A dose of Moderna vaccine
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 864th day of the pandemic.
There is good news on the vaccine front: New bivalent vaccines that are partially targeted towards the highly-contagious omicron variant will soon be available in the United States, possibly within a matter of weeks.
For fully vaccinated Americans, this is good news. Anyone who has completed a primary coronavirus vaccine series will be eligible, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Morning News Brief. It won’t matter which vaccine or which booster an individual has received, either. However, non-vaccinated individuals won’t be eligible for the updated formula until first completing the primary series using the original coronavirus vaccine.
Anyone over the age of 12 who is fully vaccinated will be eligible although there may be minor differences between who is eligible for the Pfizer bivalent vaccine and the Moderna.
Pfizer’s bivalent vaccine, which is targeted at the BA.5 subvariant, is likely to get approval first. It’s not known exactly what the Moderna bivalent will target but it’s likely to either be the omicron variant or the BA.5 subvariant, sources tell the Morning News Brief. Eligibility for the Moderna booster will be, at least at first, limited to fully vaccinated individuals over the age of 18, however.
The jabs are arriving ahead of what is expected to be a major surge in coronavirus infections in late fall and early winter.
“It’s going to be really important that people this fall and winter get the new shot,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, speaking at a virtual event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation on Tuesday. “It’s designed for the virus that’s out there,” he added.
In other news we cover today, the first lady said she no longer has Covid and Chinese trade data indicates North Korea imported millions of masks as its first Covid surge hit.
Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.
UNITED STATES
In Washington, D.C., First Lady Jill Biden ended her five-day isolation period after testing negative twice for Covid. Biden tested positive last week while vacationing with the president and immediately went into isolation. She reportedly experienced only mild, cold-like symptoms during the course of the virus.
GLOBAL
Before it declared victory over the coronavirus surge that recently engulfed the nation, North Korea had imported over one million face masks and 15,000 pairs of rubber gloves from China in July alone, according to trade data released by China.
The hermit nation had in the middle of May announced a “maximum emergency” over what it termed “fever cases.” In late July, it reported that its first and only reported Covid outbreak had ended after millions of “fever cases” were reported. The last positive Covid case was reported on July 29.
Since January, North Korea has, according to Chinese data, imported millions of face masks.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, August 21.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 600.7 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.6 million cases, and over 6.47 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 574.8 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.7 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday is 19,386,778, a decrease of 143,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 19,342,848, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 43,930, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical is unchanged over the pat 24 hours.
The United States reported 7,927 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 108,491 on Saturday, 126,323 on Friday, and 160,103 on Thursday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 94,796. 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 95,145, a 19% decrease, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 460, a decrease of 7% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 40,728, a 6% decrease.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded over 95.3 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of close to 1.07 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.3 million, and a reported death toll of 527,332.
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 820,307, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat reported that 4,991 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in June, down from 7,008 in May and from 11,583 in April.
Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, 34.34 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 682,560, and has recorded 34.28 million cases, placing it in the number four slot.
Germany is in the number five slot with over 31.8 million cases.
The other three countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are the United Kingdom, with 23.5 million cases, in sixth position, South Korea, with 22.24 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with over 21.6 million, as number eight.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Sunday, over 262.3 million people in the United States – or 79% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 67.4%, or 223.7 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 607.5 million. Breaking this down further, 90% of the population over the age of 18 – or 232.5 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.2% of the same group – or 199.4 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 51.5% of that population, or 102.7 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 the updated information on Sundays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 67.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 12.49 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5.44 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 20.7% 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.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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