This is what you need to know:.
Vaccinations in Atlanta. Nicole Crane credits the New York Times.
Prescribing the Covid 19 vaccine can be not only difficult, but also not entirely safe.
Thousands of people across the country have seen their appointments suddenly cancelled in recent days after vaccine deliveries to local health departments and other distributors failed to meet expectations.
The Erie County (N.Y.) Department of Health, which includes Buffalo, canceled seven days of appointments this week, affecting 8,010 people, because the state sent far fewer doses than the county had ordered. Any future date should be considered preliminary and subject to the availability of vaccines, the agency said in a statement Wednesday.
We made agreements based on our hopes and expectations that we would be able to deliver on them, said Kara Kane, a spokeswoman for the department. Lots of confusion, lots of questions, lots of worries.
Diane Bennett, 78, lost her first appointment at Erie County Medical Center due to a cancellation, as did her husband. They were told to try again later, but Mrs Bennett said they did not know when a new appointment would be scheduled.
It’s like a lottery, she says. I think that’s outrageous.
Similar problems have arisen across the country as demand far exceeds supply and vaccine suppliers find it difficult to predict how many doses will arrive.
At Beaufort Memorial Hospital in South Carolina, hospital staff reported on the 30th. Mars, canceled 6,000 appointments after learning that the thousands of doses of vaccine they were waiting for would not arrive.
The San Francisco Department of Public Health expects to run out of vaccine on Thursday, the Los Angeles Times reports, because the city’s allocation is much lower than it was a week ago and the state has not replaced doses that should have been rejected.
Local health authorities throughout California say they are having trouble making appointments because they are not sure how much vaccine they will receive from week to week, according to the newspaper.
In New York City, 23,000 immunization appointments scheduled for Thursday and Friday have been postponed because of late delivery, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, a day after warning that the city’s supply would soon run out.
We were already feeling the stress of the vaccine shortage, the mayor said at a press conference. Today the situation is even worse.
The recent measures to open up voting rights have made the situation even worse.
After the state of Georgia announced that anyone age 65 or older could receive the vaccine, more than 10,000 applications were submitted in 10 counties of the Northwest Health District in one weekend – far more than the available supply could cover. So he closed his planning website and advised people to call their local health department to make an appointment. This disappointed many people who thought they had already been given a spot.
We have to plan for at least a week based on scheduled deliveries, but we don’t know what’s going to happen every day, said Logan Boss, spokesman for the health district. It is difficult to explain this to the public.
| United States ‘ | United States 20. 1 January | Change of 14 days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New company | 184,754 | –16% | |
| New Deaths | 4,367 | +14% | |
| World ‘ | WorldAm 1. 20 | Change of 14 days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New company | 693,073 | –1% | |
| New Deaths | 17,614 | +23% | |
When per capita is highest
President Biden signs during the first minute in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Credit… Doug Mills/New York Times.
Within hours of taking office Wednesday, President Biden signed 17 executive orders, memoranda and proclamations, five of which are intended to help the country fight the pandemic.
In an effort to strengthen the national response to the coronavirus, which claimed more than 400,000 lives this week, Biden issued an executive order naming Jeffrey D. Zients as the official coordinator of the response to the Covid-19 coronavirus, reporting to the president. Zients co-chaired Biden’s transition team and chaired the National Economic Council under President Barack Obama.
The decision also restores the Office of Global Health and Biosecurity to the National Security Council, a group that was disbanded in 2018 under President Donald Trump.
While Mr. Biden has not mandated a national masking mandate that is likely to face legal challenges, it requires social distancing and the wearing of masks by federal employees, contractors and others on federal property. He also issued a 100 Day Mask Challenge, calling on all Americans to wear masks and urging state and local authorities to take federal action to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Mr. Biden has also reconnected with the World Health Organization after the Trump administration withdrew its membership and funding last year.
Biden has also taken steps to help Americans who are struggling economically because of the pandemic.
She plans to expand the federal moratorium on foreclosures and has asked organizations, including the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, and Housing and Urban Development, to expand the moratorium on foreclosures on federally secured mortgages. All extensions are valid until at least the end of March.
The president also wants to suspend interest and principal payments on federal student loans until the end of September, although progressive groups and some Democrats in Congress have asked Biden to go much further and wipe out up to $50,000 in student debt per person.
Laura Lima attends the inauguration at the home of Martin Luther King Jr. A community hospital in South Los Angeles. linked to Isadora Kosofsky’s credit for the New York Times.
Screens are not lacking in intensive care units treating Covid 19 patients, but in an intensive care unit in Los Angeles on Wednesday, some screens showed not blood pressure and oxygen levels, but images of the swearing-in of the 46th president of the United States.
I just wanted to watch and listen, said Laura Lima, a nurse who watched the inauguration on an iPhone attached to her workstation. These are important things.
Ms. Lima works for Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital in South Los Angeles, and as she watched President Biden’s speech the nation, the monitor beeped. She donned an isolation gown and gloves and entered the room of one of her patients, a man in his sixties who was on a ventilator and needed to have his IV line adjusted.
Ms. Lima noted the new president’s comments on the rapid introduction of vaccines.
I think this community should be a priority, she said.
The area around the hospital, which is home to many low-income workers who often do not have access to medical care, is one of the hardest hit areas in Southern California.
Mario Torres Hernandez, 63, who was treated with oxygen at Covid-19, died while Mr. Biden’s visit to Arlington Cemetery was being televised on Telemundo. I hope he does more for us, he said.
But it was another busy day at the I.C.U., so the vast majority of the staff did not follow procedures in Washington. A respiratory therapist said he forgot that an initiation had taken place.
Some people thought it was a day of hope.
I’m so tired of buttoning up black body bags, another nurse, Amanda Hamilton, said during the ceremony. It’s exciting to have a president who really cares about you and can do something.
President Biden speaks Wednesday at a special celebration of America in Prime Time. linked to the Biden Inaugural Committee Credit via Getty Images.
Like many other one-time celebrations that followed the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, President Biden’s inauguration was not accompanied by the traditional live band, but the public was able to enjoy an evening of celebration with a full live broadcast on Wednesday night.
With respect to the coronavirus pandemic and the new administration’s attempts to shape Americans’ public health behavior that it hopes will happen, President Biden’s inauguration was not marked by a big gala or star-studded balloons, which usually take place throughout Washington.
But presidential inaugurations are cultural sidewalks, and they are moments that attract millions of viewers on television and the Internet. So the presidential inaugural committee organized a 90-minute musical celebration to mark the day – a celebration that had the benefit of showing Biden’s support by a wide range of A-list artists, something former President Donald J. Trump coveted but never got.
Bruce Springsteen’s perfect performance at Wednesday night’s grand opening. linked to Biden’s inaugural committee credit, via Associated Press.
The special aired live on major networks and most cable news outlets and featured Katy Perry, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jon Bon Jovi, Ant Clemons, the Foo Fighters, John Legend, Demi Lovato, Bruce Springsteen and Justin Timberlake, many of whom joined Biden and campaigned for former President Barack Obama in the past.
As the program opened, Springsteen greeted Americans and said he was proud to be in Washington, D.C. Then he began to realize the land of hopes and dreams that he offered as a small prayer for our country.
Doses of Moderna vaccine, which must be stored in cold storage, had to be disposed of in Ohio after SpecialtyRX found that storage temperatures were not properly monitored or recorded. Credit…Jae S. Honey/Associated Press Office
The pharmaceutical company responsible for vaccinating residents of eight nursing homes in Ohio saw 890 doses of Sovern vaccine – more than half its supply – deteriorate because they were not cold enough, state officials said.
The incident is under investigation by the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy, and the state Department of Health has suspended the company from further distribution of vaccines.
Prior to the new year, SpecialtyRx received 1,500 doses of vaccine for residents at eight locations. After the first shot was fired, the company discovered that it had not properly monitored and recorded the temperature of the refrigerators and freezers where the remaining cans were stored.
State investigators found that the 890 withheld boxes were no longer viable, the Department of Health said in a statement. Residents of retirement homes are still waiting for a second vaccination and must arrange it with another provider.
Moderna vaccine can be stored for up to 30 days if kept between 36 and 46 degrees Celsius. SpecialtyRx management cannot immediately be contacted for comment.
Like many other states, Ohio has been slow to launch its immunization program. About 456,100 Ohioans – less than 4 percent of the population – got their first dose on Wednesday, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Mike DeWine said most healthcare workers and nursing home residents were drugged on the state’s front lines. We try to juggle a lot of things and do a lot of things with not enough vaccine, DeWine said.
The state plans to have all residents age 75 and older, as well as youth with certain serious illnesses and conditions, participate next week.
The number of new reported cases in Ohio dropped last week, but the number of reported deaths remains high after the post-Christmas surge.
A memorial in Lima to the health workers who died from Covid-19. in connection with Rodrigo Abd/Presse Associée credit.
Leaders of Peru’s doctors’ union began a hunger strike on Tuesday to protest what they see as a blatant unpreparedness on the part of national authorities in the face of the second wave of coronavirus infections that quickly swept through the country’s hospitals.
As Latin American countries prepare for a new cycle with the virus, a Peruvian alliance of 12,000 doctors from the public health network EsSalud said public hospitals face the same challenges that hampered their work in the early stages of the pandemic.
Once again, they are faced with an influx of Covid 19 patients for whom personal protective equipment, medical supplies and support staff are inadequate. The union has called for the replacement of SSalud’s director general, Fiorella Molinelli, who is under investigation for corruption.
The union’s general secretary, Teodoro Quiñones, said that instead of hiring more health workers during the relative calm after the first wave of infections, EsSalud fired Covid specialists and did not rehire them when the number of cases began to rise in December. Many hospitals lack both the ventilators patients need and the staff to intubate them, he said.
We are operating with a shortage of 6,000 specialists, at least 1,500 intensivists and 6,000 to 8,000 critical care nurses, Dr. Quinones said.
Dr. Quinones began his hunger strike with half a dozen other union leaders at a demonstration Tuesday outside the Labor Ministry in the capital, Lima. The strikers said they would refuse to eat until their demands were met.
EsSalud did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Peru is not the only country in South America that has been overtaken by the second wave.
Between May and August, the virus caused serious damage in the region and now cases of the coronavirus are reappearing in many countries, which is a matter of great concern.
In Colombia, the number of new cases has risen to about 15,000 a day, double the pre-Christmas rate, and intensive care unit capacity has reached or is approaching 100%. And universal vaccination in Colombia appears to be several months away.
But Bogotá, the capital, like other major cities in South America, did not resort to a full quarantine, opting instead for a more flexible one, with only a few closed areas and an 8 p.m. curfew.
Brazilian health authorities launched a nationwide immunization campaign this week, but deployment is expected to be painfully slow. The government is trying to buy more vaccine after months of insufficient action. President Jair Bolsonaro said scientists and the media have implied the severity of the virus, which has killed more than 210,000 Brazilians.
Many doctors in Peru say the second wave of infection seems to have hit the country as hard or harder than the first wave, even though the country had one of the highest death rates in the world relative to its population. Hospitals are overcrowded and intensive care beds are scarce.
In my hospital, for example, there are 20 patients in line and we only have 11 beds in intensive care, says Dr. Manuel Vasquez, a doctor from the region of Ica who joined the demonstration in Lima. In every hospital we hear about the same phenomena.
Last week, the country’s acting president, Francisco Sagasti, confirmed the new push, but said he would not impose another lockdown except as an extreme option due to the impact on employment.
Peru has a backlog of vaccines to deliver to a population of 32 million. It has announced a contract for one million doses from Chinese company Sinopharm, but has no delivery date yet.
Some officials expressed hope that the antibodies brought by the large number of people infected in the first wave – nearly 40 percent of Lima’s population and up to 70 percent in some other cities, according to government figures – would help contain the second wave. But now the virus is spreading rapidly, Dr. Vasquez said, and patients who need to be hospitalized tend to be younger and in more serious condition than before.
And this is just the beginning, he said.
Baghdad market this week. linked to Ivor Prickett’s credit report for the New York Times.
In a high-end shisha lounge at a new restaurant in Baghdad, customers blowing tobacco with aromatic fruit sit at golden tables surrounded by a giant video screen and a view of the Tiger. It’s a weekday, but the Sky Lounge at Dawas Restaurant is full of people partying like it’s 2019: no masks, no distance, no problems.
As Iraqis, we are not afraid of death. It is a psychological factor that can improve a person’s immunity, said businessman Ali al-Khatib, 37, as he drew smoke from a gilded glass bong.
His friend Rami Riad, 34, another businessman, said he took off his mask at the airport on his return from Jordan last week.
While infection rates are declining, Iraqis are neglecting recommended precautions and many are clinging to a dubious belief in their own immunity, an idea that some health and religious leaders have publicly endorsed.
We have a kind of herd immunity, a chief medical officer, Dr. Jasib al-Hijami, wrote on Facebook last month. He said this week that he was complying with those comments.
Herd immunity reduces potential hosts for the virus and provides some resistance to the epidemic. It is generally considered to occur when 70% or more of the population is infected or vaccinated.
Public health experts fear that the misconceptions adopted by the Iraqis and the resulting disregard for safety measures could lead to a major epidemic, even if more infectious variants emerge worldwide.
Daily infection rates in Iraq have steadily declined from more than 3,000 new cases in November to less than 800 in January. This delay contributes to what experts call a false sense of security.
Ali Mokdad, director of Middle East initiatives at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Measurement and Evaluation, said the lower infection rate is partly due to Iraq’s mild winter, where windows are left open. A relatively young population can lead to fewer deaths and hospitalizations.
Other experts suggest that the actual number is probably two or three times greater than the stated number. But as the official number dwindled, Iraqi authorities eased restrictions. In the midst of last year’s pandemic, Iraq has come to a standstill with the destruction of struggling health systems. The restrictions were relaxed last fall due to declining infection rates.
Today, the government is fighting a losing battle to convince Iraqis to wear masks and stop shaking hands and kissing cheeks, a common practice in Iraq for same-sex people.
The campaign has been undermined by local and provincial health officials who claim Iraq has gained herd immunity.
But health experts doubt it. According to Dr. Mokdad, the best estimate is that about 20% of the population is infected.
In mosques, some believers are told not to fear the virus as long as they follow God.
Even the Iraqi Health Minister, Dr. Hassan al-Tamimi, did not support or refute the idea of herd immunity. He attributed the lower mortality rate to the increased capacity of Covid-19 and the decrease in the number of divine protection infections.
The most important factor is the grace of God, Dr. Al-Tamimi said.
Iraq, with a population of 40 million, is ill prepared for the second wave.
It has reserved 1.5 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and plans to administer it in March. But Dr. Riyad Lafta, professor of epidemiology at Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad, and other experts doubted that enough Iraqis would be vaccinated for the campaign to succeed.
– Jane Arraf, Falih Hassan and Jaafar al-Weili.
The crowds and celebrations that usually take place at initiations were not visible on Wednesday. in connection with Chang W. Credit. Lee/The New York Times.
When cases of coronavirus broke out in the United States, organizers of President Joseph R. Bush’s inaugural address to the United States were concerned. Biden Jr. was forced to prioritize small audiences and virtual celebrations – and in some cases to cancel the event.
In a typical inaugural year, Congress’ Joint Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies distributes about 200,000 tickets for official events on Capitol Hill, while the public in Washington can easily get more than a million tickets. The day will consist of dinners and parades and will end with balls and gala evenings taking place in the hall.
But this inauguration was much more austere, with extremely limited participation.
While plans for some events went on almost as usual, such as Mr. Biden’s speech on the western front of the Capitol, others were reconsidered or canceled altogether. A luncheon honoring the new president, held at National Statuary Hall on Capitol Hill since the 1950s, was canceled in December due to health and safety concerns, according to a Bloomberg report.
The Presidential Inaugural Committee asked the public not to gather for the ceremony. For 90 minutes on Monday, a section of the National Mall was flooded with 56 columns of lights and nearly 200,000 flags to represent those who could not attend.
Only a few senior government officials and members of Congress got tickets, each allowed to bring one guest, for a live hearing of about 1,000 people, the commission said.
Numerous lawmakers and dignitaries attended, including three former presidents, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton; the Democratic nominee for president in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; two prominent Democrats in Congress, Senator John F. Kennedy; and the chairman of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Committee. Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, a centrist Democrat who is likely to vote on many of the new administration’s priorities; and Senators Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Biden’s two rivals for the Democratic nomination in 2020.
It turned out that everyone at the event – from former White House residents to Supreme Court justices, lawmakers, security guards and guests – wore masks, except when they were on stage. At his swearing-in, Biden urged Americans to work with him to find a way out of the pandemic, and he explicitly acknowledged the devastating effects of the coronavirus in a way his predecessor never did.
We are entering perhaps the most difficult and deadly phase of the virus. We need to put politics aside and finally face this pandemic as one nation, Biden said. We’ll get through this together.
The new president then held a moment of silent prayer to remember the more than 400,000 Americans who died after contracting the virus.
After the swearing-in ceremony, the Biden family traveled to Arlington National Cemetery, where they joined the Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations to lay a wreath on the graves of strangers at Arlington National Cemetery. Biden was then escorted to the White House.
The traditional rush to get the president-elect and his family into the White House has been complicated by health and safety precautions, with extra deep cleanings.
Early Wednesday morning, President Trump and his wife Melania Trump left the White House after refusing to attend the inauguration. They were not seen wearing masks as they boarded a helicopter on the White House lawn, at a farewell ceremony hosted by the president at Andrews Air Force Base in Andrews, Maryland, or after they left for Florida on Air Force One.
In his speech to the base, M. stated that the number of cases of this virus has been declining rapidly. According to the New York Times database, there were an average of 201,117 new cases per day last week, down about 11% from the average of the previous two weeks.
Yet the United States continues to lead the world in the number of confirmed cases and deaths from viruses. The number of cases surpassed 24 million on Monday and 400,000 virus deaths on Tuesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that a highly contagious variant of the virus, first discovered in the United Kingdom, could soon spread to the United States.
Biden is expected to sign a series of decrees, memoranda and proclamations from the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, including the following
They include an executive order making Jeff Zients the official coordinator of the government’s response to Covid-19, reporting to the president. The decision would also reinstate the Office of Global Health and Biosafety to the National Security Council, a group that Dr. Trump disbanded.
Oh, dear Lord. Biden will also sign an order-in-council that Trump strongly opposed during his tenure – imposing a national mandate requiring the wearing of masks and physical restraint in all federal buildings, on all federal grounds and by all federal employees, officials said.
And he will stop Mr. Trump’s attempts to leave the World Health Organization by sending Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, to the group’s annual board meeting on Thursday.
Experts from China and the World Health Organization sat in on a hospital in Wuhan last week. The W.H.O. team is in China to study how the virus passed from animals to humans. linked to China Daily/Reuters credit.
In an effort to unify the global response to the coronavirus, President Biden reversed the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization on his first day in office.
The Biden administration has announced that Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading expert on infectious diseases, will lead the U.S. delegation to the agency’s Board of Directors. Dr. Fauci will begin this role at this week’s meeting.
In May, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would leave the organization, which is part of the United Nations. He has been accusing him for weeks of helping the Chinese government cover up the extent of the coronavirus in China.
The decision by the president, who has already signaled to the world that he does not feel bound by the United States’ longstanding commitment, has alarmed health experts. And his successor made it clear Wednesday that he sees the organization as an ally, not an adversary.
The World Health Organization plays a crucial role in the global fight against the deadly pandemic Covid 19, as well as a host of other threats to global health and health security, Biden said in a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres. The United States will continue to participate fully in addressing these threats and in promoting health and health security around the world.
In late May, shortly before the announcement with the W.M.H., the Trump administration made seven requests to the organization. Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, the head of the organization, was available.
Last week, specialists from the organization arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the epidemic began just over a year ago. They plan to study how the virus passed from animals to humans.
The researchers have already encountered problems with the Chinese government, which fears external controls and has repeatedly prevented the team from arriving.
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Week after week, Cuomo warns ofvaccine deliveries.
A limited supply of available vaccine doses affected Covid 19 vaccination in New York City. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has stated that immunization in the state will be temporarily suspended in the coming days.
Now it’s clear that we’re going to move from week to week and you’re going to see a consistent pattern of finishing most of the time, waiting for the next week’s breakdown, and then starting over. We have so many distributors that we can’t supply them all, and you will find that the distributors are out of stock. We want to make sure that distributors don’t make deals for which they don’t have final distribution. Because we don’t know what we’re going to get next week and we don’t know where we’re going to distribute it. Our distribution network is operational. We’re just waiting for the delivery. But we’re in a position where if we can get supplies, we can get them in. And that’s the position we should be in. And I like it.
A limited supply of available vaccine doses has hampered the Covid 19 immunization effort in New York City, with the Andrew M. Cuomo administration saying the state will be temporarily out of vaccine in the coming days.CreditCredit… Brendan McDermid/Reuters.
The limited supply of available doses continues to hamper Covid 19’s vaccination efforts in New York. Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said the state’s immunizations will be temporarily halted in the coming days, while New York City officials have postponed 23,000 immunizations scheduled for the end of the week due to a delay in delivery.
Despite the recent increase in coronavirus cases, Cuomo said that at the rate New York City is receiving vaccine doses, it will take the state up to eight months to vaccinate even the small groups of people who are currently eligible, including doctors, police officers and people over 65, let alone the general population.
Although Cuomo said he expects to receive more vaccine next week, he said there are still 145,780 doses left in the state and he manages about 65,000 doses a day. Of the more than 6 million people who have not yet been vaccinated, 21 percent are health care workers, 27 percent are essential workers, such as doctors, firefighters or teachers, and 52 percent are older than 65.
He stated that the State tries to distribute the cans evenly to each of these groups, but the supply is limited.
It’s clear now that we will go week to week, he said. You see a consistent pattern that basically ends with waiting for next week’s distribution to start again. We’re trying to flatten it out, but we’re also trying to get it out as quickly as possible.
Logistical problems were evident in New York City, where 23,000 vaccination appointments scheduled for Thursday and Friday were postponed because of late deliveries, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, a day after warning that supplies would soon run out.
We were already feeling the stress of the vaccine shortage, the mayor said at a press conference. Today the situation is even worse.
More than 100,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine that the city was expected to receive Tuesday are now arriving on Wednesday and Thursday, City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Ciocchi said at a news conference.
Appointments rescheduled due to the delay are only for those who receive the first of the two required doses of the vaccine and will be rescheduled for next week, Dr. Chokshi said.
City officials will focus on the most affected communities, the mayor said, announcing a goal of 50,000 social housing units for residents over 65 in the coming weeks, assuming the city can get more money from the federal government.
Mr. de Blasio said he believed that President Biden’s administration would increase production of the vaccine sufficiently to make the second dose available to a greater number of eligible individuals. Production of the vaccines licensed by Moderna and Pfizer in the United States is nearing completion and it is not certain that the administration will be able to significantly increase the total supply in the near future.
While Biden said his administration will release more doses as they become available and keep fewer in reserve, he said Friday he would not change the recommended time frame for the second dose: 21 days after the first dose for Pfizer’s vaccine and 28 days for Moderna’s.
We think it’s very important that everyone receive two doses within the time frame recommended by the F.D.A., Biden said when outlining his plans for distributing the vaccine.
New York City expects 140,000 first doses and 250,000 second doses this week, Dr. Chokshi said Wednesday. We completed this delivery very quickly.
Despite the late delivery, Mr. de Blasio said Wednesday that New York should have a total of 500,000 cans by the end of the day when it begins receiving them.
Dr. Krebs reported that 1,032,291 doses were imported into the state. Almost 90% of them were the first of the two required doses.
There were 9,273 hospital admissions in the state, more than double the number recorded in early December. But despite the continued spread of the virus, logistical problems and the threat of a new, more contagious variant of the virus spreading across the state, Cuomo said the average of seven days of positive results seemed to fall after a spike in holiday cheer.
On Tuesday, the positive rate had fallen to 6.3% from 7.9% in early January, according to the government.
Overall positivity is down across the state, and that’s good news, he said.
Coronavirus testing in Austin, Texas, revealed an average of more than 20,000 new cases per day. related to Tamir Kalifa credit for the New York Times.
The continued rapid spread of coronavirus in Texas, the second most populous state in the United States, threatens to gradually move the country toward a flattening curve of new cases.
Strong spikes were observed, especially in the counties along the Mexican border. The city of Laredo sent its residents a cell phone alert this weekend – the second in three days – warning them that local hospitals were nearly operational.
According to the report, our health professionals and hospitals are overwhelmed by the increase in Covid 19 disease. The current situation is most critical and lives are at stake. We ask that you stay in your homes unless absolutely necessary.
The number of new cases in Texas averaged more than 20,000 a day on Monday. According to the New York Times database, the state has seen a steady increase in new cases since October, averaging 4,000 per day.
Texas has reported more than 2.1 million cases since the pandemic began, the second highest number in the country after California, which has seen a devastating wave of cases in recent weeks that has brought hospitals to the brink of collapse.
Federal health authorities have admitted that the rollout of the vaccine has been slower than expected. In the United States, about 14.3 million people have received at least one dose of Covid 19 vaccine, and about 2.2 million have been fully vaccinated, according to data released Wednesday by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal officials have set a goal of giving their first dose to at least 20 million people by the end of 2020.
In the United States, since the 2nd. In January, there were an average of more than 200,000 new cases of the virus per day, with California and Texas fueling the increase in the virus. Arizona, Oklahoma and South Carolina were hit hard for days and New York is now the fourth largest epidemic in the country, although the daily death rate in the state is far from the tragic levels seen in the spring.
As of Monday, 111 deaths have been reported in Texas, bringing the total number of people infected with the virus in that state – a significant portion of the more than 400,000 reported deaths in the United States – to more than 32,000.
For more than a month, 35 to 40 percent of hospital beds in Laredo were occupied by Covid 19 patients, more than anywhere else in the state, a city spokeswoman said. On Tuesday, she added, the figure was nearly 50 percent.
In Del Rio, another border town, Dr. Laura Palau of the Val Verde Health Department said authorities always monitor cases of unmasked people attending family gatherings and parties during the holidays. An alarming 30 percent of coronavirus tests performed in the city come back positive, she said. The sheriff’s department issues quarantine orders for those who test positive.
Dr. Palau expressed concern about the increasing mortality rate.
People hospitalized in December or early January are starting to lose consciousness, she says.
Texas has received more than 1.7 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine and administered 1.3 million doses, Governor Greg Abbott announced Tuesday. More than 800,000 doses are expected this week, he said.
But Clay Jenkins, a senior Dallas County official, warned that a new, more transmissible version of the virus that has been circulating in the United States since it forced Britain to close again could help move the control of the volatile pandemic forward.
January and February will be the toughest months here in North Texas, he said. For now, we should all avoid crowds, wear masks, refuse to meet. Really think about making patriotic sacrifices to protect the community.
David Montgomery contributed to the report.
Passenger receives a temperature check at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. East Iowa Airport is checking all departing passengers for coronavirus. Credit…Victor J. Blau for the New York Times.
An airport in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will conduct mandatory coronavirus checks on all departing passengers starting Monday. It is therefore one of the first airports in the country to benefit from the Federal Aviation Administration’s decision last month to introduce such controls.
As part of the new Travel Well program, the East Iowa Airport will ask a few quick questions and take the temperature of each departing passenger. Travelers who do not show signs of coronavirus or exposure will be sent for verification by the Transportation Safety Administration.
The Travel Well program will provide an effective approach to screening passengers and employees, says Airport Manager Marty Lens in a news release.
Travelers likely to be infected or exposed to the virus will be monitored privately. The final decision on boarding is made by the individual airlines. East Iowa Airport offers non-stop flights to 14 destinations operated by American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and others.
The usefulness of the ads is unclear. The value of passenger screening declined as the virus spread across the country. A passenger who is asymptomatic on the day of travel may infect others during the trip or at the destination.
The airport first released its screening plan in July, which it developed with Mercy Medical Center and MercyCare Business Health Solutions. But the plan has been put on hold pending approval from the FAA, which regulates airport spending. The agency said early last year that airports can spend money on employee screening, but not on passengers. The agency also approved passenger screening in December.
Global meeting
Laboratory staff at the Serum Institute of India. related to Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters credit.
On Wednesday, India said it would begin shipping its local version of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to neighboring countries as the government continues its massive effort to vaccinate hundreds of millions of people at home.
The first doses were to be delivered to Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Seychelles as early as Wednesday, India’s external affairs ministry said in a statement.
The vaccine, known as Covishield in India, is licensed for emergency use there. It was developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and is produced locally by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.
India’s foreign ministry said the cans sent on Wednesday were donated. Some vaccine recipient countries also have separate vaccine trade agreements or are in negotiations with the Serum Institute.
Bangladesh said on Thursday that it is expected to receive a batch of two million doses of Vischelde as a gift to India, in addition to the 30 million doses it ordered from the Serum Institute. Bhutan is expected to receive about 150,000 doses and Maldives 100,000 doses in the first shipment.
The other vaccine produced in India, Covaxin, has been criticized for being approved for use in emergency situations in the country before final trials were completed.
India’s ability to mass produce vaccines will be central to efforts to contain the coronavirus in poor countries. The Serum Institute plans to distribute one billion doses of its coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2021.
In other news from around the world:
- In China, Beijing authorities have ordered the closure of all kindergartens from Thursday and high schools from the end of the week, authorities said Wednesday. The capital reported seven new cases on Tuesday and imposed restrictions on passenger traffic, state media reported. The two local cases were the most transmissible variant found in the UK. The new rules also require that people coming to the Chinese capital from abroad be quarantined for three weeks instead of two, and that anyone visiting rural China be tested and quarantined.
- The Tokyo Olympics organising committee on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to hosting the games this summer, a day after former London 2012 Olympics vice-president Keith Mills said the event was unlikely to take place because of a pandemic. Seiko Hashimoto, Japan’s cabinet minister for the Olympics, also told parliament Wednesday that the government will determine the number of spectators, or foreign viewers, in the spring, depending on the situation inside and outside Japan.
- The Vatican vaccinated about 20 homeless people on Wednesday. Other groups are expected to follow in the coming days, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said. The images were taken as part of the Vatican government’s vaccination program and reflect a significant expansion of the Vatican’s work for the homeless, led by Pope Francis and Cardinal Conrad Krajewski, the head of the Pontifical Relief Office, who himself was hospitalized with the virus last month. Last week, Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI received their first doses of the vaccine.
- Dublin’s St Patrick’s Day street parade has been cancelled for the second year in a row due to the coronavirus pandemic, organisers confirmed on Wednesday, promising a virtual event. St. Patrick’s Day celebrations on the 17th. March in Ireland, Boston and Manhattan were among the first major events cancelled last year due to the spread of the coronavirus. More than 2,700 people died from Covid-19 in Ireland.
Funeral of the Covida 19 victim in Manaus, Brazil, last week. America accounts for nearly half of coronavirus deaths. related credit Michael Dantas/Agence France-Presse – Getty Images.
GENEVA – The global number of deaths from covid-19 reached a record high last week, while the number of new cases fell, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.
According to the United Nations health agency, 93,000 people died in January, a record 93,000 people in the week to 17 January, a record and a 9% increase from the previous week, bringing the total number of deaths from the pandemic worldwide to more than 2 million.
According to the latest weekly bulletin, the number of deaths has increased in all six of the World Health Organization’s regional groups, with the Americas the most affected, with a 15% increase in deaths last week. Led by the United States, where more than 400,000 people have died, and Brazil, where more than 200,000 have died, the Americas account for nearly half of all deaths from the virus since the pandemic began.
However, the number of new cases fell slightly in America last week and by 6% worldwide. The W.M.H. explained the discrepancy in trends by noting that a large number of cases lead to increased hospitalizations and deaths after a short period of time.
Most of the decline occurred in Europe, where there was a 15 percent drop last week, according to the World Health Organization. Over the past week, the number of new cases has dropped by 11% in the United States and 19% in the United Kingdom, two of the hardest hit countries in the world. Britain is isolated, while the United States has a patchwork of government regulations.
This decline has occurred despite the emergence of new, more contagious variants of the virus. According to V.H.O., the new variants have spread to another 10 countries in the past week, bringing the total number of affected countries in all regions to 60.
Preparation of the dose of coronavirus vaccine in Rome on Monday. On Friday, Pfizer announced it would reduce shipments to the EU scheduled for this week. Credit…Angelo Carconi/EPA, via Shutterstock.
Italy plans to sue U.S. drug maker Pfizer for delays in the delivery of coronavirus vaccines, Italian pandemic special envoy Domenico Arcuri said in a statement Tuesday night.
On Friday, Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said they would send fewer doses to the EU this week than planned as they adjust their manufacturing process to increase future deliveries. They said deliveries will be back on the original schedule next week.
Italian officials discussed the situation with business leaders on Tuesday.
The outcome of today’s dialogue with Pfizer has not had the hoped-for effect, Arcuri wrote, announcing that Italy will file civil and criminal complaints in the coming days, if possible.
Arcuri said Pfizer will not make up the supply shortfall next week, which will be less than expected. Italian officials fear the lack of doses could dangerously delay the country’s vaccination program, which has reached more than 1.2 million people so far, starting with health care workers and people living in nursing homes.
Some regional governors have announced that they will suspend new vaccinations due to the shortage and focus on distributing a second dose of vaccine to those who have already received the first. But they warned that further delays could even jeopardize the distribution of booster doses.
Health care for Italian citizens is non-negotiable, Arcuri said in a statement. The vaccination campaign must not be delayed, especially not to give a second dose to the many Italians who have already received the first.
Pfizer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
