More than 107,000 people died from drug overdoses in the U.S. during the second year of the pandemic, setting a new tragic record, according to an estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Meanwhile, North Korea has reported 27 COVID-19 deaths in its first acknowledged outbreak as officials scramble to contain the spread among the estimated 26 million people in the country who are largely unvaccinated.
We’re updating this page with the latest news about the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the Seattle area, the U.S. and the world. Click here to see the rest of our coronavirus coverage and here to see how we track the daily spread across Washington.
De Blasio urges NY Mayor Adams to keep his COVID policies on standby: ‘You may need them real soon’
NEW YORK — Bill de Blasio doesn’t want Mayor Eric Adams to turn the page on his signature pandemic policies just yet.
As COVID-19 cases continue to tick up across the five boroughs, the former mayor urged his successor Friday to be ready to rapidly reimplement some of the public health restrictions he has scrapped since taking over the helm at City Hall.
Careful not to directly knock Adams, de Blasio said he “won’t criticize” the mayor’s decision to rescind the Key2NYC indoor vaccine mandate and the public school face mask mandate earlier this year.
“But I’d say this as a friendly reminder: Keep those strong tools available. You may need them real soon,” de Blasio said in an appearance on WNYC.
Oregon puts schools on notice about COVID spread, stops short of recommending masking
Oregon officials asked schools to prioritize in-person learning amid rising COVID-19infections by monitoring spread of disease in their community and absenteeism, offering testing and recommending or even mandating masks before moving to remote learning.
In effect through Aug. 31, the state’s health advisory also recommends universal masking if a school is in a county where the federally defined risk level is “high.” No Oregon counties have reached that level, though six, including the three metro area counties, are in the “medium” risk level.
The state’s warning comes amid rising coronavirus cases, a previously predicted bump brought on by the highly infectious omicron BA.2 subvariant and the lifting of mask restrictions. Hospitalizations are rising, too, and are predicted to peak around 320 within about a month.
Whitman County’s COVID cases are up, with most in congregate settings
COVID-19 cases in Whitman County have spiked in recent weeks, with a majority of the new infections have been in congregate settings, said the director of the county’s public health department.
Chris Skidmore said that for the week of May 3-9, the county had approximately 50 new cases; the week before that, from April 26-May 2, there were about 75 new cases.
“The vast majority of those cases have been in congregate settings — long-term care, child care, school setting,” Skidmore said Friday.
4 Air Force cadets may not graduate due to vaccine refusal
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four cadets at the Air Force Academy may not graduate or be commissioned as military officers this month because they have refused the COVID-19 vaccine, and they may be required to pay back thousands of dollars in tuition costs, according to Air Force officials.
It’s the only military academy, so far, where cadets may face such penalties. The Army and Navy said that as of now, not one of their seniors is being prevented from graduating at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, or the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, due to vaccine refusals. The graduations are in about two weeks.
Judge tosses COVID vaccine objections of Hanford workers
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by several hundred Hanford nuclear reservation and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory workers in Richland over COVID-19 vaccine requirements.
The lawsuit was filed in November to halt enforcement of President Joe Biden’s executive orders requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for Department of Energy employees and the employees of contractors and subcontractors on federal projects, The Tri-City Herald reported.
But U.S. Judge Thomas Rice found that lawyers for the Hanford and national lab workers had not provided clear arguments nor specific information about most workers to make their case.
South Africa in new surge of COVID from versions of omicron
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa is experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 cases driven by two omicron sub-variants, according to health experts.
For about three weeks the country has seen increasing numbers of new cases and somewhat higher hospitalizations, but not increases in severe cases and deaths, said Professor Marta Nunes, a researcher at Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.
“We’re still very early in this increase period, so I don’t want to really call it a wave,” Nunes said. “We are seeing a slight, a small increase in hospitalizations and really very few deaths.”
South Africa’s new cases have gone from an average of 300 per day in early April to about 8,000 per day this week. Nunes says the actual number of new cases is probably much higher because the symptoms are mild and many who get sick are not getting tested.
