COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths might have been prevented last summer had pandemic restrictions remained in place, researchers from San Diego-based Scripps Health and New York City-based Columbia University found.

The FDA is warning healthcare providers of a potential infection risk linked to reprocessed urological endoscopes after receiving numerous reports of patient infections and contamination issues, the agency said April 1.

Researchers at Stanford (Calif.) Clinical Virology Lab have confirmed one case of a coronavirus variant, first detected in India, that carries two mutations, the San Francisco Chronicle reported April 4. 

COVID-19 deaths have fallen for the last 11 weeks, excluding a small increase March 27-28, according to the CDC's COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review published April 2. But new cases and hospitalizations are rising.  

As Michigan reports more than 8,000 new COVID-19 cases in one day, some experts say the Midwest is entering its "fourth wave," reports CNN. 

Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins School of Nursing has appointed Marie Nolan, PhD, RN, to serve as the school's interim dean, effective April 16. 

Americans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can travel "at low risk to themselves," both within the U.S. and internationally, but must still continue social distancing and mask-wearing, according to new CDC guidance.

Many experts believe variants are largely driving the recent upticks in COVID-19 cases across the U.S., with the B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the U.K., now accounting for about 26 percent of all U.S. infections, according to recent CDC estimates. 

The race between vaccines and coronavirus variants continued this week, spurring continued warnings about a potential fourth surge, alongside more hopeful news of the Pfizer vaccine's strong efficacy in adolescents.

Months after the official COVID-19 vaccine rollout began, systems of all sizes have adjusted their strategy to become more efficient and match the community they serve.

Houston Methodist has administered monoclonal antibody treatments to nearly 4,000 patients with COVID-19 since the therapy was granted emergency use authorization last November. The health system outlined how it rapidly scaled out its antibody program in a March 29 article published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Nearly one-third of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in the U.K. were readmitted, and they experienced multiorgan dysfunction at higher rates than those without COVID-19, according to research published March 31 in the British Medical Journal. 

Hospitals can utilize enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols to better support patients and reduce negative postoperative outcomes amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Scientists at Hackensack Meridian Health have developed a test that can detect multiple coronavirus variants within two-and-a-half hours, the Edison, N.J.-based system said April 1.

An Atlanta-based nurse who contracted COVID-19 while working on the pandemic's front line last year has launched a consulting company to help organizations improve pandemic preparedness, reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

While deaths jumped 17.7 percent overall in the U.S. last year, suicides decreased for the third consecutive year, according to preliminary CDC data published in JAMA.

Maddy Pearson, DNP, RN, CNO at Boston-based Brigham and Women's Hospital, has started the Resiliency Roadmap podcast focused on how nurses can build resiliency and practice self-care, WGBH, a local NPR station, reported March 31. 

Cases of the U.K. B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant in Houston are doubling weekly, increasing rapidly to 648 cases in mid-March from 305 just a week earlier, according to findings from Houston Methodist.

The immune systems of people with a prior COVID-19 infection may be able to fend off three now widely known variants, according to a small study led by the National Institutes of Health and published March 30 in Open Forum Infectious Diseases. 

The more transmisible B.1.1.7. coronavirus variant, which first emerged in the U.K., currently accounts for about 26 percent of cases in the U.S., according to Rochelle Walensky, MD, CDC director.