Los Angeles International Airport
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 827th day of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, Los Angeles is poised to return to an indoor mask mandate. West Coast movie studios are reporting surges of new infections, and millions of children have missed childhood vaccinations during the pandemic.
Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.
UNITED STATES
Los Angeles County returned to a “high” level of community transmission on Thursday and the news puts the county on path to return to an indoor mask mandate if the transmission rate doesn’t decline over the next two weeks.
That move could happen as soon as July 29.
“I do recognize that when we return to universal indoor masking to reduce high spread, for many this will feel like a step backwards,” said the county’s public health director, Barbara Ferrer.
The Warner Bros. movie studio in Burbank, California, reported a sudden and significant surge in new coronavirus cases this past week. The spike in cases comes just three weeks after the company required workers to return to the office at least three times per week.
Other nearby studios including Disney and Lionsgate are reporting similar surges.
GLOBAL
New data from Unicef, the United Nations organization that vaccinates approximately half of the world’s children, shows that millions missed some if not all of their childhood vaccines over the past two years. The agency blamed a combination of armed conflicts, climate change, pandemic lockdowns, misinformation campaigns, and a diversion of efforts to coronavirus inoculations.
France is facing a shortage of Dijon mustard, in part due to pandemic-related supply chain issues. The condiment, used with everything from steak frites to grilled sausage, is causing the French to experiment, largely unsuccessfully, with replacements including horseradish and wasabi, among other items.
TRAVEL
Canada restarted mandatory coronavirus testing of randomly selected passengers arriving at the country’s four major airports. The airports are in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. The efforts were put on pause last month in order to relocate testing facilities to locations off airport, in a move to streamline airport traffic and decrease delays.
Meanwhile, the Australian government said it may reinstate compensatory pay for casual workers who are forced to isolate due to the coronavirus amidst a new wave of infections.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, July 15.
As of Friday morning, the world has recorded 565.7 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 1.3 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, 537.1 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.6 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Friday is 22,153,088, an increase of 550,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,114,155, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 38,933, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical is unchanged over the pat 24 hours.
The United States reported 136,289 new coronavirus infections on Friday for the previous day, compared to 191,735 on Thursday, 183,322 on Wednesday, 175,329 on Tuesday and 22,569 on Monday, 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 128,678. 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 132,928, a 17% 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 415, an increase of 10% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 39,589, a 19% increase.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Friday, recorded 91.1 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 525,604.
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, 674,846, and has recorded 33.1 million cases.
France continues to occupy the number four position in total cases with over 32.8 million cases, and Germany is in the number five slot with 29.6 million. The United Kingdom, with 23 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 almost 19.9 million cases.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Friday, over 260.7 million people in the United States – or 78.5% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 67.1%, or 222.7 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, 89.8% of the population over the age of 18 – or 231.8 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77% of the same group – or 198.8 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 51.3% of that population, or 102 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 Fridays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Over 66.7% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Friday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.21 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5.5 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 19.4% 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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