C.D.C. Warns the New Virus Variant Could Fuel Huge Spikes in Covid Caseshttps://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/health/covid-cdc-variant.htmlFederal health officials sounded the alarm Friday about a fast spreading, far more contagious variant of the coronavirus that is projected to become the dominant source of infection in the country by March, potentially fueling another wrenching surge of cases and deaths.
In a study released on Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that its forecasts indicated outbreaks caused by the new variant could lead to a burgeoning pandemic this winter. It called for a doubling down on preventive measures, including more intensive vaccination efforts across the country.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7003e2.htm?s_cid=mm7003e2_w... If we can’t get more protective immunity into the population, we could be facing a situation where we have, sort of,
a perpetual infection heading into the spring and summer as these variants get a foothold here,” said the former FDA chief in the Trump administration in an interview on CNBC
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US Officials Warn ‘Full Resurgence’ of Covid In Major Population Centershttps://amp.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/14/us-covid-coronavirus-cases-deathsWhite House coronavirus taskforce reports from 10 January, obtained by CNN, said they were seeing a “full resurgence” of the virus in “nearly all metro areas” and advocated for “aggressive action”.The report, which is sent to states, suggested measures such as using “two or three-ply and well-fitting” masks, enforcing “strict” social distancing” and more aggressively testing young adults.
Officials worried that there was “significant, continued deterioration from California across the sun belt and up into the south-east, mid-Atlanticand north-east”. These regions effectively comprise all of the continental US.
The reports were quoted as stating that there was a “clear continuation of the pre-holiday high rate of spread as measured by rising test positivity, increased cases, increased hospitalization rates and rising fatalities”. ... In Los Angeles county, there is a Covid-19 death every eight minutes.
Health officials in Arizona said hospitals are poised to become overwhelmed unless authorities acted fast to combat coronavirus. The Republican governor has pushed back against a statewide mask mandate, the Times noted.
... The Centers for Disease Control made the dire prediction that there could be an increase of 90,000 deaths by February. This means that there could be up to 477,000 total coronavirus fatalities by 6 February, Forbes said of the data.
It does not appear there will be relief anytime soon, with officials voicing concern that some strains are making the surge even worse.
“This fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rise of cases as the spring and summer surges.
“This acceleration and the epidemiologic data suggest the possibility that some strains of the US Covid-19 virus may have evolved into a more transmissible virus,” the White House taskforce reports said.
“Given that possibility, and the presence of the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50% more transmissible, we must be ready for and mitigate a much more rapid transmission,”
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Brazil's Amazonas State Running Out of Oxygen as COVID-19 Surgeshttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-amazon/brazils-amazonas-state-running-out-of-oxygen-as-covid-19-surges-idUSKBN29J2SJMANAUS, Brazil (Reuters) - The Brazilian state of Amazonas is running out of oxygen during a renewed surge in COVID-19 deaths, its government said on Thursday, with media reporting that people on respirators were dying of suffocation in hospitals.
The state has made a dramatic appeal to the United States to send a military transport plane to the capital city Manaus with oxygen cylinders, Amazonas Congressman Marcelo Ramos said.
Amazonas health secretary Marcellus Campelo said the state
needs almost three times more oxygen that it can produce locally and appealed for supplies from other states.
... Public health experts gave dramatic accounts of people dying of COVID-9 in ICUs with no oxygen.
“The oxygen ran out and the hospitals have turned into suffocation chambers,” Fiocruz-Amazonia researcher Jesem Orellana told the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.
“Patients who manage to survive could suffer permanent brain damage,” he said.
“They took my father off the oxygen,” Raissa Floriano said outside the 28 de Agosto hospital in Manaus, where people protested that relatives suffering serious cases of COVID-19 were being unhooked from ventilators for lack of oxygen.
Sobbing, Floriano said she was looking for an oxygen cylinder to save her 73-year-old father Alfonso.
... Health authorities said oxygen supplies had run out at some hospitals and intensive care wards were so full that scores of patients were being airlifted to other states.People in Manaus are again dying at home from COVID-19.
... so much for 'herd immunity'