The United States set a new record for hospitalizations with coronavirus-borne disease COVID-19 on Wednesday, as experts said the new, much more infectious variant, makes it even more crucial to place the country’s vaccine program so far below expectations .
The United States added at least 238,999 new cases on Tuesday and at least 3,664 people died, according to a New York Times tracker. The United States recorded an average of 219,684 new cases every day last week, confirming forecasts of the worst-case scenario by experts who said the holiday season would lead to new peaks.
There was a record 131,195 patients with COVID-19 in US hospitals on Tuesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, breaking the record of 128,210 set a day earlier. The United States continues to lead the world in cases, with 21 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and in deaths, with 357,422, or about a fifth of the global total.
The new variant of the virus, which first appeared in the United Kingdom, where it became rampant, was found in the United States and is probably spreading in communities.
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‘We must expect, without any further action, that as the new strain comes into play, we will see another 10 million infections in the United States between now and the end of February, and during that time, we could easily see another 100,000 to 150,000 deaths. ‘
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“It is, at this point, almost certainly too widespread to be contained in any specific state or region of our country,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean and professor of health services, politics and practice at Brown University School of Health Public, in a statement. “This new variant is significantly more infectious, threatening a rapid increase in rates of new cases and a much, much more deadly and destructive pandemic. This requires an urgent rethinking of our current policy responses. “
The variant was called B.1.1.7 and is estimated to be 40% to 70% more infectious than the original virus, said Jha, although so far it does not appear to make people sicker. Authorities expect it to respond to vaccines that have so far received emergency use authorization for use in the pandemic. A strain that Jha called the “next cousin” of the new variant has been found in South Africa and the United Kingdom, but has not yet been detected in the US
A significant increase in infection rates will translate into a much, much more deadly pandemic, he said.
“An epidemiologist (Adam Kucharski, associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), comparing a 50% increase in disease severity with a 50% increase in infectiousness, in a hypothetical city with 10,000 infections would increase infectivity leading to a five-fold increase in deaths over the course of a month – because a lower death rate for a large number of cases produces far more deaths than a higher death rate, but a smaller number of cases, ”said Jha.
The new variant is estimated to be responsible for about 1% of all infections now, but it will likely be responsible for the vast majority in March.
“We should expect, without further action, that as the new strain comes into play, we will see another 10 million infections in the United States between now and the end of February, and during that time, we could easily see another 100,000 to 150,000 deaths,” he said.
This means that it is more important than ever for Americans to comply with the public safety measures that experts recommended during the pandemic, namely, to wash their hands frequently, to distance themselves socially and to wear a face mask in all public spaces. People should avoid meetings that bring together more than one family and testing should be improved, he said.
“And finally, we must redouble our efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible,” said Jha.
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The vaccine tracker at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that only 4.8 million people were medicated until 9:00 am Eastern time on January 5 and only 17 million doses were distributed. This is well below the most recently revised number of 20 million deliveries promised by President Donald Trump’s government, and a far cry from the original promise of 100 million.
Trump left it to the states to run the vaccine program – tweeting it was “It is up to the states to manage” and then calling some states “very slowly” – which means that stressed out state health departments, which once had to deal with testing, contact tracking, public information campaigns and deciding when or whether schools or businesses should be opened or closed, now have the task of dealing with the largest public health effort in decades.
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In other news:
• The European Union has granted emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
Jack Denton of MarketWatch reported. The European Commission is expected to quickly grant authorization for the vaccine, allowing it to be deployed across Europe, where COVID-19 infections remain very high and millions of people continue to live under strict blocking measures. The possible release of the Modern vaccine comes at a time when governments across Europe face challenges to deploy the vaccine on a large scale. In France, President Emmanuel Macron faces national criticism of the vaccination campaign, which lags behind his European peers.
• The head of the World Health Organization said he was “disappointed” with Chinese officials for not having finalized permits to allow a team of experts in China to examine the origins of COVID-19, the Associated Press reported. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in a rare criticism of Beijing, said members of the international scientific team had begun to leave their home countries in the past 24 hours as part of an agreement between WHO and the Chinese government. “Today, we learned that the Chinese authorities have not yet finalized the necessary permits for the team to arrive in China,” Tedros said during a press conference in Geneva. “I am very disappointed with this news, as two members had already started their travels and others were unable to travel at the last minute, but were in contact with senior Chinese officials,” he said.
• The Netherlands is finally getting ready to start its COVID-19 vaccine program, becoming the last EU country to do so, the BBC reported. The Dutch government received criticism of the delay, with former director of public health, Roel Coutinho, warning that the country’s “shameful” vaccination strategy “was going to cost lives”. During an emergency debate in parliament, opposition politicians found the approach “chaotic and confusing”. The Netherlands has 852,921 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins data, and at least 12,095 people died.
• The Geneva-based non-governmental organization Press Emblem Campaign said on Wednesday that more than 600 journalists had died of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, with Latin America leading with more than half of the known victims, it said. AFP. At least 145 deaths have been reported in Asia, with 94 in Europe, 23 in North America and 28 in Africa. The press freedom group called on journalists to have priority access to vaccines when requested.
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• CVS Health Corp. CVS,
plans to deliver the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines at about 8,000 specialist nursing centers in 49 states by January 25, reported Jaimy Lee of MarketWatch. The program allows residents and facility staff to obtain one of two authorized COVID-19 vaccines right now; both groups are considered by the US government to be at high risk of contracting the coronavirus. CVS said it also plans to publish its national and state vaccination numbers every day at 4 pm. She also said that while absorption among residents remains “encouragingly high”, the actual number of residents is about 20% to 30% less than projections for the facilities that were based on bed count. “Initial acceptance among employees is low, part of this probably due to facilities that want to schedule vaccinations between visits,” said the pharmacy chain.
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Latest counts
The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide rose to 86.5 million on Wednesday, Johns Hopkins data show, and the death toll rose to 1.9 million. At least 48 million people have recovered from COVID-19.
Brazil has the second highest number of deaths after the United States with 197,732 and is the third in cases with 7.8 million.
India is the second world in cases with 10.4 million and the third in deaths with 150,114.
Mexico has the fourth highest number of deaths with 128,822 and the 13th highest number of cases with 1.5 million.
The UK has 2.8 million cases and 76,428 deaths, the highest number in Europe and the fifth largest in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered last year, had 96,335 confirmed cases and 4,788 deaths, according to its official figures.
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What is the economy saying?
Private sector employers eliminated 123,000 jobs in December, the first drop since April, according to the ADP National Employment Report, reported Greg Robb of MarketWatch.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected 60,000 jobs to be gained in the private sector in December.
What happened: job losses were mainly concentrated in retail, leisure and hospitality.
Private sector service providers subtracted 105,000 jobs in December. Meanwhile, goods producers have eliminated 18,000 jobs. Manufacturing lost 21,000 jobs.
By company size, small businesses lost 37,000 jobs in the private sector in December and large companies lost 147,000. Medium-sized companies, defined as firms with 50 to 499 employees, created 37,000 jobs.
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Economists use the ADP data as a guide to the Department of Labor’s employment report, which will be released on Friday, covering government jobs in addition to the private sector.
Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the government report to show a slowdown in employment growth in December, with non-agricultural employment increasing by just 50,000 last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
increased by 1.4%, while the S&P 500 SPX,
rose 0.9%.