The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced a new order from January 26: All air travelers arriving in the United States are required to submit a negative COVID-19 test within 3 days of departure. In addition to the negative test, travelers will need to be quarantined for 7 days after arrival and take a second COVID-19 test within 3 to 5 days of landing in the USA.
“Variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus continue to appear in countries around the world, and there is evidence of greater transmissibility for some of these variants,” the CDC said in a press release yesterday. “With the United States already in an emergency situation, the requirement for testing for air passengers will help to slow the spread of the virus as we work to vaccinate the American public.”
Passengers will either have to provide airlines with written proof of the negative test results or provide documents proving that they have recovered from COVID-19.
“The test does not eliminate all risks,” said CDC director Robert Redfield, MD, in the statement. “But when combined with a period of stay at home and daily precautions like wearing masks and social distance, it can make travel safer, healthier and more responsible by reducing the spread on planes, airports and destinations.”
Ohio researchers identify new variant
Variant strains of COVID-19, including variant B117 that originated in the United Kingdom, are already circulating in the United States. Today, Ohio-based researchers said they had detected a new variant, native to that state, and probably behind the rapid spread of the virus in Columbus.
Researchers at Ohio State University have not yet published their findings, but said the strain first appeared in late December. Like B117, the strain appears to spread more easily than the original virus, SARS-CoV-2, but vaccines must still be able to offer protection.
“This new Columbus strain has the same genetic structure as previous cases that we studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” said study leader Dan Jones, PhD, vice president of the molecular pathology division, in a statement to press. “We know that this change did not come from the UK or from branches of the virus in South Africa.”
Probable delay for Johnson & Johnson vaccine
The emergence of variant strains occurs at a time when the country embarks on a massive vaccination campaign with two COVID-19 vaccines, one made by Pfizer and BioNTech and one by Moderna. A third COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson, is expected to hit the market in March. Today the New York Times reported that the results of phase 3 of the tests with this vaccine are expected in the coming weeks.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been promising, as it requires only one dose and can be stored in a refrigerator for months on end. But the company said earlier this week that manufacturing delays are likely to make it impossible to deliver the 12 million promised doses by the end of February. Instead, the company will likely have a million single-digit doses ready by the end of next month.
According to the CDC COVID Data Tracker, 27,696,150 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed in the United States since December, and 9,327,138 doses have been administered, including 951,774 in nursing homes. Arizona, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia and South Carolina are the states with the lowest vaccination rate.
In related news, the U.S. government secured a deal to buy an additional 1.25 million doses of the Regeneron antibody cocktail. Doses will be used to prevent hospitalization of patients with mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19.
CDC: More cases in children as schools reopened
The U.S. reported 215,805 new COVID-19 cases yesterday and 4,327 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins’ COVID-19 tracker. There are 131,326 COVID-19 patients in US hospitals, according to the COVID Screening Project.
In total, the US reported 22,987,370 confirmed cases of COVID-19, including 383,113 deaths.
In the United States, more children became infected with the virus as schools reopened, but general outbreaks in schools were limited, according to new trend data from the CDC.
From March 1 to December 12, 2020, a total of 2,871,828 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in children, adolescents and young adults aged 0 to 24 years have been reported in the United States, said the CDC.
Young adults aged 18 to 24 represent the majority of cases; children and adolescents from 14 to 17 years old represented 16.3% of the cases, those from 11 to 13 years old by 7.9%, those from 5 to 10 years old by 10.9% and those from 0 to 4 years old by 7.4 %.
“Lower incidence among younger children and evidence from available studies suggest that the risk of introducing and transmitting COVID-19 among children associated with the reopening of daycare and elementary schools may be less than the reopening of secondary schools and institutions higher education, “the authors said.