January 18 coronavirus news

Over the weekend, Virginia posted its highest two days of new Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, according to Johns Hopkins University.

On Saturday, Virginia added 6,757 new cases and on Sunday, a staggering 9,914 cases, according to JHU. The commonwealth is at its highest 7-day average of new cases, reporting roughly 5,778 new cases per day. And new cases are rising — up 15% from last week. 

The Virginia Department of Health told CNN, “The case counts for Sunday, January 17, 2020 are a complete and accurate picture of the daily numbers,” and not due to a backlog or change of testing as happens occasionally when states report a higher than usual numbers.

Gov. Ralph Northam tweeted, “Virginia is seeing an alarming rise in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations.” He urged eligible residents to get vaccinated, “but until they are widely available, we ALL must continue to treat this virus like the dangerous threat that it is.”

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has stressed that every week counts in terms of Covid-19 vaccinations and every day that the European regulator is able to decide faster on vaccine approval is a day "won" in Europe.

The approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine would offer Austria up to two million doses. 

Kurz added that there is no exact approval date yet.

"The British mutation of the virus is clearly more infectious, this poses us with enormous challenges," he said, citing the lockdowns across Europe. On Sunday, Austria’s lockdown measures were extended to last until Feb. 8. 

Austria has so far reported 389,106 Covid-19 cases and 7,122 deaths, according to the country’s Health Ministry.

Pakistan’s Drug Regulatory Authority has granted approval for the use of a vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a state-run Chinese firm.

In December last year Pakistan’s minister of science Fawad Chaudhry had announced that the country would be purchasing 1.2 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine from China’s Sinopharm in early 2021.

China's Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine has a 79.34% efficacy, higher than its Chinese competitor Sinovac.

The Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines have been regarded as potentially affordable and easily distributed vaccine candidates. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the Chinese shots do not require expensive cold storage.

Head here to find out more about the latest on the rollout of Chinese vaccines.

India has vaccinated at least 381,305 people since its nationwide program started on Saturday, according to a press conference by the country’s Health Ministry on Monday.

On Monday alone, 148,266 people received injections. India has given emergency approval to vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and a local pharmaceutical company, Bharat Biotech. It is unclear the breakdown of drugs used in the vaccine program’s initial stage.

Health Ministry officials also reported 580 instances where people reported adverse events following immunization and that seven people were hospitalized. 

Two deaths have also been reported, but officials say evidence does not suggest it was caused by the vaccine. 

A 53-year-old man in northern Uttar Pradesh state died on Sunday morning, a day after receiving the vaccine. A post mortem report revealed the cause of death due to cardiopulmonary disease. In southern Karnataka state, a 43-year-old man passed away on Monday after receiving the vaccine on Saturday with the cause of death also linked to cardiopulmonary failure.

“These deaths are not related to the vaccination according to the post mortem report,” health ministry officials stressed at a press conference on Monday.

More than half – 60% – of all Covid-19 cases in the United states have been reported since Election Day, according to a CNN analysis of Johns Hopkins University data.

As of Monday morning, there are 23,937,331 Covid-19 cases in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University. Whereas, on the morning of Nov. 4 – the day after the US presidential election – there were a total of 9,573,836 cases.

Brazil’s government has said its nationwide coronavirus vaccination plan will start Monday afternoon.

The announcement was made earlier in the day by Brazilian Health Minister Eduardo Pazuello from a São Paulo health ministry facility during a ceremony to deliver the Chinese-made Coronavac shot to state governors.

Coronavac was approved Sunday -- along with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine -- by the country’s health regulator agency Anvisa. Pazuello had previously said on Sunday the national immunization plan would begin Wednesday. However, it was moved up at the request of state governors.

Brazil has currently recorded more than 8.4 million Covid-19 infections and almost 210,000 deaths. It trails only the United States and India in total coronavirus cases.

How the vaccine will be rolled out in Brazil:

As countries across the world roll out millions of coronavirus vaccines, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) gave a frank warning about the fairness of the global situation.

"The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure" in the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday, adding that "the promise of equitable access is at serious risk."

"Ultimately, these actions will only prolong the pandemic, the restrictions needed to contain it, and human and economic suffering," Tedros

The WHO chief added that "vaccine equity is not just a moral imperative, it is a strategic and economic imperative," and called for a fairer vaccine distribution across the world.

As many people postpone necessary medical care due to the pandemic, medical professionals are worried that their patients will get sick or even die from other causes.

Some 25% of Americans said that they or someone in their household had delayed medical care in the past month due to coronavirus, according to a December Kaiser Family Foundation study. An earlier report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 41% of Americans delayed medical care, including 12% who postponed urgent or emergency care.

CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor at George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, says she “certainly understand why some people have postponed their medical appointments” but expressed concern that patients are forgoing care for ongoing medical issues.

“It's important for people to check in with their doctors' offices,” she says.  

Wen advises that when making decisions about postponing appointments, consider if it could be done virtually or if that's not an option, can you combine multiple visits to reduce overall risk.

Head here to find out more about which appointments could be delayed and which you really should try and attend, as well as what precautions are worth considering.

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Don't delay medical appointments -- advice from Dr. Wen

Pandemic restrictions could be lifted from March in the United Kingdom once the most vulnerable are protected with a Covid-19 vaccine, according to a government minister.

The reopening of the country will be "gradual, it will be probably through the tiered system," and likely two to three weeks after the middle of February target for vaccinating the "top four cohorts" of vulnerable people, the vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi told the BBC on Monday. 

The government plans to administer the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine by February 15 to about 15 million people across the UK, including care home residents, health and social care workers, and older people.

“If we take the mid-February target -- two weeks after that you get your protection pretty much for the Pfizer/BioNTech [vaccine], three weeks for the Oxford/AstraZeneca, [then] you are protected," Zahawi said.