Article Summary
December 11, 2020
Estimated Resource Costs for Implementation of CDC’s Recommended COVID-19 Mitigation Strategies in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12 Public Schools — United States, 2020–21 School Year.
Mitigation strategies recommended by CDC to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission in schools are estimated to cost between a mean value of $55 per student for materials and consumables (e.g. desk shields, hand sanitizer, and face masks) to $442 per student for additional custodial staff and transportation. These values represent an additional 0.3% to 7.1% above school…
December 10, 2020
Trends in U.S. Emergency Department Visits Related to Suspected or Confirmed Child Abuse and Neglect Among Children and Adolescents Aged <18 Years Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United States, January 2019–September 2020
Early in the pandemic during March-April 2020, the total number of US emergency department (ED) visits related to child abuse and neglect among individuals aged <18 years decreased by 53% compared to 2019, but the weekly number of these visits ending in hospitalization remained stable. As a result, the percentage of ED visits for child…
COVID-19 Mortality Among American Indian and Alaska Native Persons — 14 States, January–June 2020. MMWR
Data from 14 states, including Washington, show that age-adjusted COVID-19-associated mortality was 1.8 times higher among American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) than non-Hispanic white individuals. People aged 20-29 years, 30-39 years, and 40-49 years experienced the largest disparities, with mortality rates 10.5, 11.6, and 8.2 times higher, respectively. Overall, AI/AN persons dying from COVID-19 were younger…
Widespread Testing, Case Isolation and Contact Tracing May Allow Safe School Reopening with Continued Moderate Physical Distancing: A Modeling Analysis of King County, WA Data
Modeling based on King County, Washington State indicates that returning to a level of 75% of pre-COVID-19 physical interactions between May 15-July 15 was projected to result in 350 daily deaths by early September 2020. Maintaining less than 45% of pre-COVID-19 physical interactions was required to ensure low levels of daily infections and deaths. A…
Ethno-Cultural Disparities in Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study on the Impact of Exposure to the Virus and COVID-19-Related Discrimination and Stigma on Mental Health across Ethno-Cultural Groups in Quebec (Canada)
In an online survey of a culturally diverse sample of 3,273 adults in Quebec, mental health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic varied significantly based on socioeconomic status and ethno-cultural group. Compared to other socioeconomic and ethno-cultural groups, participants with lower incomes and Arab participants reported higher psychological distress. Black participants exposed to COVID-19 (personal diagnosis…
Severity of COVID-19 in Children with Cancer: Report from the United Kingdom Paediatric Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project
A retrospective and prospective observational study of all children in the UK under 16 diagnosed with cancer suggests that children with cancer do not appear to be at increased risk of severe SARS-CoV-2 infection compared to the general pediatric population. 54 cases were identified between March-July 2020 (3% estimated cumulative incidence); 5 (28%) were asymptomatic,…
Safety and Efficacy of the BNT162b2 MRNA Covid-19 Vaccine
Results of the phase 3 double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial for the BioNTech and Pfizer mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 (n=21,720 in vaccine group, and 21,728 in placebo group) showed a vaccine efficacy of 95% (95% CI 90.3-97.6), with 8 cases of COVID-19 (1 severe case) in the vaccine group and 162 cases (9 severe cases) in the…
Long-Term SARS-CoV-2 RNA Shedding and Its Temporal Association to IgG Seropositivity
A retrospective study juxtaposing longitudinal SARS-CoV-2 PCR positivity with IgG antibody seropositivity (n=851) found patients who seroconverted may still actively shed viral RNA. Out of 90 patients with positive IgG results (mean upper bound from initial PCR test = 37.8 days), 14 were actively shedding viral RNA (positive PCR test) between 0 and 64 days…
Multi-Center Evaluation of the Cepheid Xpert® Xpress SARS-CoV-2/Flu/RSV Test
Evaluation of the Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2/Flu/RSV panel test showed high sensitivity and accuracy to distinguish SARS-CoV-2 from influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Among 319 nasopharyngeal swab specimens (n=228 positive for SARS-CoV-2, influenza, or RSV; n=91 negative for all 3 infections), positive agreement for SARS-CoV-2 was 98.7% (n=74/75) and negative agreement was 100% (n=91), while…
Transmissibility of COVID-19 Depends on the Viral Load around Onset in Adult and Symptomatic Patients
In a retrospective study of 28 COVID-19 patients in Japan, median viral load at initial sample collection was significantly higher in symptomatic than asymptomatic patients, and also higher among adults than children. Among symptomatic patients (n=18), median viral load was consistently higher in patients identified as household cluster index cases than in non-index cases up…
Previous page Next page