A research letter written by researchers at Public Health Ontario discussed that through performing RT-PCR on 20,051 nasopharyngeal swab samples from December 2020 to February 2021 in the Greater Toronto area, 4,692 had detectable S-gene deletion (SGTF) in amino acids 69 and 70 (Figure 1). The SGTF prevalence increased from 2% in December 2020 to 75% by the end of March 2021 with an estimated weekly growth rate 1.49 times greater than non-SGTF samples (Figure 2). Validation with whole genome sequencing led the researchers to conclude that SGTF is a reliable marker for the B.1.1.7 variant, which is rapidly increasing in prevalence globally.

The CDC reports on a retrospective cohort study from 12/14/2020–4/15/2021 in 49 US states and DC that rural counties had a 38.9% COVID-19 vaccine rate while urban counties had 45.7%, with those over 65 years old and female receiving more vaccines than those under 65 and male. Continued collaboration among community and faith-based organizations, employers, and pharmacies is needed to address vaccine hesitancy and promote equity in vaccine administration.

In a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the CDC, researchers discuss their observational study of COVID-19 cases and outbreaks at 469 child care facilities in the District of Colombia from July-December 2020. A total of 319 cases were identified from 112 facilities, 180 of whom were teachers or staff members. 27 facilities had 29 index cases that caused an additional 127 cases, which qualify as an outbreak. These results suggest that outbreaks at child care facilities were relatively low and implementing preventative measures can further decrease transmission.

A systematic review and meta-analysis conducted by researchers in United States and India included 8 randomized-controlled (RCT) studies conducted through March 10, 2021 with 7,737 patients, 2795 (36.1%) who received corticosteroids along with the standard of care (SOC) for treatment of moderate and severe-critical COVID-19 infection. The odds of mortality were significantly lower in patients who received corticosteroids compared to SOC (OR 0.85) (Figure 2) and odds for need of mechanical ventilation were reduced with corticosteroids compared to SOC (OR 0.7) (Figure 3), suggesting beneficial effects of corticosteroid treatment in moderate to severe COVID-19 infection.

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