(Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE are starting a study of a Covid-19 vaccine that targets the omicron variant, enrolling participants in a clinical trial that will evaluate the shot’s ability to prompt an immune response in adults.

New York state has seen an 86% decrease in cases since its Jan. 7 peak. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus moved closer to serving a second five-year term after securing the group’s nomination.

Covid-19’s deadly effects manifest long after some patients leave the hospital, according to a new study that points to the pandemic’s grave aftermath.

Key Developments: 

  • Virus Tracker: Cases top 355 million; deaths pass 5.6 million
  • Vaccine Tracker: More than 9.98 billion shots administered
  • Few employers to drop vaccine mandate after Supreme Court rebuke
  • Deaths months after Covid point to pandemic’s grim aftermath
  • Almost half the world trails IMF vaccine targets to end pandemic
  • Is Covid becoming endemic? What would that mean?: QuickTake

California AG Warns Against Test Scams (7:18 a.m. HK)

California Attorney General Rob Bonta says scammers are exploiting people seeking Covid-19 tests by posing as legitimate companies and health care clinics but failing to provide test results after receiving payment.

The scammers may also ask for personal information that they may use to commit fraud, Bonta said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Fake testing sites are sprouting up to exploit families and individuals seeking Covid tests,” Bonda said.

N.Y. Sees 86% Drop From Omicron Peak (4:05 p.m. NY)

New York state has seen an 86% decrease in cases since its Jan. 7 peak when there were more than 90,000 cases. Deaths and hospitalizations remain elevated, though, with the state reporting 158 fatalities and 9,854 hospitalization.

Although Covid cases are declining, Governor Kathy Hochul on Tuesday warned New Yorkers to remain cautious as people gather for Super Bowl festivities and said “the winter surge is not over.”

Covid’s Deadly Aftermath Cited in Study (2:45 p.m. NY)

Covid-19’s deadly effects manifest long after some patients leave the hospital, according to a new study that points to the pandemic’s grave aftermath. 

Hospitalized patients who survived at least a week after being discharged were more than twice as likely to die or be admitted again within months, scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford found. The Covid survivors also had an almost five times greater risk of dying in the following 10 months than a sample taken from the general population.

Omicron Still Threatens Hospitals, CDC Says (1:35 p.m. NY)

Rates of Covid-19 severe illness and death fell in the U.S. during the omicron surge compared with the earlier delta wave as well as last winter’s, although high case counts and deaths continue to threaten patients and health systems, according to a government report.  

Even as the proportion of hospital beds used for Covid patients’ treatment rose under omicron, intensive-care unit admissions for the same patients dipped slightly, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday in a report. The highest seven-day moving average of deaths during omicron was also lower than any during the two earlier surges, the report said.

DeSantis Touts Treatments After FDA Halt (11:55 a.m. NY)

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is calling on regulators to allow use of two monoclonal antibody therapies for Covid-19 after the Food and Drug Administration halted their use in a ruling neither manufacturer disputes.

The FDA said Monday that it was rescinding authorization for the use of Eli Lilly & Co. and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S. because they aren’t effective against omicron, which has become overwhelmingly dominant in all regions of the country, including Florida.

N.Y. Schools Grapple With Mask Ruling (10:45 a.m. NY) 

Some New York school districts are abandoning mask mandates, hours after a Long Island judge ruled them unconstitutional on Monday. 

Nassau Supreme Court Judge Thomas Rademaker said the state’s health commissioner lacked legal authority to issue her Dec. 10 mask-wearing regulation, citing the state Legislature’s decision to curtail the emergency powers bestowed on the executive branch during the pandemic.

WHO’s Tedros Nominated for New Term (8:54 a.m. NY)

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus moved closer to serving a second term after securing the group’s nomination.

The WHO’s executive board’s nomination on Tuesday paves the way for his official reappointment in May. A director-general can be reappointed once, meaning Tedros is eligible for an additional term of five years. Tedros was the only candidate to be proposed. 

Pfizer Starts Trial of Omicron Vaccine (6:45 a.m. NY)

Pfizer Inc. said it is starting a study of a Covid-19 vaccine that targets the omicron variant, exploring its use in previously vaccinated younger and middle-aged adults as well as those who haven’t received another coronavirus shot. 

The New York-based drugmaker and its German partner, BioNTech SE, said in a statement on Tuesday that they had enrolled the first participants in a 1,420-person clinical trial involving healthy adults age 18 to 55. The study will also examine the shot’s safety and potential side effects.

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