Scientists are searching intensively to identify a person in Ohio who is believed to have been the longest covid-positive patient ever.
The patient is believed to be living in the Columbus area, and is believed to be carrying a highly mutated version of the virus “unlike anything” experts have seen so far. Dr Marc Johnson, a microbiologist at the University of Missouri, has warned the mutations of the strain would be enough to make it a “variant of concern” should it spread across the population, the Daily Mail reported.Johnson’s team has been analyzing samples of COVID-19 from sewage across the United States to search for any new variants of COVID-19. It is the same type of technique used during the pandemic.”We reverse analyze [wastewater] to see if anything in there that doesn’t match any lineages,” said Johnson. “Very early on there was this [sample] that was different than anything we had seen.”Johnson does not know if the person is contagious, nor does he know how they have managed to stay positive for COVID-19 for such an extended period of time.
The researchers have identified an approximate area where the person of interest will likely have spent time.
Dr Johnson believes the strain is being shed by the same person who regularly commutes between Columbus and Washington Court House.The scientist is unsure whether the person is contagious or how they have managed to stay infected so long.Patients who harbor viruses for exceptionally long periods of time often have weakened immune systems, which means their body struggles to clear the virus. Many scientists believe the Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants all emerged this way.Dr Johnson is, however, convinced the patient is healthy and may travel for work or school, but he could not rule out a chronically ill person who commutes for hospital care. His team cannot say for certain that it is just one patient, either.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is rolling back some of its pandemic-related activities. The agency plans to stop tracking the spread of the virus in communities across the nation due to the end of the covid emergency orders.
Moving forward, the CDC is expected to rely more heavily on Covid-related hospitalizations, according to two people familiar with the plans — much like it does to track the spread of the flu.The agency has been using a color-coded system since February 2022 to indicate high, medium or low transmission of Covid, county by county.But as reported cases have steadily fallen and availability of rapid, at-home tests has risen, it has become difficult to get an accurate view of how much virus is circulating.The CDC is expected to announce the new tracking system within the coming weeks. The news was first reported by CNN.The CDC said the move away from tracking community level transmission is tied to the May 11 expiration of the national public health emergency.
However, even though the vaccines neither stop infection nor the transmission of covid, the agency still imposes vaccine requirements on international travelers.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still requiring international visitors boarding flights to the United States to be vaccinated against Covid-19, but it’s easing vaccine requirements for those travelers.International travelers boarding flights to the United States will now be considered fully vaccinated two weeks after getting a single dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccine any time after August 16, 2022, when bivalent formulations first became available. The updated travel guidance was posted on the agency’s website on Thursday.The change aligns with the CDC’s recently simplified vaccine guidance for Americans; those who are unvaccinated are now considered fully vaccinated after a single dose of a bivalent vaccine, which protects against more strains of the virus than the original shot.
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