Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 25April 2021

Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666

The news posted last week for the coronavirus 2019-nCoV (aka SARS-CoV-2), which produces COVID-19 disease, has been surveyed and some important articles are summarized here. The articles are more or less organized with general virus news and anecdotes first, then stories from around the US, followed by an increased number of items from other countries around the globe. Economic news related to COVID-19 is found here.

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Summary:

both new Covid cases and US deaths attributed to the virus were lower during the past week. New Covid infections during the week ending April 24th were down 16.3% from during the week ending April 17th, and down 76.7% from the early January peak. US Covid deaths were down 2.0% from the prior week, and down 79.0% from the January peak. New infections in the states that had been leading the early spring surge, including Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, have all turned lower.

Meanwhile, both new cases and deaths continue to rise globally, with new cases during the week ending April 24th 8.1% higher than the prior week, and up by 121.6% from the week ending February 20th. This week’s Covid deaths were also 8.1% higher than last week’s globally, and up 52.9% from the March low. India accounted for nearly 38% of new infections globally, whereas Brazil continues to account for nearly a quarter of the deaths. However, new infections in most countries that were contributing to the surge in global cases over the past two months have turned lower, with new cases in France, Italy, Poland and Ukraine all down by more that 10%.

The chart below from WorldoMeter shows the daily number of new cases for the US, updated through 10 April.

According to Johns Hopkins (graph below), new cases globally continue to increase.

Also, Johns Hopkins has a graph for global deaths (below). The high early the week before last has still not been exceeded so the possibility remains that the peak for deaths is in place. But there is still no indication of a decline.

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Of course, Steven Hansen summarizes and links the latest news related to the pandemic every day, 7 days a week, plus displays over a dozen important graphics updated at least daily. The most recent article at the time this is published: 24 April 2021 Coronavirus Charts and News: Johnson and Johnson Vaccinations Can Resume Immediately – Women Under 50 May Have Small Risk Of Blood Clotting Syndrome.

This article leads the daily newsletter from Global Economic Intersection every day. Newsletter subscription is free.

Here are the rest of the articles for the past week reviewed and summarized:

The Shock and Reality of Catching Covid After Being Vaccinated – Robin Hauser, a pediatrician in Tampa, Florida, got Covid in February. What separates her from the vast majority of the tens of millions of other Americans who have come down with the virus is this: She got sick seven weeks after her second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. “I was shocked,” said Hauser. “I thought: ‘What the heck? How did that happen?’ I now tell everyone, including my colleagues, not to let their guard down after the vaccine.” As more Americans every day are inoculated, a tiny but growing number are contending with the disturbing experience of getting Covid despite having had one shot, or even two. In data released Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 5,800 people had fallen ill or tested positive for the coronavirus two weeks or more after they completed both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine. A total of about 78 million Americans are now fully vaccinated. These so-called breakthrough infections occurred among people of all ages. Just over 40% were in people age 60 or older, and 65% occurred in women. Twenty-nine percent of infected people reported no symptoms, but 7% were hospitalized and just over 1%, 74 people, died, according to the CDC. Public health officials have said breakthrough infections were expected, since manufacturers have warned loudly and often that the vaccines are not 100% protective. The Pfizer and Moderna versions have consistently been shown to be above 90% effective, most recently for at least six months. Studies have also shown they are nearly 100% effective at ensuring that the small fraction of vaccinated patients who do contract the virus will not get severe cases or require hospitalization. Still, people are usually shocked and befuddled when they become the rare breakthrough victim. After months of fear and taking precautions to avoid contracting Covid, they felt safe once they got their shots.

The CDC’s VAERS and Vaccine Complications: The System is Broken — Yves here. As IM Doc indicates in passing in this post, he’s been keeping Lambert and me (and the other members of our Covid brain trust) updated on what he is seeing in the field, via the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) and hearing from MDs at a major teaching hospital and in his network about the Covid vaccines. Recall that IM Doc was early to warn that vaccinations would soon hit a wall after those eager to take them had gotten their shots. He saw that in his area (which has a substantial wealthy/PMC population) before the J&J “pause”. IM Doc has also been regularly describing his frustration and that of other physicians with the dearth of data and official advice. An example from a recent e-mail: Is it not interesting that all of the press releases and information online and on TV continually refer to “a very rare condition”, “blood clots”, “blood disorder” in very nebulous terms. That could literally encompass hundreds of different diagnoses. As one of the other docs [on an internet conference] stated out loud: There was a time when our federal medical folks would have this kind of situation and front and center would be an EXACT description of the problem and some kind of messaging to the physicians of America of what would we should be on the lookout for – and what we can do to treat…So far NOTHING about either issue – indicating they could not give 2 fucks about patients and physicians – this is now all about protecting Big Pharma and the money machine. Indeed, this is most unusual, extraordinary as a matter of fact. Something has drastically changed in our federal agencies in just the past few years. The last big issue involving the CDC was the vaping/lung damage issue and I was getting daily e-mails. I have not received a word about any of this – nor at this point do I really expect to. I have found nothing that is an exact clinical description of what is happening to these patients and what to expect. What I am able to glean from off-handed comments in a very few of the medical articles is that the use of any anti-coagulation agents especially heparin and lovenox, make things much worse. There is also apparently great concern about the newer agents like Eliquis and Xarelto. In other words, we have no treatment options. I am not exactly sure what we are supposed to do.To say that I find it very concerning to not be informed of what exactly is going on is unprecedented and deeply concerning.Now to IM Doc’s overview of the sorry state of vaccine deployment. This Administration is following the established Team Dem practice of treating every problem as if it can be solve with better PR. We are seeing that in a pandemic results in bad science, bad PR, and bad outcomes.

COVID vaccines and blood clots: five key questions – It has been a difficult week for two COVID-19 vaccines. On 13 April, US regulators urged health-care providers to temporarily stop using a vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson (J&J) of New Brunswick, New Jersey, because of 6 suspected cases of unusual blood clotting among nearly 7 million vaccine recipients. The move came after European regulators expressed concerns about a possible link between rare blood clots and the Oxford – AstraZeneca vaccine, developed in the United Kingdom by AstraZeneca in Cambridge and the University of Oxford. Both decisions are having a global impact. Although researchers and regulators stress that the benefits of the vaccines outweigh the risks, several countries are restricting the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine to certain age groups, and Denmark has opted out of using it altogether. J&J, meanwhile, has paused distribution of its vaccine to some countries. “There’s been a huge amount of confusion.” Some of that confusion stems from an urgent need to act quickly on the basis of messy, incomplete and capricious real-world data. As regulators are forced to make decisions, scientists are still racing to investigate the rare clotting disorder and its link to the vaccines. What could the connection be between blood clots and vaccines? The clots that have been tentatively linked to the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines have particular characteristics: they occur in unusual parts of the body, such as the brain or abdomen, and are coupled with low levels of platelets, cell fragments that aid blood coagulation. Further analysis found other hallmarks of a condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopaenia (HIT), a rare side effect sometimes seen in people who have taken the anti-coagulant heparin1,2,3 – even though the vaccine recipients had not taken that drug. HIT is thought to be triggered when heparin binds to a protein called platelet factor 4. This kicks off an immune response – including the production of antibodies against platelet factor 4 – that ultimately results in platelet destruction and the release of clot-promoting material. The mystery is what serves as the trigger for this syndrome in the absence of heparin. The vaccines produced by AstraZeneca and J&J both rely on adenoviruses, which carry the DNA encoding a coronavirus protein called spike into human cells. The cells’ protein machinery then uses the DNA to make the spike protein, and the body develops an immune response against it. At present, researchers don’t know what component of these vaccines could be causing the unwanted immune response against platelet factor 4. “It could be caused by the vectors, it could be caused by the spike protein, it could be caused by a contaminant present in the vector,” says viral immunologist Hildegund Ertl at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines rely on different adenoviruses, but the appearance of the HIT-like symptoms among recipients of both vaccines – and the apparent lack of a HIT-like response among recipients of a different type of vaccine, based on mRNA – has raised concerns that the problem could be common to vaccines that rely on adenoviruses. Another such vaccine is Sputnik V, developed by the Gamaleya National Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow. In a press release, Gamaleya distanced Sputnik V from the other adenoviral COVID-19 vaccines. “All vaccines based on adenoviral vector platform are different and not directly comparable,” it said, pointing out that there are differences in the viruses used, the cells in which they were produced, the sequence of the spike DNA they carry, the methods used to purify them, and the dosage at which they are administered.

Blood Clots, FDA Approval, and the AstraZeneca Covid Vaccine – video with Dr Aaron Carroll – There’s a lot of anxiety about the AstraZeneca vaccine thanks to recent reports of incomplete data, as well as reports on blood clot risks. Let’s take a look at both issues in context, understanding the efficacy data before and after numbers were updated, and understanding blood clot risk in relation to other common situations where blood clots are a potential concern.

Chariots On Fire And The J&J Vaccine Conundrum — April 18, 2021 – by Bruce Oksol – Last night there was yet another report of a deadly crash and severe fire involving a Tesla; two men died. The story and links were posted here earlier.I don’t know how many deadly accidents, fires, incidents there have been involving Tesla but the number of deaths is way more than the one death reported out of 6.8 million J&J Covid-19 vaccinations. With six severe reactions (blood clots) with one reaction leading to death following 6.8 million vaccinations, the J&J Covid-19 vaccination was pulled off the market for an indefinite period of time, despite the fact that the disease can be much more life threatening than the vaccine. It should be noted that the blood clots had not been confirmed to be the result of the vaccine when the decision was made to take the vaccine off the market.And yet here, with what seems to be many more fires and “accidents,” and way more deaths than the one death noted above, Tesla has not been pulled off the market. For Covid-19 protection we are advised to wear a mask. Perhaps Nomex should be required for those riding inside a Tesla. It goes without saying social distancing is good advice for both.

Herpes infection possibly linked to COVID-19 vaccine, study says –Herpes infections may be a side effect of a COVID-19 vaccine, experts have revealed.Scientists in Israel identified six cases in a new study of patients developing a skin rash known as herpes zoster – or shingles – after receiving the Pfizer vaccine, according to a study in the Rheumatology journal.Herpes zoster starts off as a small, itchy skin rash, but if left untreated, it could cause nerve damage and pain, the Jerusalem Post reported.This can include a prolonged burning sensation on the skin even after the rash disappears.Researchers from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Carmel Medical Center in Haifa found those with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases had a higher risk of developing the herpes infection people developed herpes zoster after receiving the Pfizer vaccine.Alamy Stock PhotoOut of 491 patients, six people or 1.2 percent experienced the infection, researchers said.The six patients all have mild cases of autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases and were young, though the infection is generally more common in those over the age of 50. “That is why we reported on it,” Dr. Victoria Furer, the lead author, told the outlet. Five of them developed herpes zoster after the first dose and the sixth got it after the second.

The obscure maths theorem that governs the reliability of Covid testing -Maths quiz. If you get a positive result on a Covid test that only gives a false positive one time in every 1,000, what’s the chance that you’ve actually got Covid? Surely it’s 99.9%, right?No! The correct answer is: you have no idea. You don’t have enough information to make the judgment.This is important to know when thinking about “lateral flow tests” (LFTs), the rapid Covid tests that the government has made available to everyone in England, free, up to twice a week. The idea is that in time they could be used to give people permission to go into crowded social spaces – pubs, theatres – and be more confident that they do not have, and so will not spread, the disease. They’ve been used in secondary schools for some time now. There are concerns over LFTs. One is whether they’ll miss a large number of cases, because they’re less sensitive than the slower but more precise polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test. Those concerns are understandable, although defenders of the test say that PCR testing is too sensitive, able to detect viral material in people who had the disease weeks ago, while LFTs should, in theory, only detect people who are infectious. But another concern is that they will tell people that they do have the disease when in fact they don’t – that they will return false positives. The government says – accurately – that the “false positive rate”, the chance of a test returning a positive result in a person who does not have the disease, is less than one in 1,000. And that’s where we came in: you might think that that means, if you’ve had a positive result, that there’s a less than one in 1,000 chance that it’s false. It’s not. Imagine you undergo a test for a rare disease. The test is amazingly accurate: if you have the disease, it will correctly say so 99% of the time; if you don’t have the disease, it will correctly say so 99% of the time.But the disease in question is very rare; just one person in every 10,000 has it. This is known as your “prior probability”: the background rate in the population.So now imagine you test 1 million people. There are 100 people who have the disease: your test correctly identifies 99 of them. And there are 999,900 people who don’t: your test correctly identifies 989,901 of them.But that means that your test, despite giving the right answer in 99% of cases, has told 9,999 people that they have the disease, when in fact they don’t. So if you get a positive result, in this case, your chance of actually having the diseaseis 99 in 10,098, or just under 1%. If you took this test entirely at face value, then you’d be scaring a lot of people, and sending them for intrusive, potentially dangerous medical procedures, on the back of a misdiagnosis. Without knowing the prior probability, you don’t know how likely it is that a result is false or true. If the disease was not so rare – if, say, 1% of people had it – your results would be totally different. Then you’d have 9,900 false positives, but also 9,990 true positives. So if you had a positive result, it would be more than 50% likely to be true.

Coronavirus variant P.1 is twice as transmissible as earlier strains –The P.1 coronavirus variant first identified in Brazil may be twice as transmissible as earlier strains and may evade up to nearly half of immune defenses built during previous infections, a new study suggests.According to data collected in Manaus, Brazil, P.1 probably arose in mid-November 2020 in the city, researchers report April 14 in Science. The variant quickly rose to prominence there and spread to the rest of Brazil and at least 37 other countries, including the United States.Earlier examinations of the variant’s genetic makeup have shown that P.1 contains many differences from earlier strains, including 10 amino acid changes in the spike protein, which helps the virus infect cells. Three of those spike protein changes are of concern because they are the same mutations that allow other worrisome variants to bind more tightly to human proteins or to evade antibodies (SN: 2/5/21). Simulations of P.1’s properties suggest that the variant is 1.7 to 2.4 times more transmissible than the previous SARS-CoV-2 strain. It is not clear whether that increase in transmissibility is because people produce more of the virus or have longer infections.Some studies have hinted that people who previously had COVID-19 can get infected with P.1. The new study suggests that people who had earlier infections have about 54 percent to 79 percent of the protection against P.1 as they do against other local strains. That partial immunity may leave people vulnerable to reinfection with the variant. Whether the virus makes people sicker or is more deadly than other strains is not clear. The researchers estimate that coronavirus infections were 1.2 to 1.9 times more likely to result in death after P.1 emerged than before. But Manaus’ health care system has been under strain, so the increase in deaths may be due to overburdened hospitals.

Air pollution may affect severity and hospitalization in COVID-19 patients -Patients who have preexisting respiratory conditions such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and live in areas with high levels of air pollution have a greater chance of hospitalization if they contract COVID-19, says a University of Cincinnati researcher.Angelico Mendy, MD, PhD, assistant professor of environmental and public health sciences, at the UC College of Medicine, looked at the health outcomes and backgrounds of 1,128 COVID-19 patients at UC Health, the UC-affiliated health care system in Greater Cincinnati.Mendy led a team of researchers in an individual-level study which used a statistical model to evaluate the association between long-term exposure to particulate matter less or equal to 2.5 micrometers — it refers to a mixture of tiny particles and droplets in the air that are two-and-one half microns or less in width — and hospitalizations for COVID-19. Medical records allowed researchers to use patients’ zip codes for estimating their particulate exposure over a 10-year period.”Particulate matter is very small, small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs, they cross into the blood and also affect other organ systems,” says Mendy. “Air pollution as a result of emissions from automobiles, factories or other sources is a generator of particulate matter.””Our study didn’t find any correlation between severity of COVID-19 and particulate matter in general, but we found something for people who had asthma and COPD,” says Mendy. “People who have preexisting asthma and COPD, when they are exposed to higher levels of particulate matter, they are more likely to have severe COVID-19, severe enough to be hospitalized.” Researchers found that a one-unit increase in particulate matter 2.5 was associated with a 60% higher chance of hospitalization for COVID-19 patients with pre-existing respiratory disease. For patients without respiratory disease, no association was observed.The study’s findings were published online in the scholarly journal Respiratory Medicine.

Preventing evictions remains critical to controlling COVID-19, study finds – Renter protection policies that have curbed mass evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic have played a key role in preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in U.S. cities, according to a new study published in Nature Communications.Using an epidemiological model to predict how evictions and eviction moratoria would impact the epidemic, the researchers found, for instance, that in a city of 1 million in which 1 percent of households experience eviction monthly, this could lead to up to 49,000 excess COVID-19 infections. In Philadelphia alone, a fivefold increase in evictions, predicted by some economic analyses, could lead to 53,000 extra infections. The study was led by researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.”Our model shows clearly that policies to stem evictions are not only a warranted but a necessary component of COVID control. As long as the virus is circulating, ending these protections could have devastating implications in the United States,”

COVID-19: Pregnant women face higher risk of death – Pregnant women infected with COVID-19 face a higher risk of death than those who are not, a new study has revealed. The analysis, by a team of international scientists from the University of Oxford and published on the JAMA Paediatrics Network, found that pregnant women with the infection are also more likely to see their newborn babies die of the virus. “Women with COVID-19 diagnosis were at increased risk of a composite maternal morbidity and mortality index. Newborns of women with COVID-19 diagnosis had significantly higher severe neonatal morbidity index and severe perinatal morbidity and mortality index compared with newborns of women without COVID-19 diagnosis,” a statement from the Network said. “This study indicates a consistent association between pregnant individuals with COVID-19 diagnosis and higher rates of adverse outcomes, including maternal mortality, preeclampsia, and preterm birth compared with pregnant individuals without COVID-19 diagnosis,” it added. A total of 2,130 pregnant women across 18 countries, including the UK, France, Italy and the US, were examined at 43 hospitals between March and October 2020. During this period 706 women had contracted the virus, 11 of whom died during pregnancy, while a further 1,424 were cleared of the infection. The women had a 76% higher risk of contracting pre-eclampsia, a medical condition that causes blood pressure to rise. 59% were also more likely to give birth prematurely and would require their newborns to spend time in neonatal intensive care units.

Michigan’s spring break plateau shows a lockdown could stop pandemic surge — Michigan remains the hottest pandemic hotspot in the US, where the more-contagious B.1.1.7 variant is now rampant in every part of the state and daily case rates have remained above 70 per 100,000 for nearly two weeks. Intensive care units (ICUs) are at 84 percent capacity, the highest in the nation, and COVID-19 patients fill 22 percent of all adult beds in Michigan’s hospitals, which are rationing healthcare to make room for more. After the decline of the fall/winter surge in January, B.1.1.7 arrived in Michigan and took hold as school districts across the state were returning to in-person learning. The number of Michiganders who were confirmed COVID-19 positive each day surged from a low of 1,045 on February 20 to more than 7,000 by April 9. Though it still leads the nation, Michigan appears to have reached a plateau between 7,000 and 8,000 daily new cases for now. Significantly, this leveling-off coincides with a sharp reduction in the number of outbreaks reported at K-12 schools and school sporting events during and following the spring break, which saw schools across Michigan closed for either the last week of March or the first week of April on a district-by-district basis. Schools have accounted for far more outbreaks in Michigan than any other setting since the new surge began in late February. Schools and school sporting events were the only places in Michigan where the rate of new outbreaks declined over the past two weeks, and it was a huge decline. Outbreaks traced to schools fell from an all-time high of 81 per week on April 5, to 43 on April 19 – a 46 percent drop over just two weeks. School sports outbreaks also fell by one quarter over the same period, from 28 to 21 weekly outbreaks. On the other hand, at factories, nursing homes, retailers and restaurants – which of course did not observe spring break – all these settings continued to see rising numbers of outbreaks over the same two-week period. For the first time this year, the worst vector of spread in Michigan was manufacturing and construction jobs, with 47 outbreaks last week, the highest number yet recorded in this setting by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The situation in Michigan’s auto plants in particular has spiraled out of control. Workers at Stellantis’ Jefferson Assembly plant in Detroit walked out last Friday when management ran out of masks to give workers at the entrance. The numbers show that closing schools for spring break immediately blunted the skyrocketing trajectory of the pandemic in Michigan. At the same time, keeping factories, workplaces, nursing homes and restaurants open resulted in a continued increase in the spread of COVID-19 in those settings. The strong indication is that a coordinated shutdown of schools, workplaces and in-person shopping and dining would bring an end to Michigan’s surge and suppress the spread of the virus.

First cases of Brazil COVID-19 variant strain surface in Delaware – Delaware now has its first cases of the COVID-19 variant strain from Brazil. The Delaware Division of Public Health announced Friday, April 16, 2021, that the state has three cases of the P.1 Brazil variant, first found in the U.S. in January. Just this past week, 92 cases of COVID-19 variants were identified in the state. In total, 167 adults ranging in age from 18 to 99 and 29 individuals under the age of 18 have contracted variant virus strains. Of those, 132 are from New Castle County. Forty-three are from Kent County, and 21 are from Sussex County The most prevalent variants circulating in the state are the B.1.17 United Kingdom variant with 95 cases, first identified in the state in January, and the B.1.525 New York variant with 81 cases. Delaware has just one case of the South African variant, first identified in March. “Virus mutation is common. Public health approach and treatments are currently not any different, but as these variants may be more contagious, it is even more important that individuals remain vigilant and continue taking the necessary steps to avoid spreading the virus – wear a mask, wash your hands, avoid gatherings,” said the Division of Public Health. According to the CDC, the UK, Brazil, South African, and California variants seem to spread “more easily” and “quickly” than other variants, which they caution may lead to more cases of COVID-19. “So far, studies suggest that antibodies generated through vaccination with currently authorized vaccines recognize these variants. This is being closely investigated and more studies are underway,” the CDC said on its website on April 2, 2021.

April 19th COVID-19 Vaccinations, New Cases, Hospitalizations; Spring Wave May Have Peaked –According to the CDC, 211.6 million doses have been administered. 33.0% of the population over 18 is fully vaccinated, and 50.7% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (131.0 million people over 18 have had at least one dose). And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing. Over 12,000 US deaths were reported so far in April due to COVID. This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported. Note: The ups and downs during the Winter surge were related to reporting delays due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. This data is from the CDC. The 7-day average is 66,747, down from 67,964 yesterday, and close to the summer surge peak of 67,337 on July 23, 2020.The second graph shows the number of people hospitalized.This data is also from the CDC. The CDC cautions that due to reporting delays, the area in grey will probably increase. The current 7-day average is 36,118, down from 36,976, reported yesterday, and well above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

One month after schools reopened, Pennsylvania enters fourth surge of pandemic -The coronavirus continues to spread through Pennsylvania at an alarming rate, with the state now recording nearly 5,000 cases a day, double the rate a month ago. An average of 40 people are dying across the state each day, and the surge of new cases portends a new wave of deaths in the coming weeks. The number of hospitalizations has doubled since mid-March to almost 3,000, 20 percent of which are in intensive care units (ICUs). This rapid rise in cases and hospitalizations takes place roughly a month after schools reopened in Philadelphia and throughout the state, and is occurring despite the ramping up of vaccinations. More than 42 percent of Pennsylvanians have received their first shot and 25 percent are fully vaccinated. However, there are still millions of people who are vulnerable to infection. Under these conditions, the spread of more contagious and deadly variants is particularly concerning. An estimated one-third of all COVID-19 cases in Pennsylvania are caused by a variant strain, and 28 percent of cases are caused by the B.1.1.7 UK variant. With limited resources for genome sequencing, the true prevalence of the UK variant is likely much higher. The largest group of those infected has reduced in age to those 45-64, and the UK variant has shown a proclivity for infecting young people aged 5-17. Despite the fact that Pennsylvania has entered a fourth wave of the pandemic, state officials have explicitly stated their intention to continue the relaxation of standard public health measures. Alison Beam, Pennsylvania’s acting health secretary, said the state did not have plans to impose new lockdowns. She encouraged people to wear masks, social distance and get vaccinated, but refused to acknowledge the threat of a new wave, saying, “At this stage, our hospitals have not indicated to us that they are overrun or that they foresee being overrun. That will be truly one of our key gauges of when any further mitigation effort would need to be even contemplated.” This is an act of criminal negligence, tantamount to informing a cancer patient to wait until the illness is terminal before receiving treatment.

COVID-19: How much of the UK variant is there in Erie County? – Erie County health officials expect to learn next week if the B.1.1.7 variant is the county’s dominant COVID-19 strain and possibly discover if it’s the cause for a recent rise in new cases.Biobot, the company that tests Erie Wastewater Treatment Plant sewage samples for COVID-19, is expected to provide quantitative results Monday or Tuesday for the variant, commonly called the U.K. variant. In recent weeks, Biobot has confirmed the variant’s presence in local samples but not how much variant those samples contain, said Howard Nadworny, M.D., a Saint Vincent Hospital infectious diseases specialist who is involved in the sampling project.”That variant is associated with about a 50% increase in contagiousness and about a 50% to 60% increased risk of more severe cases,” Nadworny said. “If we have a lot of B.1.1.7 in our (waste)water, it would predict that it ought to be spreading more readily. If you’re going to stop it from spreading, you have to be even more diligent with mask wearing and social distancing.”Nadworny said finding relatively little B.1.1.7 virus in the wastewater samples also would provide answers to the county’s recent increase in new COVID-19 cases. The county’s number of new cases has increased each of the past three weeks.”It would indicate that people are being even more casual and less diligent about precautions,” Nadworny said. “Because it would mean the original strain is spreading even before B.1.1.7 gets here.”Health officials expect to learn the B.1.1.7 variant is widespread in Erie County. Fourteen cases of the variant have been found in the county, including eight reported within the last week, said Charlotte Berringer, R.N., director of community health services for the Erie County Department of Health. Erie County reported 43 new cases of COVID-19 and no additional deaths on Thursday. The county has 19,726 total cases of COVID-19, 457 deaths and 68,251 negative tests since the pandemic started.At least 26,715 county residents are partially vaccinated against COVID-19 and 72,066 are fully vaccinated, according to the state health department.

April 20th COVID-19 Vaccinations, New Cases, Hospitalizations –According to the CDC, 213.4 million doses have been administered. 33.3% of the population over 18 is fully vaccinated, and 51.1% of the population over 18 has had at least one dose (131.9 million people over 18 have had at least one dose). And check out COVID Act Now to see how each state is doing. Almost 13,000 US deaths were reported so far in April due to COVID. This graph shows the daily (columns) 7 day average (line) of positive tests reported. Note: The ups and downs during the Winter surge were related to reporting delays due to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.This data is from the CDC.The 7-day average is 66,687, down from 68,602 yesterday, and close to the summer surge peak of 67,337 on July 23, 2020.The second graph shows the number of people hospitalized.This data is also from the CDC.The CDC cautions that due to reporting delays, the area in grey will probably increase. The current 7-day average is 38,185, up from 36,118, reported yesterday, and well above the post-summer surge low of 23,000.

Douglas County Health Department updates spread of COVID-19 strains among residents – Wednesday morning, Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour gave an update on the status of COVID-19 in the county. Dr. Pour said Douglas County was seeing 20 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people. She said while what was good, there was still work to be done. The health department’s goal is 10 new cases or below per 100,000 people. Roughly 60% of the county’s residents have been tested for COVID-19, Dr. Pour said. She said that’s roughly 333,000 people and close to one million total tests. Dr. Pour said 228 variant strains of COVID-19 have been identified in the county. She said most of those were the U.K. variant, but experts were also seeing cases of the California and Brazil variants, too. Justin Frederick with the Douglas County Health Department broke down the numbers regarding the U.K. variant within the county. He said the first known case of the variant was reported in Nebraska on Feb. 26. From February to March, Frederick said the county saw a 14.94% increase in those variant cases overall, a 30.99% increase in people ages 0 to 19, and a 124.53% increase in people ages 0 to 4. Dr. Pour said the county has reported five deaths related to COVID-19 so far this April. The Douglas County Health Department urges people to sign up to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Anyone 16 and older may sign up for appointments, but people 18 and younger must have parental consent. Experts emphasize the shots are free of charge.

Lamont: Deadlier, more infectious strain could comprise half of CT COVID cases – Variants from the United Kingdom and New York comprised 85 percent of Connecticut’s COVID cases sampled last week, according to a new report. About half of the cases sampled contained the U.K. variant known as B.1.1.7, Gov. Ned Lamont warned. “It could be as high as 50 percent now,” Lamont said Thursday during his pandemic briefing. “The bad news is it’s highly infectious, so while over half of our population has been vaccinated, it’s spreading fast in the other half of the population.” “The good news is the vaccines work – it works against this variant,” the governor added. According to the latest report from Jackson Laboratory and the Nathan Grubaugh Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, cases of B.1.1.7 comprised about 51 percent of all positive COVID-19 cases sampled since the previous week. That means B.1.1.7 cases increased about 9 percent from the previous week. All told, 945 cases of the variant have been identified in Connecticut through genomic sequencing, a process that involves testing samples from positive COVID-19 test kits.

Two more types of COVID-19 variants found in Rock Co. – Two more of the more contagious strains of coronavirus have been found in Rock Co., health officials confirm. On Thursday, the Rock Co. Health Dept. warned the variants first discovered in Brazilian travelers in Japan and the one originally found in South Africa, variants P.1 and B.1.351, respectively, were recently identified there. The agency explained that researchers have determined those two varieties spread more rapidly than the original coronavirus strain, noting that a genetic mutation could affect the ability of an infected person’s immune system to recognize and fight off the virus. That also means antibodies developed from a previous infection may not protect someone from either of these strains. Health officials did point out that experts do not believe either variant is association with more severe COVID-19-related illnesses. These discoveries are the second and third of the variants found in Rock Co. so far. Previously, officials had identified the British strain there as well. Of the four more concerning variants being tracked by the Dept. of Health Services, only the one discovered in California, known as B.1.427/B.1.429, has not been found in the county. However, that variant is the second most commonly found in Wisconsin and tied for the most common in south-central Wisconsin.

Wisconsin confirms 3rd COVID-19 variant strain found in state —State health officials on Friday confirmed a third coronavirus variant has been found in Wisconsin. According to the Department of Health Services, the variant is referred to as P.1 and is different from the other variants that have also been confirmed in Wisconsin, B.1.1.7 and B.1.351. According to epidemiologic and modeling studies, researchers have found that this new strain, similar to B.1.1.7 and B.1.351, spreads more rapidly and easily than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. However, P.1 has unique mutations that may affect antibodies’ ability, generated through previous COVID-19 infection or through vaccination, to recognize and fight off the virus. This means variant P.1 may be able to infect people more easily, stated DHS. “DHS continues to monitor for new SARS-CoV-2 variants in collaboration with our laboratory partners,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Ryan Westergaard said. “Because these new variants of concern may spread more easily than the original strain of SARS-CoV-2, it is important to get vaccinated when you are able. Vaccines, along with our other public health practices, give the virus less of an opportunity to spread and mutate.”

COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations on the rise in Alabama after easing of restrictions – On April 7, Alabama’s Republican Governor Kay Ivey lifted the state’s mask mandate, citing a decline in cases and hospitalizations since peak numbers in January. During a press conference, both Ivey and State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris spoke gushingly of the state of the pandemic in Alabama, saying “we’ve finally rounded the corner” and that the “pandemic is almost over.” Obligatory mention was made of the fact that the virus continues to spread, but they assured the public that “common sense” and “personal responsibility” were enough to keep the state’s numbers down. To place the onus of the pandemic on the population obscures the reality that the widespread death and social catastrophe is the result of policies consciously implemented by governments around the world, which have prioritized corporate profits over human lives. Since March of 2020, after the US Congress passed the so-called CARES Act and gave trillions of dollars to Wall Street, the federal, state and local governments, aided by the corporate media, have insisted that the public must learn to live with the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), under the pressure of the Trump and now Biden administrations, has distorted science to claim that schools can safely reopen. In reality, the measures needed to stop the spread of the virus and eradicate the pandemic are well known by governments, but willfully ignored. As the World Socialist Web Site recently noted, comprehensive “testing, contact tracing and quarantining… were employed in all nations that have managed to rein in the virus. As of March 22, 2021, Taiwan, a country of 24 million people, has had 1,006 reported infections and 10 deaths. In Singapore, home to five million people, new cases have remained in the single or low double digits since October 2020.” Such measures are not widespread in the US and Alabama is no exception.

Three million dead from the coronavirus pandemic –The world has passed another grim milestone: 3 million dead from the coronavirus pandemic. This staggering loss of life, after little more than a year, is a devastating indictment of the ruling elites of every major country and of the capitalist system as a whole. And even as this latest barrier is surpassed, the pandemic is accelerating and is poised to produce even more deaths in the months to come. Globally, the average number of daily confirmed cases is at the highest rate during the entire pandemic. It has more than doubled from a low in mid-February of 361,000 to more than 752,000. During that same period, more than 520,000 men, women and children died, and the official count of daily deaths, at nearly 12,000, is climbing toward the peak seen this past January of just over 14,000. The pandemic has accelerated with extraordinary rapidity in countries such as Brazil and India. In Brazil, the daily cases have increased by about 50 percent to more than 65,000. The real toll, however, can be seen in the daily death counts, which have nearly tripled since February to almost 3,000 per day, the highest rate in the country since the pandemic began and second only to this past winter in the United States, when daily deaths at times reached nearly 3,500. In India, the situation is even more dire. In the past two months, the number of daily cases has rocketed from a low of 11,000 to more than 200,000, an 18-fold increase. Correspondingly, the number of active cases has grown from 138,000 to more than 1.8 million, and the daily death rate has shot up from less than 100 to more than 1,100. India currently has the highest number of confirmed new cases each day and is well on its way to surpassing the records set by the United States. Such dramatic explosions of the virus are not just confined to nations that have already had previous waves of the pandemic. In Papua New Guinea, where public officials had been able to limit the total number of infections to just 900 since the pandemic began, there has been a tenfold increase in the number of known coronavirus cases over the past two months, with total cases now more than 9,500. Deaths have similarly spiked from less than 10, out of a population of 9 million, to nearly 90. Countries in Eastern Europe have also faced new waves the contagion. Daily new cases in Bulgaria spiked sharply in February, reaching a height of more than 3,600 new cases a day in March, with more than 110 new deaths every day. In Hungary, the daily case count only recently dropped below 5,000, and the death rate is still at more than 250, triple what it was two and a half months ago. The official number of coronavirus deaths in Germany reached 80,000 yesterday, and many more will die in the coming days because of the refusal by the government to close schools and factories despite a massive third wave of the virus. There are currently around 30,000 new infections every day, and the health care system is overwhelmed. The accelerating spread of the virus is compounded by the spread of new and more infectious variants of the virus, which have been allowed to mutate innumerable times throughout the now nearly 142 million officially recorded coronavirus infections. In India, a variant that is a combination of one that originated in South Africa and the US West Coast is spreading ferociously, along with the UK variant. In Brazil, the P.1. variant is suspected to be the reason behind the high death rate. In both countries, underfunded hospital systems, unable to provide the necessary care for the new influx of hundreds of thousands of patients, are on the brink of collapse.

India hit by tsunami of COVID-19 infections as daily new cases surpass 250,000 – India has reported more than 200,000 COVID-19 cases daily since April 15, more than double the number recorded in any other country in the world. Despite this, India’s far-right Narendra Modi-led government has refused to take any measures to curb the spread of the pandemic. On Saturday, the health ministry reported 234,692 cases during the previous 24 hours. A new daily record was set Sunday with 261,500 new infections, taking the number of active cases to a record 1.8 million. Underscoring the virus’ spread across India, the five states with the most new infections were Maharashtra in the west (67,123), Uttar Pradesh (27,734) and Delhi (24,375) in the north, Karnataka in the south (17,489), and Chhattisgarh (16,083) in the center-east. According to epidemiologist and Public Health Foundation head Giridhara Babu, this dire situation is set to deteriorate still further. He warned the caseload could increase to 300,000-400,000 per day by May 5. To date, India has had 14.5 million recorded COVID-19 infections, the second-highest number of cases in the world. But by May 1, this total could rise to 18 million. The official death toll rose Sunday to 177,150 following a record 1,501 fatalities in the previous 24 hours. India’s relatively low official death figures have been disputed by medical experts, who say that authorities are vastly undercounting the dead. An Indian news site, The Wire reported on the situation in Madhya Pradesh as an example of the undercounting of deaths: “There were 37 bodies waiting to be cremated on April 12 at Bhopal’s Bhadbhada facility whereas the Madhya Pradesh bulletin listed only 37 deaths in the whole state on that day,” noted the report. “Similarly, on April 8, 35 bodies had to be cremated in Bhopal alone, but the bulletin specified only 27 deaths; . The Modi government has followed the policy of “herd immunity,” refusing to impose necessary lockdown measures or provide India’s impoverished masses with the means to shelter at home. Modi repeatedly boasted about India’s capability to produce vaccines and said that India was launching the “world’s biggest vaccination programme.” By March 23, at the beginning of the new wave, the Indian government had only vaccinated 39 million people or 2.7 percent of the population. To bolster the government’s propaganda of normalcy, New Delhi allowed the ongoing mega Hindu religious event Kumbh Mela to go ahead, with millions of Hindu devotees from all over the country congregating at Haridwar on the shores of the Ganges. However, yesterday Modi hypocritically told religious leaders the festival should be “symbolic.” At least 2,000 people, including religious leaders, are already reported as infected in the city of Haridwar alone. The Modi government has also launched mass election propaganda campaigns in the state of West Bengal along with other political parties, without paying attention to public health rules, including social distancing. The UK variant of the coronavirus is reported in 18 to 19 states or 70 to 80 districts in India, while the South African and Brazilian variants are also found in a lesser number of districts. Double mutant variants, which may be more infectious or reduce vaccine effectiveness, have been found in Maharashtra, Delhi, West Bengal, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh.

India has recorded more than 15 million COVID-19 cases — India has recorded more than 15 million cases of the coronavirus, as it battles a new coronavirus variant.As of Monday, India had recorded 15,061,805 cases of the coronavirus and more than 178,700 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.It reported 273,810 new infections on Monday.That means it has the world’s second-highest number of cases and has second-highest death toll – behind only the US on both counts.Officials are investigating if the new variant found there spreads easier or makes vaccines less effective than other dominant forms of the virus. The country’s vaccination rollout has also been relatively slowThe Indian capital of New Delhi will be put in a six-day lockdown from Monday night, with the city’s health minister saying that its healthcare system could break.UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson canceled his planned trip to India. Both countries said in a joint statement that the cancellation was due to “the current coronavirus situation.”

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine 97.6% effective in real-world study (Reuters) – Russian scientists have found the Sputnik V vaccine 97.6% effective against COVID-19 in a “real-world” assessment based on data from 3.8 million people, Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute and the Russian Direct Investment Fund said on Monday. The new effectiveness rate is higher than the 91.6% rate outlined in results from a large-scale trial of Sputnik V that was published in The Lancet medical journal earlier this year, and compares favourably with data on the effectiveness of other COVID-19 vaccines. The new data was based on 3.8 million Russians who received both a first shot and a booster shot as part of the national roll-out of Sputnik V. “This data confirms that Sputnik V demonstrates one of the best protection rates against coronavirus among all vaccines,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the RDIF sovereign wealth fund which is backing the vaccine. The incidence of infection was calculated from the 35th day from the first injection, the statement said, showing an incidence rate of 0.027%. The incidence of infection among unvaccinated adults during a considerable period following the launch of mass vaccination in Russia was 1.1%, it said, without specifying the date range used. The new data will be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal next month, the statement added. The data was collated from a database kept by the health ministry that registers vaccinated people, as well as a separate database of people who were infected with COVID-19 in the country, the statement said

Canada’s vaccine rollout debacle key contributor to COVID-19 third wave – The continued dysfunction of Canada’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout threatens to contribute to ever greater deaths as a third wave of the pandemic – driven by new, more contagious and lethal variants – surges across the country. The absence of large-scale inoculation against the virus, coupled with the ruling elite’s rejection of the public health measures necessary to stop its spread, are causing the third wave to spread far more quickly than the previous two. As a result, Canada’s health care system, especially in Ontario, is on the verge of collapse. Hospital intensive care units (ICU) in Ontario are already under great strain, with patients who require ventilators being moved to cities outside hotspots to reduce the pressure. Figures presented to the Ontario government predict up to 18,000 infections per day and 1,800 ICU patients by the end of next month in a worst-case scenario. So low are supplies of tocilizumab, an anti-inflammatory drug that reduces death rates among seriously ill COVID-19 patients, the province’s COVID-19 Science Advisory Table has recommended the province prepare to use a lottery to determine who will get it, in other words who will be given a chance to live and who will be left to die. Canada’s Chief Medical Officer Theresa Tam has admitted that the spread of the disease is outpacing the vaccine rollout. In fact, the vaccine campaign is barely running at half of its capacity, according to a report by Ipolitics. Only 1.8 million people were vaccinated in the seven days to April 20, just 58 percent of the 3.1 million weekly vaccines that could have been administered. As of Tuesday, less than 25 percent of Canadians had received a first dose, and just 2.13 percent were fully vaccinated as of April 16, the most recent date for which official statistics are available. Having had to abandon their original vaccine dosage timeline, Canada’s federal and provincial governments have moved to a strategy of extending the time between the requisite first and second doses to four months in hopes of providing each Canadian a single dose sooner, and thereby reducing the rate of severe cases and hospitalizations. According to the guidelines issued by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization, the lengthy delay in the administration of the second dose should be applied to everyone except those with specific conditions, such as cancer diagnoses that would place them at greater risk.

Infections of South African and Kent coronavirus variants have already been recorded in vaccinated people, NHS expert warns Cases of people contracting the South African and Kent variants of the virus after being vaccinated have already been recorded, an NHS expert warned yesterday.Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for NHS Test and Trace, reassured that vaccines were a ‘primer’ for the immune system and would help reduce hospitalisations and deaths. But she said: ‘We have seen some people who have had their first dose of the vaccine who have had the South African variant and the variant that arose in Kent.‘That’s to be expected, we know that these vaccines aren’t 100 per cent protecting you against infection and that’s why we ask people to take caution.’She told BBC’s The Andrew Marr show: ‘You can see that [the vaccines are] not as good against the South African variant as they are against our own [variant] B117 at preventing infection and transmission.’However, she added: ‘When your immune system is exposed to a variation of the same virus it responds faster and more adequately to protect you against severe disease.’ It comes as scientists in Brazil have identified two cases where people were simultaneously infected with two different variants of Covid-19, according to a study.Both cases were women in their 30s who had typical moderate flu-like symptoms and did not become severely ill, according to the report in the journal Virus Research.Earlier this month the Lancet also reported a case from Nevada where a man was infected by two different strains of the coronavirus – which is officially known as SARS-CoV-2. The second infection was more severe than the first. The study authors warned: ‘Previous exposure to SARS-CoV-2 might not guarantee total immunity in all cases.’

UK capital London centre of new Covid-19 variants, as R value rises above 1 — Four London boroughs had to begin “surge testing” after new cases of Covid-19 “variants of concern” were detected. The affected boroughs are Wandsworth, Lambeth, Barnet, Southwark, which have a combined population of over 1.3 million. This comes as Boris Johnson’s Conservative government advanced to the next stage of ending the “last lockdown” last Monday, involving the opening of pubs, restaurants, gyms, hair salons and a host of non-essential retail shops. This coincided with the end of the Easter Break and a return to schools. As of April 16, London’s R (Reproduction) rate stands at a best estimate of between 0.8 and 1.1. The figure marks a hike from the previous week, when scientists estimated that R was between 0.8 and 1.0 in the capital. The R rate represents the rate of the spread of coronavirus. When the figure is above 1, an outbreak can grow exponentially. An R of 1.1 means that 10 people can infect 11 others. It is London’s highest rate since England entered its third national lockdown three months ago. During the first week of January, after restrictions had to be imposed, the capital’s R rate hit a peak of 1.4. Scientists anticipated infections to rise in line with greater social mixing alongside the gradual easing of lockdown measures. A lag time between the spread of coronavirus and the configuration of infection rates means the figure is likely to rise over the next few weeks. Last week’s estimate will not have factored in the impact of pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops reopening from April 12. A total of 56 cases of the variant first identified in South Africa (B.1.351) were found in London during the week to April 14, according to data released Thursday, taking the total confirmed cases since it was first detected in December to 600, up by 56 in a week. It may already be too late to stem the spread of the highly transmissible strain. Dr Zubaida Haque, a member of Independent SAGE (scientists who have criticised aspects of the government’s COVID-19 response) said she was concerned that “the horse may have already bolted”. The relaxation of lockdown rules in England last week and children’s return to school were “the perfect storm” for variants to spread. The South African variant has the potential to start a new wave of the pandemic, especially as several of those infected had received at least one shot of either the AstraZeneca or Pfizer vaccine. This suggests the variant may have been able to resist vaccine protection, according to one test and trace official. Danny Altmann, professor of immunology at Imperial College London declared that the variant “could completely devastate us” if health officials were unable to prevent it from spreading nationwide, like B.1.1.7 (the Kent variant) did at the end of last year.

Hospitals in Germany on the brink of collapse – Although coronavirus infections are rising dramatically and scientists and doctors are urgently warning of an overload of the health system, the federal and state governments continue their unscrupulous profits-before-lives policy. Even the completely inadequate federal “ emergency brake ” is being deliberately watered down and delayed. Now, hospitals are on the verge of being overloaded. The situation in Thuringia is particularly dramatic. Hospitals in Jena and the hotspot Greiz, where the incidence level has been over 500 per 100,000 for weeks, can no longer treat coronavirus patients who need intensive care. Initially, five patients seriously ill with COVID-19 will be transferred to intensive care units in other German states, as Professor Michael Bauer, head physician of the Jena Clinic for Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine, announced. According to the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (DIVI), 220 COVID-19 patients are currently in intensive care units in Thuringian hospitals. Of these, more than half (128) are receiving invasive ventilation, 638 of 701 intensive care beds are occupied, 63 beds are vacant, of which only 29 are specifically equipped for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and the number of admissions is increasing daily. On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported a further 1,190 new infections in Thuringia and an increase in the incidence rate to 259. Already by the end of 2020, several COVID-19 patients had to be transferred from Thuringia. The rising numbers are the result of the policies of the state government under Bodo Ramelow (Left Party), opening up businesses and the education system. Despite the foreseeable development, it had decided on further relaxations before Easter. In Bavaria, too, most hospitals are already in emergency mode. On average, the number of COVID-19 patients in Bavarian hospitals has doubled in the last three weeks. Roland Engehausen, managing director of the Bavarian Hospital Association (BKG), said a new peak in hospitals could certainly be expected at the end of the month. He went on to warn, “If the number of newly infected people doesn’t go down, we’ll be in an area we don’t know from May.” Currently, more than 2,500 COVID-19 patients are being treated in Bavarian hospitals; 700 are receiving intensive medical care. A week ago, there were almost 200 fewer. In the entire state, there are only 340 intensive care beds with the option of invasive ventilation. A spokeswoman for the health ministry had to admit that if the increase continued, there would be “an impairment of hospital care, especially regular emergency care.” A spokeswoman for Nuremberg Hospital said Friday that all intensive care beds in the region had been occupied for a short time on Thursday evening.

Covid-19: Coronavirus strain first detected in UK now accounts for more than 80% of cases in Spain, but has not overwhelmed hospitals – = The strain of the coronavirus that was first detected in England has lived up to the threatening reputation that preceded it. The variant was said to be more contagious, and so it has proven to be. While in January it accounted for less than 2% of new cases, now that figure is in excess of 80%, according to the latest data from the Spanish Health Ministry. But there were also fears that it was more lethal, and would push Spain’s hospitals into a critical condition – something that has not happened so far. This is in contrast to what was seen in the United Kingdom at the start of the year and in France in recent weeks.Experts consulted by EL PAÍS confirm that B.1.1.7, as the variant is known, is indeed causing some more serious cases of Covid-19, although more research is needed to determine whether it is genuinely increasing mortality. The same experts explain that the impact of the strain is having a lesser effect on the Spanish healthcare system. “The worst predictions have not come to pass, which is obviously good news, but it also shows that we still lack a lot of knowledge about the pandemic,” explains Quique Bassat, an epidemiologist and a researcher from ISGlobal, an institute for global health based in Barcelona. “It is not easy to explain why what has happened in other countries has not been repeated here.”According to the latest report on new coronavirus variants published by the Health Ministry, and dated April 12, the British variant accounts for 90% of new cases in six of Spain’s 17 regions – Andalusia, Asturias, Castilla y León, Valencia, Galicia and Navarre – and 80% in the rest apart from Castilla-La Mancha (77%), Aragón (65%) and Madrid (64%).“It’s a fact that it has quickly become the dominant strain in Spain,” explains Juan Carlos Galfln, the head of virology at Madrid’s Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal. “What we still need to research more is whether it causes more serious symptoms or higher mortality rates. There is evidence that suggests that it does, in particular in the 40 to 50 age group, but we still need the evidence to back this up,” he adds.

India’s devastating outbreak is driving the global coronavirus surge – More than a year after the pandemic began, infections worldwide have surpassed their previous peak. The average number ofcoronavirus cases reported each day is now higher than it has ever been.“Cases and deaths are continuing to increase at worrying rates,” said World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Friday.A major reason for the increase: the ferocity of India’s second wave. The country accounts for about one in three of all new cases. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Earlier this year, India appeared to be weathering the pandemic. The number of daily cases dropped below 10,000 and the government launched a vaccination drive powered by locally made vaccines. But experts say that changes in behavior and the influence of new variants have combined to produce a tidal wave of new cases.India is adding more than 250,000 new infections a day – and if current trends continue, that figure could soar to 500,000 within a month, said Bhramar Mukherjee, a biostatistician at the University of Michigan. Northern and Western states are the hardest hit by the new surge in covid-19 cases in India Daily reported cases per 100,000 people by state.Cases are spiking across several states. Delhi has reported the most cases per capita in the last week, followed by Lakshadweep, Ladakh and Chhattisgarh.While infections are rising around the country, some places are bearing the brunt of the surge. Six states and Delhi, the nation’s capital, account for about two-thirds of new daily cases. Maharashtra, home to India’s financial hub, Mumbai, represents about a quarter of the nation’s total.In Delhi, many hospitals had shrunk their coronavirus wards – believing the worst was past – when the second wave struck.On April 9, the city added 8,500 cases, a record in the pandemic. Four days later, it was 13,500. Four days after that, the number jumped to more than 24,000. The soaring number of cases has overwhelmed hospitals. The city is facing an acute shortage of oxygen and nearly all its intensive care beds are full, Kejriwal said Monday. Mohammad Shahzad, a 40-year-old accountant, was one of many desperately seeking care. He developed a fever and grew breathless on the afternoon of April 15. His wife, Shazia, rushed him to the nearest hospital. It was full, but staffers checked his oxygen level: 62, dangerously low.For three hours, they went from hospital to hospital trying to get him admitted, with no luck. She took him home. At 3:30 a.m., with Shahzad struggling to breathe, she called an ambulance. When the driver arrived, he asked if Shahzad truly needed oxygen – otherwise he would save it for the most serious patients.

UK strain, double mutant variant could be behind current Covid surge in Delhi – The current wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in the national capital could have been fuelled by the UK variant as its prevalence in genomes sequenced nearly doubled from the second to the last week of March, Sujeet Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), said on Friday. Data released by the NCDC says more than 400 cases of the UK strain and 76 of the Indian double mutant were found in Delhi. As many as 1,644 cases of the UK strain have been found in India, 112 cases of the South African strain, one of the Brazilian strain and 732 cases of the double mutant that emerged in India. Speaking at a webinar, ‘Genome Sequencing of SARS-CoV-19’, Singh said the UK variant of coronavirus is also dominant in Punjab. In Delhi, there are primarily two types of variants — B.1.617 and the UK strain — found in the genome sequenced samples, the NCDC director said. The B.1.617 variant of coronavirus is also known as the double mutant strain. The UK variant was found in 28% of samples in the second week of March. In the last week of the month, 50% of samples had this variant, Singh added. “If we try to co-relate, the surge we are observing in Delhi, it directly co-relates to the type of variant which we are observing,” he said. So far, Singh said, 15,133 samples have been sequenced by INSACOG, a consortium formed in December last year to increase viral genomic surveillance in order to understand the spread of the coronavirus in a rapid and robust manner. This was also after the UK, South African and Brazilian strains, which have a higher rate of transmission, emerged. The link between variants and the current surge in Covid-19 cases was established by genome sequencing of some 15,135 samples. Variants were detected in 1,735 cases – around 11.5%.

India fights COVID: Doctors explain Triple mutant strain & how infectious it is – India is battling with Coronavirus and the second wave of the virus has been even more dangerous and grim. As per the reports, the triple mutant strain is now becoming a cause of concern in India. The doctors have confirmed that the triple mutation strain has been found in at least three states. What is the triple mutant strain and how is it helping in the surge of the COVID cases? To find out about this and more, Times Now speaks to a panel of doctors who explains the journey of the Triple mutant strain in India. The experts believe that the triple mutation is driving the fresh spike in the COVID cases.

Triple Mutant Covid in India: What is Covid-19 Triple Mutant Virus? COVID-19 Triple Mutation Strain – Symptoms, Risk, Precautions, Treatment – All You Need to Know India’s healthcare infrastructure stares at an abject breakdown as the second wave of the coronavirus sweep across the nation with record Covid-19 infections and all-time high daily deaths. While experts are still divided over the under-reporting of cases and deaths, the fact remains that India has unfortunately emerged as the epicentre of the worst outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. The situation is grimmest in comparison with any nation around the globe. (Coronavirus India Live Updates) Even the US didn’t see these many cases on daily basis during its peak of the pandemic. While the medical professionals struggle to keep up with the spike, there is a new development that may worsen India’s Covid crisis. After the discovery of the Indian variant of the coronavirus, which is also known as a double mutant, researchers say that they have found a triple mutant of the virus that may completely change the way we understand the fresh surge of the Covid cases in India. So, what’s a triple mutant? For understanding this, you must know what a double mutant of the coronavirus is. In simple terms, the virus has the nature to mutate or change its structure depending on the scale of transmission. So, the more the virus spreads, the more it will mutate. Since the discovery of the novel coronavirus in China’s Wuhan, the virus has spread around the globe with unmatched ferocity. In the UK, Brazil and South Africa, the researchers spotted new variants of the virus, which have been named after the place of the discovery. 2: Now coming back home, Indian scientists have also been researching the genome sequencing of the virus. According to an Indian Express report, the Indian researchers had discovered the Indian variant of the virus back in October last year. Scientifically known as B.1.617 – the Indian variant of the coronavirus has two kinds of mutations – L452R and E484Q. 3: This mutant has been dominant in all surge states such as Maharashtra, Delhi and Chhattisgarh. Now, the scientists say that the virus has mutated further and has three types of mutations – hence the name triple mutant. It is scientifically known as B.1.618. 4: Vinod Scaria, a scientist working at the New Delhi-based Institute of Genomic and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), took to Twitter on April 20 to talk about the triple mutant, which is now being called the ‘Bengal strain’ of the coronavirus. In his Twitter thread, Scaria said that the ‘sequence’ of the mutant’s lineage were found mainly in West Bengal. While more research is being done to understand the link between the discovery of the triple mutant and the new surge in viral infections, the main point is that this mutant is not only highly transmissible, it may also escape any sort of immune barrier. B.1.618 – a new lineage of SARS-CoV-2 predominnatly found in India and characterized by a distinct set of genetic variants including E484K , a major immune escape variant. pic.twitter.com/dtfQJp2S2B

COVID-19: Triple mutation strain of virus raises concern, says report – As India recorded about three lakh cases and over 2,000 deaths in the last 24 hours due to the COVID-19 infections, a new mutation variant in the COVID-19 virus has been detected in parts of the country, becoming the cause of fresh concerns, NDTV report suggests. The triple mutation follows the double mutation which means three different COVID strains have combined to form a novel variant. States of Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal are believed to have cases driven by this new COVID mutant, the report mentioned. The new spikes in COVID-19 cases across the globe are driven by new variants according to some scientists. “This is a more transmissible variant. It is making lots of people sick very quickly,” reported NDTV quoting Madhukar Pai, professor of epidemiology at McGill University. Professor Pai also stressed on the need to “keep tweaking the vaccine” and the “sequencing on war footing”. He also added that the delay in detecting the double mutation may have contributed to the current virus spurt. The recent mutant poses a massive challenge for India, where genome sequencing is being done for less than one percent of all cases currently, the NDTV report mentioned. The science behind mutations is that the more a virus spreads the more it replicates and the more it mutates. More studies are required to establish how infectious or deadly the triple mutation can prove to be, for now, only 10 labs across India are involved in virus genome studies, the report added. The double mutant has resulted in increased transmission rate and is seen to impact children too with more severe pathogenicity, according to scientists. Currently, the triple mutation has been classified in India as a “variant of interest” rather than a “variant of concern”, according to the report. Will existing vaccines be effective against the new mutant? Two of the three variants in the triple mutation are more resistant to antibodies and not much is known yet on the effectiveness of vaccines. Scientists do believe the new variant contains the ability to escape the body’s naturally acquired immunity to COVID-19, according to the report.

COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations on the rise in Alabama after easing of restrictions – India is now being ravaged by a tsunami of COVID-19 cases and deaths. This surge threatens to dwarf anything yet seen in a global pandemic that has already officially infected 145 million people and killed almost 3.1 million. Yesterday India reported a single-day world record of 314,644 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the country’s total new infections since Monday to well over 1.1 million, and an Indian record of 2,104 deaths. Both the infection and death totals are undoubtedly gross undercounts. Death and cremation statistics tabulated by journalists and health experts reveal a vast discrepancy between the actual number of fatalities and the official numbers provided by government officials. A Financial Times study of seven of India’s 718 districts concluded that the true death count could be 10 times higher than what is being officially reported. Chilling reports are emerging from across the country of crematoriums and cemeteries engulfed by corpses. In Bhopal, India’s 16th largest city, crematoriums are said to be operating at their highest levels since the 1984 Union Carbide gas leak disaster, which killed more than 2,200 people in its first hours. In the western state of Gujarat, where crematoriums have been working 24 hours nonstop, their metal supports have reportedly begun to melt. India’s ramshackle health care system is collapsing, as chronically understaffed hospitals run out of beds, oxygen, and anti-COVID 19 drugs like Remdesivir. News reports from Delhi and Mumbai, respectively the capital and financial centre, show crowds of COVID-19 victims and their relatives outside hospitals clamouring for help, only to be told none is available. Yet India’s government and ruling elite are utterly indifferent and impervious to this mass suffering and death. Prioritising corporate profits over working people’s health and lives, India’s national and state governments have adamantly refused to order a lockdown as COVID-19 infections cases rose with ever increasing speed for the past two months. In an address to the nation Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proclaimed India must be “saved” not from the pandemic but from a lockdown aimed at halting the virus’s advance and saving lives! “In today’s situation, we have to save the country from lockdown,” he declared. He then went on to urge state governments to similarly forswear lockdowns. Dire and harrowing as is the current situation, all evidence suggests that infections and deaths will continue to grow exponentially for weeks, even months, to come. In the two weeks since April 8, the number of active cases in India rose more than 250 percent, from 910,000 to almost 2.3 million. This surge is being fueled by new, more infectious and lethal variants, including a “double-mutant” strain first identified in India that combines mutations in two different “variants of concern.” All but a tiny fraction of the population remain at risk of infection. Just 8.4 percent of Indians have received a first vaccine dose, and only 1.4 percent are fully inoculated.

The COVID-19 Catastrophe in India Keeps Growing -It is difficult to overstate the grip of COVID-19 on India. WhatsApp bristles with messages about this or that friend and family member with the virus, while there are angry posts about how the central government has utterly failed its citizenry. This hospital is running out of beds and that hospital has no more oxygen, while there is evasion from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet. Thirteen months after the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that the world was in the midst of a pandemic, the Indian government looks into the headlights like a transfixed animal, unable to move. While other countries are well advanced on their vaccination programs, the Indian government sits back and watches a second wave or a third wave land heavily on the Indian people.On April 21, 2021, the country registered 315,000 cases in a 24-hour period. This is an extraordinarily high number. Bear in mind that in China, where the virus was first detected in late 2019, the total number of detected cases stands at less than 100,000. This spike has raised eyebrows: is this a new variant, or is this a result of failure to manage social interactions (including the 3 million pilgrims who gathered at this year’s Kumbh Mela) and to vaccinate enough people.At the core is the total failure of the Indian government, led by PM Modi, to take this pandemic seriously. Shortages are a normal problem in any society. But the shortages of basic medical goods in India during the pandemic have been scandalous. India has long been known as the “pharmacy of the world,” since India’s pharmaceutical industry sector has been skillful at reverse-engineering a range of generic drugs. It is the third-largest pharmaceutical industry manufacturer. India accounts for 60 percent of global vaccine production, including 90 percent of the WHO use of measles vaccine, and India has become the largest producer of pills for the U.S. market. But none of this helped during the crisis. Vaccines for COVID-19 are not available for Indians at the pace necessary. Vaccinations for Indians will not be complete before November 2022. The government’s new policy will allow vaccine makers to hike up prices, but not produce fast enough to cover needs (India’s public sector vaccine factories are sitting idle). No large-scale rapid procurement is on the cards. Nor is there enough medical oxygen, and promises to build capacity have been unfulfilled by the ruling party. India’s government has been exporting oxygen, even when it became clearthat domestic reserves were depleted (it has also exported precious Remdesivir injections). On March 25, 2020, Modi said that he would win this Mahabharat – this epic battle – against COVID-19 in 18 days. Now, more than 56 weeks after that promise, India looks more like the blood-soaked fields of Kurukshetra, where thousands lay dead, with the war not even at halftime.

Turkey reports over 49,400 new coronavirus cases – Turkey Friday reported over 49,400 new coronavirus cases, according to Health Ministry data. A total of 49,438 cases, including 3,089 symptomatic patients, were confirmed across the country, the data showed. Turkey’s overall case tally is over 4.55 million, while the nationwide death toll reached 37,672, with 343 more fatalities over the past day. As many as 60,176 more patients in the country won the battle against the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries approaching 3.9 million. More than 45.3 million coronavirus tests have been conducted in Turkey thus far, with 302,091 done since Thursday. The latest figures showed that the number of COVID-19 patients in critical condition rose to 3,475. Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said that the pandemic process was evaluated with the Provincial Health Directors of Istanbul on Friday. “There was an approximately 20% decrease in the number of cases in Istanbul,” he said, adding that there is also a decrease in the number of outpatient clinics and the number of inpatients. However, the intensive care burden continues, he noted. On Jan.14, Turkey began a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign, starting with healthcare workers along with top officials to encourage public confidence in the vaccines. According to the official figures, Turkey has so far administered over 20.9 million coronavirus vaccine jabs across the country. More than 13 million people to date have received their first doses of vaccines against the virus, while second vaccine doses were given to more than 7.9 million. In the face of rising cases and fatalities, starting last week, special measures are in effect in the country for the first two weeks of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The weekday curfew now lasts from 7 p.m. (moved forward from 9 p.m.) to 5 a.m., during which inter-city travel is also banned, except in emergencies. Weekend curfews also continue in high-risk cities. Cafes and restaurants only provide delivery and takeout services, while wedding halls, sports centers, and game halls will remain closed until the end of Ramadan.

Africa COVID-19 death toll exceeds 119.2K – The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed 119,289 people so far across the continent, says the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. According to the latest figures released on Friday, 4,476,121 people have contracted the disease, while 4,016,834 have recovered. The continent has managed to conduct tests on 43,116,584 specimens for the virus. South Africa with its 1.6 million infections is the worst-hit country in the continent, while Morocco registered the second-highest at 507,900 cases. Ethiopia recorded 248,000 cases, Nigeria 164,500, and Cameroon 66,000.

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