One statistic that hasn’t changed much | Coronavirus Updates Newsletter

The gist: This week, new figures from Pennsylvania and around the United States show that there’s a continued death toll from COVID-19 — and hospital care still may not save people from dying of the disease. That news comes as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s PolicyLab has issued new guidelines for the upcoming school year encouraging a “less stringent” approach to mitigating transmission. And a newly opened lab has made Philadelphia one of just four large American cities with its own genetic sequencing lab capable of identifying COVID-19 variants.

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New data from Pennsylvania and the United States show that as recently as December 2021, one in seven people hospitalized with COVID was still dying — a rate not much better than at the start of the pandemic. And while experts say that comparing in-hospital deaths doesn’t take patients’ other health conditions into account, or the availability of vaccines, it’s still a reminder that even now, a steady stream of people are being hospitalized with COVID, and a significant number of them are so sick they won’t survive.

🏫 The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s PolicyLab issued back-to-school COVID guidelines for the upcoming year that encourage a “less stringent approach” to mitigation.

🚸 Philadelphia’s children are still suffering COVID’s consequences, from mental health to childcare — and there are concerns that gains made in reducing child poverty in the city during the pandemic are slipping away.

🔬 Philadelphia is one of only four big American cities with its own genetic sequencing lab to identify COVID-19 variants, which is a key resource for tracking the disease.

🏢 Starting next month, Comcast wants workers back in the office for in-person work three days a week — including 8,000 employees who will work in the company’s two downtown Philadelphia towers.

🗳️ Mehmet Oz stopped in Luzerne County last week, where the Republican candidate for Senate told a group of veterans that COVID brought “the weaponization of science … to justify people’s belief systems.”

✈️ American Airlines is cutting more than 1,800 flights at Philadelphia International Airport this fall, as staff shortages persist amid the busy travel season.

📚 Glenside’s Peter Loftus, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has a new book out on the inside story of Moderna and its messenger RNA vaccine for COVID.

📈 Coronavirus cases are rising in Pennsylvania and falling in New Jersey. Track the latest data here.

Last week, we asked about your best pandemic travel tips. Here’s what you told us:

🧘 “Keep your stress low. Stress impacts the immune system negatively and will also dampen your overall experience.”

All over Philly, the suburbs, and South Jersey, ice cream shops and restaurants are infusing soft serve base with increasingly imaginative flavors: brown sugar, sweet cream, German chocolate, hazelnut, graham cracker, blueberry, chocolate-tahini, ube, and even avocado. Here’s how some of the best make their wildest flavors.

🏈 You may remember Brian Westbrook as one of the Birds’ most beloved running backs, but the former Eagle now wants his legacy to live on through his new children’s book, The Mouse Who Played Football.

🌿 Ever wondered how they grow all the weed in cannabis-friendly New Jersey? Well, it starts with a production facility that’s the size of nearly five football fields.

🥓 Love it or hate it, Philly’s beloved hoagiemouth is about as distinctive as accents come. Just ask Kevin Bacon.