April 26 coronavirus news

The number of global Covid-19 cases has risen for the ninth consecutive week, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news briefing Monday.

“Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic continues to intensify,” he said. “Cases have now increased for the ninth straight week, and deaths have increased for the sixth straight week.”

Tedros said he was pleased to see small declines in cases and deaths in several regions, but said many countries are still experiencing intense transmission. 

India’s plight is “beyond heartbreaking,” he said, adding that WHO is providing critical equipment and supplies, including thousands of oxygen concentrators, prefabricated mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies to the country.

WHO has also redeployed more than 2,600 staff to support the response in India and to provide support for surveillance, technical advice and vaccination efforts.

Nearly 54% of adults in the United States have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to data published Monday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

In 10 states, at least 60% of adults have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine. These are the leading states:

The bottom 10 states have vaccinated 45% or less of their adult population: 

Overall, 230,768,454 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered, about 79% of the 290,692,005 doses delivered, according to CDC data. 

That’s about 2.1 million more doses reported administered since Sunday, for a seven-day average of about 2.7 million doses administered per day. 

Nearly 141 million people in the US have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, and nearly 96 million people are fully vaccinated. 

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

White House press secretary Jen Psaki confirmed on Monday that the United States plans to share American-made AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses with other countries.

Psaki said the US Food and Drug Administration will conduct a safety review of doses before they leave the country and that the US plan to distribute the vaccine is still being developed.

“Before any AstraZeneca doses are shipped from the United States, the FDA will confirm any such doses meet its expectations for product quality. This is being done in the context of the FDA’s ongoing review of all doses made at the plant where these AstraZeneca doses were produced. And I anticipate in the near future, our team will share more details about our planning and who will be receiving doses from here. But we’re in the planning process at this point in time,” Psaki added. 

Some more background: CNN previously reported that the US has tens of millions of AstraZeneca's vaccine stockpiled but none have been used because it has not yet been granted emergency use authorization by the FDA.

Multiple world leaders have pressed President Biden to share doses as other countries have struggled to ramp up vaccinations. One of those countries is India, which is currently going through one of the worst Covid-19 surges in the world.

Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on Monday, but a readout from the call released by the White House did not mention sharing vaccines.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a country-wide full lockdown in a speech after a cabinet meeting in Ankara on Monday. 

The lockdown will commence at 7 p.m. local time on April 29 and end at 5 a.m. local time on May 17, Erdogan said. 

All intercity travel will be subject to prior permission and there will not be exemptions for hotel reservations, according to the Turkish president. Restaurants will only be allowed to do delivery service, Erdogan said. School exams will be suspended, he said. 

The lockdown will be enforced strictly and details will be available through an interior ministry circular, Erdogan said. 

This is the most comprehensive set of Covid-19 measures Turkey has announced since the beginning of the pandemic. The lockdown will run through the remainder of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and the Eid al Fitr holiday in May. 

The actual number of Covid-19 cases in India is being significantly underreported, according to the World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan. 

In an interview with CNN’s Becky Anderson, Swaminathan said that despite a dramatic increase in testing, it is likely that the true extent of the virus’s spread in the country is much worse. 

“While the testing capacity of India has increased dramatically, they are doing close to two million tests a day, that's still not sufficient because the national average positivity rate is about 15%, in some cities like Delhi it's up to 30% or higher,” Swaminathan told CNN Monday. 

On Monday, India reported 352,991 cases of coronavirus, the fifth consecutive day of reporting more than 300,000 cases in a day, according to a CNN tally of figures from the Indian Ministry of Health.

The country has broken daily Covid-19 case records over the last five days. India’s death toll also continues to break records, with 2,812 deaths reported on Monday 

Swaminathan said that it is very possible that India’s death rate could also be undercounted and that she “expects” that to be the case. 

“As far as deaths are concerned, yes, it's possible there are also under counting of deaths. Many countries have gone back, looked at their death figures retrospectively and corrected them. This has also happened in some states in India during the first wave. They went back and looked at the number of deaths and corrected them. I expect that the true number of deaths is larger, but it's hard to see by how much," she said.

Swaminathan also pointed to national surveys that showed that the amount of people who have actually already had the virus in India is “is at least 20 to 30 times higher than what had been reported” previously. The surveys cited were based on antibody measurements, she said.  

In the face of crisis, the government and India’s Serum Institute have shifted focus from supplying vaccines to COVAX to prioritizing their own citizens at home.

When asked how this will hurt developing countries, Swaminathan said that while “it is clear that India has to prioritize its domestic population and vaccinate as many people as possible to stop what's happening,” COVAX countries can step up to help. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) continues to be in “close contact” with the Indian government around restarting vaccine deliveries from the Serum Institute of India (SII), a WHO spokesperson told CNN when asked whether the SII is currently imposing an export ban on AstraZeneca vaccines.

The SII is the world’s largest vaccine maker, and India typically produces more than 60% of all vaccines sold globally. Its vast manufacturing capability is why the country signed on as a major player in COVAX, the global vaccine-sharing initiative that provides discounted or free doses for lower-income countries. Under the initial agreement announced last year, SII would manufacture up to 200 million doses for up to 92 countries.

However, in the face of India’s devastating second wave, the government and SII have shifted focus from supplying vaccines to COVAX to prioritizing their own citizens at home.

The COVAX Facility has notified participating countries and economies that deliveries of doses from the SII were delayed in March and April due to the increased demand for Covid-19 vaccines in India. This means the originally expected deliveries of 90 million doses out of the SII in March and April to 60 countries will not take place, according to WHO.  

WHO said it remains “hopeful that the ongoing dialogue between COVAX and the Government of India will help us access some of these doses as soon as possible."

According to WHO, COVAX is currently assessing those countries that may be impacted by SII delays to support them wherever possible in ensuring the second dose is administered within the recommended timeframe.

The US has more than 9 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine ready to be administered now that the pause on the one-shot vaccine has been lifted.

On Friday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration said the label will be updated to warn of blood clot risks as they lifted their recommended pause.

CNN's Polo Sandoval was outside the Javits Center in New York City answering your questions.

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The US will begin sharing millions of doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine with other countries soon, an official confirms to CNN.

The US has tens of millions of AstraZeneca's vaccine stockpiled but none have been used because it has not yet been granted emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration. Because President Biden's officials now feel confident the US has enough doses for its population, they will begin to distribute it to other countries pending a safety review. 

Multiple world leaders have pressed Biden on the issue of sending vaccines abroad as other countries have struggled to ramp up vaccinations. 

The Associated Press was first to report. 

President Biden is expected to hold a call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at some point Monday, according to an official, as the country is being ravaged by a coronavirus outbreak.

CNN reported Sunday that the Biden administration will deploy additional supplies and support to India, including raw materials for vaccine production, therapeutics, tests and personal protective equipment. The US has so far declined calls to send unused AstraZeneca vaccine doses to India.