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A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report study published today finds that one third of US households used free at-home COVID-19 diagnostic tests from the COVIDTests.gov program and suggests that, without the kits, one in four adults who used a test would likely otherwise have gone untested. A team led by Emory University researchers analyzed data from a national probability survey to estimate awareness, acceptability, and use of the COVIDTests.gov program in April and May 2022. The White House launched the program in January 2022 to enable all US households to order free, at-home rapid antigen tests delivered through the US Postal Service. (Van Beusekom, 4/20)

Physicians and staff at one of the Bay Area's largest hospitals are required to mask up again following a sizable COVID-19 outbreak. Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Center has reinstated a temporary mask mandate after more than a dozen hospital workers and patients at the medical center tested positive for the coronavirus this week, officials confirmed. (Vaziri, 4/20)

Los Angeles County has identified its first cases of an emerging Omicron coronavirus subvariant dubbed Arcturus, a strain global health authorities are watching closely as it has been linked to an upswing in cases in India. Officially designated XBB.1.16, the subvariant also has attracted attention after anecdotal reports linking it to what has been a rare COVID-19 symptom: pink eye. (Lin II and Money, 4/20)

The federal government has burned through more than $1 billion to study long Covid, an effort to help the millions of Americans who experience brain fog, fatigue, and other symptoms after recovering from a coronavirus infection. There’s basically nothing to show for it. (Cohrs and Ladyzhets, 4/20)

US racial minorities who reported having worse healthcare experiences than those of other races were less likely to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-led study published today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. (Van Beusekom, 4/20)

A 32-year-old psychologist in Britain developed blood clots and died 10 days after he took his first dose of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, a report released by a London coroner on Wednesday found, in a highly rare case of a fatal reaction to the vaccine. The inquest, which was requested by Charlotte Wright, the widow of Dr. Stephen Wright, found that he died on Jan. 26, 2021, as a result of “unintended consequences of vaccination.” Ms. Wright is suing AstraZeneca. (Levenson, 4/20)

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday officially launched its mRNA vaccine technology hub in Cape Town, a facility established during the COVID-19 pandemic to help poorer countries struggling to gain access to life-saving medication. (Roelf, 4/20)

The longstanding racial gap in U.S. stroke death rates widened dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, government researchers said Thursday. Stroke death rates increased for both Black and white adults in 2020 and 2021, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study. But the difference between the two groups grew about 22%, compared with the five years before the pandemic. (Stobbe, 4/20)

Eighteen people, some of them doctors, were criminally charged with Covid-19 health-care fraud schemes that netted hundreds of millions of dollars from false billings and theft from federally funded programs, the Department of Justice said Thursday. The charges, which span nine federal judicial districts, comprise the largest coordinated law enforcement action in the U.S. targeting fraud schemes that “exploit the Covid pandemic,” the DOJ said in a press release. (Constantino, 4/20)