Public Health

Seasonal flu activity remains unusually low for this time of  year, according to the CDC's FluView report for the week ending Feb. 20.

Researchers at New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University filed a patent application for a malaria vaccine that uses RNA-based technology similar to Moderna and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, reports The Academic Times.

The nation's current seven-day new COVID-19 case average has fallen 73.4 percent from its peak average of 249,303 cases reported Jan. 11, according to the CDC's COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review published Feb. 26.  

The U.S. will now direct travelers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Guinea, which are currently facing Ebola outbreaks, to six U.S. airports, the CDC said Feb. 26. 

The FDA authorized Johnson & Johnson's single-shot COVID-19 vaccine Feb. 27, and on Feb. 28, the CDC officially recommended the vaccine's immediate use. 

In 2019, 47,511 suicide deaths were reported in the U.S., reflecting a 2.1 percent decline from 2018, according to a CDC report published Feb. 26. It's the first time the suicide rate has fallen in 13 years. 

One dose of Pfizer's vaccine may offer strong protection to people who've already had COVID-19, according to two studies published Feb. 25 in The Lancet. 

About 55 percent of U.S. adults say they have received the COVID-19 vaccine or want it as soon as possible, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's latest COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor report released Feb. 26.  

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. have decreased every day since Jan. 12, hitting their lowest point since Nov. 4, reports The COVID Tracking Project. 

Greensboro, N.C.-based Cone Health is closing its COVID-19 hospital on March 5 and transitioning care to four other hospital campuses.