Article Summary
May 21, 2021
Excess Deaths Associated with Covid-19 Pandemic in 2020: Age and Sex Disaggregated Time Series Analysis in 29 High Income Countries
A time series study of excess deaths in 29 high income countries (including the US) found that nearly 1 million excess deaths occurred in 2020. These excess deaths exceed officially reported deaths from COVID-19 in many countries, suggesting that analysis of excess deaths is needed to determine the full impact of the pandemic on mortality….
COVID-19 and Excess Mortality in the United States: A County-Level Analysis
An ecological, cross-sectional analysis of 2020 US county-level (N=2,096) National Center for Health Statistics data on COVID-19 and all-cause mortality found that direct COVID-19 death counts substantially underestimated total excess mortality attributable to COVID-19. The authors calculated total excess deaths as the proportion of deaths that occurred beyond the expected number of deaths based on…
Clinical, Behavioural and Social Factors Associated with Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Patients from an Integrated Healthcare System in Georgia: A Retrospective Cohort Study
A retrospective cohort study of Kaiser Permanente Georgia members with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 (N=5,712) found Black (OR=1.4) and Hispanic (OR=1.6) members had higher odds of hospitalization, but not mortality, compared to white and Asian members. Additionally, a higher proportion of members diagnosed with COVID-19 were Black or Hispanic, compared to white or Asian (58% vs 9%)….
Controlling COVID-19 via Test-Trace-Quarantine
A modeling study found that high coverage of a test-trace-quarantine approach to COVID-19 containment could be sufficient for epidemic control even under a return to full workplace capacity and community mobility in a setting with low vaccine coverage. This approach involves regularly testing people with COVID-19 symptoms, identifying and testing potentially exposed contacts, and placing…
Factors Associated with Readmission in the US Following Hospitalization with COVID-19
A retrospective cohort study of persons hospitalized for COVID-19 between February and June 2020 in the US (N=29,659) found that 3.6% were readmitted within 30 days of their initial hospitalization and 12.3% died during their second hospitalization. The rate of readmission was highest within 10 days of discharge from the initial hospitalization. Persons readmitted were…
Risk of Clinical Sequelae after the Acute Phase of SARS-CoV-2 Infection: Retrospective Cohort Study
A large retrospective cohort study of US adults aged 18-65 enrolled in commercial insurance (N=9,247,505) found that 14% of individuals with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection developed at least 1 new clinical sequala requiring medical care after the acute phase of COVID-19 disease. In comparison, 9% of persons without SARS-CoV-2 infection and 13% of persons with a…
Persistence of SARS-CoV-2-Specific IgG in Children 6 Months After Infection, Australia
A longitudinal cohort study of Australian adults (N=32) and children (N=22) with SARS-CoV-2 infection who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms detected similar levels of specific IgG antibodies 6 months after infection in both children and adults. There was no significant difference in geometric mean antibody concentration from 43 to 195 days after infection, suggesting…
Infection and Vaccine-Induced Neutralizing Antibody Responses to the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.617.1 Variant
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] An in-vitro study of neutralizing antibody response to the B.617.1 variant found that the variant was 6.8-fold more resistant to neutralization by sera from persons previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 (N=24) and individuals vaccinated with either the Pfizer-BioNTech (N=10) or Moderna (N=15) vaccines compared to a wild type strain. However, 79% of serum…
Efficient Maternal to Neonatal Transfer of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 and BNT162b2 MRNA COVID-19 Vaccine
A multicenter study of pregnant persons in Israel (N=213) found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine elicited strong maternal IgG response and produced similar IgG titers in the fetus 15 days after the first dose. Among study participants who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 during pregnancy, those infected in the third trimester had lower rates of antibody transfer…
COVID-19 Testing to Sustain In-Person Instruction and Extracurricular Activities in High Schools — Utah, November 2020–March 2021
An evaluation of two high school COVID-19 testing programs implemented in Utah to support continuation of in-person instruction and extracurricular activities found that the programs saved an estimated 109,952 in-person instruction student-days and supported continuation of extracurricular activities. One program implemented SARS-CoV-2 testing every 14 days for participation in extracurricular activities, and the other implemented…
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