South Africa, Official says number of children sick with COVID-19 is not cause for panic
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safrican-official-says-number-children-sick-with-covid-19-is-not-cause-panic-2021-12-04/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ntsakisi-maluleke-721541b/?originalSubdomain=za
https://english.alarabiya.net/coronavirus/2021/12/04/South-African-official-says-number-of-children-sick-with-COVID-not-cause-for-panic
Higher hospital admissions among children during a fourth wave
Driven by the Omicron variant
Should prompt vigilance but not panic,
as infections have been mild
Ntsakisi Maluleke, public health specialist, Gauteng province
1,511 COVID-positive patients in hospitals
113 were under 9 years old,
a greater proportion than during previous waves
We are comforted by clinicians’ reports that the children have mild disease
Health officials and scientists were investigating what was driving the increased admissions in younger ages
No paediatrics phylogenetic epidemiology yet
They would rather have a child under care for a day or two than having a child at home and complicating, … but we really need to wait for the evidence
She said many COVID-19 patients in Gauteng reporting non-specific flu-like symptoms,
like a scratchy throat,
as opposed to more easily identifiable markers like a loss of taste or smell
Parents and pregnant women, more hospital admissions recently,
to get tested in case intervention is needed further down the line.
Gauteng’s dedicated COVID-19 bed occupancy, 13%
US current surge is delta
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/12/02/delta-variant-surge-omicron/
New Jersey Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli
Delta driving the state’s uptick in hospitalizations
I encourage everyone not to be hysterical about what we don’t know about omicron,
but to be really proactive in controlling what we do know,
which is the delta variant is here,
it’s with us,
it’s causing increasing trends
Omicron so far
North America
Canada
United States
South America
Brazil
Europe
Austria
Belgium
Czech Republic
Denmark
England
Finland
France
Germany
Ireland
Italy
Norway
The Netherlands
Portugal
Scotland
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland (suspected cases)
Africa
Botswana
Ghana
Nigeria
Reunion Island (France)
South Africa
Middle East
Saudi Arabia
Israel
Asia and the Pacific
Australia
Hong Kong
India
Japan
Singapore
South Korea
US omicron
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/12/02/covid-omicron-variant-live-updates/
Ten confirmed, 5 in New York
NY and Hawaii, community transmission
California, Minnesota, Colorado
India
Two cases
a 66-year-old South African national, been and gone
a 46-year-old, southern city of Bengaluru, had no travel history
Germany
Unvaccinated not allowed in restaurants, cinemas and many shops
Angela Merkel, vaccinations could be mandatory by February
Austria
Compulsory vaccinations from 1st February
UK
Bought 114 million more doses of Pfizer and Moderna
All adults offered a booster by end of January
Omicron cases + 75 = 134
Positivity 0.3% of positive cases
SA (Peter)
https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/sub-saharan-africa/south-africa
Biggest HIV epidemic in the world
In 2018
7.7 million people living with HIV
240,000 new HIV infections,
71,000 deaths
HIV prevalence now
20.4% of people (one in five) living with HIV
Could be double this
12.6% in Western Cape
27% in KwaZulu-Natal
the omicron variant is associated with substantial ability to evade immunity from prior infection
UK HIV, 2017
https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/western-central-europe-north-america/uk
101,600 people living with HIV
People aged 15-74 years, 0.22%
US and HIV
https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/statistics.html
Prevalence, 1.2 million
Source