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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 1,449th day.
In other news we cover today, is the “mystery virus” spreading on social media anxiety or just the common cold, the CDC is about to recommend that senior citizens get another booster, and researchers in Virginia are trying to build a pocket-size air tester that will detect SARS-CoV-2.
UNITED STATES
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control said that people 65 and older s hould get an addition dose of the current 2023 coronavirus vaccine.
The agency’s director, Dr. Mandy Cohen, must sign off on the panel’s recommendation to make it final and she is expected to do so.
This means that people 65 and older will be eligible receive an additional dose of any updated Covid-19 vaccine at least four months after the previous shot.
Researchers at Virginia Tech are working on the development of a device that would let people sample air for the presence of SARS-CoV-2, before deciding whether to enter a business, shop, restaurant, or other facility open to the public.
The leader of the project, Linsey Marr, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the school, said in a statement that the goal is “to make it possible that someone could walk into a space, and within 15 minutes, do something like a rapid test of the air, to find out if there’s virus in the air.”
Current equipment capable of this type of testing is bulky and results in a sample that must be taken to a lab in order to learn the findings.
David Weathers, a Bronx, New York, man who marketed the use of a specific medical laboratory for coronavirus tests in exchange for kickbacks, violated the federal anti-kickback statute by doing so and pled guilty this week in court.
Weather was one of four people indicted in connection with the $3.5 million scheme, which involved a testing lab in Parsippany, New Jersey, called MetPath Laboratories. Weathers will be sentenced this summer and faces up to five years in prison and a fine.
GLOBAL COVID NEWS
Research published by the New Zealand Work Research Institute at the Auckland University of Technology this week suggests that, in New Zealand, the mandates had a limited effect on increasing vaccine uptake, given the already high uptake rates, at the time mandates were implemented. However, the researchers found that the mandates had a substantive negative effect on the employment, earnings and well-being of unvaccinated health workers.
The study, Workforce Vaccine Mandates: The Effect on Vaccine Uptake and Healthcare Workers’ Labour Market Outcome, was led by Lisa Meehan, Livvy Mitchell, and Gail Pacheco, all of the Work Research Institute.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
Younger people are sharing symptoms of nausea, faintness, and excess mucus and are not testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, influenza or RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, causing fear of a “mystery virus” to spread through social medial platforms such as TikTok.
Public health experts say that the health concerns are likely a sign of one post-pandemic condition, namely anxiety about getting sick.
The symptoms being described fit multiple viruses including the common cold that circulate throughout the year and winter is effectively “prime time” for the spread of such viruses.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, February 28.
As of Wednesday, at press time, the world has recorded 703.8 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.04 million in the last 24 hours, and just under 7 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 674.58 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.04 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 Wednesday at press time is 22,221,382, a decrease of 13,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,185,768, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,614, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 18 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Wednesday, recorded 111.51 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 533,485.
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, 709,963, has recorded 38.45 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 26.72 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.9 million, and Russia, with 23.98 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 1.1%, and the trend in test positivity is -1.3% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.7%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -12.4%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 18,977, a figure that is down 5.7% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.4%, a figure that is down 11.1% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% 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, 13.57 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 4,932 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
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