American Airlines aircraft in Miami, where new Covid screenings are taking place
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 1,467th day.
In news we cover today, per capita death rates for Covid were highest in the South and Southwest, the CDC started SARS-CoV-2 screenings at a major airport, and about the same number of people (more or less) who have never heard of Long Covid also believe tap water is sterile and contains no living organisms or bacteria.
THIS DAY IN COVID HISTORY
On March 16, 2020, New York City closed its public schools and moved to a remote instruction model. The Board of Education said at the time that schools would reopen following Spring Recess on April 20, 2020. In the interim, grab-and-go meals would be made available to students for the duration of the shutdown.
At of the 16th, there had been 329 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New York City and 5 fatalities attributed to the virus.
On March 17, 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio issued an executive order order closing restaurants and bars. Restaurants were allowed to serve only takeout meals or deliveries, and bars were permitted to sell cocktails for delivery.
The sudden flood of tens of thousands of laid-off workers swamped the state’s Department of Labor, which manages unemployment benefits. Within hours, frustrated applicants were posting complaints on social media about not being able to apply online. Some reported that the state’s system was crashing throughout the day.
LONG COVID
The number of people living with Long Covid is going up, not down, according to recent data from a survey conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The startling increase comes to light as the agency has relaxed Covid isolation recommendations.
That means an estimated 17.6 million Americans could now be living with long Covid.
UNITED STATES
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began to conduct voluntary health screenings of international passengers landing at Miami International Airport this past week as part of a traveler-based genomic surveillance program, which launched in September 2021.
The screenings are limited to Terminal D at the airport, home to American Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, which operates some 70% of that airports flights.
Other major airports in the country that are also enrolled in the program include John F. Kennedy International in New York, Logan International in Boston, and Los Angeles International.
An analysis conducted by the Albany Times-Union newspaper of federal Covid death statistics found that, while New York State had the most deaths in the first full year of the coronavirus pandemic in actual numbers, 11 other states experienced higher SARS-CoV-2-related deaths per capita between the start of 2020 and the beginning of 2024, and most of those states were in the South and Southwest of the country.
Not surprisingly, eight states with some of the highest Covid-19-related death rates have the highest obesity rates and age-adjusted heart disease fatalities in the nation: West Virginia, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Ohio, Kentucky, and Arkansas.
Finally, of states with the lowest coronavirus inoculation rates, six were among those states experiencing the highest per capita death tolls.
A Las Vegas man who stole over $40,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program that was part of the nation’s pandemic relief efforts will spend two years in federal prison, the office of the U.S. attorney of Nevada announced Sunday.
Arian Anthony Bailey defrauded the program by obtaining $40,000 under false pretenses, according to a copy of his plea agreement. The 34-year-old fraudster pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and was sentenced this month to 30 months in prison followed by three years of probation, according to the agreement. He must also pay back $46,731.39, which includes $5,000 the government spent processing the applications.
Bailey had tried to obtain over $500,000 in relief funds but his applications, which were all made while on supervised release for felony drug and gun convictions, were turned down.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
A new study shows why one should not use tap water for nasal irrigation. The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, examined ten cases where patients had developed life-threatening amoeba infections after rinsing their sinuses, in many cases with tap water using either a neti pot or a squirt bottle.
While such infections are relatively rare, what isn’t rare is the percentage of people in the United States who believe tap water is sterile. That figure, according to a survey published in February 2023 in the same journal, is 33%. That cohort believed that the water contained no living bacteria or other germs. Moreover, 62% thought it was safe to use tap water for rinsing sinuses, 50% thought it was safe to use tap water for rinsing contact lenses, and 42% thought that the water coming out of the tap was safe for cleaning respiratory devices.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, March 17.
As of Sunday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.24 million Covid-19 cases, a figure that is virtually unchanged in the last 48 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.11 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, also a figure that remains unchanged.
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 22,119,059, a decrease of 2,500 in the past 48 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,086,274, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,276, 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 111.68 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, 533,513.
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, 710,427, has recorded 38.59 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 24.03 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending March 9, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on March 15 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 5.2%, and the trend in test positivity is -1.5% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 1%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -24%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 13,391, a figure that is down 13.5% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 2%, a figure that is down 4.8% 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 1,686 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.
Kurt Stolz 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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