Coronavirus Facts and Information thread:

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
105,907,231
view by country

Deaths:
2,308,853

Recovered:
77,524,874

 

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Another sad milestone reached: New COVID-19 deaths in U.S. top 5,000 to set new single-day record - UPI.com

Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States is still well below average, but deaths nationwide on Thursday soared to a new all-time high, according to updated data from Johns Hopkins University.

According to the data, there were almost 5,100 coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday -- by far the most of any day since the pandemic began a year ago. The previous one-day record was about 4,500 deaths.

They project between 631,000 and 702,000 deaths by June 1, with the expectation that a little over half the country will be inoculated by then.

The record deaths on Thursday added to an overall national toll that's now well over 450,000, according to the data.

An updated model from the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation predicts between 631,000 and 702,000 total U.S. deaths by June 1, when it also estimates that more than 174 million people will have been inoculated.

The good news is that the number of new cases is showing decline.

Despite the rise in coronavirus deaths, there were only about 122,500 new cases on Thursday, which is well under the daily average for January.

In fact, there haven't been more than 150,000 cases for any day in almost a week, and the United States hasn't reported more than 200,000 new cases since the middle of January.

Since the start of the pandemic, there have been about 26.7 million COVID-19 cases reported nationwide, according to Johns Hopkins.

 

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And the scramble for vaccines continues as poorer countries are working to avoid being left out.

Unwilling to wait, poorer countries seek their own vaccines (apnews.com)

NEW DELHI (AP) — With coronavirus cases still climbing, Honduras got tired of waiting to get vaccines through a United Nations program, so the small Central American country struck out on its own, securing the shots through a private deal.

Honduras “cannot wait on bureaucratic processes or misguided decisions” to give citizens “the peace of mind” offered by the COVID-19 vaccine, said Juan Carlos Sikaffy, president of the Honduran Private Business Council, which helped complete the purchase by providing a bank guarantee.

Other nations are getting impatient too. Unlike past disease outbreaks, where less wealthy countries have generally waited for vaccines to be delivered by the U.N. and other organizations, many are now taking matters into their own hands. Experts are increasingly concerned that these go-it-alone efforts could undermine a U.N.-backed program to get COVID-19 shots to the neediest people worldwide.

Countries including Serbia, Bangladesh and Mexico recently began vaccinating citizens through donations or commercial deals — an approach that could leave even fewer vaccines for the program known as COVAX, since rich countries have already snapped up the majority of this year’s supply.

Led by the World Health Organization, a coalition for epidemic preparedness known as CEPI and a vaccine alliance called GAVI, COVAX was created to distribute COVID-19 vaccines fairly. Countries can join either to buy vaccines or to get donated shots.

Mustaqeem De Gama, a diplomat at the South African mission in Geneva, cited “a level of desperation” fueled by spreading virus variants and “the uncertainty of when any COVAX vaccines might arrive.” He doubted that countries that signed up for COVAX ”will even get 10% of what they require.”

Even if the effort succeeds, COVAX’s stated goal is to vaccinate less than 30% of people in poor countries, meaning that governments must seek other sources to obtain enough shots to achieve herd immunity.

The Serbian president criticized countries buying more doses than they needed.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said his country was forced to cut its own deals after watching rich countries scramble for the scarce shots. He criticized nations that, he said, bought more doses than they needed.

“It’s as if they intend to vaccinate all their cats and dogs,” he said.

Although Serbia paid 4 million euros to COVAX last year, it has not yet received any shots and last month began its immunization campaign with vaccines from Pfizer, China’s Sinopharm and Russia.

 

[Quagmire]

Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
106,348,262
view by countr
Deaths:
2,320,591

Recovered:
77,984,514

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
106,685,660
view by country

Deaths:
2,327,308

Recovered:
78,385,220

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
107,442,496
view by country

Deaths:
2,352,172

Recovered:
79,380,430

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
107,856,160
view by country

Deaths:
2,364,980

Recovered:
79,871,749

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
108,280,041
view by country

Deaths:
2,377,223

Recovered:
80,315,027

 

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President Joe Biden announces acquisition of 200M Moderna, Pfizer vaccine doses - UPI.com

Feb. 11 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden on Thursday said his administration secured deals for 200 million additional COVID-19 vaccine doses.

During a visit to the National Institutes of Health Viral Pathogenesis Laboratory, Biden said the acquisition will give the United States a total of 600 million doses, enough to inoculate 300 million people by the end of July.

Biden also announced that federally run community health centers will begin receiving vaccine doses. Last week, the administration said retail pharmacies will begin receiving direct shipments from the federal government Thursday.

National pharmacy chain Rite Aid announced it will begin administering vaccines on Friday in California, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Pennsylvania as well as Philadelphia and New York City, which are designated as separate jurisdictions.

The company said it expects to receive 100 doses per participating store for a total of 116,300 doses.

To date 34.72 million people have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 11.19 million have received two, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
108,729,307
view by country

Deaths:
2,394,066

Recovered:
80,737,186

 

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Rapid Covid breath test devices developed in Finland

A few puffs into a handheld device, where nanosensors analyse your breath. Data is sent via a mobile app to a cloud-based service that within a few seconds says whether or not the testee has Covid-19.

That's the plan for a Tampere firm that is developing a Covid-19 breathalyser device.

The result is based on the biomarkers that indicate changes in the body when people are infected with Covid. When people breathe out, they leave the lungs and the body, allowing breathalysers to identify Covid cases.

Levels are sent to the cloud-based service, which compares them to those found in Covid patients and allows an initial diagnosis to be made.

"It takes an average of 15 seconds to give a sample, and the analysis takes around three seconds, so we can genuinely talk about real time assessment and diagnosis," said Pekka Rissanen of the Tampere firm Deep Sensing Algorithms. "Each cycle is around two minutes so the next person can come after two minutes to breathe into the device."

The firm has already had enquiries about the device, which has been tested in field trials in Holland. According to the results the device will get certified.

"We should get the whole thing done in February and after that the device has a medical certificate and can begin commercial rollout," says Rissanen.

The firm estimates it can start production in February by making some 500 devices a week, raising that quickly to meet demand.

Some 40 prototypes have already been sent to potential customers around the world. The company says it has sales arrangements in place for some 130 countries.

"We see a great need for devices like this, for technology like this, and we can partly meet that demand with this product," said Rissanen.

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
109,102,930
view by country

Deaths:
2,405,397

Recovered:
81,128,203

 

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CDC releases guidelines for full in-person reopening of schools - UPI.com

Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Schools can open for full in-person learning even in areas with high levels of community spread of COVID-19, provided they implement sound mitigation strategies, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials said Friday.

This includes schools in so-called "red zones" with high levels of disease transmission, which currently encompasses more than 90% of the United States, according to the officials.

However, schools in these regions must ensure that all students, teachers and staff wear masks when attending classes in person, implement steps to allow for physical distancing on-site and curtail sports and other extracurricular activities, officials said.

The recommendations are part of new guidelines released Friday by the CDC.

"With the release of these recommendations, the CDC is not mandating that schools reopen," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky said during a call with reporters.

"We are simply providing schools with a long-needed road map," she said.

About 60% of school districts across the country are conducting some degree of in-person learning, though most of those are using a "hybrid model" that includes online instruction, according to Walensky.

I think this is at least a step in the right direction. Many schools have been closed or severely limited for quite a long time.

 

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French hospitals to move into crisis mode from Thursday: newspaper | Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - The French Health Ministry has asked regional health agencies and hospitals to go into “crisis organisation” from Feb. 18 to prepare for a possible surge in coronavirus cases due to highly contagious variants, Le Journal Du Dimanche reported on Sunday.

The move, which would echo measures taken in March and November 2020 when France went into national lockdowns, involves increasing the number of hospital beds available, delaying non- urgent surgery and mobilising all medical staff resources.

“This crisis organisation must be implemented in each region, regardless of the level of hospital stress and must be operational from Thursday Feb. 18,” health authority DGS said in a memo cited by the newspaper.

The DGS was not immediately available for comment to Reuters.

France reported 21,231 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Saturday, slightly up from 20,701 on Friday, taking the total cumulative number in France to 3,448,617, the sixth-highest in the world.

In contrast with some of its neighbours who are struggling to control more contagious variants, France has resisted resorting to a new lockdown, hoping a national curfew in place since Dec 15, first at 8 p.m. then at 6 p.m., will contain the pandemic.

Some scientists, however, believe President Emmanuel Macron took a gamble in deciding against a new lockdown despite the threat of highly contagious variants.

At the same time, France trails behind several other European countries, such as Britain, in rolling out vaccinations.

Health Minister Olivier Veran, who noted the variant first detected in Britain accounted for 25% of confirmed new infections in France, said on Thursday the government would decide in the coming weeks whether tougher restrictions were necessary at a national level.

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
109,387,000
view by country

Deaths:
2,411,436

Recovered:
81,470,600

 

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There's a California COVID variant that is concerning Southern California Is Origin of New COVID-19 Variant

 

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Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
109,676,360
view by country

Deaths:
2,418,768

Recovered:
84,215,251

 

[Quagmire]

Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
110,430,072
view by country

Deaths:
2,440,928

Recovered:
85,323,482

 

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Tanzania's COVID-denying leader urges prayer as cases climb (apnews.com)

Tanzania’s COVID-denying president is calling on citizens for three days of prayer to defeat unnamed “respiratory diseases” amid warnings that the country is seeing a deadly resurgence in infections.

“Maybe we have wronged God somewhere,” populist President John Magufuli told mourners at a funeral for his chief secretary, John Kijazi, on Friday. “Let us all repent.”

Magufuli has repeatedly claimed that Tanzania, a country of some 60 million people, defeated COVID-19 with God’s help. The government has not updated its number of coronavirus cases since April, and the health ministry has promoted unproven herbal remedies. Magufuli has questioned COVID-19 vaccines without offering evidence.

But the local Catholic church, the U.S. Embassy and others have openly warned of a resurgence in cases. And this week the death of the vice president of the semi-autonomous island region of Zanzibar, Seif Sharif Hamad, brought widespread attention after his opposition political party said he had COVID-19.

Hamad’s death is “a clear symbol this pandemic is raging,“ the director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, John Nkengasong, told reporters on Thursday.

Speaking about the deaths of Hamad and Kijazi, Tanzania’s president asked the country to remain calm.

“We managed to defeat these respiratory diseases through prayer last year. I am sure we will do so this year,” he said in the nationally televised event.

Magufuli also announced that Finance Minister Philip Mpango had been admitted to a hospital in the capital, Dodoma. He did not say why.

 

[Quagmire]

Today:

Coronavirus Cases:
111,249,707
view by country

Deaths:
2,463,654

Recovered:
86,123,642