Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Oct. 16: China to Be More ‘Scientific’ in Approach to Pandemic, Supreme Court Lets N.Y. Vaccine Mandate Stand

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 920th day of the pandemic.

In news we cover today, Americans are slow to get the new bivalent boosters, the Supreme Court once again New York’s vaccine mandate continue, and China is promising to be more scientific about its approach to the pandemic.

UNITED STATES

The Supreme Court denied an emergency challenge to New York City’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate for municipal employees last week, allowing the mandate to stand.

The case involved a New York City police detective who had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block the city from firing him and other municipal employees who refused to comply with a vaccine mandate

Meanwhile, Americans are not rushing to get the new bivalent coronavirus vaccine booster shots that were released over a month ago.  Only 15 million people have been jabbed thus far, a figure that is much lower than had been anticipated.

GLOBAL

Just as China’s Communist Party Congress starts, an official for the party said that the country will make its coronavirus prevention measures more scientific, accurate, and effective, while at the same time underscoring Beijing’s position that its so-called “zero-Covid” stance is the right approach.

The news comes days China issued a statement saying it was not “lying flat” and would continue with its tough so-called “zero Covid” policies to guard against new strains of SARS-Cov-2 in the country.

“Lying flat is not advisable, and to win [the fight against Covid] while lying flat is not possible,” the story in the People’s Daily said on Wednesday, referring to a phrase in Chinese that denotes doing nothing.

TODAY’S STATISTICS

Now here are the daily statistics for Sunday, October 16.

As of Sunday morning, the world has recorded 629.9 million Covid-19 cases, an increase of 0.3 million cases, and 6.6 million deaths, according to Worldometer, a service that tracks such information. In addition, 608.9 million people worldwide have recovered from the virus, an increase of 0.4 million.

Worldwide, the number of active coronavirus cases as of Sunday is 14,391,313, a decrease of 44,000. Out of that figure, 99.7%, or 14,352,679, are considered mild, and 0.3%, or 38,364, are listed as critical.  The percentage of cases considered critical has not changed over the past 24 hours.

The United States reported 2,776 new coronavirus infections on Sunday for the previous day, compared to 29,069  on Saturday, 75,172  on Friday, 74,018 on Thursday, 50,629 on Wednesday, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.  The 7-day incidence rate is now 37,492.  Figures for the weekend (reported the following day) are typically 30% to 60% of those posted on weekdays due to a lower number of tests being conducted.

The average daily number of new coronavirus cases in the United States over the past 14 days is 38,030, a 19% decrease, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, among other sources.  The average daily death toll over the same period is 375, a decrease of 7% over the same period, while the average number of hospitalizations for the period was 26,775, a 5% decrease.

In addition, since the start of the pandemic the United States has, as of Sunday, recorded over 98.8 million cases, a higher figure than any other country, and a death toll of 1.09 million. India has the world’s second highest number of officially recorded cases, 44.6 million, and a reported death toll of 528,895.

The newest data from Russia’s Rosstat state statistics service showed that, at the end of July, the number of Covid or Covid-related deaths since the start of the pandemic there in April 2020 is now 823,623, giving the country the world’s second highest pandemic-related death toll, behind the United States.  Rosstat reported that 3,284 people died from the coronavirus or related causes in July, down from 5,023 in June, 7,008 in May and 11,583 in April.

Meanwhile, France is the country with the third highest number of cases, with 36.2 million, although Brazil has recorded the third highest number of deaths as a result of the virus, 687,120, and has recorded 34.8 million cases, placing it in the number four slot.

Germany is in the number five slot with 34.6 million cases.

The other five countries with total case figures over the 20 million mark are South Korea, with 25.1 million cases, the United Kingdom, with 23.8 million cases, placing it in the number seven slot, and Italy, with 23 million, as number eight, as well as Japan, with 21.7 million, and Russia, with 21.3 million.

VACCINATION SPOTLIGHT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that, as of Thursday, over 265.1 million people in the United States – or 79.9% – have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Of that population, 68.1%, or 226.2 million people, have received two doses of vaccine, and the total number of doses that have been dispensed in the United States is now 627.8 million. Breaking this down further, 90.8% of the population over the age of 18 – or 234.5 million people – has received at least a first inoculation and 77.9% of the same group – or 201.1 million people – is fully vaccinated.  In addition, 52.1% of that population, or 104.8 million people, has already received a first booster dose of vaccine.

Starting on June 13, 2022, the CDC began to update vaccine data on a weekly basis and publish the updated information on Thursdays by 8 p.m. EDT, a statement on the agency’s website said.

Some 68.3% of the world population has received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by Sunday, according to Our World in Data, an online scientific publication that tracks such information.  So far, 12.83 billion doses of the vaccine have been administered on a global basis and 2.78 million doses are now administered each day.

Meanwhile, only 23.3% of people in low-income countries have received one dose, while in countries such as Canada, China, Denmark, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States, at least 75% of the population has received at least one dose of vaccine.

Only a handful of the world’s poorest countries – Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia and Nepal – have reached the 70% mark in vaccinations. Many countries, however, are under 20% and, in countries such as Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania, for example, vaccination rates remain at or below 10%.

In addition, with the start of vaccinations in North Korea in late September, Eritrea remains the only country in the world that has not administered vaccines.

Paul Riegler contributed reporting to this story.

(Photo: Accura Media Group)