COVID 19 Tech

CDC wants to “give people a break” from masks, says new guidance coming

Enlarge / Signage on a window of a coffee shop informs customer of their masking policy in San Francisco, California, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022. The state’s indoor mask requirement, which requires everyone to wear face coverings indoors regardless of vaccination status, expired on Wednesday. (credit: Getty | Bloomberg) With national cases of COVID-19 […]

COVID 19 Tech

Omicron wave was brutal on kids; hospitalization rates 4X higher than delta’s

Enlarge / Boston Medical Center Child Life Specialist Karlie Bittrich sees to a baby while in a pediatrics tent set up outside of Boston Medical Center in Boston on April 29, 2020. (credit: Getty | Boston Globe) Despite being widely seen as mild, the omicron coronavirus variant has been brutal on children and adolescents—particularly babies […]

COVID 19 Tech

FDA head: Omicron is a “natural disaster… most people are gonna get COVID”

Enlarge / Dr. Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on January 11, 2022 in Washington, D.C. (credit: Getty | Shawn Thew) US officials are comparing the ultratransmissible omicron coronavirus variant to a natural disaster as the country […]

COVID 19 Tech

Hospitals nationwide are buckling under omicron as cases continue to spike

Enlarge / A medical worker in PPE works with a patient with Covid-19 in a negative pressure room in the ICU ward at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Massachusetts on January 4, 2022. The hospital says it is overflowing with patients and doesn’t have many beds left. (credit: Getty | Joseph Prezioso) Hospitals nationwide […]

Tech

Omicron is not mild and is crushing health care systems worldwide, WHO warns

Enlarge / World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus speaks during a press conference on December 20, 2021 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. (credit: Getty| Fabrice Coffrini) The World Health Organization on Thursday pushed back on the consistent chatter that the ultratransmissible omicron coronavirus is “mild,” noting that the variant is, in fact, […]

COVID 19 Tech

US sets global record with over 1 million COVID cases in one day

Enlarge / Long lines at a mobile COVID-19 testing tent in Queens, New York, on December 29, 2021. (credit: Getty | Universal Images Group ) The United States reported over one million new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, setting a global record for a single-day total as the ultra-transmissible omicron coronavirus variant continues its savage […]

COVID 19 Tech

Hospital beds full, National Guard deployed amid crushing delta wave

Enlarge / A nurse in the ICU looks into a COVID patient’s room filled with flowers and balloons at CentraCare St. Cloud Hospital in St. Cloud, Minn., on Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2021. (credit: Getty | The Washington Post) The wave of COVID-19 driven by the hypertransmissible delta variant continues to rampage through the US, with […]

COVID 19 Tech

States expand boosters, activate crisis care as delta rolls on

Enlarge / Frontline workers of the Medical Center of Aurora gather in front of the hospital for a COVID-19 memorial in Aurora, Colorado, on July 15, 2021. (credit: Getty | Denver Post) More states are activating crisis standards of care, and at least two have expanded access to COVID-19 vaccine booster doses as the delta […]

COVID 19 Tech

Idaho COVID crisis: Hospitals overflowing with sicker, younger patients

Enlarge / A coronavirus preparedness tent setup outside a hospital emergency room entrance at Gritman Medical Center in the northern Idaho city of Moscow in March 2020. (credit: Getty | Education Images) Health officials in Idaho are reporting dire circumstances as hospitals around the state continue to crumble under the delta-fueled surge of COVID-19 cases. […]

COVID 19 Tech

US sees jump in vaccinations amid devastating delta surge

Enlarge / A nurse administers a COVID-19 shot at a vaccination site in Florida on August 18, 2021. (credit: Getty | Sopa images) The US reached a milestone of having 200 million people vaccinated with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday. And for two days in a row now, over one […]