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Hospitals starting this week will no longer have to report data on admissions, occupancy and other indicators of possible system stress from respiratory diseases to federal officials as another COVID-era mandate expires. (Bettelheim, 4/29)

Though COVID-19 indicators continue to decline, estimates of new variant proportions show some notable shifts in SARS-CoV-2, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in its weekly updates today. In its weekly snapshot for flu, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), the CDC said no states are reporting high activity. Only one—North Dakota—is reporting moderate activity. (Schnirring, 4/26)

The U.S. flu season appears to be over. It was long, but it wasn’t unusually severe. Last week, for the third straight week, medical visits for flu-like illnesses dipped below the threshold for what’s counted as an active flu season, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday. Other indicators, like hospitalizations and patient testing, also show low and declining activity. No state is reporting a high amount of flu activity. Only New England is seeing the kind of patient traffic associated with an active flu season right now, but even there flu impact is considered modest. (Stobbe, 4/26)

A new study shows good results in patients with severe COVID-19 for abatacept, an anti-inflammatory immunomodulating drug used to treat psoriatic arthritis, according to findings published yesterday in JAMA Network Open. The study was based on results seen among 395 hospitalized patients in the ACTIV-1 IM randomized clinical trial, designed to assess the efficacy of abatacept, which inhibits T-cell activation, reducing multiple inflammatory cytokines. A previous ACTIV-1 trial showed the drug decreased mortality in hospitalized patients with COVID-19, but optimal dosing of the drug based on body weight is still unknown, the authors said. (Soucheray, 4/26)

A study in JAMA Network Open finds that while US adults with long COVID have a higher rate of psychiatric conditions such as depression and anxiety and are just as likely to receive treatment, many cite cost as a reason for not seeking care. A team led by University of British Columbia researchers parsed data on 25,122 US adults with and without long COVID (or post-COVID condition [PCC]) from the 2022 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative interview-based survey, from October 2023 to February 2024. (Van Beusekom, 4/26)

The incidence of uveitis in the year after COVID-19 was 17% among nearly 474,000 Korean adults with a history of the inflammatory eye condition, according to a report in JAMA Ophthalmology. Uveitis is a potentially serious inflammation of the eye's middle layer of tissue that can cause symptoms such as pain, redness, and blurry vision. (Van Beusekom, 4/26)