March 2 coronavirus news

Nearly 70% of Americans are likely to get the vaccine as soon as it is available to them or have already gotten it, according to new poll results from Axios-Ipsos published Tuesday. 

The poll found that 68% of Americans said that they were likely to get the vaccine as soon as it was available, or have already gotten it.

The number of Americans saying they’re not at all likely to get the vaccine – 21% – remains essentially unchanged since January, but the number saying they’re not very likely to – 10% – has decreased by nine points since earlier in the year, according to the poll conducted Feb. 26 to March 1 and based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,088 adults age 18 and up. 

People with a college degree and Democrats expressed the greatest interest in getting vaccinated. 

Nearly one-quarter – 23% – of respondents have gotten at least one vaccine dose, up from 19% last week and 3% in the Jan. 11 poll. Half – 53% – of those age 65 and older have gotten at least one shot. 

Higher rates of vaccination were reported by those who were college educated (29%), more affluent, with a $50,000 or higher household income (25%), and white (25%.) This can be compared to those with a high school education or less (16%), less affluent, with a household income lower than $50,000 (18%), or Black (19%) and Hispanic (17%). 

Three quarters of the respondents – 75% – also said that it’s very or somewhat important for teachers to get fully vaccinated before going back to school to teach. 

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called for the state to expand vaccination eligibility to include sanitation workers, lifeguards, district attorneys, courtroom staff, board of elections staff, building inspectors and New York City Housing Authority frontline staff among others. 

“The state of New York is not keeping up with the need to update… these eligibility categories,” he said during a briefing Tuesday.

De Blasio also announced that in an effort to enhance equity of distribution of the vaccine, a new vaccination site will open in Co-Op city in the Bronx Thursday.

“The Bronx has been very hard hit by the Covid crisis,” he said adding the “Bronx is often overlooked.”

The city’s top health adviser Dr. Jay Varma discussed the variants during the briefing in an effort to quell concerns.

“There may be a day when we have to do something different because of it, but right now so far the answer is clear; there’s nothing different we need people to do in New York," he said.

New York City is tracking the spread of variants and also examining for new ones, with the capacity to sequence over two thousand specimens a week, he added.

New York City added 211 patients for suspected Covid-19 – which is “finally” getting close to the 200 threshold that the city desires, the mayor explained. 

The hospitalization rate is 4.3 per 100,000 people which is “still high” the mayor cautioned. The city added 3,558 confirmed and probable Covid cases, marking a 6.09% positivity both on a 7 day rolling average.

More Americans are feeling hopeful about the pandemic now than over the last year, according to new poll results from Axios-Ipsos published on Tuesday. 

Nearly half — 48% — of Americans said hopeful best describes their mood today, up from only 20% who felt that way over the past year, according to the poll, which was conducted Feb. 26 to March 1 and based on a nationally representative probability sample of 1,088 adults ages 18 and up.

This number goes up to 61% for those who have received at least one shot of vaccine. 

The most hopeful groups are people over 65, Democrats and people who have been vaccinated. 

This can be compared to feelings over the last year, when 41% of respondents said that “stressed/worried” were the words to best describe their mood. An equal percentage said they were frustrated. Twenty-six percent said that they felt “overwhelmed/burned out,” 19% angry and 16% “sad” or “discouraged.” 

“The negative emotions are still there, but they’re less prevalent than during the past year,” said Axios — 20% said that they were stressed or worried now.  

Looking back at the past year, Democrats were more likely to report feeling stressed or overwhelmed, compared with Republicans who were more likely to report frustration and anger. 

The poll also looked at how long people thought it would take for life to get back to normal. 

They found that 65% of respondents thought that it would take at least six months to start getting back to normal. An increasing minority — 33% — expect to return to something like normal, pre-coronavirus life within the next six months. This is up from 26% last week. 

Venezuela has received 500-thousand doses of the Sinopharm vaccine developed by China, President Nicolás Maduro announced.

“With great joy I announce that at this moment 500 thousand doses of Covid-19 vaccines are arriving in Venezuela, from the People's Republic of China. This is wonderful news that fills us with great hope. Soon, we will begin the mass vaccination of our people,” Maduro said on Twitter.

The vaccines, along with a load of medical supplies, such as masks and Covid-19 tests, landed at the Simón Bolivar Airport in Caracas late Monday night, the Venezuelan government reported.

The Venezuelan Ministry of Health approved the use of the Sinopharm vaccine on Monday.

This is the second shipment of vaccines to reach Venezuela, which received 100,000 of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in early February.

Venezuela is also in line to receive a share of vaccines through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program, but negotiations have stalled due to the political situation in the country. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which handles COVAX distribution in the Americas, has previously said Venezuela would receive their share of vaccines as soon as their payment and delivery processes are finalized.

Venezuela currently has at least 139,545 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,348 recorded deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo opposed the government’s proposal to impose a weekend lockdown in the French capital in an effort to fight the rise in Covid-19 cases.

“I disagreed with this proposal. A proposal that I find difficult, hard and even inhumane,” Hidalgo said in a televised address Monday. 

She offered softer proposals instead such as teaching classes outside during the week, in an effort to bring case numbers down. 

“We will make our playgrounds and public gardens available in an organized and secure way, which we can rearrange for this purpose,” she said. 

Government spokesperson Gabriel Attal has accused the Paris town hall of flip-flopping after a Paris deputy mayor advocated just last month for a strict three-week lockdown in Paris. 

The French Riviera and the metropolitan area of Dunkirk in northern France have been under weekend lockdowns since last Friday.  

President Emmanuel Macron is expected to hold a Defense council meeting Wednesday to discuss new restrictions.

The COVAX program will deliver 237 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to some 142 countries by the end of May, the World Health Organization's Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced today. 

COVAX is a program run by a coalition that includes the Vaccine Alliance known as Gavi and the World Health Organization (WHO), and is funded by donations from governments, multilateral institutions and foundations. Its mission is to buy coronavirus vaccines in bulk and send them to poorer nations that can't compete with wealthy countries in securing contracts with the major drug companies.

During a virtual press briefing, Tedros said that when the history of the pandemic is written, Covax “will be one of its standout successes.”  

This week alone, COVAX will deliver a total of 11 million doses, according to Tedros.  

The vaccine rollout by the program is already underway, with Ghana and the Ivory Coast becoming the first countries to receive doses through COVAX last week, according to Tedros.

The European Union's 27-nation vaccine strategy is splintering as member states turn to nations outside the bloc to boost a faltering rollout plagued by supply issues, contract skirmishes and sluggish takeup.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz announced Monday that he intends to work with Israel and Denmark on future vaccine production and cooperation around developing further shots to combat new coronavirus mutations. He will visit Israel with Danish leader Mette Frederiksen on Thursday.

The Austrian leader has been sharply critical of the EU's vaccine strategy and the bloc's regulator, the European Medicines Agency. The EU authorized the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in late December 2020, weeks after it had been granted approval in the UK and US.

Brussels has opted for a centralized approach to vaccine procurement and distribution but its plan has been hindered by supply and distribution problems. Only 5.5% of the EU's population of 447 million has received a first vaccine dose, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO).

The EMA has not yet given the green light to the Sputnik V vaccine. "The [Slovakia] approval is based on the results of the clinical trials of Sputnik V in Russia and a comprehensive assessment of the vaccine by experts in Slovakia," the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which backed Sputnik V's production, said Monday.

Read the full article here.

Nigeria today received nearly 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, its health ministry announced on social media. 

The country's National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) said on Monday that Nigeria would take delivery of 3.92 million doses of the shot, the first arrival of a Covid-19 vaccine in Africa's most populous nation. 

Nigeria is now the third West African country to receive the coronavirus vaccine -- joining neighbors Ghana and Ivory Coast -- which have all been supplied through the COVAX program.

COVAX is a global initiative that helps poorer and smaller countries gain access to Covid-19 vaccines.

Faisal Shuaib, who heads the NPHCDA, said in a statement Monday that Nigeria's vaccine rollout would start "with critical healthcare workers, who are in the frontline."

"We are fully prepared to receive and deliver the vaccine to eligible Nigerians as we have commenced the training of health workers and ensured that cold chain facilities are ready at all levels. We have a robust cold chain system that can store all types of Covid-19 vaccine in accordance with the required temperature," Shuaib added.

In a follow-up statement on social media Monday, Shuaib said a website had been launched to register Nigerians for Covid-19 vaccination.

Nigeria plans to inoculate at least 70% of its population aged 18 and above. This, the NPHCDA said, would be done in four phases within two years. 

UNICEF's representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said more vaccines will be sent to the country -- adding that the arrival of the first 3.92 million doses of the AstraZeneca shot was part of 16 million doses that were allocated earlier.

At least 156,017 Nigerians have been infected with Covid-19 and 1,915 have died from Covid-related complications, according to the country's official count. 

Findings of a survey released last month by the Nigeria Center for Disease Control and a national institute for medical research suggest that more Nigerians have had the coronavirus than official records show. 

Read more about COVAX here:

RELATED

Why COVAX could become the most important acronym of 2021

President Biden is expected to announce later today that Merck & Co. will partner with Johnson & Johnson to help manufacture the company's coronavirus vaccine, administration officials familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN.

One official added that Biden will address it during his remarks at the White House this afternoon, hailing the partnership as a way to quickly jumpstart the sluggish vaccine production.

The planned partnership was first reported by The Washington Post.

Merck is expected to dedicate two of its facilities to helping Johnson & Johnson, an administration official said, in a rare partnership between two competitors.

Merck had been working on developing its own Covid-19 vaccine, but discontinued its effort at the end of January after early studies showed immune responses were inferior to natural infection and other Covid-19 vaccines.