February 16 coronavirus news

More than 55 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data published Tuesday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC reported that 55,220,364 total doses have been administered, about 72% of the 71,657,975 doses distributed.

That’s about 2.3 million more administered doses reported since Sunday, for a seven-day average of about 1.7 million doses per day. The CDC did not update its vaccine tracker on Monday.

Nearly 39.7 million people have now received at least one dose of the vaccine and about 15 million people have been fully vaccinated, CDC data shows.

Data published by the CDC may be delayed, and doses may not have been given on the day reported.

The House will vote on the massive Biden stimulus package next week, according to a House Democratic leadership aide. The measure will be part of budget reconciliation legislation, which will be on the floor by the end of next week. It cannot be filibustered in the Senate.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer told his members the House will now be in session Tuesday through Friday next week (not Monday through Thursday), the aide said.

Also, he announced to his colleagues the House will vote on a wilderness package and the Equality Act next week.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki walked a tight line Tuesday when asked if President Biden now owns the coronavirus pandemic response. Psaki answered yes — but added conditions.

“However, it's important for the American people to know what we inherited when the President came into office. And what he inherited was not enough supply, not enough vaccinators, not enough places for vaccinations to happen. Communities had been left to fend for themselves. And so that's what he's been focused on and working on," she added.

Psaki announced earlier in the briefing that the administration is again increasing the weekly Covid-19 vaccine supply being sent to states, as it works to ramp up vaccinations nearly a month in office.

She added of Biden, “But certainly, if he were standing here, he would say that's the issue he wakes up every morning and is focused on because addressing it is what’s on the minds of the American people. He's the president, it's his responsibility to focus on it.”

The Biden administration is again increasing its weekly Covid-19 vaccine supply being sent to states, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Tuesday.

During a call with governors, White House Covid coordinator Jeff Zients informed the officials that the administration is “increasing the vaccine supply to 13.5 million doses per week to states," Psaki said at Tuesday’s briefing, a 57% increase from inauguration levels.

Additionally, Psaki said, the administration will be “doubling the supply to our pharmacy program.” This week, there will be 2 million doses sent to pharmacies across the country, she said, which is expected to expand in the coming weeks. 

“Eventually,” Psaki said, more than 40,000 pharmacy locations nationwide will be providing vaccines.

This news comes as the administration is working to rapidly scale vaccinations nearly four weeks after taking office amid some confusion and feedback from governors.

Some more context: CNN’s Kevin Liptak reported Monday that a bipartisan group of governors expressed concern at the Biden administration's vaccine rollout, writing in a letter to the White House that better coordination is needed between the federal government and states on distributing doses to prevent confusion and duplicative efforts.

The executive committee of the National Governors Association, comprised of Democrats and Republicans, raised alarm over two areas of confusion: first, the numbers publicly reported by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for vaccine distribution; and second, the separate federal distribution systems — including a recently launched program sending vaccines directly to retail pharmacies — they say have caused inefficiencies.

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.

WATCH:

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.