Coronavirus Watch: 3 years since COVID became a pandemic

We've come a long way since March 11, 2020, when the World Health Organization first called the outbreak a pandemic. 

In the past three years, nearly 7 million people worldwide have died from COVID. On average, 900 to 1,000 people are dying daily across the globe. In the U.S., variant XBB.1.5 makes up almost 90% of cases circulating. 

Daily tracking of cases and deaths, meanwhile, is dwindling. Of note, John Hopkins University shut down its COVID tracker as of Friday. 

Only New York, Arkansas and Puerto Rico still publish case and death counts daily, the Associated Press reports. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has become less timely in publishing its data, but it still collects case, hospitalization, death and strain data from states, hospitals and labs. 

This is Monday's Coronavirus Watch from the Paste BN Network. Here's a few other things we're reading this week:

• Long COVID and face blindness: New research suggests a COVID infection can, at least in rare cases, trigger prosopagnosia, also known as face blindness where people lose the ability to identify faces. 
• Rats in New York City were found to be carrying variants of the virus that causes COVID. It's unclear what threat it poses to humans, but the fact that they can catch the virus from people means they can pass it back, according to researchers.  
• Recall notice: The FDA recalled a dietary supplement from Natural Solutions Foundation that claimed to prevent, treat or cure COVID. People who used Dr. Rima Recommends Nano Silver 10ppm "instead of seeking timely medical treatment run the risk of serious, life-threatening health consequences," the government said. 

That's it for this week's newsletter. Thanks for trusting us with this important information.

– Rachel Aretakis, health editor