Coronavirus Weekend News Brief – May 5: Covid Hospitalizations Hit Record Low, TB Outbreak Causes Public Health Emergency

The show floor of the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,516th day.
In news we cover today , Covid hospitalizations in the United States are at an all-time low, two sessions at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association are tackling Long Covid, and a TB outbreak in Long Beach caused health officials there to declare a public health emergency.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On May 5, 2020, as the global death toll passed the 250,000 mark, doctors in France said they believed a patient had had the novel Coronavirus in late December 2019 after retesting samples taken at the time. The patient had been originally diagnosed with a case of pneumonia and the diagnosis had been made days before China reported what was then an unknown ailment to the World Health Organization and a month before the virus was originally believed to have emerged in France.
States were beginning to reopen their economies, although the number of cases in the United States was at the timeincreasing daily by 2 to 4%, and the death toll had stubbornly remained over 1,000 for more than a month.
In the United States, pharmaceutical firm Pfizer said it has begun a human trial of a coronavirus vaccine.
The city of Stillwater, Oklahoma, had to walk back a rule that required patrons of shops and restaurants to wear masks after receiving multiple calls reporting threats of violence against restaurant and shop employees trying to enforce the rule, and Hawaii – rather optimistically – said it planned to brand itself as “the safest place on earth” when tourism would restart later in 2020.  The state has had a very small number of cases of the novel coronavirus up until this point compared to other states in the union and also a very low fatality rate, however that changed dramatically in the months ahead.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 3.69 million, of which 1.22 million hadrecovered, based on data compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief at the time. The death toll stood at 255,138. In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases stood at 1.22 million, while the death toll stood at 70,727.
LONG COVID
At the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, which is taking place this weekend in New York City, there were two sessions focused on Long Covid.  The first, entitled Assessment and Management of Long Covid in the Outpatient Setting: Clinical Recommendations From the APA Council on Consult-Liaison Psychiatry, the presenters covered a wide range of topics including education on the various neuropsychiatric presentations psychiatrists may see in an outpatient setting and recommended screening tools and interventions. They also reviewed figures and tables on screeners and treatments for each cluster of symptoms.
The second session, Long Covid and Longer Term Effects of Covid 19 : What Every Psychiatrist Should Know, will take place on Monday and is an interactive and interdisciplinary panel session that will attempt to provide a comprehensive overview of the biopsychosocial aspects of Long Covid.
UNITED STATES
As reported in our Pandemic Statistics section in this issue, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that just 5,098 individuals were hospitalized in the United States due to the SARS-CoV-2 in the week ending April 27, the most recent data available. That figure is far below the 150,650 who were hospitalized the week of January 15, 2022 during the peak of the omicron wave.
Razer, the company that sold a supposed N95 equivalent face mask in 2001 called the Zephyr, was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission to pay customers over $1 million in refunds for falsely advertising its garish, bizarre-looking mask, as well as $100,000 in fines and penalties.
While the company advertised the Zephyr masks as N95-grade, it never submitted them for testing to the FDA or National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the masks were never certified as N95.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
In California, Long Beach health officials declared a tuberculosis outbreak to be a public health emergency last week. The move came after one person diedand nine others were hospitalized due to the tuberculosis outbreak. The spread appears to have been contained to one single-room occupancy hotel.
A total of 14 people have thus far tested positive for TB, and nine of which who have been hospitalized. An additional 170 are believed to have been exposed to the virus. Dr. Anissa Davis, the city’s health officer, said that the health department is working to stop the disease from spreading.
Tuberculosis, also known colloquially as the “white death” as well as “TB” and historically as consumption, is an infectious disease usually caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacteria. TB spreads through the air and particles are inhaled, but it takes long-term exposure to contract the virus.  Symptoms can include a chronic cough with blood-containing mucus, chills, night sweats, and weight loss.
In Indonesia, Rakus had a facial wound and used Fibraurea tinctoria, also known as Akar Kuning, a plant with known medical properties, to help heal it. There’s nothing unusual about that except Rakus is a wild orangutang.
A paper published in the journal Scientific Reports last week indicates that Rakus knew exactly what he was doing and this appears to be the first report of an animal applying a plant known for healing properties to a wound in order to heal it.
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending April 27, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on May 3 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 3.0%, a figure that is unchanged from the previous 7-day period, and the trend in test positivity is -0.1% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.3%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -11%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 5,098, a figure that is down 11.1 % over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.8%, a figure that is essentially unchanged from the previous period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5,644 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where Has All the Data Gone?
We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.
We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.
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Hal Abrahamson contributed reporting to this issue.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE.  The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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