The BA.2 variant, also known as the “stealth Omicron,” is now the dominant coronavirus version in the U.S. and more than 60 other countries. This week, Philadelphia became the first major city in the U.S. to announce that it would return to mandating masks in public spaces due to the spread of BA.2. Meanwhile, Arizona, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the United States Military continue to advance post-pandemic protocols, scaling back emergency resources and turning an eye to future planning.
Omicron 2: the Stealth Variant
BA.2 is considered to be a more contagious version of the original Omicron variant and earned its nickname by having few distinctions making it difficult to distinguish in PCR test results. According to the Associated Press, early research indicates that BA.2 can infect people even if they have a prior Omicron infection, although vaccines maintain their efficacy against the new variant.
Scientists have noticed a slight uptick in cases across the country related to the BA.2 variant, just as happened in the handful of European nations where the variant took hold earlier this year. Arizona, New York and Illinois are included in the places where increases are most obviously taking place, AP reports.
Due to increases in case rates across the board, on Monday the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania became the first major city in the U.S. to announce that it would resume mask mandates. CNN reports that this was due to a 50% increase in cases over a ten-day period, although hospitalizations have not demonstrated a correlated increase as of yet. At this time, Philadelphia is averaging about 142 cases per day.
Arizona News
In Arizona, there were 2,777 new cases and 142 new deaths related to COVID-19, according to the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) COVID-19 data dashboard. The dashboard received some updates due to the end of the COVID-19 Declaration of Emergency by Governor Doug Ducey. These changes include an end to reporting on hospital bed use, hospital bed availability, hospital-related COVID metrics, and ventilators, according to ADHS Interim Director Don Herrington.
KJZZ reports that the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) had created an incentive program for hospitals to continue tracking and reporting capacity data after the end of the emergency declaration, but an ADHS spokesperson said that the data was collected in a format that is incompatible with the dashboard website. The department plans to collect the data and make it public in the future.
Long-term Care
CMS will return to pre-COVID policies in long-term care, ending many of the flexibilities allowed to bolster staffing levels and incentivize mitigating outbreaks inside facilities. From the CMS press release:
With steadily increasing vaccination rates for nursing home residents and staff, and with overall improvements seen in nursing homes’ abilities to respond to COVID-19 outbreaks, CMS is taking steps to phase out certain flexibilities that are generally no longer needed to re-establish certain minimum standards while continuing to protect the health and safety of those residing in skilled nursing facilities/nursing facilities.
Waivers will also be terminated for inpatient hospices, intermediate care facilities for intellectually disabled people and end-stage renal disease facilities. According to a memo from CMS’ Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, these changes come following findings from onsite surveys that significant concerns with resident care unrelated to infection control are on the rise, which CMS attributes to certain regulatory waivers, such as those for necessary care provider trainings.
The American Health Care Association (AHCA) laid out several steps that nursing facilities should take before the end of COVID-related waivers. AHCA advises these facilities to be actively working all temporary nurse aides to certification “as soon as possible,” McKnight’s reports.
Federal Agencies Looking Forward
Four of the 15 commissioners for the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) voted against recommendations to make vaccine coverage mandatory for all Medicaid beneficiaries and to eliminate cost-sharing for vaccines. Inside Health Policy notes that the majority of commissioners are concerned that states are not required to cover vaccine administration for Medicaid beneficiaries who are not in the expansion population. From MACPAC Chair Melanie Bella:
People who are not supporting this recommendation, I think we have to realize, does not mean they do not support the value of vaccine. And people who are supporting the recommendation — it doesn’t mean that we don’t also feel very troubled about saying ‘States go do this.’
The Associated Press reports that during the pandemic, roughly 24,000 U.S. troops were deployed, including 6,000 medical personnel to hospitals and 5,000 to assist in the administration of vaccine. The Pentagon is now rewriting pandemic and infectious disease plans, planning war games and other exercises to determine if the U.S. has a sustainable number of military medical staff in active duty and reserves,
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.