The long period of daily decline in coronavirus cases in the United States has ended, and some states are seeing rapid increases, even though a third of American adults have received at least one vaccination injection.
“I remain concerned about the latest data and the apparent stagnation we are seeing in the path of the pandemic,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a briefing by the Coronavirus Task Force at Home White. .
The US is reporting a seven-day average of about 55,000 new cases per day, an increase of 3% over the previous week. The country is also reporting about 4,600 new hospitalizations and nearly 1,000 deaths a day, said Walensky. And the United States surpassed 30 million cases of coronavirus on Wednesday afternoon, again reaching a dubious milestone much faster than any other country.
“When you’re at that level, I don’t think you can declare victory,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci during the briefing. “We are on the corner. It remains to be seen whether or not we are going to turn that corner.”
About 2.5 million Americans are being vaccinated every day, according to Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House to the COVID-19 response. And the CDC reported that more than 130 million vaccines have been administered and 18% of the adult population in the United States is fully vaccinated.
Also in the news:
►AstraZeneca released updated information on its clinical trial COVID-19 late on Wednesday, showing an 76% effectiveness rate instead of the 79% reported earlier in the week.
►Poland reported a record daily number of new coronavirus cases for the second consecutive day, while the prime minister was preparing to give details of more severe restrictions for the Easter period.
►Kansas says it will receive only a fraction of the 100,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s unique vaccine for COVID-19 that it expected next week due to production problems.
►A hospital in Maui had to discard nearly 1,400 doses of vaccine after a refrigerator thawed the bottles did not seal properly.
Today’s numbers: The United States has more than 30 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 545,200 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Global totals: 124.9 million cases and 2.74 million deaths. More than 169.2 million doses of vaccines have been distributed in the United States and 130 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we are reading: An increasing share of Americans would feel safe to resume activities such as dining out or flying a few weeks after their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but 25% to 30% would wait until the country achieved collective immunity, according to a Harris survey survey for the USA TODAY. Read the full story.
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Florida joining the growing list of states that allow all adults to be vaccinated
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Thursday that he will remove the age restriction for the COVID vaccine from April 5. And as of Monday, anyone aged 40 or over can make an appointment for the vaccine. President Joe Biden instructed states to allow all adults to have access to vaccines by May 1.
“Florida’s Senior First vaccine strategy is paying off,” said DeSantis in a pre-recorded video announcing the decision. He said that more than 3.2 million elderly people aged 65 and over, more than 70%, were vaccinated.
Louisiana announced this week that it will provide access to anyone aged 16 and over who wants to schedule an appointment starting on Monday, and Idaho Governor Brad Little said that eligibility will be open to all residents of the state with 16 years old and from April 5th.
– Jeffrey Schweers, Florida Capital Bureau
Duerte, from the Philippines, calls for a survey of the vaccine list: ‘Always the favored few’
The President of the Philippines has ordered at least nine mayors to be investigated for possible charges after they allegedly jumped ahead of a priority list led by 1.7 million health professionals and were injected with the COVID-19 vaccine in the midst of a supply shortages. President Rodrigo Duterte said at a televised meeting on Wednesday night with key Cabinet members that, in addition to the mayors, other acquaintances were allowed to jump to the front of the line.
“We were told by the WHO representative in the country: ‘If you don’t follow the list of priorities, you could lose WHO assistance,'” said Duterte. “It was not followed because I heard that even the actress’s son did it. They are always the favored few. “
Billions in relief account going to states and health centers for vaccines
Community health centers will receive more than $ 6 billion from the federal government to expand access to COVID-19 vaccines, testing and treatment for vulnerable populations, the government announced on Thursday. Another US $ 3 billion will be distributed to states, territories and some large cities for initiatives aimed at increasing access, acceptance and adoption of vaccines. Another $ 330 million will go directly to support community health workers.
The funding comes mainly through the $ 1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
– Maureen Groppe
34% of American adults have already received at least one injection; half the others don’t want that
In the United States, 34.1% of adults report having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and those who have not been vaccinated and would be vaccinated say they are relatively brand agnostic, according to a new survey by Survey Monkey in vaccination hesitation.
Meanwhile, 66% of people willing to have the injection would be willing to receive the Modern vaccine, while 70% are willing to receive the Pfizer vaccine and 67% are receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But only 51% of people still unvaccinated say they would receive it if it was offered to them.
Reports: Governor Cuomo’s family had test priority at the start of the pandemic
In the early months of the pandemic, when COVID-19 tests were scarce, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo promised to make the test available to those most in need. It turned out that this included family members and other close people close to his administration, according to reports late on Wednesday. Both The Washington Post and the Times Union in Albany reported that Cuomo’s office provided coronavirus testing for his family, including his CNN anchor brother Chris Cuomo and other influential people with close ties to Cuomo.
The test was sometimes conducted in people’s homes and in part by Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who was a special advisor to the state Department of Health, the reports say, citing unidentified sources. The Times Union, which first reported the details, said Adams’ travels, including going to Chris Cuomo’s Long Island home, which announced in late March 2020 that he was positive for COVID and detailed his battle with the virus all the nights on his program that the governor often appeared in last year.
Governor Cuomo’s office did not deny the reports, but said the state was trying to test as many people as possible.
– Joseph Spector, New York State Team
Facebook and Twitter urged to crack down on vaccine rumors
A dozen state attorney generals on Wednesday called on Facebook and Twitter to take more aggressive action against conspiracy theories, fraud and lies that are undermining public confidence in COVID-19 vaccines.
“People and groups that spread falsehoods and mislead Americans about the safety of coronavirus vaccines are threatening the health of our communities, slowing progress in protecting our residents from the virus and undermining the economic recovery in our states,” says the letter from Connecticut Attorney General William Tong and 11 other attorneys general from the Democratic state said. “We ask that you take immediate action to fully comply with your companies’ guidelines against vaccine misinformation.”
The letter to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey also cited a survey by the Center for Counter Digital Hate and Anti-Vax Watch showing that a small number of anti-vaccine accounts are responsible for falsehoods about the safety of vaccines that reached more than 59 million on Google’s Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.
– Jessica Guynn
Data from three new studies show vaccine efficacy in the real world
Data on top health care professionals in Texas, California and Israel suggest that vaccines are effective in preventing coronavirus infections in real-world settings, according to three new studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday.
“For those who were fully vaccinated, the rate of infection was extremely low,” said Fauci during an interview on Wednesday, calling the studies “a real positive proof of the importance of vaccination.”
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At the Southwestern Medical Center at the University of Texas, only four of more than 8,000 fully vaccinated employees tested positive for COVID-19 in late January, according to healthcare officials. “The effect of vaccination on the preservation of our workforce was dramatic,” wrote hospital officials.
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Among health professionals at the University of California-San Diego and the University of California-Los Angeles, the risk of a positive test for COVID-19 after vaccination was about 1%, according to health system officials.
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At Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem, authorities found that vaccination among healthcare professionals “resulted in a large reduction in new cases of COVID-19 among those who received two doses of the vaccine, even when a peak of B. 1.1.7 variant was observed in up to 80% of cases. “
Contributing: The Associated Press
This article was originally published in USA TODAY: COVID updates: 30 million cases in the USA; 76% effective AstraZeneca vaccine