January 4 coronavirus news

Six cases of the more transmissible coronavirus variant first seen in the UK have now been confirmed in patients in Southern California, as preliminary health data shows the Golden State, already battered by Covid-19, may soon be heading into a feared "surge on top of a surge," Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference Monday. 

The new cases of the Covid-19 variant were reported in four patients in San Diego, one of whom is hospitalized, and two others in San Bernardino. It remains unclear how this strain of the coronavirus first seen in the UK has contributed to the recent surge of cases in the California. 

California reported 29,633 new cases of Covid-19 and 97 additional deaths on Monday. New case counts are typically lower on Monday due to lags in reporting over the weekend. This particular reporting period is substantially lower than the seven-day average of 37,845 cases and testing data from the holidays will likely increase that number, the governor emphasized.

The state has seen a seven-fold increase in hospitalizations, and a six-fold increase in ICU admissions over the last two months as the state continues to see a skyrocketing number of new infections, Newsom said. 

Wall Street ended the first trading day of the New Year sharply lower. Stocks tumbled after initially starting out in the green.

Here's how things ended up: 

Investors are worried about the pandemic and chances for economic recovery in 2021, as well as the high-stakes runoff election in Georgia on Tuesday that will decide the balance in the Senate. On top of that, profit-taking weighed on the market after stocks reached record highs last week.

As stocks settle after the trading day, levels might still change slightly.

New York Gov. Cuomo announced Monday that a person has tested positive for the UK strain of Covid-19, confirmed by the state’s Department of Health laboratory in Wadsworth.

The case is tied to a jewelry store in Saratoga Springs, and the man who tested positive did not travel recently. Cuomo said that since the man did not travel, it suggests the strain is in the community.

The man is in his 60’s and was symptomatic. Cuomo said the man is now on the mend.

Cuomo called on anyone who visited the store, called N. Fox Jewelers, between Dec. 18 to Dec. 24 to get tested.   

Three other people associated with the store have also tested positive. The lab in Wadsworth is testing those now to see if what strain of Covid-19 those three have.

The store was closed from Dec. 24 through today.

Whitfield County, Georgia – where President Trump will headline a Republican rally Monday night ahead of Tuesday’s runoff election – has the second highest coronavirus case rate in the state and one of the highest in the country.

With nearly 11,600 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 residents, Whitfield County lands among the 150 most infected counties in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Whitfield County also surpasses state and national rates of Covid-19 deaths. The death rate in the country for Covid-19 is 121 per 100,000 people, compared to 103 per 100,000 in Georgia and 107 per 100,000 in the US as a whole.

Data from the Georgia Department of Public Health also shows that Whitfield County is outpacing the state in the rate of new cases. In the past two weeks, the county saw 1,211 new cases per 100,000 people, 68% higher than the state rate of 719 cases per 100,000 people.

Atlanta’s Fulton County, meanwhile, is faring better than Georgia overall. The county has had 648 new cases per 100,000 people in the past two weeks, according to data from the state health department.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a national lockdown for England Monday night on the heels of a warning from top medical advisers that the country’s National Health Service was in danger of being overwhelmed by coronavirus cases within 21 days.

The lockdown is expected to remain in place at least through the middle of February.

Coronavirus cases are surging in the country due to the new variant, with 30% more Covid-19 patients in hospitals in England on Monday than a week earlier.

The announcement for England follows an announcement earlier Monday that Scotland would go into lockdown. Wales and Northern Ireland, the other two nations of the United Kingdom, were already in lockdown.

In New York City, 130 school buildings are currently closed due to cases of Covid-19. 

One hundred of those buildings are under a two-week closure, and an additional 30 buildings are under a 24-hour closure, according to New York City's Department of Education (DOE).

There are currently 169 active Covid-19 cases, according to the DOE's tracking website. Thirty-two cases are students and 137 are among staff members. That brings the total to 7,176 cases among NYC students and staff since the DOE started keeping track in mid-September.

This latest update comes on the heels of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issuing guidance for counties that are testing at more than a 9% positivity rate to keep schools open if individual district's numbers are lower than those of the county. New York City is currently at a 9% positivity rate, according to Monday's data.

Schools in NYC have been open for some in-person learning for elementary school students since December. In-person learning is expected to be offered for middle school and high schoolers in early 2021, but no date is currently set.

Fewer than 30% of the 15.4 million Covid-19 vaccine doses distributed in the US have been administered, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The figures, last updated Monday, show a slight slowdown in the rate of vaccine administration. As of Saturday morning, the rate was closer to 33% administered. 

Only four states have administered at least half of the Covid-19 vaccine doses that have been distributed to them, according to the CDC data. Those states are: South Dakota, North Dakota, Tennessee and Connecticut.

Meanwhile, in 12 states, fewer than a quarter of the doses distributed have been administered.

The CDC tracks vaccine distribution and administration – for both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna – through submissions from states and other jurisdictions. Health care providers may report doses up to 72 hours after administration.

Scientists in Britain said Monday they are increasingly concerned that that the pattern of mutations in a variant of the novel coronavirus first identified in South Africa may affect the protection offered by some vaccines.

While that variant shares the same N501Y mutation as another variant first identified in the United Kingdom, it also has two other mutations called E484K and K417N. They affect the spike protein – the part of the virus that attaches to the cells it infects.

Most of the coronavirus vaccines are also designed to train the body to recognize the spike protein, or parts of it, and the fears are that if it mutates too much, vaccines will no longer be as effective.

"These two additional mutations may interfere more with vaccine effectiveness in the South African variant," Dr. Julian Tang, honorary associate professor and virologist at the University of Leicester, said in a statement distributed by the UK-based Science Media Center on Monday. 

Lawrence Young, professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said in a separate statement on Monday that "the accumulation of more spike mutations in the South African variant are more of a concern and could lead to some escape from immune protection."

Meanwhile, scientists are working to better understand the new variant, its mutations and their significance. "Some of the changes are quite significant and thus scientists are paying a lot of attention. We do not yet know enough to say more than this," James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, said in a statement on Monday. 

Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for coronavirus response, told CNN Sunday that scientists are doing tests to assess the vaccine's efficacy against the variant first found in South Africa, which has 22 mutations.

Rep. Kay Granger, a Republican from Texas, has tested positive for coronavirus, her office announced in a statement Monday.

Read the statement: 

Read more on the members of Congress who have tested positive for coronavirus or its antibodies here.