The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines

Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

A lack of information and financial support has left US states struggling to manage a slow Covid-19 vaccine rollout, Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said Friday.

Around the US, those eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine are reporting that they are struggling to access it.

Osterholm said states don’t have the information or resources needed to plan for vaccinations.

It’s not just the states that have been left in the dark, said Osterholm, who served as a member of President Joe Biden’s transition coronavirus advisory board.

“I can just say that having been part of the team that we never saw a plan that was written in even one page of a plan that came from the Trump administration about this,” he said. “That’s not a partisan comment. That’s just the truth.”

A resident receives a mandatory Covid-19 test by a health worker at a testing site in the Jordan area of the Yau Tsim Mong district of Kowloon in Hong Kong, on January 22.

Hong Kong is imposing a temporary lockdown on residents in coronavirus hotspots – a first in the city’s battle against Covid-19.

In a statement released early Saturday, the Hong Kong government made a “restriction-testing declaration”, which requires residents from parts of the bustling neighborhood of Jordan to stay in their premises and undergo compulsory testing arranged by the government. 

Jordan, in the Kowloon peninsula, is a dense and thriving urban area with high-rise apartments, businesses and restaurants. The lockdown area includes Temple Street, home to the iconic night market popular with tourists. 

Residents from buildings in the designated area will be prohibited from leaving their homes until testing has been completed. The government says the compulsory testing is expected to take 48 hours. 

Hong Kong’s Secretary for the Environment, Wong Kam-sin, said in a news conference Saturday that water from the pipes of several buildings in the area was being tested to ascertain whether the coronavirus is spreading through sewage. 

In a separate statement Saturday, the Hong Kong government announced that roads in the “restricted area” would be closed to traffic. 

Hong Kong recorded 61 new Covid-19 on Friday, including 55 local transmissions. 

President Biden’s coronavirus advisers are confident more vaccine is coming, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who is the nominee for Surgeon General, said Friday.

The transition team started speaking with companies making the vaccines to try to get an idea of how much supply was really available and how quickly production could be stepped up, Murthy told a webcast sponsored by the US Conference of Mayors.

“We’ve been deeply involved in conversations with the companies on a very regular basis and those were conversations that, frankly, started even before the election to try to understand just more closely what the supply was, what the challenges were, what the roadblocks were to getting even more supply accelerated, what the potential failure spots would be that we need to look out for and plan for,” Murthy said.

“And part of what we’ve talked about also is the importance of making that data as clearly available and transparent so that mayors and the general public can also see a lot of what we’re seeing as well, can have some confidence about what the supply looks like over the coming weeks.”

State and local leaders want and need to know, so they can plan, he said.

“One of the most clear pieces of feedback that we got from governors and echoed by mayors as well was that they needed more information on when the supply was coming. They needed more than four or five days notice, that they needed ideally several weeks notice so they can plan accordingly and set up their operations, and we heard that loud and clear,” Murthy said.

“So, I think what you will see in the coming weeks is a greater focus on that transparency around supply so that you have a better sense of what we’re seeing, and also so that you have a sense of what supply also will be coming to your state over the coming weeks. “

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms speaks with CNN on Friday, January 22.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN Friday night that she receives calls from people “desperately looking for the vaccine” daily.

Bottoms said the city is currently vaccinating their public safety personnel and will next move onto sanitation workers, but residents who qualify are having a difficult time accessing doses of the vaccine. 

“I’m just not seeing an abundance of vaccine,” Bottoms told CNN.

The mayor explained that the metropolitan area of Atlanta didn’t receive as much as she thought it should when compared to more rural areas. 

The mayor said she and other mayors are hopeful the new White House administration may be able to help with distribution issues.

“I am very hopeful the leadership from the White House that we now have that there will be more coordination and the vaccine will be widely distributed in the communities that need it most,” Bottoms said.

Watch here:

The first positive case of the Covid-19 variant detected in South Africa has been confirmed in Panama, Ministry of Health officials announced in a statement Friday. 

“This is a 40-year-old passenger, born in Zimbabwe, who entered the country on January 5 from South Africa and had previously made a stop over in the Netherlands before arriving in Panama,” the statement said.

After testing positive, the patient was kept in isolation, complying with Panama’s protocol, according to the Ministry of Health.

To date, Panama has registered at least 4,944 deaths related to Covid-19 and about 305,752 confirmed cases.

The Miami Heat announced that beginning Jan. 28, a limited number of fans will be in attendance at Heat home games.

The Heat will adopt many of the policies that other sports organizations have used to allow fans to attend games, but they’ve added one very unique extra: Covid-19 detection dogs.

How it works: A specially trained dog will screen every fan in line before continuing with the entry process to the American Airlines Arena.

Other policies include the standard mandatory mask policy, physical distancing, and no food service.

Staff and volunteers distribute the Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, January 19, in Inglewood, California.

At the current rate Los Angeles County is receiving its doses of the coronavirus vaccine, it would take up to a year to vaccinate all of its adult residents, Dr. Paul Simon, L.A. County chief science officer for the Department of Public Health, said in a briefing Friday.

The county has an extremely limited supply of doses and is expected to receive only 150,000 doses next week, Simon said. At this rate, “the vaccination efforts will likely extend well into 2022.”

If allocations double, vaccinations for adults in Los Angeles County could be completed by the end of 2021, he added.

By the numbers: As of Thursday, at least 441,000 doses of the vaccines have been administered in the county.

With the lower number of doses arriving next week, Simon said he expects the county’s mass vaccination sites to be operating at less than max capacity and provide about 2,000 to 2,400 doses of the vaccine a day.

According to a news release from the public health department, the county “has only received enough vaccination supply to inoculate 1 in 4 people who are currently eligible.”

Simon said that two million people in the county are currently eligible for the vaccine, which includes about 800,000 health care workers and 1.3 million residents who are 65 years and older.

He repeatedly asked residents for their patience as the county continues to work hard to get more people vaccinated.

Los Angeles County on Friday reported 9,277 new cases of the virus and 256 additional deaths.

The public health department said the amount of new cases this week are “considerably lower,” with a 30% decrease in the seven-day average of daily cases from last week. The test positivity rate has also dropped to 12.7% from 20.8% on Jan. 1, a 39% drop in three weeks.

To date: Los Angeles has a total of 1,054,802 confirmed cases and 14,894 deaths. With over 10 million residents, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the nation.

Publix has expanded its Covid-19 vaccination efforts to nearly 400 locations across three states, according to statement from the grocery store and pharmacy chain.

Publix is currently offering Covid-19 vaccinations in three out of seven states where they operate stores. That includes 108 locations in Georgia, 42 locations in South Carolina and 242 locations in Florida.

As an example of overwhelming demand, Brous said new appointments became available in Florida on Friday morning. The open 48,900 appointment slots were taken in less than three hours. At any given time, 300,000 users were in the online waiting room, attempting to schedule an appointment.

Brous said the Publix website has not crashed since appointments first became available.

Brous told CNN that there is uncertainty in the consistency and quantity of vaccine shipments they will receive. As a result, Publix does not add appointment availability until a new shipment has arrived and the doses have been verified. An announcement is then made one day ahead of any new appointments becoming available online.

Publix works with each state’s governor on which areas to serve, and eligibility and residency requirements.  

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks during a coronavirus press conference at 10 Downing Street on January 22, in London.

The coronavirus variant first identified in the UK “may be associated with a higher degree of mortality” in infected patients, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday during a news briefing at Downing Street.

“I must tell you this afternoon that we’ve been informed today that, in addition to spreading more quickly, it also now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant – the variant that was first identified in London and the South East – may be associated with a higher degree of mortality,” Johnson said. 

Researchers are still looking at the data and there is still a lot of uncertainty.

Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, said it looks like the variant is more deadly when looking at the total population that becomes infected.

“If you took somebody in their 60s — a man in their 60s — the average risk is that for 1,000 people who got infected, roughly 10 would be expected to, unfortunately, die with the virus. With the new variant, for 1,000 people infected, roughly 13 or 14 people might be expected to die,” he said.

Vallance said the increase in risk would affect all age groups.

This evidence comes from several groups in the UK that found an increased risk of death for people infected with the variant compared to people infected with other forms of the coronavirus. In four analyses cited by a government advisory group, these estimates ranged between roughly 1.3 and 1.9 times higher risk of death. At least one analysis among hospitalized patients did not.

The advisory group, known as NERVTAG, concluded there is a “realistic possibility” that variant is linked to a higher risk of death. However, the researchers said the absolute risk of death for an individual remains low, and more data will be needed to provide definitive proof. For example, in some cases the data came from less than 10% of all deaths reported.

Vallance stressed that “there’s a lot of uncertainty around these numbers and we need more work to get a precise handle on it. But it obviously is of concern that this has an increase in mortality, as well as an increase in transmissibility, as it appears of today.”

He noted that when it comes to patients who are hospitalized with Covid-19, there is not an increased risk of mortality.

“When we look at data from hospitals, so patients who are in hospital with the virus, the outcomes for those with the original virus or the new variant look the same,” he said.

UK Prime Minister Johnson said “both the vaccines we’re currently using remain effective both against the old variant and this new variant.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Friday that 1.6 million more vaccines have been given out, the biggest single-day increase yet reported. 

The CDC data showed how more than 19 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the US, about 48% of the nearly 40 million doses that have been distributed.

What you need to know: States have 72 hours to report vaccine data, so data published by the CDC may be delayed – and may not necessarily mean all doses were given on the day reported.

The number of administered doses reported this week was 22% higher than last week.

About 5% of the US population – about 16.2 million people – has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and about 2.8 million people are fully vaccinated.

Nineteen police officers have tested positive for coronavirus two weeks after the Capitol riot, the union representing Capitol Police said Friday.

“The union was advised there are 19 confirmed positive cases since Jan 6th, ” Gus Papathanasiou, chair of the United States Capitol Police Labor Committee, said in an email to CNN. 

The union could not confirm that all 19 were on duty the day of the attack.

Health officials have worried that the mass of largely unmasked people, many shouting and pushing, would result in the spread of the virus. Several police officers were directly assaulted.

“I do think you have to anticipate that this is another surge event. You had largely unmasked individuals in a non-distanced fashion, who were all through the Capitol,” former US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield said in a previous interview with the McClatchy newspaper group.

At least four members of Congress have also tested positive for coronavirus after the attack earlier this month.

The total number of coronavirus cases recorded in France since the beginning of the pandemic surpassed the three million mark Friday, according to data from the National Health Agency.

There have been at least 3,011,257 coronavirus cases since the pandemic started.

On Friday, a further 23,292 cases were recorded, as well as at least 649 additional deaths over the last 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to at least at least 72,647. 

The French government has outlined its objective to bring the daily number of new cases down to 5,000 as a precondition to lifting coronavirus restrictions. Speaking on Tuesday, Health Minister Olivier Véran said the current infection rate is “both high and relatively stable,” with “around 20,000” cases a day.

The UK government cannot consider lifting national lockdown measures while rates of infection and hospital admissions remain “so very high,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Friday.

“We really can’t begin to consider unlocking until we’re confident that the vaccination program is working, until we’re confident that we don’t have new variants or changes in our understanding of the virus,” Johnson said.

“We think this is the right package of measures to deal with the new variant and we don’t want to change them. What we want to see is people enforcing them and people obeying them, that’s the crucial thing,” he added.

Speaking during a news briefing at Downing Street, the prime minister noted that “some signs of flattening in the data” have been observed, but warned that the number of infections is “still very high” across the country.

“We’ve got to be in a position where the rate of infection is not still so high, and it’s very high right now,” he added.

On Friday, the UK reported 40,261 additional coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of cases recorded in the UK since the pandemic began to at least 3,583,907.

The Spanish Health Ministry reported Friday that at least 1,411 people have died in the past week from coronavirus – the highest weekly death toll in the country since the first wave of the pandemic in the spring.

The ministry also reported at least 193,139 people have tested positive for coronavirus in the past week.

At least 2,499,560 coronavirus cases have been recorded in Spain since the beginning of the pandemic.

Much of Spain remains in strict lockdown, with overnight curfews and entertainment venues closed. 

The community of Madrid introduced new measures Friday, restricting movement overnight between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., closing commercial outlets from 9 p.m. and further restricting private gatherings, with no more than four people allowed to meet unless they live in the same home. The measures come into effect Monday.

The health ministry also reported a slight increase in the number of vaccine doses so far administered – to at least 1,165,825. However, the number of vaccination doses distributed to Spain’s regions has not risen since Wednesday. 

Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported that this week’s death toll was the highest on record. It’s the highest since the pandemic’s first wave.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards implored residents to continue to wear a mask as the UK variant is confirmed in states across the nation. Last week the Louisiana State Department of Health identified at least one case of the UK variant in its state.  

“This variant spreads more easily from one person to another than other viral strains currently circulating in the United States, though It has not been shown to cause more severe disease,” their statement said.

Health officials warn there are likely many more cases in the state that they have not been able to identify.  

During a Friday briefing, Edwards said with the variant confirmed, it’s more important than ever to wear a mask – regardless of political party. 

Severe allergic reactions to the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine are a “rare event,” according to a report published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As of Jan. 10, among the more than 4 million people vaccinated with the first dose of the Moderna shot, only 10 people had severe allergic reactions, known as anaphylaxis, according to the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. That’s a rate of 2.5 cases per million doses administered. 

A previous report on the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine estimated an initial rate of 11.1 cases per million of the first doses administered.

The CDC has been monitoring for adverse reactions and collected 1,266 adverse event reports related to the Moderna vaccine. Among those reports, 108 involving allergic reactions were flagged for further review.

The CDC determined 47 of the reports were nonanaphylaxis allergic reactions, 47 were considered nonallergic reactions, four case reports didn’t have enough information.

All 10 of the anaphylaxis cases were women. Of the 10, nine had a documented history of allergies and more than half of those people had a previous history of anaphylaxis. Only one had a prior allergic reaction to a vaccine. The others had allergic reactions to a mix of things – drugs, contrast agents used in some medical imaging and one person had a food allergy.  

Symptoms began at a median of seven and a half minutes after the shot. Among those for whom CDC had follow up information, all had recovered and had been discharged from the hospital and sent home. 

The current CDC guidance is that people who have an immediate allergic reaction to a first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine shouldn’t get the second. The guidance also mandates health care workers monitor people for at least 15 minutes after vaccination. Anaphylaxis is potentially life-threatening and requires immediate treatment; the CDC says vaccination sites need trained staff and supplies on hand to manage it.

A "closed" sign hangs on the door of a restaurant in Detroit in April.

Michiganders can once again dine indoors at restaurants starting Feb. 1, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced at a news conference Friday.

Before the Department of Health and Human Services’ three-week epidemic order limiting social gatherings launched on Nov. 15, Michigan had 734 cases of Coivd-19 per million residents, Whitmer said. The state has now seen a 70% reduction to 177 cases per million, according to the Governor.

“I know this pandemic has hurt our restaurant owners, our restaurant workers, and all of their families. I want to thank those that made incredible sacrifices, and did their part, on behalf of our protecting our communities from Covid,” said Whitmer.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Chief Medical Executive Dr. Joneigh Khaldun further clarified that restaurants will operate at 25% capacity and must observe a 10 p.m. curfew.

“I’m pleased that we can move forward in this way. We know that our restaurant owners want to protect their patrons and help to end this pandemic,” Khaldun said, but said she wanted to remind people that scientists and doctors have reiterated that being indoors, with no mask on, is one of the riskier activities people can do when it comes to the spread of Covid-19.

“So now people have a choice. The safest thing to do, especially if you are elderly, if you have underlying medical conditions, or if you live with someone who’s elderly or has underlying medical conditions,” Khaldun said. “The safest thing to do is to not be inside a restaurant, but we still want you to order from them though, you can support them with takeout delivery, or dining out doors.”

Pfizer told CNN that its Covid-19 vaccine trial in children ages 12 to 15 is now fully enrolled with 2,259 participants. 

Pfizer began to enroll participants for this trial in October, but the company says it does not know when the data from this trial will be available.

Currently, Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine has been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration for those who are age 16 and above. There is currently no FDA authorized Covid-19 vaccine for children. 

One case of the Covid-19 variant identified in South Africa has been detected in Cuba, Cuban health officials said during a daily briefing on Friday. 

The person found positive for the Covid-19 variant was tested at an airport upon entering the country and is now in isolation.

This is the first case of any Covid-19 variant found in Cuba. To date, Cuba has registered a total of 19,530 cases and 184 deaths. 

Portuguese health authorities have reported yet another record daily increase in deaths from Covid-19, with 234 new fatalities in the past 24 hours.

It is the fifth consecutive record-breaking day.

Health authorities also reported 13,987 new cases in the past 24 hours, the second-highest daily cases count since the pandemic started.

The government decided Thursday to toughen the current lockdown restrictions and ordered schools and universities to close for at least 15 days, due to the rapid increase of cases.

The country of ten million has been struggling with a spike in cases since the new year.