Children’s physical activity has decreased significantly during the pandemic.
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 824th day of the pandemic.
Although it won’t come as a surprise to regular readers of the Morning News Brief that the pandemic continues to rage, the headlines this morning inform us that the Biden administration is warning that the pandemic is not yet over.
The White House coronavirus response team said Tuesday that Americans must do more to protect themselves against the highly transmissible BA.5 omicron subvariant, which is currently fueling a spate of new infections, reinfections, and hospitalizations.
The world has watched as the BA.5 subvariant (accompanied by its sibling, the BA.4. subvariant) marched across Europe and South Africa while moving to become the dominant variant in the United States.
In addition to recommending mask wearing in crowded and not-very-well ventilated places, the White House wants all adults to get a second booster, get tested if they feel unwell, and seek therapeutics such as the antiviral Paxlovid if they test positive.
The BA.5 subvariant has an extremely high rate of reinfection and is much more contagious than its predecessors and arrives at a time when at least half the population is suffering from mask fatigue and wants to put the pandemic behind them, despite the fact that the virus is alive and kicking.
In other news we cover today, New York City’s positivity rate is now at 15% and children’s physical activity declined by 20% during the first two years of the pandemic.
Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.
UNITED STATES
The positivity rate in New York City is currently at 15%, a figure not seen since January. Officials there are trying to boost the distribution of the Covid antiviral Paxlovid after figures revealed that only 82,700 courses of the antiviral have been distributed since it became available.
The city began to prescribe it at its official testing sites and the Biden administration recently permitted pharmacists to write prescriptions for it as well.
Meanwhile, the White House is expected to announce that it will offer second booster doses to all adults amidst the spread of the extremely contagious omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in the country.
Finally, a second U.S. senator tested positive for Covid. Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut announced the test results and said he would self-isolate and work from home this week. With the sidelining of Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, who broke his hip last month and is currently recovering from surgery, the absences will leave the Senate floor at a standstill for the time being.
GLOBAL
A new review of two dozen studies conducted across the globe found that children’s physical activity in the first two years of the pandemic declined by some 20%. The study, which was published this week in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, looked at 14,000 participants across the globe, with the exception of Africa.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, July 12.
As of Tuesday morning, the world has recorded 561.9 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 1 million new cases in the preceding 24 hour period, and 6.38 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 534.8 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.9 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Tuesday is 20,786,131, an increase of 167,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,747,939, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,182, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical is unchanged over the pat 24 hours.
The United States reported 175,329 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday for the previous day, compared to 22,569 on Monday, 23,586 on Sunday, and 167,904 on Saturday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate continues to be over 100,000 and is now 133,678. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 117,035, an 8% increase, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 327, a decrease of 2% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 37,766, a 17% increase.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded almost 90.5 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.05 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 43.7 million, and a reported death toll of 525,474.
New data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed at the end of May that the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 812,890, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, after the United States. Rosstat reported that 11,583 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in April, down from 35,584 in March and from 43,543 in February.
Meanwhile, Brazil now has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 673,814, and has recorded almost 33 million cases.
France continues to occupy the number four position in total cases with over 32.4 million cases, and Germany is in the number five slot with 29.2 million. The United Kingdom, with 22.9 million cases, is now number six and is the only other country in the world with a total number of cases over the 20 million mark, while Italy is fast approaching that mark, with 19.5 million cases.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Tuesday, over 260.3 million people in the United States – or 78.4% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 67%, or 222.5 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 596.2 million. Breaking this down further, 89.7% of the population over the age of 18 – or 231.7 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 76.7% of the same group – or 198.6 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 51.2% of that population, or 101.7 million people, has already received a third, or booster, dose of vaccine.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish it on Tuesdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Over 66.8% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Tuesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.16 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4.32 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 19.1% 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 in the single digits, if not lower.
In addition, North Korea and Eritrea are now the only two countries in the world that have not administered vaccines.
Anna Breuer contributed to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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