What is the risk of catching COVID outside?
Summer in the Bay Area means outdoor parties, weddings and music festivals, where people can worry a little less about catching COVID-19. But will rapidly spreading offshoots of the omicron variant of the coronavirus change the equation this year? Health experts agree that outdoor activities are still much safer than indoors because viral aerosols don’t have a chance to build up in the air. But with the more contagious variants still, chances are you have less protection in some cases. Read more about how to protect yourself even when you’re not indoors.
Judge rules against vaccine mandate for Los Angeles schools
A judge has ruled that the Los Angeles County Unified School District lacks the authority to require students to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to attend school, siding with the father of a 12-year-old who challenged the mandate. After three months of arguments, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ruled Tuesday that the local rule conflicts with state law, the Los Angeles Times reports. “While LAUSD argues that the court’s decision should apply only to (plaintiff), the court finds no justification for such a limitation given the board’s lack of authority to approve the resolution,” Beckloff wrote in his decision. The district had already delayed the requirement until July 2023, in line with state guidance. The decision does not affect the vaccine requirement for teachers and staff, which is effective from August 2021.
Pharmacists can now prescribe Paxlovid
Pharmacists can prescribe the leading COVID-19 pill directly to patients under a new US policy announced Wednesday that aims to expand the use of Pfizer’s drug Paxlovid, the Associated Press reports. The Food and Drug Administration said pharmacists can begin screening patients to see if they are eligible for Paxlovid and then prescribe the drug, which has been shown to limit the worst effects of COVID-19. Previously only doctors could prescribe the antiviral drug.
New subvariants BE.1 and BF.1 omicron identified in Louisiana
Scientists say they have identified two new subtypes of the omicron variant in Louisiana that have led to the state’s recent surge in coronavirus. The new subvariables were named BE.1 and BF.1. by researchers at LSU Health New Orleans’ Precision Medicine Lab, which is working with the Louisiana Department of Health, Ochsner Health and the Louisiana Infectious Disease Bioinformatics Company BIE to collect samples from COVID-19 tests and have them genetically sequenced to determine which versions of the disease are circulating in the state. “To our knowledge, these micron subvariants have not been reported in the United States until now,” said Dr. Lucio Miele, lab co-director and chief of Genetics at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine. “Their potential clinical and public significance is still unknown.”
Europe at center of another global COVID outbreak, WHO says
COVID-19 infections have risen by 30% worldwide in the past two weeks with Europe at the center of a new surge in cases, according to the World Health Organization. The new wave is driven by the highly contagious and immune-evasive micron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which this week became dominant in the US, the agency said. Officials also expressed concern about the BA2.75 sublineage of the omicron variant, which was recently identified in India. “We are seeing a much more intense wave of the disease coming through Europe again,” Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme, told a media briefing on Wednesday. “And we’re going to see it happen elsewhere – we’re already seeing it in Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean region as well.”
