In Tuesday's State of the Union Address, President Biden announced that "it's time for Americans to get back to work," and outlined new efforts to return the public to normal activities after two years of the pandemic related to COVID-19. The White House subsequently announced a "National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan," on Wednesday...
The Arizona State Legislature now enters its third month of the 2022 session and a number of healthcare-related bills have been heard concerning COVID-19 vaccination requirements, transgender healthcare and abortion.
One such bill is House Bill 2198, proposed by Representative Steve Kaiser (R-Phoenix), which would require companies...CMS Rules
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will give physician groups participating in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) additional time to apply for a waiver that will allow their data to be re-weighted to account for the impacts of COVID-19 and the surge in cases related to the Omicron variant. CMS has assured...National News
Despite the national decline in cases of COVID-19, President Joe Biden moved to reauthorize the U.S. national emergency declared in March 2020. The president said that the deaths of more than 900,000 Americans emphasized the need for the federal government's continued response to the pandemic.
According to Reuters, the emergency is...Arizona News
COVID-19 cases in Arizona, as well as hospitalizations and deaths, are in decline throughout the state following the surge related to the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. On Wednesday, February 23, there were 1,236 new cases of COVID-19 reported and 39 new deaths.
This information comes courtesy of the Arizona Department of Health...
Throughout the pandemic, parents of young children have received conflicting messages. Until the surge in cases related to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, children appeared to have relatively low levels of serious illness caused by COVID-19.
This low risk, as well as the national scrutiny of vaccine effectiveness and side effects,...
The positivity rate and number of new COVID-19 cases in Arizona is finally trending downward following the surge related to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Intensive care unit admissions and deaths have not yet crested and are expected to lag by about two weeks.
Dr. Richard Carmona, former U.S. Surgeon General and advisor to...
New COVID-19 cases are plummeting nationally, with a 63% downward trend over the last two weeks. That's great news for the nation as a whole and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is hemorrhaging funding to pay for the nation's uninsured COVID-19 patients.
The Provider Relief Fund has already paid out more than...
Arizona officially has the distinction of ranking second nationally for COVID deaths per capita, currently trailing Mississippi. The state has now surpassed 26,000 COVID-19 deaths and is averaging nearly 14,000 new cases per day. On Wednesday, there were 24 new COVID-19 related deaths and 8,329 new cases reported.
This information...
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 remain at an all-time high while cases in major cities across the country begin to fall. This begs the question: how long should Arizona expect to continue the surge related to the Omicron variant, and will strained hospitals be able to continue?
On Wednesday, January 26, the Arizona Department of Health...
The case count in Arizona shows no sign of abating as Arizona recorded almost 25,000 new cases of COVID-19 on January 15, setting a record. Hospitals and healthcare advocacy groups warn that the overburdened healthcare system is strapped for staff and resources as hospitalizations continue. On Wednesday, January 19, the state reported...
As the Omicron variant surges in Arizona, hospitals are struggling to maintain staffing levels and resources to treat the influx of patients. As of Wednesday, Jan. 12, the state reached a new record daily high of 18,783 new COVID-19 cases after rising for 11 consecutive days.
According to KTAR, Arizona is likely to see more record...
The U.S. is now reporting over one million new cases of COVID-19 per day as a result of the surge caused by the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. As cases spike, the federal government has been slow to act as quickly as in prior surges, motivating healthcare industry workers and the public to criticize the response.
Vaccine boosters...
With the rise of the Omicron variant continuing the COVID-19 pandemic into the foreseeable future and the Build Back Better Act stalled in Congress, the landscape of healthcare in 2022 is somewhat uncertain. Two analyses, one from the U.S. Office of Public Policy and the other from the J.P. Morgan 2022 Healthcare Conference, lend some...
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a new report with heartening results on a study of 1.2 million fully vaccinated adults in which only 327 were hospitalized and 36 died due to COVID-19.
The CDC study involved patients seen at 465 healthcare facilities across the U.S. from December 2020 to...
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the nation in an attempt to calm fears about skyrocketing COVID-19 cases and overwhelmed hospitals across the country. The president leaned on the vaccine for mitigating hospitalization rates as the cases continue to surge due to the highly-transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.
We have in...
The new year brings a new surge of COVID-19, this time driven by the Omicron variant which researchers regard somewhat optimistically. Even still, schools are gearing up for a staff shortage as the governor and school administrators vow there won't be school closures. Additionally, the Arizona Department of Health Services released a...
Over the holiday weekend, the Omicron variant officially became the dominant form of COVID-19 in the United States, out-competing the Delta variant that held dominance since the summer. In response to holiday travel and increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, many Americans are seeking out rapid at-home COVID-19 tests, as well...
As the new year approaches, Arizona hospitals and healthcare professionals are gearing up for a new wave of COVID-19 patients to flood the intensive care units and emergency departments that have endured near-capacity numbers since the Delta variant took hold over the summer. Without respite from the prior wave and increased transmission...
On Wednesday, December 22, the state of Arizona reported 2,806 new cases of COVID-19 and 74 new deaths. There have now been 23,816 deaths related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only 64.5% of the state is vaccinated at this time. Statewide, 6% of intensive care unit beds and 6% of inpatient hospital beds remain available at this time. Over 40%...
