The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that new coronavirus variants could emerge during the pandemic that render the current vaccines useless. "As this pandemic drags on, it’s possible that new variants could evade our countermeasures and become fully resistant to current vaccines or past infection, necessitating vaccine adaptations," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva.
California became the first state to record more than 5 million known coronavirus infections, according to the state dashboard Tuesday, which was delayed by the holiday weekend. The grim milestone, as reported by the California Department of Public Health, wasn’t entirely unexpected in a state with 40 million residents poised for a surge in new infections amid holiday parties and family gatherings forced indoors by a series of winter storms.
Pushed to the breaking point, pharmacy technicians are quitting in waves and stores are struggling to hire, leading to shorter hours, delayed prescriptions and risky mistakes.
The substantial increase of COVID-19 positive patients over the past month at UM Upper Chesapeake Medical Center (UM UCMC) in Bel Air has forced the hospital to declare Crisis Standards of Care (CSC) protocols as part of its pandemic plan. Effective today, the UM Harford Memorial Hospital (UM HMH) in Havre de Grace will adopt CSC as well.
A five-fold increase in pediatric admissions in New York City this month. Close to double the numbers admitted in Washington, DC. And nationwide, on average, pediatric hospitalizations are up 48% in just the past week.