Coronavirus Morning News Brief – May 24: China Braces for Massive New Wave of Cases, BoJo Faces New Policy Enquiry of Violation of Covid Rules

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,169th day of the pandemic and Brother’s Day.
OP-ED ON WEDNESDAY
Brother’s Day is a holiday that honors the brothers in our lives, be they biological or close friends with whom a brotherly bond has been forged.  While this isn’t directly related to Covid or Long Covid, many people lost their siblings as six million people across the globe perished during the pandemic from the virus.
It’s interesting to note that the word “brother” stems from the Latin “frater” and the Proto-Germanic word “brothar,” the source of the Old Norse “broðir,” which itself comes from the Proto-Indo-European root “bhrater.”
Regular readers of this space know that my brother, Greg, succumbed to polycystic kidney disease, a genetic disorder that causes many fluid-filled cysts to grow in one’s kidneys, for which there is no cure.
Even if you’re not in close touch, call your brother today in honor of Brother’s Day, if only for Greg’s sake.
In other news we cover today, China is forecasting a massive new wave of cases, Boris Johnson is facing yet another inquiry over having broken pandemic rules while in office, and New York is ending its vaccine mandate for healthcare workers.
UNITED STATES
New York State health officials announced plans to end the state’s coronavirus vaccine mandate for healthcare workers. The move came just minutes before an appeals court was scheduled to hear oral arguments connected to a lawsuit challenging the mandate, an attorney related to the case told reporters.
Meanwhile, as vaccination rates fall across the globe – new inoculations are now in the 5-digit range having remained in the 6-digit range for many months – one person is dying from Covid or Covid-related causes every four minutes.
GLOBAL
In China, cases of SARS-CoV-2 from omicron sublineage XBB variants are mounting.
Infections will likely reach 40 million per week by the end of the month, senior health adviser Zhong Nashan told attendees at a biotech conference in Guangzhou, Bloomberg news reported.
Although the current wave will likely pale in comparison to the wave experienced by China at the end of 2022 – in a single day, December 20, 37 million infections were reported – it will likely still have a severe impact on the country.
Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson was referred to the police over a potential new breach of Covid rules.
The former prime minister was fined in 2022 while still in office for having broken Covid rules in 2020, one of a series of scandals that eventually led to his resignation.
The new referral to the police is tied to new allegations about his behavior in Downing Street as well as several visits to the prime minister’s country residence, Chequers, which came to light during preparations for a public inquiry into the pandemic, the Times of London reported.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, May 24.
As of Wednesday morning, the world has recorded over 689.2 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.88 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, just under 661.6 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.1 million from the previous day.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Wednesday at press time is 20,721,940, an increase of 41,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,683,726, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,214, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past eight months.
The United States reported 72,136 new cases in the period May 4 through May 10, a figure that is down 26% over the same period one week earlier, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  The death toll for the same period is 840, a figure that is down 20%.  The number of hospital admissions from over the past week Covid was 9,186 as of May 16, a figure that is down 4.9% over the preceding 7-day period.  Finally, the test positivity rate is 5.2%, up 5% over the 14 days preceding May 11.
Starting on March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis.  In addition, starting on May 15, 2023, the Morning News Brief has pressed pause on certain data sets as we assess the update of changes in reporting by U.S. health authorities at the CDC.
Since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Wednesday, recorded just under 107.1 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.16 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, just under 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,849.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States.  Rosstat last reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July 2022, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with just under 40.1 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.4 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 702,664, has recorded just under 37.6 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are Japan, with 33.8 million cases, South Korea, with 31.6 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.8 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.6 million, and Russia, with 22.9 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, over 270.2 million people in the United States – or 81.4% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.5%, or 230.6 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now over 676.7 million. Breaking this down further, 92.23% of the population over the age of 18 – or 238.2 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 79.1% of the same group – or 204.3 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 20.5% of the same population, or 53 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 23.7 million people over the age of 65, or 43.3% of that population have also received the bivalent booster.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 70% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Wednesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 13.38 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 62,293 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 29.9% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)