VOLUME 6 ISSUE 46 | WWW.NSJONLINE.COM | WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2022
Home COVID tests to be covered by insurers starting Saturday Washington, D.C. Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans. The Biden administration announced the change as it looks to lower costs and increase testing for the virus amid rising frustrations. Under the new policy, Americans will be able to either purchase home testing kits for free under their insurance or submit receipts for the tests for reimbursement, up to the monthly per-person limit. A family of four, for instance, could be reimbursed for up to 32 tests per month. Only tests purchased on or after Jan. 15 will be required to be reimbursed, the administration said. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cooper energy order calls for increase in electric vehicles, 50% of new sales by 2030 Raleigh Gov. Roy Cooper’s Jan. 7 executive order affirming a “commitment to a clean energy economy” would direct the state to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and create what he calls “green energy economic opportunities.” “Transforming North Carolina toward a clean energy and more equitable economy will provide good jobs and a healthy environment for generations of families across our state. To achieve our goals we must be clear, intentional and determined,” Cooper said in a statement. The order calls, but does not give specifics for, an increase in zero-emission vehicles and for 50% of new vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2030. It also directs the N.C. Department of Transportation to develop a “Clean Transportation Plan” with reductions in vehicle miles traveled; increases in zeroemission cars, trucks, and buses; and other unnamed strategies. NSJ STAFF
Tax season begins 2 weeks early due to virus, IRS funding Washington, D.C. This year’s tax filing season will begin on Jan. 24, 17 days earlier than last year, the Internal Revenue Service announced. The IRS is warning that a resurgence of COVID-19 infections on top of less funding authorization from Congress than the Biden administration had requested could make this filing season particularly challenging. “The pandemic continues to create challenges, but the IRS reminds people there are important steps they can take to help ensure their tax return and refund don’t face processing delays,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said. He urged taxpayers to file their returns electronically and to get their refunds by direct deposit. April 18 is the deadline for filing tax returns or requesting an extension. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ortega sworn in for 4th straight term as Nicaragua’s leader Managua, Nicaragua Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega was sworn in for a fourth consecutive term following elections considered rigged and followed by sanctions from the United States and European Union against members of his government. Ortega, 76, oversaw the jailing of opposition leaders, including seven potential challengers for the presidency, months before the November election. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, left, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the president, testify before a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine the federal response to COVID-19 and new emerging variants, Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2022, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
Walensky, Fauci acknowledge COVID-19 hospitalization differences NCDHHS adds CDC’s ‘Test to Stay’ to K-12 school guidance Test to Stay reinforces masking in schools By A.P. Dillon North State Journal RALEIGH — The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS) updated the guidance for K-12 schools to include “Test to Stay” options on Jan. 7. “Protecting our students and staff requires layers of protection to stop the spread of COVID-19,” said State Health director and chief medical officer Elizabeth Cuervo Tilson, M.D. “In addition to vaccines and masks, Test-toStay is another proven tool that can help minimize the spread of COVID-19 while also maximizing time in the classroom.” Near the end of 2021, NCDHHS updated guidance to mirror Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shortened quarantine measures. The StrongSchoolsNC Toolkit (SST) has now been updated to allow students and staff who had a close contact with someone confirmed to have a case of COVID-19 to remain in school if they have not developed symptoms or tested positive. “Individuals in a mask-required school setting do NOT need to be excluded from school after a close contact, including unmasked exposures (e.g., during lunch or extracurricular activities), if they have no symptoms,” reads the updated section of the SST. The qualifying criteria given by NDHHS for staying in school under “Test to Stay” are as follows: The person exposed has had their COVID-19 vaccinations. For adults 18 and up, vaccination includes booster shots. The person exposed has had a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the last 90 days and has no symptoms. The person exposed and the person with a confirmed case of COVID-19 were both properly wearing masks when the exposure occurred. According to the NCDHHS
press release, adding “Test to Stay” has expanded the list of scenarios to include unmasked exposures such as when students unmask to eat lunch. The Jan. 7 update also says that “Individuals with unmasked exposures in a mask required school setting should get tested on the day of notification of exposure and as close to day 5 after exposure as possible and must wear a mask in school settings.” Additionally, that exemption “applies to in-school exposures as described above as well as non-household, out-ofschool exposures.” In-household exposures do not qualify, but the new guidance gets more confusing, stating that a person doesn’t need to be excluded from the school setting but that “quarantine measures may still apply in non-school settings.” The update also gives priority for testing to student athletes due to higher risk of exposure “if testing supply is limited.” NCDHHS says this Testto-Stay option “only applies to K-12 school settings that require masks,” which the agency claims “data has shown limits the risk of transmission.” Districts taking part in “Test to Stay” will ensure those exposed to COVID-19 get tested the day they are notified of an exposure and again five days after. They should also wear a mask for 10 days following exposure and except for going to school, they should stay home and isolate. The Center for Disease Control’s quarantine and “Test to Stay” guidance also uses 10 days of masking following an exposure. Various media reports cite experts claims that cloth masks, which the public has been using from close to the start of the pandemic, are ineffective against the omicron variant. The push to continue masks as a requirement to keep kids in school was brought up and questioned at the State Board of Education meeting on Jan. 6. During that meeting, Tilson See NCDHHS, page A2
By Matt Mercer North State Journal RALEIGH — Recent public comments from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Rochelle Walensky and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease director Dr. Anthony Fauci appear to confirm that hospitalizations with, and for, COVID-19 are indeed happening nationwide. Since April 2020, North State Journal has followed hospitalization reports in North Carolina, making numerous public records requests for hospitalization demographics before the data was made publicly available in June of 2020. In an appearance on Fox News Sunday on Jan. 9, Walensky confirmed that there were fewer than
3,500 pediatric hospitalizations nationwide from COVID-19 and the CDC estimates that up to 40% of the patients in hospitals only find out they have COVID-19 after being tested. “While pediatric hospitalizations are rising, there are still about 15-fold less than hospitalizations of our older-age demographics,” Walensky said. When pressed further by Baier, Walensky also said that the CDC did not have a split on numbers of all patients in hospitals for COVID-19 or with COVID-19, despite having run the agency for close to a year. She did say that those numbers would be forthcoming but did not give a timetable on when they would be released. See COVID-19 page A2
Homicide rates in NC cities remained elevated in 2021 By David Larson North State Journal
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RALEIGH — After two record-breaking years in a row, 2021 homicide rates in North Carolina cities seemed to ease slightly in some places but remained at greatly elevated levels compared to conditions before the 2019 nationwide spike. Among the state’s four largest cities — Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro and Durham — two of them, Charlotte and Greensboro, broke records in 2020 for homicide. Both cities are now reporting a slight decline in homicides in 2021, while Durham is reporting a significant increase. Raleigh, despite having a much-larger population of 468,000 compared with Greensboro’s 299,000 and Durham’s 284,000, has maintained a lower homicide rate compared with these nearby Piedmont cities. While cities across the country and state had spiking homicide rates in recent years, Raleigh had 29 in 2019 and 27 in 2020. These numbers are comparable to other years before the spike such as 2017, when the city also had 27 homicides. And despite much smaller populations, Durham and Greensboro both had higher 2020 homicide totals than Raleigh’s 27, with 33 and 62 respectively. NSJ called public information officers with Raleigh’s police department to inquire if their initial 2021
See HOMICIDE, page A2