Park Avenue in the 40s in New York City
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,114th day of the pandemic.
The coronavirus pandemic-induced exodus from large cities in the United States appears to be slowing down and in some cases reversing.
In New York City, Manhattan’s population actually grew. The island added more than 17,000 residents in the 12-month period ending last July after losing almost 111,000 people in the previous 12-month period, according to figures released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Indeed, New York County, or the borough of Manhattan, was among several large, urban U.S. counties that either gained residents or saw little or no decline between July 2021 and July 2022 compared with a year earlier.
Other counties with similar growth include Kings County in Washington, which encompasses Seattle; Dallas County in Texas; and two counties in Florida, Miami-Dade and Broward.
Interestingly enough, in all of these cases, the growth in population was led by one thing, namely international immigration. It was not, as some had hoped, a return by those who had exiled themselves in the early months of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, the Oura ring could detect Covid before symptoms appear, researchers found, and a survey of doctors found that they believe that misinformation about Covid and other health issues “does actual harm” to the patient.
UNITED STATES
A poll sponsored by de Beaumont Foundation, the public health philanthropy, and conducted by Morning Consult found that 75% of doctors said that misinformation about SARS-CoV-2 and other health issues “does actual harm” to the patient.
The Senate passed what amounts to a largely symbolic resolution to end the federal government’s coronavirus emergency in May. The vote comes after President Biden announced that the emergency would in fact end in May.
GLOBAL
In the United Kingdom, Member of Parliament Margaret Ferrier faces a 30-day suspension from Commons for having breached pandemic rules. Ferrier “knowingly and recklessly” exposed people to the virus.
If approved by members of parliament, the length of the suspension means a recall petition could be triggered leading to a by-election in the seat.
Meanwhile , Chinese officials plan to conduct random spot checks at medical facilities across the country to track incomplete and under-reported coronavirus data, the country’s health authority said. The move comes amidst a wider call by global authorities for more transparency.
TECH
In a study published by Oura Health, the Finnish company that makes the Oura ring that tracks sleep and physical activity, researchers found that the ring picked up coronavirus related changes in the body days before symptoms appeared.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Thursday, March 30.
As of Thursday morning, the world has recorded 683.7 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.83 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 656.7 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.2 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 Thursday at press time is 20,205,349, a decrease of 9,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,165,395, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 39,954, 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 5,738 on March 28, a figure that is down 8% over the preceding 14 days. Finally, the test positivity rate is 7.1%, up 1% over the 14 days preceding March 25.
Starting on March 25, 2023, the Morning News Brief began to update case data as well as death tolls on a weekly basis.
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Thursday, recorded 106.2 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 530,848.
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 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, 700,239, has recorded 37.3 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 25.7 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.4 million, and Russia, with 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 Thursday, 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 470,639 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 28.5% 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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