Pike Place Market in Seattle
Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,031st day of the pandemic.
In news we cover today, states in the United States are preparing to end Medicaid coverage for those who don’t qualify, Los Angeles liberalized its vaccine mandate exemption policies, and a tuberculosis patient in Washington is now under court orders to obtain treatment and isolate.
UNITED STATES
Los Angeles is shifting course on its enforcement of vaccine mandates for city workers. Going forward it will approve virtually all requests for exemptions. The city’s Personnel Department sent out a memo to department and agency heads ordering them to approve all religious and medical exemptions with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, officials in Maryland are to remove as many as 80,000 residents who could no longer qualify for Medicaid coverage this spring, as the federal government reinstates a requirement that existed before the coronavirus pandemic for states to verify the eligibility of recipients. Beginning in May, once the federal public health emergency order expires, beginning states can start ending Medicaid coverage for people who no longer qualify.
TRAVEL
Hong Kong’s air-passenger traffic may not return to pre-pandemic levels for up to two years, the head of the Hong Kong Airport Authority said. This comes as the city is embarking on a major global tourism campaign and about to give away 500,000 airline tickets to encourage people to visit.
Fred Lam Tin-fuk, the CEO of the Hon airport authority said that he expected daily arrivals to reach 160,000, or 80%, of pre-pandemic levels, by December of 2023.
“During the worst times, we only had a few hundred passengers per day. Before the pandemic, we once had 200,000 daily passengers,” Lam told a radio program on Sunday.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
A tuberculosis patient in Washington is refusing treatment and the city’s health department has been actively engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse with her, according to report earlier in the week in the News Tribune, a local newspaper. The woman has thus far refused to isolate or to take the necessary medications, Nigel Turner, the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department official responsible for communicable disease control.
“The court order is in place ordering isolation and quarantine,” Turner said. “We’re working with her on assessing the compliance with that.”
According to the newspaper, the health department has repeatedly sought and been granted court orders compelling the woman to isolate and obtain treatment for the disease. The Tribune reported that legal petitions from the health department said the patient had not abided by previous orders, and had at one point started but discontinued medication.
TODAY’S STATISTICS
Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, February 5.
As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 676.2 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.1 million cases, and 6.77 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 648.6 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.2 million.
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 Sunday at press time is 20,826,80, a decrease of 75,000. Out of that figure, 99.8%, or 20,785,121, are considered mild, and 0.2%, or 41,683, are listed as critical. The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.
The United States reported 2,986 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 64,375 on Saturday, 67,603 on Friday, 109,666 on Thursday, and 31,067 on Wednesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The 7-day incidence rate is now 44,364. Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.
The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 40,680, a figure down 14% over the past 14 days, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources. The average daily death toll over the same period is 458, a decrease of 8% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 30,815 , a decrease of 19%. In addition, the number of patients in ICUs was 3,880, a decrease of 19% and the test positivity rate is now 10%, an 8% decrease and a figure that has remained constant for the past 7 days..
In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded 104.5 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.14 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.7 million, and a reported death toll of 530,745.
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 reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, 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 39.5 million, and Germany is in the number four slot, with 37.8 million total cases.
Brazil, which has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 697,360, has recorded just under 36.9 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 32.7 million cases, South Korea, with just under 30.3 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 25.5 million, as number eight, as well as the United Kingdom, with 24.3 million, and Russia, with over 21.9 million.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, 268.9 million people in the United States – or 81% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 69.2%, or 229.6 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 668.8 million. Breaking this down further, 91.9% of the population over the age of 18 – or 237.4 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 78.9% of the same group – or 203.7 million people – is fully vaccinated. In addition, 18.8% of the same population, or over 48.6 million people, has already received an updated or bivalent booster dose of vaccine.
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 69.4% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.26 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 1.27 million doses are now administered each day.
Meanwhile, only 26.4% 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.
Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
