Article Summary
March 25, 2021
Continued Proportional Age Shift of Confirmed Positive COVID-19 Incidence over Time to Children and Young Adults: Washington State March—August 2020
The age distribution of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Washington State shifted from older age groups to young adults and children between March and August 2020, according to a longitudinal cohort analysis. From March to April, there was a 10% decline in cases among those age 60 years and older and a 20% increase among those…
Counties with High COVID-19 Incidence and Relatively Large Racial and Ethnic Minority Populations — United States, April 1–December 22, 2020
US county-level data show that during April 2020 11% of counties (n=3,142) reported high 2-week COVID-19 incidence (>100 new cases per 100,000 persons), which rose to 65% of counties in August, and 99% in December 2020. Counties whose percentages of racial and ethnic minority populations are larger than the respective national percentages were consistently overrepresented…
Prevalence, Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Suicidal Ideation during the COVID-19 Pandemic in U.S. Military Veterans with Pre-Existing Psychiatric Conditions
SARS-CoV-2 infection, pre-pandemic psychosocial difficulties, and increased severity in psychiatric symptoms were identified as risk factors for suicidal ideation (SI) among a cohort of veterans with pre-existing psychiatric conditions (n=661). 19% of veterans screened positive for SI during the pandemic, and these veterans had lower income, were more likely to have had SARS-CoV-2 infection, and…
Genomic Evidence of SARS-CoV-2 Reinfection Involving E484K Spike Mutation, Brazil
SARS-CoV-2 reinfection with a variant harboring the E484K mutation (occurring in the P.2 variant) was confirmed by genome sequencing in a case study in Brazil. The primary infection occurred in May 2020 by a widely circulating variant B.1.1.33 without the E484K mutation, while the reinfection occurred 147 days later in October 2020. Findings from this…
COVID-19 Infection Risk amongst 14104 Vaccinated Care Home Residents A National Observational Longitudinal Cohort Study in Wales United Kingdom December 2020 to March 2021
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Only 1% of over 14,000 nursing home residents in the UK who have received the first dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines reported a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test in an observational study from December 2020 to March 2021. 90% of infections occurred within 28 days of the first dose. At…
Antibody Responses after a Single Dose of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccine
Among healthcare workers who received a single dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, those who had SARS-CoV-2 infection 30-60 days prior to vaccination (n=36) had significantly higher antibody levels and higher levels of antibodies with neutralizing characteristics at 3 weeks post-vaccination than individuals with no prior infection (n=152). After the first vaccine dose, both previously infected…
BNT162b2 MRNA Covid-19 Vaccine Effectiveness among Health Care Workers
Weekly incidence of COVID-19 among healthcare workers (HCWs) in a two-campus medical center in Jerusalem steadily declined after commencement of two-dose vaccinations with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in December 2020. Decline in incidence occurred despite a surge of the B.1.1.7 variant (up to 80% of cases) within the community. Benenson et al. (Mar 23, 2021). BNT162b2 MRNA…
B.1.526 SARS-CoV-2 Variants Identified in New York City Are Neutralized by Vaccine-Elicited and Therapeutic Monoclonal Antibodies
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Neutralizing activity elicited by prior SARS-CoV-2 infection, mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna), or the Regeneron monoclonal antibody cocktail (REGN10933 and REGN10987) were similar against the B.1.526 variant with the S477N mutation compared to the widely circulating strain with the D614G mutation. In contrast, similar to other E484K harboring variants, the B.1.526 variant…
Detection of Mutations Associated with Variants of Concern Via High Throughput Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 Isolated from NYC Wastewater
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] Genomic analysis of wastewater samples from New York City obtained from January to March 2021 found that the SARS-CoV-2 mutations occurring at the highest frequencies where associated with known variants of concern. Mutations occurring at high frequencies include L452R, present in the CAL.20C variant first described in California, E484K, present in the…
Emergence of the E484K Mutation in SARS-CoV-2 Lineage B.1.1.220 in Upstate New York
[Pre-print, not peer-reviewed] A novel SARS-CoV-2 variant (assigned name B.1.1.220) was detected by ongoing surveillance in samples collected in early February in four patients in upstate New York. B.1.1.220 was characterized with the E484K substitution in the spike protein, also present in the B.1.351 variant that was first described in South Africa and the P.1…
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