A pop-up coronavirus testing site in New York City’s Theater District
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,148th day of the pandemic and World Press Freedom Day.
Since the first World Press Freedom Day 30 years ago in 1993, there has been substantial progress in achieving a free press and freedom of expression across the globe, especially given the rise of the online press and other online sources of accurate information.
On the flip side, however, the safety of journalists and the freedom of expression are both coming increasingly under attack, to wit the arrest in Russia of our colleague, the Wall Street Journal’s Evan Kershkovich, who has now been detained for five weeks. In addition, the record number of journalists imprisoned worldwide for doing their jobs reached a 30-year high in 2022, according the Committee to Protect Journalists, a three-fold increase since the first World Press Freedom Day.
Meanwhile, if you happened to attend the annual Epidemic Intelligence Services conference of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week, I’d recommend you get a PCR coronavirus test… today.
Approximately three dozen cases linked to the conference have been reported thus far and CDC disease detectives are on the case.
Media reports indicate that many at the gathering failed to don face masks, practice social distancing, or take any other precautions that the CDC and others had recommended earlier in the pandemic.
The conference was the first EIS event to be held in person versus virtually in four years and the irony is not lost on many, including this writer.
“CDC is working with the Georgia Department of Health to conduct a rapid epidemiological assessment of confirmed Covid-19 cases that appear to be connected to the 2023 EIS Conference to determine transmission patterns,” CDC spokesperson Kristen Nordlund said in an email to the Morning News Brief.
The CDC has reported the cases to Georgia health officials. The news comes at a time when the Biden administration is winding down the nation’s pandemic health emergency status and also at a time when a new and even more highly-infectious sublineage of the omicron variant, namely XBB.1.16, is becoming more prevalent in multiple countries including the United States.
XBB.1.16 first originated in India.
Nordlund confirmed that 35 cases had been reported as of Tuesday.
“Conducting a rapid investigation now will help understand transmission that occurred and assist in refining future public health guidance as we move out of the public health emergency and to the next phase of COVID-19 surveillance and response,” she said. “Whenever there are large gatherings, especially indoors, such as at a conference, there is the possibility of COVID-19 spread, even in periods of low community spread.
In other news we cover today, former Brasilian President Bolsonaro’s home was raided over vaccine records, New York and California lost $97 billion in income in the first two years of the pandemic, and domestic travel in China rebounded on May Day.
UNITED STATES
The latest data from the Internal Revenue Service shows that New York and California lost $92 billion in income to low-tax states in the first two years of the coronavirus pandemic, namely 2020 and 2021. High earners relocated to lower-tax states such as Florida and Texas during this period.
GLOBAL
Fang Bin did in fact return home to Wuhan, the original epicenter of the pandemic, after his disappearance three years ago after posting reports on social media of devastation there attributed to SARS-CoV-2. The citizen-journalist and whistleblower, who was a clothing salesman, had been jailed for three years and was released immediately prior to World Press Freedom Day by Chinese officials who declined to comment to the Morning News Brief on the matter.
Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s home was raided on Wednesday by police, who seized his mobile phone as part of an ongoing investigation into his coronavirus vaccine records. The question investigators hope to answer is how Bolsonaro, a strident coronavirus skeptic who vowed never to get the jab, was registered as having been vaccinated in health records that were made public earlier in the year.
TRAVEL
In China, domestic travel rebounded on the Labor Day holiday – May Day in other countries – to pre-pandemic levels. The news is a positive sign for the struggling Chinese economy.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, May 3.
As of Wednesday morning, the world has recorded 687.4 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.1 million from the previous day, and over 6.86 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, just over 659.8 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of under 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 Wednesday at press time is 20,654,191, an increase of 10,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,614,813, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 39,378, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past five months.
The United States reported 88,210 new cases in the period April 20 through April 26, a figure that is down 13% 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 1,052, a figure that is down 20%. The average number of hospital admissions from Covid was 4,198 on May 2, a figure that is down 15% over the preceding 14 days. Finally, the test positivity rate is 5.1%, down 14% over the 14 days preceding April 28.
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 Wednesday, recorded just under 106.7 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.16 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.9 million, and a reported death toll of 531,584.
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 40 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 38.4 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 701,833, has recorded just under 37.5 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 over 33.7 million cases, South Korea, with 31.2 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with just under 25.8 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with over 24.5 million, and Russia, with over 22.8 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, just over 270 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 230.5 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 675.4 million. Breaking this down further, 92.2% of the population over the age of 18 – or 238.1 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 79.1% of the same group – or 204.3 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 20.3% of the same population, or 52.3 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 23.3 million people over the age of 65, or 42.6% 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 70% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Wednesday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.38 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 70,073 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 29.7% 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 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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