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The United States on Monday was on the brink of 400,000 reported coronavirus deaths, nearly double the total for the next worst-hit country and still mourning over 20,000 deaths per week. The United States added nearly 4 million new infections this month, and the emergence of new variants only adds to that total.
The pace of vaccinations is accelerating but remains well below optimistic estimates by public health experts when the first vaccines were authorized last month.
Health and Social Services Secretary Alex Azar had scheduled 20 million first-injection vaccinations in December and an additional 30 million in January. More than half of January, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 10.6 million people received their first vaccine, less than 2 million the required booster.
© Jessica Hill, AP
John Cormier receives a photo from LPN Lizmary Reyes, right, on the day of the opening of Connecticut’s largest COVID-19 drive-thru vaccination clinic Monday in East Hartford.
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Despite the obstacles, efforts at the local level are underway to ensure that at-risk people of color are not left behind.
In the headlines:
►The United States surpassed 24 million cases of COVID-19 and California exceeded 3 million infections on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
►With Los Angeles County approaching 14,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, CNN reports that an air quality regulator has suspended for 10 days the limit on the number of incinerations that can be authorized.
►Over 31 million doses of vaccine have been distributed to states, but less than half of these have been used so far. The USA TODAY vaccine panel expects the inoculation rate to improve under the administration of Joe Biden.
►A Californian man who told police he was afraid of stealing COVID-19 was arrested after hiding at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport for three months. The man told authorities he was too “scared to go home because of COVID,” so he found a badge that gave him access to a restricted area and supported his months-long stay by relying on d other passengers to give him food.
Totals: There have been more than 95.4 million infections reported worldwide and more than 2 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In the United States, there have been over 24 million infections and nearly 400,000 deaths.
To look closer: The federal government has told Illinois to leave Rochelle Foods alone. Then came a second outbreak of COVID-19.
Officials worry about impact of foreign variants
Amid a continuing winter wave of coronavirus infections that has led to an increase in the number of COVID-19 deaths in 30 states, the emergence of new, highly contagious variants is raising concerns among public health experts and elected officials .
New mutations have been identified in Britain, South Africa and Brazil, prompting New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to call on the US government to cut travel from those countries. “Stop these people from coming here,” Cuomo said Monday. “Why are you allowing people to enter this country and then it’s too late?”
Federal authorities have already restricted travel from Britain and Brazil, as well as requiring proof of a negative coronavirus test for anyone flying in the country. But the British variant made its way to the United States, and California officials have also identified another strain spreading in the state.
The new Californian mutation is multiplying rapidly
Another new variant of the coronavirus – potentially more infectious but apparently no more dangerous than the current dominant strain – is on the rise in California, drawing the attention of public health officials.
The mutation, dubbed L452R, has been detected a few times since March but appears to have been very rare until November.
Between November 22 and December 13, the variant accounted for 3% of California cases where the virus had been genetically sequenced. Between Dec. 14 and Jan. 3, that percentage rose to 25%, said Dr. Charles Chiu, professor of medicine and viral genomics expert at the University of California-San Francisco.
It appears that the variant, different from the one found in the UK, is more transmissible, but there is no evidence that it makes people sicker. There are fears that mutating parts of the virus may have an effect on the effectiveness of vaccines, but the data to date is very preliminary, Chiu said.
“It’s not that we need to start worrying about it,” said Dr. Sara Cody, health official and director of public health for Santa Clara County, which encompasses Silicon Valley. “The bottom line is that we need to look at it and learn more about it.
– Elizabeth way
National COVID-19 memorial scheduled for Tuesday in DC
A national memorial to honor the lives lost to COVID-19 is scheduled for Tuesday evening, according to the inaugural presidential committee.
Even though Washington, DC, is on heightened security following the Jan.6 riots, the memorial “will feature lighting around the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool,” PIC said in a statement Monday afternoon.
President-elect Joe Biden – along with Dr. Jill Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff – will attend the event to light up the reflective pool of 400 lights to honor lives lost to COVID-19. This is the very first light around the Lincoln Memorial’s reflective pool.
Iconic buildings like the Empire State Building in New York or the Space Needle in Seattle should also be illuminated. In addition, hundreds of towns, cities, tribes, monuments and communities across the country have also pledged to join the tribute in a moment of national unity.
The grand opening “represents the start of a new national journey – one that renews its commitment to honor its dead and rise to greater heights in their honor,” said Tony Allen, CEO of PIC and Chairman of the Delaware State University. “With this in mind, it is important that we pay tribute to those we have lost – and their families – and come together to unite our country, contain this virus and rebuild our nation,” he said.
Americans gain confidence in vaccines
Acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine continues to soar, according to a new USA TODAY / Suffolk University poll, but pessimism about the return to normal in the United States is also on the rise.
Both results may indicate that President-elect Joe Biden’s messages are being heard. He himself took the vaccine on camera and also warned that the pandemic was going to get worse before it got better. Today, 56% of those surveyed say they will take the vaccine as soon as it becomes available, a jump of 10 percentage points since December and 30 points since October.
“The more people who get the vaccine and they see it’s safe… the more people are willing to go and do it,” said Shellie Belapurkar, 50, a nurse practitioner from Nashua, New Hampshire, who was among the interviewees. She received the vaccine herself and volunteers at a clinic every week to give it to others.
– Susan Page and Sarah Elbeshbishi
Trump adds chaotic response to COVID to his legacy
In addition to being the first president to be impeached twice, Donald Trump will have a stain on his legacy with arguably more lasting consequences: mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic.
The national death toll could exceed 400,000 dead on Monday. Not since Woodrow Wilson was in power during the 1918 influenza pandemic – which killed an estimated 675,000 people in this country and 50 million worldwide – has a president overseen the loss of so many American lives. Trump has shown contempt for wearing a mask recommended by public health experts – despite being infected himself.
“What’s so troubling about this loss of life is that it was preventable,” said Dr. Steven Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. “It is an infectious disease that we knew how to prevent. …. And yet, we have not mounted a response to wage war against this virus. “
Contribute: The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus Live Updates: As US Death Toll Approaches 400K, New Variants Threaten To Add To Fight; Americans’ confidence in vaccines increases
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