COVID in California: BART mask mandate expires

BART mask mandate expires

A requirement to wear face coverings on BART trains and stations expired Monday, but the transit agency’s board of directors may vote to reinstate the mandate at a meeting later this month.

“BART strongly encourages riders to wear masks in the system,” a BART spokesperson said Monday. “Free masks will continue to be made available at station agent booths as well as from safety personnel.”

Will getting COVID again and again lead to stronger immunity?

Doctors agree it’s unlikely to get infected twice with the same variant, but it’s probable over the long term that new COVID variants could reinfect people due to the lightning speed evolution of the novel coronavirus. Hybrid immunity — the dual protection afforded by infection plus vaccination — seems to be less protective than it used to be against getting COVID again, although vaccines continue to stave off serious illness. “Your prior immunity, including from infection, is not worth nothing, it’s just worth less than previously,” said Dr. Bob Wachter, the chair of UCSF’s Department of Medicine, in a recent episode of the Chronicle’s Fifth and Mission podcast. Read more about a potential future entailing recurring tips of COVID.

No action pending from Bay Area counties amid virus surge

Health officials in the Bay Area told The Chronicle on Friday that they have no plans to reintroduce mandatory coronavirus mitigation measures, including an indoor masking requirement, even as COVID-cases and hospitalizations continue pushing up across the region. All 9 counties in the Bay Area are classified as having high COVID levels, based on metrics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, driven by the highly contagious omicron subvariants BA.5 and BA.4. California’s test positive rate climbed to 16.7% on Friday, according to state data, nearing the second highest peak of the entire pandemic. So far, Los Angeles County is the only population center in the state poised to reinstate a mandatory public indoor mask mandate by the end of the month unless conditions improve, officials said. Bay Area health officers said there are no criteria in place to trigger a similar shift in policy here, but they will continue to monitor the situation.

Vaccination uptake hits a new low in US despite expanded opportunities

Fewer Americans are getting vaccinated against COVID-19 than at any other point since the shots became widely available in early 2020, even though health officials are urging individuals to better protect themselves against the newer omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. The seven-day moving average of people getting vaccinated dropped to a little over 154,000 as of Friday, falling below the previous low point of about 167,000 in late March. Earlier this year, more than 1.5 million people were getting vaccinated daily in the nation. About 48% of the US population has received at least one booster dose, but fewer than 30% of those eligible over the age of 50 have received their second booster. Among the most recent age groups eligible to get vaccinated, about 30% of children between the ages of 5-11 have received their primary series, while fewer than 1 in 10 of those 4 and under have received shots since they became available in late June.

Pandemic fuels largest backslide in vaccinations in three decades, WHO warns

Childhood vaccinations are in their largest sustained decline globally in approximately 30 years, according to data published Friday by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The percentage of children who received three doses of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP3) — a marker for immunization coverage within and across countries — fell 5 percentage points between 2019 and 2021 to 81%, meaning at least 25 million children missed out on one or more of the life-saving doses through routine immunization services in 2021 alone. “This is a red alert for child health. We are witnessing the largest sustained drop in childhood immunization in a generation. The consequences will be measured in lives,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. “While a pandemic hangover was expected last year as a result of COVID-19 disruptions and lockdowns, what we are seeing now is a continued decline. COVID-19 is not an excuse. We need immunization catch-ups for the missing millions or we will inevitably witness more outbreaks, more sick children and greater pressure on already strained health systems.”

Here’s what you need to know about Novavax

The US Food and Drug Administration last week granted emergency use authorization to the COVID-19 vaccine made by Novavax. If the vaccine is recommended by the US Centers for Disease Control, which the agency could do as soon as this week, it would be the fourth COVID-19 vaccine option available for adults in the US Here’s what you need to know about a vaccine alternative arriving late in the game.