FAST STATS Births and deliveries in the U.S. 3,605,201


provisional number of births occurred in the United States in 2020, down 4% from the number in 2019 (3,747,540).


6TH


consecutive year was a decline in the number of births after an increase in 2014, down an average of 2% per year, and the lowest number of births since 1979.


3%


for Hispanic women, 4% for non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black women, 6%


for non-Hispanic AIAN women, and 8% for non-Hispanic Asian women was the decline in the provisional numbers of births from 2019 to 2020.


9% to 7% was the decline for the rates for


teenagers aged 15 to 17 and 18 to 19 per year, respectively, from 2007 to 2020.


was the decline in the number of births to women in their early 20s from 2019 to 2020.


6% 5%


was the decline in the number of births to women in their late 20s from 2019 to 2020.


31.8%


from 31.7% was the increase in the overall cesarean delivery rate in 2020 from 2019; despite this increase, the rate had generally declined from 2009 (32.9%) to 2019.


10.09%


from 10.23% was the decline in the preterm birth rate in 2020 from 2019, the fi rst decline in this rate since 2014.


Citation: Hamilton BE, Martin JA, Osterman MJK. Births: Provisional data for 2020. Vital Statistics Rapid Release; no 12. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. May 2021. DOI: https:// doi.org/10.15620/cdc:104993, https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ vsrr/vsrr012-508.pdf


Photo credit: xrefl ex | stock.adobe.com


NEWSWIRE


2% of COVID-19−positive individuals carry 90% of virus The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of American issued a research article, in which it ana- lyzed data from a saliva-based COVID-19 screening deployed on the University of Colorado Boulder campus. In the dataset, all SAS-CoV-2positive individuals reported no symptoms at the time of saliva collection, and therefore were infected but asymptomatic or presymptomatic. The researchers analyzed data from the fall 2020 pandemic response efforts at the University of Colorado Boulder, where more than 72,500 saliva samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 using qRT-PCR. All samples were collected from individuals who reported no symptoms associated with COVID-19 on the day of collection. From these, 1,405 positive cases were identifi ed. The distribution of viral loads within these asymptomatic individuals was indistin- guishable from what has been previously observed in symptomatic individuals. Regardless of symptomatic status, 50% of individuals who test positive for SARS- CoV-2 seem to be in noninfectious phases of the disease, based on having low viral loads in a range from which live virus has rarely been isolated. Researchers found that, at any given time, just 2% of individuals carry 90% of the virions circulating within com- munities, serving as viral “supercarriers” and possibly also superspreaders. One key reason for this is that both pre- symptomatic and asymptomatic infected individuals can transmit the virus to others. Further, it is becoming clear that certain individuals play a key role in seeding superspreading events.


Cell phones, watches may affect medical implants Some consumer electronic devices, such as certain cell phones and smart watches, include high fi eld strength magnets. ecent studies have shown that consumer elec- tronic devices with high fi eld strength mag- nets may cause certain implanted medical devices to switch to “magnet mode” and suspend normal operations until the mag- net is moved away from the medical device. Many implanted medical devices are designed with a “magnet mode” to allow for safe operation during certain medical procedures such as undergoing an MRI scan. These safety features are typically engaged by physicians with the use of a high fi eld strength magnet that is placed near the implanted device placing it into a


6 June 2021 • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • hpnonline.com


“magnet mode.” Removal of the magnetic fi eld causes the device to return to normal operation.


The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends patients keep any electronic devices that may create mag- netic interference, including cell phones and smart watches, at least six inches away from implanted medical devices, in particular cardiac defi brillators. Many implanted medical devices have FDA- approved information written for patients (patient labeling), which cautions patients to keep all cell phones and smart watches at least six inches from the implanted medical device.


People with implanted medical devices


may want to take some simple precautions, including: • Do not carry consumer electronics in a pocket over the medical device.


• Check your device using your home monitoring system, if you have one. When near high strength magnets, devices with a magnetic safe mode could stop working or change how the device works. or example, a cardiac defi brilla- tor may be unable to detect tachycardia events. Or it may change the operational mode of the devices, such as turning on asynchronous (i.e., two or more events not happening at the same time) mode in a pacemaker.


Medline invests $1.5 billion to reinforce its supply chain Medline reported the results of a three-year national capital expenditure campaign to support the long-term needs of healthcare providers that included $1.5 billion in new distribution centers, manufacturing capabilities and information technology (IT) upgrades for an improved ecommerce experience.


The Medline Healthcare Resilience Ini- tiative (HRI) spanned dozens of Medline divisions over the course of 2018 to 2020, culminating in approximately 8,500 new jobs, eight new distribution centers, nearly 150 manufacturing expansion projects and a new global digital customer ordering platform.


During the next four years, the company plans to add more than 10 million square feet in warehouse space. With seven of the medical-grade distribution centers strategically set to open this year in key markets, the company is on track to be a leading healthcare partner in the new con- struction landscape in the United States,


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