January 6 coronavirus news

A sign for Mount Sinai Medical Center is seen in Miami Beach, Florida.

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it is evaluating the reported death of a Miami doctor weeks after he received a coronavirus vaccine.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s office told CNN earlier Wednesday it was investigating the death of Dr. Gregory Michael, who worked at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Michael was vaccinated in mid-December.

A CDC spokeswoman said in an email that it is aware of the reports of a Florida individual who died about two weeks after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Pfizer said in a separate statement it did not believe the vaccine caused the death.

“It’s been a difficult year as each of us grapple with a worldwide pandemic.?Use of COVID-19 vaccines is the next step in our efforts to protect Americans and reduce the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” the CDC spokeswoman said.

The city of New Orleans will enact new restrictions on gathering and introduce capacity limits for the next three weeks due to a spike in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

Daily new cases throughout the city jumped by more than 200 after hovering around 30 for most of the fall months. The percentage of positive tests also ballooned past 10% after being around 5% for the past two weeks, the statement notes.

The restrictions go into effect Friday at 6 a.m. and include:

A nurse collects a nasal swab sample at a Covid-19 testing center at Fujimino Emergency Hospital in Miyoshi-machi, Japan on January 5.

Japan’s health authority identified 5,953 Covid-19 infections Wednesday, a single-day record for new cases in the country.

Another 72 virus-related deaths were also reported Wednesday, authorities said.

The government is preparing to declare a state of emergency in Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures – Saitama, Chiba and Kangawa – where cases are spiking. Tokyo set its own record for number of infections identified in a day on Wednesday, with 1,591 new cases.

Health Ministry data shows that as of Wednesday, the number of patients in serious condition across Japan rose to 784, while 41,054 patients are being treated in hospital.

At least 259,105 cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in Japan, killing 3,904 people.

A patient rests in a corridor waiting for a room at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California on January 3.

Upwards of 8,000 people are in Los Angeles County hospitals being treated for Covid-19, authorities said.

County officials say the situation is now “a health crisis of epic proportions.”

Another 11,841 Covid-19 infections and 258 virus-related deaths were reported in Los Angeles County on Wednesday. To date, the county has reported a total of 852,165 coronavirus cases and 11,328 fatalities.

Of the 8,023 people being treated in the hospital with the virus, 20% are in the ICU, according to the statement. While the three-day average number of coronavirus hospitalizations on November 1 was 791, that figure had increased to 7,873 on January 4.??

Health crisis: The test positivity rate in the county has also increased to 21.8% from 3.8% in November. One in five people who are tested are testing positive, according to the public health department.

“This is a health crisis of epic proportions. I am more troubled than ever before, and in part, my concern is rooted in the reality that it will take so much more for us to slow the spread given the high rate of community spread,” Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said in a statement.?

According to Dr. Ferrer, the number of people dying from the virus each day has doubled.

Avera Health workers provide Covid-19 tests to citizens at a testing site in Sioux Falls, on January 6.

People’s immunity to Covid-19 lasts at least eight months after they have recovered from an infection, researchers reported Wednesday.

A study of 188 people who recovered from Covid-19 infections showed they had broad immune protection months later – not just antibodies, but also several types of immune cells that the body musters after an infection.

While there have been worries that the antibody response fades, Dr. Jennifer Dan of the?La Jolla Institute for Immunology?and the University of California, San Diego worked with her team to see how the immune responses held up for Covid-19 survivors. She said they found just the opposite.

Dan and her team found that peoples’ bodies were producing?antibodies, memory B cells, CD8?T cells, and CD4?T cells that were trained to home in on Covid-19 for as long as eight months after they became ill.

There have been reports of people getting infected twice by coronavirus, but the researchers noted that large studies showed if it happens, it’s rare.

The United States reported?132,476 current?Covid-19 hospitalizations on?Wednesday, setting a new record high since the pandemic began, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP).

This is the 36th consecutive day the US has remained above 100,000 current hospitalizations.

The highest hospitalization numbers according to CTP data are:

A healthcare worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine in Pompano Beach, Florida.

The US Food and Drug Administration has made clear that it does not plan to make any changes to Covid-19 vaccine dosing schedules in the United States – but if any changes were made,?the vaccine manufacturer would?have to specifically ask the agency to adjust authorization.

CNN confirmed with the FDA on Wednesday that before any change could be made to the?emergency use authorization for a vaccine, the manufacturer would need to submit data to the FDA supporting the requested change.

If changes are proposed to the Covid-19 vaccine dosing schedules in the future, “it won’t be FDA that moves it,” said David Benkeser, a biostatistician at Emory University whose research includes work on preventive vaccines. “They’re bound by legal operations that dictate how drugs are approved in the country, and so it’s not surprising to hear them say that their strong preference is to stick with what we know works.”

Health officials have been speculating about the possibility of stretching vaccine supply by giving people a single dose instead of two doses, or by cutting doses in half. British officials created an uproar by saying they would consider such changes.

FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn and Dr. Peter Marks, who heads FDA’s vaccine division issued a statement Monday, saying that?“suggesting changes to the FDA-authorized dosing or schedules of these vaccines is premature and not rooted solidly in the available evidence.”

A medical staff exits the COVID-19 intensive care unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center on January 1, 2021 in Houston, Texas.

An?ensemble?forecast?published Wednesday by the CDC projects there will be 405,000 - 438,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by January 30.

Unlike some individual models, the?CDC’s?ensemble?forecast?only offers projections a few weeks into the future. The previous?ensemble?forecast, published December 30, projected up to 424,000 coronavirus deaths by January 23.

At least?359,977?people?have already died from Covid-19 in the US, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Banners advising people to wear masks against the coronavirus hang along Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021.?

At least 52 cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom have been identified in the United States, according to the CDC on Wednesday.

This includes 26 cases in California, 22 cases in Florida, two cases in Colorado, and one case in Georgia and New York.

CDC says this does not represent the total number of cases circulating in the US, but rather those that have been found by analyzing positive samples. The agency cautions that its numbers, which are expected to update on Tuesdays and Thursdays, may not immediately match those of state and local health departments.

While the variant appears to spread more easily than Covid-19, there’s no evidence that it’s more deadly or causes more severe disease, according to CDC.?

Experts suspect there could be many more cases in the US and have criticized the country for not doing more genetic sequencing of virus samples to surveil for mutations. On Sunday, a CDC official told CNN the agency plans to more than double the number of samples it sequences over the following two weeks – with a target of 6,500 per week.

The earliest known US sample that carried the current version of the variant was taken on December 19 in Florida, according to the genomic database GISAID. However, collection dates are not available for all samples.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on December 22, 2020.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Wednesday that the Covid-19 vaccine Moderna “is due to arrive in Israel” on Thursday.

Netanyahu tweeted the announcement saying, “We will give these vaccines to people who cannot go to their HMO, whether they are isolated at home or cannot go to the inoculation sites for any other reason.”

He also said he spoke to Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel several days ago.

The country is in the midst of a mass vaccination campaign, which has now seen over 1.3 million Israelis receive their first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, out of a total population of about 9 million, according to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein.

Israel currently has over 60,000 Covid-19 cases according to the country’s health ministry.

An empty street in Dublin city center on Monday, January 4, 2021, in Dublin, Ireland.

Ireland has further tightened its Covid-19 lockdown measures, closing construction sites and schools across the country, Prime Minister (Taoiseach) Micheál Martin announced Wednesday, adding that such measures would be necessary “to suppress the surge and flatten the curve once again.”?

Under the new restrictions all schools will close and move online until the end of January. An exception has been made for final year students, who will be allowed to attend school three days a week from January 11.

Other childcare services will also close, with exceptions made for vulnerable children and the children of frontline workers.

Non-essential construction projects will be ordered to close from 6pm on Friday, Martin added, acknowledging “how severe a measure this is on the construction sector.”

On Wednesday, 7,836 new cases were recorded by Ireland’s Department of Health, and national hospitalization figures surpassed those from the first wave of the pandemic, Ireland’s Health Executive boss Paul Reid said on Twitter.

This surging case rate prompted the Irish government to re-impose Level 5 lockdown measures on December 30.

Taoiseach Martin said Wednesday that the situation in Ireland “is not dissimilar to what is happening in the UK in terms of the rapid growth in community transmission and rapid hospitalizations.”?

The World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

The world?—?especially countries like the United States — is playing a “very dangerous game” with the novel coronavirus, giving it more chances to mutate as the virus spreads,?a World Health Organization official said.

“We’re playing a very dangerous game with this virus right now,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead for the coronavirus response, told CNN Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen. “What worries us is that the longer this spreads the more opportunities it has to change.”

Van Kerkhove pointed out that many mutations won’t have much of an impact on the virus, but if a virus changes its genetics in just the right way, tests might not be able to detect it as easily, and vaccines might not work as well against it.

She pointed out that some countries, such as Australia and New Zealand, have done a better job controlling the virus.?“It’s completely up to us to be able to bring the virus under control,” she said. “The virus is controllable, including these variants.”?

The Dodger Stadium COVID-19 testing site, which is the largest in the U.S. reopened Monday on January 5, in Los Angeles, California.

California’s Department of Public Health confirmed 459 new Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday, as infection numbers and hospitalizations in the state soar.

The number of fatalities is well above the two-week daily average of just under 300 deaths a day. Only once has the daily report been higher, when the state reported 585 deaths on December 31 last year.?

Hospitalizations in the Golden State have reached a new high, with 22,820 coronavirus patients admitted for treatment statewide. More than 4,700 of those patients are in intensive care units.

There were nearly 30,000 confirmed infections reported Wednesday.

The total number of Californians infected with Covid-19 has now reached 2.4 million.

Dr.?Anthony?Fauci said the US would not force people to?get a Covid-19 vaccine but?some employers and schools?may require employees and pupils to be vaccinated.

“We’re certainly not going to have a central mandate from the federal government, but the precedent for requiring vaccinations is not new,” Fauci said.?

Speaking Wednesday at the Economic Club of Washington, DC, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, for example, he is required by NIAID to get a flu shot if he wanted to see patients. He said he could see other institutions making such requirements.?

“I would imagine that some industrial entities, some schools and other entities might actually at the local level require that people get vaccinated before they can participate in whatever function of that institution is,” Fauci said.

“I mean, we do it already in public schools. If you don’t show a certificate of being vaccinated you’re not allowed to be in school.”?

Fauci said vaccines are hugely important in bringing Covid-19 under control.

“Vaccines are a clear home?run,” Fauci said. “We have very efficacious vaccine that’s safe. The real challenge is just getting it into the arms of people.”

A traveler is reflected in a window at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Dec. 24, 2020.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has asked the federal government to require international travelers entering the state to show proof of a Covid-19 test before entry.

Cuomo said he wanted US Customs and Border Control personnel to ask for proof at all New York airports or to allow Port Authority personnel to obtain proof.??

“Let us protect ourselves,” Cuomo said at his press conference Wednesday.?“We don’t want tens of thousands of people coming through our airports every day from countries around the world who were not tested.”

In addition to making the request public at his press conference, Gov. Cuomo sent a letter with an official request to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Robert Redfield.

The governor says he is very concerned about the UK variant of Covid-19, which is now in New York after a case was confirmed in Saratoga on Monday.?Cuomo said it appears now there’s evidence that the UK variant in Saratoga Springs was connected to UK travel.

A new Covid-19 variant circulating the UK was discovered after a tip from a South African scientist who had just identified a similar variant in his own country.

Tulio de Oliveira, a genomics expert in South Africa, asked to speak before a World Health Organization working group on December 4 about the new variant that was rapidly spreading in his country, according to an email obtained by CNN.?

He spoke to the group that day and suggested they look through their genomic databases for similar variants.?

One of the members in attendance was Andrew Rambaut, a professor at the University of Edinburgh. He found a similar variant in the UK database.?

Rambaut tweeted on December 20 that de Oliviera’s discovery was like a “hint” for the UK to look for a similar variant.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead for the WHO’s coronavirus response, also said de Oliveira’s discovery triggered British scientists to look at the different type of variants.

“I’m just so grateful that we have this [international] collaboration,” she said.

Britain has recorded its highest daily increase in coronavirus-related deaths since 21 April, with a total of 1,041 further deaths registered on Wednesday.?

The total death toll for patients who have died within 28 days of testing positive for the virus, since the beginning of the pandemic, now stands at 77,346 according to government figures.?

As of Wednesday, 62,322 new cases have been confirmed across the UK, bringing the country’s total number of cases to 2,836,801.

Wednesday’s figures mark an increase on Tuesday, where 60,916 new daily cases were recorded, along with 830 additional deaths.

Speaking during a Downing Street press briefing on Tuesday,?England’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty said that about one in 50 people across?England?now has?coronavirus, calling the figure “really very high.”

England is currently under a strict national lockdown as the British government struggles to curb the rise in infection.

A person passes closed shops in downtown Harare, Zimbabwe, on January 5.

Doctors in Zimbabwe have said the health system is overwhelmed and could collapse as the country battles a new wave of infections that has prompted a strict new 30-day lockdown.

After the Christmas holidays, Zimbabwe recorded an increase in Covid-19 infections and deaths, raising fears for an already fragile healthcare system.

The government has urged citizens to adhere to the lockdown, which includes movement restrictions to all but the most essential services.

The reopening of schools has been postponed indefinitely, following a Covid-19 outbreak in schools last term, while shops will only be open until 3 pm daily.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew is also in place to avoid night gatherings and events.

Read more:

Elderly men wait for medicines at a pharmacy at Parirenyatwa hospital in Harare September 9, 2019. - For Zimbabwe's doctors, few institutions reflect their country's decay under Robert Mugabe than the once-vaunted public hospitals, now deteriorated, under-equipt and failing. In Zimbabwe, medics say, latex gloves serve as urine bags, operating rooms lack of light bulbs and patients are often forced to refuel their own ambulances. Mugabe, who died last week in Singapore at age 95, may have swept to power as a liberation hero, but his rule was marked by economic collapse that left his people scrambling to survive. Local doctors noted the symbolism of Mugabe seeking treatment 8,000 km from home in Singapore's modern Gleneagles clinic where a private suite can cost more than $1,000 a day. (Photo by Jekesai NJIKIZANA / AFP) (Photo credit should read JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Zimbabwe health system overwhelmed as country goes on new strict lockdown, doctors say

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio speaks at a press conference in New York on January 6.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio?is pushing for adults in the city aged over 75 to be prioritized for vaccination against Covid-19, amid worsening trends in that age group.

Eligibility for vaccination is ultimately approved by state officials. The state currently has a five phase vaccination priority plan. The first two phases prioritize healthcare workers and long term care facility patients and other key workers. Adults over the age of 65 are under phase 3 of the plan.

The mayor has said he hopes to begin pre-registration of seniors at some of the available vaccination hubs in the city.

New York City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi elaborated that over the past 30 days, 6% of all cases are over 75 and up, but 30% of hospitalizations and 58% of deaths are in persons 75 and older. Percent positivity is also increasing in this category.

Overall, New York City reported an additional 3,845 cases on a 7-day average, which de Blasio said was “way too high.” The city also recorded a “big jump” in patients admitted to hospitals with suspected Covid-19, with the mayor marking 279 in Wednesday’s report.

De Blasio said he was hopeful that the impact of the holiday break would wear off the next few weeks, leading to an improvement in Covid-19 numbers.

New York City was the US epicenter of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, with hospitals struggling to cope with the influx of patients.

After an easier summer, the city is now experiencing rising numbers of infections and new restrictions have been imposed.

The European Union has authorized Moderna’s vaccine for conditional use, the second Covid-19 inoculation to be given the green light.

The EU had secured the purchase of up to?160 million doses?of the vaccine – enough to vaccinate 80 million people of its 448 million citizens – as part of a joint vaccine strategy aimed to ensure equitable access across the bloc.

The authorization comes as the region battles to slow the spread of a new variant of the virus, with several countries entering strict new lockdowns and shutting schools as the new year begins.

Emer Cooke, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) executive director, said on Wednesday that “this vaccine provides us with another tool to overcome the current emergency.

“It is a testament to the efforts and commitment of all involved that we have this second positive vaccine recommendation just short of a year since the pandemic was declared by WHO,” she said.

Moderna submitted an application for authorization on November 30. The European Union has been conducting rolling reviews of data to expedite its approval processes.

Read the full story here.

Pallbearers carry the casket of someone said to have died from Covid-19 during a burial service in Whittier, California, on December 31.

More than 1,000 people have died of?Covid-19?in Los Angeles County over the past week as California grapples with surging cases and overwhelmed hospitals.

The pandemic has devastated much of the US state.

On Tuesday, the state reported 368 new coronavirus deaths – pushing the number of lives lost in the state to 27,000 since the start of the pandemic. Some 2.45 million have been infected.

The surge in cases has put California at the epicenter of the US’s struggle against coronavirus.

Read more:

EDITORS NOTE: Graphic content / An empty casket is delivered amid a surge of Covid-19 deaths to the Continental Funeral Home on December 31, 2020 in East Los Angeles, California. - The funeral home currently has about 150 families awaiting services for their loved ones. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon / AFP) (Photo by PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article In less than a week, more than 1,000 people have died of coronavirus in Los Angeles County

Health workers talk in the Covid-19 ward at Curry Cabral hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, on November 18.

Portuguese health authorities have reported 10,027 new coronavirus infections, the highest daily increase since the pandemic started.

It is the first time the daily number of infections has gone above 10,000.

The previous daily record was 7,627 new infections, which were reported on December 31.

In total, 446,606?people in Portugal have been diagnosed with the disease since the global outbreak reached the country.?

The record daily increase comes as the 72-year-old Portuguese president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, was forced to go into isolation after a member of his staff tested positive for Covid-19, according to a statement from the Portuguese presidency on Wednesday.?The president had been in contact with the staff member on Monday,

Portugal has also reported an additional 91 deaths from the novel coronavirus in the past 24 hours.

A total of 7,377?people in the country have died since the pandemic started.

A vial of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is pictured at a hospital in Valley Stream, New York, on December 21.

The European Union drugs regulator has recommended granting?Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine?a conditional marketing authorization – a move that paves the way for it to become the second coronavirus vaccine distributed in the bloc.

Following the recommendation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), the drug must be formally authorized by the European Commission; this is expected to happen quickly.

Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine is similar to the?Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first Covid-19 vaccine approved for use in the EU.

But there are a few key differences. Most importantly, Moderna’s vaccine can be stored in normal freezers and does not require a super-cold transportation network, making it more accessible for smaller facilities and local communities.

System Pharmacy Clinical Manager at Hartford HealthCare Colleen Teevan prepares the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 to give to a front line worker outside of Hartford Hospital, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, in Hartford, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill)

Related article What we know about Moderna's coronavirus vaccine and how it differs from Pfizer's

?Federal Councillor?Alain Berset speaks at a press conference on January 6 in Bern, Switzerland.

The Swiss government plans to extend coronavirus restrictions – including the shutdown of all restaurants, cultural and recreational sites – by five weeks because of a “tense” epidemiological situation in the country.

A final decision on whether to extend the restrictions until the end of February will be taken on January 13, following consultations with Switzerland’s cantons, or regions.

“The situation is not good, frankly it is bad,” Federal Councillor Alain Berset said Wednesday during a news conference.

The epidemiological situation “remains tense: The number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths, as well as the pressure on health personnel are at very high levels,” the government said in the statement, adding that the number of infections was unlikely to decrease significantly and sustainably in the coming weeks.

The Federal Council has revoked the option for cantons “with favourable epidemiological developments” to ease the restrictions.

Switzerland has reported 470,789?cases and 8,064 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Yesterday, Swiss health authorities said they had recorded 28 cases of the new, more contagious, variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK.

Seychelles reported its first Covid-19 related death on January 3, according to the country’s Ministry of Health.?

The patient was a 57-year-old Seychellois man who was hospitalized at the country’s isolation and treatment center, the Health Ministry said.

The ministry reported 19?new cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total number of cases on the island to 373.

Of these cases, 142?are currently active.?

The total population of Seychelles is?96,762.?

A nurse prepares to administer the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at Guy's Hospital in London on December 8.

Two new variants of the coronavirus have emerged that seem to make the virus more easily transmitted. But will they stymie vaccination efforts?

One, first identified in Britain, has popped up around the world. While researchers worried at first that it might have changed enough to evade the protection offered by coronavirus vaccines, the evidence suggests it has not.

But a second new variant first seen in South Africa may carry changes that would help the virus at least partly escape the immunity provided by some of the current vaccines.

It has to do with where the changes are, and how they affect the shape and function of the virus.

All the current vaccines target what is known as the spike protein – the structure the virus uses to get into the cells it attacks.

Read more:

A nurse fills a syringe with the Pfizer-BioNtech coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccine on January 4, 2020 at the Antonin Balmes gerontology center in Montpellier in the south of France. - French president faced on January 4, 2020 growing pressure to accelerate France's Covid-19 vaccination drive which has seen just a few hundred people receive the jab. (Photo by Pascal GUYOT / AFP) (Photo by PASCAL GUYOT/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article Here's how mutations could help the coronavirus evade vaccines

Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron prepares to receive his Covid-19 vaccination on January 5 at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta.

US civil rights icons have taken part in a?coronavirus?vaccination event at a historically Black medical school in Georgia.

The event was held to encourage Black Americans to be immunized, Atlanta’s Morehouse School of Medicine said in a news release.

Former UN Ambassador Andrew Young, civil rights leader Xernona Clayton, former Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan and baseball legend Hank Aaron all received Covid-19 vaccinations Tuesday.

Campaigns to encourage confidence in the vaccines against coronavirus have had to contend with America’s history of racism in medical research and a lack of trust in the federal government.

Read more:

Andrew Young, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations receives his COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2021, at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta. Young, baseball great Hank Aaron and others received their vaccinations in an effort to highlight the importance of getting vaccinated for Black Americans who might be hesitant to do so. (AP Photo/Ron Harris)

Related article These civil rights icons received Covid-19 vaccine, and they're encouraging Black America to do the same

A vial of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine is pictured during a press conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on December 23.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has recommended granting a conditional marketing authorization for Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine, paving the way for its approval and distribution across the EU.

The European Commission is expected to now formally approve the vaccine.

The EU has already approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for use across its 27 member states.

Earlier on Wednesday German Health Minister Jens Spahn said he hoped the country would receive the Moderna vaccine by early next week.

A doctor prepares a dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a hospital in Cremona, Italy, on January 6.

Italy received 100,000 fewer doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine than expected this week, the office in charge of the country’s vaccine distribution told CNN Wednesday.

According to the agreement between the EU and vaccine companies, Italy should receive 470,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine?every week.

This week it only received 370,000 doses.

According to the country’s Health Ministry, Italy has?so far?administered nearly 250,000 inoculations, which is 54.1% of the doses it received this week.

European Union countries are rolling out their vaccine programs but many have been criticized for slow starts to the drives.

Jens Spahn, German health minister, attends a federal cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin on January 6.

German Health Minister Jens Spahn has asked people in the country to be patient over the speed of the coronavirus vaccine rollout.

Spahn, speaking at a press conference Wednesday, said the first step was to get all those needing care and the oldest in the country vaccinated.?

He said almost 400,000 people in?Germany?had so far been vaccinated.

Figures from the Robert Koch Institute, the national agency for disease control and prevention, show that 367,331 vaccinations have been administered, with 150,000 in nursing homes and around 176,000 medical staff getting the shot.?

Germany lags behind the UK, which has vaccinated around 1.3 million people as of Tuesday. But it is ahead of France, which has also attracted criticism over a slow start to its vaccination rollout, administering 516 shots by January 1. The country has since significantly ramped up its rollout, with more than 5,000 doses given on January 5, according to its health minister. Italy has?so far?administered nearly 250,000 inoculations.

Spahn added that these were days of confidence for Germany.

But he also said he understood impatience in the population.

“That is why we have to ask large parts of the population for patience,” Spahn said, explaining that the situation was no different in the wider European Union or beyond.

Spahn said the reason for the rollout speed was due to limited production capacity.

Spahn said the hope was to be able to offer a vaccine to everyone in the summer.?

“Today we expect a second authorization for the Moderna vaccine,” he said, referring to a pending European Medicines Agency decision on the Moderna vaccine Wednesday.

“We are hoping that the delivery of Moderna vaccines starts early next week.”

Markus Soeder, Bavarian prime minister, holds a press conference on January 5 in Berlin.

The Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder has said that vaccination is the only real long-term strategy to fight against Covid.?

Speaking at a press conference in Munich, the German state leader said that while ordering vaccines was important, encouraging people to take the shots was also vital.

Soeder said it was important to launch a campaign encouraging people to get vaccinated.?

Bavaria was entering a crucial period now, he said, adding that “it has never been this bad.”

Germany’s government announced Tuesday that the country’s national lockdown – which had initially been in place until January 10 – will be extended until the end of the month.

The country recorded its second highest daily death toll from the coronavirus on Wednesday, with 1,019 fatalities recorded.

A cluster of virus cases in China’s Hebei province has continued to grow, with over 39 confirmed cases and 78 asymptomatic cases reported on Tuesday, according to an official statement Wednesday.

China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has claimed that the cluster is linked to imported cases.

The majority of cases are linked to the Gaocheng district of Shijiazhuang, the capital city of?Hebei?province, with another city, Xingtai, 100km away from the capital, reporting two cases.?

The first case was reported on January 2, when a Gaocheng district resident tested positive for the virus a few days after going to a wedding. A few other attendees tested positive later.

Gaocheng has been designated as a “high-risk area,” starting Wednesday.

People who wish to travel from?Shijiazhuang airport and train station need to present a negative PCR test result from within the last 72 hours.?

The city will start testing all residents from January 6, according to a spokesperson from the Shijiazhuang Municipal People’s Government, who spoke at a press conference on Tuesday.?

Denmark has banned travelers from South Africa from entry and is discouraging travel to the African nation, due to a new Covid-19 variant first detected there.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark now advises against all travel, including business travel, to the whole of South Africa, according to a press release published Tuesday night.

The variant has a pattern of mutation which troubles scientists and appears to make the virus more easily transmitted.?Another variant first detected in the UK has prompted similar global concern.

Funeral director Steven Correa moves the casket of someone said to have died from Covid-19 in preparation for burial at Continental Funeral Home in East Los Angeles, California, on December 31.

The US reported its highest?daily Covid-19?death count ever Tuesday –?a grim milestone?that comes as state leaders work urgently to combat a slow pace of vaccinations.

More than 3,770 American deaths were reported in one day – more than two dozen above the country’s previous record, set less than a week ago. The country also topped 21 million infections Tuesday and set a hospitalization record, with more than 131,100 Covid-19 hospitalized patients nationwide, according to the?COVID Tracking Project.

As numbers climb, US governors are now taking new measures to get the distributed vaccines into arms faster, including mobilizing National Guard members and training more volunteers to administer vaccines.

Read more:

Krystal Rodriguez, nursing student with Central Arizona College, talks to people after they received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, in the observation zone at Banner Health's drive-thru vaccine site at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix on Jan. 5, 2021. People had to wait in the observation zone for about 10 minutes after receiving their vaccine. Covid 19 Vaccine

Related article As US hits daily Covid-19 death toll record, states call in National Guard and train volunteers to help boost pace of vaccinations

China says that it remains in close contact with the World Health Organization (WHO) about finalizing arrangements for a visit to Wuhan by an international panel of experts who will investigate the origin of Covid-19.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that two scientists on the United Nations (UN) team had already left their home countries for Wuhan when they were told that Chinese officials had not approved the necessary permissions to enter the country.

The WHO said on Tuesday that arrangements had been jointly agreed with China in advance of the trip.

WHO officials have long been negotiating with Beijing to allow a team of global scientists access to key sites to investigate the origin of the virus – first detected in Wuhan in December 2019.

The scientists’ visit was agreed between China and the WHO in October, and the experts and their Chinese counterparts had been in touch via zoom.

Hua added: “According to my understanding, the two sides are still in close communication about details relating to the specific dates and arrangements for the international expert group to come to China.”

“We hope that through the communication between the two sides, we can finalize the arrangements as soon as possible and continue to promote cooperation.”

Hua also said that China “has been maintaining good and close communication with WHO.”?

The spokesperson added that Beijing was still working on creating “good conditions” for the international expert team to come to China to “carry out cooperation on tracing the origin of the virus.”

“In order to ensure that the international expert group that comes to China can work smoothly, it is needed to fulfill the necessary procedures and make relevant specific arrangements. The two sides are still negotiating about this,” Hua said.

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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference organised by the Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus, on July 3, 2020 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / POOL / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article WHO team blocked from entering China to study origins of coronavirus

Germany?has recorded its second highest daily death toll from Covid-19, according to its national agency for disease control and prevention.

The Robert Koch Institute said Wednesday that a further 1,019 people had died, bringing the total fatality count to 36,537.

The all-time high daily death toll was reported on December 30 when 1,129 fatalities were recorded.

An additional 21,237 people were registered as having coronavirus, bringing the total number of cases in?Germany?to 1,808,647.

The spiraling numbers come a day after?Germany’s government announced plans to extend the country’s national lockdown until the end of the month.

The lockdown was due to end on January 10.

Germany will also further tighten restrictions on movement and contact in order to curb cases.

Ireland now has more people hospitalized with Covid-19 than during the peak of the first wave, the CEO of the Health Service Executive Paul Reid said Wednesday on Twitter.

On Tuesday, Ireland recorded 5,325 new daily coronavirus cases and 17 virus-related deaths.?

People line up for vaccinations at the NHS London Bridge Vaccination Centre 1 on December 30, 2020 in London, England.

Britain’s target of vaccinating more than 13 million priority candidates against coronavirus by mid-February is “Herculean” but can be achieved, the UK health minister responsible for the program’s deployment, Nadhim Zahawi, told Sky News on Wednesday.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he hoped the country could vaccinate the four groups it has identified as top priority by the middle of next month, describing the number of people in those groups as “somewhat higher than 13 million.”

Asked if this target is achievable, Zahawi said it is an “Herculean effort.”

Progress so far: The NHS has administered more than 1.3 million vaccine doses since December 8, Zahawi said, adding that one in four 80-year-olds have already had their first shot.?“And in a couple?of weeks’ time, those 25% of 80-year-olds will be protected, and of course?will then get their second jab as well, so it is a Herculean effort,” he said.

The minister also said that there will be a “massive acceleration” in the numbers of vaccinated people in the next few days, as the NHS gets more vaccination sites operational.

A man waits outside a sampling point for Covid-19 testing in Prague, Czech Republic on January 3.

The Czech Health Ministry identified 17,278 cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, a new record for the number of cases recorded in a single day.

Cases are spiking in the Czech Republic despite strict anti-Covid measures that have been enacted throughout the country. A 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew is in place and most shops, services and schools are closed.

At least 776,967 cases have been confirmed in the Czech Republic, killing 12,436 people. There are 7,001 Covid-19 patients being treated in hospital. Some 63,183 people have recovered.

Healthcare worker Sanna Elkadiri, left, was the first Dutch recipient of a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine at a mass vaccination center in Veghel, Netherlands on January 6.

The first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine was administered in the Netherlands on Wednesday, according to national broadcaster NOS.

The first person to receive it was Sanna Elkadiri, 39, a care home worker in Veghel, NOS reported.

Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge called it a?“crazy moment.”

Around 269,000 care home workers are being invited to receive their vaccinations as a first step, the National Institute of Health and the Environment said on Tuesday.

Slow start: The Dutch government has been criticized for what some saw as a slow start to it’s Covid-19 vaccination program. The European Union officially started its vaccination campaign on December 27, days after approving the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on December 21.

A man who tested positive for the coronavirus after Christmas has posted several videos on social media warning others to wear their masks and learn from his mistake.

Stacey is currently in a Florida hospital for the second time since testing positive on December 27, 2020.

The 50-year-old told CNN when the pandemic started he equated the virus to a really bad flu and didn’t take many precautions to protect himself.

“I admit it I was wrong,” he said. “This has been brutal. I never knew that the human body could hurt so bad.”

Read more of Stacey’s story:

Related article He was skeptical of Covid-19. Now, from his hospital bed, he posts videos on social media urging others to wear their masks

Medical workers prepare to conduct Covid-19 tests on all inmates at Dongbu Detention Center in Seoul, South Korea on January 5.

South Korea will test every prisoner held in the country’s 52 detention facilities for Covid-19 after a cluster of cases emerged at a detention center in the capital Seoul.

Health Ministry official Yoon Tae-ho announced the plan at a briefing Wednesday. Yoon said that prisoners at 11 facilities had already been tested and, so far, no positive cases had been reported. Prisoners at the other 41 facilities have not yet been tested, Yoon said.?

Viruses can spread easily in prisons because of their small, cramped quarters and lack of fresh air. The cluster in Seoul’s Dongbu Detention Center exploded in just weeks. It was detected in mid-December, and authorities have now found 1,118 cases tied to the detention center, mostly among the prison population. The facility housed 2,292 inmates when the first cases were identified.

Justice Ministry official Kim Jae-sul said the detention center was overcrowded when the cluster was detected, which would make it easier for the virus to spread. Yoon, the Health Ministry official, said 972 prisoners have been transferred to different facilities, lowering the population density.

New cases: South Korea identified 809 local and 31 imported coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in statement. Of those, 567 cases were found in the Seoul metropolitan area.

Though cases are slowly declining, a winter surge had authorities scrambling to find new hospital beds, especially in Seoul. Yoon said authorities had “secured” more beds for Covid-19 patients and that there were now a total of 177 ICU beds available for coronavirus treatment nationwide.

To date, 65,818 cases of Covid-19 have been identified in South Korea, killing 1,027 people.

An empty casket is delivered amid a surge of Covid-19 deaths to the Continental Funeral Home on December 31, 2020 in East Los Angeles, California.

At least 3,775 Covid-19 deaths were reported in the United States on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University – the highest number of fatalities recorded in a single day since the pandemic began.

Nationwide there were at least 229,055 new cases of Covid-19 reported Tuesday. To date, there have been 21,046,195?cases of coronavirus in the US. At least?357,258?people have died.?

The totals include cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other US territories, as well as repatriated cases.??

Track US cases here:

Ambulances are parked outside an emergency room entrance at Long Beach Medical Center Tuesday, January 5, in Long Beach, California.

California health officials have ordered that non-essential surgeries be delayed in regions where ICU bed capacity is 10% or less.

The move was made in order to ease the burden on California hospitals, which are treating a record number of Covid-19 patients, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). It is effective immediately and will last for three weeks.

CDPH said the order will help “reduce pressure on strained hospital systems and redistribute the responsibility of medical care across the state so patients can continue to receive lifesaving care.”?

“California is experiencing an unprecedented and exponential surge in COVID-19 cases, and staffing and other resources are becoming strained,” State Public Health Officer Tomás Aragón?said in the public health order.

The number of patients hospitalized in California with Covid-19 has skyrocketed sevenfold over the past two months, Aragon said, while the number of patients being treated in intensive care has soared by?over sixfold?during the same period.

Surgeries for patients who have serious and urgent medical conditions will continue, officials said.

A patient rests in a corridor waiting for a room at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California on January 3.

California is the epicenter of the current surge of Covid-19 cases in the United States. On Tuesday, the state reported 31,440 new cases and another 368 people died from the virus, pushing the statewide death toll to more than 27,000.

Only New York and Texas have reported a higher number of virus-related fatalities.

California has reported a total of 2,452,334?cases.

Here’s what you should know:

Christopher Miller testifies at a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on "Threats to the Homeland" on Capitol Hill on September 24 in Washington.

The federal government’s Operation Warp Speed said it distributed more than 3 million coronavirus vaccines on Tuesday, meaning that the government has now distributed more than 19 million vaccines across the United States.

Officials in President Donald Trump’s administration have been promising to speed up vaccine distribution. They have admitted they have fallen far short of promises to have vaccinated 20 million people by the end of 2020.

Earlier Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 17 million vaccine doses had been distributed and more than 4.8 million people had been given their first doses of vaccine.?

North?Korean leader Kim Jong Un addressed the opening session of its 8th Workers’ Party Congress on Tuesday morning, according to the state-run?Korean Central News Agency.?

North Korea kicked off a rare political event that’s supposed to happen every five years or so with about 5,000 people – including leader Kim Jong Un – gathered indoors without masks and seated close together on Tuesday.

While it’s impossible to verify if face coverings were worn at any point in time, none of the images released by North Korea’s state-run KCNA news Wednesday of the Workers Party Congress show people wearing masks indoors.

From a propaganda standpoint, the images make sense: North Korea claims to not have recorded a single case of Covid-19, so holding a high-level meeting without masks is a way to reinforce that narrative.

But almost no one believes North Korea has been spared from a pandemic that has infected more than 86 million people and killed nearly 2 million. In fact, Kim’s regime recognizes the danger of the virus and has gone to incredible lengths to stop its spread.

Almost all travel into the country?ceased shortly after the virus emerged a year ago, and internal travel is also heavily restricted. North Korean state media regularly carries articles reminding its people on the importance of its emergency anti-epidemic campaign. And the regime reportedly had two people executed for not following Covid-19 guidelines, including a customs official who did not follow virus prevention rules while importing goods from China.

Experts believe Pyongyang is enacting a vigilant response because it knows its dilapidated healthcare infrastructure likely cannot contain a major outbreak of Covid-19.

That makes the photographs from the meeting Tuesday all the more puzzling. Perhaps North Korea believes the safeguards it put in place were good enough to allow attendees not to wear masks to the meeting. This is a unique event that North Korea does not want to postpone – it’s just the eighth Party Congress in North Korea’s history and the second of Kim’s tenure. The last one held before Kim took power was in 1980.

But holding it is a risk. If just one of the 5,000 people who traveled from across the country to attend the meeting had Covid-19 and was infectious, it means Kim may have just kicked off an incredibly important political meeting with a super-spreader event.

Countries around the Asia-Pacific region have closed borders and imposed strict quarantine requirements, essentially sealing themselves off from the world.

But in many jurisdictions there’s a key exception to those rules: flight crews.

For months, flight crews in a number of places – including Taiwan and Australia – have been able to avoid the tough quarantine rules imposed on other international travelers. But rule breaches by airline staff in both places in December have prompted questions about whether exemptions for aviation workers are creating an unnecessary risk to the public.

Taiwan has?now tightened?its quarantine rules for flight crews, something two Australian states did in December.

But it’s a tricky predicament. While health experts say that treating flight crews differently is a loophole in an otherwise tough border approach, aviation industry officials say exemptions are needed to keep the industry operating – and avoid jeopardizing flight crews’ mental health.

What happened in Taiwan? When Taiwan reported its first locally-transmitted case in more than 250 days on December 22, authorities quickly pin-pointed a foreign pilot as the source of infection.

Authorities said a New Zealand pilot in his 60s infected a woman in her 30s after completing the required three days of quarantine required for pilots, Taiwan state media CNA?reported. That pilot has now been fined by Taiwanese authorities for not disclosing his complete contact history and fired by his company.

What happened in Australia? A series of incidents in December prompted questions over quarantine exemptions for flight crews. A Sydney van driver?who had?transported international flight crews tested positive at the start of December.

Later that month, New South Wales Police fined 13 international air crew members 1,000 Australian dollars ($760) each for going to a number of Sydney venues when they should have been quarantining. And just before Christmas, a?Qantas crew member?tested positive after flying into Darwin from Paris and then boarding a domestic flight.

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This picture taken on September 29, 2020 shows Qatar Airlines flight crew members walking past an illuminated sign displaying a message relating to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus at the Sydney International Airport in Sydney. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP) (Photo by DAVID GRAY/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article In Australia and Taiwan's fight against Covid, flight crews are proving to be their Achilles heel

The World Health Organization said that China has blocked the arrival of a team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, in a rare rebuke from the UN agency.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said two scientists on the United Nations team had already left their home countries for Wuhan when they were told that Chinese officials had not approved the necessary permissions to enter the country.

The arrangements had been jointly agreed with China in advance.

Tedros said WHO was “eager to get the mission underway as soon as possible” and that he had been given assurances that Beijing was speeding up the internal procedure for “the earliest possible deployment.”

Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program said there was an issue with visas and one team member had already returned home. The other was waiting in transit in a third country.

WHO officials have long been negotiating with Beijing to allow a team of global scientists access to key sites to investigate the origin of the virus – first detected in Wuhan in December 2019 – and its likely jump from an unidentified host species to humans.

In May, WHO?agreed to hold an inquiry?into the global response to the pandemic after more than 100 countries signed a resolution calling for an independent probe.

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World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a press conference organised by the Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus, on July 3, 2020 at the WHO headquarters in Geneva. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / POOL / AFP) (Photo by FABRICE COFFRINI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Related article WHO team blocked from entering China to study origins of coronavirus

Clinicians care for a Covid-19 patient in the Intensive Care Unit at Providence St. Mary Medical Center on December 23, 2020 in Apple Valley, California.

The United States reported?131,195?current Covid-19 hospitalizations on?Tuesday, setting a new record high since the pandemic began, according to the Covid Tracking Project (CTP).

This is the 35th consecutive day that the US has remained above 100,000 current hospitalizations.

According to CTP data, the highest hospitalization numbers were recorded on the following days:

The pace of Covid-19 vaccine administration in the United States continues to slow, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.?

As of 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, just 4.8 million of the 17 million doses distributed had been administered – or 28%. That figure was closer to 30% on Monday and 33% over the weekend.

Only five states have administered at least half of the Covid-19 vaccine doses that have been distributed to them, according to the CDC data:

Meanwhile, 15 states have administered less than a quarter of doses distributed, including three states that have administered less than 20%:?

Vaccine administration is moving even slower in long-term care facilities. Just 13% of the 3.3 million doses distributed for use in long-term care facilities have been administered, according to the CDC data.

About one in 50 people across?England?now has coronavirus, England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty said Tuesday, calling the figure “really very high.”

The Covid-19 case rate across the United Kingdom increased by 70% in the two weeks to Dec. 30, Whitty said.?

Government data showed the rate rose from 287 cases per 100,000 people on Dec. 16 to 487 per 100,000 people on Dec. 30. The comparison is of the seven-day rolling average.

The number of people currently hospitalized with Covid-19 across the UK is as high as it has ever been, Whitty added.?

The number of daily deaths is currently below the peak in April 2020, but Whitty said that pattern might not hold given the number of people sick with coronavirus at the moment.

On Monday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new national lockdown in England to tackle this surge. Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced Monday that mainland Scotland would enter into a lockdown from midnight while the remaining UK nations – Wales and Northern Ireland – started lockdowns in December.