False Results Force Recall Of Hundreds Of Thousands Of Ellume Covid Tests
Ellume was the first company to get Food and Drug Administration authorization to sell home-testing covid kits in consumer retail outlets like Walmart. Meanwhile, deaths from covid in the U.S. this year have already surpassed 2020's figure, but hospitalization rates are reported down.
USA Today:
Ellume Home COVID Test Recall: False Positives Blamed For Recall
An Australia-based company is recalling hundreds of thousands of coronavirus tests after discovering some Ellume COVID-19 home tests deliver higher-than-anticipated false positive results. Ellume became the first company to gain Food and Drug Administration authorization to sell consumers kits at major retailers such as Walmart, CVS, Target and Amazon. The kits don't require a prescription and deliver results in minutes. But the company discovered false positive results at higher rates than the company's original clinical studies showed and "isolated the cause and confirmed that this incidence of false positives is limited to specific lots." (Alltucker, 10/5)
In other news about the spread of the coronavirus —
USA Today:
US Deaths From Virus In 2021 Surpass 2020 Total
In the history of the pandemic in the U.S., 2020 will be remembered as the most disruptive year, a time when the coronavirus shut down businesses, schools, sports, travel and many more staples of everyday life. But 2021 has surpassed its predecessor as the deadliest year. That threshold, especially lamentable considering the widespread availability of COVID-19 vaccines in the country since the spring, was crossed Tuesday when the U.S.'s world-leading total of coronavirus deaths went over the 704,000 mark. The 2020 tally was 352,000, or half that number. On Tuesday afternoon, the Washington National Cathedral plans to toll its funeral bell 700 times in memory of the lives lost. (Ortiz, Miller and Hauck, 10/5)
CNN:
Hospitalization Rates Are Down Across The US, But These 8 States Still Have Fewer Than 15% Of ICU Beds Available
While much of the US is seeing a decline in hospitalizations for Covid-19, it's also evident the fight against the pandemic is far from over as eight states are reporting limited numbers of available ICU beds. Texas, Idaho, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Arkansas and North Carolina have 15% or less of their ICU capacity available to patients, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services. (Holcombe, 10/6)
The Washington Post:
Children Covid Case Rates Now Exceed Adults Across America
A pandemic that first ravaged nursing homes is, today, more likely to rage through school lunchrooms. Children are still far less likely to become dangerously ill than older people, but with so many becoming infected, pediatric hospitalizations have spiked in the last few weeks. Since the start of the pandemic, more than 5.7 million children have been infected, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. More than 540 Americans up to the age of 18 have died, federal data show. (Meckler and Keating, 10/5)
Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Suffolk 10-Year-Old Who Died Of COVID Experienced Rare Complications, Causing Her Health To Quickly Spiral
Teresa Sperry felt a headache on a Wednesday. By Sunday, she was in the emergency room, coughing heavily and vomiting. By last Monday, the 10-year-old Suffolk girl had stopped breathing. She was taken to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, where her heart stopped beating. Doctors spent 30 minutes trying to restart it, but she died that afternoon. That same day, just five days after she initially felt ill, her COVID-19 test came back positive. (Kolenich, 10/2)
Houston Chronicle:
Texas Schools Are Reporting Fewer COVID Cases, State And Local Data Show
The number of newly reported COVID-19 cases in public school students appears to be trending downward compared with the beginning of the academic year, state and local district data shows. Other indicators, including falling pediatric hospitalizations and decreasing numbers of COVID infections in the overall state population, appear to support the downward movement among children. Natural immunity from previous infections, increasing vaccine rates and school mitigation measures are all behind the drop in cases, said Dr. James Versalovic, pathologist-in-chief at Texas Children’s Hospital in the Texas Medical Center. (Dellinger and Gill, 10/5)
