Miscellaneous
This is Coronavirus 411, the latest COVID-19 info and new hotspots… Just the facts… for February 17th, 2021. A paralyzing winter storm is creating all kinds of problems for vaccination efforts. Appointments had to be cancelled, deliveries were delayed, and mass vaccination sites couldn’t open. Snow, ice and bitter cold forced authorities to halt vaccinations from Pennsylvania to Illinois and from Tennessee to Missouri. Two variants of the coronavirus have combined to form a heavily mutated hybrid. The hybrid was discovered at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and is apparently a combination of the U.K. strain and a variant that originated in California. Unlike regular mutation, recombinations like this can bring multiple mutations at once. Most of the time, they don’t give the virus any extra advantage, but occasionally they do. However, a new study says the U.K. mutation by itself may be bad enough. Researchers have shown it is indeed 30 to 70% deadlier than previous virus strains, and that’s in addition to being more contagious, which we already knew. About 43 to 82% more transmissible. The CDC said the strain is spreading so fast it’s projected to become the dominant variant in the U.S. by March. School bells are about to ring at elementary schools in Los Angeles County. In-person learning can start this week because health officials expect to reach the case threshold for reopening, which, by the way, is 25 per 100,000. Those opening have to prove safety measures are in place. Getting safely back to your favorite bar might prove difficult. Researchers in Scotland have found customers and staff both fail to stick to even the simplest safety measures. And the more they drink, the less obedient they are about it. And there was only one instance in the study that staff even tried to enforce the rules. In the United States cases were down 41%, deaths are down 22%, and hospitalizations down 29% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since January 25th. There are now 9,401,811 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. Bent, CO. Scott, TN. Van Buren, TN. Lexington, VA. San Saba, TX. Marion, TN. Stewart, GA. 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, Tennessee, New York, Rhode Island, and New Jersey. There’ve been a total 487,926 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: California 379. Georgia 246. Florida 223. New York 147. North Carolina 61. Ohio 59. Texas 57. Massachusetts 50. Indiana 40. And Wisconsin 38. The list of vaccinating states by percentage of population that’s had at least one dose did not update their report yesterday. We’ll have updated numbers tomorrow. Globally, cases were down 28%, and deaths down 17% over 14 days. The 7-day average of new cases has been trending down since January 11. Globally, there are 22,755,066 active cases. The five countries with the most new cases: the United States 63,398. Brazil 55,271. France 19,590. Russia 13,233. And India 11,795. There have now been 2,418,416 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.