Feds step-up testing programs
CDC ramps up surveillance testing to confirm prevalence of South Africa, Brazil and UK coronavirus strains.
Here’s a roundup of the top COVID-19 news for Monday, February 1, 2021.
The COVID-19 strains that were first described in Brazil and South Africa have been confirmed in 32 states, including the San Francisco Bay area. Florida and Southern California have the largest known concentrations of these more virulent strains.
The CDC has expanded surveillance testing to detect COVID strains, increasing the number of genetic tests from 251 in the week ending January 10 to more than 2,200 last week. The US continues to lag behind other nations in COVID detection and testing.
The White House announced a $232 million deal with Australia’s Ellume to build a factory in the United States for the production of 8.5 million COVID-19 home tests.
Researchers in Australia published data showing how the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can be detected in blood samples. They are developing a blood test.
One of the researchers is himself a long-COVID patient. Check out this interview from a recent Australian Broadcasting Corp. program.
In that interview, Dr. Jeremy Nicholson cites an increase in diabetes associated with COVID-19. Doctors in the USA are noticing this, too.
Experts reacted with skepticism to a pre-published study by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York that suggests many people develop sufficient immunity after one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines that the second shot might be avoidable.
Officials from the previous administration “actively lobbied” to block funding for states to support vaccine distribution, according to STATNews.