Coronavirus Global Updates, Nov 18: US reports more than 161, 000 new Covid-19 cases

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Zimbabwe COVID19 Update


COVID-19 update: As at 17 November 2020, Zimbabwe had 8 945 confirmed cases, including 8 164 recoveries and 260 deaths.


 





 


 


Coronavirus live updates: Biden Covid advisor says he’s becoming ‘more concerned’ with delays in transition


America’s coronavirus crisis continues to worsen. The U.S. seven-day average of daily new Covid infections surpassed 150,000 for the first time on Monday, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data. The current record of nearly 155,000 new infections per day marks the 10th straight day of about 30% growth or higher in that seven-day trend. As cases and hospitalizations climb, more mayors and governors are tightening restrictions on businesses and residents in an effort to slow the spread.

The following data was compiled by Johns Hopkins University:

*         Global cases: More than 55.6 million  

*         Global deaths: At least 1.33 million

*         U.S. cases: More than 11.3 million

*         U.S. deaths: At least 248,687

 


Coronavirus update: Virginia reports 2,125 new COVID-19 cases


Virginia saw an increase of 2,125 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, the state’s health department reported.

The health department also said there have been 3,557 confirmed deaths due to the virus.

Tuesday’s cases are high compared to daily cases reported since the pandemic started. On Monday, VDH reported 2,677 new cases — the state health department said this was due to backlog from over the weekend.

 

*         Charles City County: 121 cases, 5 death

*         Chesterfield County: 8,253 cases, 122 deaths

*         City of Colonial Heights: 361 cases, 26 deaths

*         City of Hopewell: 565 cases, 8 deaths

*         City of Richmond: 6,055 cases, 79 deaths

*         Dinwiddie County: 602 cases, 12 deaths

*         Goochland County: 374 cases, 7 deaths

*         Hanover County: 2,050 cases, 48 deaths

*         Henrico County: 7,361 cases, 244 deaths

*         New Kent County: 336 cases, 4 death

*         Powhatan County: 381 cases, 6 deaths

 

 


With possible vaccine on the horizon, US is likely in "last big surge" of the pandemic's toughest phase


The United States is likely in the "last big surge" before a possible Covid-19 vaccine can start to offer help in the coming months, one expert says. But for now, the country is  <https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html> continuing to set grim case and hospitalization records and the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down.

"The months ahead are going to look better than the weeks ahead," former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr. Mark McClellan said at a Tuesday event hosted by Duke University.
"Things are going to start gradually getting better," he said. "Won't be past this for still months to come. But it will start getting better by early 2021," he said, with the help of a vaccine.

His projection comes at the heels of more good news out of vaccine trials -- with Moderna announcing this week its vaccine is more than 94% effective and Pfizer's CEO saying the company is preparing to file for emergency use authorization for their own vaccine.

But it also comes amid a scary time for the country. For at least 15 days straight, the US has reported more than 100,000 daily infections. About 76,830 people are hospitalized with the virus nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That's the highest number since the pandemic's start. And each day, hundreds of Americans continue to lose their battle against Covid-19, with at least 11 days this month topping a 1,000 daily death toll.


 


Japan reports nearly 1,700 new Covid-19 cases


Japan reported 1,694 new Covid-19 cases for Tuesday, its third highest single-day jump since the pandemic began. 

The country's daily new cases dipped below 1,000 for the first time in over a week on Monday, but they rose back up on Tuesday, according to the Health Ministry.

The total number of confirmed cases nationwide stands at 121,529, including 1,926 deaths.

Capital spike: Tokyo reported 493 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, the highest daily increase in cases for Japan’s capital since the pandemic began. 

The last peak was recorded on Aug. 1 with 472 new cases, according to Tokyo’s Metropolitan Government.


 


Fauci wishes he had pushed harder on coronavirus testing early in pandemic


If there’s one thing he regrets about the pandemic, the US' top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci says he wishes he had pushed harder for broader testing early on.

Fauci, who was an early member of the White House coronavirus task force, said he knew the pandemic would be bad when it was clear community spread was happening back in the late winter.

“I thought we should be flooding the system with testing. There weren’t enough tests then,” Fauci said in an interview with STAT News Tuesday.
“It never became a reality because we never really had enough tests to do the tests that you had to do,” added Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Importance of testing: Testing is the first step for contact tracing -- a tried and true public health approach that involves identifying cases quickly, isolating and treating those people, identifying their contacts and testing them to see if they need to be isolated or quarantined.

“But deep down perhaps I should have been much more vocal about saying we have really, absolutely, got to do that,’” Fauci said. “I saw that it went nowhere and maybe I should have kept pushing the envelope on that.”

Testing is important because otherwise cases spread silently, Fauci noted. “What is going on now that you don’t recognize becomes a case a few weeks later,” he said.

“That becomes a hospitalization a few weeks later. That becomes intensive care a few days later. That becomes death a few weeks later.”

Fauci said he was hesitant to talk about his regrets for fear his statements would be taken out of context as sound-bites.


 


US reports more than 161,000 new Covid-19 cases


The United States reported 161,934 new coronavirus infections and 1,707 new fatalities on Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The country has now reported a total of at least 11,357,322 cases and 248,672 deaths, according to the university's tally.

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

CNN is tracking US cases:


 


FDA authorizes first rapid Covid-19 self-test for home diagnosis


The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an emergency use authorization for the first self-test for Covid-19 that can provide rapid results at home.

The Lucira COVID-19 All-In-One Test Kit is a molecular single-use test available by prescription for self-diagnosis of the coronavirus, the agency said Tuesday.

It uses a molecular amplification technology to search for signs of the coronavirus’s genetic material.

How does it work? The kit includes a sterile swab, a sample vial, a test unit, batteries and a plastic disposal bag.

A user first needs to self-collect a nasal swab sample and insert it into the vial, which then enters the test unit where it is analyzed. The results are displayed on the test unit by a color change in the LED indicators, according to the FDA.

Who can use it? The new test is authorized for people aged 14 and older with suspected Covid-19 and people under 13 when performed by a health care provider.

It is also authorized for use in point-of-care settings, such as doctor’s offices, hospitals, urgent care centers and emergency rooms for all ages but must be collected by a health care provider, the FDA said.

“While Covid-19 diagnostic tests have been authorized for at-home collection, this is the first that can be fully self-administered and provide results at home,” FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said in a statement.
“This new testing option is an important diagnostic advancement to address the pandemic and reduce the public burden of disease transmission,” Hahn added.


 


Washington State sees new daily high in Covid-19 cases


The state of Washington reported 2,677 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, a new single-day high, according to its health department.

Following the release of the latest numbers, Gov. Jay Inslee said on Twitter: “We need everyone doing their part to stop this virus.”

We set another record for new COVID cases in a single day today – over 2600.

We need everyone doing their part to stop this virus.

 

Washington has recorded a total of 131,444 Covid-19 cases and 2,571 deaths. Currently, 9,573 patients are hospitalized.


 


Colorado congressman tests positive for Covid-19


Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado, announced Tuesday night that he has tested positive for Covid-19. 

“I learned today that I have tested positive for COVID-19. As of now, I am asymptomatic and I’m feeling good. I am currently in Washington D.C. and plan to isolate in my apartment while continuing to work and voting remotely," he said in the statement.
“I’ve been taking precautions like so many Coloradans over the past eight months. This serves as an important reminder that this virus is highly contagious and should be taken seriously. As we enter the holiday season, I encourage everyone to continue to heed the warnings of no personal gatherings, social distancing, and wearing a mask.”

Perlmutter was on Capitol Hill during a series of votes Monday. 

This brings the number of House members and senators who have tested positive for the coronavirus to 33.

Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa also announced Wednesday that he had tested positive.


 


South Australia to shut down for 6 days following Covid-19 cluster


The Australian state of South Australia will shut down for six days from midnight Thursday, following a Covid-19 outbreak in Adelaide, the state's capital city.

South Australia Premier Steven Marshall announced Wednesday that the community would "pause" for six days to serve as a "circuit breaker" of the new outbreak.

"We are at a critical point, but we will get through this," Marshall said at a news briefing

The new measures: South Australians will be restricted from leaving their homes, even for outdoor exercise, unless they are an essential worker, South Australia Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said. 

A mandatory mask mandate will also be enforced, Stevens added.

All facilities such as schools, pubs, coffee shops and outdoor sports will be closed. Only essential services, like supermarkets, medical facilities and public transport will remain open. 

There are currently 22 Covid-19 cases linked to the Adelaide cluster, South Australia's Chief Health Officer Nicola Spurrier said. The cases are all considered to be linked to a worker in a medi-hotel, where international arrivals are required to quarantine for 14 days.

On Tuesday, local authorities ordered 4,000 people into quarantine in an attempt to contain the cluster.


 


South Korea records highest increase of Covid-19 cases since August


South Korea reported 313 new coronavirus cases for Tuesday, the biggest daily jump since August 29, according to a Korea Disease Control Prevention Agency (KDCA) news release on Wednesday. 

Among the new cases, 245 were locally transmitted and 68 were imported. 

More than half of the new cases were from the greater Seoul area. The Seoul metropolitan area will tighten its social distancing measures from Thursday, limiting the size of school classes and religious gatherings.

South Korea has now recorded a total of 29,311 cases and 496 deaths, according to KDCA.


 


Chinese Covid-19 vaccine seen as safe in early stage trials, study finds


A staff member tests samples of inactivated Covid-19 vaccine at a Sinovac Biotech lab in Beijing on March 16. Zhang Yuwei/Xinhua via Getty Images

A mid-stage trial shows that a Chinese made Covid-19 vaccine seems to be safe, according to a study published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases Tuesday.

Sinovac, the Chinese company that makes the Coronavac vaccine candidate, tested it in a randomized controlled trial involving 700 healthy adult volunteers between April and May. None of the volunteers had a history of a Covid-19 infection. None had traveled in areas with a high rate of the disease.

Volunteers in the Phase 2 trial were divided into three groups. One group got a low dose of the vaccine, another got a higher dose and a third received a placebo.

This particular vaccine uses a chemically inactivated whole virus based on a sample taken from a patient in China. Most of the other coronavirus vaccines in development use biotechnology approaches to produce just a fragment of the virus. Using a whole, killed virus is an older, tried and true method that makes vaccine production slower and that doctors say can produce more side-effects.

The results: The vaccine was well tolerated at all the dose levels, and there didn’t seem to be any safety concerns, according to the researchers, which include experts from the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, China's National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, and Sinovac.

The most common complaint was pain at the injection site. One volunteer in the high dose group had a severe allergic reaction within 48 hours of the first dose, which researchers said may be related to the vaccine, but the volunteer was treated for the reaction and recovered within three days. The same volunteer did not have a similar allergic reaction to the second shot.  

Even at the lowest dose, volunteers who received the vaccine seemed to show a robust antibody response within 14 days of the second of two injections. The injections were given 14 days apart.  

What about efficacy? The levels of antibodies produced by vaccination were lower than in the volunteers who were infected by, and had recovered from, Covid-19 during the trial, but the researchers said they still expected it could provide protection. The study wasn’t designed to determine how effective it was.

There may be advantages to this vaccine, according to one researcher who worked at the company that made it. This vaccine only needs standard refrigeration. It also may remain stable for up to three years in storage.

The company is continuing its trials to determine how effective the vaccine is.


 


France becomes first country in Europe to reach 2 million coronavirus cases


A doctor speaks with a patient infected with Covid-19 in the infectious diseases unit of the Gonesse hospital in Gonesse, north of Paris, on October 22. Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images

France has become the first country in Europe to top 2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to data from Johns Hopkins University and the French national health agency.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, France's health agency director Jerome Salomon confirmed at least 2,036,755 total cases had been reported in the country.

“Whether in cities or in rural areas, all regions, all metropolitan departments, are affected,” Salomon said. 
“This second wave, which we are all facing, is massive, deadly and is straining all of our caregivers and our health system as a whole.”

While France has now registered the highest cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Europe overall, Salomon noted that the current coronavirus reproduction rate in the country is now below one, while the daily number of new cases has declined in the past week.

“In recent days, the number of new cases has declined, redoubling efforts to regain control of the epidemic,” Salomon said, adding that public adherence to national coronavirus restrictions is now “beginning to bear fruit” in France.
“All collective efforts, respect for curfews and national confinement measures serve to explain this positive trend. It is by maintaining a very high level of vigilance and mobilization that we will be able to spend the end-of-year celebrations and the winter months in the safest conditions,” he added.

According to the latest data from the national health agency, a total of 33,139 coronavirus patients are currently in hospital -- down by 327 since Monday -- with 4,838 of those in intensive care.

A further 1,219 coronavirus patients have died since Monday, the national health agency added, bringing the total death toll in France to 46,273.


 


FDA sets meeting for vaccine advisory committee


The US Food and Drug Administration has called for a meeting of its vaccine advisory committee in three weeks to consider whether the agency should authorize two Covid-19 vaccines, according to a source familiar with the process. 

The FDA reached out last week to members of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, a group of outside experts, asking them to hold Dec. 8, 9 and 10 for meetings, according to the source. 

The agency could make a decision at the end of the meeting on Dec. 10 about whether to issue emergency use authorizations for the vaccines, the source said. 

Two companies, Pfizer and Moderna, say they will soon apply to the FDA for authorization for their Covid-19 vaccines, both of which have shown in initial data to be more than 90% effective against Covid-19. 

“It will make sense that in all likelihood the FDA will consider both applications together,” the source said, considering that both vaccines use the same technology and appear to have very similar safety and efficacy results from their large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials. 

If the FDA authorizes the vaccines, they can then be immediately distributed to states, according to a presentation made last month at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

However, no one can be vaccinated until a CDC advisory committee reviews the data, recommends the vaccine, and says which groups will receive it first. 

If the FDA authorizes the vaccines, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), an independent panel of experts, will meet within 24 to 48 hours, according to a CDC spokesperson. 

At that meeting, the committee will determine if everyone should get the vaccine, or if some people should be excluded. It will also decide which groups should get the vaccine first. 

“We have all been alerted on ACIP we should be very flexible with our calendars because it’s likely there won’t be a lot of advanced notice given for this meeting. It will be done very, very quickly,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a committee member. 

Once ACIP issues its recommendations, vaccinations can be given. 

 

Next steps: The nation’s top infectious disease physician, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told CNN earlier this week the first vaccinations in the US could take place “towards the latter part of December.” 

States are currently working out the details of running vaccination clinics. The Pfizer vaccine is particularly complicated, since it must be stored at minus 75 degrees Celsius, and doctors’ offices and pharmacies typically do not have freezers that go that low. 

The first groups expected to receive the vaccine are health care workers, the elderly, essential workers such as police officers, and those with underlying medical conditions. 


 


Pfizer prepares to file for emergency use authorization after vaccine reaches safety milestone, CEO says


The Pfizer vaccine trial has reached its safety milestone and the company is preparing to file for emergency use authorization, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday.

Pfizer announced on Nov. 9 that its coronavirus vaccine appears to be more than 90% effective, based on early data.

But the company did not yet have enough data to seek emergency use authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration, which said it also wanted at least two months of safety data on at least half of a vaccine trial’s volunteers starting from when they got their second immunization.

“I think the questions about the safety at large also have been answered,” Bourla said in an interview hosted by The New York Times. “Our safety milestone has been achieved already, and we are preparing now for submissions.”

Bourla said they are not yet sure how durable the protection from their vaccine will be. The Pfizer vaccine uses a messenger RNA, or mRNA, platform to produce an immune response.

“With the mRNA technology, you can boost as soon as you want,” said Bourla. People can be given an additional dose of a vaccine once immunity wears off, referred to as a boost.

Bourla said that a boost, if needed, would likely require only one dose.

 

 

 

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