A man in the U.K. has recovered after a nearly 300-day battle with the virus in the longest-known infection in the world. Plus, storms flooded a vaccination center in Germany.
Dr. Fauci tells MSNBC life could be back to normal by Christmas.
Australia’s New South Wales reported its third consecutive double-digit rise in new, local COVID-19 cases, Channel News Asia reported. The increase in cases comes as officials in the region fight to contain an outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant. Australia has reported about 30,400 COVID-19 cases and 910 deaths since the start of the pandemic. "...This is perhaps the scariest period that New South Wales is going through," state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
Japan's Emperor Naruhito said Thursday that he is "extremely worried" that the upcoming Tokyo Summer Olympics and subsequent Paralympic games could worsen the spread of the coronavirus in the country, The Associated Press reported. The emperor's concerns were relayed by Yasuhiko Nishimura, grand steward of the Imperial Household Agency, during a news conference. "His majesty is extremely worried about the current situation of the COVID-19 infections," Nishimura said. "While there are voices of unease among the public, I believe [the emperor] is concerned that holding the Olympics and Paralympics ... may lead to the expansion of the infections," The Associated Press reported. The emperor is scheduled to serve as "Honorary Patron" for the Olympics and Paralympics. The highly scrutinized Olympics will get underway on July 23 and the Paralympics will get started on Aug. 24.
More than 151 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, but hospitals across the country still have patients suffering from the virus. A recent analysis by The Associated Press found that only 0.1% of patients hospitalized due to COVID-19 have been vaccinated. “Nearly every death, especially among adults, due to COVID-19, is, at this point, entirely preventable,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said. According to the CDC, nearly two out of every three people in the U.S. that is 12 or older have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Vermont leads with way with more people per capita inoculated than any other state.
People looking forward to getting inoculated on Thursday at a vaccine center in Tuebingen, Germany, will need to reschedule after the location was flooded amid a severe thunderstorm. The storm hit late on Wednesday and brought more than just flooding downpours. Five injuries were reported after hailstones as large as tennis balls pelted the area, The Associated Press said. Thousands were also left in the dark after winds knocked over trees that lead to property damage and widespread disruptions.
After nearly 300 days, 43 positive tests and seven trips to the hospital, Dave, a resident of Bristol, U.K., has recovered from COVID-19. Scientists are now studying the 72-year-old man after having the longest-known infection of COVID-19 in the world, the BBC reported. Dave said that he lost 140 pounds over the span of 10 months due to the infection. “At one time I coughed for five hours non-stop,” Dave told the BBC. “I was ready to give up.” Doctors eventually were able to treat him with anti-viral drugs that helped his body finally defeat the virus.
Watch the video below to hear Dave tell his story:
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that New York’s COVID-19 state of emergency will be allowed to expire Thursday, Bloomberg reported. CDC guidelines will still need to be followed, including but not limited to wearing masks on public transit, in certain healthcare settings and for unvaccinated individuals. “Emergency is over,” Cuomo said. “It’s a new chapter – doesn’t mean there won’t be challenges for the new chapter – but the emergency is over.” Watch the video below for more.
FILE - In this Feb. 8, 2021 file photo a sign is displayed at a COVID-19 vaccine site in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco. San Francisco city workers will be required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus when a vaccine receives full federal approval. The policy covering 35,000 municipal workers may be the first by any city or county in the U.S., the San Francisco Chronicle reported Wednesday, June 23. (AP Photo/Haven Daley,File)
The city of San Francisco will require all 35,000 of its employees to undergo COVID-19 vaccination, The New York Times reported. The city is one of the largest municipalities in the U.S. to mandate the vaccine for public workers. Those who don’t meet the mandate’s requirements risk losing their jobs. The mandate will take effect once the COVID-19 vaccine is fully authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, vaccines are being used under an emergency authorization. “We believe this step is a simple one to take. It’s safe, it’s very effective, and it’s going to guarantee the safety of all,” said Carol Isen, San Francisco’s director of human resources.
After receiving the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine back in April, German Chancellor Angela Merkel elected to be inoculated with the Moderna vaccine for her second dose, which was administered this week, the BBC said. Coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca all require two doses for an individual to be considered fully vaccinated. Recently, some health experts have said that getting one dose of two different vaccines may be better than two doses of one vaccine. Mixing vaccines like this could lead to longer-lasting immunity, the BBC reported.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the benefits of vaccinating teens against COVID-19 outweigh the risk of “rare, but mild” myocarditis. Walensky said that vaccinating 1 million 12-17 year olds over the next four months could yield 30-40 cases of mild myocarditis, but it could also avert 8,000 COVID-19 cases, 200 hospitalizations, 50 ICU stays and one death. The CDC recommends that everyone 12 and older should get a COVID-19 vaccination. Walensky added that the American Heart Association cosigned the vaccination recommendation. See more below:
The U.S. tallied nearly 12,500 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday with the positivity rate staying below 2%, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University. The new infections were slightly higher than the seven-day average, which is nearly 11,300 cases per day, according to the CDC. Texas was the only state in the country to count more than 1,000 new cases on Wednesday, followed by California, which reported 915 new cases. Watch the video below for more information about the spread of the virus across the country and around the globe.
The record for the biggest opening weekend for a movie since the pandemic began could be broken over this weekend amid loosening coronavirus restrictions and low infection rates across the country. A Quiet Place Part II, which hit the big screen last month, currently holds the record of $48 million, but a blockbuster is on track to speed past that mark this weekend, CNBC said. The ninth film in the Fast and furious franchise, F9, is set to hit theaters this weekend, with ticket sales on pace to reach $60 million. CNBC said that this is below opening weekend benchmarks set by past films in the franchise, but it would be a pandemic best. “Any movie that opens with more than $40 million, that’s a good number,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore.
An experimental prostate cancer drug improved the survival of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a clinical trial in Brazil, Reuters reported Wednesday. The study on proxalutamide, a drug being developed by Kintor Pharmaceuticals, has not been peer-reviewed. In the study, 645 COVID-19 patients in a Brazilian hospital were given the drug or a placebo and standard care. Recovery rates were 81.4% for those who got the drug and 35.7% for those who got the placebo and standard care. Nearly half of those in the placebo group died, while only 11% of those who took the drug died.
Researchers in the the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will observe and evaluate the immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant and postpartum people, according to a press release from the organization. The researchers will measure the development of antibodies against the virus in people vaccinated during pregnancy or in their first two postpartum months. Researchers will also investigate the transfer of antibodies to infants through breast milk and the placenta.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who leads the NIAID said that the study’s results can fill gaps in knowledge and inform policy, as well as decision-making at the personal level. “Tens of thousands of pregnant and breastfeeding people in the United States have chosen to receive the COVID-19 vaccines available under emergency use authorization. However, we lack robust, prospective clinical data on vaccination in these populations,” Fauci said.
Colombia reached 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths this week, The Associated Press reported Wednesday. The country is the 10th in the world to mark the grim milestone. Cases in Colombia have been increasing since April and over the past seven days, the country reached the world’s third-highest per capita COVID-19 death rate, according to data published by Oxford University. President Iván Duque attributed the deaths to antigovernment protests that began at the end of April, saying that “more than 1,000 deaths could have been avoided” if there weren’t any large protests. But epidemiologists say it’s too early to measure the impact of the protests on the virus’s spread. “The protests definitely played a role” in coronavirus contagion, said Diego Rosselli, an epidemiology professor at Javeriana University in Bogota. “But at this moment putting any number on how many deaths they caused is mere speculation.”
The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent recovery efforts helped to widen the global wealth gap, helping to create 5.2 new millionaires, The Guardian reported. Lower interest rates are primarily credited for increases in wealth. The United States gained the most millionaires, with more than 1,730,000 Americans seeing their wealth cross the $1 million mark. The number of millionaires fell in some countries, including Brazil, India and Russia. More than 56.1 million people are millionaires worldwide, more than 1% of the global population. More than 41,000 people joined the exclusive club of those with assets worth more than $50 million. Millionaires hold 48% of the global wealth, while those making less than $100,000 hold 15%, despite making up 87.8% of the global population.
Japan’s daily COVID-19 vaccination rate reached a milestone of 1 million, according to government data. The figure represents a threshold set by Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga meant to ensure that the elderly population is vaccinated by the end of July, Reuters reported. The prime minister hopes to vaccinate all adults by November. The country’s vaccination campaign, which began in mid-February, includes vaccination sites at workplaces. Only 18% of the country's population have been vaccinated, according to a Reuters tracker.
Nurse Practitioner Amber Vitale inoculates Stanley Pena, 13, with the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at the Mount Sinai South Nassau Vaxmobile parked at the De La Salle School, Friday, May 14, 2021, in Freeport, N.Y. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
A CDC safety group on Wednesday revealed that there's a "likely association" between a rare type of heart inflammation in young people after they've received a second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, CNBC reported. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices published slides during its meeting on Wednesday that indicated there have been more than 1,200 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis in people 30 and under who were inoculated with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, CNBC said. The group said there have been 827 reported cases of either disease after two doses through June 11 while more than 200 occurred after the first dosage. There were another 132 cases where it's unknown how many doses were taken. Roughly 300 million shots had been administered as of that date, CNBC reported. Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart,the CDC states. “Clinical presentation of myocarditis cases following vaccination has been distinct, occurring most often within one week after dose two, with chest pain as the most common presentation,” said Dr. Grace Lee, the chair of the safety group, according to CNBC.
Deaths among Medicare patients in nursing homes rocketed by 32% last year as COVID-19 devastated the facilities, a government watchdog reported Tuesday. The Associated Press called the report “the most comprehensive look yet at the ravages of COVID-19.” The report, produced by the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that 4 in 10 Medicare recipients in nursing homes contracted or likely contracted the novel coronavirus. Deaths jumped by 169,291 as compared to the previous year. “We knew this was going to be bad, but I don’t think even those of us who work in this area thought it was going to be this bad,” Harvard health policy professor David Grabowski told the AP.
Spectators at the Tokyo Olympics will be barred from hugging, cheering, drinking alcohol and receiving autographs, according to rules released by event organizers. Seiko Hashimoto, the president of the Tokyo Olympics Organizing Committee, warned that festivities “will have to be suppressed," according to AFP. Hashimoto added that spectators should not expect the Olympics to embody the same festive mood as the Euro 2020, which is currently underway. "In Europe, the venues are filled with celebration," Hashimoto said. "Unfortunately, we may not be able to do the same."
Morgan Stanley will not allow unvaccinated employees and clients in the bank’s New York offices, Reuters reported Tuesday. Those who are not fully vaccinated will need to work remotely. The new policy, which also lifts face covering and social distancing restrictions, is set to go into effect on July 12. Morgan Stanley had already required vaccinations in some divisions, Reuters reported.
The United States reported more than 10,900 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday as case numbers continue to decrease, according to Johns Hopkins University figures. The percent positivity ratio remains below 1.80%. Exactly 370 deaths were reported on Tuesday. According to Johns Hopkins University figures, new cases are rising in Texas, California, Missouri, Arkansas and Arizona. Globally, cases were highest in Brazil, which reported more than 87,800 cases on Tuesday. For more data on how the virus is spreading worldwide, watch the video below.
Colorado health officials say that the highly contagious and more severe Delta variant is now making up 40% of new coronavirus cases in Colorado, 9News Denver reported. Colorado is only behind Missouri when it comes to Delta variant prevalence. Nationally, the Delta variant makes up roughly 10% of all cases. Colorado officials are continuing to urge the importance of getting vaccinated as the Delta variant spreads across the state and the United States. "Vaccines continue to be highly effective," State Epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said. "We continue to see high levels of effectiveness for all age groups in the state."
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