The CDC shortened its isolation and quarantine recommendations for Americans based on data that if you’re infected, you’re most contagious two days before and three days after symptoms show up. If you’re infected, regardless of vaccination status, when you test positive you should isolate for five days, instead of the previously recommended 10. After that, if you have no symptoms, you can go back to normal but wear a mask everywhere — even at home around others — at least five more days. If you were in close contact with an infected person but haven’t tested positive yourself and aren’t fully vaccinated, you should quarantine 10 days at least. If you’ve had your booster, you can skip quarantine if you wear masks in all settings at least 10 days.

About those masks. If you’re wearing those blue surgical cloth kind, they’re now saying that’s not good enough. They reportedly don’t provide enough protection against Delta and especially Omicron. So you might run into places that require you have an N95 mask, which is great news for N95 mask companies because they run about $2 each. 

Why is COVID testing such a mess? An anonymous insider at an Australia pathology unit gives us one inside look at why it takes so long to process PCR tests, and their account has been verified by healthcare experts and other healthcare workers in pathology. It’s the largely meaningless and unsuccessful travel restrictions. With negative tests required for interstate travel, it’s crushing the system with high demand. The equipment used isn’t meant for this kind of volume, and people are being worked inhumanely and quitting. Testing clinics have been relying on batch testing which lumps a lot of tests together and only separates them out if there’s a positive. But now there’s too many positives to make that work.

Have anxiety and depression about getting vaccinated? Then what you need is a vaccination! New research claims COVID vaccinations help alleviate anxiety and depression by a whopping 30%! 

In the United States cases were up 105%, deaths are down 5%, and hospitalizations are up 6% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending up since December 14.  

The five states that had the most daily deaths per 100,000 are Alaska, New Mexico, Michigan, Arizona, and Ohio.

There are 11,700,527 active cases in the United States.

The five areas with the greatest increase in hospitalizations per capita: Puerto Rico 225%, Washington DC 111%, New Jersey and Louisiana 60%, and Florida 57%.  

The top 10 areas with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Pitkin, CO. Summit, CO. Essex, NJ. Hopkins, TX. Eagle, CO. Washington, DC. Miami-Dade, FL. San Juan, PR. Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands. And New York City, NY. 

There have been at least 818,370 deaths in the U.S. recorded as Covid-related.

The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s been fully vaccinated: Vermont at 76.9%, Rhode Island unchanged at 75.9%, and Maine at 75.5%. The bottom 3 vaccinating states are Idaho unchanged at 45.8%, and Alabama and Wyoming at 47.3%. The percentage of the U.S. that’s been fully vaccinated is unchanged at 61.7%.

Globally, cases were up 35% and deaths down 12% over 14 days, with the 7-day average trending up since October 15. 

There are once again over 25 million active cases around the world, at 25,437,273.

The five countries with the most new cases: The United States 213,050. The U.K. 98,515. Spain 53,654. Italy 30,810. And France 30,383. 

There have been at least 5,406,197 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide. 

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