US case of monkeypox reported in Massachusetts man
Massachusetts has reported a case of monkeypox in a man who recently traveled to Canada. Health officials said Wednesday they are looking into whether the case is connected to small outbreaks in Europe. Monkeypox is typically limited to Africa and the rare cases in the U.S. and elsewhere are usually linked to travel there. A small number of confirmed or suspected monkeypox cases have been reported this month in the United Kingdom, Portugal and Spain. Health officials said the U.S. case poses no risk to the public. The Massachusetts resident is hospitalized but in good condition. Last year, Texas and Maryland each reported a case in people who traveled to Nigeria.
Biden health officials warn of substantial increase in virus cases
Federal health officials warned Wednesday that one-third of Americans live in areas where the threat of COVID-19 is now so high that they should consider wearing a mask in indoor public settings. They cited new data showing a substantial jump in the spread of the coronavirus and hospitalizations over the past week. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that the seven-day average of hospital admissions from COVID-19 rose 19% over the previous week. About 3,000 people a day were being admitted with COVID-19, she said, although death rates, a lagging indicator, remained low.
More than 75% of long COVID patients not hospitalized for initial illness
More than three-quarters of Americans diagnosed with long COVID were not sick enough to be hospitalized for their initial infection, a new analysis of tens of thousands of private insurance claims reported Wednesday. The researchers analyzed data from the first few months after doctors began using a special diagnostic code for the condition that was created last year. The results paint a sobering picture of long COVID’s serious and ongoing impact on people’s health and the U.S. health care system. Long COVID, a complex constellation of lingering or new post-infection symptoms that can last for months or longer, has become one of the most daunting legacies of the pandemic.
Russia uses Ukraine captives to push false narrative of Nazi purge
Russia seized on the mass surrender of Ukrainian troops at a Mariupol steel plant as a propaganda gift Wednesday, moving to falsely label them as terrorists and create a parallel narrative to Ukraine’s portrayal of Russian soldiers as heinous war criminals. Images of the surrendering Ukrainians were publicized by the Russians just as a Russian soldier pleaded guilty in a Ukrainian courtroom to fatally shooting an unarmed civilian. Ukraine had initially described the mass surrender of the soldiers at Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, which its military ordered Monday night, as the only alternative to their near-certain death against hopeless odds, and as a prelude to a prisoner exchange.
Russian soldier accused of killing civilian pleads guilty in Kyiv court
A Russian soldier pleaded guilty in a Kyiv court Wednesday to having fatally shot a civilian, in the first trial Ukraine has conducted for an act that could be considered a war crime since Russia launched its full-scale invasion. The soldier, Sgt. Vadim Shyshimarin, pleaded guilty to shooting a 62-year-old man on a bicycle in the village of Chupakhivka in the Sumy region, about 200 miles east of Kyiv, four days after Russia’s invasion began Feb. 24. He faces 10 years to life in prison. Asked by the presiding judge whether he accepted his guilt, Shyshimarin, 21, said, “Yes.” “Fully?” the judge asked. “Yes,” the sergeant replied.
US reopens embassy in Kyiv for first time since invasion began
The United States reopened its embassy in Kyiv on Wednesday, restoring formal diplomatic operations in Ukraine’s capital for the first time since Russia invaded the country in February. U.S. officials had been eager to reopen the embassy as a symbolic show of support for Ukraine, to reestablish in-person communication with senior officials in Kyiv and to join a growing roster of nations, including Britain and Israel, that have sent diplomats back to the city in recent weeks. But the move brings heightened risk to Americans in a country where Russian missiles can strike without warning, even far from the front lines of battle now located hundreds of miles east of the capital.
NKorea boasts recovery as WHO worries over missing data
North Korea on Wednesday added hundreds of thousands of infections to its growing pandemic caseload. It also said that a million people have already recovered from suspected COVID-19 just a week after disclosing an outbreak, a public health crisis it appears to be trying to manage in isolation. Global experts are expressing deep concern about dire consequences. It’s also unclear how more than a million people recovered so quickly when limited medicine, medical equipment and health facilities exist to treat the country’s impoverished, unvaccinated population of 26 million. State media said another 230,000 people had fevers and six more died. The cause is suspected to be COVID-19 but North Korea lacks tests to confirm so many.
Crews slow New Mexico fires, brace for dangerous conditions
More than 2,000 firefighters battling the largest U.S. wildfire are digging back-up fire lines and rearranging fire engines around homes in northeast New Mexico. Fire officials say they expedited efforts Wednesday to get ahead of the flames in anticipation of a return to windy, dangerous conditions in the days ahead. High fire danger alerts go back in effect Thursday from southern Nevada through parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado. Crews dug contingency lines east of Taos south of the Colorado line. No new evacuations were ordered Wednesday, and some were relaxed. But a fire behavior analyst said: “The next three days are going to be the giddy-up days.”
By wire sources