Public Health

Long COVID-19 must be at the forefront of healthcare leaders' plans, The Washington Post editorial board stated Feb. 20.

As travel restrictions loosen in some regions, four health experts shared with The Washington Post what COVID-19 precautions and strategies individuals should still keep in place.

After weeks of projecting rising or stable COVID-19 deaths, the CDC said it expects deaths to fall through early March. 

As of Feb. 18, about $24,000 has been donated to Cincinnati Children's after Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti took to Twitter to encourage residents to donate after the Rams' Super Bowl win against the Bengals, The Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

More than 92.5 million people, or 43 percent of the nation's fully vaccinated population, have received a booster dose, according to CDC data updated Feb. 17. 

COVID-19 deaths fell nationally for the second consecutive week, while hospitalizations declined for the third straight week and cases dropped for the fourth, according to the CDC's COVID data tracker weekly review published Feb. 18.

While federal data shows COVID-19 booster effectiveness declines after four months, U.S. health officials say it's still too soon to know whether a fourth shot will be needed for the general public, The New York Times reported Feb. 17.

Though only low or minimal flu activity was reported across the U.S. for the week ending Feb. 12, flu hospital admissions increased slightly, according to the CDC's FluView report published Feb. 18.

COVID-19 hospitalization rates among children and adolescents were almost four times higher during omicron's peak than during delta's peak, according to a CDC report.

The omicron subvariant BA.2 has many genetic differences from its parent strain that would warrant it being labeled as a separate variant of concern with its own Greek letter, Japanese researchers said in a study posted Feb. 15 on the…