The head of the U.N. health agency said Wednesday holiday gatherings and the spread of the most prominent variant globally led to increased transmission of COVID-19 last month.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nearly 10,000 deaths were reported in December, while hospital admissions during the month jumped 42% in nearly 50 countries — mostly in Europe and the Americas — that shared such trend information.
Comments closedA new COVID-19 subvariant, known as JN.1, has emerged and is now the prevailing strain across Canada, prompting health experts to caution that it may be more infectious and could even have extra symptoms.
Currently, the subvariant makes up the highest proportion of all COVID-19 variants, accounting for more than half (51.9 per cent) of all infections in Canada, according to the latest data from the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
JN.1 was first detected in Canada on Oct. 9, and since then has rapidly increased.
Comments closedThe pandemic is far from over, as evidenced by the rapid rise to global dominance of the JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2. This variant is a derivative of BA.2.86, the only other strain that has carried more than 30 new mutations in the spike protein since Omicron first came on the scene more than two years ago. This should have warranted designation by the World Health Organization as a variant of concern with a Greek letter, such as Pi.
By wastewater levels, JN.1 is now associated with the second-biggest wave of infections in the United States in the pandemic, after Omicron. We have lost the ability to track the actual number of infections since most people either test at home or don’t even test at all, but the very high wastewater levels of the virus indicate about 2 million Americans are getting infected each day.
Comments closedThe number of active COVID-19 outbreaks in high-risk settings increased by more than 50 per cent this past week, according to the Waterloo Region public health unit’s weekly dashboard update.
There are 15 outbreaks in high-risk settings — up from seven last week — including two in congregate settings, such as group homes or shelters, one in hospital and 12 in long-term care/retirement homes.
One new death was reported. So far this year, COVID-19 has been a direct or contributing cause in 41 deaths reported by public health in the region.
Comments closedThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday that COVID subvariant JN.1 accounts for 39% to 50% of cases in the United States as of Dec. 23, according to the agency’s projections.
Comments closedThe new COVID-19 variant that scientists call JN.1 now makes up about 44.1% of COVID-19 cases across the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Friday, marking another week of the fast-spreading variant’s steep rise in the U.S.
The increase is more than two times larger than the 21.3% that the CDC now estimates the strain made up of infections for the week ending Dec. 9, after Thanksgiving.
Comments closedSnow might not be swirling in the UK but Covid is in the air this Christmas, data has revealed, with experts warning a new variant is on the rise around the world.
According to data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), an estimated 4.2%, or one in 24 people, in England and Scotland had Covid on 13 December compared with 1.8% – or one in 55 – on 29 November.
Comments closedPeople are getting infected with COVID subvariant JN.1, but there are ways to protect yourself, your loved ones and the community over the holiday season.
Comments closedInfectious diseases expert Dr. Donald Vinh on the high number of viruses circulating in Quebec right now and how people can avoid them.
Comments closedCanadians raced to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first years of the pandemic, but data suggests there’s far less of a rush to get the latest shots available this fall.
Federal figures show only 15 per cent of the population aged five and up had received an updated vaccine by Dec. 3. And while older age groups had higher uptake rates, more than half of higher-risk older adults still hadn’t gotten a dose by early December, either.
Comments closedDue to its rapid growth and potential to add to the respiratory virus burden in Northern Hemisphere countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) today designated JN.1, part of the BA.2.86 SARS-CoV-2 lineage, as its own variant of interest.
The announcement came following an assessment from the WHO’s Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 evolution.
Comments closedHospitals and emergency rooms could be forced to ration care by the end of this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned Thursday, saying recent trends in COVID-19 and influenza are now on track to again strain America’s health care system. The new COVID variant JN.1 is making up an increasing share of cases, the CDC’s tracking shows.
“COVID-19 hospitalizations are rising quickly,” the agency said in its weekly update. “Since the summer, public health officials have been tracking a rise in multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), which is caused by COVID-19. Influenza activity is growing in most parts of the country. RSV activity remains high in many areas.”
Comments closedNever before have so many coronavirus particles been found in the wastewater as now. Coronavirus variant watcher Josette Schoenmakers reports this on X. At the time of writing, the national government’s coronavirus dashboard has not yet been updated with the most recent data.
Comments closedNearly 1 in 10 new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are from the BA.2.86 variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated Monday, nearly triple what the agency estimated the highly mutated variant’s prevalence was two weeks ago.
Comments closedTwo new COVID-19 variants quickly gaining traction across Canada are already dominant in New Brunswick.
So far, HV.1 and HK.3, related to Omicron EG.5, do not appear to cause more severe disease than other recent variants, said Colin Furness, an infection control epidemiologist and assistant professor at the University of Toronto.
Comments closedThe World Health Organization (WHO) last week reclassified the Omicron BA.2.86 variant—and its offshoots, including JN.1—as a variant of interest as global proportions grow, including in the United States, where it now makes up about 9% of circulating viruses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today.
Comments closedCOVID hasn’t just colonized billions of humans. The virus has entered North America’s white-tailed deer populations, transforming one of the largest remaining wild mammal populations on Earth into another rapidly evolving reservoir for COVID.
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