A growing number of U.S. public school districts are reintroducing or considering reintroducing face masks to protect students from the wave of COVID cases fueled by the Omicron subvariant BA.5.
BA.5 is believed to be the most transmissible variant to date and has the ability to breach vaccination and cause reinfection.
According to the Washington Post, school districts in Louisville, Atlanta and Los Angeles are either requiring or may require masks. That’s because data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows “high” COVID at the community level in hundreds of counties, meaning high case and hospitalization rates.
However, other districts are choosing to make masks optional, responding to opposition from parents and other groups organizing around mask opposition. The CDC’s most recent statement on the matter was released in May, recommending the universal use of masks indoors when COVID levels are high in the community.
It remains unclear if the CDC plans to issue more guidance for schools when they reopen for the fall semester. A CDC spokeswoman told the Washington Post, “We are constantly evaluating our guidance and making necessary updates as new scientifically based evidence emerges.”
The daily average for new U.S. cases on Wednesday was 131,319, up 3% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker. The actual caseload is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data is not collected.
The daily average for hospitalizations rose to 43,341, a 10% increase in two weeks. The daily average of deaths is up 2% to 439. Cases in California are at their highest level in six months, while New York has more patients in hospitals than at the peak of last year’s delta wave.
Experts continue to call for vaccines that can prevent infection, not just serious illness or death.
Pfizer, maker of both a vaccine and a COVID antiviral drug, reported earnings on Thursday and posted big gains in profits and sales in the second quarter, mostly due to “strong contributions” from Comirnaty, its vaccine, which is being developed with German company BioNTech BNTX was developed.
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and Paxlovid.
Do not miss: Paxlovid was administered to Biden and millions of Americans infected with COVID-19. It’s on the shelf in the UK.
The company generated $8.8 billion in revenue from the vaccine and $8.1 billion from the antiviral drug. Total revenue was $27.7 billion, well above the FactSet consensus of $25.7 billion. Earnings also beat expectations, coming in at $2.04 compared to a consensus of $1.72.
Coronavirus update: MarketWatch’s daily roundup has been curating and reporting on the latest developments each weekday since the start of the coronavirus pandemic
Other COVID-19 news you should know:
• President Joe Biden, who tested negative for COVID on Wednesday, is ending his isolation and urging Americans to get vaccinated and use treatments like Pfizer’s Paxlovid that have helped him recover so quickly. “You don’t have to be a president to use these tools in your defense,” he said in a Rose Garden speech, drawing a contrast between his experience of the COVID infection and that of his predecessor in the Oval Office, who was hospitalized for some days. “In fact, the same booster shots, the same home test, the same treatment as me are available to you.”
• A PBS documentary airing next spring will explore the life and work of Dr. Investigating Anthony Fauci during the pandemic, the Associated Press reported. The film follows Fauci at home and at work during a 14-month period beginning with Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, PBS announced Wednesday. Tony – A Year in the Life of Dr. Anthony Fauci is slated to debut in the American Masters Showcase after a planned theatrical release date.
From the archive (January 2021): A smiling Fauci calls reporting to Biden “liberating” after an “awkward” year with Trump
• According to a new report from UNAIDS, the United Nations agency, the global fight against AIDS has suffered a setback during the COVID pandemic. The report found that progress against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, stalled during COVID as resources dwindled and millions of lives were put at risk. The report was released ahead of the Montreal International AIDS Conference. “Globally, the number of new infections fell by just 3.6% between 2020 and 2021, the smallest annual decrease in new HIV infections since 2016,” the authors write. In Asia and the Pacific, HIV infections are increasing while they have been declining. About 1.5 million new HIV infections emerged last year, or a million more than the target.
• The Chinese metropolis of Wuhan has shut down a district of nearly a million people after four asymptomatic COVID cases were identified, CNN reported. The city, the original epicenter of the pandemic, is following China’s strict zero-COVID policy. Authorities in Wuhan’s Jiangxia district, home to more than 970,000 people, announced on Wednesday that key urban areas would enforce “temporary control measures” for three days. The news comes a day after new research found further evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a wet market in Wuhan and in a lab.
Here’s what the numbers say
The global number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 surpassed 574 million Thursday, while the death toll rose to over 6.39 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US leads the world with 90.9 million cases and 1,028,888 deaths.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker shows that 222.9 million people in the US are fully vaccinated, which is 67.2% of the total population. But only 107.5 million have received a booster, representing 48.2% of the vaccinated population, and only 19 million of those aged 50 and over who are eligible for a second booster have received one, representing 29.7% of those corresponds to who have received a refresher first amplifier.