THIS WEEK'S SUMMARY - August 6, 2022:

Good news this week, the 4 week, 2 week, and 2 day trends were all good except for one [page 5, 7].

OUR LOCAL GEOGRAPHIC AREA:

Grant County cases fell [page 15]; workplace cases improved [page 18, 19]. Recent GRMC Covid admissions rose to 2 in the last week [page 22]; with covid-like ED visits falling [page 23, 26]. Silver City cases fell, Bayard and Hurley daily cases while low, rose week on week [page 16, 17]. Grant County had 1 death; Luna 0 deaths [page 14]. Covid omicron variants are still significant.

OUR STATE:

NM daily hospital beds fell a bit [page 12, 27]. Deaths fell again [page 12, 14]. Workplace reports fell. Omicron sub variants increased [page 38]. NM case doubling times are not an issue [page 5, 6]. More Catron, Hidalgo, Luna, Dona Ana, and Sierra county data added [page 39 etc]

NEIGHBORING STATES:

AZ cases and beds fell (only weekly reporting). CO cases and beds fell. TX cases and beds fell. Refer to [page 8, 9, 10].

NATIONALLY:

Recent new cases and positivity fell, hospitalization trends rose [page 7]. Deaths rose [page 7].

HOSPITALS:

US daily admission 7 day avg over a month: 4200 (6/25), 6279 (recent decline) (7/31) [page 28]
COVID inpatient beds mostly fell in AZ, CO, NM, and TX [page 27]
COVID admissions: Grant County rose to 2 [page 22] but ED covid like visits fell a bit [page 23, 26]
VARIANT GROWTH:

AZ, CO, NM, TX BA.4 and BA.5 rose. AZ, TX BA.2.75 found [page 37]. Sub variants evade people's natural or vaccinated antibody defenses, however memory T-cells usually limit serious cases and deaths. Underlying conditions are a concerning factor [page 37].

SOMEWHAT RECENT NEWS:

07/21/22: Major study looked at every prominent vaccine in the world and found that despite this variant, all of these vaccine platforms elicit solid immune responses. Boosters are effective against BA.5.

07/17/22: The Novavax vaccine using protein technology like hepatitis-B and shingles is CDC approved.

07/16/22: T cells played a critical role in shielding us from the worst ravages of COVID-19 when antibodies have been less effective, Harvard Medical School's Ekaterina Pesheva wrote.

07/15/22: The BA.5 omicron subvariant is 4 times more resistant to COVID-19 vaccines. Unvaccinated people: have a 5 times higher chance of contracting the virus, chances of hospitalization are 7.5 times higher, and chances of death are 14 to 15 times higher, said Dr. Gregory Poland, head of the Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group.