Terminal 2 at San Franicsco International Airport
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,155th day of the pandemic and, while today is not a particular holiday of note, it may in the future go down as Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire Day in honor of the day that Congressman George Santos was placed into federal custody after having been charged on a 13-count indictment that includes seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives. There is no word whether the volleyball team at Baruch University, a team Santos lied about being on that doesn’t even exist at a school he lied about attending, will seek justice as well.
In other news we cover today, enrollment in U.S. schools hasn’t recovered, a group of senators is attempting to revive the idea of a Covid-19 task force along the lines of the 9/11 Commission, and San Francisco’s airport is launching a wastewater surveillance program with the CDC.
UNITED STATES
In Washington, D.C., a group of senators is attempting to revive efforts to establish a Covid-19 task force modeled along the lines of the 9/11 Commission. The panel would be used to investigate the U.S. government response to the pandemic and the currently disputed origins of the virus.
New data shows that enrollment in the vast majority of the nation’s largest school districts has yet to recover, some three years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic. Falling birth rates are causing kindergarten enrollments to tumble downward and a slew of options is causing some parents to move away from more traditional schools.
Meanwhile, San Francisco International Airport said it has launched a program in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to test wastewater from airplanes for traces of emerging coronavirus variants. The program will allow the CDC to detect traces of the virus in people’s feces when they carry the infection, even if they are asymptomatic at the time.
GLOBAL
A Hong Kong health worker who was concerned about possible side-effects of the coronavirus vaccine admitted that he attempted to bribe a nurse in order to get a vaccine certificate. Cheung Chin-hang was remanded in custody to await sentencing. He offered 1,000 Hong Kong dollars ($127) to the nurse as a bribe at a time when proof of vaccine was necessary in order to participate in activities of daily life in Hong Kong.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Wednesday, May 10.
As of Wednesday morning, the world has recorded over just over 688 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of under 0.1 million from the previous day, and 6.87 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 660.4 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 Wednesday at press time is 20,703,597, a decrease of 8,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,664,534, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 39,063, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past five months.
The United States reported 77,212630 new cases in the period April 27 through May 3, a figure that is down 22% 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 1,109, a figure that is down 11%. The average number of hospital admissions from Covid was 4,535 on May 8, a figure that is up 1% over the preceding 14 days. Finally, the test positivity rate is 5.4%, up 3% 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 106.8 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, just under 45 million, and a reported death toll of 531,722.
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 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, 702,116, has recorded 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 33.8 million cases, South Korea, with just under 31.3 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.8 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with over 24.5 million, and Russia, with 22.9 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of the past Thursday, 270.1 million people in the United States – or 81.4% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.5%, or 230.6 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 676 million. Breaking this down further, 92.2% of the population over the age of 18 – or 238.2 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 52.6 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine, while 23.5 million people over the age of 65, or 42.9% 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 69,089 doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 29.8% 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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