February 16 coronavirus news

More than 3.03 million children in the US have tested positive for Covid-19 as of February 11, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Last week alone, about 99,000 new child cases were identified through testing, the report said. That’s an 8% increase in child Covid-19 cases over the course of two weeks. Children represent 13% of all cases in the US.

Children made up between 6% and 18.3% of those who were tested for Covid-19, and 5.2% to 29.6% of children tested were positive for the coronavirus, depending on the state.

Children are still considered much less likely than adults to develop severe symptoms of Covid-19 or to die from the disease. Children represented 1.2% to 2.9% of total reported hospitalizations for Covid-19, based on the information provided by 24 states and New York City. Only 0.1% to 2.3% of all cases of Covid-19 in children required hospitalization. 

Ten states reported zero child deaths among the 43 states that provided data on Covid-19 mortality. The states that did report having a fatal case saw no more than 0.05% of deaths in children among all confirmed cases of Covid-19. 

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Jim Sciutto Tuesday he thinks the process of widespread vaccinations will likely start in the spring and large portions of the public will be able to be vaccinated by the end of the summer.

Fauci acknowledged that previous estimates had placed vaccine availability for the general public closer to the end of April. He said vaccine availability to large parts of the public could depend on the Johnson & Johnson candidate, which has not yet been given emergency use authorization but is in the process.

“So, that timeline will probably be prolonged, maybe into mid-to-late May and early June, that’s fine,” Fauci said.

Johnson & Johnson will have fewer than 10 million vaccine doses available if the US Food and Drug Administration authorizes it for emergency use in the coming weeks, a federal health official told CNN earlier this month. 

The official said the number of doses available would be in the single-digit millions, but that number would ramp up to 20 or 30 million doses by April. 

The FDA has scheduled its meeting of independent experts to evaluate the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and make a recommendation on Feb. 26.

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Moderna has supplied 45.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine to the United States, the company announced Tuesday.

The company said data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows about 25.5 million doses of its vaccine have been administered across the nation.

An additional 33.2 million doses have been filled into vials and are going through final production and testing before being released to the government, according to the company's latest supply update. 

Some of the doses have not been released due to delays.

Moderna said it expects to deliver 100 million doses by the end of March, followed by an additional 100 million doses by the end of May and another 100 million doses by the end of July.

As Covid-19 cases continue to decline in the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci says it’s still important to remain careful.

Americans must continue with public health measures until the case count is “so low that it is no longer a threat,” he urged.

The decline in cases, continued public health measures and ongoing vaccinations could together help the US go in the right direction, he added.

While experts watch out for the variants, Fauci said the variant originating from the UK is likely to get dominant in the United States by the end of March but the vaccines being administered protect against that, which is “good news.”

The process of widespread vaccinations will likely start in the spring and large portions of the public will be able to be vaccinated by the end of the summer, he told CNN.

Watch the interview here:

A new study suggests that Covid-19 may cause damage to the eyes in critically ill patients.  

For the study, published in the journal Radiology, researchers reviewed magnetic resonance imaging of 129 patients presenting with severe Covid-19 in France between March 4 and May 1. 

Advanced imaging tests showed nine of the 129 (7%) patients had one or several irregularities at the back of the eyes. The irregularities could indicate possible damage or blockage of blood vessels, small bleeds in the eye or disruption of nerve fibers. 

All but one of the affected patients had damage in both eyes. 

But due to the lack of “systematic ophthalmological examination” of patients in the ICU, researchers were limited by data and unable to correlate their radiographic findings with vision changes. 

Researchers think these findings may be caused by widespread blood clotting in small vessels and disruption of an enzyme that protects the eye from damage. They also suggest the finding could be linked to increased pressure in the eyes caused by positioning ICU patients face-down (prone position) when on mechanical ventilation. 

Further research is needed to determine exactly what is causing damage to the eye in these critically ill patients and how this damage changes with time, the researchers said.

But the current study suggests that doctors should consider screening patients with severe Covid-19 for ocular problems.  

“Our data support the need for screening and follow-up of patients to provide appropriate treatment and improve the management of potentially severe ophiological manifestations,” the authors said.

Andy Slavitt, White House Covid-19 senior adviser, said on MSNBC Monday the drop in Covid-19 cases could be “misleading,” and the virus could have “a lot of surprises in store for us.”

Among those surprises are the variants, he said, noting that the variant first identified in the UK – or B.1.1.7 – is more virulent. 

Increases in cases aren’t inevitable if people protect themselves, he said, urging people to continue to wear masks and follow guidance from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Ultimately, science will win here, ultimately, we will beat this,” Slavitt said. “But I don’t think we’re anywhere close to out of the woods.”

The Connecticut Department of Public Health has detected its first positive case of the B.1.351 variant of Covid-19, according to a Monday DPH release.

The strain, first identified in South Africa, was detected “in a Connecticut patient who is currently hospitalized out of state with the virus,” the release said.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo confirmed in a Monday press conference that a New York hospital was treating a Connecticut-based patient who had contracted the variant.

The patient is between 60 and 70 years old and has not traveled recently, according to the DPH release, but it did not identify the patient’s sex or whether that individual has any underlying health conditions.

Connecticut DPH and local health officials are “coordinating with officials in New York” and all contact tracing efforts have been completed, the release said. 

The state has already confirmed 42 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant, the release stated, which is believed to have originated in the United Kingdom.

Chile has vaccinated more than 2 million people, the ministry of health announced on Monday.

A total of 2,092,453 people received at least the first dose, the ministry said. 

Chile's mass vaccination campaign began on Feb. 4, with the country distributing the Pfizer/BioNTech and Sinovac vaccines to healthcare workers, the elderly and educational personnel.

The first vaccine doses arrived in the country in December and were given to medical workers beginning Dec. 24. 

"We will not lower our arms until we vaccinate them all. Together we will make 2021 the year of hope and the recovery of our dreams and life projects," President Sebastián Piñera said on Twitter. 

Chile has recorded 779,541 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 19,624 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Researchers said they have identified a batch of similar mutations in coronavirus samples circulating in the United States. Virologist Jeremy Kamil, an author on the study, said “there’s really no excuse” why the US hasn’t done more sequencing to glean additional data on the virus. 

The genetic stretch that is mutated, or changed, is called 677. The researchers identified seven similar mutations at 677 — each one appearing to have arisen independently, they wrote in a pre-print report.

“I think the bigger message is that we need to be doing a better job — and a more even job — sequencing the virus so we can know whether there are changes to be concerned about or not,” he said. 

Kamil also stressed that there is no evidence yet that these variants are making the virus more transmissible or dangerous, and they should not have an effect on vaccines. 

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