More than 97 percent of new hospitalizations connected with the delta variant are among the unvaccinated. With cases rising again after months of promising news, a growing number of experts are warning that face masks may again be necessary, and the subject is even under discussion at the White House. Los Angeles County has reimposed a mask mandate, and masks are recommended indoors in eight San Francisco Bay-area jurisdictions.
Mask mandates are being discussed in coronavirus hot spots such as Arkansas and Missouri. More than , people have died of the coronavirus in the United States. Reported cases now approach 35 million. Schumer D-N. A bipartisan group of 22 senators negotiating the package said a deal is still likely, but the episode exposed the frailty of the blueprint for revitalizing roads, bridges, water supply systems and broadband Internet.
Republicans said they first want Congress to agree to spending cuts or other reforms. The current agreement that suspends the debt ceiling expires in 10 days.
But although the president has tasked Vice President Harris to make voting rights part of her portfolio, the White House has so far not been able to present a path forward on federal legislation that would curb a raft of voting restrictions. Scientists search your sewage for clues. UK government apologizes to Queen for 'suitcase of wine' parties on eve of Prince Philip's funeral.
Load Error. Microsoft and partners may be compensated if you purchase something through recommended links in this article. Found the story interesting? As of last week, the U. This surge in cases comes as the statewide transmission rate increases to 1. More than 87, of children ages 5 through 11 are now vaccinated. In the last reporting period, schools reported Idaho said it is winding down hospital care rationing rules, known as crisis standards of care, with the exception of its northern panhandle where anti-vaccine sentiment runs high.
New York City plans to be more aggressive in pushing vaccinations as the weather turns colder and people gather indoors.
More than , New Yorkers have gotten a booster as of Monday, a jump from over , a week ago, when the city opened up boosters to all adults a few days before the federal government backed an expansion of eligibility. Slovakia, a European Union member state, is mulling the possibility of declaring a three-week full lockdown, a move that would mirror steps taken by neighboring Austria to curb the rise of coronavirus-related deaths and new infections.
Former Premier Robert Fico has publicly decried the use of face masks and participated in protests against coronavirus-related measures last week. Singapore reported a total of 1, new cases as of noon on Monday, compared with 1, cases the day before according to the Ministry of Health.
It was the fifth straight drop as the country moves to relax some restrictions. Singapore will allow five people from different households to sit together at restaurants as it also increases the limit on social gatherings to five people from two.
The European Union will this week discuss updating its digital Covid certificates and its approach to travel within and outside the bloc as member nations take varying steps to counter the latest wave of the pandemic. Booster shots will be a topic of conversation when European affairs ministers meet in Brussels on Tuesday, along with a debate over whether to change the length of time during which a vaccine certificate is valid, according to EU diplomats who declined to be named on confidential preparations.
Germans are feverishly snapping up Covid test kits at drug stores and pharmacies as the country buckles under soaring infection rates and the government tightens the rules to access shops, restaurants and gyms. Home-use infection tests that provide a rapid read-out via a nasal swab were hard to get in recent days. Chancellor Angela Merkel said the latest surge in Covid infections is worse than anything Germany has experienced so far and called for tighter restrictions to help check the spread.
A longer-term review of trial data showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid shot remains highly safe and effective in adolescents aged 12 through 15, the companies said in a statement Monday. They will use the updated data to seek full regulatory clearance for the vaccine in those ages in the U.
S and elsewhere, according to the statement. No one who received two microgram doses of the shot tested positive for Covid during a period that stretched from a week after the second dose to about four months later, the companies said. To determine whether the HPAI viruses can be efficiently transmitted among mallards, we performed the virus isolation procedures using oropharyngeal and cloacal samples obtained from mallards in the contact groups.
All 3 H5 viruses were recovered, but their shedding patterns varied. H5N8 virus was recovered from the oropharynx 10 2. However, the 2 H5N1 viruses could only be re-isolated from the oropharynx at low titers 10 1. HI titer was assayed in serum taken at 14 days post-inoculation. Data show the ratio of the number of antibody-positive animals to the number of virus-inoculated animals.
The H5N8 virus was isolated from tissues collected from euthanized mallards on 3 dpi. It was replicated systemically in the trachea, muscle, proventriculus, intestine pancreas , cecal tonsil, lung, kidney, and heart, and was present at low titers 10 1.
H5N1 viruses were not detected in mallardsin uninoculated control groups Table 3. One of the ducks died on 3 dpi. H5N8 virus was re-isolated from its oropharyngeal sample 10 4. The virus had replicated efficiently in the tissues of the bird by 3 dpi, and investigation after its death showed titers of 10 2. No clinical signs of disease were observed in either duck. In a previous study, we reported the first influenza outbreak in South Korea in poultry and wild birds caused by a novel reassortant H5N8 virus in The virus was composed of 2 distinct genogroups 17 , and the most affected poultry species was the domestic duck at a Many H5N8 isolates were obtained from dead wild birds, but some were obtained from live wild birds, including mallards.
In this study, we evaluated the pathogenicity of these novel reassortant HPAI H5N8 viruses in wild mallard and young domestic ducks. The clade 2. In addition, clade 2. The pathogenicity of H5 viruses with different NA subtypes has been evaluated. The pathogenicity of H5N5 and H5N8 viruses isolated from poultry in China during — varied from mild to moderate among mallards The pathogenicity of H5N8 viruses isolated from domestic ducks in eastern China in , which was similar to that of the Gochang1 virus described here, has been evaluated only in chickens and mice We selected 3 H5N8 viruses belonging to 2 distinct genotypes 13 from different host animals and evaluated their pathogenicity in 2-week-old domestic ducks.
However, H5N8 viral shedding by domestic ducks was much greater 10 4. The ability of these novel reassortant H5N8 viruses to replicate efficiently in the respiratory and intestinal tracts without killing the infected ducks enables them to circulate within the duck population and increases the possibility of transmission on poultry farms.
Indeed, clinical signs and death were rare during the H5N8 outbreak in South Korea, except for a drop in egg production at duck breeder farms. The results of this study suggest that domestic ducks may be silent carriers of novel reassortant H5N8 viruses, which may make it difficult to detect these viruses in domestic duck farms or live bird markets.
Moreover, the efficient replication, high seroconversion, and shedding of relatively high titers in the contact groups suggest that the H5N8 virus was efficiently transmitted among ducks.
Therefore, active surveillance designed to detect infection, especially in domestic ducks, should be enforced on farms and at live bird markets. Tang et al. As mentioned previous report 17 , each of the 3 H5N8 viruses in our study showed L at position 9 with a deletion at position 4 of the HA cleavage site, whereas H5N1 viruses circulating in South Korea in and showed Q at position 9 with a deletion at the same position 5 , Our results suggest that molecular factors other than amino acid substitutions in the HA cleavage site may be involved in the pathogenicity of these viruses in domestic ducks.
Further study is required to identify the molecular factors determining virus pathogenicity in domestic ducks. Some of the H5N1 and H5N8 viruses were isolated from apparently healthy mallards captured in South Korea during the —11 5 and outbreaks.
We selected 1 H5N8 and 2 H5N1 viruses to evaluate their pathogenicity and transmission in mallards. Although severe morbidity or mortality rates were not observed in the mallards inoculated with H5N8 or H5N1 viruses or in those housed with inoculated ducks, viral shedding and replication in tissues were higher and the duration of viral shedding was longer in mallards infected with H5N8 virus than in those infected with H5N1 virus.
Moreover, a significant difference in the viral shedding was found between domestic ducks and mallards: the Buan2 viral titers in domestic ducks were significantly higher than those in mallards on oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs on 2 and 4 dpi. Our results suggest that the novel reassortant H5N8 virus replicated more efficiently than H5N1 viruses in mallards and that efficient horizontal transmission occurred, resulting in the transmission of influenza virus between mallards and facilitating the spread of influenza viruses among wild birds.
It winters mainly in Japan and South Korea, which now host the majority of the wintering population, along with the mallards Anas platyrhynchos and white-fronted goose Anser albifrons. Although the number of the Baikal teals in our study was small, the results are consistent with field observations during the H5N8 outbreak in South Korea during which many H5N8 viruses were isolated from carcasses of Baikal teals or captured H5-seropositive Baikal teals data not shown.
Many of the H5N1 viruses that emerged after had a particularly high level of virus shedding from tracheal samples 11 , 14 , 20 , 28 , In our study, viral titers and shedding duration were relatively high in both oropharyngeal and cloacal swab samples from domestic ducks and mallards inoculated with H5N8 viruses Table 4 , indicating that H5N8 viruses could be efficiently transmitted through the respiratory or respiratory-digestive tract In conclusion, a novel reassortant H5N8 virus circulating in South Korea in displayed moderate pathogenicity with efficient viral shedding and replication in tissues of domestic ducks.
Although infection with H5N8 and H5N1 viruses did not result in severe morbidity or mortality rates, viral shedding and replication in tissues were higher in mallards infected with H5N8 than in those infected with H5N1 viruses.
Moreover, the H5N8 viruses were recovered from uninoculated domestic and mallard ducks that were in contact with infected birds, indicating efficient horizontal transmission. Our findings emphasize the need to expand active surveillance to help prevent the spread of this virus among wild birds and poultry, especially domestic ducks. Her research interests are focused on surveillance, genetics, and pathogenesis of avian influenza.
Emerg Infect Dis. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. Journal List Emerg Infect Dis v. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer. Corresponding author. Copyright notice. This article has been cited by other articles in PMC. Abstract An outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza, caused by a novel reassortant influenza A H5N8 virus, occurred among poultry and wild birds in South Korea in Keywords: Influenza, influenza A, H5N8, HPAI, highly pathogenic avian influenza, viruses, pathogenicity, domestic duck, mallard duck, zoonoses, Eurasian eagle owl, mandarin duck, Baikal teal duck, whooper swan, spot-billed duck, sparrow hawk, common kestrel, white-fronted goose, poultry, Asia, South Korea, Republic of Korea.
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