'I Felt Myself In Kind Of A Hole': Virus Lingers For Months

ACROSS AMERICA — Catherine Busa was one of the first Americans to contract the coronavirus at the start of the pandemic last March. Despite recovering at her home in Queens, the New York City school secretary has said the long-term effects of the virus have never left.

"I felt myself in kind of a hole, and I couldn't look on the bright side," said Busa, who told The Associated Press her lingering symptoms include fatigue, an altered sense of taste and smell that made food unappealing, and a welling depression.

Busa is one of thousands of coronavirus patients who have suffered from effects months after the virus has left the body. She's now a patient at the Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens, New York, one of dozens of hospitals nationwide that has a clinic specifically geared to the post-COVID-19 treatment.

"They validated the way I felt," Busa told the AP. "That has helped me push through everything I'm fighting."

Up to 30 percent of coronavirus patients continue to have significant problems two to three weeks after infection. As many as 10 percent still see effects three to six months later, Dr. Wesley Self, a Vanderbilt University researcher and co-author of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, told the AP.

“We know this is real,” said Dr. Alan Roth, who oversees the Jamaica Hospital clinic. He has been grappling with body pain, fatigue and “brain fog” characterized by occasional forgetfulness since his own relatively mild bout with COVID-19 in March.

At the Jamaica Hospital program, patients get mental health assessments, a lung specialist's attention and physical exams that delve deeper than most into their lifestyles, personal circumstances and sources of stress. Several hundred people have been treated so far.

Among them, Busa learned from the clinic she has sleep apnea, which causes people to stop breathing while asleep and often fatigues while awake. Amid psychotherapy appointments and new daily walking and stationary bike routines, Busa told the AP she feels she is coming along.

"There's light at the end of the tunnel," she said. "And there are people and doctors out there who can relate to you."

The Latest

A day after officially assuming the office of the presidency, Joe Biden is moving with lightning speed to address the pandemic that has infected more than 24.5 million Americans and claimed more than 407,000 lives.

Biden on Thursday signed 10 executive orders directly aimed at jump-starting his national COVID-19 strategy, according to an Associated Press report. The orders call for an increase in vaccinations and testing, and also outline a path to reopen U.S. schools and businesses.

One order immediately calls for an increase in the use of masks, including a requirement that Americans mask up for travel. Another directive calls for addressing health care inequities in minority communities hard hit by the virus.

"We didn't get into this mess overnight, and it will take months to turn this around," Biden said. "Despite the best intentions we're going to face setbacks "

But he also said, "To a nation waiting for action, let me be clear on this point: Help is on the way."

According to the AP report, the U.S. mask order for travel will apply to airports and planes, ships, intercity buses, trains and public transportation. Travelers from abroad must furnish a negative COVID-19 test before departing for the United States and quarantine upon arrival.

Biden also gave government agencies a green light to use a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act, which will ramp up the production of supplies needed for testing and vaccination.

READ MORE: In New Round Of Executive Orders, Biden Requires Masks For Travel

Thursday's orders follow the 15 other directives he signed just hours after taking the oath of office on Wednesday.

Among Biden's first orders of business was to sign an order requiring masks for people on all federal grounds. He also directed agencies to extend a moratorium on evictions and a freeze on federal student loan payments, according to other reports.

Biden is also is urging Americans to wear face coverings for 100 days while reviving a global health unit in the National Security Council to oversee pandemic preparedness and response, according to an earlier Washington Post report.

The new Biden era kicked off as the nation set yet another daily record death toll. By 6:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, at least 4,370 deaths had been reported, surpassing the 4,254 deaths recorded on Jan. 12, according to a Washington Post database. By midnight, the new record total was marked at 4,440.

The Trump administration left some confusing vaccine delivery numbers for the new presidency, according to a report from CNN. Several officials have said the numbers reported by the Trump administration do not match what has been seen on the ground, the report states.

A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccines, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled, according to a report from The Associated Press.

The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the U.S. Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.

In New York City alone, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city had to cancel 23,000 appointments for people awaiting their first dose this week because of inadequate supply.

In Ohio, a pharmacy services company tasked with vaccinating residents at several Ohio nursing homes allowed nearly 900 doses of the Moderna vaccine to spoil by not storing them at cold enough temperatures.

According to a New York Times report, SpecialtyRx was given 1,500 doses to vaccinate residents at at eight facilities. After administering the first round of shots, the company discovered it had not properly monitored or recorded the temperatures in its refrigerators and freezers where the remaining doses were stored.

The Ohio Department of Health told the Times that the nursing home residents are still awaiting their second shots, and facilities will be required to obtain them through another provider.

A pharmacy services company responsible for vaccinating residents at eight Ohio nursing homes allowed 890 doses of the Moderna vaccine — more than half its supply — to become spoiled by failing to make sure they were kept cold enough, state officials said.

All of this comes as states furiously work to ramp up their vaccination drives, trying to reach people 65 and older, along with other groups deemed essential or at high risk.

As American eyes were on the Biden inauguration on Wednesday, the nation more quietly marked one full year since the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States. It was on Jan. 20, 2020, when a 35-year-old Washington state man who had just returned from China tested positive for the disease that was still unnamed at the time.

A year later, California — the state that has become the new epicenter of the virus in the United States in recent weeks — on Wednesday became the first to report more than 3 million cases.

A new variant that originated in the Golden State could be blamed for the continued surge there, according to a study that has yet to be released, the New York Times reported.

The mutant belongs to the lineage of CAL.20C, arose in July and began to spread quickly in November, according to the NYT report. It accounted for more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles laboratories on Jan. 13.

Finally, the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefitsfell slightly last week to 900,000, according to an AP report. While a decrease, the number still marks a historically high level that points to ongoing job cuts amid the pandemic.

About 5.1 million Americans are still receiving state jobless benefits, down from 5.2 million the previous week. The numbers in The AP's report suggest that while some of the unemployed are finding jobs, others are likely using up their state benefits and transitioning to separate extended-benefit programs.

Newest Numbers

At least 4,440 deaths and 190,284 new cases of coronavirus were reported in the United States on Wednesday, according to a Washington Post database. The Post's reporting shows that over the past week, new daily cases fell 19.9 percent, new daily deaths fell 8.3 percent and COVID-19-related hospitalizations fell 5.5 percent.

Currently, more than 122,700 people are hospitalized with a coronavirus-related illness in the United States, according to the Covid Tracking Project.

As of Thursday, 44 states and Puerto Rico remained above the positive testing rate recommended by the World Health Organization to safely reopen. To safely reopen, the WHO recommends states remain at 5 percent or lower for at least 14 days.

As of midday Thursday, the United States had reported more than 24.5 million cases and nearly 407,600 deaths from COVID-19-related illnesses, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Stay up to date on the latest coronavirus news via The New York Times or The Washington Post.

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