Coronavirus weekly need-to-know: omicron BA.5 subvariant, Novavax, COVID cases & more
In the United States, more than 89 million people have tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic as of Friday, July 15, according to Johns Hopkins University.
In addition, more than 1 million people in the U.S. have died. Worldwide, there have been more than 560 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, including about 5 million cases in the past week. Additionally, over 6.3 million have died from the virus globally.
About 222 million people in the U.S. are fully vaccinated as of July 8 — 67% of the population — and over 106 million of those have gotten their first booster shot, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
Roughly 80% of the U.S. lives in a location with low or medium COVID-19 Community Level, the agency says as of July 14.
Nearly 21% of Americans reside in an area with a high COVID-19 Community Level. For them, it’s recommended to wear a mask while indoors in public.
The omicron variant’s subvariants — BA.2.12.1, BA.2, BA.4, and BA.5 — dominated U.S. cases for the week ending July 9. BA.5 was the most dominant and made up 65% of COVID-19 cases.
Here’s what happened between July 10 and 15:
Is omicron subvariant BA.5 the ‘worst’ version of COVID yet? Here’s what we know
Yes, another omicron subvariant — BA.5 — is now dominant among coronavirus cases reported in the U.S. But is BA.5 the “worst” version of COVID-19 to date?
One scientist, Dr. Eric Topol, founder and director of Scripps Research Translational Institute, described it as such in a report about the subvariant’s “takeover” in late June.
“This version of the virus has caused a lot of trouble, more than other Omicron subvariants,” Topol wrote in an updated report on BA.5 on July 10.
Here’s what we know so far about BA.5:
Is omicron subvariant BA.5 the ‘worst’ version of COVID yet? Here’s what we know
‘Hypercontagious’ omicron BA.5 variant resistant to prior COVID vaccination, study says
The omicron BA.5 subvariant, which is dominating coronavirus cases reported in the U.S., is much more resistant to mRNA vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna, according to a recent Columbia University study.
As one of omicron’s newer subvariants, it was described as “hypercontagious” by Dr. Gregory Poland, who leads Mayo Clinic’s Vaccine Research Group.
“Whether you’ve been vaccinated, whether you’ve been previously infected, whether you’ve been previously infected and vaccinated, you have very little protection against BA.5 in terms of getting infected or having mild to moderate infection,” Poland said in a discussion about the subvariant.
The study, published July 5 in the journal Nature, found that BA.5, and another newer omicron subvariant BA.4, were “substantially” more resistant to antibody protection offered by mRNA COVID-19 vaccines compared with earlier variants.
Read more here:
‘Hypercontagious’ omicron BA.5 variant resistant to prior COVID vaccination, study says
3 stole millions of PPE from Florida company as pandemic surged. They’re going to prison.
Three men who stole thousands of N-95 masks and millions of medical gloves from a Broward County supply company — one of the largest known thefts of personal protective equipment in the U.S. — will be going to prison.
A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale sentenced Alexander Jolly, Kenold Million and Pietro Sinclair to 28 months in prison and three years of supervised release. In a Wednesday hearing, U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith also ordered them to pay $470,000 in restitution for the PPE thefts, which occurred during the early months of the surging COVID-19 epidemic.
Keep reading below:
3 stole millions of PPE from Florida company as pandemic surged. They’re headed to prison.
US regulators OK new COVID-19 shot option from Novavax
The U.S. is getting another COVID-19 vaccine choice as the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday cleared Novavax shots for adults.
Novavax makes a more traditional type of shot than the three other COVID-19 vaccines available for use in the U.S. -- and one that’s already available in Europe and multiple other countries.
Nearly a quarter of American adults still haven’t gotten their primary vaccinations even this late in the pandemic, and experts expect at least some of them to roll up their sleeves for a more conventional option — a protein-based vaccine.
The Maryland company also hopes its shots can become a top booster choice in the U.S. and beyond. Tens of millions of Americans still need boosters that experts call critical for the best possible protection as the coronavirus continues to mutate.
Continue reading here:
US regulators OK new COVID-19 shot option from Novavax
With COVID surging, Los Angeles may soon require masks
Nick Barragan is used to wearing a mask because his job in the Hollywood film industry has long required it. So he won’t be fazed if the county that’s home to Tinseltown soon becomes the first major population center this summer to reinstate rules requiring face coverings indoors because of another spike in coronavirus cases.
“I feel fine about it because I’ve worn one pretty much constantly for the last few years. It’s become a habit,” said Barragan, masked up while out running errands Wednesday.
Los Angeles is the most populous county, home to 10 million residents. It faces a return to a broad indoor mask mandate on July 29 if current trends in hospital admissions continue, county health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week.
Requiring masks again “helps us to reduce risk,” Ferrer told Los Angeles County supervisors.
Keep reading below:
As BA.5 cases rise in NC, Duke vaccine researcher sees reason for optimism
Yet again, a new COVID-19 variant is grabbing our attention.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spawn new variants with improved ability to spread — even among people who are vaccinated and boosted — it is natural to question whether vaccines, all of which are based on the initial Wuhan-1 strain of the virus, are still working and worth getting.
It is also natural to feel increasingly vulnerable to infection, and wonder whether it’s time to go back to social distancing, masking and other measures that became so familiar to us not that long ago. Indeed, it is increasingly common for people to know a family member, friend, classmate or co-worker who was vaccinated and boosted but still got COVID.
But don’t panic.
There have always been vaccine breakthrough infections, even early in this pandemic when the dominant variant was less mutated and more closely matched to the vaccine.
The article continues below:
As BA.5 cases rise in NC, Duke vaccine researcher sees reason for optimism
Miami Herald reporter Alexander Lugo, Associated Press reporters Lauran Neergaard, Christopher Weber and Carla K. Johnson, and Duke University vaccine researcher Dr. David Montefiori also contributed to this report.
