February 8 coronavirus news

About 42.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the US, according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

The CDC reported that 42,417,617 total doses have been administered – about 72% of the 59,307,800 doses distributed. That’s about 1.2 million more administered doses reported since yesterday, for a seven-day average of nearly 1.5 million doses per day.

About 10% of the US population – more than 32.3 million people – have now received at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 9.5 million people have been fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.

Remember: Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.

The House Committee on Education and Labor – one of the 12 committees contributing to the reconciliation package – released the top lines of what their committee would be contributing to the Covid relief bill as the bill takes shape.

These are the highlights:

The two pager also highlights their call to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, a growing flashpoint as negotiations on the relief package continue to take shape.

You can read more about the Democrats' efforts to pass a stimulus bill here.

Italy started to vaccinate citizens over 80 years old on Monday, Health Minister Roberto Speranza said in a tweet. 

“Our commitment continues to protect the elderly that have been most affected by the pandemic,” Speranza wrote. 

The vaccination of elderly people was planned to start at the beginning of February but was delayed by the reduced number of doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.  

Special coronavirus commissioner Domenico Arcuri has expressed disappointment over Pfizer’s and Moderna’s failures to meet their scheduled delivery date.

Italy, like many of its European Union allies, has not authorized the AstraZeneca vaccine for people aged over 55. 

Italy first started vaccinations of medical and hospital personnel, as well as care home residents and staff, on Dec. 31. 

The number of people to receive both shots of the Covid vaccine is 1,147,256 since the beginning of the vaccination campaign, the Health ministry website says. 

The population of Italy is about 60 million.

About 2.93 million children in the US have tested positive for Covid-19 as of Feb. 4, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Last week alone, 117,518 new child cases were identified through testing, the report said. That’s an 10% increase in child Covid-19 cases over the course of two weeks. Children represent 12.9% of all cases in the US.

Children made up between 6% and 18% of those who were tested for Covid-19, and 7% to 29% of children tested were positive for coronavirus, depending on the state.

Children are still considered much less likely than adults to develop severe symptoms of Covid-19 or to die from the infection. Children represented 1.2% to 2.9% of total reported hospitalizations for Covid-19, based on the information provided by 24 states and New York City. Only 0.1%-2.3% of all cases of Covid-19 in children required hospitalization. 

Eleven states reported zero child deaths among the 43 states that provided data on Covid-19 mortality. The states that did report having a fatal case saw no more than 0.05% of deaths in children among all confirmed cases of Covid-19. 

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will be invited to visit the White House “when it is Covid safe,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday, a day after the Bucs won Super Bowl LV. 

“We look forward to inviting the Buccaneers as well as the 2020 NBA Champions the Lakers to the White House when it is Covid safe, but I don’t know when that will take place yet,” she said.  

Some context: In January, LeBron James opened up the possibility of the LA Lakers visiting the White House in order to celebrate last year's NBA championship — if only Covid-19 protocols would allow it. It had become a tradition for the reigning champion to visit the US president in the season following its triumph, but that tradition took a hiatus during former President Donald Trump's time in office. 

James' Cleveland Cavaliers were the last team to fulfill the tradition when the players met Barack Obama in 2016 but the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors both since declined invites to meet Trump. 

Trump cancelled the Philadelphia Eagles’ White House visit to the White House in 2018 due to the controversy over standing for the National Anthem at NFL games. 

Presidents typically honor their invitations to championship teams. Players also have refused those invitations in the past – Boston Bruins goaltender Tim Thomas declined to visit the White House in 2012 over disagreements with then President Barack Obama’s policies. 

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said indoor dining in New York City can reopen at 25% capacity beginning this Friday, two days ahead of the scheduled reopening on Valentine's Day.

The statewide positivity rate is 4.2% with 8,448 new cases and 114 deaths, Cuomo announced at a news conference Monday.

Cuomo congratulated New Yorkers for doing their part to bring the numbers down, “the post-holiday surge is over,” he said.

Long Island continues to have the greatest hospitalization and positivity rate, according to the governor.

In New York City, the Bronx continues to have the highest numbers and getting higher with a positivity rate of 7.3%, he said.

On vaccines, Cuomo said “we are about 90% of all doses allocated used in arms and it is only Monday.”

He added that New York has 5,000 distribution centers ready for additional vaccine supply, “we have more distribution than we have product on the shelves.”

Note: These numbers were released by the state’s health agency, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project. 

British analysis does not suggest that the South African coronavirus variant is more transmissible than other variants, England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam said Monday.

Van-Tam’s analysis was based on “early data on modelling” the variant, he said. 

He contrasted the South Africa variant with what he referred to as the Kent variant – referred to internationally as the UK variant – which he said does have a transmissibility advantage. 

Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said overall she is "very proud" of the level of compliance she has seen from people celebrating following Sunday night's Super Bowl victory. 

During a news conference Monday morning, Castor said the majority of the tens of thousands of people who were out celebrating the Tampa Buccaneers win over the Kansas City Chiefs did it responsibly.

She says there were "very few incidents" of people violating the mask mandate. 

When asked about the Super Bowl celebrations outside the stadium being a super spreader event after video of gatherings showing large crowds of unmasked revelers surfaced, Castor said the majority of people she saw were wearing mask. She also said that it is up to people to exercise personal responsibility and keep wearing masks even during the upcoming celebrations expected. 

Castor says the city will definitely celebrate the Buccaneers momentous victory and are planning to do so in a safe manner. 

The mayor says they hope to have more definitive information on what those celebrations will look like finalized by Wednesday. 

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday that the White House is expecting the markups by House committees to President Biden’s Covid-19 relief package to “track closely with what the President has proposed,” but also expects there to be “adjustments to strengthen the bill and tweaks.” 

Psaki said: “We're encouraged that both Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Schumer are in full agreement about the need to move swiftly on the President's proposal, and the committee markups we'll see throughout the week are evidence of congress acting on that expeditiously.”

Some more context: House committees are aiming to finalize their legislative text and mark up their sections of the coronavirus relief bill by the end of the week, as the Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump gets underway on Tuesday. The goal is for all the committees to pass their portions out of committees and send it to the Budget Committee by Feb. 16, where the larger bill can be packaged together, passed out of Budget and put on the floor the following week.