The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines

The number of people dying of Covid-19 in Los Angeles County in a day is now equivalent to the number of homicide deaths the city saw in an entire year, Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a Thursday news conference.

The city of Los Angeles has a population of nearly 4 million people, while the county's population is about 10 million.

"All of us need to continue to do more," he said.

The region has for weeks battled a brutal surge of Covid-19 infections and hospitalizations that have translated into climbing numbers of deaths. Los Angeles County officials now say one person dies of Covid-19 every eight minutes.

"People who were otherwise leading healthy, productive lives are now passing away because of a chance encounter with the Covid-19 virus," health officials said earlier this week. "This only ends when we each make the right decisions to protect each other."

More than 8,000 people are hospitalized with the virus across Los Angeles County, 20% of whom are in intensive care units.

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The greater Tokyo region has been among the worst hit areas of Japan during the pandemic, surpassing 2,000 daily cases on Thursday for the first time with a record 2,447 new infections, according to updated figures from the Tokyo metropolitan government.

The total number of cases confirmed in the capital now stands at nearly 69,000.

The central government declared on Thursday that Tokyo and three neighboring prefectures -- Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa -- would go into a state of emergency from Friday.

It's Japan's second state of emergency since the pandemic began.

CNN's Selina Wang has more:

Commuters traveling between China's capital city and the neighboring northern Hebei province must provide evidence they are Beijing residents and a negative Covid-19 test, according to local officials working to contain the country's worst coronavirus flare-up in months.

China has locked down Hebei's provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, in an effort to contain the spread of the virus following the emergence of a cluster that has so far produced more than 300 cases.

An also said that unless necessary, Shijiazhuang and Xingtai residents should not leave their cities and people in other parts of Hebei should not travel to Beijing.

Australia will require all travelers to the country to test negative for Covid-19 before their departure to Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

Morrison also announced that Australia will be reducing the caps on international arrivals in New South Wales, Western Australia and in Queensland by 50% until February 15. This means that roughly 2,500 fewer Australian citizens and permanent residents can enter the country each week. Visitors from New Zealand have been allowed quarantine-free travel to certain Australian destinations.

Earlier, the state of Queensland announced that Greater Brisbane will enter a three-day lockdown after a cleaner from a quarantine hotel tested positive for the UK Covid-19 variant.  

The Philadelphia 76ers will remain in New York City after one of its players tested positive for the coronavirus, a team source told CNN. The source said the team will follow league protocols for Covid-19.

The team was in New York Thursday night after playing the Brooklyn Nets. The Sixers found out about the positive test result during the game, according to The Athletic and Stadium's Shams Charania, who first reported the positive test.

The 76ers are scheduled to play the Denver Nuggets in Philadelphia on Saturday. Before the game, the team said it would not practice on Friday.

Germany's Covid-19 death toll increased by 1,188 in the past 24 hours -- a new single-day record -- according to the country's disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The previous record was 1,129 fatalities reported on December 30.

The RKI said Friday morning that 31,849 new coronavirus cases have been reported in the country in the previous 24 hours, bringing the national total to 1,866,887. At least 38,795 people have died due to Covid-19 in Germany so far.    

Lockdown measures: Earlier this week, Germany's government announced it will extend the country's national lockdown until the end of the month and will further tighten restrictions on movement and contact in order to curb the spread of coronavirus.

Under the new measures, all non-essential stores, restaurants, schools and nurseries will be required to remain shut until January 31. Citizens will only be permitted to meet with one other person outside of their own household.

A new study provides early evidence that a Covid-19 vaccine might be effective against two new coronavirus variants first identified in South Africa and the United Kingdom, despite a concerning mutation.

The two viruses share a mutation known as N501Y that scientists worry could allow the virus to evade the immune protection generated by a vaccine.

The researchers made a version of the virus in the lab that carries the mutation. They tested it against blood taken from 20 people who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine as part of a clinical trial. In research posted online Thursday, they said they found “no reduction in neutralization activity” against the mutated virus.

The N501Y mutation appears to help the virus attach to human cells, which may partly explain why these new strains appear to be more transmissible. But it is just one of many mutations in both strains that scientists have worried could make the virus less susceptible to vaccines or treatments. 

The study -- conducted by researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch -- does not test the full array of these mutations. It also has not been peer-reviewed.

In a statement last month, Pfizer said it had performed similar tests on “multiple mutant strains. To date, we have found consistent coverage of all the strains tested.”

At least 274,703 Covid-19 cases and a record 4,085 deaths tied to the virus were reported in the United States on Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases.

Thursday marked the first time that Covid-19 deaths in the US topped 4,000 in a single day.

There have been at least 21,579,567 cases of coronavirus confirmed in the US, according to the university. At least 365,317 people have died.

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

Vaccine rollout: At least 21,419,800 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been distributed in the US and at least 5,919,418 shots administered, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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China has locked down a city of 11 million people in its northern province of Hebei, in an effort to contain the country's worst coronavirus flare-up in months.

Residents of Shijiazhuang, a provincial capital close to Beijing, have been barred from leaving the city, as major highways were blocked, train and bus stations closed and flights canceled.

The lockdown comes as a total of 117 Covid-19 infections -- including 67 asymptomatic cases -- were detected in Shijiazhuang on Wednesday. On Thursday, the city identified another 66 positive cases, according to the Hebei provincial health commission.

Since January 2, a total of 304 positive cases have been reported in Hebei -- most of which were in Shijiazhuang, official figures show. The city is located just 180 miles southwest of Beijing -- about three hours' drive away, or an hour on the high-speed rail.

At a news conference Thursday, municipal officials announced a ban on outbound travel for all residents and vehicles from Shijiazhuang, except for emergencies.

Within the city, gatherings are banned, all schools have been suspended, and residential communities and villages are also closed off.

Upcoming holiday: The restrictions are some of the strictest imposed in China since the country largely contained the spread of the coronavirus in March. They are reminiscent of the draconian lockdown during the initial outbreak in the central city of Wuhan, a city of similarly sized population where the coronavirus was first detected in December 2019.

The outbreak in Shijiazhuang comes just weeks before the Lunar New Year holiday, the most important annual festival in China which typically sees hundreds of thousands of people traveling home to reunite with family.

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China locks down city of 11 million people close to Beijing in bid to contain coronavirus flare-up