(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 930,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 64.5% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Latest headlines:
-US daily cases drop from 807,000 to 134,000 in 1 month
-Study: People who survived COVID in 1st few months of pandemic had significantly higher risk of mental health problems
-Updated mask guidance from CDC could come next week
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Feb 17, 5:03 pm
California to roll out COVID ‘endemic’ plan
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday will announce the state’s “endemic” COVID-19 plan — a vague but flexible approach that will change based off the characteristics of new variants.
State officials said clear “on and off ramps” for future restrictions will be created for specific variants.
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said case rates could be determinative for future restrictions if there’s a deadly variant, while hospital capacity could be the primary indicator if California faces a less virulent variant, similar to omicron.
The SMARTER plan focuses on seven areas: S – Shots; M – Masks “on and off ramps that are tailored for each unique virus strain”; A – Awareness; R – Readiness; T – Testing; E – Education; and R – Rx (Treatment).
State officials are expected to publish a one to two-page SMARTER summary of the state’s current recommendations on COVID-19 in the next few days. The document will be consistently updated so Californians can reference what the state’s current recommendations are.
ABC News’ Matthew Fuhrman
Feb 17, 4:46 pm
New Mexico ends mask mandate
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Thursday the state’s mask mandate is ending, effective immediately, ABC affiliate KOAT-TV reported.
Private businesses and school districts can set their own mask rules, KOAT-TV said.
Feb 17, 12:20 pm
US daily cases drop from 807,000 to 134,000 in 1 month
In January, omicron sent U.S. cases surging to an unprecedented high, with over 807,000 daily COVID-19 cases at the nation’s peak. Exactly one month later, cases have plummeted to an average of 134,000 new cases per day, according to federal data.
Nearly every state is reporting declining case rates, but nearly 97% of U.S. counties are still reporting high transmission. Also, experts continue to caution that many Americans are taking at-home tests and not submitting their results, so case totals may be higher than reported.
Hospitalizations are also continuing to drop, according to federal data. The U.S. has 71,000 patients with COVID-19 currently in hospitals; during the mid-January peak, there were 160,000 hospitalized patients.
Fatalities — a lagging indicator — are slowly starting to fall. The U.S. is now averaging 2,100 COVID-19-related deaths each day, down by nearly 10% in the last week, according to federal data.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 17, 9:55 am
Study: People who survived COVID in 1st few months of pandemic had significantly higher risk of mental health problems
A new study finds that people who survived COVID-19 during the first few months of the pandemic had a significantly higher risk of developing mental health disorders, including opioid use disorder, in the year after their COVID-19 diagnosis.
The study, published in The BMJ medical journal, evaluated medical records of nearly 154,000 COVID-19 patients in the Veterans Health Administration, comparing their experiences to a similar group of people that didn’t have COVID-19.
After recovering from COVID-19, people with no prior history of mental illness were more likely to develop anxiety, depression, opioid use disorder, neurocognitive decline, and sleep disorders.
In an accompanying editorial, one of the lead researchers of the study argued that the mental health consequences of COVID-19 should be treated seriously and society shouldn’t “gaslight or dismiss long covid as a psychosomatic condition.”
The study only looked at people who survived COVID-19 from March 2020 to Jan. 2021 — before vaccines were widely available. It’s not clear if these findings apply to people diagnosed with COVID-19 more recently.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Arielle Mitropoulos
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