Tag Archives: COVID-19

Rapid COVID-19 tests increasingly scarce, pricey as demand from employers jumps

By Carl O’Donnell

(Reuters) – Surging demand for COVID-19 tests from U.S. employers has exacerbated a nationwide shortage of rapid tests in recent weeks and is driving up costs for state and local testing programs, according to industry executives and state officials.

Test makers including Abbott Laboratories, Quidel Corp and LumiraDX Ltd are scaling up production to meet rising demand. But significantly boosting test output will take weeks to months, half a dozen industry executives told Reuters, making the tests harder to procure in the near term.

“Employer demand has gone crazy,” said Quidel Chief Executive Doug Bryant. “We won’t be able to meet all the requests that we’re having.”

Nearly a dozen state governments said they are grappling with shortages of rapid tests, which provide on-the-spot results within minutes and are crucial for COVID-19 surveillance programs.

In Missouri, limited supplies of Abbott’s Binax Now rapid test, which typically sell to states for around $5 each, have forced it to consider other, more expensive options, a spokesperson for the states’ public health agency said.

“We are exploring other rapid antigen tests and finding most are at least three times higher than Abbott’s rapid antigen test,” the spokesperson said, adding that Missouri has not yet had to purchase the pricier tests.

Oklahoma has begun to pay higher prices for tests in recent weeks, said Michael DeRemer, the state’s director of emergency preparedness and response services.

State governments have been struggling to acquire enough rapid tests for several months after a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the more contagious Delta variant.

And U.S. employers in recent weeks have been rushing to stockpile tests after the White House in September said it plans to mandate weekly testing for unvaccinated staff at businesses with more than 100 employees.

Emerald Packaging Inc, a plastic bag factory in San Francisco with 250 workers, sees the cost of complying with the government’s testing mandate as a burden and is urging employees to get vaccinated.

Emerald may require vaccination once the federal rule goes into effect, said CEO Kevin Kelly. He said Emerald has spent about $50,000 testing its employees so far and is concerned weekly tests will further drive up costs.

Quidel has had to decline more than half of requests from employers seeking to stock up ahead of the mandate, expected to take effect in October, said CEO Bryant.

It has also had to postpone exports of rapid tests to some foreign governments until next year, Bryant said. Quidel is delivering on existing contracts with countries including Canada.

BIDDING WARS, SIGNIFICANT MARKUPS

U.S. test makers manufacture more than 50 million rapid COVID-19 tests each month, not enough for regular surveillance testing at schools and workplaces across the country, said Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar.

Rapid antigen tests can cost as little as $2 each to make, according to Mologic, one of the largest British test makers. But in the United States, bidding wars between health systems, state governments, and employers have contributed to much higher prices.

South Carolina, for example, is paying as much as $130 each for some of its rapid tests, a state spokesperson said.

That contrasts sharply with the UK and European countries. In Germany, large government purchases allow it to offer rapid tests to residents for less than $1 each, and it is not experiencing severe shortages.

Abbott and Quidel said they do not plan to raise test prices for customers. However, retailers and test providers often purchase tests and resell them at significant markups.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and CVS Health Corp sell Abbott’s Binax Now rapid tests – which Abbott lists for around $5 – for $12 per test at pharmacies. Walmart Inc, Kroger and Amazon.com Inc charge nearly $8 per test even after they slashed prices temporarily to cost.

States largely have been using the $10 billion the White House set aside primarily for school testing programs. Some states including Missouri said their federal aid is running out.

Meanwhile, employers and consumers must pay for rapid test purchases themselves.

In an effort to ramp up production, Abbott reopened a plant in Illinois it had shuttered earlier this year, putting it back on track to produce upwards of 50 million Binax Now tests per month by the end of October, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Quidel is building a new plant that will boost its rapid test output from around 20 million per month to as much as 70 million, but it will not be operational until year-end, Bryant said. LumiraDX is planning to nearly double its test production by year end.

On Monday, U.S. regulators authorized a rapid test made by ACON Laboratories, which plans to produce as many as 100 million per month by the end of the year.

“There’s definitely a supply chain squeeze on the rapid antigen side,” said Matthew McKnight, an executive at Ginkgo BioWorks, which manages surveillance testing programs for employers. “It will take a couple months (before) production catches up.”

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York, Additional reporting by Tim Aeppel in New York; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

Coronavirus can transform pancreas cell function; certain genes may protect an infected person’s spouse

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Coronavirus transforms pancreas cell function

When the coronavirus infects cells, it not only impairs their activity but can also change their function, new findings suggest. For example, when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become infected with the virus, they not only produce much less insulin than usual, but also start to produce glucose and digestive enzymes, which is not their job, researchers found. “We call this a change of cell fate,” said study leader Dr. Shuibing Chen, who described the work in a presentation on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, held virtually this year. It is not clear whether the changes are long-lasting, or if they might be reversible, the researchers noted earlier in a report published in Cell Metabolism. Chen noted that some COVID-19 survivors have developed diabetes shortly after infection. “It is definitely worth investigating the rate of new-onset diabetes patients in this COVID-19 pandemic,” she said in a statement. Her team has been experimenting with the coronavirus in clusters of cells engineered to create mini-organs, or organoids, that resemble the lungs, liver, intestines, heart and nervous system. Their findings suggest loss of cell fate/function may be happening in lung tissues as well, Chen, from Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, told Reuters.

Certain genes may protect an infected patient’s spouse

A study of couples in which both partners were exposed to the coronavirus but only one person got infected is helping to shed light on why some people may be naturally resistant to the virus. The researchers had believed such cases were rare, but a call for volunteers who fit that profile turned up roughly a thousand couples. Ultimately, they took blood samples from 86 couples for detailed analysis. The results suggest resistant partners more often have genes that contribute to more efficient activation of so-called natural killer (NK) cells, which are part of the immune system’s initial response to germs. When NKs are correctly activated, they are able to recognize and destroy infected cells, preventing the disease from developing, the researchers explained in a report published on Tuesday in Frontiers in Immunology . “Our hypothesis is that the genomic variants most frequently found in the susceptible spouse lead to the production of molecules that inhibit activation of NKs,” study leader Mayana Zatz of the University of São Paulo, Brazil, said in a statement. The current study cannot prove this is happening, she added. Even if the findings are confirmed with more research, the contributions of other immune mechanisms would also need to be investigated, the researchers said.

Experimental pill shows promise against coronavirus variants

Laboratory studies show that Merck & Co’s experimental oral COVID-19 antiviral drug, molnupiravir, is likely to be effective in patients infected with any of the known variants of the coronavirus, including the dominant, highly transmissible Delta, researchers said on Wednesday in a presentation during IDWeek 2021, the virtual annual meeting of infectious disease organizations. Molnupiravir does not target the spike protein of the virus, which is the target of all current COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, it targets an enzyme the virus uses to make copies of itself. It is designed to work by introducing errors into the genetic code of the virus. Data showed that the drug is most effective when given early in the course of infection, Merck said. The company is conducting two large late-stage trials of the drug – one for treatment of COVID-19 and another as a preventive.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Deena Beasley; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Factbox-Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

(Reuters) – Japan will lift a state of emergency in all regions on Thursday as the number of new cases falls, while India reported the smallest daily rise in COVID-19 deaths since mid-March.

DEATHS AND INFECTIONS

EUROPE

* Sweden will offer additional groups, including people aged 80 and above, to top up their COVID-19 vaccinations with a third dose, the Nordic country’s health minister said.

* Italy’s health ministry said on Tuesday it had given the go-ahead for travel to six non-European tourist spots without the need for quarantine as a COVID-19 precaution either on arrival or return.

AMERICAS

* New York hospitals began firing or suspending healthcare workers for defying a state order to get the COVID-19 vaccine, and resulting staff shortages prompted some hospitals to postpone elective surgeries or curtail services.

* Brazil will provide COVID-19 vaccine booster shots to all its people over 60-years-old, Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said.

* A Brazilian hospital chain tested unproven drugs on elderly COVID-19 patients without their knowledge as part of an effort to validate President Jair Bolsonaro’s preferred ‘miracle cure,’ a lawyer for whistleblowing doctors told senators on Tuesday.

* Authorities in Costa Rica said on Tuesday all state workers will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19, making it one of the first countries in Latin America to impose a coronavirus vaccination mandate.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* China administered about 3.0 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Sept. 27, bringing total doses to 2.203 billion, data from the National Health Commission showed.

* India’s drug regulator has allowed vaccine maker Serum Institute to enroll kids aged 7-11 years for its trial of U.S. drugmaker Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine.

* Sydney residents who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 risk being barred from various social activities even when they are freed from stay-at-home orders in December.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* Egypt is now providing immediate COVID-19 vaccinations at youth centers across the country without prior online registration, a step aimed at encouraging vaccinations and relieving pressure on hospitals and health units amid a fourth wave of infections.

* Algeria will start production of COVID-19 vaccine Sinovac in partnership with China on Wednesday with the aim of meeting domestic demand and exporting the surplus, the prime minister’s office said on Tuesday.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Pfizer and BioNTech have submitted initial trial data for their COVID-19 vaccine in 5-11 year old’s and said they would make a formal request with U.S. regulators for emergency use in the coming weeks.

* Sanofi is dropping plans for its own mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine because of the dominance achieved by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna in using the technology to fight the pandemic, the company said.

* As Merck & Co and Pfizer prepare to report clinical trial results for experimental COVID-19 antiviral pills, rivals are lining up with what they hope will prove to be more potent and convenient oral treatments of their own.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Global shares fell for a third successive day on Tuesday, with tech stocks plummeting, as anxiety over when central banks might raise interest rates led to rising bond yields on both sides of the Atlantic.

* Profits at China’s industrial firms grew at a weaker pace in August from a year earlier, slowing for a sixth consecutive month, as manufacturers struggled with high commodity prices, COVID-19 outbreaks and shortages of some key components.

* The East Asia and Pacific region’s recovery has been undermined by the spread of the Delta variant, which is likely slowing economic growth and increasing inequality in the region, the World Bank said.

(Compiled by Ramakrishnan M., Vinay Dwivedi and Juliette Portala; Edited by Arun Koyyur and Shounak Dasgupta)

Brazil hospital chain hid COVID-19 deaths, whistleblowers’ lawyer tells Senate

By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA (Reuters) – A Brazilian hospital chain tested unproven drugs on elderly COVID-19 patients without their knowledge as part of an effort to validate President Jair Bolsonaro’s preferred ‘miracle cure,’ a lawyer for whistleblowing doctors told senators on Tuesday.

At least nine people died of COVID-19 during the trials at the Prevent Senior hospital chain from March to April 2020, but their charts were altered to hide the cause of death, lawyer Bruna Morato told a Senate inquiry.

Prevent Senior did not reply to a request for comment.

Pedro Batista, owner and executive director of the hospital chain, acknowledged in testimony to the Senate inquiry last week that patients’ charts where altered to remove any reference to COVID-19 after they had been hospitalized for two weeks, saying they were no longer a risk of contagion.

He denied testing unproven drugs on patients without their knowledge, saying patients were asking for treatments in clinical trials and doctors made the prescriptions they saw fit.

“It’s the doctor who prescribes any medicine and, at the time, everyone recalls comments from (President Bolsonaro) and other influential people, so there were a lot of patients demanding prescriptions,” Batista told the senators.

On Tuesday, Morato, representing 12 doctors employed at Prevent Senior, said the company threatened and fired doctors who disagreed with a predetermined “COVID kit” that included hydroxychloroquine, erythromycin and ivermectin. There is no scientific evidence that those drugs are beneficial in the treatment of COVID-19.

“Very vulnerable elderly patients were told there was a good treatment, but they did not know they were being used as guinea pigs,” Morato, the whistleblowers’ attorney, told senators investigating Brazil’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

She said doctors were told not to explain the treatment to the patients or their relatives.

“The purpose was to show that there was an effective treatment against COVID-19,” Morato said.

She said the hospital wanted to help the Bolsonaro government, which was touting the unproven drugs as an effective treatment against the virus that would protect Brazilians from contagion if they went back to work.

“It was like an exchange, I was told. Some doctors called it a pact, others described it as an alliance,” she said.

The Health Ministry did not reply to a request for comment. It is unclear how much the government knew about the alleged trials.

In a speech last week at the United Nations, Bolsonaro again praised “early treatment” of COVID-19 via off-label use of unspecified drugs, claiming that science would some day vindicate their use against the coronavirus.

The pandemic has killed nearly 600,000 Brazilians in the world’s second-deadliest outbreak outside the United States.

(Reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)

Protein found on infected cells protects virus from immune system; remdesivir helps prevent hospitalization

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Virus-infected cells protected from immune system by protein

A protein called CD47 that helps damaged cells avoid destruction by the immune system may be contributing to severe cases of COVID-19, researchers believe. Drugs in development targeting CD47 may result in improved COVID-19 therapies, they suggested in a report published in Current Issues in Molecular Biology. “We may have identified a major factor associated with severe COVID-19,” coauthor Martin Michaelis of the University of Kent said in a statement. “We can now look forward to further progress in the design of therapeutics.” In lab experiments, the researchers found that CD47 – which in effect tells the immune system, “Do not eat me!” – is present in increased amounts on the surfaces of cells infected with the coronavirus. SARS-CoV-2 infection also increases levels of another protein, SIRPalpha, that partners with CD47 to trick the immune system into ignoring the sick cells. Previous studies have shown that CD47 levels are also elevated in conditions that put people at higher risk for critical illness from COVID-19, such as old age, diabetes, high blood pressure, and clogged blood vessels. In these groups, “high CD47 levels may predispose… to severe COVID-19,” the researchers said. “Further research will be needed to define the roles of CD47 and/or SIRPalpha in COVID-19 in more detail,” they added.

Remdesivir keeps high-risk patients out of the hospital

Gilead Sciences Inc’s intravenous antiviral drug remdesivir helped keep high-risk COVID-19 patients out of the hospital in a randomized trial, the company announced. The 562 patients in the study all had conditions that increased their risk for becoming critically ill. Half received three days of treatment with remdesivir – sold under the brand name Veklury – while the rest received a placebo. Four weeks later, 5.3% of patients in the placebo group had been hospitalized or died, compared to 0.7% of those who received remdesivir. That translated into an 87% lower risk of hospitalization or death. Remdesivir-treated patients also had significantly fewer medical visits, the company said. The drug is currently authorized for emergency use in hospitalized patients. “These latest data show remdesivir’s potential to help high-risk patients recover before they get sicker and stay out of the hospital altogether,” study leader Dr. Robert Gottlieb of Baylor University Medical Center said in a statement. His team plans to formally report the data at an upcoming medical conference.

Pandemic cuts life expectancy by most since WWII

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced life expectancy in 2020 by the largest amount since World War II, with the life expectancy of American men dropping by more than two years, according to new data. In the 29 countries studied – the United States, Chile, and 27 in Europe – all but two showed reductions in life expectancy. There were greater drops in life expectancy for men than women in most countries. “The large declines in life expectancy observed in the United States can partly be explained by the notable increase in mortality at working ages observed in 2020,” study co-leader Ridhi Kashyap of the University of Oxford said in a statement. “In the United States, increases in mortality in the under 60 age group contributed most significantly to life expectancy declines, whereas across most of Europe increases in mortality above age 60 contributed more significantly.” The largest declines were found in U.S. men, who saw life expectancy drop by 2.2 years relative to 2019, followed by a 1.7-year decline for Lithuanian men. Women in the United States and Spain had drops in life expectancy of 1.5 years or more. Overall, men had more than a year shaved off in 15 countries, compared to women in 11 countries. Females from 15 countries and males from 10 ended up with lower life expectancy at birth in 2020 than in 2015, the research team reported on Sunday in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Victor Jack; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

U.S. CDC advisers recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters for ages 65 and older, those at high risk

By Michael Erman and Manojna Maddipatla

(Reuters) – A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel on Thursday recommended a booster shot of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for Americans aged 65 and older and some adults with underlying medical conditions that put them at risk of severe disease.

The panel declined to recommend boosters for adults ages 18 to 64 who live or work in institutions with high risk of contracting COVID-19, based on individual risk, such as healthcare workers, teachers and residents of homeless shelters and prisons. Some panel members cited the difficulty of implementing such a proposal.

Still, the vote by the group, following U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorization, clears the way for a booster rollout to begin as soon as this week for millions of people who had their second dose of the Pfizer shot at least six months ago.

The CDC said that some 26 million people in the United States received the second Pfizer/BioNTech shot at least six months ago, including 13 million age 65 or older.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Russia’s COVID-19 deaths return to record daily highs

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia on Thursday reported 820 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, matching an all-time high set on Aug. 26, and authorities warned that cases were again rising rapidly.

Moscow recorded 3,445 new infections in the last 24 hours, the most reported in a single day since July 31 following a case surge over the summer, authorities said. There were 21,438 cases recorded nationwide, they said.

The Kremlin told reporters that officials were not discussing the idea of re-imposing lockdown measures or other restrictions, but that the government and regional officials were monitoring the situation closely.

“As far as I know, despite the increase in numbers, no decisions have yet been made anywhere (in Russia),” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Thirty-six regions have recorded case increases this week, Anna Popova, the head of consumer watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, said on Wednesday.

She said the virus was spreading fastest in regions where there were fewer vaccinated people. Russia, which has a population of more than 144 million, says almost 40 million people have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

Russia has recorded a total of 7,354,995 cases, authorities say.

The government coronavirus task force says 201,445 people have died of coronavirus-related causes so far, while the federal statistics agency gives a higher number of 365,000 deaths from April 2020 to July 2021.

Reuters calculations based on official statistics show there were 528,000 excess deaths between April 2020 and July 2021. Some epidemiologists say excess deaths are the best way to measure the real death toll from COVID-19.

(Reporting by Gleb Stolyarov, Dmitry Antonov and Alexander Marrow; editing by Tom Balmforth and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

Severe COVID-19 may trigger autoimmune conditions; New variants cause more virus in the air

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Severe COVID-19 may “trip off” immune self-attacks

Severe COVID-19 may trick the immune system into producing so-called autoantibodies that have the potential to eventually attack healthy tissue and cause inflammatory diseases, researchers warned in a paper published in Nature Communications. They found autoantibodies in blood samples from roughly 50% of 147 COVID-19 patients they studied, but in fewer than 15% of 41 healthy volunteers. For 48 COVID-19 patients, the researchers had blood samples taken over different days, including the day of hospital admission, allowing them to track the development of the autoantibodies. “Within a week… about 20% of these patients had developed new antibodies to their own tissues that weren’t there the day they were admitted,” study leader Dr. Paul Utz of Stanford University said in a news release. He urged people to get vaccinated. “You can’t know in advance that when you get COVID-19 it will be a mild case,” he said. “If you do get a bad case, you could be setting yourself up for a lifetime of trouble because the virus may trip off autoimmunity,” he said. “We haven’t studied any patients long enough to know whether these autoantibodies are still there a year or two later,” he added, but noted that developing an autoimmune disease was a possibility.

New variants may spread more efficiently into air

The virus that causes COVID-19 may be getting better at traveling into the air, a new study suggests. Researchers found that patients infected with the Alpha variant of the virus – the dominant strain circulating when the study was conducted – put 43 to 100 times more virus into the air than people infected with the original version of the coronavirus. Some of this was due to the fact that patients infected with Alpha had increased amounts of virus in nasal swabs and saliva. But the amount of virus being exhaled was 18-times more than could be explained by the higher viral loads, according to a report published in Clinical Infectious Diseases. The researchers also found that loose-fitting face coverings worn by patients with mild COVID-19 can reduce the amount of virus-laden particles in the surrounding air around by about 50%. “We know that the Delta variant circulating now is even more contagious than the Alpha variant,” coauthor Don Milton of the University of Maryland School of Public Health said in a statement. “Our research indicates that the variants just keep getting better at traveling through the air, so we must provide better ventilation and wear tight-fitting masks, in addition to vaccination, to help stop spread of the virus.”

Most cancer patients respond well to COVID-19 vaccines

People with cancer have appropriate, protective immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines without experiencing any more side effects than the general population, five separate research teams reported at the European oncology meeting this week. In one study involving 44,000 recipients of the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, researchers found no difference in side effects experienced by the nearly 4,000 participants with past or current cancer. In a separate, researchers studied 791 cancer patients who received the two-dose vaccine from Moderna. At 28 days after administration of the second dose, adequate levels of antibodies to the virus in the blood were found in 84% of patients with cancer who were receiving chemotherapy, in 89% of patients receiving chemotherapy plus an immunotherapy drug, and in 93% of patients on immunotherapy alone. These results compare favorably with the antibody responses seen in a separate group of individuals without cancer, according to European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Press Officer Dr. Antonio Passaro. “The high rates of efficacy of the vaccine observed across the trial population, regardless of the type of anticancer treatment, constitute a strong and reassuring message for patients and their doctors,” he said in a statement.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

Here’s what we know about how U.S. will lift travel restrictions

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden’s administration plans to ease in early November COVID-19 pandemic-related travel restrictions that have barred people from much of the world from entering the United States starting in early 2020.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still must issue a formal order that will provide details on the new rules and when they will begin.

Here is a look at the U.S. travel restriction policy.

WHO CAN TRAVEL TO THE UNITED STATES?

– The United States will lift travel restrictions on 33 countries including China, India, Brazil, Iran, South Africa and most of Europe for travelers who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 that were imposed starting in early 2020.

– Travelers will still need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within three days of departing for the United States.

– Until the new rules take effect, most foreign nationals who have been in the 33 countries for 14 days prior to departure cannot travel to the United States.

– Foreign nationals from all countries, with few exceptions, will need vaccinations to travel to the United States by air.

– The CDC has not yet said whether foreign nationals who recently had COVID-19 and are not currently eligible to be vaccinated will be allowed to travel to the United States.

WHAT VACCINES WILL BE ACCEPTED?

– It is not certain what vaccines the CDC will accept beyond the three already authorized in the United States – those from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson – or what proof must be presented. The Biden administration told airlines on Tuesday that it was still deciding what vaccines will be accepted.

– The CDC pointed to its prior guidance when asked by Reuters what vaccines it will accept. “The CDC considers someone fully vaccinated with any FDA-authorized or approved vaccines and any vaccines that (the World Health Organization) has authorized,” spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said.

WHAT ROLES WILL AIRLINES PLAY?

– It is expected that travelers will need to sign a form attesting to their vaccination and airlines will check passengers’ documents to certify compliance with the vaccine rules.

– Airlines currently check for proof of a negative COVID-19 test before travelers depart.

– The CDC will also issue new contact-tracing rules before the restrictions are lifted that will require international passengers to give email and phone contact information so public health authorities can reach them if needed, including if they are seated near someone who tests positive for COVID-19.

WHAT HAPPENS TO UNVACCINATED AMERICAN TRAVELERS?

– Americans traveling from abroad who are not vaccinated will face tougher rules than those who are vaccinated, including needing to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within a day of travel and proof of purchasing a viral test to be taken after arrival. Vaccinated Americans must show proof of a negative test within three days of returning to the United States.

– Exceptions from the vaccine requirements include children not yet eligible for shots.

– The Biden administration expects humanitarian exemptions will be granted for certain foreign nationals who agree to be vaccinated upon arrival in the United States, according to a White House official and a document seen by Reuters. The Biden administration expects such exemptions will be very limited.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Will Dunham)

COVID creates shortages of an array of U.S. medical supplies

By Timothy Aeppel

(Reuters) – Shortages of masks and gloves that marked the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic have spread to a host of other items needed at medical facilities in the United States, from exam tables and heart defibrillators to crutches and IV poles.

It can now take up to five months to get some types of exam tables, for instance, compared to three to six weeks before the pandemic, according to CME Corp, a distributor of medical equipment that handles over 2 million products.

“Right now, because of the supply chain stress that’s being caused by COVID, almost everything is delayed,” said Cindy Juhas, CME’s chief strategy officer. “A lot of the stuff we sell is not sitting in a warehouse where you just call and say send it over. It needs to be built.”

But shortages of raw materials, including plastics, metals, glass, and electronics, have hampered production.

In the case of exam tables, tight supplies of electronic controllers, metal, and even the foam padding used to build them are hampering producers, Juhas said.

The shortfalls – which coincides with a hospital staffing squeeze that is forcing some facilities to ration care during the latest surge in COVID cases – are part of a larger supply-chain disruption that has snarled the movement of goods around the world in the wake of the pandemic.

In many cases, U.S. producers are waiting for parts or finished goods produced overseas which are delayed or waiting in jammed seaports. Last week, the Port of Los Angeles/Long Beach announced a record 60 container vessels were waiting offshore to unload their goods.

The auto industry is perhaps the most visible example of how shortages are radiating through the economy and hitting consumers – with car lots outside many factories filled with vehicles waiting for scarce computer chips.

Tight supplies mean higher prices, which has fueled fears of a wave of sustained inflation.

CME, based in Warwick, Rhode Island, closely monitors its 100 largest suppliers and has seen prices on items from those companies increase from 3% to 20% since the start of the year, depending on the item. Some producers have hiked prices three times this year, said Juhas. Normally, price increases occur just once as the start of the year.

Many of the items in short supply have nothing to do with treating COVID. At CME, heart defibrillators that used to take two weeks to deliver now require three months.

“They normally have all the parts, so they put them together and put it on a truck,” she said. “But now they’re just waiting for parts.”

Even mundane items are snagged. Portable plastic toilets – used in hospital rooms so patients don’t have to walk to the bathroom – now are back-ordered three to four months. “That’s an item you usually can order and get right away,” said Juhas, who said she expects the larger array of supply problems to linger well into next year.

“And that’s with a lot of luck,” she added, “and with COVID getting under control.”

To be sure, some backlogs are easing. Early in the pandemic, the sudden surge in demand for the special refrigerators and freezers needed to store vaccines overwhelmed producers like Horizon Scientific Inc, a division of Standex International Corp, which operates a factory in Summerville, South Carolina. The refrigerators are distributed by CME.

Brian Shaffer, the company’s marketing and business development manager, said it takes three months to deliver its larger, 30-cubic-foot vaccine refrigerators – about double what the company would like. “We still struggle a little bit because of the components that go into them,” he said.

But delivery of smaller vaccine refrigerators, which are in demand now for doctor’s offices and pharmacies, are back to normal and can be shipped in five or 10 days.

(Reporting by Timothy Aeppel in New York; Editing by Dan Burns and Andrea Ricci)