A worker wearing mask in open market in China in late 2019
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 1,461t day.
In news we cover today, the coronavirus pandemic was declared four years ago today, the WHO is still trying to define the term “pandemic,” and New York State four years ago saw a containment zone declared in the East Coast epicenter of the pandemic.
THIS DAY IN COVID HISTORY
Four years ago today, t he World Health Organization declared the novel coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.
At a news briefing, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that, over the past two weeks, the number of cases outside China increased 13-fold and the number of countries with cases increased threefold.
Further increases are expected. He said that the WHO is “deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity and by the alarming levels of inaction,” and he called on countries to take action now to contain the virus.
“We should double down,” he said. “We should be more aggressive.”
UNITED STATES
New Jersey, a new report reveals, was not prepared for the pandemic, along with the rest of the world, and is not ready for the next public-health emergency.
A $9 million publicly funded report prepared by the law firm of Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads in partnership with Boston Consulting Group found that
The report framed the future in blunt language.
“We collectively failed as a nation and as a state to be adequately prepared” Paul Zoubek, a former New Jersey assistant attorney general who worked on the study, wrote in the report. “At the state level, heroic actions were taken to respond in good faith to the crisis. Despite the lessons of the last four years, New Jersey remains underprepared for the next emergency.”
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 were 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 placed a request before the program was once again suspended at the end of the current week.
GLOBAL
Four years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic, representatives from World Health Organization member countries around the world are working on a formal definition of a pandemic. The move is part of a wider effort to strengthen global pandemic preparedness.
An leaked recent draft, which was published in February of this year by Health Policy Watch, defines it as follows: “The global spread of a pathogen or variant that infects human populations with limited or no immunity through sustained and high transmissibility from person to person, overwhelming health systems with severe morbidity and high mortality and causing social and economic disruptions, all of which requires effective national and global collaboration and coordination for its control.”
A spokesman for the agency told the Brief that an updated definition is slated to be published this 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 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 Monday, March 11.
As of Monday, at press time, the world has recorded 704 million Covid-19 cases, a figure that is largely unchanged in the last 24 hours, and 7 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 674.97 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.01 million in the last 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 22,024,580 , a decrease of 7,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 21,989,247, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,333, 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 Monday, recorded 111.63 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 the world’s fourth highest death toll, 533,510.
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. Russia also has the world’s fifth highest death toll from the pandemic.
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 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 2,446 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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