How to test yourself for covid-19?
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(CNN) -
As the highly contagious omicron variant continues to increase COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations - and the numbers are likely to get worse before they improve - health experts say it's critical that Americans continue with preventive security measures to avoid infections.
"I am not buying the idea that we are all going to get omicron and therefore we have to stop trying. I think that is a mistake," said Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the University's Department of Medicine, on Wednesday. from California in San Francisco, to CNN's Erin Burnett.
"Next month is likely to be horrible," he said.
But this does not mean that everyone should assume they are going to contract the virus, he said, pointing to the pattern of omicron infections in the UK and South Africa.
"In a month or six weeks or eight weeks, it's hard to tell, if we follow the pattern that South Africa followed, if we follow what London seems to show us, the cases are starting to drop," Wachter said.
ANALYSIS |
Ómicron might be less dangerous, but it has tied the United States in knots
Deaths from covid-19 expected in the following weeks
A joint forecast by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released on Wednesday predicts that more than 84,000 people could die of COVID-19 in the next four weeks, and warns that "Current forecasts may not fully take into account the emergence and rapid spread of the omicron variant or changes in reports during the holidays."
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The forecast may mean an average of 3,526 COVID-19 deaths a day, up from a current average of 1,251 every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
To date, at least 832,148 people have died from COVID-19 and some 57.8 million have been infected in the US, according to the JHU database.
Staff shortage
Health centers are struggling to cope with staff shortages, as COVID-19 hospitalizations are increasing in both adults and children.
In the Kansas City metropolitan area, hospitals are postponing some surgeries because workers are sick with COVID-19, more than a dozen doctors said at a news conference Wednesday.
According to Dr. Steven Stites, medical director of the University of Kansas Health System, "This is without a doubt the toughest wave the medical community has faced since the pandemic began in 2020."
Frontline workers in other sectors, such as education, retail and foodservice, also face a higher risk of exposure, with workers suffering from Covid-19 needing time to recover.
Covid-19: Rapid Test Prices Rise in the US
In Massachusetts, senior officials from Boston's public schools flocked to classrooms Wednesday to help fill in for hundreds of teachers on leave.
"Some of our schools are experiencing more than a quarter of staff absent due to positive covid tests or other issues," said Boston Mayor Michelle Wu.
In Chicago, some 340,000 students will miss a second day of class this Thursday due to a disagreement between the administration and the teachers union over in-person learning.
The best to protect us
The best way to keep workplaces safe is to encourage mask use and vaccination, said Arthur Caplan, director of medical ethics at New York University Grossman School of Medicine.
The safety of others is also critical and well documented in our society, Caplan told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday.
"We restrict the use of secondhand tobacco, so to speak, in public spaces because of secondhand smoke," he said.
"You can lose the ability to direct yourself if you engage in risky behaviors. So we do not live in a society that just says' freedom means I can do what I want 'or' freedom means I can choose without any accountability or responsibility. 'When you hurt others, our mothers, you put others in danger, you have to assume some responsibility. "
A healthcare worker at UMass Memorial Medical Center treats a patient in the covid-19 intensive care unit in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Reinforcements are approved for children from 12 years
Access to booster shots was expanded to more children as the CDC on Wednesday updated its recommendations on the Pfizer / BioNTech covid-19 booster vaccine to include children ages 12 and older, at least five months later. the end of the series of primary vaccines.
The decision comes after the US Food and Drug Administration expanded authorization for the emergency use of the booster vaccine.
"It is critical that we protect our children and adolescents from COVID-19 infection and the complications of serious disease," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
More than 72 million people are fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 in the US, according to CDC data.
That's less than half of the nearly 180 million people who are eligible to get their booster shot and about a fifth of the total US population.
According to the latest CDC data, at least 67.5 million people 5 years and older have not received the first dose of the vaccine.
Children from 5 to 11 years old can already receive the vaccine against covid-19 in the United States.
There is currently no licensed vaccine in the U.S. for children under the age of 5, but ongoing studies may produce data for analysis in the first half of 2022, the director of the National Institute of Allergies said on Wednesday. Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Record hospitalizations at the largest pediatric hospital in the US 3:45
Rapid tests may be delayed in detection, study finds
A new preliminary study involving a small group of patients, published Wednesday, found that people infected with the omicron variant can take several days to test positive for COVID-19 with a rapid antigen test after they have tested positive with a PCR test, raising concerns about the reliability of rapid tests to detect covid-19 cases with omicron when infections are still early.
The researchers found that, on the day of the PCR test and on the day immediately after a positive result, the rapid antigen tests were all negative, even though 28 of the 30 people in the study had enough virus in their body to to pass it on to others.
According to the study, the time from the first positive PCR result to the first positive rapid antigen test result was 3 days.
"The political implication is that rapid antigen tests may not be as suitable for routine workplace monitoring to prevent asymptomatic spread of omicron, compared to previous variants, given the shorter time from exposure to infectivity. and the lowest infectious doses sufficient for transmission, "the authors wrote.
The results are considered preliminary and have not yet been peer-reviewed.
Nostrils and throat
For people who have access to rapid tests, the FDA stated that the tests should be used as authorized after several health experts on social media suggested that the rapid tests may be more accurate if a swab is done. of the throat instead of the nostrils.
"The FDA takes into account safety concerns regarding self-collection of throat swabs, as they are more complicated than nasal swabs, and if used improperly, can cause harm to the patient," said a spokesperson for the FDA in a statement Wednesday.
"The CDC recommends that throat swabs be collected by a trained healthcare provider."
CNN's Katherine Dillinger, Virginia Langmaid, Naomi Thomas, Deidre McPhillips, John Bonifield, Jamie Gumbrecht, Michelle Watson, Paradise Afshar and Sylvia Walker contributed to this report.
Covid-19
