The latest on the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines

By Jessie Yeung, James Griffiths, Meg Wagner and Melissa Mahtani, CNN

Updated 0004 GMT (0804 HKT) April 17, 2021
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7:24 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

NHL's Vancouver Canucks will return to play Sunday following Covid-19 outbreak

From CNN's Jacob Lev

Giant posters of the Canucks players are seen at the entrance of Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 5.
Giant posters of the Canucks players are seen at the entrance of Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, April 5. Liang Sen/Xinhua/Getty Images

The National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks will return to play on Sunday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the league announced on Friday.

The game is scheduled to be played at 7 p.m. ET in Vancouver’s Rogers Arena.

The league had originally scheduled the Canucks to play the Edmonton Oilers on Friday, the team's first game since March 24, but delayed the return on Thursday after comments made by Canucks forward J.T. Miller following a Covid-19 outbreak in which at least 21 Canucks players tested positive for the virus.

"We try to talk about the number one priority being the player's health and their families' safety, and it's almost impossible to do what they've asked us to do here on our return," Miller said to reporters on Wednesday.

Canucks general manager Jim Benning said on Friday that every player will have to pass a medical evaluation before returning to the ice. 

5:58 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

British researchers will deliberately infect Covid-19 survivors to see what happens

From CNN’s Maggie Fox

British researchers said Friday they will launch a year-long study to deliberately infect people who have recovered from Covid-19 to study whether people become infected a second time and to see if there are particular immune responses that protect them.

The so-called challenge trial will be conducted under carefully controlled conditions, with treatments on-hand in case one of the volunteers becomes ill, the team at the University of Oxford said.

“Challenge studies tell us things that other studies cannot because, unlike natural infection, they are tightly controlled. When we re-infect these participants, we will know exactly how their immune system has reacted to the first COVID infection, exactly when the second infection occurs, and exactly how much virus they got,” Dr. Helen McShane, a vaccine specialist at the University of Oxford who is leading the trial, said in a statement.

The first phase of the study, starting this month, will find the lowest dose of virus that can infect half of coronavirus survivors without causing symptoms. Then all 64 volunteers will be infected with that dose. Their immune responses will be studied.

Any volunteers who develop symptoms will be treated with Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody treatment and quarantined until they are at no risk of infecting others.

5:37 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

FDA revokes its authorization of one of Eli Lilly's Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatments

From CNN’s Jen Christensen

The US Food and Drug Administration said Friday it has revoked it emergency authorization of Eli Lilly’s Covid-19 monoclonal antibody treatment bamlanivimab when used on its own.

The treatments use lab-made antibodies created specifically to target an infection. The FDA authorized the use of bamlanivimab to treat patients who had mild-to-moderate forms of Covid-19. An ongoing analysis of the treatment, found that on its own, it does not work well against some of the variants.

Bamlanivimab may still be used in combination with Lilly’s other monoclonal antibody etesevimab. The Regeneron antibody treatment is also still authorized for us by the FDA. The dual antibody treatments are still effective against the circulating variants.

The FDA is still urging people to get these treatments if they have a mild-to-moderate form of Covid-19 and meet the criteria of the authorization.

"While the risk-benefit assessment for using bamlanivimab alone is no longer favorable due to the increased frequency of resistant variants, other monoclonal antibody therapies authorized for emergency use remain appropriate treatment choices when used in accordance with the authorized labeling and can help keep high risk patients with COVID-19 out of the hospital," Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said in a statement.

 

3:44 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

Go There: CNN is in Colombia, as Covid-19 cases rise in Latin America

Months after the first Covid-19 vaccinations in Latin America, the pandemic is still dangerously resurging in some areas.

CNN's Stefano Pozzebon was live in Bogota, reporting on Latin Americas's daunting Covid-19 challenges.

Watch more:

3:35 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

More data needed to form guidance on Johnson & Johnson vaccine, CDC adviser says

From CNN’s Virginia Langmaid

Doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine are prepared at a clinic targeting immigrant community members on March 25 in Los Angeles.
Doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine are prepared at a clinic targeting immigrant community members on March 25 in Los Angeles. Mario Tama/Getty Images

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices needs to continue compiling data before issuing further guidance on Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, a committee member said on CNN Friday. 

“We need to know what the size of the problem is,” said Dr. Kevin Ault, professor and division director with the University of Kansas Medical Center. “So we’re going to shake the trees in the databases that the CDC has and we also need to know what the denominator is — is it just young women or the whole population that’s been vaccinated?”

“There are still a fair number of people in the United States who have been vaccinated in the last two weeks,” he said. “We’ve seen these reactions within two weeks, so it doesn’t sound like a very long time, but we’ll have a fair amount of data in just those nine or ten days.”

2:14 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

More than 200 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered in the US, CDC data shows

From CNN’s Deidre McPhillips

Javier Morena receives his first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the Jewish Community Center, a pop up vaccine clinic, on April 16 in New York City.
Javier Morena receives his first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the Jewish Community Center, a pop up vaccine clinic, on April 16 in New York City. Angela Weiss/AFP/Getty Images

More than 202 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine has been administered in the United States, according to data published Friday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

About 185 million of those doses have been reported administered since President Biden took office, with a goal to reach 200 million doses administered under his administration by his 100th day in office. To reach that goal, the total doses administered would be about 218 million doses since vaccinations began.

The CDC reported that 202,282,923 total doses have been administered, about 78% of the 258,502,815 doses delivered. 

That’s nearly 4 million more doses reported administered since yesterday, for a seven-day average of about 3.3 million doses per day. 

Overall, about 38.5% of the US population – nearly 128 million people – has received at least one dose of vaccine, and about 24% of the US population – nearly 81 million people — is fully vaccinated, CDC data shows. 

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

2:49 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

J&J scientists say there isn't enough evidence to show Covid-19 vaccine causes rare blood clots

From CNN’s Jen Christensen

A dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine is prepared on April 7 in New York City.
A dose of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine is prepared on April 7 in New York City. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

In a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists at Janssen, the vaccine arm of Johnson & Johnson, say there isn’t enough evidence to show the company’s Covid-19 vaccine causes rare blood clots and they are “working closely with experts and regulators to assess the data, and we support the open communication of this information to health care professionals and the public.”

“At this time,” they write, “evidence is insufficient to establish a causal relationship between these events and the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the US Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause in the use of the vaccine based on six cases of rare blood clots in the brain along with a low number of blood-clotting cells known as platelets

The scientists explain that J&J previously paused the late-stage trial of the vaccine after a single case of this rare condition. In that case, it determined there was “no clear causality” and the safety monitoring board agreed that the trial could continue. 

In its surveillance since the vaccine has been authorized for use in the United States, the company found six cases of this condition among the 7.2 million vaccines that had been administered. The cases occurred seven to 14 days after vaccination.

The scientists say the rare clots – cerebral venous sinus thrombosis – occurred within the range of what is expected, but they note that incidence of these clots with low platelets is unknown and considered to be “extremely low” by the FDA and CDC.

While these blood clots have happened after use of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, and the vaccines use similar platforms – an adenoviral vector – the scientists suggest the platforms are different and may have different effects. AstraZeneca’s is derived from a chimp and J&J’s comes from a human. 

“More evidence is needed to clarify the observation of thrombotic thrombocytopenia in persons receiving a vaccine against Covid-19,” the letter said.

1:46 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

Brazil's Sao Paulo state will reopen shops and restaurants

From Rodrigo Pedroso

Shops are seen on March 8 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Shops are seen on March 8 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Alexandre Schneider/Getty Images

The Brazilian state of Sao Paulo announced on Friday that it is entering a transitional phase from the current level of restrictive measures to a more relaxed phase, starting Sunday. 

The easing of restrictive measures, put in place to control the Covid-19 spread in Brazil's most populous state, will allow the reopening of shops and religious celebrations.

The vice governor, Rodrigo Garcia, said during a news conference on Friday that restrictive measures will be relaxed further starting April 24, when restaurants, beauty salons and gyms will be allowed to reopen. Bars will remain closed. 

According to Garcia, the decrease of Covid-19 patients with severe condition in public and private hospitals in Sao Paulo in April allows the easing of the restrictions.

On April 1, Sao Paulo state registered at least 13,074 Covid-19 patients in intensive care units, with a 92.3% occupancy rate. On April 15, there were about 11,756 Covid-19 patients and an ICU occupancy rate of 85.3%. 

Daniel Soranz, Rio de Janeiro's health secretary, said at a news conference on Friday that authorities in the city will maintain the current level of restrictions, which include the closure of beaches and parks, but allow bars and restaurants to be open until 9 p.m. local time.

“We have 1,400 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the city, (that's) a lot of people. We still have a high level of transmission and it is not possible to relax the restrictive measures,” said Soranz.
1:32 p.m. ET, April 16, 2021

Pregnant women will be offered Covid-19 vaccines in the UK

From CNN’s Arnaud Siad

A nurse prepares the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen, Wales, on April 7.
A nurse prepares the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine at the West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen, Wales, on April 7. Jacob King/WPA Pool/Getty Images

Pregnant women “of any age” in the United Kingdom will be offered either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines in a new advice published on Friday by UK’s vaccine advisers.

The updated guidance reads: “Although clinical trials on the use of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy are not advanced, the available data do not indicate any harm to pregnancy. JCVI [The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation] has therefore advised that women who are pregnant should be offered vaccination at the same time as non-pregnant women, based on their age and clinical risk group.”

The guidance further states that “there is now extensive post-marketing experience of the use of the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in the USA with no safety signals so far. These vaccines are therefore the preferred vaccines to offer to pregnant women.”

“Pregnant women who commenced vaccination with AstraZeneca, however, are advised to complete with the same vaccine,” the guidance adds.