Coronavirus Daily News Brief –March 10: Free U.S. Program for Test Kits Now Suspended, ‘Pandemic: The Musical’ Hits All the Wrong Notes

Critics panned “Pandemic: The Musical”
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 1,460th day.
In news we cover today, the U.S. government program that offered at-home coronavirus test kits was suspended at week’s end, a new short film/musical purportedly about the pandemic hits all the wrong notes, and four years ago New York State saw a containment zone declared for the East Coast epicenter of the pandemic.
THIS DAY IN COVID HISTORY
Four years ago, today on March 10, 2020, Governor Andrew Cuomo ordered a containment zone in New Rochelle – the first Covid epicenter on the East Coast – from March 12 through March 25.
Two days earlier, on March 8, New York City issued guidelines telling people to avoid densely packed buses, subways, or trains.
UNITED STATES
As of Saturday, the U.S. government program offering free at-home Covid test kits was suspended. The on-again/off-again offer was most recently made available in mid-November of last year, just in time for the holiday travel season.
The program was introduced in late January 2022.  Deliveries are made by the United States Postal Service within seven to ten days of an order being placed.  The government will send four test kits to each residential address that places a request until the program is once again suspended at the end of the current week.
ENTERTAINMENT
It was bound to happen. The film “Pandemic: The Musical” made its premiere of sorts in Las Vegas over the weekend. The short film is the latest in a series by a superspreader of conspiracy theories about the pandemic, Mikki Willis.
The film itself is a virtual font of medical misinformation filled with catchy tunes and out-of-date tropes that fall flat given that so many people see the pandemic, albeit incorrectly, in the rear-view mirror.
To add insult to injury, the Q&A session scheduled for after the viewing was cancelled after Willis was told that the screening room was booked for use at that time.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, March 10.
As of Sunday, at press time, the world has recorded 704 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.02 million in the last 48 hours, and 7 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 674.96 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.03 million in the last 48 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 Sunday at press time is 22,031,574, a decrease of 8,00 in the past 48 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 21,996,239, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,335, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 19 months.
Since the start of the pandemic, the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded 111.62 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 533,499.
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 24.01 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending March 2, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on March 8 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 6.5%, and the trend in test positivity is -1% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1.5%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -21.2%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 15,141, a figure that is down 13.6% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2.2%, a figure that is up 0.1% in the same period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, 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 2,800 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.
Paul Riegler 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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