Weekly update, cases are rising across the board, Omicron sub-variant BA.4 and BA.5 are taking over.
In total 5.43 million new cases were reported last week (up from 4.55 million) to a total of 553,599,815
Also another 10,638 more deaths were reported (up from 9,927) to a total of 6,359,997
Europe keeps on rising 2.63 million new cases this week (1.95 million last week) and 3,257 more deaths (2,945 last week)
USA also rising but far slower 798K new cases this week (740K last week) and 2,640 more deaths (2,376 last week)
The continents
Europe is driving the pandemic again, only Africa declined a little this week.
Corners of the world
South Africa still heading down, Iran heading back up. The rest slowly creeping up.
Canada reported 19.5K new cases (up from 16.4K) and 145 deaths (142 last week)
Europe in detail
France, Germany and Italy leading the charge, a general increase across the board.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/omicron-cousin-ba-5-predicted-to-cause-nearly-70-per-cent-of-covid-19-cases-by-canada-day-1.5969703
Researchers examining the threat of emerging COVID-19 strains predict Omicron BA.5 will account for nearly 70 per cent of cases by Canada Day.
(Canada day was yesterday, July 1st)
"The last sequence data was mid-June but the projections for July 1 would be: roughly 13 per cent (of cases are) BA.4, and 69 per cent BA.5," said Otto, co-lead of the computational biology and modelling arm of the network, also known as CoVaRR-Net.
Otto noted that BA.4 and BA.5 appear to primarily infect the upper airways -- versus the lower lungs -- leading to less severe cases on average than pre-Omicron variants.
"My prediction is that the cases are going to go up, hospitalizations are going to go up, but my current hope is that it won't be as bad as the BA.2 wave," she said, adding there was not enough data yet to know for certain.
At the pace BA.5 has been growing, she said BA.5 is now about five times more common in Canada than BA.4. "Pretty soon, it will just be the BA.5 wave," said Otto, also a member of B.C.'s COVID-19 modelling group, and an external modelling group of the Public Health Agency of Canada.
While Canadians have higher immunity than ever before, this new subvariant is radically different than what came before, said Razak, making reinfection more likely. "It's mutated enough that even if you got infected with the original Omicron wave that just came through in the spring, the virus surface looks sufficiently different that your immune system doesn't recognize it, and another infection is happening again."
Most fully vaccinated people infected by BA.5 experience a mild bout of COVID-19, Razak said, but high-risk groups including immunocompromised individuals and the elderly are still at greater risk of falling severely ill.
My wife is still not fully over Covid-19 (likely BA.2) and now we have BA.5 coming up everywhere. Her oxygen level still goes down to 90% and no hearing in the left ear after a lot of ringing while the disease was at its height.
https://www.healthyhearing.com/report/53127-Coronavirus-hearing-loss-tinnitus-covid
What does appear to be a little more common (though still rare) is developing hearing loss, tinnitus or dizziness later in the infection process, meaning these issues are not part of the initial onset of symptoms but develop days to weeks later.
A February 2021 systematic review that pooled together data on auditory complications estimated that:
- 7.6% of people report hearing loss
- 14.8% report tinnitus
- 7.2% report vertigo
However, the researchers emphasize that there is a lack of "high-quality studies" on this topic. A large comprehensive research effort is needed.
Hopefully it's not permanent. First time she (likely) got infected in Februari 2020 it took until the end of the year to get her taste and sense of smell back to normal. That's much less affected this time, but the hearing loss is new :(
https://london.ctvnews.ca/ontario-researchers-say-they-ve-found-what-causes-long-covid-symptoms-1.5966717
The use of MRI technology — combined with inhaled xenon gas — allowed researchers to see that long-COVID symptoms are related to the microscopic abnormalities that affect how oxygen is exchanged from the lungs to the red blood cells.
The results of the study were published in the journal Radiology and reveal a potential cause for long-COVID symptoms.
Long COVID is characterized by the feeling of brain fog, breathlessness, fatigue and limited capacity to do normal day-to-day things. The symptoms can last weeks or months following initial infection.
That all applies :/
