Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,097th day of the pandemic and the beginning of the fourth year of the coronavirus pandemic.
While winter weather rages on in some parts of the country, the calendar already informed us it’s now meteorological spring and the first day of astrological spring is just days away.
While spring is good news all around, what’s really worthy of note is that the expected winter wave of new coronavirus cases and deaths came not with a bang but with a whimper.
Cases and deaths rose at the end of last year and the start of 2023, and many feared we were in for a major surge. But just as quickly as the wave appeared, it retreated. As of the current time, the number of new cases and deaths is on par with what we reported last spring. We can step back and praise the deity of your choice that we survived our first winter of the pandemic without a major massive new wave.
It appears that we were spared this wave because most of the country currently has high immunity levels thanks to both vaccinations, boosters, and prior infections, although this won’t last very long.
Unfortunately, we will never know whether we did have something of a wave thanks to cutbacks in public coronavirus tests and a significant rise in the use of home testing kits for Covid. As of earlier this year, only 24,000 people – including this writer – had reported their test results to the makemytestcount.org website organized by the National Institutes of Health. Most SARS-CoV-2 cases this year have been fairly minor with mild symptoms so we may never know the true count.
In other news we cover today, Japan is loosening recommendations on masking and Bruce Springsteen and his band will be cancelling multiple performances due to “illness.”
GLOBAL
Japan relaxed its face mask guidelines at the start of the week. Officials now say that that wearing them was now a personal choice. But many Japanese remained cautious, citing masks’ effectiveness at preventing the spread of Covid-19, a phenomenon made clear by the number of people who continue to choose to mask in shops, on public transit, and at offices.
In Hong Kong, Cheung Chin-hang, a 25-year-old community health practitioner, a reportedly paid a nurse $1,000 Hong Kong dollars ($127) to provide him with a coronavirus vaccination record without receiving the jab. The Independent Commission Against Corruption said that Cheung tried to bribe the nurse at Osman Ramju Sadick Memorial Sports Centre in Kwai Chung in September last year.
ENTERTAINMENT
Bruce Springsteen and E Street Band once again were forced to postpone additional shows due to “illness.” The group previously postponed gigs as band members Steven Van Zandt and violinist/singer Soozie Tyrell missed Texas shows after testing positive for Covid. Saxophonist Jake Clemons and half of the E Street’s touring backup singers also missed subsequent dates.
“No need to be anxious or afraid… We will all be back in full force very soon,” Steven Van Zandt assures fans after third-straight gig pushed back
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Monday, March 13.
As of Monday morning, the world has recorded 681.6 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.81 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 654.6 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.2 million.
The reader should note that infrequent reporting from some sources may appear as spikes in new case figures or death tolls.
Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Monday at press time is 20,229,095, a decrease of 85,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,188,775, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 40,320, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past three months.
The United States reported 1,489 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 10,161 reported on Saturday, 55,447 reported on Friday, and 63,372 reported on Thursday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 29,472. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 29,457, a figure down 13% over the past 14 days, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 393, an increase of 20% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 23,953, a decrease of 13%. In addition, the number of patients in ICUs was 3,116, a decrease of 12% and the test positivity rate is now 7.6%, a figure that is down by 19% over the same period.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Monday, recorded 105.6 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.15 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,782.
The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, 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 over 39.6 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with just under 38.3 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 699,310, has recorded 37.1 million cases, placing it in the number five slot.
The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are Japan, with 33.3 million cases, South Korea, with 30.6 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with just over 25.6 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.4 million, and Russia, with 22.4 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, 269.6 million people in the United States – or 81.2% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.3%, or 230.1 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 672.1 million. Breaking this down further, 92.1% of the population over the age of 18 – or 237.8 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 79% of the same group – or just under 204 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 19.6% of the same population, or 50.5 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 22.7 million people over the age of 65, or 41.4% of that population have also received the bivalent booster.
Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.
Some 69.7% 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, 13.32 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 406,085 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 28% 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 start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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