January 27 coronavirus news

Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House Covid-19 Response Team, said it will "be months" before all Americans who want a Covid-19 vaccine can get one. 

“I want to level with the public that we're facing two constraining factors. The first is getting enough supply quickly enough, and the second is the ability to administer the vaccines quickly once they're produced and sent out to the sites,” Slavitt said.

Slavitt said so far this week, the Biden administration has hit its initial target of one million vaccinations per day. That number of doses is “the floor, not the ceiling,” he said. 

The administration has delivered 47 million doses to states and long-term care facilities, yet 24 million doses have been administered, according to Slavitt. 

“Any stockpile that may have existed previously no longer exists. Our practice is to maintain a rolling inventory of two to three days of supply that we can use to supplement any shortfalls in production and to ensure that we are making deliveries as committed,” he said. 

Yesterday, Biden announced a series of measures aimed at ramping up coronavirus vaccine allocation and distribution, including the purchase of 200 million more vaccine doses and increased distribution to states by millions of doses next week.

With those additional doses, Biden said there would be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans —nearly the entire US population — by the end of summer or early fall.

Hear the administration's plan to increase vaccine supply:

Two Arab Gulf nations, Bahrain and Oman, have reimposed restrictions across different sectors to control the spread of new coronavirus variants, government statements said on Wednesday. 

Bahrain suspended school attendance and banned indoor dining services for three weeks starting Sunday and called on citizens to limit gatherings and outings, the Health Ministry said.

Bahrain had a strong vaccination campaign in December and early January, however the country is now waiting on new vaccines to arrive after this month’s shipment of the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine was delayed by the company, the Health Ministry said last week.

“Delays in vaccination deliveries around the world calls for more caution, and we ask everyone to increase their commitment, as we wait for the arrival of the vaccines,” he said.

Meanwhile, Oman banned group events, including sport activities and suspended the opening of universities. It also advised citizens against foreign travel, to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variants, state media said quoting a government statement.

Both nations have not clarified which coronavirus variants are spreading within their countries.

President Biden was sworn in to office exactly one week ago on Jan. 20 and vowed to make tackling the Covid-19 pandemic his top priority.

Today, the White House Covid-19 response team gave their first briefing and Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the team, gave a recap of the Biden administration's actions on the virus so far.

Here's what he listed:

"So far this week, we've been hitting our target of an average of 1 million vaccinations per day necessary to meet the President's early commitment to administer 100 million shots in 100 days," Slavitt said, adding that it would still take months before all Americans can get vaccines.

The number of new Covid-19 cases worldwide decreased by 15% over the last seven days, according to data from the World Health Organization. This is the largest decline in global new cases that has been reported over the course of the pandemic.

In its weekly epidemiological update, WHO said 4.1 million new Covid-19 cases were reported globally in the last week. This is the second week in a row to show a decline in global new cases. This metric hit its peak the week of Jan. 4, 2021.

New cases in the Americas accounted for more than half of all new cases worldwide last week, and the Americas reported 47% of global new deaths. The United States reported more than half of the total new cases counted in the Americas.

Europe reported the largest regional decline in new cases, and reported a 20% decrease in new cases over the last seven days

New cases in Africa declined by 16% in the last week. The largest change in deaths was in South East Asia and in the Western Pacific, which both saw new deaths decline by 5% in the last week.

The first Covid-19 briefing of the Biden administration got off to an unfortunate start on Wednesday with multiple technical difficulties. The administration has repeatedly touted their transparency amid the enormous undertaking of getting the pandemic under control, but the briefing, which was conducted virtually via Zoom, had multiple audiovisual issues. 

As Covid-19 chief Jeff Zients began the call, his audio was intermittently audible.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky also had issues with her line on mute. 

“Rochelle? Rochelle?” someone off-camera asked. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke for nearly a full minute while on mute, at which point the audio came on and he was informed of the issue. 

“Okay, so in other words, nobody has heard anything from me? Is that correct? A lot of really good stuff,” Fauci said, as he went on to repeat himself with his microphone on. 

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky emphasized that the Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, saying the risk of getting sick with the virus is higher than having an anaphylaxis reaction.

"I want to take a moment here to emphasize that the Covid-19 vaccines are safe and they work. And this is backed up with data," Walensky said at the White House Covid-19 Response Team's first press briefing on Wednesday.

She said that based on recent data, there were 2.1 cases of anaphylaxis per million doses administered of the Moderna vaccine. For the Pfizer vaccine, data showed 6.2 cases of anaphylaxis per million doses.

"While anaphylaxis can be scary, there are effective treatments, and patients generally do quite well," she added.

Walensky also said it is important to remember that there may be some side effects with the vaccine, including things like feeling feverish or having muscle aches.

"These are all normal and expected part of getting a vaccine, especially the second dose. These symptoms mean your immune system is revving up and the vaccine is actually working," she said.

Some background: President Joe Biden announced a plan to buy 200 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna to fully vaccinate the American population by the end of summer or early fall of 2021.

Biden said on Monday that he expects that the US will soon be able to vaccinate 1.5 million people a day, raising the bar by roughly 500,000 more vaccinations than its target of one million per day in his first 100 days in office. He said that the US could surpass that initial target in about three weeks.

Hear from the CDC director:

The US has confirmed 308 cases of the Covid-19 variant that originated in the UK in 26 US states as of Jan. 26, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a White House coronavirus response team briefing on Wednesday.

In addition, the US has also identified its first case of the P1 variant first detected in Brazil, in Minnesota, she said. However, there are no cases yet in the US of the variant first detected in South Africa.

"Viruses mutate and we have always expected that variants would emerge and we have been looking for them. The variants [that] have been identified recently seem to spread more easily, they're more transmissible, which can lead to increased number of cases and increased stress on our already-taxed health care system," the CDC director added.

Walensky emphasized that at this time, people should not travel unless necessary, continue to observe coronavirus safety measures like social distancing, mask wearing and hand washing, and getting vaccinated when they can.

"Get vaccinated when it's your turn. Also, some people may need help getting vaccinated. Please consider helping your neighbors and loved ones schedule or travel to their appointments," she said.

There is some wiggle room on getting vaccinated against coronavirus, but people should try to get their second dose of vaccine on time, and they should try to make sure they get two doses of the same vaccine, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday.

“However, we also know that life can get in the way, and that some of those doses may be missed in the best time window. And in those circumstances, the second dose may be given up to six weeks, or 42 days, after the first,” Walensky added.

“Second, the CDC has reiterated that the Covid-19 vaccines are not interchangeable. However, it's also true that in extremely rare circumstances, people may not simply remember, or have documentation of, which first dose they received. In these extremely rare situations, we have said that any available mRNA Covid-19 vaccine may be administered as the second dose," she continued.

An ensemble forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now projects there will be 479,000 to 514,000 coronavirus deaths in the United States by February 20, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Walensky shared the updated forecast during a White House coronavirus response team briefing on Wednesday; the numbers have not yet updated on the CDC’s website. 

Unlike some individual models, the CDC’s ensemble forecast only offers projections a few weeks into the future. The previous ensemble forecast, published January 20, projected up to 508,000 coronavirus deaths by February 13.

The latest numbers: At least 425,406 people have already died from Covid-19 in the United States, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.