Advice to expectant mothers ca. 1924: Spend plenty of time outdoors and get plenty of exercise, ensure regular bowel movements, and bath 1 to 2 times per week.
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,433rd day as well as the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, known for defending the nation as a constitutional union in a civil war and for abolishing slavery.
It was also a day on which the United States hit the 111 million mark in recorded Covid-19 cases.
In news we cover today , three men were convicted in a jury trial in stealing $7.8 million in U.S. pandemic loans, one in ten pregnant women who contract Covid will later contract Long Covid, India’s health minister made some bizarre comments falsely indicating that the current subvariants are not deadly, and antivaxxer Kyrie Irving unfortunately had more to say about vaccine mandates.
LONG COVID
A new study on pregnant women and Long Covid found that one in ten pregnant women who contracted Covid-19 then found themselves suffering from Long Covid.
The results of the study, which was published under the title Development of Post-Acute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) After Infection in Pregnancy: NIH Recover-Pregnancy Cohort, were presented Monday at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s annual meeting in National Harbor, Maryland.
The researchers, led by Dr. Torri Metz, an associate professor of bbstetrics and gynecology, a maternal-fetal medicine subspecialist, at the University of Utah, used data from the National Institutes of Health’s Recover Initiative, a project created to determine the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 in both adults and children.
Of the 1,503 people who were pregnant in the dataset, 9.3% reported having Long Covid symptoms six months or more after they were infected. The most common symptom was a feeling of being tired after light physical or mental activity. Some also reported dizziness.
Meanwhile, a study published last week in the journal Pediatrics suggests that as many as 6 million children have developed Long Covid. The report, entitled Postacute Sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 in Children and authored by a number pediatricians led by Dr. Suchitra Rao of the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, examined multiple studies on children and found that most members of this cohort recovered eventually, although one-third continue to present with symptoms one year after the initial infection.
Common Long Covid symptoms in children were found to be breathing problems such as a cough, shortness of breath and chest tightness, along with fatigue.
UNITED STATES
Three men who collected almost $8 million in fraudulent coronavirus pandemic federal relief payments now face 20 years of prison each. The three – Jacob Carter of Maryland and Quadri Salahuddin and Anwar Salahuddin, both from Mount Vernon, New York – were each convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of aggravated identity theft, which carries a mandatory two-year consecutive sentence.
The three had submitted over 1,000 fraudulent applications for U.S. Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loans.
The jury trial was held in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román of the Southern District for New York.
Hundreds of New York State residents received refunds after having been incorrectly billed for the coronavirus vaccine shots, the state’s attorney general, Letitia James, announced.
The fees were collected by Northwell Health, and were contrary to the provider agreement with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which did not permit patients to be charged any out-of-pocket fees for the jabs.
SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
Anti-vaxxer basketball player Kyrie Irving, who in 2022 was deemed “unfit” to play for the Brooklyn Nets after refusing to apologize for a tweet promoting an antisemitic movie called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America,” said to a fan over the weekend that he blames New York City’s vaccine mandates for his rocky tenure with the Brooklyn Nets basketball team.
Nike, which had produced Irving’s popular signature sneaker for over eight years, ended their relationship over Irving’s racist tweets as well.
The film in question alleges that the Holocaust never occurred, among other offensive claims.
GLOBAL
India’s health minister made a somewhat bizarre claim that the fact that the Covid-19 virus has mutated thus far 223 times means that its less harmful than it was.
Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said this past week that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to remain like influenza, despite the fact that it is much deadlier than the flu. He also said that the current variants are not deadly, a fact contradicted by the weekly global death toll tallied in the Brief and elsewhere on a regular basis.
“When a virus mutates more than 100 times, its harmful effects are reduced. So far, the Covid virus has mutated 223 times and like influenza, which hits people once or twice every year Covid is with us and it will remain,” he added.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, February 12.
As of Monday at press time, the world has recorded 703 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.05 million in the last 24 hours, and 6.98 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 673.9 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.06 million in the past 24 hours.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls as well as the occasional downward or upward adjustment as corrections to case figures warrant.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Monday at press time is 22,124,338 22,136,247, a decrease of 12,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,088,418, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,920, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 17 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Monday, recorded 111 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.2 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.03 million, and a reported death toll of 533,462.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July 2022, 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 40.14 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.81 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 709,601, has recorded 38.37 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 34.57 million cases, as number six; Japan, with 33.8 million cases placing it in the number seven slot; and Italy, with 26.71 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.89 million, and Russia, with 23.9 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending February 2, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on February 9, 2024 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 10%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.6% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.8%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -10.8%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 20,772, a figure that is down 10% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 3.1%, a figure that is down 6.1% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Monday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2,839 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 32.7% 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 at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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