January 9 coronavirus news

Three new cases of a coronavirus variant first identified in the United Kingdom have been confirmed in New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo said during a media call Saturday morning.

Two of the new cases are related to the first Covid-19 UK variant case identified last week in Saratoga County, he said.

The other new case is from Nassau County and “appears to be unrelated to the Saratoga case,” Cuomo said, adding the individual from Nassau County is a 64-year-old male from Massapequa, New York.

“The sample was received from a private lab sent to the State Department of Health, which has been doing sampling. That brings the number of UK cases in this country to just about 55,” he said, reiterating he believes the UK strain of the virus is “more widespread than that number would suggest.”

UK variant in the US: At least 63 cases of the variant, first identified in the UK, have been identified in eight US states, according to data posted Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This includes at least 32 cases in California, 22 cases in Florida, three cases in Colorado, two cases in Connecticut, and one case each in Georgia, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania.

While the variant appears to spread more easily, there's no evidence that it's any more deadly or causes more severe disease, according to CDC.

The UK has become the first country in western Europe to report more than 3 million coronavirus cases, according to government data published on Saturday.

Another 59,937 coronavirus cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number of people who have tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic to 3,017,409 in the UK.

The country also reported more than 80,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with 1,035 new deaths added to the total in the past 24 hours. The total number of deaths within 28 days of a positive test now stands at 80,868. Deaths can occur days or even weeks before they are announced and added to the dataset.

Deaths are up 51.3% from the week before, the seven-day average published on Saturday shows, while the number of people testing positive is up 22.1%.

Pope Francis has said the Vatican will begin Covid-19 vaccinations next week and that he is in line to receive the jab.

Pope Francis made the comments during an interview with Italy's Canale 5 channel, set to air on Sunday night.

“It is an ethical duty to take the vaccine, here in the Vatican we will start next week, I am also in line to take it,” he said, according to a news anchor for the channel in a preview of the interview, which was released Saturday.

The full interview, which took place in the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican, will air on Sunday at 2.40 p.m. ET (8.40 p.m. local time), according to a press release.

British health officials are scrambling to cope with the new variant of the virus that was first detected in the UK as it spreads through the public.

A new surge of coronavirus cases, fueled by the more contagious variant, is threatening to overwhelm intensive care units in the capital. Hospitals across the UK are preparing for the worst.

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Half a million people across Germany have been vaccinated against Covid-19, Health Minister Jens Spahn said on Saturday.

"We are getting there, step by step," Spahn said at a virtual meeting with members of the country's infectious disease agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the Paul Ehrlich Institute (the federal institute for vaccines and biomedicines), and STIKO, Germany's expert panel on vaccine use.

“We are vaccinating more every day and the processes are getting better and better,” he added.

“Wherever people are being vaccinated, that is, where the actual vaccinations take place, the feedback we get is that things are going really well, and the procedures are being carried out very professionally."

Germany sees record high deaths: On Friday, Germany reported its highest single-day coronavirus death toll, with 1,188 deaths -- the largest 24-hour increase in Covid-19 fatalities in the country since the pandemic began, according to data from the RKI.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has increased by 24,694 to a total of 1,891,581, data from the RKI showed on Saturday. The reported death toll rose by 1,083 to 39,878, the tally showed.

The Queen and Duke of Edinburgh have received their Covid-19 vaccinations, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson said Saturday.

The inoculations were administered by a Household Doctor at Windsor Castle, a royal source said.

To prevent inaccuracies and further speculation, Her Majesty, who is aged 94, decided that she would let it be known she has had the vaccination, the source added. Her husband is aged 99.

The couple's son, Prince Charles, tested positive for coronavirus and went into isolation in March. The 72-year-old later said he had been lucky to only experience mild symptoms, adding he'd "got away with it quite lightly."

Meanwhile, their grandson Prince William, second-in-line to the British throne, also tested positive for coronavirus earlier this year, UK media reported, though exactly when he contracted the virus is unclear.

UK sees record high deaths: The United Kingdom reported 1,325 deaths and 68,053 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest daily increases since the beginning of the pandemic, according to data released by the UK Health Department.

There has been a surge of more than 15,000 cases since Thursday.

The figures present a rise in cases as the new coronavirus variant, first detected in the UK, sweeps the nation.

The UK has recorded more than 2.9 million cases of Covid-19, and almost 80,000 deaths, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

At least 63 cases of a variant first identified in the UK have been identified in eight US states, according to data posted Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This includes at least 32 cases in California, 22 cases in Florida, three cases in Colorado, two cases in Connecticut, and one case each in Georgia, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania.

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

While the variant appears to spread more easily, there's no evidence that it's any more deadly or causes more severe disease, according to CDC. It has also been found in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Experts suspect there could be many more cases in the country and have criticized the US 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 unavailable for all samples.

All staff working for the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK will be offered a coronavirus vaccine from mid-January to protect against rising cases of the virus nationwide, a press statement from NHS England said on Friday.

Following Monday's rollout of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, NHS England wrote to health trusts across the UK about their plans to vaccinate staff across all NHS services.

Previously, only frontline NHS staff were being vaccinated. 

“We will be prioritising the nurses, doctors and other frontline staff who continue to work tirelessly, before administering the vaccine to almost all health and social care staff by mid-February,” Ruth May, NHS England's Chief Nursing Officer said.

Vaccinations among NHS staff will be subject to a risk assessment, prioritizing the most in need. It will take into account risk factors including underlying health conditions, face-to-face contact or staff from a Black, Asian or minority background. 

Ethnic minorities have a higher coronavirus death rate than their White peers, according to the UK government. People of Bangladeshi ethnicity have around twice the risk of dying from the virus than their White British counterparts, while those of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Black Caribbean and other Black ethnicities have between a 10 and 50% higher risk of death.

The NHS announcement comes after the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan declared a “major incident” in London on Friday due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus -- which is putting the NHS under pressure and adding to the risk of it being overwhelmed. 

On Thursday, Khan said the London hospitals may run out of beds in the “next few days."

“This virus is out of control. The NHS is on the cusp of being overwhelmed. There has been no time during this pandemic where I’ve been more concerned than I am today,” Khan said.

South Korea reported 641 new Covid-19 cases on Friday, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Of these cases, 596 were locally transmitted.

The country has been battling an outbreak in the capital's Dongbu Detention Center, with at least 1,118 cases detected so far, according to the Health Ministry. The cluster was detected in mid-December, and officials said prison facilities had been overcrowded at 116.7% capacity.

Since then, hundreds of prisoners have been transferred to different facilities, and the ministry has declared it will test every prisoner in all of the country's 52 detention facilities.

However, officials also said the country's social distancing measures were working, and the latest wave of infections seems to have passed the peak.

President Moon Jae-in also said the government will begin vaccinations as early as next month, when it will "take a more aggressive response (to Covid-19) using vaccines and treatments."