March 10 coronavirus news

The coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, which was first identified in the United Kingdom, is associated with an estimated 64% higher risk of dying from Covid-19, suggests new research published in a peer-reviewed journal. 

A sample of people in the UK infected with the variant appeared to be between 32% and 104% — so around a probable 64% — more likely to die than those infected with the previously circulating variants, according to the study published in the medical journal the BMJ on Wednesday.

The variant was originally found to be more easily transmissible and the new data support claims from UK officials, based on preliminary data, that the variant may be more deadly, as well.

The researchers, from various institutions in the UK, analyzed data on more than 100,000 patients who tested positive for Covid-19 between October through January, and were followed up with until mid-February. The researchers took a close look at whose tests detected the variant compared with those from previously circulating variants.

The study showed that the new variant was associated with 227 deaths in a sample of 54,906 patients — compared with 141 deaths among the same number of patients infected with previous strains. 

More research is needed to determine whether similar findings would emerge among more patients from other parts of the world.

"The variant of concern, in addition to being more transmissible, seems to be more lethal," the researchers wrote in their study. "We expect this to be associated with changes in its phenotypic properties because of multiple genetic mutations, and we see no reason why this finding would be specific to the UK."

Dr. Anthony Fauci, America's top infectious diseases expert in the US, has been reflecting on the year since the coronavirus pandemic began, saying he never could have imagined reaching the number of cases and deaths the country has seen from the virus.

“If you had turned the clock back a year … even though I've been through multiple outbreaks of different diseases, the thought that you would have 525,000 people in America to have died and about, you know, 28 million infections in this country, would have really been unimaginable,” he told CNN's New Day program on Wednesday.

Fauci also indicated that things are headed in the right direction — but warned that “we’re not out of the woods yet.”

Fauci also said people should keep their guard up a little longer, through the upcoming spring break.

“We want people to have a good time on spring break, but don't put your guard down completely. Just be prudent a bit longer. We are going in the right direction, we are almost there.”

Watch the moment:

US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said the next round of guidance for vaccinated individuals will involve traveling and going out.

New guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this week say people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely visit with other vaccinated people and small groups of unvaccinated people in some circumstances, but there are still important safety precautions needed.

Fauci also said governors rolling back mask mandates is concerning. 

Fauci added that he is constantly and consistently meeting with the Biden administration’s team. While personal threats to him “come and go,” he told CNN’s John Berman that the situation right now is “really going well.” 

“It's a completely different kind of atmosphere. It's always looking ahead, about how we can do better with the main focus on the public health aspects of it, without distractions about the other things that we knew from before,” he said.  

Watch more from the interview:

There is little evidence that Britain’s Covid-19 track and trace program has had any impact on containing the virus, despite a price tag of US $51.5b, according to the government's public spending watchdog.

The NHS Test and Trace program was introduced in the UK during the first wave of the pandemic to stop its spread and avoid another lockdown. But two lockdowns later, it is “unclear” if its specific contribution to containment has justified its hefty price tag, according to a report, published on Wednesday by the UK Public Accounts Committee.

The program never met its target of turning around test results within 24 hours, nor was prepared for a surge in demand for tests, the report said.

Errant spending, being overly reliant on expensive contractors and a lack of coordination with local authorities are among some of the program's key criticisms detailed in the report. 

Speaking on UK broadcaster Sky News on Wednesday, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that although the cost of fighting coronavirus hasn’t been cheap, it has “absolutely been necessary.”

“Whatever the coronavirus experience we have had as a nation, good or bad, it would have been one heck of a lot worse if we didn't have a Test and Trace system which has contacted so many people and prevented the disease spreading further," Shapps said.

South Korea will provide priority coronavirus vaccination for Olympic athletes before their travel to Japan for the Tokyo Olympics, the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee confirmed to CNN on Wednesday.

The country began its vaccination rollout in late February. For now, the coronavirus vaccines are available to frontline healthcare workers and those working and staying in nursing facilities. The general public will only receive the vaccine in July according to South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

KDCA is making an exception for Olympic athletes as they are due to travel to Japan for “public service”. 

It also confirmed that it will allow Covid-19 vaccination for short-term travellers on essential governmental or business travel abroad. 

However, details including administration date and number of recipients have not been decided yet. Though KDCA did announce that essential governmental and economic workers can start applying on March 17. 

The KDCA and relevant ministries will review the applications, according to Senior Health official Yoon Tae-ho.

The Tokyo Olympics, postponed by a year because of the pandemic, are scheduled for July 23 to August 8.

Vaccine production of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine will begin this summer in Europe, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) told CNN on Tuesday.

A spokesperson from the RDIF said they had brokered deals with production facilities in Italy, Spain, France and Germany to manufacture Sputnik V.

The Russian sovereign wealth fund had struck a deal with Swiss-Italian company Adienne to produce Sputnik V in Italy, the spokesperson said.

The Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce released a statement on Monday welcoming the deal, which would see Italy becoming the first EU country to produce the Russian vaccine.

They statement added that production could start as early as July 2021, and will create new jobs and allow Italy to control the entire production process. The partnership could see production of 10 million doses by the end of the year, the Italian-Russian Chamber of Commerce said.

The news follows an announcement last week that the European Union’s vaccine regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has begun a rolling review of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine.

The rolling review came after complaints about the European Commission’s slow vaccine deployment led member states to unilaterally approve the Russian vaccine.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov criticized remarks by EMA Chairwoman Christa Wirthumer-Hoche, who compared the idea of emergency authorization of Sputnik V to "playing Russian roulette.”

Sputnik V developers also posted on Twitter, demanding an apology from Wirthumer-Hoche, saying that "her comments raise serious questions about possible political interference in the ongoing EMA review."

"Sputnik V is approved by 46 nations,” the developers added.

The European Union has backed down from accusing the UK of vaccine nationalism in an ongoing dispute over supply of Covid-19 shots. 

On Tuesday, President of the European Council Charles Michel wrote in a newsletter that the UK had “imposed an outright ban on the export of vaccines or vaccine components” produced in the country.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson pushed back on those claims, saying that the UK has not blocked export of any vaccines to the European Union. 

Speaking in British parliament on Wednesday, Johnson said:

The accusations had first prompted British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to reject the “false claims” in a letter of response to Michel on Tuesday, a source told CNN.

"I wanted to set the record straight. The UK government has not blocked the export of a single COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine components,” Raab wrote, according to the source, who has seen the letter.  

In a conciliatory tweet on Tuesday evening, Michel said that he is “glad if the UK reaction leads to more transparency and increased exports to EU and third countries.” 

However, he added that there are “different ways of imposing bans or restrictions on vaccines/medicines.”

A representative of the EU’s delegation to the UK has been summoned to the British Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to discuss the issue further because the “false claim has been repeated at various levels within the EU and the Commission,” the source also said.  

Read more on the UK's vaccine strategy here:

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Boris Johnson's vaccine strategy gets another boost, while Europe's scramble for shots continues

Nashville Mayor John Cooper is planning on vaccinating 10,000 Nashville residents in a drive-thru mass vaccination event scheduled for March 20 at Nissan Stadium, according to tweet by the Mayor and the Metro Public Health Department in Nashville.

“Nashville Health plans on vaccinating 10,000 of our residents to move our city closer to herd immunity and a return to normal life,” Cooper said in the tweet. 

On Tuesday Nashville Health reported 90,984 confirmed and probable cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Nashville/Davidson County, noting an increase of 53 in the past 24 hours. The health agency reports that to-date, 652 deaths have been attributed to Covid-19.

Tennessee is currently in Phase 1C of its Vaccine Distribution Plan, which means that Tennesseans 16 years old or older with high-risk health conditions have been eligible to be vaccinated as of Monday.

As of March 4, 14% of Nashville residents (97,416) had received a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 7.9% of residents (55,157) were fully vaccinated, according to Nashville Health. 

Note: These numbers were released by the state’s public health agency and may not line up exactly in real time with CNN’s database drawn from Johns Hopkins University, The Covid Tracking Project and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Biotechnology company Novavax still expects to see results from its PREVENT-19 trial, a Phase 3 study of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States and Mexico, sometime in April. The trial has enrolled 30,000 volunteers across more than 100 locations.

“Everybody's enrolled and now we're watching for cases,” Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development for Novavax, told CNN on Tuesday.

“I think sometime in the April timeframe we'll have finished that trial. So, we'll have three pivotal trials testing our vaccine -- that's extremely important for evidence that your vaccine is safe and can work,” Glenn said.

Novavax is also developing a booster shot to its coronavirus vaccine, and company officials anticipate that vaccinated people might need boosters every six months or annually to stay protected against Covid-19. Similar to others, Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine is administered as two doses given three weeks apart.

After the second dose, “we’re seeing that at six months, there's a pretty big decline in antibodies and I think all the vaccine makers are going to see that," Glenn said.

“But it's our view that somewhere between six months and one year, we’re going to need to boost everybody to protect them,” Glenn said. “I think governments are gearing up for that kind of thinking -- but we're still collecting the information that will guide that. This is a new virus, these are new vaccines, and we just don't have enough information.”

Novavax has initiated a booster shot study to gather that information. 

"We have actually started a trial where some of the people who got our vaccine last summer, at six months later we're giving them a boost," Glenn said. "We're going to see how good that looks in terms of immune responses -- and it can either be one dose, given once, or maybe we kind of repeat the same thing we did before where we give them a three-week interval."

The company is currently manufacturing its vaccine at 10 sites in eight countries -- with two sites in the United States, in North Carolina and Texas, Glenn said.