An unidentified bird in Kona, Hawaii
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 1,485th day
In news we cover today, a bird flu pandemic could be far worse than the current coronavirus pandemic, organized crime in Italy stole €600M in pandemic relief funds, and “flattening the curve” was in all the headlines four years ago today.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On April 4, 2020, “flattening the curve” was in the headlines. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus pandemic coordinator, said that the next two weeks would be crucial for the effort to flatten the curve of coronavirus cases.
“This is the moment to not be going to the grocery store, not going to the pharmacy,” she said rather emphatically.
Meanwhile, then President Donald Trump continued to maintain that hydroxychloroquine had high efficacy against Covid-19. At a White House press briefing, he said that lupus patients, who are commonly treated with hydroxychloroquine, are less likely to contract the SARS-CoV-2.
“There’s a study out that people with lupus aren’t catching this horrible virus,” he said, adding that he might take the medication as a preventative measure.
Then Ohio Governor Mike DeWine reminded Ohioans that, “[I]n many cultures around the world, wearing a mask is just part of the culture, [and] it is a socially accepted act of kindness.”
Finally, the United States, as of this date, set another daily record in deaths from Covid, 1,224, bringing the total to 8,376, at a time where there were over 305,000 reported cases in the country.
LONG COVID
A new study published in Nature Communications examined the association of SARS-CoV-2 with immunologic phenomena that may cause allergic conditions of various kinds. Such conditions are, in some cases, known to be symptoms of Long Covid.
The multi-national study included some 150,000 participants from South Korea, 77,000 from the United Kingdom, and 542,000 from Japan who had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. After adjusting for all known variables that could affect the study’s outcome, the research team, led by three scientists from the Medical Science Research Institute at the Kyung Hee University College of Medicine, discovered that individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 showed a 20% higher occurrence of allergic diseases compared to those not infected.
UNITED STATES
A rare case of the H5N1 avian flu was detected in a human being. Federal and state officials announced on Monday that a dairy worker in Texas had been diagnosed with the virus and that this case had been traced back to a recent outbreak among dairy cows. becoming the second person ever in the US to contract the virus, federal and state officials said Monday.
The patient had had direct exposure to infected cows and Texas officials said that the virus does not pose a threat to the general public.
At a panel convened by the Canadian pharmaceutical house BioNiagara, virus researchers said the H5N1 strain of bird flu might be getting “dangerously close” to triggering a pandemic. One speaker said that this could be “100 times worse than Covid: and kill up to half of everyone it infects.
The virus of the patient in Texas has already mutated to become more transmissible to other humans, the CDC acknowledged.
In a courtroom in Philadelphia, U.S. District Judge Mitchell Goldberg of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an order that strengthened Arbutus’ arguments in a patent infringement lawsuit related to Moderna’s mRNA coronavirus vaccines.
Goldberg ruled in favor of Arbutus on 3 of 4 patent claims, although that does not settle the case. A trial is currently set to begin in April 2025.
Arbutus said it had developed the lipid nanoparticles that enclose the vaccine’s mRNA payload. The related patents were licensed to Genevant Sciences, a joint venture between Arbutus and Roivant Sciences.
GLOBAL NEWS
Police on Thursday arrested more than 20 suspects in Italy, Austria, Romania, and Slovakia as part of a major investigation into massive fraud linked to the European Union’s post-pandemic recovery fund. In addition, authorities also raided homes and businesses where they seized assets including apartments and villas, cryptocurrency, Rolex watches, gold and jewelry, as well as a Lamborghini, a Porsche, and an Audi Q8.
The crooks received €600 million ($650 million) the European Union’s Recovery and Resilience Facility for Italy
Italy alone has received €191.5 billion from the fund.
Investigators said that organized crime network used “advanced technologies” including artificial intelligence to produce false documents used to launder cash. The fraud operated by applying for public funding for projects worth tens of millions of euros that were meant to improve Italian companies’ competitiveness and digitalization.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Thursday, April 4.
As of Thursday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.63 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.01 million in the last 24 hours, and 7.01 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 675.49 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 Thursday at press time is 22,135,496, a decrease of 25,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,100,624, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,872, 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 111.79 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 last data made available by Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service in July 2022 showed that the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic in the country was 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States. Rosstat has not released any additional data on the death toll in Russia since then.
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, 711,249, 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 23, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on April 1 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 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 10,292 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
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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