States worry about supply as vaccine eligibility opens up
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What you need to know
The Biden administration will loan about 4 million of its AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Canada and Mexico as the company awaits official usage approval in the US.
A US safety board has expressed concern AstraZeneca may have included outdated information in its latest vaccine trial announcement.
Hong Kong and Macao have suspended the rollout of BioNTech’s vaccine citing a packaging defect found in their first batch of doses.
Our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic had ended for the day.
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Indiana expects to reach 1 million fully vaccinated on Wednesday
From CNN's Kelsie Smith
Patients arrive to receive the the single-dose Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine during the state's first mass vaccination clinic at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Friday, March 5, in Indianapolis.
Darron Cummings/AP
Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb said the state expects to hit a major milestone of one million Indianans fully vaccinated on Wednesday.
As of Tuesday night, nearly 19% of eligible Indianans have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and 32% of the state population has received at least one dose, said State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box.
The state plans to open vaccine eligibility to all individuals age 16 and older starting March 31.
Additionally, Holcomb said the state will continue to operate mass vaccination sites. Starting April 1, a vaccination site at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will open for 16 days, where the state expects to administer 96,000 vaccinations.
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Benefits of AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh any rare reactions, WHO chief scientist says
From CNN’s Ryan Prior, Emmet Lyons and Arnaud Siad
A health worker prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the San Giovanni Bosco Hospital in Turin, Italy, on March 19.
Marco Bertorello/AFP/Getty Images
Reports of extremely rare blood clots should not deter governments from distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine to their citizens, according to the World Health Organization’s Chief Scientists Soumya Swaminathan.
The vaccine’s reputation is being hit in public perception due to news coverage, Swaminathan said.
She noted that the vaccine has already been widely deployed, with 20 million doses administered in Europe, 30 million in India, and another 10 to 15 million in Africa.
“And there’s definitely no relationship between the more common clotting disorders or thrombotic events and the vaccine. What the WHO recommended is that the benefits of this vaccine clearly outweigh the risks,” she said.
Meanwhile, the WHO is continually monitoring data coming in every day about whether the current vaccines are effective against several major variants gaining prevalence around the world, Swaminathan said.
“Currently our recommendation is to go ahead with the available vaccines as we learn more, and of course, we are working with manufacturers as they develop the next version of their vaccines,” she explained. “So we might have vaccines next year, for example, that will address the variants in addition to the original strain. And that’s something for which WHO is involved in a global coordination.”
Swaminathan said new European Union proposals for stricter export controls on Covid-19 vaccines are a “self-defeating exercise.”
On Wednesday, EU commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis announced that the EU has proposed tighter controls on the export of Covid-19 vaccine doses.
“We really want to focus on identifying what are those obstacles, roadblocks, what are those supply chain issues that can be solved? But, again, this needs working together,” Swaminathan said.
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CDC declines cruise industry request to lift no-sail order
From CNN's Maggie Fox
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declined to act on a cruise industry request to lift its no-sail order Wednesday, saying current rules will stay in effect until November.
The Cruise Lines International Association said it had asked the Biden administration to lift the no-sail order for cruise ships by early July, saying that timeline “is in line with President Biden’s forecast for when the United States will be ‘closer to normal.’”
The CDC said its order would stay in place.
“On October 30, 2020, CDC issued Framework for Conditional Sailing Order (CSO) that remains in effect until November 1, 2021. Returning to passenger cruising is a phased approach to mitigate the risk of spreading Covid-19. Details for the next phase of the CSO are currently under interagency review,” the CDC said in a statement to CNN.
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Biden announces $81 billion in funding to reopen schools as part of Covid-19 relief bill
From CNN's Betsy Klein
President Joe Biden speaks during a press conference at the White House on March 23, in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
President Biden announced the release of $81 billion in funding from the Covid-19 relief bill for school reopenings Wednesday, part of the administration’s efforts toward getting the majority of schools opened in his first 100 days in office and addressing inequity caused by the pandemic.
Biden called on states to take the next steps, saying, “I need states to move quickly to get these resources down to the school districts and put them to work.”
The President also reiterated his message that “help is here.”
“Help is here for schools to purchase PPE, hire additional personnel like nurses, counselors, custodial staff, improve ventilation and sanitation, avoid devastating layoffs and give students extra support,” he said, adding, “Help is here to help students make up for lost time and lost learning. Unless we act quickly, this pandemic could have a devastating long term impact on our kids who have gone through this, including on their mental health.”
More on the funds: The administration is releasing funding for schools as part of the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, on Wednesday. The bill included $122 billion in relief for Pre-K to 12 schools, and two-thirds of those funds, totaling $81 billion, “will be made available to states immediately,” the Department of Education said in a statement.
The funds, the statement said, will “support their efforts to get students back in the classroom safely for in person learning, keep schools open once students are back, and address the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of all students.”
The additional one-third of funding, per the Department of Education, “will become available after states submit the plans they are developing and implementing for using (emergency relief) funds to safely reopen schools and meet the needs of students to the Department.”
Part of the funding for schools will be used to address educational inequity that has only been exacerbated by the pandemic, with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona outlining inequity in the return to in-person learning.
Vice President Kamala Harris expressed concern for students disproportionally impacted, explaining how the funding could help address those challenges.
“We’re all worried about our students falling behind, especially those who attend schools that are underfunded and under-resourced, and especially our students who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Those who are learning English, students with disabilities, students without access to broadband, students who are food insecure and so many more,” Harris said.
The money for schools, she said, includes “evidence-based interventions that will help bridge the gaps in learning and meet social and emotional needs in the wake of the pandemic.”
One specific measure aimed at addressing that is summer learning and enrichment opportunities, with Biden calling on states, school districts, and community partners to work together on the matter.
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EU and UK working together to "expand vaccine supply"
From CNN’s Vasco Cotovio
A health worker administers a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine in London, on Tuesday, March 23.
Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
The European Union and the United Kingdom are working together on specific steps “to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply,” they said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
“Given our interdependencies, we are working on specific steps we can take – in the short, medium and long term – to create a win-win situation and expand vaccine supply for all our citizens,” they said.
The statement goes on to say that global cooperation not just between the two, but with all countries will be key to overcoming this pandemic and future challenges, with the two sides vowing to continue discussions.
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Covid-19 testing will need to continue "forever," infectious disease expert says
From CNN's Virginia Langmaid
People with Covid-19 symptoms will need to be tested for Covid-19 well into the future, University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy director Michael Osterholm said Wednesday.
“This virus is not going away around the world,” he said. “Remember, we have billions of people in low-income countries, some in middle-income countries, who will never have access to vaccines, and where those cases are occurring in those countries, we’ll also see variants spread out.”
Osterholm said testing would also be helpful in tracking the effectiveness of vaccines and determining the need for booster doses.
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Pace of Covid-19 vaccinations has doubled in less than two months, CDC data shows
From CNN's Deidre McPhillips
Covid-19 vaccine doses are prepared at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts, on March 19.
Suzanne Kreiter/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Almost 130.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, according to data published Wednesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported that 130,473,853 total doses have been administered – about 77% of the 169,223,125 doses delivered.
That’s nearly 2.3 million more doses reported administered since yesterday, for a seven-day average of about 2.5 million doses per day.
A month ago, the seven-day average was about 1.5 million, with about 1 million fewer doses being administered per day, according to a CNN analysis of CDC data. And in less than two months, the pace of vaccination has doubled.
About 26% of the population – almost 85.5 million people – have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 14% of the population – more than 46 million people – are fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. A third of adults and about 70% of seniors have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.
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Go There: CNN answers your questions about the EU's proposal to tighten Covid-19 vaccine export controls
The European Union is proposing tighter Covid-19 vaccine export controls, which could affect the US and the UK.
The tougher export controls would see vaccine shipments assessed based on the destination country’s rate of vaccinations and vaccine exports.
CNN’s Melissa Bell has the latest from Paris, France.
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Few rapid antigen Covid-19 tests meet WHO standards, review finds
From CNN’s Nadia Kounang
A health worker processes a rapid antigen Covid-19 test on February 23, 2021 in Naumburg, Germany.
Ronny Hartmann/AFP/Getty Images
A new large scale international review of rapid Covid-19 tests finds that few of them meet the World Health Organization’s minimum acceptable performance standards.
There are two kinds of rapid tests – molecular tests, including PCR, which are considered to be the gold standard of molecular diagnostics; and rapid antigen tests, which detect proteins of the virus. Proponents of rapid tests say these diagnostics can be utilized to quickly screen individuals as businesses and society continue to re-open. Airlines already are already employing rapid tests to screen passengers for flights.
When looking at the antigen tests, the independent research group Cochrane, a collaborative of researchers and health professionals from 130 countries, found the were best used within the first week after someone began experiencing symptoms. In those conditions, the tests correctly identified 78% of people with Covid-19. Overall, when used to test among people who were symptomatic, rapid antigen tests positively identified 72% of people who had Covid-19.
When the antigen tests were used among people who were asymptomatic, the tests were much stronger at ruling out infection than identifying it. The tests correctly identified a negative Covid-19 finding about 99% of the time in people who just had Covid-like symptoms or no symptoms at all. However, when tested among people with a positive Covid-19 diagnosis, the rapid antigen tests only identified them correctly 58% of the time.
The reviewers also found a wide discrepancy in accuracy among the tests – ranging from 34% to 88%. The WHO’s minimum standards require a test to identify at least 80% of people with an infection and 97% of those without an infection. The SD Biosensor STANDARD Q and the Abbott Panbio antigen tests were identified as the two most accurate tests reviewed.
When looking at the rapid PCR tests, the researchers found that on average they positively identified an infection 95% of the time, and correctly identified a negative diagnosis 99% of the time. However, the researchers noted that there were limitations to these findings, because most of the studies evaluated looked just at the Abbot ID Now and Xpert press rapid PCR tests. There wasn’t enough data to evaluate when the tests were most precise relative to symptom onset.
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Mexico aims to distribute AstraZeneca vaccines to Latin America and Caribbean by mid-April
From CNN's Karol Suarez
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard announced the country had received 12 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses that remain at the final packaging process to start the distribution for Mexico and Latin American countries.
The foreign minister said Mexico and Argentina had promoted vaccine access to the region and went on to say, “We’ve proposed this with other vaccines and companies, but so far, in Mexico, we’re also producing CanSino, and they’re willing and have contracts with Latin America.”
Mexico on Monday announced the first batch of China’s CanSino Biologics vaccine —940,022 doses —were produced and packaged in the country.
Ebrard said the country is very close to starting distributing the AstraZeneca vaccine in Latin America, saying, “this would be a great step for Latin America and the Caribbean; we can act together, we can solve these important challenges, and we can guarantee that our people have access to what they’re entitled to.”
Pan American Health Organization Director Carissa Etienne said Tuesday that 33 of 35 member states had started immunizations, and 21 countries in the Americas will receive their first deployment of vaccines by the end of this week.
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated the additional number of Covid-19 vaccines that Mexico received from AstraZeneca.
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75% of US students are back to some level of in-person learning, education secretary says
From CNN's Elizabeth Stuart
Third grade students attend class at Green Mountain School on February 18, in Woodland, Washington.
Nathan Howard/Getty Images
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said about three-quarters of students in the US are back to some form of in-person learning, commending the work of local districts on reopening during the National Safe School Reopening Summit on Wednesday.
Cardona said more than 45% of elementary and middle schools are offering in-person school daily, and about 75% of schools have some form of in-person learning, like a hybrid method, according to new data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
“That’s a great start,” Cardona said. “We must continue that so every school K-8 offers in-person learning five days a week.
There are still inequities when it comes to in-person learning, Cardona said.
Some of these inequities will be addressed with the funding from the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan, which is providing more than $122 billion for K-12 schools to go towards reopening.
“We can address those inequities that I just talked about with that we can safely reopen our schools when we have to act wisely and with urgency to get it done,” Cardona said.
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Senior diplomat urges caution over use of proposed EU Covid-19 vaccine export rules
From CNN's James Frater
Vaccinators administer the Oxford AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at a medical center in Bridport, England, on March 20.
Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images
A senior European diplomat is urging caution over the use of proposed new rules that would govern exports of Covid-19 vaccines to outside of the EU. The rules were announced by the European Commission earlier Wednesday.
The tougher export controls put forward by the Commission would see vaccine shipments assessed based on the destination country’s rate of vaccinations and vaccine exports.
In a briefing to journalists, the diplomat said the EU and European countries need to, “be careful with the very the nuclear option of a pure export prohibition.” And if not used correctly in, “appropriate situations, it will backfire.”
“We speak as – I would say – a pharma superpower, we have a huge concentration of pharmacological companies on our territory,” whose presence, “counts for several percentages of our employment, of GNP,” the diplomat explained.
The existing export mechanism – which focuses on pharmaceutical firms – has been in place since the end of January and requires each company manufacturing Covid-19 vaccine to register its intention of exporting doses outside of the EU. European countries in collaboration with the Commission decide whether to approve or reject shipments.
In figures released today by the Commission, over 300 applications were made, with 43 million vaccines exported to 33 countries. Only one shipment of 250,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Italy to Australia was blocked.
The diplomat welcomed this “excellent by-product” of the current mechanism. “We understand of course the need for more transparency, we are squarely behind the Commission in that respect,” adding that, “we have now a very precise view on how the export flows are organised.”
Asked why the expanded legislation was being brought forward now, the diplomat said they felt it, “probably it is a sign of some nervousness which is reigning,” in some European counties.
“The Commission is not deaf for what lives in member states, they hear cries for help or indignation, and it’s up to the Commission to reflect on that and to put proposals on the table,” he added.
European leaders will meet on Thursday and Friday to discuss this proposal and the wider coronavirus crisis in Europe. If signed off, the expanded export mechanism would “apply until six weeks from its entry into force,” according to the Commission’s draft text.
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More evidence shows vaccines are “extremely effective in preventing infection,” Fauci says
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
More new research suggests that Covid-19 vaccines are effective in preventing Covid-19 in the real world, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, said during a White House virtual briefing on Wednesday.
SARS-CoV-2 is the name of the virus that causes Covid-19.
Two new papers, published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Tuesday, have added to that growing body of research.
One study of employees at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Texas found that among those who were fully vaccinated, the infection rate was 0.05%. That was compared with 2.61% of the non-vaccinated employees and 1.82% of the partially vaccinated employees. The other study, on fully vaccinated workers at the University of California, San Diego and the University of California, Los Angeles, also showed a very small positivity rate after vaccination.
“Now, 70% of Americans 65 years of age or older have received at least one dose,” Fauci said.
“Every day, 2.5 to 3 million people get vaccinated. So, every day we get closer and closer to that extraordinary degree of effectiveness, which we’re seeing at the community level – and at the end of the day, that is what it is that is going to end this pandemic in this country.”
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CDC director says she's worried about latest US Covid-19 data and the pandemic's possible trajectory
From CNN's Jacqueline Howard
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on March 18, in Washington, DC.
Susan Walsh/Pool/Getty Images
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Wednesday that the latest Covid-19 data in the United States has her worried.
“I continue to be worried about the latest data, and the apparent stall we are seeing in the trajectory of the pandemic,” Walensky said. “CDC is watching these numbers very closely.”
Walensky added, “We have made such extraordinary progress in the last several weeks, and if we choose to invest in prevention right now, we will ultimately come out of this pandemic faster and with fewer lives lost.”
She applauded the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations in the United States.
“I’ve been so impressed by the pace of vaccination,” Walensky said during the briefing.
“So many Americans have embraced vaccination and have chipped in with their families and communities to help others get vaccinated,” Walensky said. “We are now vaccinating between 16 and 20 million people a week — and this means that we are closer to resuming activities we love to do with those we care about the most.”
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More than 1.3 million educators have been vaccinated in the US, CDC director says
From CNN's Betsy Klein
A nurse practitioner administers a dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at a clinic for Catholic school education workers including elementary school teachers and staff at a vaccination site at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) on March 8, 2021 in Los Angeles.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky touted “substantial progress” toward vaccinating the nation’s educators Wednesday as the Biden administration’s deadline to get school staff vaccinated by the end of the month approaches.
She continued, “This is substantial progress towards our goal of getting our teachers and school staff vaccinated by the end of March.”
There were about 3.7 million teachers in the fall of 2020, per the National Center for Education Statistics.
This progress comes as the Department of Education is set to hold a summit on the safe reopening of schools Wednesday afternoon, with President Biden expected to announce $81 billion in funding for states toward supporting reopening measures via the $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill.
“During the summit, we will continue the important dialogue of school reopening and hear firsthand experience from school administrators, teachers, staff, and students about how they have been able to successfully get back to in person learning,” Walensky said.
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Study confirms remdesivir shortens Covid-19 illness
From CNN's Maggie Fox
Vials of the drug Remdesivir are displayed during a press conference at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany, on April 8, 2020
Ulrich Perrey/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
The antiviral drug remdesivir shortens the duration of illness even among non-White patients, who have a higher risk of severe disease, doctors reported Wednesday.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open, adds to evidence the drug can relieve the burden of coronavirus illness, even if it’s not a cure.
Remdesivir, sold under the brand name Veklury, was approved in October. It was the first drug to get full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration for use in treating Covid-19.
“Receipt of remdesivir was associated with faster clinical improvement in a cohort of predominantly non-White patients,” Dr. Brian Garibaldi of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and colleagues wrote in their report. Garibaldi was among the team of doctors who treated then-President Trump for a coronavirus infection last year.
The team looked at the records of 2,483 patients with Covid-19 treated in the Johns Hopkins system. Of those, 342 received remdesivir, and 184 of these patients also received corticosteroids.
And while patients given remdesivir were less likely to die, the findings on this were not statistically significant, the team said.
Only very ill patients got remdesivir – those with low oxygen levels and indications of organ damage.
“Our study included a much higher percentage of patients from underrepresented minority groups than previous remdesivir clinical trials. Approximately 80% of patients in our cohort were non-White individuals compared with 30% to 47% in clinical trials,” the team wrote.
“Because underrepresented minority groups have shouldered a disproportionate burden during the COVID-19 pandemic but have not been widely represented in clinical trials, our results provide important evidence that receipt of remdesivir is associated with decreased time to clinical improvement in these populations,” they wrote.
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Covid-19 vaccine demand may be next challenge as more states expand eligibility
From CNN’s Jacqueline Howard
A registered nurse measures a vaccine dose at a community COVID-19 vaccination clinic on March 23, 2021 in Severn, Maryland.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
As more states expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and older in the general population, local health officials are growing concerned that demand may become more of a challenge than supply.
It could happen within the next four to six weeks, Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNN on Wednesday morning.
“We will get to the point pretty quickly where we’re saying, ‘OK now we’re into the really hard phase of this where we’re down to the population that is not so willing to get the vaccine,’ ” Freeman said.
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Iraq reports highest number of Covid-19 cases since start of pandemic
From CNN's Mohammed Tawfeeq and Aqeel Najim
Iraqi health personnel work at a mobile Covid-19 testing unit at Baghdad's Shorja market on February 22.
Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images
Iraq has reported the highest daily cases since the start of the pandemic after 6,051 Covid-19 daily cases were recorded on Wednesday, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.
The total number of cases in Iraq since the pandemic began is 809,092 as per government figures.
The ministry also recorded 29 new coronavirus related deaths, bringing the total number of recorded deaths in Iraq to 14,095 since the start of the pandemic.
There are currently 67,526 Covid-19 patients hospitalized across the county, among them 476 cases in ICUs.
The Iraqi government announced an easing of lockdown restrictions last week saying the country faced economic challenges during the lockdown.
Current restrictions: The country now has a lockdown on Fridays and Saturdays instead of Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The daily curfew has been reduced by one hour, and is now between 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. local, while malls, shops, restaurants, and cafes were reopened on March 22 under strict health measures.
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European Union proposes tighter Covid-19 vaccine export controls
From CNN’s Eleanor Pickston and James Frater in London
EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis speaks at a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, on March 24.
Stephanie Lecocq/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
The European Union has proposed tighter controls on the export of Covid-19 vaccine doses, EU Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis announced on Wednesday.
The new rules would most likely affect countries with higher vaccination rates than the EU, including the United States and the United Kingdom.
The tougher export controls would see vaccine shipments assessed based on the destination country’s rate of vaccinations and vaccine exports.
Going forward, the European Commission and member states will consider two additional elements: reciprocity and proportionality, Dombrovskis said.
“The second element is proportionality, which means finding the right balance. Member states of the Commission will consider the conditions prevailing in the country of destination — in particular, epidemiological situation, its vaccination rate, and existing availability of Covid-19 vaccines,” Dombrovskis continued.
The objective of the change is to “have more transparency on exports and obtain a full picture of what is happening outside the EU so as to avoid a possible circumvention of the rules,” Dombrovskis said.
European leaders will meet on tomorrow and Friday to discuss this proposal and the wider coronavirus crisis in Europe. If signed off, the export mechanism would “apply until six weeks from its entry into force,” the draft text said.
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Uruguay announces new restrictive measures as Covid-19 cases surge
From CNN's Dario Klein, Claudia Rebaza, Abel Alvarado and Hira Humayun
A health worker conducts coronavirus tests at a homeless shelter in Montevideo, Uruguay, on February 4.
Matilde Campodonico/AP
Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou announced new restrictive measures that will be in place until April 12 to curb the spread of Covid-19.
Public offices will be closed except for essential services and in-person learning for all levels of education will also be suspended. Clubs, gyms, amateur sports, public shows, parties and social events will also be suspended, and restaurants and bars will close at midnight. “Free shops” on the border with Brazil, duty free shops where Brazilians shop to resell in their cities, will also be closed.
“If the free shops are a hub (for risks), well we close them” said Uruguay’s President at a news conference on Tuesday night.
Uruguay’s neighbor Brazil is one of the world’s worst affected countries by the pandemic, with intensive care units overwhelmed, cases rising, and some essential medical supplies running low. It has the second highest number of cases of the virus and deaths, only exceeded by the United States.
The President also said the number of ICU beds in the country will be increased with 35 additional beds to the private sector, 10 to the military hospital and 84 to the public sector.
Uruguay set a record for new cases and deaths on Monday with 2,700 new cases and 19 new deaths. Also, on Monday, health authorities said 24 cases of the Brazilian P.1 variant were detected in the country. The country also set a record on the same day for number of active cases- 14,418 and a record for number of people in ICU – 188.
On Tuesday, the country recorded 1,801 new cases of the virus for a total of 86,007 cases since the pandemic began, according to the country’s health ministry. Also, on Tuesday, 16 additional virus-related deaths were recorded bringing the total death toll to 827.
The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) highlighted a surge in cases in Uruguay, at its weekly press conference on Tuesday. PAHO Director Dr. Carissa Etienne said Uruguay has reported more than 1,000 cases per day several times in the past few weeks “which is alarming given the size of the country.”
The current population of Uruguay is 3,482,469 as of March 24, 2021, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data.
