Vaccination is our best defense against Covid-19, including circulating variants, and shortening the time between the end of a primary series and a booster dose may help reduce the decline in immunity,” said the Dr Peter Marks, Director of the FDA Center. for the evaluation and research of biological products.

The FDA has already shortened the time it takes to receive a Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine booster from six to five months. The Pfizer booster is approved for anyone aged 12 and over.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Friday that she is requiring all healthcare workers to be vaccinated against Covid-19 within two weeks of eligibility.

“Healthcare workers will be asked to do this without any exemptions other than a medical exemption and no testing option,” Hochul said. All healthcare workers previously had to be fully immunized in September.

Neighboring Connecticut issued a similar order on Thursday as long-term care staff and hospital workers are required to receive booster doses in the coming weeks.

Debate on security measures related to Covid-19 in schools

At the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA), the positivity rate of children tested for Covid-19 has increased from 17.5% in December to 45% so far in January, according to the medical director of the CHLA, Dr Michael Smit.

CHLA currently has 41 in-house patients who have tested positive for Covid-19, and about a quarter of children admitted to the facility with Covid-19 require admission to the pediatric ICU, some requiring intubation, Smit told CNN Saturday.

In response to the increase in pediatric hospitalizations, disputes over whether in-person learning is ideal during the Omicron Wave and how students can safely attend school are unfolding in various school districts this week.

Nearly 13% of students in New York City have tested positive for Covid-19 in a 24-hour period, according to test samples from the city’s education department on Thursday. No schools are currently closed due to cases of Covid-19, according to additional data from the DOE, but six classrooms remain closed.

The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) had voted to teach remotely due to the Covid-19 outbreak, but the school district canceled classes, saying it wanted in-person learning.

CTU presented a new proposal to Lightfoot on Saturday, which the union said would clarify back-to-class, create increased safety and testing protocols and restart the education process for students.

The PSC rejected the proposal, saying it was waiting “for further negotiations to reach an agreement”.

The school district accepted CTU’s request to provide KN95 masks to all staff and students for the remainder of the school year and said it will continue to provide weekly Covid-19 tests to all students and the staff.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said in a statement Saturday that his office has helped secure 350,000 rapid antigen tests for Chicago public schools.

“I am committed to seeing our children and teachers safely in classrooms as soon as possible,” he said in the statement.

In the Unified School District of Los Angeles, students and employees will be required to present a negative Covid-19 test result before in-person learning resumes on Tuesday.

The basic test requirement was implemented at the start of the school year in August, and the district announced a week ago that the basic test, along with the required weekly tests for all employees and students. , would continue through January, given Omicron’s current push.

“Ghostbusters-level” sanitation practices, along with other protocols like universal masking, have kept each of the district’s more than 1,000 schools open for in-person learning this school year, said. CNN Shannon Haber, communications director of LAUSD, Saturday.

Georgia’s public health ministry on Wednesday issued an updated administrative order allowing teachers and school staff – regardless of their vaccination status – to return to work after exposure to Covid-19 or a positive Covid-19 test. ‘they remain asymptomatic and wear a mask at work.

“Students, parents and educators have made it clear to us that they want to be in the classroom, and we are looking at many methods to continue safe in-person learning – including quarantine and quarantine protocols. updated isolation, reduced contact tracing requirements, and increased testing opportunities, ”said the letter from Kemp and Toomey.

Local school districts can still develop and follow their own quarantine and isolation requirements, according to the ordinance.