Miscellaneous
This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for February 16th, 2021. Welcome to Hotel Quarantine. Britain’s newly established quarantine hotels got their first guests yesterday. Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport from 33 high risk countries were escorted by security guards to buses that took them to the hotels, where they will have to stay 10 days at their own expense.The World Health Organization yesterday listed AstraZeneca's vaccine for emergency use, increasing access to one of the more inexpensive vaccines to the developing world. The WHO's review found the Astrazeneca vaccine met the "must-have" criteria for safety, and its efficacy benefits outweighed its risks.Brazil’s President, meanwhile, is seeking emergency use authorization for an Israeli-developed nasal spray against COVID-19. Israel’s Prime Minister has described it as a “miracle” treatment with nearly 100% effectiveness against serious COVID cases.So what does happen if the mutations of the virus start getting around the vaccines as they exist today? The answer is, the vaccines will be tweaked. Regulators are looking at the flu as a blueprint to determine if and when shots need updating. The good news: Many of the COVID vaccines use a new, flexible technology that’s quite easy to upgrade. FYI, if you get these symptoms after getting a vaccination, the CDC says you should be glad…because they’re a sign the vaccine is working. They are…pain at the injection site that lasts a little over a day. Fatigue, which means your immune system is doing its job. And a low-grade fever, anything below 100.4 is fine. In the United States cases were down 39%, deaths are down 18%, and hospitalizations down 28% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since January 25th. There are now 9,462,875 active cases in the United States. The current top 5 states by number of active cases: California, New York, Florida, Arizona, and Georgia. The top 10 counties with the highest number of recent cases per capita according to The New York Times: Scurry, TX. Aleutians East Borough, AK. San Saba, TX. Bent, CO. Lexington, VA. Van Buren, TN. Scott, TN. Marion, TN. Macon, TN. And Jackson, TN. The five states with the highest risk levels and most daily new cases per capita over 7 days are South Carolina, New York, Tennessee, New Jersey, and Delaware. There’ve been a total 486,317 deaths in the US reported as COVID-related, with a current national fatality rate of 1.76%.The states with the most new deaths reported as COVID-related: Florida 155. New York 119. Connecticut 66. California 64. Texas 60. Georgia 57. Ohio 48. Illinois 45. South Carolina 36. And Massachusetts and Louisiana 33. The top 3 vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s had at least one dose are Alaska at 17.3%, West Virginia at 13.8%, and New Mexico at 13.7%. The bottom 3 are Rhode Island at 9.2%, Utah at 9.6%, and Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia at 9.7%.Globally, cases were down 29%, and deaths down 16% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since January 11. Globally, there are 22,890,966 active cases.The five countries with the most new cases: the United States 52,785. Brazil 32,197. Russia 14,207. Spain 11,942. And the U.K. 9,765. There have now been 2,407,607 deaths reported as Covid-related worldwide. For the latest updates, subscribe for free to Coronavirus 411 on your podcast app or ask your smart speaker to play the Coronavirus 411 podcast. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.