White House urges renewed caution amid BA.5 surge

White House urges renewed caution as BA.4 and BA.5 gain ground

The Biden administration is calling on people to exercise renewed caution about COVID-19, emphasizing the importance of getting booster shots for those who are eligible and wearing masks indoors as two new highly transmissible variants are spreading rapidly across the country. The new variants, labeled BA.4 and BA.5, are offshoots of the omicron strain that has been responsible for nearly all of the virus spread in the U.S. and are even more contagious than their predecessors, the Associated Press reports. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the U.S. have doubled since April, though deaths have remained steady at around 300 per day. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said, “We should not let it disrupt our lives, but we cannot deny that it is a reality that we need to deal with.”

California COVID hospitalizations projected to peak in late July

COVID hospitalizations statewide, which have been gradually increasing the last several weeks, appear poised to peak toward the end of July at roughly 4,000 to 4,500 people, California state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday, citing state modeling projections. Those are considered “manageable levels of COVID hospitalizations” and are considerably lower than hospitalization levels during previous surges, Pan said during a virtual update on COVID and monkeypox. “I’m really glad a lot of our tools, especially vaccines, are working,” she said. About half of hospitalizations may be incidental, meaning people were hospitalized with COVID, not for COVID — they went in for something else and tested positive while there. Such cases still require hospital infection control measures. Statewide, deaths continue to trend downward. “We have seen very low levels of deaths so vaccination and immunity is holding up in California,” Pan said.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in California up 63% in a month

There were 4,227 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in California as of Tuesday, according to state data, marking more than a 63% increase in the past month. Bay Area hospitals reported 796 patients, according to data from the California Department of Public Health, also a substantial uptick from June. About half the hospitalizations may be incidental, according to state officials, meaning patients were hospitalized for another reason but tested positive while there. California’s coronavirus test positive rate has increased to 16.1%, compared to 8.7% on June 10. The state is averaging 21 deaths per day due to COVID-19, having now surpassed 92,000 total pandemic deaths. COVID-19 cases remain stubbornly high, with California reporting 43 daily cases per 100,000 residents — a figure that has fluctuated little since early June. The highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants of omicron make up about 4 out of 5 sequenced cases in the Northern California region, according to CDC data.

COVID-19 pandemic “nowhere near over,” says WHO head

Evolved versions of the coronavirus are driving another wave of COVID-19 infections globally and “putting further pressure on stretched health systems and health workers,” according to the head of the World Health Organization. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference in Geneva on Tuesday that while the world is better prepared to handle new surges, people should not let their guard down. “As the virus pushes at us, we must push back,” he said. Hospitalizations are on the rise due to more transmissible subvariants of omicron, and deaths are also increasing in some regions as mitigation measures have largely been discarded, allowing for “new, fitter variants emerging, with different degrees of virulence, transmissibility, and immune escape potential.” Ghebreyesus concluded, “New waves of the virus demonstrate again that the COVID-19 is nowhere near over.”

Opinion: The BA.5 variant doesn’t care about your big back-to-office plan

A monumental battle over remote work in San Francisco and elsewhere is heating up this summer as traditional business leaders pressure employees to come to the office much or all of the time, writes business consultant Gleb Tsipursky in an Open Forum essay. But while leaders from Elon Musk to London Breed are urging staff to return in person, they are failing to appreciate the threat posed by the new BA.5 subvariant of omicron, which the Biden administration predicts could lead to 100 million infections in the fall. Read Tsipursky’s analysis of why a coercive approach to office work hurts employees and companies.

Waiting for variant-specific boosters is “not a good plan,” says CDC

With highly contagious omicron variants rising concerns for another virus surge, White House officials on Tuesday stressed the importance of getting booster doses, even if you were recently infected. All Americans ages 5 and over should get a booster five months after their initial primary series, according to the CDC, and those aged 50 and over — or who are immunocompromised — should get second booster four months after their first. Tens of millions of eligible Americans haven’t received their first booster, and of those over 50 who got their first booster, only 28% received their second. “If you’re over 50 and you haven’t gotten the shot this year, you should go get a shot,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. “It’s going to save your life.” Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the agency, added that those who are eligible for a booster but haven’t received one shouldn’t wait for forthcoming vaccines targeted at the omicron strain. The U.S. has ordered 105 million of those updated shots that studies show should provide better protection against omicron variants, but they won’t be available until the fall. “There are many people who are at high risk right now. And waiting until October, November for their boost… is not a good plan,” she said. “We really do want to say now get your boost. We have every anticipation that the data will suggest that you will be eligible for a boost in the fall.”

San Mateo County warns of increased COVID risk in region

Health officials in San Mateo Couny are asking residents to stay up to date on their vaccinations and wear masks in high-risk settings as COVID-19 cases continue to rise due to the prevalance of the BA.5 omicron sub-variant. “As the variants outcompete their predecessors, we see that they are even more transmissible and able to evade the immune response of both vaccination and prior infection, prolonging this period of high community transmission,” Louise Rogers, the county’s health officer, said in a briefing on Tuesday. All Bay Area counties are currently classified as having high COVID-19 levels, based on metrics used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rogers said individuals should wear masks indoors, increase ventilation, and test frequently. “As we have needed to accept the many aspects of COVID-19 risk mitigation that are part of our daily lives, we want to keep you and the public informed about the changing context that underlies our current situation so that everyone can protect themselves and the community as much as possible,” Rogers said.

BA.5 makes up 65% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

The BA.5 sub-lineage of the omicron variant was responsible for 65% of the sequenced cases in the United States last week, with BA.4 making up an additional 16.3% of cases as the more contagious variants rapidly crowd out previous strains of the virus. BA.2.12.1 made up 17.33% of the cases, according to data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Emerging research suggests reinfections could put people at higher risk for health problems. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the agency, noted at a briefing Tuesday that data shows that about a third of Americans are living in areas the agency classifies as experiencing a high level of COVID spread, where the agency recommends people wear masks in public indoor spaces. Another 41% live in the CDC’s ‘medium’ level, where it recommends that people consider their own individual risk and consider masking.

White House plans to offer second booster shots to all adults, report says

The Biden administration is working on a plan to roll out a second coronavirus vaccine booster shot to all U.S. adults as COVID-19 hospitalizations reach their highest level since March, according to a report by the Washington Post. With the highly transmissible, immune evasive BA.5 subvariant of omicron rapidly becoming the dominant virus strain nationally, public health officials are concerned reinfections will drive another surge of cases. Second boosters are currently available only to those over 50 and those 12 and older who are immunocompromised. White House coronavirus coordinator Ashish Jha and Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert, have already endorsed the plan to expand the availability of booster shots to those under 50, according to officials who spoke to the newspaper. But regulators and public health officials will have to sign off on the plan before it goes into effect.

BA.2.75 subvariant has been in the Bay Area since last month

Seven cases of the BA.2.75 subvariant of omicron were detected in the United States in June, according to data from GISAID, a global genomic sequencing database. COVID-19 cases tied to the subvariant have been identified in at least 12 countries, including India, where it is driving a new surge. Nationally, two cases were found in California and one each in Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Washington. The California cases were picked up in Bay Area wastewater samples from mid-June. The World Health Organization has categorized BA.2.75 as a “variant of concern — lineage under monitoring,” which means the agency is closely observing the omicron offshoot. “There are still limited sequences to analyze but this subvariant seems to have a few mutations on the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein, so obviously that’s a key part of the virus that attaches itself to the human receptor,” said Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, WHO chief scientist, in an update. “So we have to watch that.”

‘Special day’ in NYC for couples whose nuptials were spoiled by COVID

Hundreds of couples whose had to scale back or cancel their wedding ceremonies because of the pandemic got a second chance Sunday at a New York City landmark. The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts hosted “Celebrate Love: A (Re)Wedding” for 500 couples in the center’s outdoor pavilion, the Associated Press reported. According to the Lincoln Center’s website, it was “a special day for newlyweds, those whose weddings were canceled or diminished, and people who want to recommit their love to their partners and the city we love.” The festivities included an informal multicultural ceremony, music, dancing and remarks from Mayor Eric Adams.

U.S. orders 3.2 million doses of Novavax vaccine

The Biden administration will buy 3.2 million doses of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine after federal regulators give it the green light, the Department of Health and Human Services and the drugmaker announced Monday. The shot will be the fourth brand of coronavirus vaccine offered for free in the U.S. after the Food and Drug Administration authorizes it for emergency use and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends it, Reuters reported. Novavax’s version, used in more than 40 countries, is a more traditional, protein-based vaccine than the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA shots most widely used in the U.S. Maryland-based Novavax is hoping to make inroads with the 27 million U.S. adults who have not yet received vaccines.

Some COVID survivors have ‘disabling symptoms’ for months, federal officials say

Some people infected with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can experience long-term effects from their infection for weeks, months, or years, according to an update on post-COVID conditions published Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said symptoms of long COVID are more common in people who have a severe illness because of the virus but can also occur in those with mild symptoms or none at all. According to the most recent data, about 13.3% of people who had COVID-19 reported long-haul symptoms after one month, with that proportion jumping to more than 30% for 6 months or longer among patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID response coordinator, said in an interview with NPR that the Biden administration is working on a coordinated response to the growing health crisis. “The estimates here are hard but in the single digits, 5, 10% of people who end up having significant symptoms, sometimes disabling symptoms, that last months. Of course, there are some people who have had it now for two years. That is a real problem.”