A 1970 Cadillac DeVille convertible in Los Angeles traffic
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,112th day of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, the geneticist who discovered data linking the Wuhan wet market with novel coronavirus cases speaks out and the largest counties in California will continue to leave mask mandates in place.
UNITED STATES
In California, three Bay Area counties – including the two largest – aren’t eliminating mask mandates for many healthcare settings.
In Contra Costa County, a new health order will require staff in local skilled nursing facilities to continue wearing masks when the state order expires. The order includes EMTs, contractors, and vendors entering any of the county’s 30 facilities.
Meanwhile, Alameda County will require the continued use of masks by staff in skilled nursing facilities, effective 12:01 a.m. on April 3. Masking is optional for visitors, however.
Finally, Santa Clara County last week issued an order mandating the use of face masks in patient care areas of all health care settings during an annual “winter respiratory virus period” designated by the county health officer.
The new rules show an approach that is intended to ensure the continued protection of vulnerable populations in those counties.
GLOBAL
The scientist who strategically stumbled across genetic data, from swabs taken at the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, China, in the earliest days of the pre-pandemic period is speaking out.
“I have a bad work-life balance,” she said, after confessing she came across the data while working from her sofa on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month.
Florence Débarre’s discovery of genetic data online showed for the first time that animals susceptible to coronavirus were present at the market.
The World Health Organization, meanwhile, announced new guidance for tailored coronavirus vaccinations for a new phase of the pandemic. The WHO said that healthy children and adolescents may not necessarily need a shot but older, high-risk groups should get a booster between six to 12 months after their last vaccine.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Tuesday, March 28.
As of Tuesday morning, the world has recorded over 683.4 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of just under 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.83 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 656.4 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.1 million from the previous day.
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 Tuesday at press time is 20,186,652, a decrease of 26,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,146,549, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 40,103, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past five months.
The United States reported 135,520 new cases in the period March 16 through March 23, a figure that is down 29% over the same period one week earlier, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The death toll for the same period is 2,060, a figure that is down 2%. The average number of hospital admissions from Covid was 5,020 on March 24, a figure that is down 10% over the preceding 14 days. Finally, the test positivity rate is 6.9%, down 7% over the 14 days preceding March 21.
Starting on March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis and publish the updated information in the Thursday edition.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Tuesday, recorded 106.1 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 530,841.
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 just under 39.8 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.3 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 699,917, has recorded 37.2 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 33.4 million cases, South Korea, with 30.8 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with just under 25.7 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.4 million, and Russia, with just under 22.6 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, 269.8 million people in the United States – or 81.3% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.4%, or 230.3 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 673.5 million. Breaking this down further, 92.2% of the population over the age of 18 – or 238 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 79% of the same group – or 204.1 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 19.9% of the same population, or 51.1 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 22.9 million people over the age of 65, or 41.8% 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 69.8% 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, 13.34 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 236,644 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 28.4% 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.
Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
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