Public Health

In line with national forecasts, health systems on opposite sides of the country — NewYork-Presbyterian and Phoenix-based Banner Health — both anticipate the omicron-driven COVID-19 surge to peak at some point this month. 

A proposal from California Gov. Gavin Newsom aims to make the state the first to expand Medicaid eligibility to include anyone regardless of their immigration status, according to a Jan. 11 report from The Sacramento Bee. 

COVID-19 hospitalizations have surpassed levels seen during last winter's surge and are now at an all-time high, HHS data shows.

The current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. in many ways differs from earlier surges, with breakthrough infections now a norm and not the exception. 

As cases and hospitalizations rapidly rise nationwide, healthcare workers across 11 states told The Atlantic how and why this surge is pushing their hospitals to the brink. 

Ramping up COVID-19 booster administration could save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations over the next four months, according to a Jan.7 analysis from the Commonwealth Fund.

Payers maintain one of the few remaining ways of holding accountable the 15 percent of U.S. adults unvaccinated against COVID-19: leveraging insurance surcharges and discounts, columnist Glenn Altschuler wrote in a Jan. 10 column for The Hill. 

Eight states recorded very high flu activity for the week of Jan. 1, the highest level as categorized by the CDC, according to the agency's most recent FluView report.

Some East Coast states may see new omicron cases peak this week, but the Midwest is still facing the thick of a surge, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, said Jan. 9 on CBS' "Face the Nation."

U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations are at 96 percent of last winter's peak, according to data tracked by The New York Times.