South Africa repeals COVID rules as fifth wave fades South Africa has repealed COVID-19 rules that made masks mandatory in indoor public spaces, limited the size of gatherings and imposed entry requirements at its borders, the health minister said on Thursday. Alexander Winning,Anait Miridzhanian Reuters

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US boosts monkeypox testing, 142 cases confirmed WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has started shipping monkeypox tests to commercial laboratories, in a bid to speed diagnoses for suspected infections for the virus that has already infected at least 142 people in the U.S. AP NEWS

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New coronavirus subvariants escape antibodies from vaccination and prior Omicron infection, studies suggest | CNN Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 appear to escape antibody responses among both people who had previous Covid-19 infection and those who have been fully vaccinated and boosted, according to new data from researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, of Harvard Medical School. Jacqueline Howard CNN

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COVID cases rise in Southeast Asia, Middle East and Europe LONDON (AP) — The number of new coronavirus cases rose in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Europe last week, while the number of deaths globally dropped by 16%, according to the World Health Organization's latest weekly pandemic report issued Wednesday. AP NEWS

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1 in 5 U.S. Adults Who Got COVID-19 Now Have Long COVID, Data Find More than 7% of U.S. adults have Long COVID Time

About 7.5% of U.S. adults—roughly 20 million people—are currently living with Long COVID symptoms, according to new federal data from the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

MEETING AMERICA’S
PUBLIC HEALTH CHALLENGE
Recommendations for Building a National Public Health
System That Addresses Ongoing and Future Health Crises,

“We Have to Get Out of This Phase”: Ashish Jha on the Future of the Pandemic President Biden’s COVID czar talks about his public-health philosophy, his Twitter threads, his unlikely path to the White House, and where we go from here. Dhruv Khullar The New Yorker

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https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciac501/6611845

Hospitalized patients with severe COVID-19 during the Omicron wave benefited from a 4th vaccine shot--Israeli study

Waning vaccine-immunity and an increased incidence of COVID-19 during the Omicron outbreak led the Israeli Ministry of Health to recommend a fourth dose of BNT162b2 for high-risk individuals. This study assessed the effect of that dose for hospitalized patients with severe/critical, breakthrough COVID-19. ...

Among hospitalized patients with severe/critical breakthrough COVID-19, a recent fourth dose was associated with significant protection against mechanical ventilation or death, compared to three doses.

Women are more likely than men to develop long COVID, study finds A new study found women are 22% more likely than men to develop long COVID and experience different lingering symptoms. ABC News ABC News

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Researchers from Johnson & Johnson's Office of the Chief Medical Officer for Women's Health analyzed data from studies involving 1.3 million patients.

US, Florida surgeon generals offer conflicting advice on COVID vaccines for kids As vaccines roll out this week for the final age group yet to be approved, the top doctors in Florida and the U.S. are offering opposite advice when it comes to vaccinating young children. edonovan WFLA

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U.S. delivers 2.7 mln COVID vaccine doses for kids under five to administration sites The United States has delivered about 2.7 million doses of COVID vaccines for children below five years to administration centres while another one million shots will reach the sites soon, the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday. Reuters Reuters

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