The United States on Wednesday set a new record for hospitalizations with COVID-19 coronavirus disease, as experts said the new, much more infectious variant makes it even more crucial to track the discouraging vaccine program. Bye now.
The U.S. added at least 238,999 new cases Tuesday and at least 3,664 people died, according to a New York Times tracker. The United States has averaged 219,684 new cases each day over the past week, confirming the worst-case forecasts of experts who said the holiday season would lead to further rises.
On Tuesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project, 131,195 COVID-19 patients were registered at U.S. hospitals on Tuesday, beating the record 128,210 set the day before. The United States continues to lead the world by cases, with 21 million, according to data added by Johns Hopkins University, and by deaths, with 357,422, or about one-fifth of the world total.
The new variant of the virus, which first emerged in the UK, where it has spread, has been found in the United States and is likely to spread to communities.
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“We should expect, without further action, that as the new strain is achieved, we will see an additional 10 million infections in the United States by the end of February, and during that time we could easily see between 100,000 and 150,000 dead. ” ‘
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“It is, at this point, almost certainly too widespread to contain it in any specific state or region of our country,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean and professor of health services, policies and practices at the Brown University School of Public Health, in a statement. “This new variant is significantly more infectious, threatening a rapid increase in the rate of new cases and a much more deadly and destructive pandemic. This requires an urgent rethinking of our current policy responses.”
The variant has been christened B.1.1.7 and is estimated to be 40% to 70% more infectious than the original virus, Jha said, although so far it does not appear to make the disease more people. Officials expect him to respond to vaccines that have so far been granted emergency use authorization for pandemic use. A strain that Jha called the “close cousin” of the new variant has been found in South Africa and the UK, but has not yet been detected in the US.
A significant increase in infection rates will result in a much more deadly pandemic, he said.
An epidemiologist, (Adam Kucharski, associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine), compared a 50% increase in the severity of the disease with a 50% increase in infection, in a hypothetical in a city with 10,000 infections. will lead to a fivefold increase in deaths over a month, because a lower mortality rate in a very large number of cases produces many more deaths than a higher mortality rate, but a lower number of cases, ”Jha said. .
The new variant is estimated to account for about 1% of all infections now, but will likely account for the vast majority in March.
“We should expect, without further action, that as the new strain ends, we will see an additional 10 million infections in the United States by the end of February, and during that time we could easily see between 100,000 and An additional 150,000 dead, ”he said.
This means that it is more important than ever for Americans to comply with the public safety measures that experts have recommended throughout the pandemic, that is, to wash their hands frequently, distance themselves socially, and wear a face mask. all public spaces. People should avoid meetings that bring together more than one household and testing should be improved, he said.
“And finally, we need to redouble our efforts to vaccinate as many people as we can,” Jha said.
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The vaccine locator of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that only 4.8 million people were administered as of 9 a.m. ET on Jan. 5 and that only 17 million doses had been distributed. It is well below the most recent revised number of 20 million deliveries promised by President Donald Trump’s administration, and strays from the original promise of 100 million.
Trump has left it to the states to administer the vaccine program, tweeting that it was “Up to states to manage” and then call some states “very slow” – meaning that stressed state health departments, which have already had to deal with testing, contact tracking, public information campaigns and decide when or if schools or businesses should be open or closed, now have the task of managing the largest public health effort in recent decades.
See: So far, January will be the worst month of the US pandemic, with cases of post-holiday travel
In other news:
• The European Union has granted an emergency use authorization for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
Jack Denton reported from MarketWatch. The European Commission is expected to grant the vaccine authorization quickly, allowing it to be deployed throughout Europe, where COVID-19 infections remain very high and millions of people continue to live under strict blockade measures. The potential elimination of the Modern vaccine comes when governments across Europe face challenges to deploy the vaccine on a large scale. In France, President Emmanuel Macron faces national criticism for the inoculation campaign, which is delaying his European counterparts.
• The head of the World Health Organization said he is “disappointed” that Chinese officials have not 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 critique in Beijing, said members of the international scientific team began leaving their home countries within the past 24 hours as part of an agreement between the WHO and the Chinese government. “Today we learned that Chinese officials have not yet finalized the necessary permits for the team’s arrival 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 had been in contact with senior Chinese officials,” he said.
• The Netherlands is finally preparing to launch its COVID-19 vaccination program, becoming the last EU country to do so, the BBC reported. The Dutch government has criticized the delay with former director of public health Roel Coutinho, who has warned that the country’s “shameful” vaccination strategy “will cost lives”. During an emergency debate in parliament, opposition politicians called the approach “chaotic and confusing.” The Netherlands has 852,921 confirmed cases of COVID-19, according to data from Johns Hopkins, and at least 12,095 people have died.
• The Geneva-based non-governmental organization Press Emblem Campaign said on Wednesday that more than 600 journalists have died from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, with Latin America at the helm with more than half of the known victims, as reported by AFP. At least 145 deaths were recorded in Asia, with 94 in Europe, 23 in North America and 28 in Africa. The press freedom group asked journalists to have priority access to vaccines when they requested it.
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• CVS Health Corp. CVS,
plans to administer the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines at approximately 8,000 specialized nursing facilities in 49 states by Jan. 25, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. The program allows residents and facility employees to obtain one of two COVID-19 vaccines authorized right now; both groups are considered by the U.S. government to be at high risk for contracting the coronavirus. CVS said it also plans to release its national and state vaccination figures every day at 4 p.m. He also said that while the uptake among residents remains “incredibly high”, the actual number of residents is between 20% and 30% lower than the projections of the facilities based on bed count. “Initial recruitment among staff is low, part of which is probably due to facilities that want to stagger vaccines between visits,” the pharmacy chain said.
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The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide exceeded 86.5 million on Wednesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins, and the number of deaths amounted 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 by cases, with 7.8 million.
India is the second in the world in cases with 10.4 million and the third in deaths with 150,114.
Mexico has the fourth highest death toll at 128,822 and the 13th highest number of cases, at 1.5 million.
The UK has 2.8 million cases and 76,428 deaths, the highest in Europe and the fifth highest in the world.
China, where the virus was first discovered late last year, has had 96,335 confirmed cases and 4,788 deaths, according to its official figures.
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What does the economy say?
Private-sector employers laid off 123,000 jobs in December, the first decline since April, according to the ADP’s national employment report, Greg Robb of MarketWatch reported.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expected a December gain of 60,000 private sector jobs.
What happened: Job losses were mainly concentrated in retail, leisure and hospitality.
Private sector service providers downgraded 105,000 jobs in December. Meanwhile, producers of goods lost 18,000 jobs. The manufacturing industry lost 21,000 jobs.
By firm size, small firms lost 37,000 private sector jobs in December and large firms lost 147,000. Medium-sized companies, defined as companies with 50 to 499 employees, added 37,000 jobs.
See: “We forget that they are essential workers.” COVID-19 has made agricultural workers even more vulnerable and has created momentum to protect them
Economists use ADP data as a guide for the Department of Labor’s employment report, which will be released on Friday, covering government jobs in addition to the private sector.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch expect the government report to show a slowdown in employment growth in December, with non-farm employment at just 50,000 last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
rose 1.4% for the last time, while the S&P 500 SPX,
rose 0.9%.