Apple drops mask mandate for corporate workers
Apple is dropping its mask requirement for corporate employees at “most locations,” according to an internal email from the COVID-19 response team obtained by The Verge. “Don’t hesitate to continue wearing a face mask if you feel more comfortable doing so,” the email said. “Also, please respect every individual’s decision to wear a mask or not.” Apple required some employees to return to the office beginning in April but scaled back those plans due to the spring COVID-19 surge.
BA.5 makes up 86% of U.S. cases, but a new subvariant emerges
The highly transmissible BA.5 omicron variant increased its stranglehold on COVID-19 in the United States, making up about 85.5% of the sequenced cases last week, according to data published Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency has also started tracking a new sublineage of the variant, BA.4.6, which made up 4.1% of cases nationally — mostly centered around the Midwest. BA.4 was sequenced in an additional 7.7%. The new sublineage “has been circulating for several weeks,” according to Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, White House COVID-19 data director. BA.2.12.1 was tracked in less than 3% of cases, while BA.2, which drove the spring wave of COVID-19 cases across the nation, has virtually disappeared. The U.S. is averaging about 114,000 new cases per day.
Study links high air pollution to increased risk of death from COVID-19
Californians living in areas with the highest air pollution, measured by PM2.5 exposure, had a 20% higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and 51% higher risk of COVID-19 death than those living in the least polluted areas, a new study from UCSF and the Public Health Institute found. The study looked at 3.1 million COVID infections and compared residents’ health in the most polluted fifth of the state with those in the least polluted fifth. The researchers estimated that 9% — about 4,250 — of the state’s COVID-19 deaths during the study period could have been prevented if the entire state met the national air quality standards. The areas with the highest PM2.5 concentration were the San Joaquin Valley and South Coast, where residents are more likely to be Hispanic or from low-income communities.
Fourth vaccine dose cut omicron breakthrough infection rate in Israeli study
An Israeli study has found that a fourth dose of vaccine against the coronavirus significantly reduced the rate of breakthrough infections at the height of the omicron variant surge among fourth-shot recipients. The reduction, seen in the study conducted among nearly 30,000 Israeli hospital health care workers, was not as great as that triggered by people getting a third dose after receiving their primary vaccine series, researchers found. “But considering the high infectivity of the Omicron variant, which led to critical medical staff shortages, a fourth vaccine dose should be considered to mitigate the infection rate,” in health care settings, according to the study published Tuesday in Jama Network Open. The breakthrough infection rate among those who received four doses was 6.9% compared with 19.8% in those who received 3 doses.
California’s COVID-19 hospitalizations jump by 145% in July
The average number of people hospitalized daily with confirmed COVID-19 infections in California rose from 1,916 at the beginning of July to 4,686 by the end of the month, according to data published Tuesday by the state’s health department. That marks a 145% increase in hospitalizations. The rate of infections largely plateaued at an elevated rate in the same time frame, with the average of 45 cases per 100,000 wavering little. The number of daily deaths has also remained stable with an average of 40 COVID-19 deaths per day across the state. The Bay Area reported 811 people hospitalized with COVID-19 on Tuesday, compared to 757 on July 1. The statewide test positive rate, which tracks the average number of coronavirus tests coming back positive, remains close to 15% — a rate that did not change from the beginning to the end of the month. Infectious disease experts believe the rate should be under 5% to effectively control the spread of the virus.
More than a third of coronavirus tests conducted at Walgreens are positives
About 36.8% of the coronavirus tests conducted at Walgreens stores nationally are coming back positive, according to data published by the retail chain on Tuesday. That’s up from about 30% recorded at the beginning of July. The test positive rate of 43.7% in its California locations is substantially higher than the national average. As of July 20, the chain added the results of rapid tests to its averages, which previously calculated only laboratory PCR test results. The mix of testing methods, all conducted in stores, lowered the average test positive rate by about 1%, according to data notes from the Walgreens and Aegis Research Team. The change also lowered California’s test positive peak reached mid-July to 48.7%, from the previously reported 51.6%.
Summer surge less severe this year in Wine Country
COVID-19 case rates and test positivity remain high in Sonoma County, but the most severe outcomes — hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and deaths — are holding at better levels compared to the summer surges of 2020 and 2021, health officer Dr. Sundari Mase told county supervisors Tuesday. “The good news is we haven’t seen the big hospitalizations, ICU bed (admissions), definitely not deaths as we were seeing the past two summers,” she said. “That’s attributable to vaccination and the fact that we have a strain that isn’t as bad as the initial strains,” she added in reference to the recent omicron variant offshoots that while more transmissable do not generally make people as severely sick. Still, 76 people in the county have died from COVID since January and 45 people are currently hospitalized. “My message to the community is to remain vigilant,” Mase said. “COVID is with us and we have to take precautions if we don’t want to get sick…Social responsibility is where we are right now.”
