With 557,014,072 cases world wide and 88,847,699 cases in the U.S. alone, COVID19 is far from over.

The new variants raise questions… BA.4 and BA.5 are the fastest-spreading COVID-19 subvariants yet. The two latest versions of omicron appear to evade protection from vaccines and previous infections more easily than any others before.

Spring Cleaning is a good thing at home and in the SPD. “Nothing feels quite as satisfying as coming home to a house that's so clean it practically sparkles.” And isn’t the same true for our workplaces and certainly for healthcare facilities? Springtime is here, throw open the windows, let in the sunshine and fresh air. Spring is a time for renewal after all. We here at Case Medical offer this checklist to help

This week we continue with Covid19 by looking at its effects around the world. Covid19 has become the great mystery of our times. Why for instance here in the Northeast, home of Case Medical, are we seeing a rise in cases? It’s uncertain if it’s the beginning of a larger surge. William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard, said “There’s definitely something coming, but depending on all the moving parts it might be a ripple relative to previous waves.”

Uncertainty is the thing that will keep you up at night. Parents know it well as they wait up for the kid who’s out past their promised return time. Farmers uncertain about the weather lose sleep over will there be too much rain or not enough. Consider your own uncertainty as you try to plan for your facility against a backdrop of pandemic, unexpected events, and a war in Europe.

According to USA Today, “A substantial increase in coronavirus infections was expected when this week's numbers came out, but nothing like this.”

The intensely rapid spread of the omicron variant and a backlog of cases from the New Year's weekend has resulted in U.S. health authorities tallying more than three times as many new cases as in any previous wave of the coronavirus -- over 1 million reported cases on Monday alone. About 1 in every 100 Americans will have been reported as a positive case in just the last week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

As discussed last week, the healthcare industry contributes to solid waste production, greenhouse gasses, and climate change. While a true statement, the news is that there are also ways that healthcare can reduce the impact it has on the environment, while reducing costs. Rigid reusable sealed sterilization containers are one of the best options for reducing hospital waste. Nevertheless, not all containers are created equal.

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Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta

Now Omicron has arrived!

“The sky is not falling”, says Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor. But just when we thought that the pandemic was behind us, scientists are now racing to understand the consequences of the Omicron COVID-19 variant that unexpectedly showed up in South Africa only days ago and has already become the current Variant of Concern. And we’re learning more, in the time between writing this week’s blog and posting it we now know that the Omicron COVID-19 variant has fifty or more mutations and is currently identified in 20 countries.

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We recently marked the one year anniversary of the declaration of the COVID-19 global pandemic, the time where many of us learned a new set of considerations for health and social interactions, along with a novel vocabulary to match. Whether you hit that socially distanced outdoor gathering or opt for a Zoom happy hour, our activities and behaviors are very different than those we knew before....