As the nation's COVID-19 cases trend upward due to Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariant activity, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Jul 15 renewed the public health emergency for 3 more months.
The COVID health emergency has been in effect since Jan 31, 2020, and has now been renewed 10 times. Several COVID-19 response policies are tied to the emergency declaration, which also allows regulatory and funding flexibility.
Meanwhile, US COVID markers continue to rise, and over the past week, new daily cases rose 15%, with hospitalizations up 7% and deaths up a steeper 31%, according to the Washington Post tracker. The 7-day average for new daily cases is 130,403 and the daily average for deaths is 432.
Last week, members of the White House COVID committee urged Americans to get current with their COVID-19 vaccination and boosters. And yesterday in an interview with ABC News, Ashish Jha, MD, the committee's coordinator, said the subvariants are the most immune evasive yet, and with their higher transmissibility, officials are seeing high levels of reinfection.
Health officials have emphasized that vaccines are still a powerful tool for preventing hospitalizations and deaths, and this week, the nation is poised to have a fourth vaccine to offer for the primary vaccine series. Tomorrow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) will discuss and vote on whether to recommend the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for adults ages 18 and older.
ECDC advice on vaccine strategies
In international developments, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) today released guidance on COVID-19 vaccination strategies for the second half of 2022.
The ECDC said though BA.4 and BA.5 increases are still relatively recent, they signify the start of a widespread wave. And although there's no evidence of increased severity, increasing transmission in older age-groups is starting to result in severe disease.
Officials said the goal of vaccine campaigns is to reduce severe outcomes and protect healthcare systems. They emphasized that people older than 60 and with underlying conditions are at greatest risk, and projections show clear benefits of an early second booster for protecting people older than 60.
Elsewhere, though China's daily totals are small compared to other nations due to its "zero COVID" policy, the country continues to identify cases outside of quarantine settings. Several major cities including Shanghai and Tianjin ordered new rounds of mass testing, while infections in Lanzhou and Zhumadain have prompted lockdowns in affected areas, according to Reuters.
