Magnificent News: Coronavirus Updates: Adults can soon get up to three free N95 masks, official says

Read online

Important developments in the pandemic.

By Derek Hawkins

The Post's coronavirus coverage linked in this newsletter is free to access from this email.

The latest

Thirty-six hours — that's how long one covid-19 patient waited for a proper bed in a Rhode Island hospital overwhelmed by the coronavirus. The pandemic's fifth wave, driven by the omicron variant, is putting immense pressure on emergency departments in hard-hit places and causing long, exhausting waits for care. My colleague Lenny Bernstein has a dispatch from Kent Hospital in Warwick, R.I., which is facing an unprecedented flood of patients and not enough staff to treat them. Workers are drawing blood in people's cars and setting up IV drips in packed waiting rooms, while other patients bide their time in overflow tents. It's an unsettling illustration of omicron's impact on the health system.

The Biden administration plans to distribute 400 million free N95 masks starting next week. The high-quality masks will be available at tens of thousands of pharmacies and federal community health centers where many Americans have been vaccinated. Adults will be able to get three each, and kids' masks will be available "in the near future," a White House official said.

Health experts say well-fitted N95 masks offer better protection against omicron than fabric masks. These masks don't last forever, so check our explainer for advice on how to reuse and safely store them.

The federal government's website to order free rapid tests quietly went live Tuesday. Americans can now order four tests per household through the U.S. Postal Service. While this is good news for many people, some are reporting problems. Students and others who live in multifamily buildings have gotten messages erroneously telling them they'd already ordered tests. Multigenerational households, meanwhile, say four tests isn't enough to meet their needs. Test distribution is also underway at some of the nation's libraries, turning librarians into the pandemic's latest stressed-out front-line workers.

Some of these issues — strained hospitals, testing difficulties — reflect President Biden's struggle to deliver on key promises in the pandemic response plan he unveiled a year ago. After making some headway against the virus over the summer, the delta variant and then omicron reversed hard-fought progress. Hospitals and nursing homes are facing staff shortages, infections are again menacing essential workers, testing access is lopsided, and many Americans say they're frustrated by the administration's shifting health directives. While defenders say many of these problems were likely inevitable, others who worked on the response plan say they could have been mitigated by more preparations, such as better testing strategy and real-time virus surveillance.

Rapid tests are useful but not foolproof. They're good at detecting symptomatic cases but aren't as effective for people without symptoms, and there's some evidence that they're less sensitive to omicron than previous variants. Some people test negative on at-home tests, only to get positive results later on a laboratory-based test. It has caused frustration and even heartache for those who relied on them to gather safely, as my colleague Katie Shepherd reports.

Other important news

The heavy-duty apparel maker Carhartt said employees still must get vaccinated, despite the Supreme Court's curtailing of the Biden administration's vaccine mandate. A conservative backlash followed.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, embroiled in pandemic-related scandals, is easing public health measures on masking, working from home and covid passports.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a statement that she did not ask Justice Neil M. Gorsuch to wear a mask on the Supreme Court bench, following a report from NPR that raised the issue.

Fueled in part by pandemic-era grievances, parent-activists are taking over school boards in a bid to expand their control over education.

A group of Arkansas inmates who had covid-19 say in a new federal civil rights lawsuit that a jailhouse doctor treated them with ivermectin without their knowledge.

The Pacific nation of Tonga is worried about a potential rise in coronavirus cases as it scrambles to recover from a devastating volcanic eruption over the weekend.

Beijing recorded its first omicron infection, prompting officials to halt ticket sales for the Winter Olympics.

Get breaking news alerts, offline reading lists and more.

Download the app

Guide to the pandemic

Track confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S. and the spread around the world.

U.S. vaccine distribution and delivery, tracked by state.

Guides: Booster shots | Finding vaccine appointments | Vaccines | Variants | Masks

Follow live updates about the pandemic from Post reporters across the globe.

Submit a question and we may answer it in a future story or newsletter.

Your questions, answered

"How long after exposure to a close contact with covid should I get a PCR test?" — Sheryl in Pennsylvania

For many of us, our first instinct might be to run out and get tested the moment after learning we were exposed to covid-19. I've certainly been guilty of this in the past. But it's best to wait a few days. The omicron variant often takes about three days to incubate, so you might get an inaccurate result if you test too early.

Before we get into the details of the guidance on when to test, it's important to spell out what we mean by "close contact." The CDC defines this as being within 6 feet of an infected person for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. You can imagine the different ways this can happen. Dinner with an friend who goes on to test positive would be more than enough to expose you. So would two or three short meetings with an infected coworker throughout the workday. On the other hand, a brief exchange on the sidewalk with a neighbor who turns out to be positive probably isn't a cause for concern.

If you think you've been exposed, the CDC says you should get tested at least five days after your last close contact with an infected person. Laboratory-based PCR tests will give you the most accurate results. Testing earlier is fine if you want, but know that a negative test early-on doesn't put you in the clear, and make sure you get an additional test after the five-day mark.

You don't need to quarantine if you're vaccinated or boosted, per CDC guidelines. But you should wear a mask around others, including inside your home, for 10 days. If you're not up-to-date on your vaccines, you should quarantine for at least five days, and preferably 10.

If at any point you develop symptoms — even mild symptoms — you should get tested immediately and follow the CDC's isolation guidelines. Experts do recommend a PCR test if you're showing symptoms; and again, taking several rapid tests over a few days increases the chance your results are accurate. The Washington Post has also published a detailed explainer on what to do if you test positive.

The guidelines are slightly different for people who've recovered from a confirmed covid-19 case within the past 90 days. The CDC says there's no need to test or quarantine if you're asymptomatic, but you should still mask up for 10 days. And again, if you do develop symptoms, get tested and isolate.

With all that in mind, it's important to point out that it's still hard to get tests in many places. The Biden administration is trying to expand testing, but tests still aren't as accessible as they need to be. If you can't get a test, your best bet is to mask up, watch for symptoms, and try to quarantine for 10 days. This is much easier said than done for most working people. But until health officials craft stronger protections for people who've been exposed, we're going to have to navigate these complications on our own.