The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and the Omicron variant

More than half the inmates at a federal prison in Mississippi are currently infected with Covid-19, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

The prison dealing with the outbreak, FCI Yazoo City, is a medium-security facility located 50 miles north of Jackson, Mississippi. This particular prison is part of a larger complex that also houses high and low-security inmates.

According to the latest BOP data from inside FCI Yazoo City, there are:

“Covid-19 transmission rates among staff and inmates in the BOP’s correctional institutions generally mirror those found in local communities,” said Scott Taylor, a spokesperson with BOP. 

The facility is using both rapid testing and PCR testing, Taylor told CNN.  

Some context: The outbreak in Mississippi is currently the largest in the federal prison system according to BOP.

“The majority of inmates who tested positive for Covid-19 are asymptomatic (positive with no symptoms) and do not require the level of care offered in a hospital setting,” Taylor added. 

FCI Yazoo City is operating at level 3, the highest grouping in the BOP Covid-19 modified operations plan. A tiered system, the plan is designed to assist in mitigating the risk and spread of Covid-19.

The BOP is currently offering inmates all three Covid-19 vaccines and booster doses as authorized for use in the US.

The executive order signed by President Biden in September stipulates that all federal prison employees be vaccinated, with limited exceptions.

Mayor London Breed

The surge in Covid-19 cases driven by the Omicron variant has peaked in San Francisco and the caseload is steadily declining, health officials announced on Thursday.

After peaking at a seven-day average of 2,164 cases on Jan. 9, new cases are slowing with the latest recorded average dropping to 1,705 cases, data from the San Francisco Department of Public Health showed.

The first known case of the Omicron variant was detected in San Francisco on Dec. 1.

Hospitalizations, which tend to lag behind new infections, are expected to peak in the next few days, but at a level that is manageable for current health care staffing and bed availability.

Calling the Omicron variant a “game-changer,” Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax noted that the surge is still ongoing and cases remain very high. 

“We’ve proven that Covid doesn’t have to upend our lives, even if we have to be vigilant, smart and flexible to adapt to what’s needed,” Colfax said. “Now, we don’t know what Covid has in store for us, but we do have great defenses against this virus, our vaccinations and our boosters and I expect in the relatively near future, effective antiviral medications.”

“The light at the end of the tunnel is here. We may go through another tunnel again, but just know that there is hope and there is light,” Breed said.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, speaks during a hearing on May 13, 2021.

While infection rates and hospitalization numbers are high, officials believe they are seeing the first signs of a Covid-19 peak across the state, Gov. John Bel Edwards said Thursday.

Edwards said the state continues to be in the middle of the Omicron surge, but data suggests a peak may be approaching.

The state has reported 14,706 new cases of Covid-19 this week, bringing the total to more than 1 million cases since the start of the pandemic, according to Edwards.

Edwards said officials are seeing “startling” numbers among young adults and children. Six Covid-19 associated deaths have occurred among individuals ages 18 to 29 since Jan. 1.

More than a quarter of total Covid-19 cases in the United States have been reported in the past month during the Omicron surge, according to data from Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The US has recorded nearly 69 million total Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, and nearly 18 million of them have been reported over the past month.

Omicron has been the dominant strain in the US throughout the past month. The US confirmed its first case of Omicron on Dec. 1, 2021, and it became the dominant variant less than three weeks later during the week of Dec. 19. Between Dec. 19 and Dec. 25, Omicron accounted for about 74% of sequenced samples, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that total Covid-19 case counts are four times higher than the reported total through September 2021. This gap between reported and actual case counts may have grown even more in recent months as at-homes tests have become more common.

There are an average of about 764,000 new Covid-19 cases reported each day in the US, and at least one in five people in the US has tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Covid-19 hospitalizations are currently at a record high and deaths are rising, too. There are nearly 1,800 new deaths reported each day now, and nearly 860,000 people in the US have died of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Track the spread of coronavirus in the US here and see how cases have changed over time in the chart below:

A new study adds to growing evidence showing that there is no connection between receiving Covid-19 vaccinations and having a reduced chance of conceiving a baby.

Rather, couples in the study had slightly lower chances of conception if the male partner had been infected with the coronavirus within 60 days – which offers even more reason to get vaccinated against Covid-19, since the illness could affect male fertility in the short term, according to the study published today in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

“This adds to the evidence from animal studies, studies of humans undergoing fertility treatment, and the COVID-19 vaccine trials, none of which found an association between COVID-19 vaccination and lower fertility,” the researchers wrote. “Similarly, several studies have documented no appreciable association between COVID-19 vaccination and miscarriage risk.”

More on the study: The study included data on 2,126 women, ages 21 to 45, in the United States and Canada. The women enrolled in the study from December 2020 through September 2021, and they were followed up with through November 2021. During the study, the women completed questionnaires online every eight weeks about their reproductive and medical histories, among other factors, and they were given the option to invite their male partners to complete questionnaires too. Among the participants, 73% of the women and 74% of their male partners had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

The researchers analyzed the questionnaire responses and found no association between having been vaccinated against Covid-19 and the probability of conceiving a child within one menstrual cycle. Yet the data showed that while having had Covid-19 was not strongly associated with the probability of conceiving among the women, the male partners who had Covid-19 were associated with a “transient reduction” in the probability of conceiving.

The National Institutes of Health announced the study findings Thursday and noted that couples in which the male partner had tested positive within 60 days were 18% less likely to conceive in that menstrual cycle, but there was no difference in conception rates for couples in which the male partner had tested positive more than 60 days before a cycle, compared with couples in which the male partner had not tested positive.

More research is needed to determine what might be driving these findings, but fever is known to reduce sperm count and fever is a symptom of Covid-19, according to the NIH.

Lawmakers vote in the parliament in Vienna, Austria, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Lisa Leutner)

Austria’s parliament on Thursday passed a bill making Covid-19 vaccines compulsory for all residents age 18 and older starting on Feb. 1.

It is the first country in the European Union to impose such a strict measure.  

While the mandate goes into effect Feb. 1, Austrian officials will only begin conducting checks to see if the law is being adhered to starting on March 15. From then, those without a vaccine certificate or an exemption could be slapped with initial fines of 600 euros (around $680) going up to 3,600 euros (around $4,080).  

According to the Austrian Health Ministry’s website, pregnant people and those who cannot be vaccinated without endangering their health are exempt from the law. People who are recovering from a Covid-19 infection are also exempt for 180 days from the date they received their first positive PCR Covid-19 test.

In addition to the introduction of the vaccine mandate, the Austrian government said Thursday that it was introducing a national lottery to encourage those unsure of getting a Covid-19 vaccine to get vaccinated, and those who have already been vaccinated twice to receive a booster shot.    

Nehammer said that Austrian citizens will get one lottery ticket for each vaccine shot they have had, meaning three tickets in total for those who have had their booster shot. The lottery entails that every 10th ticket would win a gift voucher of 500 euros (about $568), the Austrian chancellor said.  

Nehammer said that Austria has learned from its past successes, adding ”we have seen that a vaccination lottery is the best possible way to set up such a system.”  

Austria’s new vaccine mandate comes as the country sees its highest-ever daily Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. On Wednesday, Austria recorded 27,667 new infections in the last 24 hours, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The Austrian government said it wants to avoid another lockdown, since the Alpine country emerged from its fourth lockdown in December last year.  

The director of the Ohio Department of Health acknowledged the impact supply chain issues are having on the state’s ability to distribute free Covid-19 testing kits to residents.

Vanderhoff said only a fraction of the 1.2 million testing kits the state ordered have arrived. 

“As a result of these ongoing supply challenges stemming from extreme high national demand, it’s likely that the state’s ability to provide tests could be intermittently affected,” he said. 

Some states say they are having a difficult time getting their hands on rapid Covid-19 tests following the US federal government’s plan to send at-home test kits to households across the country.

Charles Patterson, Clark County Ohio Combined Health district commissioner, told CNN on Thursday that the county will run out of free at-home test kits today after the state health department cut off their supply days ago because the manufacturer couldn’t fill their order. 

The state didn’t specify why, but Patterson said, “It doesn’t take much to put two and two together,” as it timed out as the federal government was ramping up supply of the same brand of tests.

Vanderhoff said once tests become available, “and the urgent requests of our schools are filled,” the state plans to resume fulfilling requests for rapid test kits from local health departments and other community partners.

Vanderhoff encouraged Ohioans to take advantage of the federal government’s free at home rapid test mailing program and pointed out other options to get tested. 

“Over the counter home rapid testing kits can still be purchased at many pharmacies and grocery stores,” he said. “Testing is also available at many urgent care locations, community health centers and pop-up testing sites.” 

Medical professionals from six leading health care systems in metro Atlanta held a virtual media briefing Thursday “with an urgent and unified call to action to address the ongoing pandemic,” according to the news release. 

“We are still in a crisis and a global pandemic that is significantly impacting our communities and our healthcare systems,” said Katie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. 

“Aside from being overwhelmed with patients, and we are running about 110% capacity right now, we’ve had to divert ambulances over the last several weeks because of the huge number of patients coming in. That has a big impact on the rest of the city,” Dr. Robert Jansen, chief medical officer and chief of staff at Grady Health System, said.

“This is a real interesting time because everybody’s tired of talking about this,” said Jansen. “This isn’t going to go away. Covid-19 isn’t going to disappear after this wave. There’ll be other variants,” he added.

“Do understand, this is real. This has been an overwhelming peak on top of an already fatigued staff,” said Jansen.  

Pappas spoke about staffing shortages despite “doing all we can to bring in additional staff everywhere we need it.”  

Dr. Jayne Morgan, executive director of the Covid-19 Task Force at Piedmont Healthcare talked about supply shortages.

“If you present to the emergency room and to the hospital, physicians unfortunately are in the position of having to triage care, which is demoralizing to all doctors,” said Morgan.   

Providence Regional Medical Center, where the first known person infected with Covid-19 in the United States was being observed, is seen in Everett, Washington, on January 21, 2020.

Today marks two years since the first documented case of Covid-19 was found on US soil, the Washington State Department of Health said in a news release.  

Since then, more than 857,000 people have died in the US from Covid-19 and more than 68.5 million people in the US have tested positive for Covid-19, according to estimates from Johns Hopkins University.  

“Over the past two years, our lives have changed dramatically at school, at work, and at home,” the health department said. “Now, looking back on two years of pandemic response, we can say we are proud of the countless lives that have been saved by the partnerships in and around the public health system.” 

About 63% of the total US population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, and roughly 25% is both vaccinated and boosted.

The US is currently averaging 754,906 new Covid-19 cases, according to JHU.

Track the spread of coronavirus in the US here.

The US Department of Health and Human Services announced on Thursday it will award $103 million to help retain health care workers by strengthening long-term efforts to reduce burnout and to promote mental health, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said during a news briefing. 

Becerra said the funding comes from the American Rescue Plan and will be “disbursed to numerous organizations that oversee evidence-informed programs and practices and training. The focus will be on providers who do service in underserved and rural communities.” 

Health Resources and Services Administration Administrator Carole Johnson said the award will go to 45 grantees across the United States, including the University of Mississippi Medical Center, the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, among others.

According to a release from HHS, the awards are being made through three programs. First, $28.6 million will be awarded to 10 grantees to help the organizations establish, improve or expand evidence-informed programs and practices to promote mental health and well-being among health workers. Second, $68.2 million will be awarded to 34 grantees “to support tailored evidence-informed training development within health profession and nursing training activities.” And third, $6 million is being awarded to George Washington University for the Health and Public Safety Workforce Resiliency Technical Assistance Center to provide tailored training and technical assistance to the awardees. 

About one in four hospitals in the United States are reporting a “critical staffing shortage,” more than most of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to data from HHS.

The White House is disputing a claim made by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan that some states aren’t receiving the Covid-19 tests they ordered because of a new federal program to distribute them for free.

Instead, the official cited a fast-moving situation where states and the federal government are both actively trying to secure tests as a reason for the confusion and miscommunication.

“There have been moments where there’s a communication from a distributor or supplier that suggests the federal project is interfering with the state,” the official said, and added that the administration’s team is actively speaking with state officials who say they’ve been turned down by distributors or manufacturers for tests they’ve ordered.

In some circumstances, some manufacturers may be overpromising on tests numbers and then citing the new federal contract when they come up short, the official claimed.

In the last month, federal officials have spoken with approximately seven states about issues with orders they believed were being affected by the new federal program, and the issue is typically resolved within a matter of days.

Hogan raised his issue during the weekly White House call with governors. The administration official said their team reached out afterward to get information about what happened and believes the problem has now been resolved.

“We want the states to get over-the-counter tests,” the official said.

Hogan’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Covid-19 at home test kits are seen at Davies Pharmacy in Canton, Ohio, on Wednesday, January 5.

Some states say they are having a difficult time getting their hands on rapid Covid-19 tests following the US federal government’s plan to send at-home test kits to households across the country.

Hogan said he raised the issue “pretty forcefully” on a call with the White House earlier this week. “Multiple other governors, both parties, agreed that they were having the same problem and we’re trying to get the White House to address it,” he said. 

The White House is disputing this claim.

Instead, the official cited a fast-moving situation where states and the federal government are both actively trying to secure tests as a reason for the confusion and miscommunication.

In Ohio, Charles Patterson, Clark County Ohio Combined Health District Commissioner, told CNN on Thursday that the county will run out of free at-home test kits today after the state health department cut off their supply days ago because the manufacturer couldn’t fill their order. The state didn’t specify why, but Patterson said, “It doesn’t take much to put two and two together,” as it timed out as the federal government was ramping up supply of the same brand of tests.

Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, told CNN on Thursday that “we have heard some states are not getting their full supplies,” but he added that the US Department of Health and Human Services has said “states should hold suppliers accountable, as the federal contracts required suppliers to prioritize existing orders before selling to the federal program.”

Additionally, “the White House assured that the new testing supplies were separate supplies from the standard chain and would not disrupt existing orders or future orders,” Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN on Thursday.

President Biden announced his plan to make half a billion Covid-19 rapid tests available to Americans by mail last month as the Omicron variant surges across the US. The website where households can order their tests launched this week.

“The new program to mail tests out to people directly — they didn’t produce any new tests, they just took all the tests off the shelf that we were supposed to get on trucks to come here,” Hogan said.

Tom Inglesby, senior adviser to the White House’s Covid-19 response team, rebutted Hogan’s claim during a call with reporters, including The Washington Post.

The federal program to distribute the tests “is specifically not allowed, by contract, to take away tests from state governments or U.S. commercial operations,” Inglesby said. “By contract, that program cannot interfere with state, local or U.S. commercial operations.”

Both American Airlines and United Airlines reported better-than-expected financial results, despite problems brought on by the Omicron surge during the holiday travel period. However, both said they expect problems from the variant early this year.

American, the nation’s largest airline, lost $921 million in the quarter, excluding special items. That was less than the $1.2 billion forecast by analysts, and less than half the $2.2 billion it lost in the fourth quarter of 2020, before Covid-19 vaccines were widely available.

Its revenue reached $9.4 billion — more than double the $4 billion of a year earlier.

More impressively, it was down only 17% from the revenue it posted in the fourth quarter of 2019, before the pandemic started hurting air travel. But the company said that the revenue this quarter will be down 20% to 22% compared to the first quarter of 2019, as the surge in Omicron eats into demand for flights.

United reported a loss of $520 million excluding special items, which was also better than $700 million loss forecast by analysts. It was also a significant improvement from the $2.1 billion it lost a year ago.

But the airline said it was pulling back on its early 2022 schedule due to softness in bookings with the surge in Covid-19 cases caused by Omicron. It said it now expects to have less passenger capacity on its flights in 2022 than in 2019, rather than the increased capacity it had previously forecast. It said the new cuts in its schedule reflected “the impact of the Omicron spike on demand.”

“While Omicron is impacting near-term demand, we remain optimistic about the spring and excited about the summer and beyond,” said CEO Scott Kirby.

All airlines had challenges in the last two weeks of 2021 and early 2022 from thousands of flights being canceled due to a significant number of their staff members calling off sick with Omicron and bad winter weather. Last week, Delta reported those cancellations cost it $80 million in just the last two weeks of 2021.

Neither American nor United broke out a cost of their own cancellations.

Africa has registered the first “significant” drop in weekly Covid-19 cases since the start of the Omicron-fueled fourth wave, the World Health Organization’s regional office for Africa said Thursday, adding that the impact of the latest peak has been “moderate.”

New Covid cases fell by 20% in the week until Jan. 16, while deaths dropped by 8%, WHO Africa said in a statement.

“While the acceleration, peak and decline of this wave have been unmatched, its impact has been moderate, and Africa is emerging with fewer deaths and lower hospitalizations. But the continent has yet to turn the tables on this pandemic,” WHO Regional Director for Africa Dr. Matshidiso Moeti said.

Moeti warned that as long as the virus continues to circulate, “further pandemic waves are inevitable.”

“Africa must not only broaden vaccinations, but also gain increased and equitable access to critical COVID-19 therapeutics to save lives and effectively combat this pandemic,” she said.  

Austria is set to become the first European country to vote on a national Covid-19 vaccine mandate on Thursday. 

The mandate, drawn up by the government, applies to all citizens aged 18 and over in the country. Pregnant women, people who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months and individuals who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons are exempt from the proposed mandate, according to a draft of the bill. 

Austrian lawmakers are expected to vote on the mandate in the Austrian parliament in Vienna at around 8 a.m. ET Thursday. 

The vaccine mandate — first announced by the Austrian government in November — is intended to significantly reduce the impact of future Covid-19 waves on the country’s health system and prevent further lockdowns.

The government intends to introduce the vaccine mandate in three stages starting Feb. 1. 

From Feb. 1 to March 15, every Austrian household would be informed of the new law and the free vaccination offer, according to the Austrian Health Ministry. 

Starting March 15, Austrian police would begin carrying out compliance checks. Unvaccinated people will then face a penalty of up to $685 (600 euros) if they do not possess a vaccine certificate or show proof of exemption from vaccination. Unvaccinated people will be reminded to get vaccinated, with so called ”reminder dates.”

As part of phase three, these reminder dates would be followed by ”vaccine dates,” which are deadlines to get vaccinated. Those who do not comply may be fined up to four times a year, with a maximum fine of up to $4,000 (3,600 euros). The fine may be waived, however, if a person gets vaccinated within two weeks of receiving the penalty notice. 

About 72% of Austria’s population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data from the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety.

Correction: An earlier version of this post included the wrong figure for the phase three fine. The maximum amount for the fine would be $4,000 (3,600 euros).

The National Institutes of Health Covid-19 treatment guidelines no longer recommend the use of two authorized monoclonal antibody treatments for patients with mild to moderate Covid-19 due to their diminished effectiveness against the Omicron variant.

The two monoclonal antibody treatments no longer recommended are Eli Lilly’s bamlanivimab plus etesevimab and Regeneron’s casirivimab plus imdevimab.

NIH is still recommending the use of GlaxoSmithKline’s monoclonal antibody, sotrovimab, as a single IV infusion administered as soon as it can be within 10 days of symptoms appearing for those over the age of 12.

“The Omicron VOC has become the dominant variant in the United States and is predicted to have markedly reduced susceptibility to bamlanivimab plus etesevimab and casirivimab plus imdevimab,” said the NIH statement. “In vitro studies indicate that sotrovimab remains active against the Omicron VOC.”

In December, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the US Food and Drug Administration paused allocations of the Eli Lilly and Regeneron monoclonal antibodies as data showed it was unlikely they would help against Omicron.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit Wednesday against a company and its associated clinical laboratory, which was allegedly providing Covid-19 testing but failed to deliver test results or delivered untimely, falsified test results.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Hennepin County district court, alleges that the Minnesota Department of Health received complaints after people were tested for Covid-19 at pop-up testing sites around Minnesota operated by Center for Covid Control reported never receiving their rapid antigen test or PCR test results from the company’s associated lab, Doctors Clinical Laboratory, or received results much later than the time the companies promised.

The suit claims the companies violated Minnesota’s consumer protection laws, including instructing their employees to tell people who called about late test results that the results were coming in 24 hours, “even if the employees had no idea where the sample was or if the lab,” and to “falsely tell consumers that the test result had been inconclusive and that they needed to take another test,” if they called multiple times.

CNN did not immediately receive a response from the two Illinois-based companies, Center for Covid Control or Doctors Clinical Laboratory, when reached for comment.

“My job is to fight for Minnesotans’ security and help them live with dignity, safety, and respect. Making sure that Minnesotans have accurate tools to [keep] them safe from the COVID-19 pandemic is a key part of that job,” Ellison said in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

Last week, CCC announced it would be pausing operations from Jan. 14 until Jan. 22, because “unusually high patient demand has stressed staffing resources, as has been widely reported, in a subset of our locations, affecting our usual customer service standards and diagnostic goals.”

“Center for Covid Control is committed to serving our patients in the safest, most accurate and most compliant manner. Regrettably, due to our rapid growth and the unprecedented recent demand for testing, we haven’t been able to meet all our commitments,” CCC founder and CEO Aleya Siyaj said in the announcement.

India reported 317,532 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University data, surpassing the 300,000 mark for the first time in this recent wave.

The last time cases surpassed this milestone was during the country’s devastating second wave in April and May, which was fueled by the Delta variant.

Within India, the state of Maharashtra has reported 43,697 new cases. Delhi has reported 13,785, a decline that is believed to be due to lower rates of testing.

Meanwhile, some states are seeing a rise in cases, including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the south, Uttar Pradesh in the north and the eastern state of West Bengal.

The number of deaths rose by 491, according to JHU.

A Czech folk singer who was opposed to having a coronavirus vaccine has died after deliberately contracting the virus, according to her son.

Hana Horká, of the folk band Asonance, died Sunday at the age of 57 after intentionally exposing herself to the virus at home while her son and husband were sick, according to CNN affiliate CNN Prima News.

Horká wanted to infect herself so she could be “done with Covid,” her son, Jan Rek, told Prima News on Monday.

“I came here because the debate is very important and I want to warn people,” said Rek, who added that both he and his father had been vaccinated.

Rek said his mother was getting incorrect information about the virus “from her social circle.”

Horká was “ignoring on purpose some facts and comments that were disproving her arguments,” added Rek. “She wanted to get sick on purpose,” he said.

“She was living by even at times unrelated information concerning health in general but there has always been this underlying thought that nature will take care of everything and only we know ourselves the best,” he said.

“It wasn’t somehow extreme at home. She was always open to a choice and wasn’t extremely against vaccination,” Rek said.

Read more:

Related article Czech anti-coronavirus vaccine folk singer dies after deliberately getting infected with Covid-19

Germany hit its highest-ever daily number of Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Germany topped 100,000 new infections in a day on Wednesday, with a recorded 139,000 new cases within the last 24 hours.

The number of people admitted to hospitals, however, is declining. On Wednesday, the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency reported that 2,571 people are currently being treated for Covid-19 in the country’s intensive care units. Last Wednesday, that number stood at 2,959. 

Around 73% of the German population has now been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and 48% have received a booster shot, according to the country’s Robert Koch Institute.