February 23 coronavirus news

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.

More variants first identified in the UK, and South Africa, have been discovered in New York State, according to the Governor’s office. 

New York has found 18 more cases of the variant first identified in the UK, bringing the total to 154 known cases. 

The state added that a second case of the variant first identified in South Africa was discovered in Nassau County, on Long island, the state said in a release. 

The state added 6,654 new cases, marking a 4.23% positivity, according to a release from New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. 

The state adds the qualification that “data, including test results and hospital rates, reported early in the week are often not completely reflective of the current situation due to lower discharges and testing volume over the weekend.”

The 7-day average percent positivity is 3.46%.

Remember: These numbers were released by the state governors office and may not line up with Johns Hopkins University's tally.

Priscilla and David Morse thought their daughter had a stomach bug, or was perhaps experiencing health symptoms related to her special needs. Less than a day later, six-year-old Gigi died from Covid-19.

The Morse family adopted Gigi from Ukraine when she was three, rescuing her from an orphanage where she was mistreated, at times being tied to a bed and force-fed food. But Gigi would flourish with her new family in Tennessee.

"It was kind of a soul connection kind of thing. She was a very sweet child, but she had a lot of behavioral stuff going on. So she was a little difficult sometimes," Priscilla explained, adding "but it never bothered me. I dug deep and found patience that I didn't even know existed, because that's what she needed. And we just connected."

In August Gigi developed a peculiar rash, and began vomiting. Now considered telltale signs of Covid-19 in children, at the time the symptoms didn't raise any flags.

"She was running around the doctor's office. She was drinking slushies. She had a normal temperature," her mom explained. "It was just one of those things that you would not associate that with Covid... at the time, we were told she's got a stomach bug. Take her home. Let her eat some popsicles, get some rest."

So the Morses did just that, putting Gigi down for a nap before quickly hustling out for refreshments in an effort to keep their daughter hydrated.

"We... went to the store to get popsicles and I came home to two ambulances, fire trucks, police cars in front of my house. And my daughter dead," Priscilla revealed. 

In July, both David and Priscilla contracted Covid-19, and the family – which also included an 18-year-old and 11-year-old – quarantined accordingly. It was Gigi's older siblings who found their sister, ultimately contacting 911 and starting CPR.

"They could not have been any more perfect in trying to help their sister. They're just amazing kids," said David.

Six months since Gigi's passing, her family now balances painful feelings of blame, guilt and loss.

"Every single person feels like, 'what could I have done differently?' And I don't know of anyone who could have done anything differently," Priscilla said.

"At least it happened in a family. She was honored when she passed. She has people who miss her ... Gigi, she just took to being in a family. She was everyone's favorite. She was the light of my life."

India has begun to ship its AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine to countries across Africa through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, Anurag Srivastava, spokesman for the Ministry of External Affairs announced on Tuesday.

The vaccine doses were processed at the Serum Institute of India.

COVAX is a program co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and WHO. Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

Last month, India and the African Union announced plans for the Serum Institute to supply 400 million doses to Africa.

India had previously shipped one million doses of the vaccine to South Africa.

“The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines for COVAX rolled out from Serum Institute in Pune, on Tuesday morning,” WHO Southeast Asia said on Twitter.

New UK data shows that the first dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine “provides high levels of protection against infection and symptomatic disease,” Public Health England (PHE) said in a news release on Monday.

PHE’s Siren Study, which was carried out on health care workers under the age of 65, found that one dose of the vaccine reduced the risk of infection by 72% after three weeks, while two vaccine doses reduced the risk of infection by 85%. 

This high level of protection extended to the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant first identified in the UK in December.

Health workers were tested for Covid-19 infection every two weeks using PCR tests and twice a week with lateral flow tests, explained Dr. Susan Hopkins, strategic response director at PHE, meaning “there was a lot of asymptomatic testing,” she said.

“Overall, we are seeing a really strong effect to reducing any infection: asymptomatic and symptomatic,” Hopkins said during a news conference held by the UK’s Science Media Centre on Monday.

PHE also analyzed routine testing data based on symptomatic disease in over 12,000 people, which showed that one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 57% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 four weeks after the first dose in those older than 80. This increased to 88% one week after the second dose.

Early data has also shown that vaccinated people who are subsequently infected are far less likely to die or be hospitalized with the virus. People over the age of 80 who were infected post vaccination were 41% less likely to be hospitalized with the virus and 57% less likely to die of it. 

PHE further predicted that protection against severe disease is likely to be over 75% in those who have received one dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

“The good sign is overall we are beginning to see a decline in hospitalizations and deaths in those vaccinated age groups [and] at least some is attributable to the vaccination program,” Dr. Mary Ramsay, head of immunization at PHE, said during the press conference.

She said that while the UK’s current lockdown played a part in the decline in hospitalizations, she added that “the faster speed in decline can be attributed in some respects to the vaccination program.”

In the PHE release, Ramsay cautioned that despite the encouraging signs “we don’t yet know how much these vaccines will reduce the risk of you passing Covid-19 on to others,” adding that vaccinated people should continue to follow stay-at-home orders. 

The UK has placed its focus on vaccinating as many high-risk people as possible with the first dose.

UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was “extremely encouraging” that data supported the UK government’s “decision to maximize the number of people vaccinated with a single dose.”