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A wastewater network that monitors for Covid-19 trends is warning that cases are once again rising in many parts of the U.S., according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data by Bloomberg. More than a third of the CDC’s wastewater sample sites across the U.S. showed rising Covid-19 trends in the period ending March 1 to March 10, though reported cases have stayed near a recent low. The number of sites with rising signals of Covid-19 cases is nearly twice what it was during the Feb. 1 to Feb. 10 period, when the wave of omicron-variant cases was fading rapidly. (Armstrong and Tartar, 3/14)

Hospitals and outpatient clinics filled up with patients early last year, as vaccines and the waning pandemic allowed people to venture out of their homes, and providers anticipate treating more people than ever this year as they catch up with backlogged procedures and appointments. But the coronavirus can still change that trajectory in an instant. Many hospitals were on pace to return to, or even exceed, pre-pandemic levels of patient visits in 2021 — until the Delta and Omicron variants infected large swaths of Americans and forced facilities to prioritize Covid patients and postpone less-urgent care, like they did in 2020. The unpredictability of those surges underscores how the coronavirus and any new potential variants still have a tight grip over the hospital industry’s business. (Herman, 3/15)

New coronavirus cases across the greater Houston area dropped to their lowest level in four months, new data showed Monday, just days after Harris County’s COVID threat level dropped to yellow, signaling the virus is not immediately threatening the capacity of the region’s healthcare system. The demise of the omicron wave appeared all but complete in the latest numbers from the Texas Medical Center, which collectively admitted 77 new COVID-19 patients daily last week, down 63 percent since February. (Mishanec, 3/14)

Late last week in Emerging Infectious Diseases, South Korean researchers reported that average time from exposure to COVID-19 diagnosis was 3.7 days in quarantined close contacts of patients infected by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and that 99.1% of diagnoses occurred by day 10, supporting a 10-day quarantine. (3/14)

A study of COVID-19 rates among inmates and staff at 101 US federal prisons compared with surrounding counties from May 2020 through January 2021 finds three-times-higher infection rates in prisons. German and US researchers conducted the study, published late last week in BMC Public Health, using data from the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center from May 18, 2020, to Jan 31, 2021. (Van Beusekom, 3/14)

Detroit Archbishop Allen Vigneron said he tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday and reported “very mild” symptoms. The 73-tear-old spiritual leader of 1.2 million Catholics in southeastern Michigan said on Twitter he was “fully vaccinated and boosted.” (3/15)

At least four House Democrats who attended their caucus's annual retreat last week have since tested positive for COVID-19. The development comes as Congress, like the country, is softening its posture towards the virus amid a steep decline in cases, with the Capitol physician lifting remaining mask requirements late last month. In January, the retreat was postponed by a month amid an explosion of cases due to Omicron. The Democratic retreat in Philadelphia was mask-optional. (Solender, 3/14)

Minnesota resident George Campbell handled the 2021 California funeral arrangements for his parents, who died the same day at age 96, after 75 years of marriage. Barred from traveling by COVID-19 restrictions, he did the work by computer and phone. Then came the hard part, complicated by difficulties with his parents' estate – obtaining the Federal Emergency Management Agency's $9,000 death benefit for coronavirus deaths. That took roughly three months. (McCoy, 3/15)

Public health experts are already creating blueprints for the next pandemic, but it seems increasingly unlikely that policymakers or Americans themselves will have much of an appetite to follow those plans. The past two years have provided concrete examples of what works and what doesn't, but those lessons can only help if the U.S. is willing to apply them — whether in response to another new variant or an entirely new virus sometime in the future. (Bettelheim, 3/15)

On March 9, 2020, Dr. Mia Taormina, chair of the department of infectious disease at Duly Health and Care (formerly named DuPage Medical Group), was part of the team that diagnosed the first case of COVID-19 in DuPage County. The case was diagnosed at Elmhurst Hospital, just a few days after Taormina returned home from giving a lecture in Costa Rica. “I mean, it’s so ironic,” she said. “I remember giving an interview similar to this saying, this could absolutely be something that we have to deal with for the next two years. And it’s so weird that here we are, and we really are at that transition point. This is the life cycle of a typical pandemic to have these surges and these waves that are this high and this severe for a couple of years.” (Syed, 3/14)