Poll Suggests Doctors Are Masking Up at Work, San Francisco Mayor Tests Positive for the Virus, and Today’s Statistics
Photo caption: A masked teddy bear outside a bar in New York City
Good afternoon. This is Jonathan Spira, director of research at the Center for Long Covid Research, reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on its 1,570th day.
In news we cover today, an informal poll by the Coronavirus Daily News Brief found that the plurality of doctors are masking up given the rising number of Covid cases, San Francisco’s mayor tested positive for the virus again, and a new study suggests that text messages are as effective as free Lyft and Uber rides to vaccine sites in getting people to roll up their sleeves.
TODAY IN THE FIRST YEAR OF COVID HISTORY
On June 28, 2020, as part of an announcement that it was adding Vanderbilt University Medical Center to its travel health advisory panel, American Airlines said it would book flights “to capacity” starting July 1, 2020.
The notice came under the heading, “Notifications to customers booked on more crowded flights.”
Earlier in 2020, to encourage people to fly, airlines began to block seats to allow for greater social distancing.
Separately, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines, and United Airlines agreed to adopt a common set of coronavirus-related health and wellness procedures for passengers.
In New York City, the Broadway League, the trade association representing the industry’s 41 theaters, issued a statement that said that its theaters would remain closed through the end of 2020. The previously announced reopening date had been September 6 and, prior to that, June 7.
Finally, the number of coronavirus cases across the globe stood at 10.15 million, an increase of over 175,568 people in the prior 24 hours, based on figures compiled by the Coronavirus Morning News Brief. The death toll stood at 502,537.
In the United States and its territories, the number of confirmed cases was at 2.6 million, an increase of over 100,000 over the previous 48 hours, while the death toll stood at 128,211.
UNITED STATES
Doctors are telling caution as cases in the United States continue to rise, and those with patients who have weakened immune systems are telling patients to mask up, avoid crowded places, and assume that everyone around them has SARS-CoV-2 unless proven otherwise, a poll of ten physicians in the New York metropolitan area by the Coronavirus Daily News Brief found.
Even the physicians themselves are returning to masking up; Seven out of ten are back to religiously donning face masks and the other three said that they immediately reach for one if a patient appears to be symptomatic.
Meanwhile, in San Francisco, Mayor Karen Bass tested positive for the virus. She will remain in isolation and follow public health guidelines, her office said Friday.
Zach Seidl, a spokesman for Bass, told reporters that the mayor tested positive Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a recommendation late Thursday saying that all Americans ages six months and older should get vaccinated when new formulations of the Covid vaccine become available this fall.
The CDC’s recommendation comes just as the country is facing the start of a summer wave of Covid cases with case figures rising in 39 states.
A new study published in the journal Nature showed that text reminders to get vaccinated against Covid had roughly the same efficacy as the offer of a free ride to and from the vaccination site.
The study was led by Katy Milkman of the University of Pennsylvania, who is co-director of the Behavior Change for Good Initiative at Penn. Milkman said that the researchers were surprised that there was no added benefit by reducing friction associated with getting to and from the vaccine site.
OTHER HEALTHCARE NEWS
PANDEMIC STATISTICS
CURRENT U.S. COVID STATISTICS AT A GLANCE
In the United States, in the week ending June 22, 2024, the test positivity rate was, based on data released on June 28 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was 8.1%, and the trend in test positivity is +1.4% in the most recent week. Meanwhile, the percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as SARS-CoV-2 was 0.9%, and the trend in emergency department visits is +23.3%.
The number of people admitted to hospital in the United States due to SARS-CoV-2 was no longer being reported as of the end of May. Meanwhile, the percentage of deaths due to SARS-CoV-2 was 0.8%, a figure that is up 14.3% over the past week’s figures.
VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT
Some 70.6% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at press time, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information. So far, 13.58 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and the seven-day-average of the number of daily doses of vaccine administrated was 12,642 as of June 21, 2024.
Meanwhile, only 32.8% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.
In addition, with the beginning of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, 2023, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines in any significant number
Finally, as of April 14, 2024, only Turkmenistan in Central Asia is only state that has not reported any cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections whatsoever, although it is strongly suspected that the virus is present there. Meanwhile, the last territory in the world to have its first ever SARS-CoV-2 infection was Tokelau, a dependency of New Zealand that reported its first five cases on December 21, 2022.
Where Has All the Data Gone?
We regret to inform that, as of April 15, 2024, the Global Daily Statistics data in the Coronavirus Daily News Brief are no longer being updated. Over the past 15 months, as more politicians and governments sought to place SARS-CoV-2 in the rear-view mirror, pandemic data reporting sputtered out and we are now at the point where it is simply not feasible to provide statistically valid case data on a global scale.
We are developing potential new and authoritative sources that we will present once they have been properly vetted, so stay tuned to this space. In the meantime, our Long Covid and pandemic coverage will remain much the same.
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Anna Breuer contributed reporting to this issue.
The Coronavirus Daily News Brief is a publication of the Center for Long Covid Research. www.longcov.org
If you have Long Covid and need to talk to someone, call the Long Covid Patient Peer Counseling Phone Line, or HOPELINE. The HOPELINE is our free, confidential support and information service.
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