January 14 coronavirus news

West Virginia Governor Jim Justice credited a “practical” approach to vaccine rollout, as well as a break from the federal model, in his state’s success in administering vaccine doses.

He said that as of Monday, every vaccine dose the state received had been administered, or was assigned to be administered to an individual in the next day or so.

“We’ve absolutely not gone with the federal model,” Justice told CNN’s John King on Thursday. Instead of utilizing chain drug stores to administer the vaccine, the governor said they’ve relied on partnerships with local pharmacies as well as their state health department and national guard to get the job done.

West Virginia’s “practical approach” also prioritizes vaccinating older residents, through a program called Operation S.O.W., for “save our wisdom.”

West Virginia leads the nation in terms of first doses administered per capita, according to data published by the CDC on Thursday. More than 6,600 first doses have been administered per 100,000 residents – nearly double the national rate.

Instacart, the on-demand grocery delivery platform, said it will provide some financial assistance for its essential workers to ensure they can take time off work to get a vaccine for the coronavirus.

The company said Thursday that beginning February 1, it will have a “vaccine support stipend” of $25 available for in-store employees and its independent contractors who have been vaccinated. To be eligible, its independent shoppers must have shopped and delivered at least five batches for the company in the past 30 days.

Read more here.

Just over 11 million people have received their first coronavirus shots, and more than 30 million doses of vaccine have been distributed, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.

However, the US is still lagging far behind its target of having vaccinated 20 million people by the end of 2020.

The Trump Administration’s Operation Warp Speed announced changes Tuesday aimed at speeding up the vaccine administration process, including the release of more doses of vaccine and urging states to vaccinate anyone 65 and older, and younger people with chronic conditions that might make them more vulnerable to severe disease.

Jordan has started giving Covid-19 vaccines to refugees free of charge, making it one of the world’s first countries to start providing vaccinations to United Nations registered refugees, according to a UNHCR statement on Thursday. 

 Jordan is host to a large refugee population including Palestinians, Syrians and Iraqis. There are 1.3 million Syrians refugees in the Kingdom according to the government, with more than 655 thousand registered with the UNHCR.  

Since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in the refugee camps, nearly 2,000 camp residents have tested positive for the virus. 

The country received its first shipment of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine on Monday, two days after receiving their first batch of China’s Sinopharm vaccine. 

All of France will become subject to a curfew from 6pm to 6am for at least 15 days from Saturday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced in a press conference on Thursday.

The measure "has proven to be effective,” he said. An 8pm curfew has been in place in the country since December 15th, and has already been extended to 6pm in some of the worst-hit areas.

The French government decided on an extended curfew to “avoid harsher measures" to stem the spread of coronavirus, Castex added.

However, “if we were to see a strong deterioration of the health situation in the coming days, we would decide on a new lockdown without any delay,” he warned.

The premier said that recent measures had been successful and that recent holiday celebrations had not led to an “epidemic flare-up”.

But while France's public health situation is “under control compared to our neighbors,” it remains “fragile,” particularly due to newly identified Covid-19 variants, Castex said. 

French residents will only be allowed outdoors after 6pm for professional or urgent reasons and will need to show a certificate providing such a reason.

The state of New York added 13,661 more positive Covid-19 cases to its tally on Thursday, with the statewide positivity rate down slightly from the day prior at 6.42%, according to the Governor’s office.

The state also added 202 deaths, which is in the higher range of deaths reported in the state over the past few weeks. 

There are 8,823 patients hospitalized with 1,536 of those in the ICU, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office said in a release.

Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatments are being "underutilized," according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. And now, HHS officials are urging the public to use these therapies to treat illness.

The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized convalescent plasma and monoclonal antibody treatments for emergency use in Covid-19 patients.

"The bottom line is these medications work better, they work best when given early," US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams said during a briefing on Thursday. 

Dr. Janet Woodcock, therapeutics lead for Operation Warp Speed, said in Thursday's briefing that those medications "are being somewhat underutilized" and HHS hopes to change that.

"The antibodies are not in shortage," Woodcock said. 

"We want to keep people out of the hospital," she said. "We hope the changes that we’re making -- better public awareness and better provider awareness -- will drive more administration of these antibodies."

Last month, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said that the United States has "a surplus" of monoclonal antibody treatments from the companies Regeneron and Eli Lilly.

The UK has decided to ban arrivals from multiple Latin American countries “following evidence of a new variant in Brazil,” British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said Thursday on Twitter. 

Starting Friday at 4 a.m. local time, arrivals to the UK will be banned from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. 

“Travel from Portugal to the UK will also be suspended given its strong travel links with Brazil -- acting as another way to reduce the risk of importing infections,” Shapps said, adding that hauliers transporting essential goods were exempt. 

He added that these measures would not apply to British and Irish citizens and other nationals who have UK residence rights, but arriving passengers would have to quarantine for 10 days.

All parts of the UK are currently under strict lockdown with international travel only allowed for a limited number of reasons. The country is in the midst of its worst wave of Covid-19 infections with record daily deaths reported on Wednesday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received China’s Sinovac Biotech coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, as a mass inoculation effort began across the country. 

Erdogan announced that he received the shot on his Telegram account. “I just got the vaccine,” he wrote, followed by a smiley face emoji. 

Turkey began its vaccination rollout across all 81 provinces on Thursday, starting with frontline workers.

As of 6:30pm local time, more than 252,811 people had received the first dose of Sinovac, according to the Turkish health ministry Covid-19 online vaccine counter. 

Turkey received 3 million doses of Sinovac on December 30 and granted emergency authorization for the vaccine on Wednesday after mandatory safety testing by its drug and medical device administration was complete.

Earlier this week new data from Brazil indicated the Sinovac vaccine was far less protective against Covid-19 than originally reported, with results suggesting it was only 50.38% effective in late-stage trials.

Turkey had its worst peak of cases in early December. More than 2.3 million infections and at least 23,325 Covid-related deaths have been reported there, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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