An image of today’s ecipse in which the sun is so overexposed that it creates the burnt white image visible in the sky and the camera’s optics then reflect back the actual crescent and it appears on the building.
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 1,489th day as well as the day of the Great North American Total Solar Eclipse.
In news we cover today, a new study links Long Covid to ongoing inflammation in the blood, pertussis – better known as whooping cough – is back in parts of Europe, and Covid case figures both in the United States as well as across the globe are by and large stable, but not showing a dramatic decline.
TODAY IN COVID HISTORY
On April 8, 2020, the economic consequences of the pandemic were made crystal clear when industry figures showed that just under 80% of all hotel rooms in the United States were empty.
Meanwhile, the governor of Nevada expanded his stay-at-home order by closing multiple additional public venues including gyms, swimming pools, and golf courses. He also prohibited public worship if more than ten people were present, a move that likely saved thousands from contracting Covid as the order came just before Easter.
A jail in Chicago had one of the largest outbreaks in the country for a single facility. Cook County Jail reported 400 novel coronavirus cases, a number that included 251 prisoners and 150 staff.
A letter to the White House from members of a National Academy of Sciences committee said that, contrary to comments made by then President Donald Trump earlier in the month, it would be wishful thinking to believe that the number of coronavirus cases would diminish simply because of “warmer weather.” The letter cited the continued rise in cases in warm-weather countries and countries south of the Equator to point out the fallacy in the president’s contention.
At the White House, Drs. Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci pushed back on the many conspiracy theories that suggest that Covid deaths in the United States were being inflated, especially among those dying with existing underlying conditions.
“You will always have conspiracy theories when you have very challenging public health crises,” Fauci said, after providing data to underscore the point.
“They are nothing but distractions.”
Finally, the global total of cases totaled over 1.5 million, and the global death toll was just over 87,000, according to figures from the Coronavirus Morning News Brief of that day. United States saw a new record number of daily deaths, as the figure hit 1,736. This brought the total to at least 12,772 deaths from Covid, at a time where there were over 387,547 confirmed cases of the virus reported cases in the country.
LONG COVID
A new study published by researchers at Imperial College in London and at other U.K. universities suggests that patients with Long Covid have evidence of ongoing inflammation in their blood.
The findings show that long covid has a true biological basis and isn’t a figment of people’s imaginations.
Put differently, it suggests that specific inflammatory pathways related to tissue damage are associated with subtypes of Long Covid. The researchers believe that these pathways be druggable targets and the findings clue us in to biomarkers that could lead to diagnoses.
The study, which was published in the journal nature immunology, looked at bloodwork from 657 patients, of which 426 had at least one Long Covid symptom.
UNITED STATES
The number of SARS-CoV-2 cases is relatively stable, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Only two states posted increases in weekly cases figures, while figures were relatively stable in 19 states. Some 29 states reported either a decline or a likely decline, the agency said.
A man who created a fictitious company and then applied for and received $163,100 in federal pandemic relief funds while on parole in Oregon was sentenced to more than two years in federal prison.
The man, Justin David Goulet of Las Vegas, spent most of the money on travel, living expenses, cars, and illegal drugs. In addition to being sentenced to serve 27 months in prison and three years’ supervised release, he was also ordered to pay back all the money he stole to the U.S. Small Business Administration.
GLOBAL NEWS
Whooping cough is back. Pertussis, a Victorian-era ailment that all but disappeared in the first four years of the pandemic, is back, perhaps under the theory that, once you remove one cough from the picture, another quickly takes its seat at the table. Case figures have been spiking in recent weeks and they are seeing record numbers of cases in Czechia, along with sharp rises in Belgium, Denmark, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
Pfizer was accused by the United Kingdom’s pharmaceutical watchdog, the Prescription Medicines Code of Practice Authority, of “bringing discredit” on the industry after senior executives used social media to promote an “unlicensed” Covid vaccine.
One post, which was made in November 2020 by Dr. Berkeley Phillips 2020, the medical director of Pfizer UK, was a share of a post from an employee of Pfizer in the United States that said: “Our vaccine candidate is 95 per cent effective in preventing Covid-19, and 94 per cent effective in people over 65 years old…”
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
The recipient of the world’s first pig kidney transplant was discharged from Massachusetts General Hospital last Wednesday, nearly two weeks after the surgery.
A Hong Kong man’s encounter with monkeys led to his contracting a potentially deadly submicroscopic infectious agent. Last week, local health officials reported a case of B virus in a 37-year-old man. The report was the first ever in the region.
B virus, formerly known as Macacine herpesvirus, is very rare in humans but the virus can be life-threatening. The virus as first identified in 1932 following the death of a young physician who was bitten by a rhesus monkey while conducting research on polio. Meanwhile, the patient is currently in an intensive care unit.
GLOBAL STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, April 8.
As of Monday, at press time, the world has recorded 704.69 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, 675.56 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.07 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 Monday at press time is 22,122,569, a decrease of 13,000 in the past 24 hours. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 22,087,756, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 34,813, 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 Monday, recorded 111.80 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 24.10 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 Monday, 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 5,218 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.
☏ 844 LONGCOV (844 566-4268)
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
All Rights Reserved Travel