Instead Of Case Counts, State Officials Emphasizing Hospitalizations, Deaths

Stateline: A Shift Away From Daily COVID Case Counts Has Begun
The most familiar indicator of COVID-19’s inexorable nationwide spread—daily state and local case counts—may be on the way out. Instead, public health officials are considering a shift from increasingly inaccurate case data to numbers they say better represent the effect of the disease on the community and the health care system: COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths. Omicron case counts are shattering all previous COVID-19 records. But the numbers don’t carry the same weight they used to. State and local health departments are preparing to explain that to the public and start reporting more meaningful data on the virus. (Vestal, 1/14)

In updates on the spread of the coronavirus —

AP: 4 Oklahoma City Hospitals Report No ICU Beds As Virus Surges
Four hospitals in Oklahoma City reported Monday that they have no intensive care beds available amid a surge in coronavirus cases fueled by the omicron variant. St. Anthony, Mercy, Integris and OU Health on Monday each reported no available ICU beds and that they had a total of 737 COVID-19 patients. (1/17)

AP: Air Force Team Helps Yuma Hospital Care For COVID Patients 
Needing assistance due to staff shortages and increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients, including some requiring high levels of care, Yuma Regional Medical Center applied to the federal government for help. That call was answered two weeks ago with the arrival of a 15-member Air Force medical augmentation team. Now about halfway through a 30-day deployment at Yuma Regional, the team’s members are stepping in to help the hospital’s personnel wherever help is needed, the Yuma Sun reported. (1/17)

Salt Lake Tribune: Intermountain Healthcare Restricts Patient Visitation After Utah’s Record-Breaking Week Of COVID-19 Cases
Intermountain Healthcare is temporarily tightening patient visitation at its hospitals due to high patient volumes and the spread of the omicron variant, the healthcare system announced Saturday. Effective Tuesday, Intermountain hospitals will allow overnight visitors only for pediatric patients, laboring or postpartum mothers, patients who are suffering from dementia or those who are critically ill. The announcement comes after the Utah Department of Health reported over 11,000 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the second-highest total since the pandemic began. (Miller, 1/16)

New Orleans Times-Picayune: Explosive Rise In Louisiana Nursing Home COVID Cases Now Fueling Staffing Crisis
As the calendar turned to the new year, Louisiana's nursing homes confronted a familiar foe: skyrocketing coronavirus cases among residents and staff, worsening an already dire staffing crisis and creating worry among advocates. The explosion in new cases is striking: Louisiana's roughly 270 nursing homes have reported nearly 1,000 new cases among residents in the last two weeks and more than 2,700 new staff cases. Both numbers are more than six times what was reported in the last week of December and represent some of the highest numbers at any time during the pandemic. (Roberts III, 1/15)

AP: Judge Stops Minnesota Hospital From Disconnecting Ventilator
A man who has been suffering from a severe case of COVID-19 and was being kept alive by a ventilator has been moved from a Minnesota hospital to a Texas facility after a judge issued a restraining order stopping the hospital from turning off his machine. Fifty-five-year-old Scott Quiner, of Buffalo, was a patient at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids. He was flown to an unnamed facility in Texas over the weekend, the family’s attorney said. (1/17)

Also —

AP: Joint Chiefs Chairman And Marine Corps Chief Have COVID-19 
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing very minor symptoms, a spokesperson said Monday. The Marine Corps said its commandant, Gen. David Berger, also has COVID-19. Milley, who has received the vaccine and a booster shot, tested positive on Sunday, Joint Chiefs spokesperson Col. Dave Butler said in a statement. Milley was isolating himself and working remotely from a location where he can perform all his duties, Butler said. The Marine Corps said in a statement that Berger also tested positive, giving no other details except to say his ability to work is unaffected. Other Joint Chiefs of Staff members tested negative, Butler said. (1/17)

The New York Times: More Cruises Canceled As Omicron Spreads 
Royal Caribbean International and Celebrity Cruises have canceled several trips as the Omicron variant continues to wreak havoc with the cruise industry. ... On Friday, Royal Caribbean canceled a sailing on the ship Independence of the Seas, in response to “Covid-related circumstances around the world,” the company said on its website. The company said this month that it had called off planned trips on three ships — Serenade of the Seas, Symphony of the Seas and Jewel of the Seas — and delayed the return to cruising of another, Vision of the Seas, to March. (Lukpat and Yeginsu, 1/17)

Fox News: Omicron Symptoms May Include Night Sweats
As the omicron variant of the coronavirus continues to spread around the country, some patients are reported to be experiencing new symptoms. Doctors say some people are now reporting night sweats, a symptom also associated with sleep disorders, some cancers and the flu. According to Mayo Clinic, night sweats are "repeated episodes of extreme perspiration that may soak your nightclothes or bedding and are related to an underlying medical condition or illness." (Musto, 1/14)

CIDRAP: COVID-19 Worsens Maternal, Fetal Outcomes, Studies Find 
Women who gave birth within 28 days of a positive COVID-19 test died at a significantly higher rate than their healthy counterparts, finds a Scottish study yesterday in Nature Medicine. They were also more prone to poor birth outcomes, even if they weren't severely ill, according to a US study in The Lancet Digital Health. (Van Beusekom, 1/14)

KHN: ‘American Diagnosis’ Episode 1: On The Navajo Nation, Root Causes Complicated The Covid Fight 
Travel to the forests outside the Grand Canyon to follow Dr. Sophina Calderon and other Navajo Nation leaders as covid-19 tests the Diné people. Roughly 30% of the homes on the Navajo Nation rely on wood-burning stoves for heat. Many of those households haul wood from nearby forests. That’s what Calderon was doing when she realized the pandemic’s reach wouldn’t stop at the hospital — it was going to create a heating crisis too. (1/18)