The fitness center at the Gran Hotel Manzana Kempinski La Habana
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 1,437th day.
LONG COVID
Some Long Covid patients have long known that having the condition destroys their ability to exercise. A new study tells us why.
The answer lies in the muscle damage some Long Covid patients have suffered as well as their bodies’ ability to make energy, resulting in what is termed post-exertional malaise, which is also a defining condition of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.
Now a new study, entitled Muscle Abnormalities Worsen After Post-Exertional Malaise in Long Covid and published last month in the journal Nature Communications, provides an explanation for this. The study suggests that patients with Long Covid experience multiple changes in their body after exercising, including widespread muscle damage, changes in muscle composition, and disrupted energy metabolism.
The patients included in the study averaged 41 years of age. None had any other pre-existing conditions, and they were all experiencing a significant disruption to their work and social lives due to Long Covid.
A new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that people who contracted SARS-CoV-2 are at least four times more likely to later suffer from chronic fatigue than those who hadn’t had Covid.
“Our data indicate that COVID-19 is associated with a significant increase in new fatigue diagnoses,” according to the study.
The study, entitled Prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among Children and Adults in 15 U.S. Communities, 2021 and published Friday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, examined electronic health records of more than 4,500 patients in the state of Washington who had SARS-CoV-2 in 2020 and 2021 and compared them to patients who hadn’t had COVID.
The report, which was prepared by over 30 researchers, found the risk for chronic fatigue was more than four times greater in those who had the illness.
UNITED STATES
New York State’s governor, Kathy Hochul, wants to make the to-go cocktail a permanent fixture in the EmpireState’s restaurant and bar scene. Sales of to-go cocktails were first made available in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic as part of an effort to prop up restaurants. The pandemic-inspired drinks policy wasn’t renewed for 2021 but returned in 2022 and is scheduled to expire in 2025. The popular policy allows restaurants to sell wine, beer, and cocktails to go to diners although substantial food orders with each drink order are required and drinks must be sold in sealed containers.
The law isn’t the same as an open-container policy such as those found in Savannah or New Orleans, so it won’t be possible for patrons to walk around the Big Apple with their drink in a martini glass, unless it’s a non-alcoholic beverage.
GLOBAL NEWS
Italy, the first Western country to report an outbreak of what is now referred to as SARS-CoV-2, announced plans to hold an inquiry into its handling of the pandemic. The move hailed as “a great victory” by the relatives of people who died from the virus but who had also criticized by those who were in power at the time.
The Repubblica Italiana has the second highest Covid-related death toll to date in Europe, at more than 196,000. Only the U.K. death toll is higher in the region.
The United Kingdom’s 2021 inquiry into its initial response to the coronavirus pandemic was one of the country’s worst ever public health failures, the House of Commons.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Friday, February 16.
As of Friday at press time, the world has recorded 703.35 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, 674.11 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.02 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 Friday at press time is 22,259,334, an increase of 32,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,223,541, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,793, 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 Friday, recorded 111.25 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 533,470.
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 38.82 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 709,765, has recorded 38.41 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 23.93 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending February 10, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on February 16, 2024 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 9.1%, 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 -5.3%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 21,373, a figure that is up 0.8% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.7%, a figure that is down 6.9% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% 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, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 5,308 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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