Actual-world Paxlovid research finds robust safety towards demise

Actual-world Paxlovid research finds spectacular outcomes

Paxlovid reduces COVID hospitalization by 31%, adversarial outcomes by 53% and demise by 75%, in comparison with not taking an oral antiviral, in accordance with a pre-print research posted Thursday by researchers on the College of Hong Kong. It’s believed to be one of many first real-world research of the effectiveness of oral antiviral drugs towards the omicron variant. Molnupiravir, the opposite and fewer broadly used oral antiviral, reduces adversarial outcomes by 36% and demise by 39%, the research discovered. It doesn’t seem to make a lot of a distinction in hospitalizations. The research checked out medical information of about 1 million non-hospitalized folks with COVID who took Paxlovid or molnupiravir in the course of the BA.2.2 wave in Hong Kong from late February to early Might. About half the folks took Paxlovid and the opposite half took molnupiravir.

California lady will get 15 months in jail for punching flight attendant over masks

A lady from Sacramento who punched a Southwest Airways flight attendant within the face throughout a flight, breaking her enamel, has been sentenced to fifteen months in federal jail, the Related Press reviews. Vyvianna Quinonez, 29, turned irate in the course of the flight’s remaining descent when the attendant requested her to buckle her seat belt, stow her tray desk down, and placed on her face masks correctly. The incident was a part of an escalation in unruly conduct by airline passengers amid the coronavirus pandemic. Quinonez was additionally ordered by a federal choose in San Diego to pay practically $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 high-quality for the assault on a Might 23, 2021 flight between Sacramento and San Diego. She is prohibited from flying for 3 years.

COVID antiviral tablet Paxlovid now delivered at house by mail order

San Francisco-based main and pressing care supplier Carbon Well being has partnered with COVID check producer Detect to announce a brand new service that lets folks check themselves, seek the advice of on-line or by cellphone with a physician who can prescribe antiviral drugs, if acceptable, and get the drugs delivered — all with out leaving the home. Learn extra about how elevated availability of the game-changing therapy brings us one step nearer to a world the place COVID-19 is endemic and manageable.

A unique image in S.F. from final Memorial Day weekend

As the most recent coronavirus wave continues to swell within the Bay Space, every day COVID-19 instances in San Francisco are considerably greater than a 12 months in the past on Memorial Day weekend. Town, a world journey and vacationer vacation spot, reported a seven-day rolling common of about 507 new every day instances on Friday, in contrast with simply 13 the identical day a 12 months in the past in the course of the lull between the rollout of vaccines and the summer time delta surge. San Francisco’s coronavirus check constructive fee at the moment was 0.5%, in comparison with 11.5% right now. Well being officers urged residents to get examined, vaccinated and boosted, however stopped in need of reinstating any pandemicn mitigation mandates forward of the vacation.

At the least 4,500 folks have died from flu this season, following a traditionally low 12 months

Preliminary flu burden estimates for the 2021 to 2022 season counsel that between 4,500 to 13,000 folks have died from influenza this season, based mostly on information from Oct. 1 via Might 21, the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention reported Friday. Over the identical interval, 293,522 People died of COVID-19, in accordance with federal information. The company reported no less than 7.3 million instances of the flu have been reported up to now this season, with between 74,000 to 100,000 sufferers hospitalized with flu-related signs. The CDC didn’t calculate the cumulative burden of flu for the 2020 to 2021 season, resulting from traditionally low exercise. The general burden of flu within the pre-pandemic 2019 to 2020 season was an estimated 35 million flu-related diseases, 380,000 flu-related hospitalizations, and 20,000 flu-related deaths.

California’s coronavirus check constructive fee hits 7%

California’s seven-day coronavirus check constructive fee reached 7% on Friday, marking a 1.5 proportion level enhance from the earlier seven-day interval, in accordance with state information revealed Friday. The speed has been on a gentle rise since falling to 1.2% in mid-March following the omicron winter surge. The state is averaging over 12,000 new COVID-19 instances per day, practically double the quantity it was reporting in the beginning of the month. The 9 Bay Space counties, together with rural Del Norte County, are main the state with most infections per 100,000 residents. Nineteen California counties superior from “low” to “medium” COVID-19 group ranges on Friday, in accordance with the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in California prime 2,000

There have been greater than 2,000 sufferers in California’s hospitals with COVID-19 on Friday, for the primary time in practically three months, in accordance with figures collated by The Chronicle. The state reported 2,056 folks hospitalized with the virus, triple the quantity a month in the past. There have been 244 sufferers in intensive care unit beds with COVID, an 86% enhance in the identical interval. Hospitalizations within the Bay Space are additionally ticking up, with the area reporting 575 sufferers with COVID-19, greater than twice the 244 on April 27. Bay Space COVID deaths proceed to say no, holding at ranges final seen earlier than the omicron wave began in December, 2021.

Japan to reopen to vacationers in June, however with limits

Japan will open its borders to overseas vacationers starting June for the primary time since imposing tight pandemic journey restrictions about two years in the past, reviews the Related Press. However guests will solely be allowed to enter the nation on bundle excursions with fastened schedules and guides, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida mentioned. “Free and lively change of individuals is the inspiration of financial system and society, in addition to that of Asia’s growth,” Kishida mentioned Thursday, talking at a lodge in Tokyo. Japan, whereas watching the an infection scenario, will regularly settle for extra vacationers in phases to the extent of arrivals earlier than the pandemic, he added.

S.F. faculties report most COVID instances since January

San Francisco public college college students and workers reported 472 COVID-19 instances final week, up from 320 within the earlier week. That determine matches numbers reported at faculties within the first and final week of January in the course of the winter omicron surge. It marks an eight-fold enhance in instances at faculties for the reason that San Francisco Unified College District dropped its masks mandate in April — a mirrored image of the uptick in group unfold throughout town, which is without doubt one of the nation’s COVID-19 hotspots. San Francisco’s coronavirus constructive check fee reached 11.7% on Thursday, practically twice California’s total fee of 6.6%. SFUSD has reported 7,421 cumulative instances in its 2022 spring semester, amongst about 62,800 college students and workers members. The tutorial 12 months ends June 1.

California is a purple state on CDC’s virus transmission map

Practically each county in California has crossed the brink for prime group transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with information revealed Thursday by the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Solely 4 of the state’s 58 counties weren’t labeled purple, which designates the highest transmission stage, and people are in sparsely populated rural areas. About 61% of all U.S. counties fall underneath the excessive group transmission class, a 7.3% enhance from the earlier seven-day interval. California is averaging practically 11,000 new instances a day, up from about 8,700 two weeks in the past. New hospital admissions of sufferers with COVID-19 have been trending upwards since early April, now reaching the identical ranges they had been at in the course of the tail of the omicron winter surge.

Anticipating summer time COVID surge, White Home to make Paxlovid accessible at extra websites

The White Home on Thursday introduced extra steps to make the antiviral therapy Paxlovid extra accessible throughout the U.S. because it initiatives COVID-19 infections will proceed to unfold over the summer time journey season, the Related Press reviews. Confirmed infections within the U.S. have quadrupled since late March, from about 25,000 a day to greater than 105,000 every day now. However deaths, which have tended to lag infections by three to 4 weeks over the course of the coronavirus pandemic, have declined steadily and at the moment are plateaued at fewer than 300 per day. It’s the primary time in the middle of the pandemic that the 2 haven’t trended collectively, mentioned White Home COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. He credited vaccines but additionally a greater than four-fold enhance in prescriptions during the last six weeks for the extremely efficient therapy Paxlovid. “What has been outstanding within the newest enhance in infections we’re seeing is how regular critical sickness and significantly deaths are eight weeks into this,” he mentioned. “COVID is not the killer that it was even a 12 months in the past.”

BA.4 and BA.5 detected in Santa Clara County wastewater

On Thursday, public well being officers in Santa Clara County confirmed to The Chronicle the presence of the BA.4 and BA.5 sub-lineages of the omicron coronavirus variant within the county’s wastewater samples. The strains had been not too long ago reclassified as “variants of concern” by the European Centre for Illness Prevention and Management. Whereas they presently make up lower than 1% of the COVID-19 measured within the area’s watershed system, public well being consultants fear the extremely transmissible variants could quickly drive one other wave of instances, as they’re presently doing in South Africa and a few European nations. “Preliminary research counsel a big change in antigenic properties of BA.4 and BA.5 in comparison with BA.1 and BA.2, particularly in comparison with BA.1 (the unique omicron variant),” the company wrote in its bulletin. The variants present indicators of evading immunity, that means even these beforehand contaminated with omicron are vulnerable to reinfection. “The presently noticed progress benefit for BA.4 and BA.5 is probably going resulting from their potential to evade immune safety induced by prior an infection and/or vaccination, significantly if this has waned over time,” the company mentioned.

Summer season holidays in a COVID surge: Right here’s how one can handle the dangers of touring

With Memorial Day approaching and many individuals within the Bay Space ramping up plans for summer time journey, COVID continues to pose a risk, with extremely transmissible omicron variants driving the most recent surge. Learn what consultants say you must issue that into your summer time trip image.