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 1,478th day.
In news we cover today, a very drunk actor was thrown off a flight leaving Texas after he refused to sit next to a passenger who had donned a face mask, the IRS says that pandemic fraud in the United States cost as much as $9 billion, and passengers were dying on the Zaandam cruise ship four years ago as it struggled to return to Florida.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On March 28, 2020, the ill-fated voyage of the Zaandam cruise ship continued as the operators of the Panama Canal reversed course and gave the ship permission to use the canal to return to Florida. Multiple passengers had contracted SARS-CoV-2 on the voyage and four died from the virus.
In New York City, some 12% of the police force is out sick with Covid, or 4,232 people, were unable to come to work because of the virus.
Then President Donald Trump said in a message on social media that, after consulting with the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, he is asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue what he termed “a strong Travel Advisory” for those three states. The advisory would be administered by those governors, in consultation with the federal government.
As of this date, there had been at least 117,688 cases of SARS-CoV-2 reported and 2,010 deaths from the virus.
Finally, Twitch, the video streaming platform for gamers, said it had raised $2 million via a 12-hour concert for the World Health Organization’s Covid Solidarity Response Fund.
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 as enzymes that the body naturally uses to regulate important functions. Doctors may be able to target such abzymes with medication to stop their unwanted effects in order to treat some conditions associated with Long Covid, for example.
UNITED STATES
An intoxicated television actor who refused to sit next to a fellow passenger because she was wearing a face mask was kicked off the flight before it departed. The actor, Forrie Jordan Smith, who in a video he posted to social media appeared so drunk that he didn’t even know what city he was attempting to depart from, said that he wasn’t drunk but had been drinking for three hours.
“I told them I didn’t feel comfortable sitting next to somebody with a mask on,” he said on the video.
Pandemic fund-related fraud has been found to add up to at least $9 billion, according to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel.
As of February 29, 2024, 795 people have been indicted for pandemic-related crimes. In addition, 373 individuals have been sentenced to an average of 34 months in federal prison for such offenses. During the last four years, the IRS has seen a 98.5% conviction rate when prosecuting such cases.
The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations unit expects its work to continue and has opened some 700 new pandemic-related fraud cases that collectively add up to $5 billion in potential fraud.
Moderna’s new version of its coronavirus vaccine triggers 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 Thursday.
The drugmaker’s newly developed jab could 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 also be a “critical component” of Moderna’s combination vaccine targeting Covid and the flu, the company said.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Thursday, March 28.
As of Thursday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.52 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.04 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.38 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.05 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 Thursday at press time is 22,135,567, a decrease of 8,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,100,551, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 35,016, 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 Thursday, recorded 111.76 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 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 10,383 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
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