COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — El Paso County Health has re-worked its COVID-19 data dashboard to include fewer data points and it will be updated weekly rather than daily.
What used to be nearly a dozen pages are now down to just four. A summary page, hospitalizations, deaths and vaccination status.
The latest numbers show we are in much better shape when it comes to cases and hospitalizations in the county.
The State Health Department is shutting down about a third of mass COVID-19 testing sites by the end of this month, including the ones in Colorado Springs, Lamar and Rocky Ford.
Nationally, the CDC reports the new BA.2 omicron subvariant now accounts for about 75% of new cases across the country, up from 55% just two weeks ago.
The CDC says there is no cause for alarm, indications show it is not more severe than the original omicron.
Worldwide, the World Health Organization has detected another subvariant of BA.1 and BA.2 in the U.K., potentially more transmissible and China has apparently detected two other separate subvariants of COVID-19, as research continues.
The White House has initiated a Long COVID task force to lay out existing government services for people who are struggling with symptoms over a long period of time.
A plan for further research needs, including speeding up the current NLH research study to enroll 40,000 Americans to track symptoms and solutions.
The Veterans Administration is already in the midst of a Long COVID study and its' findings will be key to this new research.
The CDC and NLH plan to make an announcement on the final strategy in four months.
The White House also announced that the deadline to begin repayments of student loans has been extended again to August 31 to lessen the financial burden due to the pandemic.
But experts are advising all who owe money on federal loans to get a plan together and start budgeting for the restart.
Early in the week, a tentative deal was struck by republicans and democrats on a $10 billion funding plan but some GOP senators have now attached an immigration reform amendment to the bill, which has all but killed it.
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