Bay Area’s sewers show discouraging COVID signs

Bay Area’s sewers show discouraging COVID signs: Wastewater samples across Bay Area are showing a sharp uptick in COVID-19 genetic material in the region’s sewage systems after what appeared to be a downtrend last week. A wastewater surveillance tool created by researchers at UC Berkeley shows the concentration of coronavirus RNA in the effluent rising rapidly in San Francisco, Alameda, Contra Costa, and Marin counties, indicating cases in the region may not yet have reached their peak. The samples from San Francisco’s Oceanside treatment plant, for example, show a nearly hundred-fold increase in COVID-19 genetic material from just a week earlier.

U.S. discourages use of two monoclonal antibody treatments: Monoclonal antibody treatments from Regeneron and Eli Lilly are not effective against the omicron variant of the coronavirus and the National Institutes of Health’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel is now discouraging their use in guidance updated Wednesday. The only monoclonal antibody treatment — which helps people manage symptoms of the virus at home — that has shown to work against omicron is Sotrovimab, made by GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology. It remains in short supply during the current surge.

Two years since first virus case was identified in the U.S.: Today marks two years since the first case of the novel coronavirus was detected in the United States, in a resident of Washington state. “Our state lead the nation in the early days of the pandemic response by being proactive, transparent, and tough in its fight to protect people from the fast-spreading virus,” the state’s department of health said in a statement marking the occasion. “Over the past two years, our lives have changed dramatically at school, at work, and at home.” Since that case was documented, more than 68 million people have become infected with COVID-19 nationwide and over 858,000 have died, according to data collected by The Chronicle.

Kaiser may have given wrong COVID-19 vaccine dose to nearly 4,000 people: Nearly 4,000 people who got their COVID-19 vaccine at Kaiser Permanente’s Walnut Creek Medical Center late last year may have received a slightly smaller dose than is recommended, according to the health care provider. Read the full story here.

Omicron surge causing chaos and anguish for Bay Area parents of kids under 5: The start of the new year brought a familiar wave of distress for many Bay Area parents: omicron infections were accelerating; preschools and childcare centers were shutting their doors; adults saw their work regimens upended, their children cloistered and irritable. But this time, something was different. The kids were getting sick. Read the full story here.

Study confirms mRNA boosters more effective for J&J vaccine recipients: A study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine confirms earlier reports that those who initially received the Johnson & Johnson-Janssen vaccine got a stronger immune response from a follow-up dose of an mRNA vaccine — those offered by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — than from another J&J dose. “Single-shot Ad26.COV2.S [J&J] vaccination adequately primes the immune system. We found that in the face of waning immunity and circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants, these responses were boosted most efficiently with mRNA-based vaccines,” the study said. The difference with respect to hospitalization among sick patients was less clear. The study found that a Moderna booster shot produced more binding antibodies than one from Pfizer.

Richmond High teachers stage sickout, demand school closure during omicron surge: At least 32 teachers at Richmond High School in the East Bay staged a sickout on Wednesday, according to an update posted on Twitter by a teacher. The group has posted an online petition urging West Contra Costa Unified officials to temporarily close schools during the omicron COVID-19 surge and to provide classrooms with more personal protective equipment and better ventilation. It has nearly 350 signatures so far. The petition says there have been 91 positive cases on campus since classes resumed after winter break on Jan. 3 but “this number is not including students who have tested positive for COVID or are quarantining that have not come to campus.” It adds that students and staff do not feel safe on campus.

S.F. hits a new high for hospital patients with COVID: There were 262 COVID-positive patients hospitalized in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to data collected by The Chronicle. That number tops the previous peak of 256 people hospitalized with the coronavirus reached during last year’s winter surge. With new case rates still running high, the tally of hospitalizations — a lagging indicator of pandemic trends — may rise even further. The health department does not break down what percentage of those hospitalizations are “incidental” COVID, meaning the patients tested positive even though they were admitted for other reasons. The number of people in intensive care unit beds in the city reached 37 on Tuesday — about half as many who were admitted last January.

Twitter expands offices at S.F. headquarters despite remote work trends: Twitter has expanded its San Francisco headquarters by around 80,000 square feet despite its embrace of remote work, a move that runs counter to the scores of other tech companies downsizing during the pandemic. Read the full story here.

Fauci forecasts omicron surge will be over mid-February: Most states will likely see a sharp decline in omicron case rates and hospitalizations by next month, Dr. Anthony Fauci said. “I would imagine as we get into … the middle of February, it is very likely that most of the states in the country will have turned around with their peak and are starting to come down with regard to cases, and then obviously hospitalizations,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said during a town hall meeting with Blue Star Families. He pointed to falling rates in New York and New Jersey as signs of hope. “It has already peaked and is rather dramatically on its way down,” Fauci said. “We’re seeing that also in bigger cities such as Chicago. Whereas in cities in the south, it has not yet peaked and likely will have more of a slower incline and a slower decline.”

California lawmakers form vaccine working group: A group of state lawmakers on Wednesday announced the formation of a Vaccine Work Group created to develop “cohesive and comprehensive, evidence-based policies to strengthen our ability to stop the spread of COVID and other diseases, while battling misinformation,” according to a press release. The group is dominated by Bay Area lawmakers, and includes Sens. Richard Pan, Josh Newman and Scott Weiner, and Assembly Members Buffy Wicks, Evan Low, Akilah Weber and Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.