The Delta variant of the coronavirus almost doubles the risk of hospitalization compared with the Alpha variant, according to a study published in British academic journal The Lancet that focused on people who had not been vaccinated.
The study, released late Friday, “confirms previous findings that people infected with Delta are significantly more likely” to require hospitalization than those with Alpha, “although most (NOT ALL) cases included in the analysis were unvaccinated.
Researchers analyzed 43,338 COVID-19 cases in England between March 29 and May 23. Only 1.8 percent of the studied cases had received two vaccine doses, 24 percent had received one shot and 74 percent were unvaccinated. The Delta variant is now dominant in the majority of EU countries, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in July; it also accounts for 98 percent of all COVID cases in the U.K., Dabrera said.
Fourteen out of 15 severe COVID-19 patients who were treated in an investigator-initiated interventional open-label clinical study of the drug TriCor (fenofibrate) didn’t require oxygen support within a week of treatment and were released from the hospital, according to the results of a new Hebrew University of Jerusalem study. Fenofibrate is an FDA-approved oral medication. The results were published on Researchsquare.com and are currently under peer review. Specifically, the team that was led by HU’s Prof. Yaakov Nahmias carried out the study at Israel’s Barzilai Medical Center in coordination with the hospital’s head of the Infectious Disease Unit, Prof. Shlomo Maayan, and with support from Abbott Laboratories. The 15 treated patients all had pneumonia and required oxygen support. They were also older with multiple comorbidities, ranging from diabetes and obesity to high blood pressure. In addition to standard of care, the patients were given 145 mg/day of fenofibrate for 10 days. “The results were dramatic,” Nahmias told The Jerusalem Post. “Progressive inflammation markers, which are the hallmark of deteriorative COVID-19, dropped within 48 hours of treatment. Moreover, 14 of the 15 severe patients didn’t require oxygen support within a week of treatment.” The 15th patient was off oxygen within 10 days. When looking at the data on other similar severe patients, less than 30% of them on average are removed from oxygen support within a week. In other words, fenofibrate could dramatically shorten the treatment time for severe COVID patients. “We know these kinds of patients deteriorate really fast, develop a cytokine storm in five to seven days and that it can take weeks to treat them and for them to get better,” Nahmias said. “We gave these patients fenofibrate and the study shows inflammation dropped incredibly fast. They did not seem to develop a cytokine storm at all.” Cytokine storms are aggressive inflammatory responses to illness. In general, patients who do not require oxygen can be treated at home,” he said. “Additionally, despite the high number of COVID deaths in Israel and abroad, the majority of severely sick patients survive.
“If you look over a 28-day period, I would have expected all of them to survive with or without the drug,” Nahmias explained. “The question is how fast we can get them home or how quickly we can get a severe patient to a mild condition.” All of the patients completed a 10-day home treatment after discharge and, according to Maayan, “no drug-related adverse events” were reported. FENOFIBRATE WAS approved by the FDA back in 1975 for long-term use and is considered safe. Moreover, it is an inexpensive pill, Nahmias said. It costs less than $1.50 a day, meaning the entire treatment per patient was around $15. Nahmias has been studying the use of fenofibrate for treating COVID-19 almost since the start of the pandemic. He first ran a pre-clinical trial and then a multi-center retrospective study, both of which supported the effectiveness of the drug. “Viruses are parasites,” Nahmias explained. “They cannot replicate by themselves. They have to get inside a human cell and hijack their machinery to replicate.”
Working with collaborators in the United States, Nahmias demonstrated that the coronavirus prevents the burning of fat in lung cells, resulting in large amounts of fat accumulating inside lung cells – a condition the virus needs to reproduce. Fenofibrate, he hoped, would reverse that effect, and eliminate virus replication. “By understanding how the SARS-CoV-2 controls our metabolism, we can wrestle back control from the virus and deprive it of the very resources it needs to survive,” Nahmias told the Post, noting that this also may help explain why patients with high blood sugar and cholesterol levels are often at a particularly high risk to develop COVID-19. The professor is now involved with a series of Phase III studies being carried out in South America, the United States and Israel. Those studies are placebo-controlled and double-blind. Nahmias said his team had been struggling to get patients enrolled in the study before the onset of the Delta variant, but efforts are now progressing more rapidly. He hopes that results could be available as early as within the next two months. In the meantime, the drug is available, and physicians can decide to give treatment with it based on available data. “There are no silver bullets,” he said, “but fenofibrate is far safer than other drugs proposed to date, and its mechanism of action makes it less likely to be variant-specific.”
Most symptoms of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients are resolved within 12 months, however, around one half still experience at least one persistent symptom, a study of 1,276 patients from Wuhan, China, published in The Lancet, has found. Around one in three people still experienced shortness of breath and lung impairments persisted in some patients, especially those who had experienced the most severe illness with COVID-19 (at 12 months, 35.7% patients who underwent additional lung health tests had diffusion impairments—reduced flow of oxygen from the lungs to the bloodstream [87/244]). Overall, COVID-19 survivors were less healthy than people from the wider community who had not been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus (matched for age, sex and pre-existing conditions). Professor Bin Cao, from the National Center for Respiratory Medicine, China-Japan Friendship Hospital, China, said: “Our study is the largest to date to assess the health outcomes of hospitalized COVID-19 survivors after 12 months of becoming ill. While most had made a good recovery, health problems persisted in some patients, especially those who had been critically ill during their hospital stay. Our findings suggest that recovery for some patients will take longer than one year, and this should be taken into account when planning delivery of healthcare services post-pandemic.”
Long-term effects of COVID-19 have been widely reported and are an increasing concern. A previous study (by the same researchers) reporting outcomes from 1,733 hospitalized COVID-19 survivors after six months found that around three-quarters of patients had persistent health problems. The new study includes 1,276 patients from the same cohort to assess their health status after 12 months. Patients had been discharged from Jin Yin-tan Hospital in Wuhan, China, between 7 January and 29 May 2020. They underwent detailed health checks at six and 12 months (taken from the date they first experienced symptoms of COVID-19) to assess any ongoing symptoms and their health-related quality of life. These included face-to-face questionnaires, physical examinations, lab tests, and a six-minute walking test to gauge patients’ endurance levels. The average (median) age of patients included in the study was 57 years. Patient outcomes were tracked for an average (median) of 185 days (six-month check) and 349 days (12-month check). Many symptoms resolved over time, regardless of the severity of initial COVID-19 disease. The proportion of patients still experiencing at least one symptom after one year fell from 68% at six months (831/1,227) to 49% at 12 months (620/1,272). This decrease was observed regardless of the severity of COVID-19 the patients had experienced when hospitalized. Fatigue or muscle weakness was the most commonly reported symptom with around half of patients experiencing this at six months (52%, 636/1,230), falling to one in five patients at one year (20%, 255/1,272). Almost one third of patients reported experiencing shortness of breath at 12 months, which was slightly higher than at six months (30% at 12 months [380/1,271] vs 26% at 6 months [313/1,185]). This was more prevalent in patients who had been the most severely ill and had been on a ventilator during their time in hospital (39%, 37/94), compared to those who had not required oxygen treatment (25%, 79/317). At the six-month check, 349 study participants underwent a lung function test and 244 of those patients completed the same test at 12 months. The proportion of patients experiencing diffusion impairment did not improve from six months to 12 months and this was seen across all groups regardless of how ill they had been when hospitalized (Scale 3, no supplemental oxygen required during hospitalization: 21% at 6 months [12/57], 23% at 12 months [13/56]; Scale 4, required supplemental oxygen: 26% at 6 months [32/124], 31% at 12 months [36/117]; Scale 5-6, required ventilation during hospitalization: 57% at 6 months [39/69], 54% at 12 months [38/70]). Also at the six-month check, 353 study participants given a chest CT scan. Around one half of them showed lung abnormalities on their scan and were offered a repeat scan at 12 months (52.7%, 186/353). Of the 118 patients who completed the scan at 12 months, the proportion of patients with abnormalities decreased substantially across all groups but was still high, particularly in the most critically ill group.
(Reuters) – U.S. companies are scrambling to boost production of coronavirus tests increasingly in short supply as COVID-19 cases soar and schools and employers revive surveillance programs that will require tens of millions of tests, according to industry executives and state health officials. Test manufacturers including Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson and Co, and Quidel Corp in recent months scaled back production of rapid COVID-19 tests, which can produce results on-site in minutes, as well as test kits that are sent to laboratories for analysis. The move followed a nearly 90% decline in testing and a similarly large drop in COVID-19 cases in the United States. Abbott in June shut down two production lines in Maine and closed a manufacturing plant in Illinois. Around the same time, Quidel shifted production away from COVID-19 tests. Becton Dickinson had also scaled back production in recent months.
Now, with the Delta variant pushing U.S. COVID-19 cases well above 100,000 per day, test makers are working to quickly reverse course, industry executives and state officials told Reuters.
“We’re hiring people and turning on parts of our manufacturing network that were idled or slowed when guidance changed and demand plunged,” Abbott said in a statement.
However, testmakers including Abbott and Becton Dickinson cautioned that there may be supply constraints in the near term.
“With the rise of cases from the Delta variant… there is currently some tightness in supply as manufacturers ramp back up,” said Troy Kirkpatrick, a spokesperson for Becton Dickinson, adding that the company expects inventory levels “will normalize over the next couple of weeks.” Demand for COVID-19 tests has been largely driven by healthcare providers, employers and schools, he added. Supplies could tighten even further as more state governments and private employers demand staff either get vaccinated or agree to regular testing. Pfizer Inc and Goldman Sachs are among major employers requiring staff to be regularly tested. Testing in schools is a top priority for federal and state officials as a minority of the roughly 70 million school-age U.S. children have been vaccinated. Those under 12 are not yet eligible for the shots. Demand for diagnostic tests has surged nearly six-fold in the past two months, from around 250,000 per day in early July to nearly 1.5 million in mid-August, according to U.S. federal data. The data only tracks diagnostic tests that are run in laboratories. That demand is only expected to grow. More than half a dozen states, including California, Delaware, and South Carolina, have set up comprehensive surveillance testing programs for their public K-12 schools, while Pennsylvania and Arkansas are among at least a dozen other states developing similar plans. Even in states without such plans, many local school districts are rolling out surveillance programs. The surge in test demand has sounded alarms among federal officials, who are “concerned that people are going to start shutting down our supply chain,” limiting the flexibility to respond to a spike in cases, said Quidel Chief Executive Douglas Bryant told Reuters. The recent increase in surveillance testing “really stresses the supply chain,” said Dana Lerman, medical director at The COVID Consultants, a physicians group that provides COVID-19 testing and advisory services. Her organization has seen demand for rapid tests increase 200% since June. Even if testmakers are able to keep up with rising demand from U.S. schools, states will still face challenges covering the expense of widespread testing, which experts say will cost the average school district at least $1 million each year. Ysleta in El Paso said it expects it will cost around $3 million to safely test its students this school year, and is relying on Texas to provide it with funds. The Biden administration granted $10 billion to help states developing COVID-19 testing programs. Experts said the sum is far short of what states will need to cover testing for the full school year. “More federal funding will be necessary,” said Dr. Antonia Sepulveda, president of the Association of Molecular Pathology that represents diagnostic testing laboratories, “for institutions to continue comprehensive testing programs.”
The research, which used findings from more than 29 million people, found there is still a risk after having the jab – but it is “considerably higher” in someone who has the virus.
A coronavirus infection presents a much higher risk of developing a blood clot than a first dose of either the AstraZeneca or the Pfizer jab, a study has found. The research used findings from more than 29 million people who were vaccinated with first doses of either jab. The study showed although there was an increased risk of having a blood clot after having the first doses of either vaccine, it was much greater in someone who had tested positive for COVID-19. The researchers are fully independent from the University of Oxford team that worked with AstraZeneca to develop that particular vaccine. Fears over blood clots have led to the restricted use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in a number of countries. The researchers, writing in the British Medical Journal, found for short time intervals after the first does there are increased risks of some blood, or blood-vessel, related events leading to hospitalisation or death. However, they also wrote that that the risk of these adverse events is substantially higher and for a longer period of time, following infection from coronavirus.
The popularity of at-home COVID-19 testing kits has skyrocketed as the delta variant has spread, leaving many consumers scrambling to find them as retailers struggle to catch up with demand. Over-the-counter COVID-19 test kits are now the top-selling items in CVS stores, a spokeswoman said. Manufacturers of BinaxNOW Self Tests said demand for its products is increasing as cases rise and it’s working with retailers to keep store shelves stocked. “The phrase ‘flying off the shelves’ would probably be appropriate,” said Tim Halfin, regional pharmacy director for H-E-B’s Houston Division.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Struggling to find COVID tests in Houston? You’re not alone as delta variant rages, schools reopen
The home testing kits have grown in popularity with the concurrent rise in delta cases and the return of students to school this month, he said. Vaccination volumes at H-E-B’s Houston pharmacies have also returned to the peak volumes they reached in April. Supply throughout Houston has been spotty as demand for home test kits soars, but Halfin said H-E-B should be well-stocked for at least the next couple of weeks. “We placed what I’ve been told was a very large order of them,” he said. Leslie Santamaria, of Houston, had to do a bit of hunting to score her kit last week after learning she’d been exposed to COVID-19. She wanted immediate results — she is fully vaccinated, she said, but her young children are not. “I wanted to know ASAP to protect my under-12 children,” she said. The first pharmacy she went to was sold out of the kit she wanted, Santamaria said, so she searched CVS’ website for which stores had them in stock and found one on South Main. Walmart said it, too, is noticing and adjusting to an uptick in home test sales. “While we have seen increased demand for COVID testing kits, we are not experiencing major supply issues overall and if a particular store has low or no inventory,” it said in a statement, “we expect it is temporary as product moves through the supply chain.” Rapid tests at drive-thru operations by Walgreens and CVS are also getting harder to schedule as people scramble for tests. Testing slots are booked days in advance. Compounding the demand for testing in recent weeks was the rampant spread of colds and other viruses that had been suppressed as people wore masks and socially distanced earlier in the pandemic, said Steve Hoffart, owner of Magnolia Pharmacy in Magnolia. He said his customers are blowing through cough and cold medicines. “You would think it’s the fall,” he said, noting a run like this is abnormal for summer. “You don’t ever see this.” Hoffart said he received so many requests for home testing kits last week that he ordered his first batch, which arrived on shelves Monday. He said people are out and about more than they had been in a while and are catching all kinds of viruses en masse, are experiencing allergy symptoms and are wondering which is which. Immune systems got weaker during the pandemic as people masked up and limited their exposure to others, he said, urging use of Vitamin D to help give it a boost.
On HoustonChronicle.com: Houston retailers update mask policies as delta spurs COVID surge
“Your immune system’s like a muscle,” he said. “We didn’t let our immune system work.” Catherine Troisi, an epidemiologist with UTHealth School of Public Health, said resources shifted away from testing and toward vaccination earlier in the pandemic, but testing remains an important piece of the pandemic puzzle. Knowing your test result influences how careful you are about socializing and potentially sharing germs with others. “Your inclination might be you’re not as careful as you would be if you had a positive test in-hand,” she said. The PCR tests available at doctor’s offices and pharmacies are “the gold standard” for accuracy, Troisi said. The downside is results take longer — a day or two or sometimes more — to produce, while rapid antigen tests take around 15 minutes. Rapid tests, meanwhile, are not as sensitive so false negatives are possible. Troisi also recommended taking two rapid tests in the event a test is positive, as false positives are possible but less likely to happen twice. The advantage of rapid tests is they can be taken so quickly and regularly, she said. In settings where people take rapid tests every three days, “it’s actually very good at detecting infections and it rivals the PCR.”I urge you to stock up while you can.
(Reuters) – The number of coronavirus patients in U.S. hospitals breached 100,000 on Thursday, the highest level in eight months, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, as a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant strains the nation’s health care system. U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past month. Over the past week, more than 500 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals each hour on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The United States reached its all-time peak for hospitalizations on Jan. 6 when there were 132,051 coronavirus-infected patients in hospital beds, according to a Reuters tally. As the vaccination campaign rapidly expanded in early 2021, hospitalizations fell and hit a 2021 low of 13,843 on June 28. However, COVID-19 admissions rose suddenly in July as the Delta variant became the dominant strain. The U.S. South is the epicenter of the latest outbreak but hospitalizations are rising nationwide. Florida has the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, followed by Texas and California, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than 95% of intensive care beds are currently occupied in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among mostly the unvaccinated U.S. population, has also sent a record number of children to hospital. There are currently over 2,000 confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to HHS. Three states – California, Florida and Texas – amount to about 32% of the total confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States. Children currently make up about 2.3% of the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalizations. Kids under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine. The country is hoping for vaccine authorization for younger children by autumn with the Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that the nation could get COVID-19 under control by early next year if vaccinations ramp up. The United States has given at least one dose of vaccine to about 61% of its population, according to the CDC.
ISIS bombing the airport and U.S. assets in Kabul. Breakthrough COVID mutation infecting fully vaccinated people in America. We cover this and more in our latest offering of Radio Free Wall Street.
CHICAGO, (Reuters) – Some 25% of SARS-CoV-2 infections among Los Angeles County residents occurred in fully vaccinated residents from May through July 25, a period that includes the impact of the highly transmissible Delta variant, U.S. officials reported on Tuesday. The data, published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease, shows an increase in so-called “breakthrough” infections among fully vaccinated individuals. The CDC is relying on data from cohorts, such as the Los Angeles County study, to determine whether Americans need a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines to increase protection. Government scientists last week laid out a strategy for booster doses beginning on Sept. 20, pending reviews from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC.The new data released on Tuesday involved more than 43,000 reported infections among Los Angeles County residents aged 16 and older. Of them, 10,895, or 25.3%, occurred in fully vaccinated persons, 1,431, or 3.3%, were in partially vaccinated persons, and 30,801, or 71.4%, were in unvaccinated individuals. The vaccines did, however, protect individuals from more severe cases. According to the study, 3.2% of fully vaccinated individuals who were infected with the virus were hospitalized, just 0.5% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 0.2% were placed on a ventilator. Among the unvaccinated who fell ill, 7.5% were hospitalized, 1.5% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 0.5% required breathing support with a mechanical ventilator.
In addition to the LA County data, the CDC on Tuesday released an update on the HEROES cohort study among healthcare workers that showed a significant drop in vaccine effectiveness among vaccinated frontline workers in eight states who became infected with the coronavirus.
Vaccine efficacy during the period of the study when Delta was predominant fell to 66% from 91% prior to the arrival of the Delta variant, according to the report.
SYDNEY, Aug 26 (Reuters) – Australia’s new daily cases of COVID-19 topped 1,000 on Thursday for the first time since the global pandemic began, as two major hospitals in Sydney set up emergency outdoor tents to help deal with a rise in patients. Sydney, the country’s largest city and the epicentre of the current outbreak, is struggling to stamp out a surge in the fast-spreading Delta variant, with daily infections hitting record levels even after two months under lockdown. New South Wales (NSW) state, where Sydney is the capital, reported 1,029 new locally acquired cases, exceeding the previous record of 919 a day earlier. Of the new cases, 969 were detected in greater Sydney, up from 838. The rapid rise in COVID-19 patients has forced Sydney’s Westmead and Blacktown hospitals, which service the city’s sprawling western suburbs, to erect tents to screen and swab patients to help manage capacity. The makeshift unit in the emergency department for COVID-19 patients will help “to offload delays”, a Western Sydney Local Health District spokesperson told Reuters. State Premier Gladys Berejiklian said authorities had quadrupled the number of the state’s intensive care ventilators to 2,000 early last year. Although the system is “under pressure”, it can withstand the current crisis once vaccination rates rise, she said. “It might be different to the help you got before because of the situation, but please know the system is kicking in,” Berejiklian said at a televised media conference. Of 116 people in intensive care in NSW, 102 are not vaccinated. Three new deaths were reported, including a man in his 30s who died at home, taking deaths from the latest outbreak to 79, although the death rate has slowed since last year. In a video posted on Twitter Wednesday night, the Australian Paramedic Association said paramedics were given a choice to wait in their vehicles with infected people or “wait outside in the freezing rain” due to the rise in patients. The fast-moving Delta strain has taken the gloss off Australia’s early success against the virus that kept its coronavirus numbers relatively low, with some 47,700 cases and 989 deaths. About 32% of people above 16 have been fully vaccinated while just over 54% have had at least one dose. Besides Sydney, the country’s second-largest city, Melbourne, and capital, Canberra, are also in hard lockdowns, putting more than half of the country’s 25 million population under strict stay-at-home orders. Cases in Victoria, home to Melbourne, surged to 80 on Thursday, up from 45 a day earlier.
The federal government is pushing ahead with the country’s reopening plans once vaccination rates reach 70%-80%, but some states have hinted they may delay given the rapid growth of cases in Sydney.
Berejiklian said NSW may reach 70% fully vaccinated by mid-October, and airline Qantas (QAN.AX) said it was preparing for international travel to resume in December. Also on Thursday, grocer Woolworths Group (WOW.AX) reported a surge in annual profit as lockdowns sparked demand for household essentials.
