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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 1,476th day.
In news we cover today, a look back four years ago revealed a world where one-third of the population was living under some form of coronavirus pandemic-related restrictions, Bill Gates warned that the pandemic would not be over quickly, Moderna’s newly formulated coronavirus vaccine triggers a stronger immune response than current versions, and the head of the United Nations relief operations is retiring after announcing he has Long Covid.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On March 25, 2020, nearly one-third of the world’s population was living under various forms of coronaviruspandemic-related restrictions.
In the United States, a record number of unemployment claims – 3.3 million unemployment – were filed. The figure was the highest number of initial jobless claims in history.
In Washington, D.C. the U.S. Senate passed a $2 trillion economic-relief package while, in Hawaii, Governor David Ige asked people to postpone their visits to the Aloha State for 30 days with the result that flights to Hawaii in the preceding seven days were down 87% compared to the same period in 2019.
Finally, Bill Gates, speaking at a CNN Town Hall program, told television viewers that they should not expect life to return to normal by April, a month that was only six days away.
LONG COVID
Researchers at UVA Health said they have found a potential explanation for some Long Covid symptoms. The findings could help scientists develop new treatments for the condition and possibly for other viruses as well.
A team led by Dr. Steven Zeichner, a pediatric infectious disease expert at UVA Health Children’s Hospital, found that Covid-19 may prompt some people’s bodies to make abzymes that masquerade like enzymes that the body naturally uses to regulate important functions. Doctors may be able to target such abzymes to stop their unwanted effects with medication in order to treat some conditions associated with Long Covid, for example.
The head of the United Nations relief operations announced on Tuesday that he has Long Covid and would step down from his position by the end of June. Martin Griffiths, a British career diplomat who currently serves as Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, was appointed to his current position in 2021. Prior to that he was a conflict mediator at the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and was the first executive director for the European Institute of Peace.
Griffiths, who is 72, said he tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in April 2022 as he was visiting the U.N. headquarters in New York after returning from a trip to Afghanistan, Russia, and Ukraine.
“I am following health guidance, cancelled travel, and isolating at home,” Griffiths said in a social media post at the time. “I’m grateful to have had my vaccines already, an opportunity too many around the world have not had.”
In a statement announcing his resignation, he did not describe the severity of his Long Covid symptoms.
UNITED STATES
Moderna’s new version of its coronavirus vaccine triggered a stronger immune response against the virus than its current shot on the market in a late-stage trial, the company said in a statement released on Tuesday.
The drugmaker’s newly developed jab could will offer a longer shelf life, something that was accomplished by shortening the length of the mRNA strand in the vaccine. In addition, the new formulation will be also a “critical component” of Moderna’s combination vaccine targeting Covid and the flu, the company said.
Pfizer vaccine partner BioNTech said on Tuesday it has received a “notice of default ” from the National Institutes of Health on the payment of royalties and other amounts relating to its coronavirus vaccine.
BioNTech licensed certain patents from the NIH, among other entities, which is why the U.S. government is owed certain royalty payments, according to the German company’s annual report.
GLOBAL NEWS
Coronavirus vaccines were found to cut the risk of heart failure and blood clots following a SARS-CoV-2 infection, a new study suggests. Specifically, the study, published earlier in the British Medical Journey, found that an inoculation cut the risk of heart failure by up to 55% and blood clots by up to 78% following a Covid infection.
A team of researchers led by Núria Mercadé-Besora, a data scientist at the University of Oxford who has a Ph.D. in in Computational and Applied Physics looked at the health records of over 20 million people in Europe. Half of them were vaccinated against Covid, and half were not. Vaccines included in the research were those manufactured by Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, March 26.
As of Tuesday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.48 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.03 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.33 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.04 million in the same period.
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 Tuesday at press time is 22,143,166, a decrease of 2,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,108,106, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,060, 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 Tuesday, recorded 111.74 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, 533,540.
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 38.83 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 710,966, has recorded 38.69 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 24.91 million, and Russia, with 24.08 million, as nine and ten respectively.
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending March 16, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on March 22 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 4.6%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.8% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.7%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -25.6%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 10,719, a figure that is down 20.9% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.8%, a figure that is essentially unchanged over the period.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Tuesday, 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 7,237 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.
Finally, as of March 15, 2024 , only the following countries and territories have not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever:
Antarctica
British Antarctic Territory
Peter Island
Overseas
Bouvet Island
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Prince Edward Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
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
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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