Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Covid Cases Down An Encouraging 90% From 5 Weeks Ago
U.S. health officials are optimistic, albeit cautiously, the country has turned the corner on the unprecedented wave of infection caused by the omicron Covid variant as new cases plummet 90% from a pandemic record set just five weeks ago. As the nation emerges from the omicron wave, U.S. and state leaders are trying to mentally move past the crisis that has gripped everyone since the pandemic began two years ago. Public health leaders have begun rolling out plans to deal with the virus as a persistent but manageable risk in the future. (Kimball and Rattner, 2/22)
Officials at Indiana’s largest hospital system said Tuesday that its hospitals have weathered the worst of the latest COVID-19 surge although they are still treating hundreds of patients with the illness. The update from IU Health officials came as Indiana has seen steep declines in the past month in COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and new infections from the surge brought on by the delta and omicron variants. (Davies, 2/22)
But though covid is down, it's not out ... and worries for children remain —
Milwaukee County's chief health policy adviser is cautioning the public on calling an end to the pandemic, citing high COVID-19 hospitalizations and waning vaccination levels. "Though many of us want to be done with the pandemic, the pandemic is likely not done with us," Ben Weston, chief health policy adviser with Milwaukee County, said in Tuesday's COVID-19 briefing. (Bentley, 2/23)
Three more Louisiana children died of COVID-19 in the last week, bringing the total number of kids who have been lost to the pandemic to 21, state officials said Tuesday. Two of the recent deaths were in children under 5 years old, a group that is too young to be vaccinated. The third death was in a child between the ages of 5 and 17. (Woodruff, 2/22)
After the Omicron coronavirus variant made a record number of US children sick in January, children's hospitals across the United States braced for what has come with every other spike in the Covid-19 pandemic: cases of a rare but dangerous condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, commonly known as MIS-C. But a number of hospitals say the expected surge in cases hasn't showed up -- at least not yet. MIS-C can follow Covid-19 even some weeks after infection. It can cause parts of the body to become inflamed, and it can affect major organs including the kidneys, brain, lungs and heart. (Christensen, 2/22)
