January 26 coronavirus news

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday it’s important to give the second dose of the company’s Covid-19 vaccine on time, but added that he didn’t think “giving it a week later or two is a very big issue.”

“You need to make sure you give the second doses as the studies recommend the vaccine works which is in three weeks,” Bourla said during the Bloomberg The Year Ahead event. “In our study we actually had from 19 to 42. Within this framework, I’m fine. Beyond that, it’s serious.”

While the proposed window between doses was 21 days in Pfizer’s vaccine efficacy trial, it still included participants who received their second doses within a “predefined window” of 19 to 42 days, according to FDA materials.

There have been concerns that the limited vaccine supply will prevent people from getting their second doses of vaccines on time.

Some more context: Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its vaccine guidance to state: ”The second dose should be administered as close to the recommended interval as possible.

However, if it is not feasible to adhere to the recommended interval, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may be scheduled for administration up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose. There are currently limited data on efficacy of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines administered beyond this window. If the second dose is administered beyond these intervals, there is no need to restart the series.”

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announced the city will return to "Phase Three, Step One" on Monday, after reopening was temporarily paused in December. He made the announcement during a news conference today.

In "Phase Three, Step One," Walsh said the following businesses may reopen at 25% capacity:

Gatherings will be limited to 10 people indoors and 25 people outdoors, he added.

Walsh confirmed 316 new cases and five new deaths from Covid-19, bringing Boston’s total number of Covid-19 cases to at least 51,506 and at least 1,133 total deaths.

Marty Martinez, chief of Boston Health and Human Services, also noted in today’s press conference that Massachusetts changed the vaccine prioritization to allow people 75 and older to be eligible to receive the vaccine starting next week.

Note: These numbers were released by Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University and the Covid Tracking Project.

Authorities in Berlin will now require citizens to take a second coronavirus test in order to better detect new variants of the virus, a spokesperson for Berlin’s Health Minister Dilek Kalayci said Tuesday. 

According to the spokesperson, the new strategy will be implemented from the first week of February and will apply to all tests carried out in the city of Berlin. 

A spokesperson for the Berlin Senate added that the new measure is to be enforced in an effort to prevent the closure of further hospitals in the city. 

Some background: The move comes just days after the Vivantes Humboldt-Klinikum hospital in Berlin was placed under quarantine following an outbreak among both patients and staff of the coronavirus variant first detected in the UK. 

As of Tuesday, 24 cases of the UK variant have been detected at the hospital, including 13 patients and 11 members of staff, the hospital confirmed.

In a different Berlin hospital — the Klinikum Spandau — two additional cases have been identified in patients. 

Since the start of the pandemic, the number of people infected with coronavirus in Germany has reached 2,158,407 and 53,317 have died, according to figures from John Hopkins University.

Johnson & Johnson told investors it expects to share further details on its Phase 3 Covid-19 vaccine study results by early next week.

“Stay tuned,” said Alex Gorsky, chief executive officer and chair of Johnson & Johnson’s board of directors, during the company’s earnings call Tuesday.

Gorsky said that the company is “hopeful” that the efficacy and safety data from the earlier trials is a “good precursor” to the kind of data in the larger population in its Phase 3 trial. 

“We won’t know for certain, but we remain optimistic,” Gorsky said.

Results from J&J's Phase 1/2a trials showed that a single dose of the vaccine induced a strong immune response in nearly all the people who got the vaccine. The immune response was similar across the age groups, according to the company.

If J&J’s trial shows its vaccine is effective, it could help speed up the slow US vaccine rollout. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is one dose, while the authorized vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna require two doses three to four weeks apart. Johnson & Johnson is also testing a dual dose in a separate trial and said it should have data on that toward the end of the year. 

The company also said it’s watching closely how its vaccine protects against variants.

Joseph Wolk, J&J’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said that the company is currently “on track” to meet its manufacturing commitments to the US, EU and to developing countries. 

“There’s still some fluidity with respect to timelines,” Wolk said. 

Earlier, J&J committed to producing and deploying at least a billion doses of vaccine during the calendar year, including at least 100 million doses to the US population.

Because the company doesn’t have the results yet, it said it was “premature to speculate” on the financial impact from the potential distribution of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.

“I'm proud of the progress of our Covid-19 vaccine candidate. And the fact that we move so quickly while maintaining the highest level of science and safety standards,” said Gorsky. “Johnson & Johnson was built for times like these.” 

New York City only has 7,710 doses on hand, and 72,409 second doses yet to be scheduled, Mayor Bill de Blasio said today.

“We have almost no supply to allow us to create new opportunities for people, new appointments for people," the mayor said.

He added “right now I need hundreds of thousands of more doses per week.”

He said earlier that the city has administered over 650,000 doses.

De Blasio spoke this morning with the White House Covid-19 coordinator and is “very convinced” that the commitment is there and “we're going to see a lot of impact from the Biden White House.”

De Blasio is calling for even more flexibility to get as many shots in arms as possible.

What the numbers look like: New York City added 4,844 new confirmed and probable cases, marking a 8.4% positivity – both on a seven-day rolling average.

The mayor said 230 patients were admitted to NYC hospitals for suspected Covid-19 – a 5.14 per 100,000 person hospitalization rate.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy said his state needs many more doses of Covid-19 vaccine to keep up with a plan to vaccinate 70% of the state population within six months.

"We need more doses," Murphy said Tuesday morning on ABC's Good Morning America. "We need probably 2 or 3 times the weekly dosage that we're getting right now."

Though the state has built a network of some 270 vaccine distribution sites, including 6 so-called "megasites," Murphy said there was insufficient supply to meet demand.

A spokesperson for the New Jersey Department of Health confirmed to CNN Tuesday morning that the Meadowlands mega site is temporarily closed due to lack of vaccine, a reality Murphy acknowledged later Tuesday morning in an appearance on MSNBC.

Murphy said 2.2 million New Jerseyans have pre-registered to receive a Covid-19 inoculation.

"The constraint right now is supply," he said.

Because Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine vials are able to yield six doses, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla says the United States’ contracted 200 million doses can be fulfilled two months earlier than expected. 

Some background: Each vial of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine was designed to contain five doses, but after some pharmacists reported they could to extract six doses, the FDA allowed an updated label that states: “After dilution, vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine contain six doses of 0.3mL of vaccine. Low dead-volume syringes and/or needles can be used to extract six doses from a single vial. If standard syringes and needles are used, there may not be sufficient volume to extract a sixth dose from a single vial.”

Bourla previously said that this increase in doses per vial, “provides an additional 20% capacity.” 

Pfizer told CNN on Friday that the company planned to base its vaccine commitment to the US government on doses, not vials, meaning it would count any extra doses that pharmacists can squeeze out of each vial.

A source familiar with the matter told CNN last week that Pfizer and the federal government will be keeping track of the sites with the ability to extract the full six doses and Pfizer will not charge for the extra dose per vial if sites aren’t able to extract it.

Officials with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are closely watching at least four coronavirus variants.

Here's what we know so far about them:

You can read more about the variants here.

Today, the historic Indian Treaty Room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building will double as a vaccination clinic for dozens of West Wing and National Security Council staff invited to receive the Covid vaccine, according to an email from the “Covid-19 Operations Team” reviewed by CNN. 

Officials have been told to report to the room where the White House Medical Unit will be administering the Pfizer vaccine to officials who present a valid government ID. The NSC and much of the West Wing has been ordered to telework since President Joe Biden took office, enforcing stricter Covid-prevention protocols than those of the previous administration. 

However for the NSC staff, who rely heavily on classified information to carry out their work, teleworking is far from ideal and there is now a rush to have staff vaccinated and back in the office to access the sensitive information that is critical to their work.

Several staffers, who are “holdovers” from the previous administration, already received the first dose of the vaccine before Trump left office, but most of those officials have also been ordered to telework indefinitely while the new administration decides on its Covid work protocols, according to several administration officials.