A nurse at a N.Y.C. vaccine center waits for a patient
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 874th day of the pandemic.
Interesting data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this morning: Over 75% of adult Americans are failing to exercise at the not very strenuous CDC levels. Nearly half – some 46.3% – fall markedly below the recommended 2.5 hours of aerobics and strength training per week.
If you break this down by day, 2.5 hours or 150 minutes comes to just over 21 minutes per day or 25 minutes per day if you take one day off.
Only 22.7% met the suggested guidelines for aerobic activity while 6.8% focused on strength training.
Regardless, this means that 46.3% of Americans failed to meet the minimum in either category.
This minimum amount of exercise will improve one’s brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve the ability to perform everyday activities. At a time when the world is battling disease on multiple fronts, why not stop reading today’s Morning News Brief and take a nice brisk half-hour walk instead.
In other news we cover today, two bivalent coronavirus vaccines got the green light in the United States and Goldman Sachs is ending its Covid protocols for its offices.
Here’s a look at what has taken place over the past 24 hours.
UNITED STATES
The Food and Drug Administration gave the green light to new bivalent coronavirus vaccines from both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Both are targeted at the BA.5 variant of omicron that is now dominant. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is approved for use in people as young as 12, and the Moderna vaccine gained approval for those 18 and older.
In both cases, the doses can be given at least two months since people last received a booster dose or completed their initial series of vaccinations.
The redesigned vaccines come just as health officials are foreseeing a surge in cases in the late fall and winter as people spend more time indoors.
“As we head into fall and begin to spend more time indoors, we strongly encourage anyone who is eligible to consider receiving a booster dose,” said Dr. Robert M. Califf, the FDA commissioner, in a statement on Wednesday. He added that the new vaccines would “provide better protection against currently circulating variants.”
Meanwhile, despite warnings of a coming resurgence in cases, Goldman Sachs announced that employees will be allowed to enter most of its offices regardless of vaccination status, and won’t required to test for the coronavirus regularly or don face masks, according to a memo sent to Goldman employees Tuesday and viewed by the Morning News Brief.
The memo cited “significantly less risk of illness” in making the change.
Goldman said that the new policies go into effect on September 6.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, August 31.
As of Wednesday morning, the world has recorded 607.5 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.7 million cases, and 6.49 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 583.5 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.8 million.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Wednesday is 17,461,619, a decrease of 218,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 17,418,523, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 43,096, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical is unchanged over the pat 24 hours.
The United States reported 117,036 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday for the previous day, compared to 112,006 on Tuesday, 8,539 on Monday, 8,821 on Sunday, and 100,346 on Saturday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 90,668. 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 90,428, a 10% 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 473, an increase of 1% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the4period was 37,770, a 10% decrease.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Wednesday, recorded over 96.1 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.07 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, over 44.4 million, and a reported death toll of 527,874.
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, 34.5 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 683,914, and has recorded 34.4million cases, placing it in the number four slot.
Germany is in the number five slot with 32.1 million cases.
The other three countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are the United Kingdom, with just under 23.5 million cases, in sixth position, South Korea, with 23.2 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with over 21.8 million, as number eight.
Meanwhile, Russia, with over 19.5 million recorded cases, will likely cross the 20 million mark within under two weeks.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Wednesday, over 262.3 million people in the United States – or 79.1% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 67.4%, or 223.9 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 608.9 million. Breaking this down further, 90.1% of the population over the age of 18 – or 232.7 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.3% of the same group – or 199.6 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 51.6% of that population, or 102.9 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 Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 67.7% 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, 12.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4.88 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 20.9% 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 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 reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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