The Zentralfriedhof, or Central Cemetery, Tor IV, in Vienna
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 1,450th day as well as Leap Day, or Leap Year Day.
It is also the day on which we recorded the 7 millionth reported SARS-CoV-2 death.
In news we cover today, the quality of healthcare appears to have taken a big hit in the first two years of the pandemic, Yellow Cab hails in New York City took a dive, and the new round of measles cases in the United States may be the canary in a coalmine.
UNITED STATES
The quality of health care took a turn for the worst in the first two years of the pandemic, a report from the Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services found.
Before the pandemic, from 2016 to 2019, providers’ performance on more than half of quality metrics improved, the study found. Now, performance on 38% of measures were worse than expected in 2020, and 47% worse in 2021, the Center said. The most startling decline was a measure of central line-associated bloodstream infections, which was 94% worse than expected in 2021.
New York City’s Independent Budget Office reported that street hails of yellow cabs in the Big Apple are now at 50% of pre-pandemic levels. This contrasts with where ride-hailing services such as Lyft and Uber are, which is at 90%.
The Independent Budget office is a publicly funded agency that makes nonpartisan information about New York City’s budget available to the public.
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 to receive an additional dose of any updated Covid-19 vaccine at least four months after the previous shot.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
Measles, an extremely contagious and vaccine-preventable virus for which there is no cure, was declarederadicated in the United States in the year 2000 by virtue of the absence of continuous disease transmission for greater than 12 months. However, it has reemerged as some parents ignore vaccine recommendations basing their decisions instead on misinformation. One misinformation campaign in particular – which greatly predates the pandemic – was widely supported by celebrities and contended that the vaccine causes autism in children.
This dates back to 1998, when a British doctor named Andrew Wakefield published a study in the journal the Lancet, in which he which claimed there was a link between the MMR – measles, mumps, and rubella – vaccine and autism. Dozens of studies attempted to verify his claims and it was later discovered that Wakefield deliberately misrepresented his findings to further a vaccine he was developing. The article was retracted and he lost his license to practice medicine.
The virus has spread to 15 states and now hit New York and many believe that the initial cases are no less than a canary-in-a-coalmine-type warning.
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 Thursday, February 29.
As of Thursday, at press time, the world has recorded 703.5 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.05 million in the last 24 hours, and 7 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 674.62 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 Thursday at press time is 22,221,958, an increase of 576 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,186,341, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,617, 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 Thursday, recorded 111.52 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.22 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 45.03 million, and a reported death toll of 533,489.
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 Thursday, 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 3,120 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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