Coronavirus Daily News Brief – April 2: ARDS from Covid Can Cause Heart Damage, 4 Boros in N.Y.C. Lost More People Than 40 of the Largest U.S. Counties

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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 1,483rd day
In news we cover today, four of five New York City boroughs or counties lost more residents than some of the largest counties in the United States, Covid-induced ARDS can result in heart damage, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeal of a woman who contested her dismissal from her job because she refused to get inoculated.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On April 2, 2020, there was still little understanding or agreement about how the virus was transmitted and television news reports were replete with suggestions on disinfecting store-purchased products and your mail from the U.S. Postal Service.
There was great discussion as to whether warmer weather would tamp down the spread of the virus but, as Dr. Anthony Fauci pointed out in several interviews, warmer climates ranging from Florida to countries in South America were seeing high numbers of new infections.
“We just have to assume it will not help,” he said on one televised interview.
Finally, As of this date, there were more than 1 million Covid-19 cases worldwide and over 53,000 deaths, according to data compiled by the Daily News Brief. The United States had been hit hard by the pandemic, with more than 245,000 cases and almost 6,000 deaths.
UNITED STATES
Four of  New York City’s five boroughs – Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Manhattan, in that order –  lost a higher percentage of residents since the start of the coronavirus pandemic than any of the 40 largest counties in the country, the latest U.S. Census data reveals. The city’s boroughs are also counties, although Brooklyn is known as Kings County and Manhattan is known as New York County.
While it is known that SARS-CoV-2 can trigger acute respiratory distress syndrome, a condition in which fluid leaks into the lungs and prevents oxygen from passing into the body, it was not known
A team of researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital examined heart tissue specimens from 21 people who died with SARS-CoV-2-associated ARDS as well as specimens from 33 people who died from non-COVID-19 causes prior to the pandemic. They found that the patients with Covid had more macrophages than tissue from the control group and their findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2 increases the inflammatory share of macrophages in the heart, leading to heart damage. It also suggests that dialing back the body’s immune response might be an effective treatment as might the targeting pro-inflammatory heart macrophages.
The Supreme Court rejected on Tuesday the appeal of a Minnesota woman who said that she was wrongly denied unemployment benefits after she had been fired from her job for refusing to be inoculated against the coronavirus. The woman had cited her religious beliefs in her appeal.
The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development had determined that she wasn’t eligible for benefits because her grounds for refusing the jab were based more on a lack of trust that the vaccine would prove effective than on religious beliefs.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, April 2.
As of Tuesday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.61 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.06 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.43 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.03 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  22,164,018, an increase of 34,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,129,085, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,933, 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 111.77 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, 533,547.
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, 711,219, has recorded 38.73 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 24.1 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 4.0%, and the trend in test positivity is -0.6% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.6%, and the trend in emergency department visits is -21.1%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 in the same 7-day period was 9,345, a figure that is down 13.9% over the past 7-day period. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 1.5%, a figure that is down 16.7% in the same 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 9,082 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 31, 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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