Joel Philippsen | CRH Photo Nursing Administrative Coordinators (NACs) Lynn Lutz, right, and Jennifer Willoughby discuss patient placements transfers and placements in the Command Center at Columbus Regional Hospital Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021.
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Joel Philippsen | CRH Photo Nursing Administrative Coordinators (NACs) Lynn Lutz, right, and Jennifer Willoughby discuss patient placements transfers and placements in the Command Center at Columbus Regional Hospital Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021.
Local health officials say they expect to see an increase in COVID-19 infections in the coming weeks as a more contagious version of the omicron variant that is already driving up cases in Europe and Asia makes its way across the United States.
However, officials do not anticipate a major surge like the one that overwhelmed the local health care system this past winter.
The new version of the coronavirus that public health officials are keeping an eye on, called the BA.2 subvariant, is a descendant of omicron but is about 30% more contagious than the original omicron strain.
BA.2 is already starting to gain ground in the United States, with the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing the share caused by BA.2 is up significantly and accounted for about 35% of new infections in the last week, The Associated Press reported. In the Northeast, it was about half of all confirmed infections.
However, the CDC case counts likely underestimate the true numbers because some people are no longer getting tested, and others are testing at home and not reporting the results, according to wire reports.
“As the BA.2 subvariant starts spreading across the U.S., it should be expected that local cases will start to increase again,” said Bartholomew County Health Officer Dr. Brian Niedbalski. “I don’t expect to see a surge anywhere near what we saw with omicron, but (we) need to be prepared for the unexpected.”
So far, vaccines appear just as effective against BA.2 as the original omicron strain, but breakthrough infections are possible. In rare cases, research shows it can sicken people even if they’ve already had an omicron infection.
But the extent to which the BA.2 causes more severe illness than the original omicron is unclear, Columbus Regional Health officials said.
“It does look like it’s even more transmissible than the first version of (omicron),” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue, who described the hospital system’s level of concern as “medium.”
“But (medical staff) don’t feel super confident on the level of severity of illness that it causes compared to (omicron.) For them, the jury is still out on that, and they are waiting for more information and data that can help them surmise that,” she said.
The spread of the subvariant has raised concerns among some officials at it comes at a time when far fewer people are taking pandemic precautions, and restrictions are being lifted across the U.S., including Bartholomew County.
It also comes on the heels of a surge this past winter that sent at least 1,252 Bartholomew County residents to hospital emergency rooms, resulting in 146 hospitalizations, 46 ICU admissions and 40 deaths, state records show.
However, COVID-19 hospitalizations have plummeted in Indiana, including at CRH, since January.
Earlier this week, state health officials reported that COVID-19 hospitalizations in Indiana fell to their lowest levels since the first weeks of the pandemic over two years ago. Locally, there were four people hospitalized with COVID-19 at Columbus Regional Hospital on Wednesday, the lowest since July 31.
But despite the steep decline in hospitalizations, CRH officials continue to caution people that “we’re not out of the woods yet.”
When local metrics improve, “we tend to let our guard down,” DeClue said. One of the concerns of local officials is that some people may forgo getting vaccinated or their booster shot “because things are better now.”
“We would caution people on that line of thinking,” DeClue said. “…You want to be prepared ahead of time.”
Currently, officials are monitoring the situation in Europe where coronavirus cases are rising again, including in the United Kingdom, France and Italy.
During the pandemic, public health experts have often viewed the ebbs and flows of case counts in Europe and elsewhere as a potential preview for what might happen in the United States.
However, local officials say it is hard to gauge how what is happening in other places like the United Kingdom will play out in Bartholomew County. In some ways, Bartholomew County residents may be less protected than the UK.
As of Wednesday, 86% of U.K. residents ages 12 and up were fully vaccinated, compared to 68% of Bartholomew County residents, according to data from the UK Health Security Agency and the CDC. A total of 67% of those 12 and up in the UK have received a booster shot, compared to 50% in Bartholomew County.
Though Bartholomew County residents ages 60 and up account for 88% of local COVID-19 deaths, 61% of that age group still hasn’t received a booster shot, according to the Indiana Department of Health. And some 2,840 local residents in that age group have not received any vaccine doses at all, based on U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
Additionally, some underlying health conditions that are known to increase the chances of a severe case of COVID-19, including diabetes and high blood pressure, are more prevalent in the Columbus area than in the UK.
“That’s certainly something that people need to keep in mind,” DeClue said, referring to the vaccination rates. “…That’s just data that we’re watching from other countries. Things change. The ways we live our lives here in America are different, in big city settings versus rural settings. It all kind of influences how each different community experiences the undulation of these surges.”
Local health officials are urging the 28,943 eligible Bartholomew County residents who have yet to get vaccinated to do so. CRH also is urging people to continue to take precautions, including masking, particularly in indoor settings.
“Just being ready so that you are prepared ahead of time instead of reactive is what’s really going to make the biggest impact on our community response to this, how we keep levels of transmission manageable,” DeClue said.
The Canadian government says it will donate up to 200,000 vaccine doses to fight the mpox outbreak in Congo and other African countries.
It says the donated doses of Imvamune will come from Canada’s existing supply and will not affect the country’s preparedness for mpox cases in this country.
Minister of Health Mark Holland says the donation “will help to protect those in the most affected regions of Africa and will help prevent further spread of the virus.”
Dr. Madhukar Pai, Canada research chair in epidemiology and global health, says although the donation is welcome, it is a very small portion of the estimated 10 million vaccine doses needed to control the outbreak.
Vaccine donations from wealthier countries have only recently started arriving in Africa, almost a month after the World Health Organization declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
A few days after the declaration in August, Global Affairs Canada announced a contribution of $1 million for mpox surveillance, diagnostic tools, research and community awareness in Africa.
On Thursday, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said mpox is still on the rise and that testing rates are “insufficient” across the continent.
Jason Kindrachuk, Canada research chair in emerging viruses at the University of Manitoba, said donating vaccines, in addition to supporting surveillance and diagnostic tests, is “massively important.”
But Kindrachuk, who has worked on the ground in Congo during the epidemic, also said that the international response to the mpox outbreak is “better late than never (but) better never late.”
“It would have been fantastic for us globally to not be in this position by having provided doses a much, much longer time prior than when we are,” he said, noting that the outbreak of clade I mpox in Congo started in early 2023.
Clade II mpox, endemic in regions of West Africa, came to the world’s attention even earlier — in 2022 — as that strain of virus spread to other countries, including Canada.
Two doses are recommended for mpox vaccination, so the donation may only benefit 100,000 people, Pai said.
Pai questioned whether Canada is contributing enough, as the federal government hasn’t said what percentage of its mpox vaccine stockpile it is donating.
“Small donations are simply not going to help end this crisis. We need to show greater solidarity and support,” he said in an email.
“That is the biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic — our collective safety is tied with that of other nations.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
