The US set a new record on Wednesday in hospital admissions with the coronavirus-borne disease COVID-19 as experts said the new, much more contagious variant makes it even more important to get the nation’s so far disappointing vaccine program on track. to get.
The US added at least 238,999 new cases on Tuesday, and at least 3,664 people died, according to a New York Times tracker. The US has recorded an average of 219,684 new cases per day for the past week, confirming the worst-case scenarios of experts who said the holiday season would lead to new spikes.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, there was a record 131,195 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals on Tuesday, breaking the record of 128,210 from the day before. According to data collected by Johns Hopkins University, the US remains the world leader in cases, at 21 million, and deaths at 357,422, or about one-fifth of the global total.
The new variant of the virus, which first emerged in the UK where it is rampant, has been found in the US and is likely spreading in communities.
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“ We can expect, without further action, that as the new species takes hold, we will see an additional 10 million infections in the US between now and the end of February, and during that time we could easily see 100,000 to 150,000 deaths. ‘
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“It is almost certainly too widespread at this point to occur in any specific state or region of our country,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean and professor of health services, policy and practice at Brown University School of Public Health, in a statement. “This new variant is considerably more contagious and threatens a rapid increase in new cases and a much, much more deadly and destructive pandemic. This requires an urgent reconsideration of our current policy responses. “
The variant has been named B.1.1.7 and is estimated to be 40% to 70% more contagious than the original virus, Jha said, although it doesn’t seem to make people any sicker so far. Officials expect it to respond to the vaccines that have thus far received emergency authorization for use in the pandemic. A species that Jha called a “close cousin” of the new variety has been found in South Africa and the UK, but has not yet been discovered in the US.
A significant increase in the number of infections 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 infectivity, in a hypothetical one in a city with 10,000 infections , increased infectivity leads to a fivefold increase in the number of deaths in a month – because a lower death rate from a very high number of cases results in far more deaths than a higher death rate, but a lower number of cases, ”said Jha.
The new variety is estimated to be responsible for about 1% of all infections, but is likely to make up the vast majority by March.
“We can expect, without further action, that as the new species takes hold, we will see 10 million infections in the US between now and the end of February, and during that time we could easily see 100,000 to 150,000 deaths,” he said.
That means that it is more important than ever for Americans to adhere to the public safety measures recommended by experts during the pandemic, namely frequent hand washing, social distancing, and wearing a face mask in all public areas. People should avoid gatherings that bring more than one household together, and testing should be improved, he said.
“And finally, we need to redouble our efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible,” Jha said.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker shows that at 9:00 a.m. ET on Jan. 5, only 4.8 million people had received a dose and only 17 million doses had been dispensed. That’s well below the most recently revised number of 20 million deliveries promised by President Donald Trump’s administration, and far from the original 100 million pledge.
Trump left it to states to administer the vaccine program – tweet it was “To the States to Manage” and then call a number of states “very slow” – which means that stressed health departments, who have already dealt with testing, contact tracking, education campaigns and deciding when and if schools or businesses should be open or closed, are now tasked with driving the greatest public health efforts in decades on their own to take.
See: January will be the worst month for the pandemic in the US so far, with post-holiday travel cases soaring
In other news:
• The European Union has granted emergency approval for the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
MarketWatch’s Jack Denton reported it. The European Commission is expected to approve the vaccine soon, allowing it to be deployed across Europe, where COVID-19 infections remain very high and millions of people continue to live under strict lockdown measures. The future approval of the Moderna vaccine faces challenges for governments across Europe to roll out the vaccine on a large scale. In France, President Emmanuel Macron is facing national criticism of the vaccination campaign, which is lagging behind his European counterparts.
• The head of the World Health Organization said he is “disappointed” that Chinese officials have not finalized authorizations to allow a team of experts in China to investigate the origins of COVID-19, the Associated Press reported. WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a rare criticism of Beijing that 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 Chinese officials have not yet obtained the necessary permits for the team’s arrival in China,” Tedros said at a news conference in Geneva. “I am very disappointed with this news, as two members had already started their journey and others were unable to travel at the last minute but had contact with senior Chinese officials,” he said.
• The Netherlands is finally preparing for the start of the COVID-19 vaccine program, making it the last country in the EU to do so, the BBC reports. The Dutch government has been criticized for the delay, with former health director Roel Coutinho warning that the ‘shameful’ vaccination strategy would ‘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, data from Johns Hopkins shows, and at least 12,095 people have died.
• Geneva-based nongovernmental 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 leading the way with more than half of the known victims, AFP reported. At least 145 deaths were recorded 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 upon request.
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• CVS Health Corp. CVS,
plans to deliver the first dose of COVID-19 vaccines in approximately 8,000 skilled nursing centers in 49 states by Jan. 25, MarketWatch’s Jaimy Lee reported. Thanks to the program, both residents and employees of the facilities can now receive one of two authorized COVID-19 vaccines; 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 national vaccination figures every day at 4 p.m. It also said that while uptake among residents remains “ encouragingly high, ” the actual number of residents is about 20% to 30% lower than the projections of the facility. based on the number of beds. “Initial staff uptake is low, probably due to facilities that want to stagger vaccinations between visits,” said the drugstore chain.
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The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide rose above 86.5 million on Wednesday, data from Johns Hopkins shows, and the death toll rose to 1.9 million. At least 48 million people have recovered from COVID-19.
Brazil has the second highest death toll after the US with 197,732 cases and is in third place with 7.8 million.
India ranks second worldwide with 10.4 million cases and 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 official figures.
Also see: Scotland will impose a new lockdown from midnight
What does the economy say?
According to the ADP National Employment Report, private sector employers lost 123,000 jobs in December, the first drop since April, MarketWatch’s Greg Robb reports.
Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected an increase of 60,000 private sector jobs in December.
What happened: Job losses were mainly concentrated in retail, recreation and hospitality.
Private service providers cut 105,000 jobs in December. Meanwhile, goods manufacturers are cutting 18,000 jobs. Production lost 21,000 jobs.
By company size, small businesses lost 37,000 private sector jobs and large companies lost 147,000 in December. Medium-sized companies, defined as companies with 50 to 499 employees, provided 37,000 jobs.
See: “We forget them as essential workers.” COVID-19 has made agricultural workers even more vulnerable – and created momentum to protect them
Economists are using ADP’s data to guide the Department of Labor’s employment report, released Friday, which includes government jobs in addition to the private sector.
Economists polled by MarketWatch expect the government report to show a slowdown in job growth in December, while non-farm employment rose by just 50,000 last month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA,
was up 1.4%, while the S&P 500 SPX,
was up 0.9%.