January 18 coronavirus news

Starting Monday, England is expanding the next phase of its Covid-19 vaccination campaign to offer doses to people age 70 and older and those considered vulnerable to the virus, the UK government said in a statement issued late Sunday. 

Until now, the vaccination program has focused on two priority cohorts: people over the age of 80 and frontline health and care workers. 

While vaccinating the first two groups remains a priority, the statement read, vaccination sites that have enough supply can offer them to those 70 and older along with "clinically extremely vulnerable people."

“Now that more than half of all over-80s have had their jab, we can begin vaccinating the next most vulnerable groups," UK Health minister Matt Hancock said. 

"We are working day and night to make sure everyone who is 70 and over, our health and social care workers and the clinically extremely vulnerable are offered the vaccine by the middle of February," he added.

More infectious Covid-19 variants that are not necessarily more deadly can still cause more deaths, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently warned that Covid-19 variants could accelerate the spread of the virus in the United States.

Fauci said the US is closely examining new variants, including one first identified in the UK and another, “more ominous” strain identified in South Africa and Brazil. Health experts are watching out for whether new strains could lessen the impact of Covid-19 vaccines, which would prompt some modifications to the vaccines.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said it’s important for people to double down on public health measures and get vaccinated as soon as they can to prevent excess hospitalizations and deaths caused by new variants.

With a new variant of Covid-19 spreading across the US, the nation is facing a “relentless strike” from the virus, Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner, said Sunday.

The variant of Covid-19 first identified in the UK has now spread through multiple US states. While it does not appear to be more deadly, health experts believe it is likely more infectious. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently warned that it could accelerate the spread of the virus in the US.

“In about five weeks, this is going to start to take over,” he said. “The only backstop against this new variant is the fact that we will have a lot of infection by then, so there’ll be a lot of immunity in the population and we will be vaccinating more people, but this really changes the equation.”

While surveillance of Covid-19 variants in the US is developing slowly, Gottlieb said data from the US and other nations shows that the number of people infected with the new variant will likely double every week.

Amid a devastating resurgence of the coronavirus in parts of Brazil, federal health officials have finally voted to authorize two vaccines for emergency use.

Brazilian regulatory agency Anvisa on Sunday approved both the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and the Coronavac vaccine.

Minutes later, Monica Calazans, a Black nurse from downtown São Paulo, became the first Brazilian to be vaccinated. Calazans, who is at high risk for Covid-19 complications and works in an ICU that has been at 90% capacity or above since April, exploded into tears before receiving the Coronavac shot.

Brazil is the country hit hardest by Covid-19 in Latin America. It has recorded more than 8 million cases and more than 200,000 deaths from coronavirus. While several of its neighbors have already approved vaccines for use, Brazil has seemed to lag despite its renowned public health and vaccination track record.

Coronavac, developed by Chinese company Sinovac, is now authorized for use of 6 million imported doses. It has a history in Sao Paulo state, where the local Butantan Institute conducted Phase 3 clinical trials of the vaccine. Butantan will also produce future doses.

However, Coronavac has shown a low average efficacy rate of 50.4% -- barely above the 50% minimum established by the World Health Organization. The number, which falls far below the 78% previously announced, has raised questions about the veracity of the data and fueled skepticism over the apparent lack of transparency regarding Chinese vaccines.

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In less than a year, Covid-19 has killed almost 400,000 Americans.

And in just the next month, another 100,000 lives could be lost to the disease, the incoming director of the US Centers For Disease Control and Prevention said.

"That doesn't speak to the tens of thousands of people who are living with a yet uncharacterized syndrome after they've recovered," said Walensky, who was chief of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital before President-elect Joe Biden picked her to lead the CDC.

Some people who have had Covid-19 have suffered symptoms months after testing positive.

"And we still yet haven't seen the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel, from holiday gathering, in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and the deaths thereafter," Walensky said.

"I think we still have some dark weeks ahead."

100 million doses in 100 days: Walensky said Sunday that the Biden administration will address "bottlenecks" in Covid-19 vaccine distribution and fulfill its goal to deliver 100 million doses in 100 days.

President-elect Joe Biden says his goal is to distribute 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days of office.

"We have looked carefully, and we are confident that we have enough vaccines for the 100 million doses over the next 100 days," Walensky said. "It will be a hefty lift, but we have it in us to do that."

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