Monitoring of Bay Area sewage now reveals “absolutely skyrocketing” levels of COVID-19, officials say. So many people are hospitalized in California that numbers are rivaling “some of the hardest moments of the pandemic,” the state’s health chief says, with COVID hospitalizations the highest since early August when the BA.5 wave roared. In Los Angeles County coronavirus cases are reported to have shot up by 75% just in the last week.
CDC running out of funds to deal with the pandemic
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is running out of money to manage the pandemic, Director Rochelle Walensky told Roll Call on Wednesday. The Biden administration sent another request for $10 billion in funding to Congress last week to support vaccines, therapeutics, accelerated research and long COVID treatments ahead of the anticipated winter surge. Walensky also hopes to improve data reporting from states and medical providers. So far, the agency has been forced to shuffle money around from other programs. “Not all of it is really re-allocatable. We’re constrained in a lot of ways in our ability to do that,” Walensky said.
She added that the CDC may have to discontinue reporting COVID-19 community levels. “If we don’t get surveillance data, testing data, at the pace that we have been getting it, at the transparency that we’ve been getting, we may not be able to report on those sorts of things,” Walensky said.
The Biden administration has been warning for months of the potential for rationing and other tough trade-offs if Congress doesn’t act to provide additional funding, saying that it would cost lives as people’s immunity from booster doses or from prior infection wanes.
“The federal government is running out of funds to support vaccination and treatments, so there’s not a lot of information being pushed out because there’s no budget for it,” said Yvonne Maldonado, an infectious disease expert at Stanford. “So a lot of us in this field are the ones who are really talking to our colleagues about making sure that patients get these drugs if they’re infected. And a lot of people just either don’t know these drugs exist or are not being told that they should get them.”
How to know whether you have COVID, RSV or the flu
If it feels like everyone you know is getting sick, that’s because they are. The Bay Area is getting pummeled with a triple threat of viruses. COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus cases are surging across the region and the nation, making it harder than ever to determine what is causing your dry cough or runny nose. The infections cause similar symptoms, but it’s important to know how they manifest themselves in order to get proper treatment and avoid spreading illness to others. Read more about the latest thinking on respiratory viruses and how to tell them apart.
Where surging COVID cases are hitting San Francisco
Once again, San Francisco’s COVID case rates are spiking right before the winter holidays. And once again, the city’s lower-income, heavily Black and brown neighborhoods are bearing the burden. The city’s confirmed case rates are still lower than they were in the summer and midwinter, when omicron subvariants drove national spikes in sickness. But public health experts say the figures from early December indicate we’re at the start of a potentially much larger winter wave. Read more about the neighborhoods and demographics being most affected by the resurgence of infections.
Mask mandate returns for jails, shelters in three Bay Area counties
Universal masking is now required inside correctional facilities and shelters in three Bay Area counties that have transitioned back into a “medium” COVID-19 community level, based on California Department of Public Health guidelines. Marin, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties moved into the “medium” tier Thursday due to averaging more than 10 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 residents over the previous week. All other Bay Area counties remained in the “low” level. “When the COVID-19 Community Level is ‘medium’ or ‘high,’ facilities must maintain or reinstate universal masking requirements for all staff and residents, regardless if there are no outbreaks within the facility,” the state says in its rules for specific high-risk settings. When the level is “low,” masking may be optional. The CDC’s community levels factor in both case and hospital metrics. Counties also move up from “low” if they record a rate of more than 200 new weekly cases per 100,000 residents.
Congress set to rescind COVID-19 vaccine mandate for troops
The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military would be rescinded under the annual defense bill heading for a vote this week in Congress, ending a directive that helped ensure the vast majority of troops were vaccinated but also raised concerns that it harmed recruitment and retention. The Associated Press reports that Republicans, emboldened by their new House majority next year, pushed the effort, which was confirmed Tuesday night when the bill was unveiled. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy personally lobbied President Biden in a meeting last week to roll back the mandate. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday that Biden told McCarthy he would consider lifting the mandate but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had recommended it be kept.
Asked about the matter over the weekend, Austin told reporters he still supports the vaccine for U.S. troops. “We lost a million people to this virus,” Austin said. “A million people died in the United States of America. We lost hundreds in DoD. So this mandate has kept people healthy.”
Bivalent booster no match for BQ.1 and XBB subvariants
The reformulated COVID-19 vaccine may work well against the first wave of omicron subvariants it was intended to target but triggers a weaker immune response against the immune-evasive strains of the virus that are rapidly becoming dominant in the U.S. In a study published Tuesday in , scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch found the neutralizing antibodies of the bivalent booster shots, which prevent the virus from entering human cells, elicited a high neutralizing titer against BA.4 and BA.5 after 14 to 32 days but “did not produce robust neutralization against the newly emerged BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, or XBB.1.”
Compared to their effectiveness against BA.5, the antibodies were about four times lower against BQ.1.1 and eight times lower against XBB.1. The results were better for people with a prior history of COVID-19 infection.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House chief medical advisor, addressed the drop in protection provided by the boosters against the newer strains of the virus. “You could expect some protection, but not the optimal protection,” he said at a White House press briefing before Thanksgiving.
The immune-evasive omicron subvariants BQ.1, BQ.1.1, and XBB made up 68% of the total coronavirus cases circulating in the U.S. last week, according to data published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BQ.1.1 accounted for 32% of circulating variants, and BQ.1 made up an estimated 31% for the week ending Nov. 27. XBB made up 5.5% of cases. The formerly dominant BA.5 accounted for less than 14% of cases sequenced.
Secret Service accuses China-based hackers of stealing millions in U.S. COVID relief
Hackers linked to the Chinese government stole some $20 million in U.S. COVID relief benefits, including Small Business Administration loans and unemployment insurance funds, the Secret Service told media organizations this week. The agency confirmed an account by NBC News that the theft apparently was by a China-bsed hacking group known as APT41. It would mark the first instance of pandemic fraud tied to foreign, state-sponsored cybercriminals that the U.S. government has acknowledged publicly, but may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to U.S. law enforcement officials and cybersecurity experts, cited by NBC, which said other investigations of pandemic fraud also seemed to point back to foreign state-affiliated hackers. The Secret Service said there are more than 1,000 ongoing investigations involving transnational and domestic criminal actors defrauding public benefits programs, and APT41 is “a notable player.”
Pressure on California hospitals rivals “some of the hardest moments of the pandemic”
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 in California is the highest since early August when the state was near the peak of the BA.5 wave. Just over 4,200 people were hospitalized statewide with COVID-19 as of Monday, including 701 in the Bay Area, state data shows. “Hospital census numbers rival some of the hardest moments of the pandemic,” the California health chief Dr. Mark Ghaly, said Tuesday. Noting the multiple threats due to the number of viruses in circulation, he urged people to take advantage of the updated coronavirus vaccine and available COVID antiviral treatments, such as Paxlovid, which have substantially driven down the death rate since last winter. California is averaging about 30 COVID deaths a day, including four in the Bay Area. At the peak of last winter’s surge, more than 500 people were dying of COVID every day in California and 60 in the Bay Area.
Coronavirus levels in sewage are “absolutely skyrocketing”
Bay Area coronavirus infections again are spiking, with wastewater monitoring showing this winter is on track to potentially surpass the number of people who got sick last pandemic winter. “Our wastewater numbers are absolutely skyrocketing,” Santa Clara County’s health officer Dr. Sara Cody told a briefing on Tuesday. Sewage monitoring in Palo Alto shows levels higher than they were at the height of the omicron surge in January. “We remember that the last two winters have been extraordinarily difficult. I unfortunately need to tell you that this winter is shaping up to be no different,” said Cody. She also noted, “People might not know they are infected … and they’re still going to show up in the sewer sheds.”
Wastewater elsewhere in the Bay Area also has a sharp rise in COVID presence. Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state health secretary, said Tuesday, “The trends we are seeing now that show increases, sharp increases, will continue.” Sewage monitoring has become an important tool to track COVID-19’s levels, increasingly so with the rise of home coronavirus tests which are typically not reported to the government and thus do not show up in case counts. Read more about the latest COVID surge in the Bay Area and California.
Getting COVID-19 health care a growing problem for poor, uninsured Americans
After paying about $25 billion during the pandemic to health care providers to vaccinate, test and treat uninsured Americans, the federal government is running low on funds for COVID care for the nearly 30 million without insurance, potentially leaving them to foot those bills or perhaps become discouraged from seeking care altogether, the New York Times reports. The Biden administration has been unsuccessful thus far in seeking more money from Congress to replenish its coffers. A request last month for more than $9 billion in additional pandemic response funding included money to ensure that Americans, including those without insurance, continue to have access to vaccines and treatments. But Republicans in Congress have resisted the White House’s requests, and accuse the administration of spending pandemic relief money in a wasteful manner.
Officials warn available pediatric ICU beds have slipped below 12% in parts of California
Hospitals across California are racing to add pediatric beds as COVID, RSV and escalating flu cases send more kids to hospitals for care — “but the number of children who need hospitalization is currently outpacing their ability to expand,” state health officials said Tuesday. “Hospitals typically have about 35 to 40% open pediatric intensive care unit beds, but that number is down to about 20% statewide. It’s even lower — below 12% — in some regions of the state,” the Department of Public Health said in a release. “Statewide flu activity has reached high levels across California, which has the potential to add to an already concerning number of hospitalizations of children,” said the department’s director Dr. Tomás Aragón. “RSV and Flu, and now COVID-19 are on the rise — leading to the hospitalization of our youngest and most vulnerable Californians who need all of us to help protect them.” Health officials urge people to get flu shots and updated coronavirus vaccination and to mask up in indoor public spaces help slow disease spread.
L.A. County facing “full-blown” coronavirus surge
Los Angeles County coronavirus cases have shot up by 75% over the last week, and health officials are urging people to resume preventative behavior. Hospitals are already under strain, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.“While there still is uncertainty about what the impact of COVID-19 will be this winter, there is mounting evidence that we are entering another COVID-19 surge,” said L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. L.A. County reported a seven-day average of 3,721 coronavirus cases Monday, up from 2,128 the prior week. The county is now recording 258 cases a week per 100,000 residents — triple the number in the first week of November, according to the Times. L.A. County recorded 1,211 new hospital admissions of patients with confirmed COVID-19 as of Saturday. There were 76 virus-related deaths for the week that ended Monday, compared to 53 deaths reported in the prior week.