Covid Cases Nearly Six Times Higher Than This Time Last Year

ABC News: Reported COVID-19 Infection Levels Nearly 6 Times Higher Than Last Memorial Day
Millions of Americans traveled for Memorial Day weekend at levels not seen since before the onset of the pandemic. It marked a return to normalcy for many and a chance to gather with family and friends. But in reality, the situation was far from normal -- with confirmed COVID-19 cases nearly six times higher than last Memorial Day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Mitropoulos, 5/31)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area Cases Swell Again; It’s ‘Very Hard Right Now To Avoid Getting COVID’
Coronavirus cases blew up across the Bay Area in May, as the region became entrenched in a sixth surge that is likely many times larger than what reported infections show and may even be approaching the magnitude of this past winter’s massive omicron wave, health experts say. COVID hospitalizations are climbing in the Bay Area too — they’ve nearly doubled since the start of the month — though they remain at a relatively low and manageable level compared to prior surges, experts said. The number of patients with COVID needing intensive care in the region has more than doubled over the past month, but ICU capacity is not tapped out. (Allday, 5/31)

Houston Chronicle: Houston's COVID Cases Are Climbing Again, Wastewater Data Shows
Coronavirus infections are on the rise across Houston, wastewater tracking shows, even as fewer people seek testing two years into the pandemic. Four months after the city saw record infection rates caused by the highly contagious omicron variant, new COVID-19 cases are once again climbing, according to data collected by Rice University and the Houston Health Department. The most recent sewage samples show increased viral loads at all but a few of the city’s three dozen wastewater treatment plants. (Mishanec, 5/31)

Mississippi Clarion Ledger: COVID-19 Cases In Mississippi Have Risen Slightly In May
Mississippi's COVID-19 numbers are on the rise with 533 new cases reported by the Mississippi State Department of Health between Jan. 1 and May 26. According to the MSDH, there have been a total of 12,466 deaths in the state since the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020. "We are seeing a slight increase in cases, long term care, and hospitalization," said Liz Sharlot, MSDH director of communications of the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, mostly of the Omicron variant. "Nothing dramatic at this time. Omicron presents as a milder subvariant than previous, such as Delta." (Williams, 6/1)

The Boston Globe: Coronavirus Levels In E. Mass. Waste Water Saw Upticks Late Last Week
An encouraging downward trend in coronavirus levels in Eastern Massachusetts waste water was interrupted by two upticks late last week. The seven-day average virus level edged up Thursday and then down Friday in the northern section of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority system, while the level in the southern section was flat Thursday before edging up Friday. Officials say waste water virus data can be an important early warning signal, detecting COVID-19 infections before people get tested and the tests are officially reported. As more people are using rapid at-home tests, whose results are usually not reported to state public health officials, waste water testing has become a key indicator of the virus’s prevalence. (Finucane and Huddle, 5/31)

The Atlantic: Coronavirus Cases Are Being Undercounted. What Should You Do?
Take Hawaii, for example. Last week, the state reported about 900 new cases a day, but a spokesperson for Hawaii’s department of health, Brooks Baehr, warned that the true number could be “five, six, seven times” greater. “That would be an extra 4,500 to 6,500 new cases every day,” Baehr told the local news channel KHON2. What exactly is the average person supposed to do with that information? Many people know that COVID cases—as shown in all those jagged charts and splotchy, color-coded maps that decorate front pages—are likely underreported right now. That uncertainty makes calculating one’s own risk extra tricky. If cases could be 10 times worse than what you see on a graph, how do you know if your local outbreak is bad enough that it’s worth slapping your mask back on? Or, more drastically, canceling plans altogether? (Mimbs Nice, 5/29)

But cases in New York City have leveled off —

ABC News: COVID-19 Cases Plateau In New York City, Indicating Latest Surge May Be Over 
COVID-19 cases in New York City have plateaued, signaling that the latest surge is at least slowing, if not over. An ABC News analysis of city data shows 4,204 confirmed and probable cases were recorded on May 24 -- the latest date for which data is available -- with a seven-day rolling average of 3,312.This is the lowest average recorded in the last two weeks. (Kekatos, 5/31)

In other news about the spread of covid —

The New York Times: During The Omicron Wave, Death Rates Soared For Older People 
Despite strong levels of vaccination among older people, Covid killed them at vastly higher rates during this winter’s Omicron wave than it did last year, preying on long delays since their last shots and the variant’s ability to skirt immune defenses. This winter’s wave of deaths in older people belied the Omicron variant’s relative mildness. Almost as many Americans 65 and older died in four months of the Omicron surge as did in six months of the Delta wave, even though the Delta variant, for any one person, tended to cause more severe illness. (Mueller and Lutz, 5/31)

The Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Can Leave You Infectious After Five Or Even 10 Days
How long are people infectious? Into the pandemic’s third year, as new, more infectious variants continue to circulate widely and more people have built-up immune defenses, researchers aren’t totally sure when or how long individuals with Covid-19 might be contagious and shedding virus, particularly at the end of an infection. (Abbott, 5/31)

Fortune: The 5 Types Of Long COVID, According To One Expert
Dr. Alexandra Brugler Yonts, an infectious disease specialist at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., and the head of its new Pediatric Post-COVID Program, told Fortune she divides the types of long COVID into five categories, grouped by causes. (Prater, 5/31)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Not Included In US OSHA Virus Safety Pact With Meatpacker JBS
Safety regulators are requiring meatpacking giant JBS to follow experts' plans to prevent future virus outbreaks — but not in Iowa. Company officials have settled cases with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration related to COVID-19 outbreaks that infected hundreds of JBS workers across the country in 2020, the federal agency has announced. JBS will pay a $14,502 fine and let the U.S. Department of Labor and the United Food and Commercial Workers appoint outside experts to assess seven factories in Colorado, Illinois, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin. (Jett, 5/31)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Severely Disrupted Global Cardiac Care, Increasing Deaths 
A meta-analysis of 158 observational studies from 49 countries on six continents reveals severe disruptions in cardiovascular (CV)-related hospitalizations, diagnostic and interventional procedures, and outpatient visits during the first 2 years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The study, the first global evaluation of cardiac-services delivery amid the pandemic of its kind, was published yesterday in the European Heart Journal. (Van Beusekom, 5/31)