Public Health

Some governors are pushing for a return to normal and urging federal officials to take a more endemic approach handling the pandemic, according to a Jan. 31 New York Times report.

With its rapid emergence and wide range of symptoms, omicron appears to be tied to one symptom that wasn't as frequently reported with past coronavirus variants.  

Some physicians say they're seeing more patients who want to avoid polymerase chain reaction testing for COVID-19 out of fear of the potential disruptions it could cause to their livelihoods, NPR reported Feb. 1. 

The omicron subvariant BA.2 is more transmissible than the original strain, though vaccinated people are less likely to spread it to others, according to a Danish study published Jan. 30 in the medical preprint server MedRxiv. 

U.S. COVID-19 cases have been declining for more than two weeks, though that decline may slow as the BA.2 variant — a subvariant of omicron — becomes more widespread, according to a 14-day forecast from Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic.

Here are 22 COVID-19-related research findings covered by Becker's Hospital Review since Dec. 30:

The omicron subvariant BA.2 will not likely change the overall course of the pandemic, but could prolong the current surge in many parts of the world, scientists told The New York Times.

Omicron dominates the coronavirus landscape in the U.S., accounting for 99.9 percent of cases for the week ending Jan. 22. Still, experts are wary of dismissing delta as no longer a concern just yet, The Atlantic reported Jan. 27. 

COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are falling in the U.S., while deaths continue to rise, according to the CDC's COVID data tracker weekly review published Jan. 28. 

So far, there have been at least 2 million estimated flu cases, 20,000 flu hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths this season, according to the CDC's FluView report published Jan. 28.