US nears 500,000 deaths; Britain lockdown; Biden PPE loans
The U.S. on Monday was on the cusp of surpassing one other somber milestone that was as soon as unthinkable: 500,000 COVID deaths, a threshold reached sooner than another nation on the planet.
President Biden will maintain a second of silence and a candle-lighting service Monday night on the White House to mark the large lack of life.
Britain, in the meantime, unveiled its plan Monday for unwinding one of many world’s strictest COVID-19 lockdowns. American public well being officers have been watching carefully because the extra transmissible COVID-19 variant initially recognized in Britain continues spreading within the U.S.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson introduced the gradual rollback, starting March 8 with youngsters in England returning to class and folks being allowed to fulfill a pal outdoors. Shops and hair dressers, and out of doors consuming and ingesting at pubs and eating places will observe on April 12.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that by April, B.1.1.7 – the extra transmissible COVID-19 variant initially recognized in Britain – is likely to be the dominant one inside U.S. borders.
The U.S. is now reporting greater than 1,687 circumstances of coronavirus variants that may unfold extra simply, dodge some remedies and immunities, or each.
A gentle decline in U.S. coronavirus circumstances that has introduced ranges again to the place they have been in late October could possibly be threatened by the “rapid take-off of B.1.1.7.,” stated Trevor Bedford, an epidemiologist on the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, in a Twitter thread Thursday.
There is proof that the B.1.1.7 variant “will reach 50% frequency in the U.S. perhaps by late March,” he stated.
There is an rising physique of proof suggesting that the B.1.1.7 variant will not be solely extra contagious but additionally extra deadly, a chance initially raised by British scientists, stated Simon Clarke, a professor in mobile microbiology on the University of Reading. However, the presently approved vaccines have confirmed efficient towards the variant.
Also within the information:
►Congress returns this week to deal with President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package. Democrats goal to cross the entire bundle by mid-March, and it presently features a new spherical of checks for Americans, renewal of the Paycheck Protection Program and an extension of a federal enhance for unemployment advantages.
►For each American who dies of COVID-19, a median of 9 relations are left mourning. That provides as much as 4.5 million grieving family within the U.S. Here’s the story of one such family.
►United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Monday that white supremacy and neo-Nazi actions have been a “transnational threat” which are “engaged in a feeding frenzy of hate” and have exploited the pandemic to achieve assist.
►The variety of sufferers in California hospitals with COVID-19 has fallen beneath 7,000, a drop of greater than a 3rd over two weeks, state well being officers stated. The story is comparable in Texas, the place state knowledge on Sunday confirmed the bottom variety of hospitalizations (7,146) since mid-November.
►White House press secretary Jen Psaki stated about 2 million of the 6 million COVID-19 vaccine doses delayed by final week’s winter climate have been delivered over the weekend. As for the remaining, “We expect to rapidly catch up this week,” Psaki stated Sunday on ABC.
📈 Today’s numbers: The U.S. has greater than 28.1 million confirmed coronavirus circumstances and 499,186 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The world totals: More than 111.5 million circumstances and a couple of.46 million deaths. More than 75.2 million vaccine doses have been distributed within the U.S. and about 63 million have been administered, according to the CDC.
📘 What we’re studying: Millions of kindergartners have opted out of public faculty through the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s what happens now.
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Biden tweaks PPP to provide small companies higher entry to loans
A federal program that gives loans to companies to assist them keep afloat through the coronavirus pandemic is undergoing some changes to allow more money to be directed at small businesses that need it most.
President Joe Biden introduced a number of revisions on Monday to the Paycheck Protection Program, which Congress permitted final yr as a part of a virtually $2 trillion COVID-relief invoice.
“Small businesses are the engines of our economic progress,” Biden stated. “They’re the glue in the heart and soul of our communities. But they’re getting crushed.”
Some 400,000 small companies have shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic. While the Paycheck Protection Program delivered pressing reduction to many, “a lot of these mom-and-pop businesses got muscled out of the way by bigger companies who jumped in front of the line,” Biden stated.
To handle these considerations, Biden introduced that solely companies with much less than 20 staff shall be allowed to use for this system over a 14-day interval that begins Wednesday. Some 98% of small companies have lower than 20 staff, and the 14-day software interval will enable lenders to deal with serving them, administration officers stated.
– Michael Collins
Non-English audio system battle to get COVID-19 vaccine throughout US
More than two months after the primary coronavirus vaccine pictures have been distributed within the United States, many states and native governments are providing limited vaccine information in languages other than English. Language and cultural boundaries have made it tough for many individuals of shade, immigrants and non-English-speaking communities to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Experts stated extra focused outreach – together with door knocking, visits to front-line employees at their place of employment, streamlined registration websites and language translation providers at vaccination websites – is required to beat misinformation and educate communities that lengthy have been suffering from inequities within the U.S.
– Cristina Silva
Hopkins professional says pandemic could possibly be ‘largely gone’ by April; Fauci says masks could also be in use into 2022
Marty Makary, who teaches on the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health, says the pandemic could possibly be “mostly gone” by April.
Makary, in an opinion piece revealed within the Wall Street Journal, factors to the fast-declining charge of an infection throughout the nation and means that COVID-19 deaths within the U.S. point out “much broader immunity than recognized.” He additionally notes that former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb estimates 250 million vaccine doses could have been delivered to about 150 million folks by the top of March.
Speeding up vaccine distribution and persevering with to put on masks and social distance shall be key components in curbing the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s high well being adviser, stated Sunday.
Fauci, talking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” stated the nation could possibly be “approaching a degree of normality” by the top of the yr however that Americans should have to put on masks in 2022.
Experts: ‘This needs to be the second’ to put money into remedies towards future pandemics
The very last thing folks will wish to take into consideration when this pandemic ends is the subsequent one. It’s human nature to maneuver on, to wish to put coronaviruses, vaccines and illness surveillance behind us. But a rising refrain of researchers says now’s the time to get prepared for what is bound to come back.
Some have begun preliminary efforts to develop antivirals and monoclonal antibodies to forestall severe illness, and vaccines that might cease a novel virus in its tracks.
“Either we invest now or we pay a lot more later,” stated Wayne Koff, chief government officer of the nonprofit Human Vaccines Project.
– Karen Weintraub
Contributing: The Associated Press
