What you need to know about the coronavirus on Friday, January 8

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In the United States, the daily death toll on three consecutive days has hit a new record. Yesterday that figure rose above 4,000 for the first time.

Germany, South Africa and Sweden also reported their deadliest days yesterday, while the UK had its worst day since April. Switzerland, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Panama, Slovakia and Lithuania are among the countries that recorded their highest daily fatalities earlier this week.

The new, more contagious strains of the virus seem to be responsible for some of the spikes in cases. South Africa, where one of the variants was first identified, has seen more than 200,000 new cases in the past two weeks. At the same time, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding on the country’s border with Zimbabwe, where hundreds of workers have been blocked by a national lockdown prohibiting cross-border travel.

Public health officials around the world are desperately pleading with citizens to adhere to known security measures. Avoiding large gatherings, limiting contact with people outside of your household, and wearing a mask are essential.

This is true even if you don’t feel sick. A study published yesterday found that more than half of Covid-19 cases may have been transmitted by people who showed no symptoms.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWER

Q: Does the Covid-19 vaccine work against the new mutations?

A: A study provides early evidence that the Pfizer vaccine may be effective against two new coronavirus variants first identified in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The two viruses share a mutation known as N501Y that scientists feared could allow the virus to escape the immunity generated by a vaccine. The researchers made a version of the virus that carries that mutation, then tested it with blood from 20 people who had received two doses of Pfizer injection as part of a clinical trial. In research published yesterday, they said they found “no reduction in neutralization activity” against the mutated virus.

The study – conducted by researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch – does not test the full range of these mutations. Nor has it been peer-reviewed.

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WHAT IS IMPORTANT TODAY

Two arthritis medications can help the sickest Covid-19 patients

Early research has shown that administering infusions of either tocilizumab or sarilumab, two drugs commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, to critically ill Covid-19 patients was associated with an 8.5% improvement in survival sickness and discharge from a hospital intensive care unit about a week to 10 days faster.

“That’s a big change in survival,” said Anthony Gordon, principal investigator of the REMAP-CAP study and professor at Imperial College London. “We also saw that the patients recovered faster. They got better and could be discharged from IC faster – which was average and each patient is slightly different.”

A year after Wuhan, China shuts down another city

China has locked up a city of 11 million people in northern Hebei province in an effort to contain the worst coronavirus attack in months. Residents of Shijiazhuang, a provincial capital near Beijing, are no longer allowed to leave. Major highways are blocked, train and bus stations are closed and flights have been canceled.

The lockdown comes because a total of 117 Covid-19 infections – including 67 asymptomatic cases – were discovered in Shijiazhuang on Wednesday. Yesterday, the city identified a further 66 positive cases, according to Hebei Provincial Health Commission. The outbreak in that city comes just weeks before the Lunar New Year holidays, the most important annual festival in China, where millions of people usually travel home to reunite with their families.

LA County sees a virus death every eight minutes

The number of people dying from Covid-19 in Los Angeles County one day is equal to the number of homicide deaths the city has seen in an entire year, Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference yesterday.
The county is the epicenter of the California epidemic, with one person dying from the virus every eight minutes. “People who otherwise lived healthy, productive lives are now dying from a chance encounter with the Covid-19 virus,” health officials said earlier this week. “This doesn’t end until we all make the right decisions to protect each other.”
A patient waits on a trolley in a room at the Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California on January 3, 2021.

ON OUR RADAR

  • Australia and the UK will require international arrivals to present negative Covid-19 test results.
  • Coronavac, the vaccine candidate developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, has been shown to have 78% efficacy in phase 3 trials in Brazil.
  • A Philadelphia 76ers player tests positive, forcing the team to stay in New York overnight.
  • Greater Brisbane in Australia is shutting down to stop the spread of the British Covid-19 strain.
  • Iran’s supreme leader is calling for a ban on Western Covid-19 vaccines entering the country.
  • The Swedish Gothenburg Film Festival takes social distance to a whole new level and invites a film fan to spend a week on a remote lighthouse island, with only films and the North Sea for company.
  • The World Health Organization is urging European countries to step up pandemic measures as the region faces a new variant.

TOP TIP

This year is characterized as a year of persistent insecurity, anxiety and – if you are like many people – a lot of stress-related eating.

However, you don’t have to worry about eating stress. As most of us wait for the arrival of new vaccines and a healthier way of life, here are some tips to better fuel your body by 2021.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“Within half an hour of landing, I had my luggage, I was taken on a bus and taken to the hotel where I would be quarantined.” – Emily Liu, Associate Producer at CNN

Imagine a country that is not strictly confined or that there is not much difficulty in finding hospital beds to care for Covid patients; where people regularly dine and drink indoors. This country exists – it is Singapore. One of our associate producers, Emily Liu, is here now, and today she takes us to a place where life feels almost normal again. Listen now.

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