The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s John Berman Friday that he thinks that the country will do better than the goal of 100 million vaccine doses administered in President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office. 

Fauci said that you go for 100 million over 100 days, “if we do better than that, which I personally think we likely will, then great.”

“We’re just going to go for it for as much as you possibly can,” Fauci said. “When you set a goal, if you do better than the goal, that’s terrific, I hope we do.” 

Some background: US President Biden has pledged to provide 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine in his first 100 days of office. 

White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients said Thursday he thinks the vaccine supply will be adequate to meet this goal.

The Ukrainian capital of Kiev is negotiating with several manufacturers to purchase one million vaccine doses, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said during a briefing on Friday.

“It is a question of buying 1 million doses for the vaccination of 500,000 Kyiv residents,” he added.

The mayor stressed that the capital is ready to buy the vaccine with the money from the city budget.

City authorities have preliminary agreements with some manufacturers and the capital has an infrastructure ready for vaccination: there is equipment for storing the vaccine, vaccination rooms, and specialists who will conduct centralized training, Klitschko said.

"We must prevent the spread of the disease. First of all, to protect the most vulnerable categories of the population,” he emphasized.

For background: Covid-19 vaccination has yet to begin in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week the European Union should pay increased attention to the Eastern Partnership countries in purchasing and supplying the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine.

As of Friday, the country reported 5,348 new coronavirus cases and 163 new daily deaths, Health Minister Maksym Stepanov said on his official Facebook page.

The current death toll currently stands at 21,662, whilst the total number of cases recorded since the pandemic began is now 1,182,969, according to the government's dashboard.

Spanish soccer giants Real Madrid announced in a statement on Friday that manager Zinedine Zidane has tested positive for Covid-19.

The club did not provide any further details.

The Frenchman was present on the touchline as Real fell to a humiliating defeat to third-division club Alcoyano in the Spanish Copa del Rey on Wednesday.

Zidane guided Real to their first La Liga title in three years last season after having previously led them to three consecutive UEFA Champions League successes in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and one league title in 2017, among others, in his first spell in charge.

Real currently sit second in the league, seven points behind local rivals Atletico Madrid, having played a game more.

The team is scheduled to play Alavés away in La Liga on Saturday.

Here are some of the key coronavirus lines from Europe today:

It probably won’t make a big difference if people can’t get a second Covid-19 vaccine until six weeks after the first, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday.

On Thursday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance to say that people could schedule second doses of vaccine up to six weeks after their first if they were unable to get it in the recommended time frame -- 21 days after the first shot for the Pfizer vaccine, or 28 days after the first shot for the Moderna vaccine.

On Thursday, Fauci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that people were “taking a chance” if they waited up to six weeks, although it was possible it was “not going to be a big deal.”

Fauci explained to CNN’s John Berman on New Day Friday that clinical trial said it’s optimal to stick with the recommended time frames. What the CDC is saying, Fauci said, is “sometimes the situation is stressed, where it’s very difficult to be exactly on time. So, we’re saying you could probably do it six weeks later, namely two additional weeks.” 

He said that “quite frankly, immunologically, I don’t think that’s going to make a big difference.”

“I don’t see a big problem with that if the situation on the ground means the stress is such you can’t precisely do 28 days or 21 days,” Fauci said.

He said that there is no disagreement between the CDC and himself: “They’re saying, practically speaking, if you gotta do that, it very likely is not going to make a big difference.”

Watch more from Fauci's interview with CNN here:

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] did not meet a goal to quickly ramp up surveillance for possibly dangerous coronavirus mutations, according to numbers from the federal agency.

At the beginning of the year, Dr. Gregory Armstrong, director of the CDC’s Office of Advanced Molecular Detection at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, told CNN he hoped that over the next two weeks that the agency would more than double the number of coronavirus genomes being sequenced in the US. While the number of sequences did increase over those two weeks, it did not double.  

The hope was to sequence an additional 3,500 coronavirus samples per week. But only 2,250 to 2,650 additional samples were sequenced, according to CDC numbers, with more expected soon as private labs have recently come online to help in the effort.

Hunting for new mutations is a critical part of combatting the spread of the virus. While most mutations are harmless, some might be able to spread more quickly, be more deadly, or be resistant to coronavirus vaccines. 

The US has been criticized for having a lackluster sequencing program. Last week, President-elect Joe Biden said he would increase funding for coronavirus surveillance efforts when he takes office.  

“We simply do not have the kind of robust surveillance capabilities that we need to track outbreaks and mutations,” according to a Biden’s American rescue plan issued last week. 

The US ranks 33rd in the world for sequences per 1,000 cases of Covid-19, falling behind countries that have far fewer resources, such as Senegal and Sierra Leone, according an analysis by the Broad Institute of Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology using data from GISAID, an independent data sharing initiative. 

Hotez added that when it comes to genomic sequencing, the US comes up “profoundly small, and that’s tragic. And it’s costing American lives.”

Read the full story here.

German health officials on Friday described the death toll from Covid-19 in the country as “depressing” and “inconceivable,” as the total number of fatalities passed the 50,000 mark.

"A total of 50,642 people have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began, that is a depressing to me, almost [an] inconceivable number,” the head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases, Lothar Wieler, told journalists during a press conference in Berlin. 

At the same briefing, German Health Minister Jens Spahn reiterated the call for people to respect existing anti-coronavirus measures to avoid overwhelming the healthcare system.

“We see some initial relief in the intensive care unit facilities,” he said, but cautioned that the number of patients admitted to intensive care units “are still at too high.”

Around 1.5 million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in Germany, the minister said.

Spahn then added that with the expected approval of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine candidate in the EU, he hoped to have everyone in the country vaccinated by the summer.

As US President Joe Biden takes steps to try to ramp up vaccine production, experts say the biggest boon to his administration's vaccine strategy could simply be good timing.

Experts tell CNN that Biden's team may be positioned for success even if it does relatively little, as the administration absorbs a flawed vaccine-distribution effort but at the same moment manufacturers hit a stride and states work out the kinks in their own distribution plans.

"They're going to take advantage of the learning curve," said Vijay Samant, a former Merck executive who oversaw the production of three successful vaccines during his tenure. Samant said vaccine manufacturers have had months to work out supply bottlenecks and that manufacturing was always projected to speed up in the coming months.

Biden's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday expressed confidence in the President's once seemingly far-reaching goal to vaccinate 100 million people in his first 100 days.

Still, questions remain about where US vaccine supply currently stands.

Biden's team has said it's flying somewhat blind when it comes to the supply of vaccine and how it has been allocated across the country. A source close to the transition told CNN that the Biden team had been denied access to critical resources it needed to accurately gauge the supply and prepare to take over the rollout before Biden took office.

For the Biden team, it's critical to understand how much supply is on hand and how much could realistically be available in the coming months. States have said they need clear and consistent guidance on vaccine supply so they can continue to streamline their vaccination programs.

Read the full story here:

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Experts say Biden's vaccine strategy could benefit from good timing

Reports of this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games being canceled due to Covid-19 are “categorically untrue,” the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in a statement to CNN on Friday.

The Times of London, citing an unnamed senior member of the ruling coalition, reported earlier on Friday that Japanese authorities had privately concluded the Olympics could not proceed due to the ongoing pandemic. CNN has not independently verified this report.

“At an IOC Executive Board meeting in July last year, it was agreed that the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 would be held on July 23 this year, and the programme and venues for the Games were rescheduled accordingly. All parties involved are working together to prepare for a successful Games this summer."

The IOC statement also said organizers will be “implementing all possible countermeasures against COVID-19” and reiterated its commitment to the successful delivery of the Games later this year.

Officials in Tokyo have also been quick to reject the rumors. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said in a press conference Friday that "cancelation and postponement of the Games have not been discussed." Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga also denied the reports, saying his government is “determined” to “realize a safe and secure Olympics.”

Saturday marks six months until the postponed Games are due to begin.