Medical Testing

CDC to scale back data collection as US ends COVID health emergency The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Friday it would stop reporting or monitoring COVID-19 case data and transmission rates after the government ends the pandemic's public health emergency designation next week. Ahmed Aboulenein Reuters

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Free Covid-19 tests aren't guaranteed after May 11, but there's still time to stock up | CNN When the US Covid-19 public health emergency ends this month, coronavirus tests will still be available, but there will be changes to who pays for them. Deidre McPhillips CNN

...There are still ways to take advantage of the benefits provided by the public health emergency before it expires May 11. 

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Bivalent COVID vaccine shows good Omicron protection while older version wanes CIDRAP

Two studies published today measure the vaccine effectiveness (VE) of COVID-19 vaccines against laboratory-confirmed Omicron variant and subvariants and symptomatic disease. Vaccines that target the newer variants performed well, but primary vaccines offered rapidly waning protection from SARS-CoV-2 infections in the post-Omicron era.

Covid-sniffing dogs can help detect infections in K-12 schools, new study suggests | CNN Elementary students lined up behind a white curtain in the middle of a grand gymnasium at their school in northern California. They stood still as a dog handler walked a yellow Labrador along the other side of the curtain. Jacqueline Howard CNN

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