Day: December 17, 2021

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US CDC Recommends ‘Test-to-Stay’ COVID-19 Options to Keep Kids in School

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday issued guidelines for keeping children in school even if they are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated and have been exposed to someone with COVID-19.

During a virtual briefing by the White House COVID-19 response team, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said the test-to-stay protocol involves testing twice in a seven-day period anyone who has had close contact with someone infected with COVID-19. She said if exposed children meet certain criteria and continue to test negative, they can stay in school instead of quarantining at home.

Walensky said numerous jurisdictions have been experimenting with test-to-stay strategies. Some were testing every day, some every other day, and some twice a week. From those experiments, she said, the CDC will recommend no less than twice-weekly testing to adequately adhere to test-to-stay protocols.

The CDC also published studies conducted in the United States and internationally that looked at how COVID-19 is spread in schools, which helped form the basis for test-to-stay recommendations.

Walensky reported at least 39 U.S. states have more than 75 confirmed cases involving the omicron variant. She said the delta variant continues to circulate widely and remains the dominant strain in the United States, but omicron is spreading rapidly and is expected to become the dominant strain in the coming weeks.

The CDC director said omicron has been found among those who are vaccinated and boosted, and health officials believe these cases are milder or asymptomatic because of vaccine protection. “What we do know is we have the tools to protect ourselves against COVID-19,” she said.

White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said the U.S. is fully prepared to confront the variant, with ample supplies of vaccines and boosters.

“This is not a moment to panic, because we know how to protect people,” Zients said. “And we have the tools to do it.”

Source: Voice of America

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Rockettes End Season as New York Tallies Record COVID-19 Cases

New York state reported Friday that just over 21,000 people had tested positive for COVID-19 the previous day, the highest single-day total for new cases since testing became widely available.

Just under half of the positive results were in the city, where lines were growing at testing stations, the Rockettes Christmas show was canceled for the season and some Broadway shows nixed performances because of outbreaks among cast members.

One-day snapshots of virus statistics can be an unreliable way to measure trends, but the new record punctuated a steady increase that started in the western part of the state in late October and has taken off in New York City in the past week as the omicron variant spreads.

“This is changing so quickly. The numbers are going up exponentially by day,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said during a Friday appearance on CNN.

The steep rise in infections should be of great concern, but it was inevitable, given the quick spread of the newest variant, said Dr. Denis Nash, the executive director of the Institute for Implementation Science in Population Health at the City University of New York.

“We were already headed for a winter surge with delta, which is a very concerning thing in its own right,” Nash said.

“But then you layer on top of that the new omicron variant, which is more transmissible from an infection standpoint,” he said, noting that current vaccines may be unable to contain the “more invasive” new variant.

Statewide, New York averaged 13,257 positive tests per day over the seven-day period that ended Thursday. That is up 71% from two weeks ago.

The state’s previous one-day high for positive tests came on Jan. 14, 2021, when just under 20,000 people tested positive.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has warned that omicron is in “full force,” but said the city’s hospitals are “very strong and stable right now” and far better able to handle COVID-19 than when the pandemic began. Treatments have improved, and more than 70% of eligible city residents are fully vaccinated, he noted.

Source: Voice of America

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WFP Malawi Country Brief, November 2021

In Numbers

61,916 cumulative and 571 active cases of COVID-19 in Malawi (30 November 2021)

USD 4.9 million six-month (December 2021 – May 2022) net funding requirements

11,000 refugee households assisted with cash distributions

Strategic Outcome 1

• Refugees: Double distributions for the months of September and October were completed, with cash and in-kind transfers of super cereal (corn-soya blend) for 11,000 refugee households (approximately 46,000 refugees) in Dzaleka camp.

• WFP supported the visit of the European Union’s head of mission to Dzaleka refugee camp to enhance government engagement and plans in support of the Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework.

• The Government of Malawi has introduced new COVID-19 testing and vaccination measures at Dzaleka Refugee Camp as a point of entry. The COVID-19 isolation centre erected in the camp by WFP and UNHCR will be used for the exercise.

Strategic Outcome 2

• School feeding: In collaboration with sister agencies the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), WFP hosted the Director General for the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation on a visit to a school under the United Nations Joint Programme on Girls Education supported by the Government of Norway.

• Schools in Malawi closed on 19 November 2021 for the last school term of the 2021 academic year and are scheduled to reopen on 4 January 2022. In November, WFP supported the transition of 74 schools in four districts (Chikwawa, Nsanje, Phalombe and Zomba) to home-grown school feeding as part of the scale-up of the school feeding model.

• Social protection: To inform preparedness work for the lean season response, WFP Malawi has collaborated with social protection donors and partners to ensure a harmonised response in transfer values and timing of transfers during the lean season response to avoid misunderstanding at community level.

Strategic Outcome 3

• Malnutrition prevention: Nutrition awareness campaigns on messages on maternal nutrition, infant and young child nutrition, water, hygiene and sanitation and COVID-19 were conducted through live radio programmes, radio jingles and sensitization meetings in Balaka, Chikwawa and Zomba reaching an estimated 750,000 people.

Source: World Food Programme

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Malawi: Emergency Agriculture and Food Security Surveillance System (EmA-FSS) Bulletin, Issue 38: 16-30 November 2021

KEY HIGHLIGHTS:

• The proportion of households relying on purchase as the main source of food was 43.4 percent, which is 23.4 percentage points lower than the 66.8 percent reported same time last year but higher than the 39.9 percent reported in the first half of November 2021. The southern region continued to record the highest proportion of households relying on purchase as the main source of food estimated at 55.5 percent, which is lower than the 76.3 percent reported during the same period last year. The proportion of households relying on purchase as the main source of food in the southern region is lower than the 57.8 percent recorded in the first half of November 2021.

• In households owning any type of livestock, the proportion of households reporting suspected livestock diseases was 17.1 percent, which is 4 percentage points lower than the 21.1 percent recorded during the same period last year and is lower than 20.2 percent recorded in the first half of November 2021. The southern region recorded the highest proportion of households reporting livestock diseases estimated at 22.5 percent up from 2.9 percent.

• The proportion of households involved in fishing related livelihoods activities was 2.0 percent, which is 0.1 percentage points lower than 2.1 percent reported during the same period last year and is also 0.1 percentage points higher than 1.9 percent reported in the first half of November 2021. The northern region recorded the highest proportion of households involved in fishing related activities (5.6 percent up from 3.2 percent). Households involved in fishing related activities reporting some suspected fish diseases was 22.6 percent, which is 5.4 percentage points higher than the 17.2 percent reported during the same period last year and is also 18.4 percentage points higher than the 4.2 percent reported in the first half of November 2021. The northern region reported the highest proportion of households reporting suspected fish diseases (40.6 percent). Lesions or ulcers, localized swelling and skin erosion or loss of scales were the fish disease reported.

• The average price of maize per kg was MK148.46, which is 21.5 percent lower than the MK189.14/kg recorded during the same time last year. The average maize price is slightly up from the MK147.00/kg reported in the first half of November 2021. The southern region continued to record the highest average maize prices per kg at MK174.30, which is 15.7 percent lower than the MK206.86/kg recorded same time last year.

• The average crop prices for selected crops per kg were MK742.56 up from MK689.07 for rice, MK893.50 up from MK798.82 for groundnuts, MK499.75 up from MK502.68 for Irish potatoes compared to average prices recorded during the same time last year.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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Malawi: COVID-19 Rapid Response – Emergency Agriculture Surveillance (EmA-FSS) [November 2021 Highlights]

KEY HIGHLIGHTS

• The proportion of households relying on purchase as the main source of food was 41.8 percent, which is 24.4 percentage points lower than the 66.2 percent in the same month of November last year. The proportion of households relying on purchase as the main source of food is higher than the 36.4 percent in the previous month of October 2021. The southern region recorded the highest proportion of households relying on purchase estimated at 57.3 percent, which is lower than the 76.0 percent same month last year but higher than the 50.8 percent in the previous month of October 2021.

• The proportion of households owning any livestock including poultry was 55.7 percent, which is 0.9 percentage points higher than the 54.8 percent recorded same month last year and is 1.1 percentage points lower than the 56.8 percent reported in the month of October 2021. The northern region continues to record the highest proportion of households owning livestock estimated at 79.8 percent, which is higher than the 74.3 percent reported same month last year and is similar to the 80.3 percent in the previous month of October 2021. The proportion of households reporting some suspected livestock diseases was 22.2 percent, which is higher than the 20.1 percent same month last year and is also higher than the 20.4 percent in the previous month of October 2021. The northern region recorded the highest proportion of households reporting some suspected livestock diseases estimated (22.9 percent down from 27.1 percent same month last year).

• The proportion of households involved in fishing related activities was 2.0 percent, which is 0.2 percentage points lower than the 2.2 percent reported in the same month last year and is also 0.2 percentage points lower than the 2.2 percent reported in the month of October 2021. The northern region recorded the highest proportion of households involved in fishing related activities estimated at 4.5 percent up from 3.1 percent same month last year and similar to the 4.6 percent reported in the previous month of October 2021. In households involved in fishing activities, the proportion of households reporting suspected fish diseases was 14.52 percent, which is lower than the 20.3 percent recorded same month last year but higher than the 13.2 percent recorded in the previous month of October 2021. The northern region recorded the highest proportion of households reporting suspected fish diseases (27.1 percent down from 32.5 percent same month last year but higher than the 25.0 percent in the previous month of October 2021).

• The average price of maize per kilogram in November 2021 was MK148.38, which is 22.4 percent lower than the MK191.16/kg recorded during the same month last year. The average maize prices per kg is higher than the MK147.64 recorded in the previous month of October 2021. The southern region continued to record the highest maize prices per kg estimated at MK172.11 down from MK212.68 in the month of November last year.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

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