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Authorities announced Thursday that two people in South Carolina had been diagnosed with a more infectious strain of the coronavirus first detected in South Africa. This is the first time that the variant has been reported in the United States
Also on Thursday, New York Attorney General Letitia James released a report that the state may have underestimated COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents by 50%. New York experienced the first major coronavirus outbreak last spring, and nursing homes were hit particularly hard.
More than 430,000 people have died and more than 25.7 million cases have been reported in the United States since the start of the pandemic, according to NBC News.
Here are the latest coronavirus updates from the United States and beyond:
Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine offers strong protection against COVID-19, was less effective against new variant
Johnson & Johnson say their vaccine appears to protect against COVID-19 with just one hit. It’s not as strong as some double-barreled rivals, but still potentially useful for a world in dire need of more doses.
Results released Friday show that the single-injection vaccine was 66% effective overall in preventing moderate to severe disease and much more protective against more severe symptoms.
The vaccine worked better in the United States compared to South Africa, where it faced a more resistant mutated virus. The company says it will soon file an emergency use application in the United States and then overseas.
Read the full story here.
‘COVID tongue’ may be another symptom of virus, suggests UK researcher
There could be another addition to the growing list of possible strange symptoms of the novel coronavirus: the “COVID tongue”.
A British researcher who is helping to track warning signs of COVID-19 reports more cases of infected people complaining of tongue discoloration, enlargement and other mouth problems, reports NBC News.
“Seeing an increasing number of Covid tongues and strange mouth ulcers. If you have a weird symptom or even just a headache and fatigue, stay home! Tim Spector, Professor of Genetic Epidemiology at King’s College London, tweeted this month.
He believes that more than a third of COVID-19 patients, 35%, have unconventional symptoms of the disease in the first three days, so it’s important to draw attention to rashes, toes of Covid and other warning signs that “are being ignored,” he wrote.
Spector did not respond to a request for comment, but other researchers have also reported tongue and mouth symptoms linked to the new coronavirus.
Read the full story on NBCNews.com
NJ hospital gave first COVID vaccines to donors and relatives of leaders: report
Some of the first people to be vaccinated against COVID-19 at a New Jersey medical center, according to a published report, were relatives of senior hospital officials and some of its administrators and donors.
The injections were administered by Hunterdon Medical Center in December and early January, a time when only frontline healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities were eligible, reports NBC New York.
A vaccine recipient registry, obtained by New Jersey 101.5 FM, indicated that injections had been sent to two longtime donors in hospital and at least seven spouses and two adult children of medical directors, administrators or executives of the health care network. The radio station said it received the log from a whistleblower it did not identify.
Some of the recipients were in their 20s, an age group unlikely to qualify for the vaccine for many months.
A spokesperson for the hospital said donors and board members did not have a preference over eligible staff or those at risk available, but received the vaccine when recipients eligible could not be located rather than losing vaccine doses.
Read the full story here
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