COVID-19

Forgotten but not gone: COVID keeps killing, five years on Five years since COVID-19 started upending the world, the virus is still infecting and killing people across the globe—though at far lower levels than at the height of the pandemic. Medical Xpress

...Around 777 million COVID cases and more than seven million deaths have been officially recorded since the first infections emerged in December 2019, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

However, the true toll is believed to be far higher.

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Study: COVID-19 hospital cases, deaths in nursing homes fell sharply after widespread vaccination Eighty-seven percent of hospitalizations and 89% of resident deaths took place before widespread vaccination. CIDRAP

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"Despite peak or near-peak outbreak duration and size in the winter surge that followed vaccination, the decline in severe outcomes observed upon vaccine introduction endured," the authors wrote.

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Are mask mandates making a comeback? Hospitalizations have spiked in major cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. sthomas The Hill

In Southern California, most hospitals never ended their mask mandates after the COVID-19 pandemic. But now, more mandates are returning. ...

Hospitalizations are up sharply in major cities, including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

Health officials are advising the immunocompromised to mask in public to prevent illness, and in Wisconsin, a major health care group is reinstating a mask mandate beginning next week.

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