February 23 coronavirus news

President Biden indicated the White House will move to send masks directly to the American people as the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic, something that was originally proposed by health officials during the Trump administration but blocked by the former President.

"We could have saved literally an awful lot of lives if people had listened. We turned wearing masks into a political statement. If you were for this thing, you wore it, if we were for somebody else, you didn't wear it, when in fact, it's just plain basic science,” Biden said.

Earlier this month, White House chief of staff Ron Klain said that the Biden administration is hoping to resurrect a proposal from the Trump administration send masks directly to Americans.

"This was an idea that really came up last year in the Trump administration — the public health agencies recommended it, President Trump vetoed it for some reason," Klain told NBC's Lester Holt on Feb. 4. "We want to get this back on track. I hope in the next few days, or next week, we may be able to announce some progress on this.”

The US Postal Service had planned to distribute 650 million face coverings for the Trump administration last April, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN in September. A senior administration official told The Washington Post at the time that the plan was scrapped by the White House as some advisers were worried that it could create "concern or panic."

CNN has reached out to the White House to see if there are any additional details on this after the President’s remarks on Tuesday.

More than 65 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 65,032,083 total doses have been administered, about 79% of the 82,114,370 doses delivered.

That’s only about 850,000 more administered doses reported since yesterday, for a seven-day average of about 1.4 million doses per day. 

About 44.5 million people have now received at least one dose of vaccine and about 19.9 million people have been fully vaccinated with both shots, CDC data shows.

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

Ireland's coronavirus lockdown will remain in place until April 5, the government's press office said in a statement released Tuesday.

A further review of the restrictions will be conducted on April 5, and the government will consider easing limits that currently restrict movement to within three miles of people's homes, as well as consider easing some restrictions on outdoor activities and meeting other households.

The country will also begin a staggered return to in-school education beginning on March 1, according to the statement. The country's aim is for all classes to return after the Easter break.

Ireland also plans to resume non-Covid-related health services in the coming weeks and expand the reopening of childcare.

Martin added that the country has made "steady progress" on vaccinations, with more than 350,000 vaccine doses already administered. He said the government plans to give nearly half of people over 18 their first vaccine dose by the end of April, and 82% of adults their first dose by the end of June. 

"We want to protect as many people as possible in the coming months, until we achieve a critical mass of vaccinations," Martin said. "That is why we will continue to proceed carefully and cautiously, keeping the situation under constant review and being informed at all stages by public health advice."

It’s possible a single dose of coronavirus vaccine might be enough for people who have already been infected, but it will take more research to show that, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, wrote in a blog post Tuesday

Collins referenced a recent preprint on a small NIH-funded study, which looked at 109 people who had already received a first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine and found that for 41 people who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies before their first shot, immune response to the first dose was “equal to, or in some cases better” than the response to the second dose in people without previous infection.

“If other studies support these results, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration might decide to consider whether one dose is enough for people who’ve had a prior COVID-19 infection. Such a policy is already under consideration in France and, if implemented, would help to extend vaccine supply and get more people vaccinated sooner,” wrote Collins. “But any serious consideration of this option will require more data. It will also be up to the expert advisors at FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to decide.”

Collins said that for now, the most important thing for everyone to do is to continue to follow the three W’s – wear a mask, wash hands and watch distance, “and roll up our sleeves for the vaccine as soon as it’s available to us.”

Scotland will begin a phased lifting of its coronavirus lockdown, starting with the lifting of the stay at home order on April 5.

Weeks later the country will move back to a "levels system" of restrictions, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday, Sturgeon said she was confident that the indicative timetable was reasonable and would see the economy start to substantially reopen with further outlines to be published in a Scottish Government document by mid-March. 

The youngest of Scotland’s school pupils returned to classrooms this week. The next phase of school returns will take place on March 15 and will include years four to seven and secondary schools pupils.

At this stage, the outdoor mixing of households rules will allow four people from two households to mix, with these rules changing on April 5 to include six people.

Communal worship will also return, along with essential retail from April 5.

Scotland will then move back to "level three" restrictions on April 26. 

Travel restrictions are likely to remain for the time being, with international travel looking unlikely. 

“One of our biggest risks right now are new variants that start to undermine the vaccine efficacy, that would be a terrible development so that's why we have to be really careful to guard against importation of new variants, hence the need for travel restrictions.” Sturgeon said. “The more that we accept some restriction on an ability to travel overseas, the greater normality we can get back domestically and get that back quicker than we might otherwise be able to do.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki would not say whether President Biden would sign a coronavirus relief bill where the minimum wage is increased to $11 an hour as opposed to the $15 an hour that the President proposed.

Asked by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if Biden would sign a bill where the minimum wage is increased to $11 an hour, something Sen. Joe Manchin is looking at doing via an amendment to the bill, Psaki punted, saying Biden put forward the $15 an hour number because that is what he supports.

Psaki said if the coronavirus relief bill passes the House, which is expected this weekend, “there’ll be an opportunity Sen. Manchin and others to put forward ideas and proposals and we’ll see where that process lands but he proposed the $15 increase for a reason and he stands by it.”

Asked if Biden would consider the lesser minimum wage increase as a possible point of compromise, Psaki said the White House will “see where it goes” after the bill works its way through the Senate reconciliation process.

Manchin said that he would propose the $11 minimum wage amendment if the Senate parliamentarian finds the wage hike within the rules of the budget process that Democrats are employing to advance the covid relief package without Republican support. He would need 51 votes to succeed.

"I would amend it to $11," he said Monday. "$11 basically works for Americans and, we can do $11 in two years and be in a better position than they're going to be with $15 in five years."

New York state has administered more than 2.25 million first doses – 91% of the first doses it received from the federal government, according to the governor of New York.

More than 1.18 million New Yorkers have been fully vaccinated, according to state data. 

Week 10 allocations, which were delayed due to weather, continue to arrive as of Tuesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office said. 

"Supply from the federal government is increasing steadily every week, but the demand still far outweighs the supply,” Cuomo said in a press release.

He reminded residents that beginning this week, the “largest-yet” vaccination sites in Brooklyn and Queens will each be able to vaccinate 3,000 New Yorkers daily.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that states will now receive 14.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines per week. 

Psaki said White House Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients made the announcement on a call with governors on Tuesday morning. 

“States will now receive 14.5 million doses this week, up from 8.6 million doses per week when the President took office. That's an increase in vaccine allocations of nearly 70% during the Biden Harris administration,” Psaki said at a White House briefing. 

Earlier today, Pfizer and Moderna — the two companies with Covid-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States — pledged to make a combined total of 220 million doses available for shipment by the end of March. 

Meanwhile, the company Johnson & Johnson, which has yet to receive an emergency use authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine, has pledged to make 20 million doses available in the same time frame.

Johnson & Johnson, for the first time, put a number on how many initial doses of Covid-19 vaccine it will be able to ship to the US if it is granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration.

The company is prepared to immediately ship nearly 4 million doses, the company's Dr. Richard Nettles told a House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel Tuesday.